Head over to check out her first posts detailing an introduction to what this bee is all about, quilting supplies, choosing fabric, and basic quilt-making techniques. Then, starting March 8th there will be a new 8″ block every other Friday. There’s a lot of crazy awesome talent in this bee, won’t you join in?

There’s a Flickr group here for you to add your pictures as you complete the blocks along with us.

Hey, head over to the Art Gallery Fabrics Blog and check out my tutorial for a divided organizing bucket. I used mine in my car, but they’re great for bookshelves, bedside tables, or anywhere you need a little organizing help.

If you’re here from Art Gallery’s blog, welcome!

Leave me a comment telling me about your favorite way to organize and you could win a stack of Color Me Retro fabrics for own.

*Giveaway is now closed. The winner of the fabrics is Deonn! Congratulations, I’ve sent you an email to get your information.

Without her, we wouldn’t all be together. As her year of leadership grew to a close, I wanted to do something special for her. So I put out the call to guild members to make a block for her, which I would sew into a quilt to present to her to say thank you.

This is what we created. I got a lot of questions about picking a specific color scheme so we all matched, but that’s not what I imagined. I really wanted this to be a crazy mish-mash of all our personalities.

I’m pretty sure it is that. You can definitely see the personalities of the guild members who made a block. Marci paper pieced that awesome sushi block. Leigh‘s hourglass block is definitely her style and colors (all boys in her family, not a lot of pink there). Angela created an art piece for downtown Salt Lake City that was filled with those quarter-square triangle blocks and this really shows off her style.

Barbie and Jenny chose to recreate blocks similar to their Dresden Challenge quilts. Kati‘s block (with the tiny lattice piecing set in grey up there) is just so Kati. Of course I threw some selvedges in there.

We all signed the blocks we made. I think Sukie really got the spirit of nostalgia we were going for here.

Overall, I really love how it turned out.

Kati blogs at From the Blue Chair, and I’m lucky enough to get to hang out with her all the time. She’s the one who designed the gallery quilt I made last year, and she has recently started selling her patterns! She has such a great eye for placement and color… when I grow up, I want to be just like her.

I tested the Honeycomb pattern for her. It’s amazing. It looks a lot more difficult than it really is. (Which in turn makes you look like your quilting skills are off the hook awesome.)

If you’re scared of triangles, don’t worry, She has great instructions for cutting them precisely, and tips for piecing which will get your points nearly perfect every time. Unless you don’t follow her instructions, as I didn’t on the first section I put together (only because I forgot what I had read), your points will make even the most critical of people happy.

She has the pattern for sale on Craftsy (instant download and automatic updates if she were ever to change instructions) or on her Etsy site. If you love the colors she put together for this quilt, you can pick up a kit here, or choose the cool colors shown on her pattern here.

I’ll show you the other side of the quilt soon. It was a special gift for our outgoing president of the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild.

The projects that Melody Miller and Allison Tannery have put together are so versatile – and incredibly cute. Seriously, the styling of the photos is worthy of a coffee table book. I also love the great conversational style of the writing. It’s like I’m sitting at a cafe with the two of them discussing the projects as I read.

When Amy asked me to join the wrap-along I could hardly narrow down my choices. Finally I settled on the little snack sacks. I can think of so many good uses for them, and they’re super easy to make during a busy holiday season.

My niece is having a birthday party today. I picked up a copy of Crafty Chloe for her… because I have already used it for three other little girls as birthday presents, and why stop a good thing, right? But I thought it would be fun to include a few little extras with it this time, since I was prepared ahead of time for once.

The little snack sack with no alterations was perfect to fit in a package of googly eyes. Because everything is cuter with googly eyes on it.  Remember I said it was easy to make? I timed myself. From getting the fabric off the shelf, cutting, ironing, sewing, and stuffing in the googly eyes this project took 3 minutes and 42 seconds. Faster than running into a store and picking up a gift bag if you forgot to wrap a present!

Also, I would like you to notice that purely by accident through careful planning on my part, Chloe’s legs lined up perfectly once the folded fabric was wrapped back around to the front of the bag. I hear it’s easier to do handstands if you haven’t been cut in half. I wouldn’t know, since can’t even do a somersault cartwheel, let alone a handstand.

It was such fun to make a quick simple bag, I decided to pull out some vintage trim I inherited from my Grams and add a little flair to the next one.

I made this one a little bit bigger. I didn’t measure or anything, I just cut so it was about twice as tall as it was wide. How amazing would it be to present a hand-knit shawl to someone in a little sack like this. Then they would have a bag to store it in their drawer so it didn’t get snagged!

I’ve pulled fabric for several more, and started pairing it up with my vintage trims and  buttons. Once I finish sewing five hot pink bridesmaid dresses, I see lots more of these in my future.

There’s one more week of posts as part of the wrap-along. Here’s the full schedule in case you missed anything.

11.7.12 Anna of noodlehead
11.9.12 Amanda of A Crafty Fox
11.12.12 Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson!
11.14.12 Brooke of Pitter Putter Stitch
11.16.12 Erin of Two More Seconds
11.19.12 Jennifer of BettyCrockerAss
11.21.12 Rochelle of Lucky Lucille
11.23.12 Sukie of Sukie – don’t you know who I am?
11.26.12 Elizabeth of Don’t Call Me Betsy
11.28.12 Gina and crew of Bolt Neighborhood
11.30.12 Ellen of the Long Thread
12.3.12 Katie of Swim, Bike Quilt
12.5.12 Faith of Fresh Lemon Quilts
12.7.12 Lee of Freshly Pieced
12.10.12 Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade
12.12.12 Sara of Sew Sweetness
12.14.12 Colleen of The Busy Bean
12.17.12 Amy of Diary of a Quilter
12.19.12 Monica of The Happy Zombie

And don’t forget to head over to Sew Mama Sew and enter the contest with your projects from the book.

And head over to Sukie‘s and enter for a chance at other cool prizes, like an Octopurse featuring Melody’s fabric and a gift certificate to Pink Chalk Fabric!

I made this pillow for my partner in one round of the Pillow Talk Swap. I loved it so much I made another for my good friend Sukie, and thought I’d take some pictures along the way so you can see my method. I’m also in the process of using this block, only a little bigger, to make myself a king size quilt!

To start, when I cut my selvedges off the fabric, I do it before I start cutting the little strips I may be using so I get one big usable piece. I cut just 1″ off the edge, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting fabric, but I still have a usable piece.

The first time I made the pillow, I did it with a regular foundation piecing method, ripping all the fabric off the back when I was done. I didn’t love that – I felt like it left the selvedge blocks too flimsy. So I decided to use one of my favorite interfacings – Shape Flex by Pellon – to give it some stability and to eliminate that step of having to remove paper.

Start by cutting:
(12) 5.5″ x 5.5″ blocks of interfacing
(4) blocks of background fabric 5.5″ x 5.5″
(4) blocks of background fabric 6.5″ x 6.5″ (then cut these in half from corner to corner to make eight half square triangles)

Because I didn’t want my lines all wonky, and I didn’t want to draw lines on every piece of interfacing, I took a piece of copy paper, cut it to 5.5″ square, and drew my lines starting in the middle from corner to corner, then every 1/2″ on both sides.

Next, spend some time with a bucket full of selvedges and your ironing board. Lay one of your interfacing blocks down on top of your lined piece of paper, fusible side up. Now, using your drawn lines as a general guide, lay your selvedges out one at a time, overlapping the previous selvedge by 1/4″ each time. They will hang over the edges of your interfacing. No sewing yet, just lay them out and rearrange until you’re happy with how they look.

This is where you hit it with your iron to fuse those selvedges in place. Now they won’t shift around as you try to sew all the edges down. Just set this one aside until you have all the blocks fused to the interfacing. You will need to make four blocks with selvedge from corner to corner, and eight blocks with selvedge just to the halfway point. Make sure that on these ones you go at least 1/4″ past that halfway mark.

Now, take all 12 blocks to your sewing machine and stitch along the edge of each selvedge, about 1/8″ or less away from the edge. The selvedges won’t unravel on this side, so you can get right up there and not worry about fraying.

Once you’ve sewn the edges down, take them all to your cutting table and trim off those crazy overhanging edges, squaring them up to 5.5″ square.

Grab the eight blocks that are only half selvedge and draw a line on the back of the interfacing from corner to corner.

Take your half square triangles of background fabric and place one right side to your selvedge side of the half selvedge blocks. Make sure to extend it 1/4″ beyond the line you drew on the back of the interfacing. Now sew along that line from corner to corner.

Flip that half square triangle of background fabric away from the selvedges and hit it with the iron to fuse it to the interfacing too. Trim it up to 5.5″ square again and you’re ready to assemble the star.

Lay out your blocks in the following pattern, making sure you’re happy with how the selvedges are playing together. Sew them using a 1/4″ seam allowance, and finish your block however you would like.

You can turn it into a pillow like I did. Click  here for a handy tutorial for inserting a zipper in a pillow back, or here for an invisible zipper with an invisible zipper foot or with your regular zipper foot.

It could be a mini quilt. You could make your individual blocks 8.5″ square, end up with a 32″ block and easily turn it into a quilt.

2 x 2 would make a generous throw. 2 across and 3 down would be twin sized. Or try 3 across and 3 down plus borders for a king size. I’m still playing with the layout here, and I will be switching out that black dictionary print block for another selvedge star.

I picked up that black Moda crossweave, the dictionary prints from Mama Said Sew and the black Madrona Road print from Amanda’s cute shop Westwood Acres. And can I just tell you how awesome she is? When I discovered the day before I left for a sewing retreat that I didn’t have enough crossweave, she sent it right away to my friend’s house to make sure it came before we left, and even included a treat with some hot cocoa packets and a note telling us to have a great time! Talk about customer service… she really has it down.

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My good friend Sukie gathered a bunch of people to make up some of the projects from Melody Miller’s new book.

In case you haven’t seen this book yet, it is full of vintage inspired, classy, fun, and just plain good-mannered ideas for wrapping your gifts in eco-friendly, reusable ways. Here are a few places to pick up your very own copy.

Roostbooks – Sew, Mama, Sew – Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Random House

Here’s the schedule for you:

11.7.12 – Anna of noodlehead
11.9.12 Amanda of A Crafty Fox
11.12.12 – Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson!
11.14.12 – Brooke of Pitter Putter Stitch
11.16.12 – Erin of Two More Seconds
11.19.12 – Jennifer of BettyCrockerAss
11.21.12 – Rochelle of Lucky Lucille
11.23.12 – Sukie of Sukie – don’t you know who I am?
11.26.12 – Elizabeth of Don’t Call Me Betsy
11.28.12 – Gina and crew of Bolt Neighborhood
11.30.12 – Ellen of the Long Thread
12.3.12 – Katie of Swim, Bike Quilt
12.5.12 Faith of Fresh Lemon Quilts
12.7.12 Lee of Freshly Pieced
12.10.12 Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade
12.12.12 Sara of Sew Sweetness
12.14.12 Colleen of The Busy Bean
12.17.12 Amy of Diary of a Quilter
12.19.12 Monica of The Happy Zombie

And of course you’ll have the chance to link up your own projects and win some excellent prizes.

So check out the details hereand have fun wrapping with us!

1. Draw a circle onto your freezer paper. Or three if you draw the wrong size. Twice. Not that I would do that. Cut out the circle, leaving the exterior intact.

2. Lay this over the fabric you want in your circle, just to make sure that you’ve cut the circle the correct size. You want to have at least 1/4″ behind the circle for your seam allowance.

3. Place the shiny side of the freezer paper on the wrong side of your background fabric where you want your circle. Iron this in place. Make sure the shiny side is down, or you’ll have a messy iron. Ask me how I know…

4. Leaving a 1/2″ seam allowance, cut out the inside of your background fabric circle. Cut into the seam allowance every 1/4″ or so, being careful to stay about 1/8″ away from the freezer paper.

5. Now iron that seam allowance back over the freezer paper. I like to use that groove between the soleplate and the body of the iron to just kind of pick up the little notches and push them back.

6. Grab  your glue stick – I like the lapel stick because it washes out so easily – and run it over all those little notches, on the right side of the fabric.

7. Center your circle fabric over the hole and press down all around those edges. Make sure it’s stuck, then gently lift it up and pull the freezer paper off.

8. Now turn the whole thing right side up, pull back the background fabric, and start stitching along the crease you ironed into the fabric.

9. Did you need a closer look at that? Stitch right on that line.

10. Trim away the excess fabric from the back.

11. Press it again from the front, and just like that, an easy inset circle!

It might seem a little awkward the first time or two you try it, but soon enough it’s going to come as second nature.

I made this quilt for my brother-in-law and his new wife for their wedding gift. I asked her what kind of colors she would like and her answer was blues, yellows and greens – a springy colorway. So I pulled out my scrap bins in those colors, and threw in some pinks and purples because I thought it was looking a little flat with just blue, yellow and green.

I added a row to the size of the quilt so it finished at 72″ x 72″ – big enough to use for the newlyweds to cuddle under. And while I was at it I made two extra blocks to use for some throw pillows as a matching bridal shower gift.

I used Moda solid, feather, for the background. It’s a great light grey that I think is perfect with the springtime theme. For the back of the quilt I used some of the leftover half-square triangles made from piecing the front of the quilt and did one long row of pinwheels.

I thought about getting all adventurous with the quilting on it, but I just didn’t have the time to think that hard. So I did just semi-adventurous. I used a loopy stipple in the background, and chose several of the triangles to just do concentric triangles inside.

I am really pleased with how it turned out, and even more pleased that the couple love it too. It made the perfect gift tied up with a pretty ribbon.

I finished up my pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap. I’m so very excited at how it turned out I just had to share. Lots of people were asking how I did the star, so here’s a little tutorial to walk you through it.

The Somerset Star is very traditional. In fact, you may have grown up seeing it used as things like trivets or Christmas ornaments. Things that just scream “grandma” at you. Not that there is anything wrong with grandmas. In fact, I quite love grandmas. However, this is not your grandma’s Somerset star.

Cut a square of muslin, or any old cheap fabric, just a little bigger than you want your finished star. Then start cutting your 1.5″ x 2.5″ rectangles. A lot of them. How many you  need will be determined by how many rows you want in your star. Here’s a breakdown of how many per row, and a rough idea of how big your finished star will be:

1st row: 4 rectangles
Rows 2-4: 8 rectangles (approx 4.5″)
Rows 5-10: 16 rectangles (approx 9″)
Rows 11-14: 32 rectangles (approx. 12″)

number of triangle per row

Figure out how many rows you need and what colors you will use. It’s important to remember to alternate value between your rows. If you’re using all dark fabrics or all light fabrics, you won’t be able to see the definition of the points. See how the yellow portion of my star isn’t as defined as the rest? It’s because there isn’t much difference in value between the yellow and my neutrals. It’s ok here (at least it is in my opinion) because the rest of the rings are clearly defined in the rainbow. I just wouldn’t want my whole star to be this undefined.

Now that you have a billion rectangles cut, it’s time to fold them into triangles. Start by folding one long edge under 1/4″ and pressing (this will be the top edge). Next, fold the rectangle in half to mark your center and fold both top corners down to meet at the center point at the bottom. Your nice pressed edge is now the center line of your triangle. Repeat. And again, and again, and again… Really, this is the most time consuming part of the whole process. Throw on a good movie and you’ll be done before you know it.

While the iron’s hot, grab your scrap muslin and fold it in half. Press this seam. Fold in half again the other way and press. Now fold it into a triangle and press again. Unfold it and you’ve got nice lines marked at the center for you to line up the triangles with.

It’s finally time to start putting the star together. Grab the four triangles for your first ring and line them up with the lines on your muslin. The tips should all meet in the center. The folded line in the middle of the triangle will follow the horizontal and vertical lines you pressed. The edges will line up with the diagonal lines. I like to use a little bit of lapel stick, or my sewline glue pen, to hold the triangles in place while I start tacking them down.

The good news here is that you only need to hand sew one stitch on each triangle. Unless you really like to hand sew, then you can do it all by hand. No big deal. Anyway, you just start at the back in the center and bring your needle up through the tip of one triangle. Go back down in the middle, then up and down through the tip of each triangle. Before I go back down through the last one, I take it to my machine and sew around the outside edges. Just so I don’t have to start my thread again each round, and I don’t have to worry about sewing over it.

Now we add the next row. Grab a ruler and line up your points 1/4″ below the tips of the last triangles. Start by placing one triangle directly over the first four you sewed. The next four are going to be placed between those. Line them up with 1/4″ between all the triangle tips.

And just keep tacking them down and adding rows until you get to row 5. At row 5 you’ll have to add another triangle between the eight you place first, for a total of 16 triangles on this row. You can go up to row 10 with 16 triangles, but you’ll have to double it again at row 11. You’ll see how the unfinished edges will start to show between your triangles as you go farther out.You can keep going, making your star as big as you want, just by doubling the number of triangles per row when it looks like you need it.

So, that’s how to form the star.

Click here for my easy inset circle tutorial

And here for a handy tutorial for inserting a zipper in a pillow back

Or here for an invisible zipper with an invisible zipper foot or with your regular zipper foot