Quilt Blocks are Fini

I'm so happy to say that the blocks for the front of my North Market quilt are officially done.  And I'm proud to say that every single one is different...

This is from my favorite and very first t-shirt:

Steelers black and gold here. Gotta love it if you're from the burgh:

This t-shirt is from the wine festival and is a real piece of art, so I didn't want to add too much busy fabric. While the leaves aren't grape leaves, they give that feeling I think.

A few different shades of green here and a lesson learned. Can you see what happened in this photo?

Here's the scoop: some of the t-shirts and aprons were silk screened with a rubber-like graphic. And when a too hot iron was used, the ink streaked. Lesson to the wise; be careful with the heat setting on the iron, it's not like working with quilting cotton.

The color of this t-shirt was a bit difficult to coordinate colorwise, so I introduced some turquoise and off white:

Here's the last one...a wonky log cabin.

Now I move to step 2: framing each block with a black fabric with a slight white stylized feather.

Pattern Makers Please Take Note

Excuse me just a sec while I get up on my soapbox. Ahem! 

In my last post I mentioned the t-shirt class I took at Sew to Speak. When we started laying out the pattern pieces on the fabric there were two pieces labeled "6". At that point we should have known that the instructions might not be the best. I'm sorry but that's not an "oops" kind of mistake. One was the short sleeve and the other the 3/4 length. And there was no piece #5 as is shown in the fabric lay out.

First step is to integrate twill tape into the shoulder seam to reduce stretching. I had to do this step at home because I spent the entire first class cutting out my t-shirt (Sally & I have been known to talk too much in class - enough said).  Okay, I don't want stretched out shoulders so I can figure out how to sew it in. However...here's the instruction and accompanying drawing:

Excuuuuuse me? how the h%@# are you supposed to do that? I read every inch of the pattern and there was no additional guidance. I'm an experienced sewer but ended up watching a You Tube video posted by Professor Pincushion (honest; that's the name). Thank goodness I paid for the class and Pat Wax was the instructor. She's great. Very nice and knowledgeable. The next week in class I watched as she showed Sally how to sew on the twill tape. Different from the video, but just as effective.

The rest went very well until I got to Step 9 (there are only 13 steps for all of the options with the t-shirt):

"Finish seam" Seriously?? What does that mean? Once again no additional instructions. I'm a technical writer by trade and perhaps my expectations are too high. I know at work we struggle with the level at which we write our content; should it be for a rookie or someone more seasoned. In this case, the pattern designer was definitely expecting someone with experience.

My recommendation is that pattern designers have their designs sewn by people at different experience levels so it can be determined before the pattern is published if any additional steps are needed. (In my TWIG days I made a stuffed elephant only to realize that the pattern never indicated when to insert the arms; a definite faux pas for that poor little elephant!). Okay, I'm now getting off my soap box and putting it away hopefully for a long time!

I Digress

Please excuse me while I digress a bit with this post. It all started when I was in junior high...

Sewing that is. I've always enjoyed it. My mom got a Singer when I was in junior high and I thought I was in heaven. I even took tailoring in high school and made a suit and my winter coat. Sewing; always enjoyed it. I wanted a sewing machine for high school graduation, but I got a ring. A lovely ring that I still wear, but I couldn't sew with it.

After I graduated from college and got my own apartment, my mom gave me her sewing machine. Gasp!  I couldn't believe my luck; a machine of my own. Woo hoo! I still sewed apparel. I remember making my Easter dress that year.

As life got busier and I met a guy, I started to sew less and less. Now the primary use of the sewing machine cabinet was to hold the television. So I ended up marrying the guy and a few years later we bought a house. Since we didn't have kids, I needed a way to meet women in the neighborhood.

I was put on a waiting list to join TWIG; a little branch of Children's Hospital. Women would craft all year and then the big fund raiser was a bazaar at the fair grounds every November.This gave me the chance to meet like minded women who enjoyed sewing, wood working, painting etc. It was a great organization raising money for a great cause.

One of the projects I worked on was machine applique on sweatshirts. It was the first time I'd sewn for a very long time. And it was very fun. Then after a friend drug me to a quilting class at JoAnn's I was hooked. I even chaired a project with my TWIG where we made holiday wall hangings with log cabin blocks.

Since then I've made queen sized quilts, table runners and wall hangings. I still enjoy sewing and I'm constantly on the look out for new techniques to try.

Imagine my joy when I saw that our local sewing shop, Sew to Speak had a  class on sewing with knits! I hadn't sewn with knits since, well...since last century! So my friend Sally and I signed up.

I went to the shop to pay my fee and look for fabric. Have you noticed that a lot of fabric designers are now turning their designs into knits as well as 100% cotton for quilting? Well,April Rhodes, designer of the Arizona fabric line is the daughter of the owner of the shop, so they carry the whole line (what a surprise!).

I picked out Tomahawk Stripe in Night. It's a lovely weight knit and while I didn't want horizontal stripes, this design doesn't read like a true stripe (at least that's what I tell myself).  The pattern used for the class is the Renfrew t-shirt. It comes with three different sleeve lengths and three different necklines. Awesome!

I'm really pleased how it turned out and I learned from it. For example knit fabric stretches more in one direction than the other. Make sure that extra stretch is horizontal rather than vertical. Not something I had realized but Pat, our instructor pointed out.

If you enjoy quilting consider extending yourself and learn another way to express yourself. There are a lot of techniques out the so give it a try and learn something new; you could be pleasantly surprised!

Seminole Patchwork

I thought one of my North Market blocks should have a special look and I wanted it to be asymmetrical. Then a little lightbulb started to glow and I remembered a book I've had for years and never used. It's called Basic Seminole Patchwork by Cheryl Greider Bradkin.

It's nicely set out and very clear. Starts with easy designs and then gets more complex. At the beginning it even gives tips on how to sew thin strips together and all the while keeping them straight. (As you'll see below, I chose not to heed her advice.)

I cut the strips of various colors to the sizes the book suggests for a given design.

Then stitch them together carefully.

They're sewn together in a given order and then cut into strips.

Below is my completed block. As I mentioned, I didn't follow the advice so some of the tiny squares aren't aligned perfectly. If this was a gift; I would have done it over. Also, I had issues with the top section. I'm still not sure what I did wrong, but by using a little ingenuity, I added a strip at the top to give me the length I needed at the top.

I'm very happy with the result. I think it gives this block the special je ne sais quoi that it deserves!