Spring is finally here in Buffalo, NY - the birdsong every morning just makes me smile!
Weekend was busy but really wonderful.
Some quilty fun, (meeting of the WNY MQG, read all about it HERE) some garden work, great walks with our furry kids and crowned with lovely Sunday dinner with our kids - can one ask for anything more? :)
Our grand-puppy Oliver was visiting Saturday - just love this cutie...
He was so excited to walk with his big buddy Marley, sometimes he almost walked sideways! :)
Neighborhood watch...like a big boy:
Hubby was just so happy, happy that he can dig in the garden again! He ordered a crazy number of new fruit trees (for the size of our backyard) and they arrived - he was just as happy as I am in the fabric store, ha ha!
But it is just so wonderful to see things budding and blooming... Apricot is starting:
Quince too:
Just as it is to see something new develop in your sewing room, right? :)
This weekend I finished a quilt top! And it was something I haven't tried before!
Have you used new Quick Curve Ruler developed by Jenny at Sew Kind of Wonderful ? I am a big fan now!
As many things now, I heard of it on-line, it looked interesting enough that I wanted to explore - bought the ruler but simply haven't had a chance to play...And then Jenny and her sister happened to visit our local quilt shop and I was so, so inspired by their trunk show and demo - had to try it asap!! :) (I am sure you know that kind of feeling, right?)
Oh and these lovelies just happen to show up in my local quilt shop...So here is my stack of 8 1/2" strips, ready to go:
Ruler comes with great instructions and even one free pattern, so I was going to try that first. Establish the first curve:
and off you go cutting more:
And some prints too:
Some curve-sewing, some squaring-up...
Some playing with layouts...
And before you know it, I made my test-table runner!!
Now on to the bigger quilt! There are so many great patterns already developed for this ruler - I chose Urban Pods to start.
After all the cutting was done, some serious chain-piecing was in order. Here is my confession: I LOVE chain-piecing!! I love the organized way - things laid out, things going in order... yep - you heard me say that before, right? So here - I chain-pieced one set and then turned it right around and continued with another...
With this pattern - sewing through these gentle curves was almost like meditation! I just loved it.
And before you know it - VOILA!
This "green streak" as I call it was one of those "what if I...? " kind of things - rest of the fabric do come from one collection and this ombre green just popped at me as something that will add a little pizzazz?
Yes? No?
Normally this is where I would go back and fort for a while...but this time I just decided to GO with it!
Rows of blocks ready to be sewn together!
Stacked them in order and sewed them in long vertical rows. Now, that is something I normally DON'T like to do - I prefer to sew my blocks in square units rather than rows (to avoid sewing so many LONG seams and having to match things along the way), but in this case - this was better! Matching these seams was important:
So as I sewed long, vertical rows together and was placing them in order behind me. As the last one was going to the pile, I saw this:
Doesn't this look like waterfall? THAT'S IT - the name for this quilt - Waterfall! Yeah!
Eleven long seams later, my quilt top is done:
It really reminds me of fresh, spring waterfall! Now how to quilt it? Any suggestions? Please share and thank you!!
At the end, even though this is not any kind of official review or endorsment - I have to say that I LOVE this ruler! There are already so many beautiful and very creative patterns out there for it, but I can also see so many more possibilities - HOORAY! So - highly recommended!!
After my introductory experience with it, here is what I can offer as advice:
- have a nice sharp blade to cut (as with all curves, that is important, since going back to re-cut is not a good thing here)
- when sewing curves, be gentle with your fabric - no pulling, pushing... AND - having a 1/4" guide (either on your presser foot or using your own one - see HERE) really helped me staying "on track" and maintaining a nice 1/4" seam)
- what I found most important was - SQUARING-UP your blocks PROPERLY. If you do that right, things work and match - pure bliss! :) What helped me A LOT was watching instructional videos that Jenny has on her site for this (squaring-up how-to among them) - really good!
Well I hope maybe you will be inspired to try something new! Thank you for spending some time with me and as always - tell me what you think!
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