Miss Loreen's Schoolhouse

Coming soon! EQ 7 Row-A-Long!

The 2015 EQ7 Row-A-Long will be starting September 1 and goes through October 6.  There are 20 quilt designers (myself included) who have designed an amazing variety of patterns for you to download.  Each week there will be patterns based on the seasons of the year.  Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter along with some "filler" patterns.  Lots of give aways and more!  Be sure to mark you calendar!   

Pop on over to the Electric Quilt Blog for a list of dates and designers along with links!  

I'm honored and excited to be participating in this great adventure!

Keep sewing,
loreen

Row by Row Experience - 2015

The nationwide 2015 Row by Row Experience will be starting on June 21st and goes through September 8th.  If you participated last year, you know what fun it is to go to all the different participating shops around the United States and Canada.  Last year there were over 1200 shops that participating and lots of folks went visiting shops while on vacation.  

Here's the website that will give you all of the information about how it works and what shops will be participating and it's FREE.   Like a shop hop only a thousand times bigger.  Once the Row by Row starts, I will post a picture of the row I designed for the shop I work and teach at.  The theme this year is H2O.  Be sure to check out all of the row patterns around the country while you are visiting the website.

As a sneak peak, here's a picture of the free bag pattern you can download from the Row by Row website using some of the fabrics that were designed just for this year's theme. Isn't it cute!!

Hope you get to visit some of the participating shops over the summer.  Remember, you have until September 8th to collect your free patterns.  Oh yeah, each shop has designed its own fabric license plate that you can purchase when you visit.

Lots of fun!
loreen

Have an interest in sewing garments or think you might like to give it a try?   Nancy Zieman (Sewing with Nancy) is having a Knit Dress Sew Along.  Here's the scheduled dates and times if you would like to join in. 

Knit Dress Sew Along Schedule

May 5 – Kick Off: Pattern overview, fabric considerations, yardage, and cutting directions

May 12 – Dress construction tips and steps

May 19 – Finishing techniques and dress reveal

June 2 – Photo gallery showcase of all your progress and finished dresses 

Nancy will have plenty of step by step instructions and illustrations with time enough between each session to get your sewing done.  How fun is that!!

Here's a picture of the McCall's pattern that you can purchase online or from your local Joann Fabrics store.

The dress pattern is fairly simple and flattering to many so why not give it a try?  You might be surprised at how easy it is to garment sew.  Same straight stitching as quilting, just a bigger seam allowance and no points to match!!

To read more information about this Dress Sew Along click HERE

Nancy Zieman's Block of the Month Block 2

If you're following along with Sewing with Nancy's Nancy Zieman, here is the link for Block 2.

 This block is 12" x 12" finished and is called  "Corner Hearts".  Nancy's BOM is a great place to use up some of your scraps.  Pick a background fabric that you have plenty of and use your scraps for all of the applique pieces.  What fun!

Just click on the picture of the Corner Hearts blocks for the link to Nancy's blog and full instructions and illustrations.

Happy sewing,
loreen

English Paper Piecing

Have you ever tried English Paper Piecing?  I haven't yet but lately I've seen lots and lots of patterns and videos showing this method of piecing and I find it really interesting.  Have to admit, it is hand work though there are plenty of times that I just can't get to my sewing machine but would like to have something to work on so maybe this is the answer!

Found an English Paper Piecing link at Bonnie Hunter's Facebook Quiltville page.  Check out Bonnie's FB page at Quiltville

Want to give EPP (English Paper Piecing) a try?  Here's a pattern from the other side of the ocean in the UK at Nellie's Niceties blog that's pretty and colorful.  Can't imagine sewing these on a machine!

What a great way to use up scraps.  Have you noticed how much gray background there's been these days?  Really sets those colors off nicely.

Check out Nellie's website and this free pattern to download at this link. Nellie's Niceties

Happy sewing,
loreen

Related articles

May's Book Review: "More Adventures with Leaders and Enders" by Bonnie K. Hunter

Project Bonnie - a mystery quilt from Quiltville.com

Jessica Vaughn Class

Easy Street progress and link-up to Quiltville

Charming Jelly Quilt Final Stitching!

It's time to press again.  Be sure you have cut the stitching between each block so you will have a nice pile of blocks ready for pressing!  If you place the block on your ironing board with the middle block wrong side down, lift the top section and slide your iron along pushing the top section the rest of the way open so that it is now flat.  Repeat the same for the bottom section.

Don't over "iron" your block.  Press enough to get the seams flat.  Be sure to turn your block over to press the wrong side as well.

See how nice your seams will look! But sometimes, the seams just don't go the way you wanted.  Not the end of the world!  Just press it as nicely as you can and don't worry about it!

Doesn't the block look nice!

Once you're done pressing, you will have a nice pile of blocks again!

Now you need to lay out your blocks to decide what order you would like them in.  

You should have five blocks in a row and seven rows of blocks.  Once you have the blocks the way you would like them, stitch the blocks together in the first row.  Press the seams to the left.  Move on to the second row and work you way down, one row at a time.  Second row, press the seams to the right.  Alternate pressing seams to the right and left as you complete each row.

Once you have each row stitched together, take row one and two and stitch them together. Return the stitched rows to your block layout.  Pick up row three and four and stitch them together.  Return the stitched rows to your block layout.  Continue to the end.  The last group will have three rows stitched together.  Next stitch your row sections together until you have your quilt top complete!!

Now wasn't that pretty easy?? I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add any more to this quilt top.  I have pieces of strips left over that I would like to use for the binding.  I also have another charm pack from this same fabric collection which I may incorporate into this top.  So many decisions!  If I didn't have the additional charm pack, I would make binding from the remaining strips and not add any borders.  Just to keep it simple.

Keep sewing,
loreen

 

Charming Jelly Quilt Part 3

All blocks sections are pressed and ready for the final stitching!  Wasn't that quick!  Pile your blocks up and let's get going.  Grab the first block and simply flip the top section onto the middle section, right sides together and stitch. Do not cut the thread.  Grab the next block in the pile and flip the top section onto the middle section, right sides together and stitch.  Continue this with all the blocks in your pile! 

Make sure as you stitch towards each seam intersection that you take the time to match your seams then continue on stitching.

Once you have stitched all of the block tops to the middles, you will turn the blocks and now stitch the bottom section to the middle just the same as above.

Here's my pile of blocks as I finish stitching the bottom sections to the middle sections.  Now didn't that go fast!!

Once you have finished your stitching, clip the stitching between each block and set them all in a pile ready for the final pressing.  Time for a little break!

Keep sewing,
loreen

Charming Jelly Quilt Part 2

Let's continue on with our Charming Jelly Quilt.  Now is the time to press!!  You should have the sections of each block still together.  You will press one block at a time.  Since these sections will be stitched together, you have to make sure that the seams for each section go in opposite directions so that they will set together nice and flat with one seam going in one direction and the other seam going in the opposite direction.  First  or top block section, press seams in towards center.  Middle block section, press seams out away from center.  Bottom block section, press seams in towards center.  Easy right? You will press all of the block sections the same way.

Notice that I have folded the block sections so the middle section is underneath the top and bottom sections.  I can now press the seams for the top and bottom in the same direction.

Be sure to press on the right side as well.

You should end up with a nice pile of block sections ready to sew together!

Keep sewing,
loreen

Charming Jelly Quilt Part 1

I had these fabrics in my stash!


One jelly roll and one charm pack.  Here's the fabric again in case you didn't see it previously.  It's Flag Day Farm from Moda and I've had it quite awhile and needed to do something with it before Memorial Day, 4th of July and any other time of the year I can put this quilt on display!

I wanted to do something simple and quick so I decided to cut strips from the jelly roll to go around the charm squares which are 5".  From each strip in the jelly roll, I cut four 5" strips - one for each side of the charm.  Next I needed corners for the strips so I cut four 2 1/2" squares from each strip.  Since all of these fabrics are from the same collection of fabrics, I didn't have to worry about what fabrics match each other.  The only thing I cared about was making sure each block set had different strips from the center block and different corner squares.  In other words, I chose 3 different fabrics for each block. One fabric was the center 5" charm square, the strips were all the same fabric but different from the center square.  The four corner squares were all the same fabric but different from the other two fabrics I already chose.  Make sense?  If not, just read along and you'll get it.

Once I had my block sets all matched, I piled them up to chain sew all of the blocks at the same time.  Here's how it goes.  

1.  Take one block set at a time. Lay a 2 1/2" x 5" strip down right side of fabric facing up.  Put a 2 1/2" square on top right side of fabric facing DOWN on the right side of the 5" strip, matching raw edges. Sew with 1/4" seam. DON'T CUT THE THREAD.  

2. Next take the 5" square right side of fabric facing up and place next to fabric you just stitch. There should be a little space between fabrics. Put a 2 1/2" x 5" strip on top of this square right side of fabric facing DOWN, raw edges matching.  Sew with a 1/4" seam. DON'T CUT THE THREAD.  

3. Now lay a 2 1/2" x 5" strip down next to fabric you just stitched.  Put a 2 1/2" square on top right side of fabric facing DOWN on the right side of the 5" strip, matching raw edges. Sew with a 1/4" seam. 

See the amount of space between each section.

 

After Step 3, cut the threads only at the end of your stitching.  DO NOT cut the threads between each of the stitched sections.  This will keep all the pieces of each block set together.  Now take this stitched piece and turn it over so that you will be able to repeat Steps 1 through 3 on the opposite side of your stitched piece.

Notice the left side of the picture shows the sections already stitched.  You're adding the same steps to the right side.

This is how one block set will look after both sides are stitched.  Underneath is the center 5" square and a 2 1/2" x 5" strip at the top and bottom.

When you open your stitched block set, it will look like this! Repeat these steps for all of your block sets.  This stitching will go really fast.  Don't press yet!

Stay tuned for Charming Jelly Quilt Part 2. 

Keep sewing,
loreen

 

Digging into my Stash!

I've had this Flag  Day Farm fabric from Moda for who knows how long.  I have a jelly roll and two charm packs.  This fabric collection has been at the back of my mind for some time so I've decided it's time to tackle this project and draft up a pattern to use the jelly roll and at least one of the charm packs.  

I'll post my progress along with the cutting and sewing instructions.  If you have a jelly roll and charm pack you need to use up, now's your chance!

So here I go!
loreen