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Monday, June 23, 2014

Fusible Grid #1

I recently sent my new quilting friend in Australia, Moli Sparkles some fusible grid interfacing. This is a light weight, fusible interfacing, and it is marked in 1" or 2" grid pattern, also a 1" on point grid. To use a 2" square on a 1" grid, just use a 2x2 square. Likewise to use a 3" square, use a 3x3 square.

What's great about using the fusible grid is that the grid is already on the lightweight fusible. Just place the grid, fusible side up, on your ironing surface, and place your fabric squares on the grid. This lightly take them with an iron to fuse them down. If you only lightly fuse, then it is easy to remove the piece of fabric later.

I like using the clover mini iron, it's tiny, and it's great for tacking down each fabric square.

I have done a number of quilts using this fusible grid.  Way back in 2002, working with my cub scout group, we decided we were going to make 2 quilts for some local veterans.

Each cub scout brought red, white and blue fabrics, and I cut them up into 2" squares. Each cub scout designed several blocks using the colors and the grid to make a pattern. I then tacked down the squares onto the fusible grid.  Of course, I ended up taking the fusible grid to the ironing board at one point!

Then I sewed the rows, then I sewed the columns in each block. The sewing goes much more quickly than sewing all those little squares together, and your points all match with the grid.






















This fusible grid is also great for doing watercolor quilts. Here is a wreath I did in purple:


You don't have to use just fabric cut into squares. In this quilt, some of the squares were made using 1/2 triangles, so that created a diagonal line on the purple ribbon.

The big time saving is you can sew the entire row at a time, and once you sew all the rows, then you sew all the columns at a time, so much quicker than sewing each individual square to another to make a row,

I got really excited when I got the 1" on point grid. Here are 2" squares on the 1" grid:

I needed a filler space in a bed sized quilt between 2 sets of blocks, and I love the on-point look.

Here is what the back looks like:

The interfacing is very light, and doesn't stiffen the fabrics much at all.

Has anyone else used this fusible interfacing with the built in grid?





Sunday, June 22, 2014

Sunday Stash #1

This is my first blog posting in Moli Sparkles "Sunday Stash".  This week's Sunday Stash is being hosted by  Handmade by Mary Emmens.  I have long kept my stash in the closet, shared with only a few of my closest quilting friends, and then only bits at a time, never out in the open.  Why, I probably don't even recall everything in my stash, hiding in all corners of the house.

Today I have some Michael Miller fabrics that I just purchased:

I recently developed a love for striped fabrics. The green stripe on the left is "Skinny Stripes" by Laura Gunn part of the Poppies collection and the color is "Aqua".Then the other four fabrics are all part of Siren Song. Clockwise from top left is Grass, Rainbow, Citrus, and may absolute favorite is Sunset with those oranges, reds, and purples!  These fabrics will make some great english paper pieced hexagons!  And they will look great in a binding - even more if I should cut in on the bias and have a barbershop / candy cane stripe look.

But I also have a thread addiction. Here are some silk threads I picked up:

These silk threads have a real vibrant color. Not sure how I am going to use them, if for hand appliqué, machine appliqué, or maybe quilting. Check out the other quilters with their Sunday stash finds.


Molli Sparkles



Monday, June 9, 2014

April & May Completed Strip Quilts for Hospice

Life has been quite hectic and I have not achieved much in the way of completions for 2014.

However, I did managed to get another 3 strip lap quilts completed in April.



and 5 more in May:





So that makes 8 more strip quilts towards my goal for 30 for 2014.

My quilts so far are:
  February - 6
  March     - 3
  April       - 3
  May        - 5

So I have 17 towards my goal of 30, not quite halfway through the year, and I have more than halfway towards my goal of 30.

So now I am busy piecing strip tops. I had sewn a bunch of strips together in April, and they sat in a bag for 2 months. Now that summer is upon us, I need to get moving if I am going to make the goal for end of year.

Check out what others have been up to at Fresh Sewing Day:
Lily's Quilts
And for us bloggers who don't have many followers, check out the Small Blog Meet:
Lily's Quilts
And a link-up with SewFreshQuilts on what other quilters are doing this week:

Sew Fresh Quilts