New Mug Rug

The fairies in my quilt guild made one of these for every member of the guild.

Each is slightly different with a cute sewing/quilting quote. I LOVE mine! Thank you guild fairies!

-Ann

Family Crafting Day

I live about 2.5 hours from my mom and my sisters, but I know we share a love of spending time with family and crafting.

Large room for crafting

A few years ago, we tried to find a day to just get together, visit and craft on whatever we had going on. We've managed to do this 3 or 4 times, and then skipped a year and this year were able to get a day together.

My mom crocheting an edge on a baby blanket

My niece just moved into a lovely house that has a large walk-out basement with a gorgeous view and lots of light, so we planned to meet at her place. There was plenty of place for the kids to play, we each brought a little something for lunch and we came from near and far to have a great day.

Hard at work? Or avoiding getting their photo taken?

As you can see, we have reupholstery, sewing, crocheting, beading and just playing with the toys happening!

Reupholstery and duplo

Do you get together with your family to craft or sew? With neighbours? Friends? How far would you travel to spend a day with others? Tell me about it!

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - November 26

This is what is on my design wall this week:

Four memory quilts made from the shirts of a customer's father. There's a mix of dress shirts, casual shirts and T-shirts in these quilts. I still need to add some borders to make them to the size wanted and the backs are going to be super soft Minky. I love Minky on the backs, just not the extra work required to ensure the quilt doesn't pucker and stretch while it's being quilted.

Memory Quilt 1/4 

Memory Quilt 2/4

Memory Quilt 3/4

Memory Quilt 4/4

 And a custom quilt made from Paris themed fabrics with disappearing 9-patch blocks randomly placed. This one will go to Marie from Blueberry Hill Quilts for quilting after it's pieced together.

What's on your design wall this week? 

--Ann

From Garage Sale to Completed Quilt

Rainbow Blazing Star

This lovely quilt started as a kit found at a garage sale by my sister-in-law. The details are hazy due to the passage of time, but it somehow ended up in my closet as a UFO (Unfinished Object) or as I prefer, a PHD (project half done). It's been pulled out more than a few times, hung on the design wall and puzzled over how to best finish it.

You see, the centre of this beauty was stretched all out of proportion and when the points of the star were pieced together, the middle of the quilt was quite poofy - in fact, a small animal could have lived in that puffy space. So I ripped carefully took out the seams, just at the centre, took in the seams and finally ended up with a centre that was workable, even though it still had some puffiness to it. 

I then added the gray background and it makes this vintage 70's quilt top look incredibly like a modern quilt. 

My long arm quilter, Marie at Blueberry Hill Quilts picked a great pattern to quilt on it and did a terrific job at the centre - no puckers or excess puffiness. It is only because we have a good working relationship that I even asked her to quilt this one for me - it's not the long-arm quilter's job to quilt out mistakes that can be avoided by accurate piecing.

This quilt is now back at my sister-in-law's and I'm happy she wanted it back!

Do you have any garage sale projects to finish?? I'd love to hear about them!

T-shirt Quilts finished!

Finished these two beauties for a friend last month! Although I haven't seen my friend for a number of years (I went to school with her sister), we have been out of touch for most of our adult lives and now that we are both empty nesters, it has been fun to catch up through Facebook and more recently, in person. 

T-shirt Quilt

Although I sometimes think that technology has way too strong a hold on me and my time, I do love the way it keeps me in touch with people that I would otherwise not cross paths with on a regular basis.

T-shirt Quilt

I have one more quilt to make for this family before Christmas, and I will be sharing it with you when it is complete.

--Ann

Red, Black & White Chevron Baby Quilt

Another chevron baby quilt made and sent to a very lucky baby in Pennsylvania! 

Red, Black & White Chevron Baby Quilt

This one is in red, black and white fabrics with a little pattern thrown in. 

Red, Black & White Chevron Baby Quilt

Although I wouldn't have first picked the black for a baby, it works great - gotta trust the customer - and I love how it turned out. 

Red, Black & White Chevron Baby Quilt

The black Minky feels like a luxurious fur coat and any baby would love it!

Want your own custom baby quilt? Check out my baby quilts on Etsy here https://www.etsy.com/shop/MagpieQuilts?section_id=7680933

--Ann

Four Years of Magpie Quilts!

From my very first sale (a mini quilt) only a week after I started:

Mini windmill quilt

to my first custom order - a wedding quilt for a bride in Boston.

Wedding quilt

to my favourite baby quilt - the scrappy 9-patch

Pink Baby Quilt

and a customer favourite in all sizes - the chevron!

Yellow Gray Black Chevron Quilt

I love this adventure I am on and the quilts will keep on coming out of the sewing room!

--Ann

Selvage Mug Rug

Wikipedia defines a selvage (US English) or selvedge (British English) as a self-finished edge of fabric. Normally, these are cut off and discarded in the process of making a quilt (or any fabric article), but I've been saving mine for just this kind of project.

Selvage mug rug

A mug rug is a little mini-quilt, larger than a coaster, smaller than a placemat, that you can place your cup and a snack on without it taking up too much space. The beauty of these ones are that they are a great example of making something beautiful out of what otherwise would be trash. 

Selvage mug rug in blue

 First, you need to save your selvages. I cut mine with about 1/2" of the main fabric attached. You'll see why when we start sewing them onto the mug rug. This will give you about 1/4" of the main fabric showing after sewing, so if you want more or less fabric showing, cut your fabric selvages accordingly.

Cutting your selvages

 Next, cut a backing fabric and a piece of batting just a bit larger than you want the final mug rug to be. I like my mug rugs to finish at about 7" x 9", so I cut my backing and batting 8" x 10". This is also a great way to use up those batting scraps that aren't big enough for anything else.

Preparing the backing & batting

 Lay your first selvage strip across the diagonal. Take a second selvage strip and lay it parallel on top with the selvage edge about 1/4" overlapping the raw cut edge of the first strip. Using a matching thread and a straight stitch (or a decorative thread and decorative stitch - anything goes, really!), sew just a little inside the selvage edge through all layers. This will quilt your mug rug as you go and when the top is done, all you will have left to do is the binding.

Starting to add strips

 Continue stitching until half of your mug rug is complete and then carry on and do the other half, remembering that you will be slipping the raw edge under the selvage edge on this half.

Top stitch at edge of selvage

 This is what your project should look like - roughly the shape you want and with as much or as little fabric showing as you prefer. Play around with colours and the amount of fabric vs selvage showing - it's only scraps that would otherwise end up in the landfill!

Pieced, quilted and ready to trim!

If you are like me, you will want to make more than one of these cute mug rugs, and to make this step easier, you can use painter's tape to mark the  finished size you want on your ruler. You can see that I've marked my ruler at 7" x 9". Place over your pieced strips, and cut the first two sides square. (I've cut from the back for this photo as it's easier to see than with the stripped side.)

Trimming the mug rug

 Turn your piece 180 degrees, line up your painters tape on the cuts you made in the previous step and cut the remaining two sides square.

Trimming the mug rug

And here's your mug rug, pieced, quilted and ready for binding. 

Trimmed and ready for binding

There is a definite up and down to these mug rugs because of the text on the selvage edges, so if you are making a matching set, watch how you place that first strip so they all angle the same direction.

Blue selvage mug rug (slant top left to bottom right)

Blue selvage mug rug (slant bottom left to top right)

Add binding using whatever method suits you best - google "how to bind a quilt" if you are unsure and voila! You are finished!

Keep the mug rug for yourself or package it up with a mug, some coffee/tea/hot cocoa, a package of cookies and give as a gift to someone special!

Until next time!
--Ann

PS. I apologize for the crazy inconsistent fonts! Sometimes technology baffles me!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

by Medicine Hat, Alberta

Applique Lessons from the Past

A week or so ago, I made a baby quilt with a dog applique. As I made the quilt, I thought about the ways that I have done applique before - time consuming needle-turned applique and fused applique with machine stitching around the outside. But I didn't want something that was going to take a lot of time, or that left the baby quilt feeling a little stiff as fusible applique does. Sometimes you don't have to look to far to find a technique that gives the results you want and I took a closer look at an antique butterfly quilt that I have from my sweet husband's grandmother. (I'm saving the picture of her full quilt for another post!) Here's a close up of her applique:

My example for this applique method!

The hand done buttonhole stitch she did was very fine - these are about 1/8" apart, but you can see underneath the white machine straight stitch she used to tack down her shapes before adding the decorative stitching. I wanted to duplicate her technique and carefully pressed the seam allowance around the dog shape and used a straight stitch to sew it onto the quilt top.

Straight stitch around applique

 Then I set up my machine for a buttonhole stitch, adjusted it for the width and spacing I wanted and sewed all around the outside. It worked great!

Blanket stitch around outside of applique

And then, I thought about how babies like to play with their blankies and added a Minky lined ear flap, just for fun! I hope this baby loves their blankie!

Dog applique ear flap

 Do you applique? Tell me about your favorite method!
--Ann