Diva Designer Tip 7/30/11

Most of us know not to store our rotary mats in direct sunlight, since it will warp them. Also, store them flat (not on end), or you may warp them anyway. Same rules apply to rulers, since they will also warp and distort.


- Posted using BlogPress from Jess' iPhone

Diva Designer Tip 7/28/11

To avoid the dreaded 'v' syndrome when cutting strips, make sure the fold on your fabric is straight and perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to the lines you are cutting.

Piece out,
Jess

Location:Home

Diva Designer Tip 7/28/11

Don't have wall space for a design wall? Tape batting and/or flannel to the back of a door for a makeshift small design wall. You'll be surprised how handy even a small design wall can be!


- Posted using BlogPress from Jess' iPhone

Location:Home

7/27/11 Diva Designer Tip

When cutting out pieces of fabric for a quilt, use the lines on your ruler, rather than the lines on your cutting mat, to measure. The lines on your cutting mat can become distorted over time and sometimes they aren't accurate to begin with. Piece Out, Jess


- Posted using BlogPress from Jess' iPhone

Location:Home

Happenings on the forum

Howdy folks,

Great tips of the day, thanks Jess!

We are having lots of fun this Summer on the form. Swaps and challenges, baby quilts and ones for soldiers.

Another mug rug swap. Here is the one I got from my friend Bobby in Australia. She sent a lot of little goodies too.

I can't show you the one I made just yet.

We are also having a "it's too pretty to cut" challenge. Here is my pretty. The pretty fabric I had to use is the white with blue butterflies.

And, we've started our annual Secret Santa gift too. Click here if you want to join in the fun (you need to join the Q&N forum too, please). This is one of the funniest! We all give our names and info to the hostess. She picks a secret friend for us. And we make a gift for our friend. Who wont know who her Secret Santa is, until late Nov/early Dec.

And, of course, this weekend is the mystery quilt weekend. And it's ALWAYS fabulous!! Jess makes awesome patterns.

Here is the fabric that I am using.

Jess made this pattern around some lovely fabric by Patti Fried, called Capri.

Jess is sold out of kits. But you can still order your pattern and choose your own fabrics.

Well, that's enough going on, yes? OH, on top of that, I am running my very first quilt a long on my blog :) would love for you to come and join me. It's a Lone star wall quilt design.


Have a great day! And thanks for stopping by,

Dorian

7/26/11 Tip of the Day

You know that sliver of bar soap that's always left at the end? You can use the edge of it to mark your quilts for quilting.

What do you generally use to mark your quilts?

Location:Home

Quilting Tip 07/25/11

Tip of the day: Some folks like to put their ironing board next to their sewing table, low enough to iron while sitting, so they can sew and iron without ever standing up. However, I like to get up and walk to my ironing board and give my muscles a good stretch every now and then. Ultimately I can sew longer and get more done if I keep myself moving. Where is your ironing board?

:-) Piece Out, Jess


- Posted using BlogPress from Jess' iPhone

Location:Home

Another fabric swap top....and Summer mystery

Last Summer the Gals and I traded 10" squares of beach themed fabric. It's a lot of fun swapping fabrics. We haven't done it in awhile....Hmm, I think it's time to do it again! It's fun way to get new fabric.

I had cut and put together some HST blocks, big ones. And had a design made out. I cut some other triangles too, from different fabric. Then I stuck it all in a box and forgot about it.

SO, I finally got it out, couldnt' remember what design I was going to put these in, and couldn't find my pattern anywhere (I have quite a few notebooks with instructions/designs laying all over the place. LOL).

So I just stuck them together like this.

The prints were way too cute to cut up very much.

I love the children playing...

The wind was having fun with my quilt, while I was trying to take pictures.

This makes quilt top number 25!! That I need to quilt!!! And I am going to make another quilt real soon...lol, or quilt top I should say!

As the mystery quilt weekend is coming up soon!

The mystery is scheduled for July 30th and 31st. You still have time to order a pattern or a kit.

So tell me, how many quilt tops do you have to quilt? or are you good about quilting them right away, and they aren't piling up...like mine...LOL

Thanks for stopping by!

Dorian

Hexagons

Hello out there, I hope you all are enjoying your Summer. It's been hot for me, in the low 90s. But it's now 'cooled' down some and we even have a chance of Tstorms for the next few days. I love Summer on the Ridge!

Back in 2009, the Gals on the Q&N forum had a fabric swap. Well, we have had a LOT of fabric swaps. LOL, they are so much fun. In this case, we were swapping Sweet 16's. That's sixteen 9"x11" rectangles, all with the floral theme.

I cut my rectangles in 4, and made some 4" hexagons. I wanted them big, so that I can machine sew them together.

Then I sewed these down on some squares.

Those top three are going to go on my quilt-as-you go hexagon table runner. I need to buy some batting, then I can do a tute for you....as I know you all love quilt-as-you-go runners :)

Then I made another one, to show you how my table mats are coming out.

I sandwhiched this top with backing and batting, and quilted it down. Then I started adding some borders.

Now it just needs some binding.

Let me know if you want me to take you step by step thru the quilt-as-you-go process :)

Have a great day and,

Thanks for stopping by
Dorian

Playing with colors

For some new to the quilting world, choosing colors is one of the hardest parts of creating. Does this blue go well with that pink? Is this red too bright or too dull? Does purple look good next to green?

It’s not only about one color with another, because there are so many different shades and values of each color. That you can make almost any color look good next to another.

The color wheel is a great place to learn about colors and their values. There are primary colors, secondary colors, contrasting ones too. Here are a few different styles that you can choose from, when selecting a color wheel.

There are also nice color cards out there, like for paint, but for fabric. Here’s one from Moda.

These are great tools for  learning about color values, and is a good first step. You can play around with this just by looking in a big box of crayons! You know, those large ones that hold a billion colors ;)

Playing with fabric might be more fun though! Go to your local quilt store and look at their fat quarter bundles. This is a great way to see different values and contrasting colors. Most fabric lines have at least 10 different prints, showcasing the various colors to match the focal fabric.

The most important thing though, is too think about what colors YOU like. Or what colors the person you are making something for, likes.

So lets start with your focal fabric (I’m going to pretend shop online with you, while I talk with you about colors).

I’m going to buy some of this darling monkey print, from the Urban Zoologie line, for a baby quilt.

Looking at this fabric you will see four different colors. All in two or three different shades. So those colors are good ones to choose to go with these monkeys.

These lines are part of the Urban zoologie line, as are the dots. So you know the shades of blue/orange/green will all go well with monkeys.

But I like to add some solids or some tone on tone prints too. Or things get too busy. You want a spot or two to rest your eyes.

If you look at solid fabrics, you will see they are usually arranged by the shades of color.  You have pastels,  dusty’s, bright’s and darks. It a good idea to keep with the same shade throughout your quilt or project.  Although mixing  lighter colors with the darker ones,  will give you a great contrasting pattern. So you have to think about your pattern too. As many have secondary patterns within them, and they show well with contrasting colors.

Although there isn’t no tried and true color rules. You want your project to flow nicely together. So sticking to the same shades, or highly contrasting ones, are a good bet.

For my project, I think the dusty shades will go well. They aren’t too bright nor too dark. Here are some colors I’ve chosen to go with the monkey’s.

You’ll  notice that the green is a bit darker than the green in the monkey print, but it’s still in the dusty family. It’s not a bright nor a pastel.  The blue is almost the same exact as the light blue on the monkey. And the orange is very close too.

Here's how they look all next to each other.

Summary: Stick with colors in the same category. Contrasting fabrics go well together. Keep in mind the pattern and what you want it to say. Pick a focal fabric, and pull colors from it for your other fabrics. Using shades that are lighter or darker are fine, as long as they are in the same category.

I hope I haven’t confused all you new quilters with my rambling.

These are MY thoughts on colors, and there are thousands of thoughts out there.  So please don’t feel my way is the only way. This is just how I do things.

Hope you’re enjoying your Summer.