Quilting Acronyms and Terms

In the quilting world acronyms are used all the time! This is my list of ones I see most often and also a list of commonly used terms after the acronym list.

There are A LOT more than I listed, but these are the ones I see most often (and have had to look up to know what-the-heck people are referring to).

FQ- fat quarter (18"x22" cut of fabric)

WIP- work in progress

BOM- block of the month

HST- half square triangle

LAQ- long arm quilter

LQS- local quilt store

F8/FE- fat eighth (9"x22" cut of fabric)

UFO- unfinished object

WOF- width of fabric

SA- Seam allowance

QAYG- quilt as you go (a method where you quilt each block as you sew it together)

PDF- portable document file (means you get it by file in an email, not a paper pattern in the mail :-)

WOMBAT- waste of money, batting, and time (made a few of those!)

PP- paper piecing

EPP- English paper piecing

SID-stitch in the ditch (sewing/quilting on a seam)

FMQ- free motion quilting (quilting without a pattern- using your own body strength and brain as the guide)

Terms

Yo-yo- Little Circle pieces of fabric that are gathered around the edge and then tucked flat

Charm pack-a pack of 5"x5" precut squares of fabric usually a set of an entire fabric line

Hexi- Hexagon shaped fabric that is usually sown together by hand using the EPP method

Jelly Roll- usually a line of fabric sold in a roll of 40 different fabrics cut to 2.5"x44" (usually)

Mini- A small quilt, like doll quilt size or a little bigger. Usually decorative. Like a work of art

Bundle- A bunch of fabrics picked to go together because they are complimentary or a certain type (like low volume) and sold together as a set. Don't have to be from the same line

Block- a square of the quilt, often times it is a pattern that is repeated in every block then sewn together to create the whole quilt

Stash- All the fabric you've been hoarding. Your fabric collection

Scrappy- A quilt made from all your scraps, or any project made from your scraps

Bind- The fabric that goes around the edge of the quilt to finish the edge and cover raw edges. 

Fussy Cut- Cutting out a specific part of a piece of fabric so as to get a certain design, pattern, or picture in an exact place on the quilt.

Chevron Mug Rug

This is a set of mug rugs that I made during Christmas. The fabric is Christmas themed, but these mug rugs can be done in any fabric to tie them into any theme, holiday, decor that you would like.

I only have a few pictures because I sent them off as a present. So, I'll link to YouTube tutorials to explains things, like the way I make half square triangles (also known as HST in the world of quilting).

Two Chevron Mug rugs, 10x15 inches




Materials
12 different fabrics (I used six red and six green)
1/4 yard of Backing fabric
1/4 yard of White fabric
2 lengths of binding, 55 inches long each
1/4 yard of batting, cotton or insulbrite batting (insulated against heat)
sewing machine
rotary cutter or scissors
ruler
iron
thread

Cut
12, 4.5 inch squares, one each of the 12 fabrics
12, 4.5 inch squares of the white fabric

Take each square of design fabric and match it up with a white square of fabric, right sides facing each other. Sew 1/4 inch around the whole perimeter of the fabric square sandwich. Then cut across the diagonals of the square, in a big X. You just made four half square triangles. Do this with all twelve fabrics. You will have 48 HSTs when you are done. Press them open. You can press the seam open too, but I don't. Just personal preference. I like to trim off the dog ears (little triangles that hang out past the sides of the square).  Here is a link to an awesome tutorial with pictures on how to make HSTs: http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/2012/07/hst-tutorial-and-maths-formula/

Lay the HSTs out in a pattern that is pleasing to you. 4 rows of 6 squares for each mug rug. Sew each of the four rows together using a 1/4 inch seam. Then, sew the 4 long rows together. Press flat.

Trim a piece of backing fabric to size, matching the quilt top of the mug rug. Also trim a piece of batting.  I actually like to leave about an inch of extra fabric and batting around the edge so that after I quilt it I can trim it up all nice and have a little extra fabric just in case the quilting pulls the bottom fabric out of place. Just a little safety net.

Make a quilt sandwich. Use your preferred method of basting. I'm pretty sure I just used spray glue for this project. Quilt. Trim. Bind. Repeat.

You're done! And you have two super cute mug rugs.

Cheap Family Home Evening Chart

We were in college. We didn't have two dimes to rub together. And we needed an FHE chart.

We've used this chart for 6 years. We've added to our family, so I'm letting go, but I thought I'd put up a tutorial.

What you need:

Two pieces of paper

Markers

Self adhesive Velcro 

Laminator

Ruler (optional)

Draw whatever you want to to represent your family/household. Make icons for the different activities that you would like to have happen at your Family Home Evening. Make sure they coincide with the number of people in your family. Color it! Then, make name tags for each person. Make sure there is room on your drawing to put the names and still see the drawing and icons. Laminate everything. Cut it out. Apply the Velcro!

That's it. Super cheap. 

If you have a laminator and Velcro this chart could be free!

Arrow of Light Award

When I became Cub committee chair for our Pack, I got a huge folder (and about 5 boxes) with cub info, decorations, ideas, crafts, and lots of training manuals.

In the folder I found a pattern for an Arrow of Light Plaque. I sorta disregarded  it because I didn't want to set a president of making the awards. But then I couldn't help it. I love to make things, and I love to take on a challenge.

So I'm going to share with you what I learned. Because it was my first time using a band saw and my first time using a scroll saw. Definitely a learning curve. By the fourth plaque it took me a third of the time that I spent on the first one.

Here is the template.
The template explains the process, and it is the only thing I had to go off of. So, if all you do is print off the template, you should be able to make the plaque. I've put pictures of my process and a few tips and helpful things I learned.

I used poplar wood, it was about $16 for the piece I bought. Be super accurate when you cut out the template, and I found it useful to use double sided tape to affix the template while you trace it onto the wood. I also used a ruler because I printed the template on regular paper- so the tracing was a bit wonky if I didn't use the ruler on all the straight edges. If you print it on a heavy card stock, you may not have this problem.

 I used a jig saw to cut between each plaque before I started cutting the actual arrow image out. That way I wasn't working with a super long piece of wood.

 I had never used a band saw or a scroll saw before. I had no instruction, just borrowed the saws from a friend. So as I went I watched a few youtube tutorials and did my best. I got faster with each one. I used the band saw for almost all the cuts, and then the scroll saw for the arches between the sun rays and the little areas I couldn't reach with the band saw. Cutting took about 3 hours for four plaques. Don't get discouraged if your cuts aren't really straight. None of my cuts were very straight, and unless you are looking for it, you can't really tell in the final product.

 After I finished cutting them, I painted the black area on with craft paint. This deviates a little from the instructions that say to print out the boys name and info on paper then modge podge it to the board. I didn't want to mess with that. After that dried, I used a paper towel and a can of Walnut Stain that I already had in my garage. I rubbed each piece evenly with the stain and then I rubbed the arrows with the stain.

 The arrows were pretty easy. The stone arrowheads were in the jewelry department at the craft store. They were about $4 a piece. The feathers were also from the craft store. You can get as creative as you want with the arrows, I kept it pretty simple.

 After the stain dried, I painted on the pack number and the boys name with white paint. Maybe a little more work, but I liked the look better than modge podged paper. Last, I sprayed the plaque with a clear coat of varnish (spray paint can- it's at any craft store or home improvement store).


 To attach the cup hooks, I put the template back on and drilled a pilot hole right through the paper. That made it easy. I used double sided tape again to keep the template in place.

 So the boys could hang up the plaque, I added this to the back. Not the best solution, but it worked.

That's it! I did all three (I cut out four) in about 6 hours (that included lots of interruptions! I have 3 kids).

New Year's To-Do List, 2014

- Finish Single Girl quilt (No, I really mean it this time!!!)

- Quilt for Nora's room, Fresh Pattern by Camille Roskelley

- Take a Class

- Organize and get rid of extra craft items

- Make and sell more doll blankets

- Plant a happy garden

- paint and organize the kids rooms

That's it! I'm bound and determined to do everything on my list this year!

Sweater Pillow

Today, I was trying to clean out my sewing room. I had two sweaters that were sitting next to each other that just happened to be Christmas colors. I thought what better way to get rid of these and clean my sewing room than making something out of them. I immediately thought of a pillow, because really pillows are quick and easy and I would feel it was useful too without feeling too bad that I cut up two totally and completely useful sweaters. Well, they would be useful if I fit in them.....

ANYWAY… And what better way to kick off the Halloween season, then making a Christmas pillow! Oh, you didn't know it was the Halloween season? Well, apparently all of the stores think it is. So, Christmas pillow in August!

First, cut up perfectly good sweaters. I leave as wide an area as possible. Then, I figure out the biggest square area I can get out of the part of the fabric I'm going to use. Cut a square of lining fabric, any scrap fabric that is big enough will do. The lining fabric is important when making sweater pillows because it helps them retain their shape, keeps them from unraveling while you sew, and keeps the stuffing from coming out of the pillow. Make sure the fabric is cut well, that the corners are square, and there are two identical squares. One square for the front and one for the back. Then, pin the squares (with lots of pins) onto the sweater fabric. It's nice when the fabric has a stripe, like the green and white fabric because I could line it up with the lines and ridges and know I was getting the fabric even on all sides.

After pinning, sew the lining to the sweater fabric, using a walking foot and a zig-zag stitch. The A zig-zag stitch allows the fabric to stretch when it is stuffed, and the walking foot helps the sweater fabric move with the more rigid lining fabric so there isn't a lot of stretching and bunching.  

If you don't want to add an embroidered detail to the front, then skip this step....

I drew a simple picture on the lining fabic, cut it out and sewed it onto some of the sweater fabric. I didn't even pin it down since it was all straight lines. If I was doing something more complicated, I would've pinned it. Then, I trimmed it pretty close to the edge of the lining and sewed it to the center front of the pillow. 

  

Trim the front and back pieces to the edge of the lining fabric and sew them together with right sides facing each other. Leave about 1/2 inch seam allowance. I just lined up the edge of the fabric with the outside edge of my walking foot. Leave a 2-3 inch gap on one of the sides as you sew around the edge so that you can turn the pillow right side out. Before turning the pillow out, clip the corners as shown below.

 

Then, stuff the pillow through the gap in the seam. Fill it nice and tight. Make sure to get stuffing into each corner and distribute it evenly. Finally, turn the raw edges of the gap under and hand stitch the seam together. The sweater material is very forgiving. I didn't even have to be careful and it looked really nice.

 

Enjoy your recycled handiwork! Merry Christmas! ;-)

Chalkboard door

I wanted walk-in access to our attic, so we added a door in my youngest son's room into the attic space. After looking at insulated doors and their prices, I knew I didn't want to spend the money to get an insulated door that would match the rest of the interior doors (or should I say closely match- there were no doors that matched exactly).
So instead, I decided to get the cheapest primed metal insulated door with the plan to make it a fun focal point in the room instead of a what-the-heck-is-a-door-doing-there eyesore.
We installed the door, I painted the trim and the perimeter of the door in latex white paint to match the trim and doors throughout the house. Then I painted the center with black chalkboard paint. It looked too boring, so I added some high-gloss latex cobalt blue paint that I had leftover from a different project....still boring, and the dark blue matched the black too closely.... so then, I  handpainted a apple green stripe around the outside of the chalk paint using good old acrylic craft paint. Perfect!
After the chalk paint had cured for a few weeks (I don't think you have to wait that long, read the can to find out actually curing time) I seasoned the chalkboard by rubbing it all over with the side of a white piece of chalk. Last, I rubbed all the chalk off- this keeps the chalk marks from leaving permanent marks.
I've claimed the top of the chalkboard. Wes colored the bottom with art- his first creation he deemed a "rainbow, Christmas-tree, mountain." Love it!

Oh, and one last thing. Because the door is metal I used an old magnetic locker pencil holder to hold the chalk, and we can also play with magnets on the door! Bonus!