Travel Sewing Kit
I love when I have an idea, map out a plan and it works up just with way I envisioned. It feels like a series of fortunate events that lead from idea to finished project. It doesn’t always happen that way…
Travel Sewing Kit – Inside
But in this case, it did. The print for the cover of this travel sewing kit was put on the fabric using Transfer Artist Paper (TAP).
Here’s another example: While Linda was working on the Inklingo collection for Judy Martin’s Waltzing Matilda, she was posting preview blocks on the Inklingo Facebook page. Some of the photos featured quotes she had added to the photo—not the fabric as one commenter thought. There was also this post on Linda’s blog with EQ7 designs for the Waltzing Matilda Collection involving a Christmas design that I really liked at the end of the post. All these things intersected in my brain with a memory of Christmas quilt I made 10 years ago and a new idea was formed.
I have really had to restrain myself not to run with this idea like right now! A trip to the storage unit to retrieve the Christmas quilt and a $100 in Christmas fat quarters added to an online shopping cart later, I finally got a hold of myself. LOL First things first. Let’s see if this idea is actually going to work!
Transfer Artist Paper? – check
Fabric suitable for using TAP to showcase the quotes? – check
Suitable Christmas fabric? – check
Fabric printed with Waltzing Matilda shapes? – check
TAP printed with mirrored-image Christmas quotes? – check
First test block? – check
(I did reprint that center octagon and will be fixing those upside down ho ho ho’s and the scorched transfer. Sometimes I can live with a flaw in my sewing and sometimes I won’t be happy until I fix it. This is one of those “won’t be happy” times.)
Second test block? – check
Last two test blocks? – check
Looks like a go for this idea! As you can see from the photos of the blocks, the idea behind the Christmas fabric with the quote in the center block is to use fabrics that coordinate with the quotes. A quote about snowmen gets snowmen fabric, a quote about home gets snow-covered houses, a quote about Santa gets Santa fabric, etc. (Hunting down that perfect fabric to offset the quote was half the fun in making the original quilt.)
I didn’t do any fussy cutting with my fabric. I could have, but I think the blocks work without fussy cutting. I can imagine using some Stonehenge metallics in white, gold, red & green in the blocks. The wonderful thing about the 12” Waltzing Matilda block though, is that fussy cutting options are available even if you aren’t fussy cutting the center octagon. The squares for the corners are large enough to use fussy cut fabric as are the HST that surround the octagon.
I stuck to a red & green palette so that I could use the test blocks in a four-block table topper if everything went well. For sample blocks they came out fine. The TAP does make the fabric a slight bit crisper where the transfer is applied and changes the color of the white fabric just a bit. Using TAP is NOT like using the old-school T-Shirt transfers which is how I did my original quilt. Using the TAP makes the transfer come out much nicer. It holds up well when washed and you can iron over it. I may use a 4″ square of text if it fits in the octagon instead of a 3.5″ square.
Christmas Waltz – 74 x 88 inches
So here is my plan. I am calling it, Christmas Waltz. I might enlarge it to five by five 12” squares if I decide to find some more quotes. (My original quilt was 4 x 5 blocks so I only have 20 quotes.) It will be more scrappy and colorful than this EQ7 rendition. I will be using song lines from Christmas carols and quotes about Christmas, family, snowmen and angels. You could do this with any type of quote—family, mom and grandmother quotes for a mom- or grandma-to-be, quilting quotes for a quilter friend, inspirational quotes for yourself and even family photos. (I hope some of you are inspired!) I can do a little tutorial about using MSWord to print quotes and photos and how to transfer images to fabric using Transfer Artist Paper if anyone is interested. Leave me a note in the comments.
I need some more Christmas fabric to continue and I want to use a nicer Kona cotton or some Northcott Toscana for the octagon centers, but I am holding off until July 2015. JULY. I will not work on this until J-U-L-Y.
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Judy Martin’s 12″ Waltzing Matilda
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Because…
Ho Ho Ho!
This is an Inklingo 12″ Waltzing Matilda test block. There are a couple of flaws. (Definitely operator error!) My Ho Ho Ho fabric was directional and it is bugging me that they are upside down! I wish I had noticed that before I finished the block because I could have turned the octagon around the other way. (Oh, well.) And I didn’t use a timer when I was ironing the TAP transfer and I scorched the right side a bit. Or it could be because the parchment paper was scorched and that may have affected the transfers. Using a better quality fabric for the octagon probably would have helped as well; but as I was just testing out my ideas, I used what I had on hand.
The block itself went together beautifully. Linda’s one page sewing guide is brilliant! I can’t wait to finish up the other 3 blocks and show you another new quilt plan for 2015.
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Judy Martin’s Waltzing Matilda Collections
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Linda Franz likes to rewrite movie scenes with witty quilting commentary. [See her blog post here and check the Inklingo Facebook page.] I tend to think of song lyrics when I am designing quilts. Probably because I am usually listening to music. Sometimes the lyrics inspire a quilt design. Or a blog post title.
I was playing around in EQ7 with some quilt blocks in a sampler-style quilt that could be made with Inklingo Collections a while back. When Linda posted to her blog, Billions of Inklingo Stars, I decided to change it up and include only blocks with stars. [Linda’s post title reminded of a line from the old Eagles song, Peaceful Easy Feeling which is where my post title comes from.] In the end, I changed direction again and used quilt blocks made with Inklingo collections that could be fussy cut.
Here’s the result. With EQ7 I could have positioned different fabrics in the blocks to give me the look of fussy cutting but opted not to. I will be fussy cutting / printing my fabrics for this quilt.
I couldn’t decide if I liked all the blocks smooshed up next to one another and added some sashing with more stars to separate the blocks. These are 18 inch blocks with 4.5 inch sashing. This design uses quite a few different Inklingo collections–Free Diamond Triangle Square [makes 4.5 inch LeMoyne Star], 6 inch LeMoyne Star, 9 inch LeMoyne Star, 9 inch Inklingo Star, 4.5 inch Castle Wall, 6 inch Castle Wall and 9 inch Castle Wall.
Then I decided to go for broke with a billion stars all around.
I like this one. It’s one of the three new projects I want to start. I have some fabric set aside for this but need to purchase fabric for the sashing strips and enough yardage of white fabric to use for the background bits in all the blocks. And I need to finish up two more projects before I can start anything new. House rules. [I did manage to get three quilt tops together in the last two weeks.]
- 1 Year of Stitches embroidery project
- Hexiflowers (aka Grace's Garden)
- Death Star pillow
- Tonopah Nevada topographical map
- 1855 Wales Center map
- Winnie the Pooh map
- Ethan's Quilt
- Thea's Quilt
- Rachelle Fae CQ block
- Machine quilting with a walking foot
Judy Martin's
Waltzing Matilda
6, 9 & 12 inch blocks
The traditional size: 1 inch Patchwork of the Crosses
FREE Idea Book
