West Third Street Designs

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

"Kickin' Stash" Quilt

Bust out those scrap bins, "Kickin' Stash" pattern is here and now your scrap fabrics will have a quilt of their own.

This winter I signed on to be a block tester and quilt group block swap participant to help out talented quilt designer Beth Helfter. I only needed to make four 12.5" blocks and with my crazy work schedule, that was very doable. There were about 40 participants. The test blocks were to be made up of fabric scraps in the same color family. I have plenty and my color choice was purple. I have to admit that I purchased 1/2 yard of cream background fabric as those scraps were non existent.

Once all my pieces were cut and everything was set up, piecing was very easy, the instructions are very clear, and this pattern also lets you know which way to press your seam allowances (when it's late at night, I need to be told that). I found it to be a great pattern.

The one thing I didn't do....TAKE PICTURES! After I volunteered for this blog-a-long, I realized I had no pictures of the blocks I made. However, I have pictures of the wonderful blocks that were returned to me. So if you recognize your block please let me know which one was yours. I would like to put your name on it along with the block swap info!

Below is the finished cover quilt and I am very happy to see my block made the cut (second row, second block)! The link below the quilt will take you to the PatternSpot web page to purchase a download of this pattern. For more great fun, stop by Beth's blog page Quilting Hottie Haven Blog!

Kickin' Stash Quilt by EvaPaige Quilt Designs

Here are the links to the Blog-A-Long...

Monday 3/12 – Deb Donovan www.aspenhill.wordpress.com

Tues 3/13 – Kelli Fannon www.thatlookslikeitneedsstitches.blogspot.com

Wednesday 3/14 – Anna Dzik www.westthirdstreetdesigns.blogspot.com

Thurs 3/15 – Marianne Nowacki www.hillsidequiltworks.com

Friday 3/16 – Linda Pearl www.thepatchworkpearl.blogspot.com

Saturday 3/17 – Terri Sontra www.purplemoosedesigns.com/weblog

Here's to everyone having a Kickin' Stash Day!!

Anna Dzik
anna@westthirdstreetdesigns.com
www.WestThirdStreetDesigns.com
Quilt Patterns, Kona Bay Solid Colored Fabrics

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Scrappy Apple Core Quilt

This past fall, I purchased the 9"Apple Core ruler by Pepper Cory for the Missouri Star Quilt Co. Last week I ended up with some unexpected vacation time and decided to hole up in my sewing room. As I was going through my stash, I had a bunch of 6" cuts in fall colors that were for another project. The cuts were too small, so it became a scrap project.

I straightened up one edge and paired and stitched like colors together...

Then I got to cutting...

Decided on a random look...

I had a helper and this was her look...

Miss Emma is now banned from the room until I have all of my rows sewn together. I finger pressed a crease in the center at the top of the apple core and pinned them together. I usually pin at the beginning, middle and end of a curve.

As I stitch the curves together, I make sure the edges line up as I go. Every few stitches, you will need to adjust the edges. Make sure you have your needle in the down position.

I stitched all the apple cores together into rows, and laid all the rows back in line. I put a pin in the top of each row before I sewed the rows together so that I would not get confused. I pinned the rows together at the beginning, middle of each apple core, and all seam allowance intersections. Sewing long rows of curving pieces takes time. It took me about 20 minutes for each row and that includes pressing. I was not in a hurry.

I had enough apple cores that the top without borders is about queen size.

The top came out better than I expected and it looks better in person than in the pictures. I am thinking of leaving it as is and bind it with a solid color after quilting it. I like the scalloped edges and I think it will look great on top of a solid colored bed spread.

Anna Dzik
anna@westthirdstreetdesigns.com
www.WestThirdStreetDesigns.com
Quilt Patterns, Kona Bay Solid Colored Fabrics

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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Interesting Places.......Fiberglass Mold Yard

Happy New Year! This past year one of our chill out weekends was to Cranberry Fest in Warrens, WI. We had a great time visiting with our Chicago family and looking at all the great crafts. Sorry, no crafty pictures. It was extremely crowded and very difficult to take pictures even if you were allowed to do so.

My DH in front of the tricked out John Deere tractor.

FAST: Fiberglass Mold Yard

The most interesting place we visited was to see the Eye at the FAST: Fiberglass Statue Mold Yard. This happens to be a place where they make those huge fiberglass statues that we always see here and there. You can walk through at your own risk to see all the molds that are laying about. The Fiberglass Mold Yard is located on Hwy 21 just outside of Sparta, WI.