Lynn Carson Harris

Wild Goose Chase

Have you seen Lynn Krawczyk's new fabric line, Inked, for Red Rooster?  I love the rich, vibrant colors Lynn used. Today I'm sharing a block I made using her fabrics. 

The block I made for her quilt is a traditional block called Wild Goose Chase.

Here's how I put it together.

This 12'' block has a light background fabric, two medium prints and two dark prints.

Cutting-

From the light fabric cut:

1  6 1/2'' square
2  3 1/2'' squares
16  2 3/8'' square - cross cut on the diagonal as shown

 

From the two medium and two dark prints cut 2  4 1/4'' squares each. Cross cut these twice on the diagonal as shown.

Assembly-

Make four flying geese units from each of the medium and dark prints paired with the light background.

Sew these units together into strips of four as shown below.

Make two hourglass blocks pairing a medium value print and a dark print in each. There will be two small triangles of each of these prints left over. Add them to your scrap pile!

Arrange the previously pieced units as shown so that the flying geese strips are pointing to the corner blocks of the same fabric. Sew these together as you would to make a nine patch block.

And there you have the completed Wild Goose Chase block.

Click over to Lynn's blog to see the full quilt and other blocks that will be featured in the blog hop. She also has an interview with me over on her blog.

Here's a list of the participants and when and where you can get the directions for their blocks.

March 2 – Susan Brubaker Knapp

March 3 – Teri Lucas

March 4 – Jessica Darling

March 5 – Debbie Grifka

March 6 – Lynn Carson Harris

March 7 – Jen Osborn

March 8 – Lynn Krawczyk’s blog for Susan Atwell + bonus giveaways!

March 9 -Flaun Cline

March 10 – Lynn Krawczyk

March 11 – Cheryl Sleboda

March 12 – Maddie Kertay

March 13 – Lynn Krawczyk

Lynn will ship a fat quarter bundle of the fabrics I used in my block to one lucky reader. Answer the following question in the comments on this post for a chance to win. The drawing will be open for the duration of the blog hop to give everyone a chance to win. So, check back on March 15 and find out who won the fat quarter bundle!

 

What is your favorite color?

 

A New Leaf

I was thrilled when Jan of Daisy Janie asked me to participate in her Bee Block Blog Hop to celebrate the release of her New Leaf line of fabrics. I am a real fan of her fabrics. She has put a lot of thought and research into her organic fabrics and has written some great articles on the impact of organic versus non organic.  

Here are a couple of her articles - GOTS,  Organic Cotton, and other links and Growing Organically

Did you know that each yard of organic fabric from Daisy Janie has prevented 1/3 of a pound of toxic fertilizers and pesticides from being used to grow cotton? That's almost 5 pounds per bolt.

The cotton in Daisy Janie fabrics is also harvested, processed, printed, and finished without the use of toxic silicone waxes, chlorine bleach, harsh petroleum scours, azo dyes, formadehyde or heavy metals. 

All that and she still comes out with fabrics with beautiful rich colors like these. 

Now, about the blog hop - There are fourteen participants in the blog hop. Each participant has made a 12 inch block from these fabrics and mailed them back to Jan who will be making a quilt. You can read more in Jan's blog post - there's also a chance to win a bundle of fabric so if you want to enter you'll need to read about the particulars on that.

The block I made is called Grandmother's Favorite. It's a traditional one but these fabrics really give it a new look.

Below are directions to make the 12 inch finished version of the block.

For the center, cut a 6.5 inch square. For this block it is fussy cut from one of the large scale print in the New Leaf line.

For the corner blocks cut two dark and two light squares that are 3 7/8 inches. Then cut them on the diagonal.

 

For the back ground on the sides cut four 3 7/8 inch squares and cut them in half on the diagonal.

For the side triangle sections cut one light and three dark 4 1/4 inch squares. Cut them twice on the diagonal as shown below.

Lay out all of the pieces as shown below.

Now, you can start sewing it all together. First, sew the corner halfsquare triangles together into squares.

Next, sew the center side sections together, starting with the two triangles in the center as shown below.

Next, add one of the other small triangles.

Then add the other small triangle.

Then add the larger triangles as shown below.

Now the block is in sections that can be sewn together like a nine patch. It's almost finished!

This was the point in the process that I realized I had the block arranged wrong. I needed to switch the corner blocks around. It would work this way but I like the look below much more.

Sew those together and ta-da! there's a great looking block.

Here's the schedule for the rest of the Blog Hop.

Mon, 1/14 - Becky Moyer, My Fabric Obsession
Tues, 1/15 - Lynn Harris, The Little Red Hen - that's me.
Wed, 1/16 - Candy Glendening, Candied Fabrics
Thurs, 1/17 - Holly DeGroot, Bijou Lovely
Fri, 1/18 - Melanie Thornton, Melanie Dramatic

Mon, 1/21 - Emily Cier, Carolina Patchworks
Tues, 1/22 - Rachael Gander, Imagine Gnats
Wed, 1/23 - Maureen Cracknell, Maureen Cracknell Handmade
Thurs, 1/24 - Leanne, She Can Quilt
Fri, 1/25 - Cindy Wiens, Live a Colorful Life

Mon 1/28 - Cheryl Arkison, Dining Room Empire
Tues, 1/29 - Jacquie Gering, Tallgrass Prairie Studio
Wed, 1/30 - Shanna Bailey, Fiber of All Sorts
Thurs, 1/31 - Katy Jones, Monkey Do

If you're playing along to win the fat quarter bundle-

The FQ Scramble letter here is R.

Twinkling Stars

I've had a lot of interest in and questions about the Twinkling Stars quilt recently. I thought it would be helpful to collect all of the posts I made while making it and put them in one place. I'm also including a link here in the tutorial section on the blog sidebar so you can find it easily.

The three inch finished stars are made using Gwen Marston's liberated piecing technique.  The base pieces for the stars are all cut as 1 1/2 inch squares. The centers are a variety of bright prints and the star points are all solids.  There are 162 stars set in an alternating checkerboard design. The background is Kona snow.

The outer border is nine inches wide. I had a hard time deciding how to quilt the wide border and I am glad that I took my time and quilted it with a large feathered vine. The stars pieces are not quilted but are outlined. The entire background is quilted with close quilting.

This is definitly my favorite quilt that I've made so far.

Measurements: 67" by 73".

previous posts about this quilt:

The beginning

A Star Filled Afternoon

Basted

Starting the quilting

After many hours of quilting

Deciding on the big border

Quilting the feather border

The finished quilt

 

Silly BooDilly has a tutorial on how to make a liberated star. You can find it here. 

The stars can be made any size. The ones in my quilt are three inch finished.  I cut 1.5'' squares for each of the background pieces and the center. Each of the squares will then finish at 1''.  The star points are just random scraps of solid fabric sewn and flipped as shown in the general tutorial. 

 

If you start with 2'' squares your finished block will be 4 1/2'' finished. 2 1/2'' squares will give a 6'' block. 

 

If you make something inspired by this quilt please add photos to my flickr group. I'd love to see what you've done.

 

 

 

How to Make a Wooden Spoon - guest post by P

Have you ever wanted to know how to make a wooden spoon? 

This is how I did it.

First, trace a wooden spoon from your kitchen onto a piece of wood. Then, have someone cut it out with an electric saw. Then, you use a spokeshave to shave the wood down to the line that you traced.

Then, make the handle round with the spokeshave.

Next, use the spokeshave to shave wood off the back of the bowl to make it rounded. Then, use a gouge to carve out the front of the bowl. Switch to a flatter and wider gouge to smooth those gouge marks out. Last, sand the spoon to make it smooth.

Ta-daaa! Now you have a wooden spoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(note - P's father has taught her how to use woodworking tools safely. The spoke shave is a fairly safe tool, gauges are a bit more dangerous and should be used with direction from someone who knows what they are doing)

Stringing Along

I've really been using up the scraps this week. I'm making six inch (finished) string blocks. I need to make 130 blocks for the twin size quilt I have planned.  I'm using quite a mix of fabrics. Leftovers from a skirt for P, a sunhat I made for D when he was little, scraps from kid pajamas, scraps from other people, new scraps - do you see some Jeniffer Paganelli in there? A couple of the blocks even have scraps from a dress I made for myself when I was in middle school. Pretty much anything goes. I am not using the very pale or mostly white fabrics so there's not too much value contrast. These are just like the string blocks I made for this quilt and this quilt. I plan to do something different with these though.  I'll be sure to show you when I get to that step.
four six inch string blocks:

Here's my method for making these blocks.

Because I want there to be a visual direction to the blocks I use strings, or long skinny scraps. I often have strips of quilt backs after trimming, extra strips or parts of strips from cutting quilt pieces and they work great for these blocks. I am making these blocks 6 inches because that is the size of my ruler.  I work with the ruler right next to me.
First I cut a bunch of strips to length.

Fatter scraps are cut to narrower strip widths.

Short pieces are sewn together to make strips that are long enough for the block. I usually work with scissors for a more "organic" look to the piecing but I sometimes trim one edge of these pieced strips with the rotary cutter to make it easier to sew them to the block in progress.

I sew these strips together to make a chunck of fabric that is large enough for a block. As I sew each strip on I lay it where I want the seam to be on the block below. I often place it a little askew to get wedge shaped strings. I sew along the straight edge of the new strip and then trim the extra fabric away. Sometimes the bit that is cut away is wide enough to sew to another block.

It is best to press before adding each new strip. I work in big batches of sewing and then pressing.

Here and here are a couple of other quilts that use a similar string piecing technique.

'Tis the season to bust those scraps! String piecing is quick and easy. You should give it a try!

Brenda's Stars - and a giveaway

I finished and washed my latest quilt, Brenda's Stars. It is heavily quilted in the linen look background and the star centers. The sashing and star points are not quilted.

Here's the full view.

50 by 62 inches. It shrank a bit in the quilting and washing.
If you like this quilt you can find it here in my shop.

Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics  gave me the great modern fabrics for this quilt. It was fun to browse through Brenda's great selection and put these fabrics together. Thanks Brenda! She has put together a bundle of just what you'll need to make your own quilt top like this. You'll get the fabric shown below for the blocks plus some Free Spirit Jade for the sashing. She also has fat quarter bundles of these fabrics if you want to try your own design.

(edit to add-these bundles are no longer available but you could substitute other fabrics or even use scraps and follow the same pattern.)

Here are some basic directions for the quilt as I made it.
I prewash all fabrics.
Starch the fabrics before cutting. You will be cutting quarter square triangles with bias cuts on two sides. Starch will help stabilize the fabric for piecing.

Cut from the fabrics:

large floral         - 20  6 1/8 inch squares
fat quarter spots - 50   5 1/4 inch squares
                           30   1 1/2 inch squares
quilter's linen      - 80  4 1/2 inch squares
                           20  5 1/4 inch squares

Cut all of the 5 1/4 inch squares on the diagonals as shown to make quarter square triangles.

Lay out the blocks as shown.

You will be piecing the block into diagonal chunks. Sew the first groups together as shown. Be careful not to stretch the pieces as you sew and press.

I pressed the seams toward the linen triangle and away from the linen square.

Continue sewing the pieces together into sections as shown.

Sew the last two seams to make the block.

Here you can see how I pressed the seams. I wanted all the seams around the center square to be pressed toward the center because this gives a straighter edge to the center piece of the block.

Measure the size of your completed block (mine measured 12 1/2 inches). Cut 49 1 1/2 inch wide rectangles the length of your completed block (12 1/2 inches).

Lay the quilt out the way you want it to be sewn together.

Sew the top together, sandwich with the batting, and quilt as desired.

Now for the give away! Brenda is giving away a fat quarter bundle of all of these fabrics to one of you lucky readers! Since it's a giveaway and giveaways should be fun and I like to read fun and interesting comments I'm asking you to tell me a joke.  To enter the contest tell me a funny, clean joke that is fit for a six year old. I'd like to be able to share them with P. 

This is her favorite joke:
Why was 6 afraid of 7?

Because 7 ate 9.

Ha, ha.

I'll leave the comments open until Tuesday at midnight.

ETA - This give away is closed.

Mustard Melody

Here's the finished quilt Mustard Melody.

It is made with a fat quarter bundle of Jennifer Paganelli's Poodle line and 2.5 yards of a Robert Kaufman Carolina Chambray in a mustard color. I don't know what the actual color name is.

It has been quilted, bound, and washed. I used a half inch binding for a little bigger than usual frame around the design.

Here's the full view.

The block, birds in the air, finishes at 10.5 inches.
The large piece in the block is cut 7.5 inches square. The half square triangles are 4 and 3/8 inch squares cut on the diagonal. Sew them together as shown below.

There are 48 blocks in the quilt. I mostly used the largest prints for the big squares but added in a few of the smaller prints to make all 48 blocks.

The quilt shrank up a little with quilting and washing and now measures 59 by 77 inches.

Book Binding Tutorial

Over the last few days I have been working on making books from the cover papers that we made in art club last week. This is how I did it:

Materials needed:
Decorated paper for cover (these were papers "painted" with colored tissue paper)
Mat board or heavy cardboard (frame shops may have scrap mat pieces)
plain white paper (or other paper for pages)
paste glue (I used Yes glue)
colored duct tape

First,  make the pages to insert in the book. I used ten sheets of regular copy paper. Fold the paper stack in half and stitch (on a long basting stitch) along the fold line.

Next, cover the mat board with the decorated paper. I neglected to take photos of this procedure. I hope you can figure out what I did. 

Cut each decorated paper in half and used half for the front cover and half for the back. Next, glue the mat board to the paper leaving 1.5 inches on three sides and trimming the fourth side (spine of the book) even. I then trimmed the two outer corners at a 45 degree angle so that when the edges were turned in and glued down they fit together in a pretty miter.

Duct tape is used for the spine to hold the two halves of the book togther. Lay a piece of duct tape sticky side up on the work surface and then place the book covers on the tape as shown. Make sure to leave about a quarter of an inch between the edges of the cover so that there is space for the section of pages to go.

Next, fold down the ends of the duct tape.

Spread glue over the front and back of the page secton and place it even with the inside edge of the back cover. Carefully close the front cover so that the edges of the book are even. Press firmly together.

I am thrilled with how these turned out.

Most of the students made papers with many colors on them.

A few students used warm or cool colors for their covers.

This was a fun project. Older children would be able to complete the books on their own but I thought that was asking a lot of the K-2 age group.

I hope the students will enjoy having these blank books to keep.

Painting with Tissue Paper

This week in Art Club we painted with tissue paper.  The technique is really fun and easy. All you need is some heavy paper that can take getting wet, tissue paper that will bleed (spectra tissue works really well), and a spray bottle of water.

The first step is to tear the colored tissue into smallish pieces and arrange them on the heavy paper.

Next, spray the project with water. Make sure that all of the tissue is wet and touching the paper (the color will only transfer where the tissue touches the paper).

The last step requires patience. - Let dry.  As the tissue dries the color will bleed onto the paper below. Anywhere that the tissue colors overlap will give a blend of color that is sort of magical to watch.

After the project is dry it is time to remove the tissue paper. If you remove the tissue too soon, the paper underneath may get damaged or torn.

We plan to use these papers to make covers for books that the students will take home at the end of the year.  I have sewn blank papers (copy paper folded in half) together for the middle section of the book. The covers will be mat board covered in our tissue painted papers. I think we will use black duct tape for the spine.

I'll be sure to show you some of the finished books.

Before I do any more on the books I need to make some graduation announcements and senior recital invitations for M.  There is never a dull moment here on the farm.

Flock of Turkeys

I am glad P is around to remind us of the importance of family holidays even when it is just the five of us here. She loves all of the little details that set a holiday apart from any other day.  Last year when we had Thanksgiving dinner with friends, there were place cards for each of us on the table. P remembered this and set to work yesterday morning making place cards for our table.

I had a quick idea of a way to add a turkey to spiff them up. Here is a quick tutorial if you want to make your own (If we had thought of this before Thanksgiving day I would have posted it earlier. You can just file this idea away for next year.)

First, gather your tools. We used a two inch flower punch, a one inch circle punch, a standar hole punch, glue, and a fine point marker.

You will also need some fancy paper. Double sided craft paper works best for the tail section.

Next, cut out one of each size circle for the turkey body parts. From left to right they are the tail, body, and head.

Fold the largest circle so that the back edge peeks out behind the front. Glue the folded paper together and then add the body and head as shown. Use the marker to make a face.

Lastly you will glue the turkey to the card and add legs.

The legs can add quite a bit of character to the turkeys.