Dinner Plates Revisited (quilt along free pattern)

Marny here...
Remember our Dinner Plates Quilt Along?  (You can click on "Dinner Plates" in the Labels column and get all the instructions.)

Dinner Plates throw

Dinner Plates, Queen size.  See at least it is quilted and bound!

April West volunteered to demonstrate the techniques to interested members of the Fabricators quilt guild a few Saturdays ago.  You may remember April is our long arm quilter.  She is also, no surprise, a wonderful piecer and teacher.  Her advice is definitely worth following (or at least trying)!

I was able to go for just a bit and get a look at a few fabric choices and listen to the beginning of her presentation.

Showing how to fold the fabric squares for cutting.
(As an aside, note the table lifted higher on bed risers.)

Showing how to use Cheryl Phillips Cut A Round Ruler

Sharing other circle ideas.  Some use inset circles (like Dinner Plates), others use appliquéd circles, and still others use Drunkard's Path rulers.

At the sewing machine.  It was interesting that April does not use the needle down option for this.
She likes to let the curve flow smoothly.

One pile of squares ready to cut into circles and backgrounds.

Another set of squares all set to go.

Margie with another grouping and a print out of the original Dinner Plate directions from the blog.

Susan's got a lot of choices from a large fat quarter bundle she happily snared a while ago.

Margie's quilt underway.  The folded fabric squares will become circles.

Susan's quilt top is taking shape.  Again the folded squares of fabric will become circles.

April is making another quilt to donate from the circles leftover from cutting the background pieces in her first version and some more yardage for new backgrounds.  Confusing yes, but ever so practical.  Note her original quilt is lying at the bottom of this picture.

Remember her earlier quilt we blogged about.

A second look at her yummy quilting.

Thank you for letting me come and watch and for letting me share!

Till Tuesday...

Modern Dinner Plates Quilt

Marny and Jill here....but not for long!

We are packing the car to head to International Quilt Market in Houston.  Lots of last minute details getting taken care of.  It is all so much fun! 

Remember the Free Modern Quilt Dinner Plates Quilt Along that we held a couple of months ago?  (To see all the steps we posted you can always click on the Dinner Plates label in the right side bar.)

Here is a completed Dinner Plates quilt that April West is sharing with us.

Isn't it wonderful?  Seeing the same pattern made up in a variety of ways is so rewarding.  April's color palette and textures and prints differ greatly from the versions we have shared previously.  It is so much fun for us to see a pattern made up multiple ways!  Very gratifying.

And look at the quilting!

A Dinner Plate quilted.  Gorgeous!

An empty, rather solid textured, square given dimension with quilting.

April is an professional longarm quilter.  Her business is The Quilting Den.  She does a fantastic job on all the quilts for our patterns.  We love getting the quilts back from her.  Her quilting really helps them "come alive."

Look how she works in and around those Dinner Plates!  

Our thanks to April for sharing her quilt.  Seeing how quilting adds to your quilts is educational, both for those making quilts and for those of us designing patterns.  It is an element that can have a huge impact on the success of the final product.

If all goes well, and the app works as intended (and practiced) we should be able to blog as we go this trip. Please be forgiving of typos and other oddities since "typing" will take place on an iPhone or an iPad. Check back frequently this week to see what we are up to!  We are eager to share.

Till soon....

Fresh Fabric for Brioche & Baguette

Jeanne's Fall in Colorado, thanks for the photo!  Great memories...

Marny here....

First, we want to thank everyone who attended our lecture at the AQS show in Des Moines.  We were so pleased to share "A Little Taste of Modern" with you.  The talk focused on a design principle (balance)  and the design elements (space, line, shape, value & color) that we feel are essential to a Modern Quilt.  Preparing the lecture made us distill some of our thoughts into a cohesive whole.  It was a good exercise.  Hopefully those attending enjoyed themselves.

We did receive permission to share our Robert Kaufman surprise!  It is such fun news for us!  Wow!  They have a new line of fabric coming out called Stockholm, designed by Robin Zingone.  While we can't show you pictures of the fabrics before they launch them later this month, we can tell you they are fabulous.  It is so much fun to be cutting into the beautiful prints and putting them up on the design wall.  They are going to be made into our Brioche and Baguette pattern.  (You can scroll down through the pattern shop to see which pattern we are talking about.)  Stockholm is a perfect fabric line for the pattern.  It will be even more exciting for us to see the quilt hanging in their booth at Houston Quilt Market.  We will have one in our booth too, lucky us.

Our Market Values Pattern is heading to the printer's on Friday.  It will be a proofreading frenzy (and special thanks to our little team of proofers) since the pattern has changed a bit since the mystery test class we had.  Our students offered many valuable suggestions.  The pattern will be better for it.  Thank you.

How are all those Dinner Plates Quilt Along quilts coming along?  I've seen a couple of tops lately and I can't wait to see the finished projects!  It is always so much fun to see how unique each quilt is.  We saw Lois' fun top during the Market Values class and I got to see April's Sunday afternoon.  It will be just wonderful when she gets it quilted, and she will soon I bet.

Till Tuesday.

Final Step Dinner Plates Quilt Along

Marny here...If you have been sewing along with us you have your circles inserted into your blocks.  (The three previous posts are available by clicking on Dinner Plates in the right side label bar.  It is never to late to join us!)

So let's get this Dinner party started.

With your circle blocks complete, it is time to figure our how to trim them
square.  You recall they started out oversized because some distortion
takes place while insetting the circles.  It will be fun to figure out what to do with the leftover 12" circles!  Any ideas?

Remember the finger pressed line down both axes of the circle?  My ruler is 8" across.
I want the block to be 15 1/2" raw(15" finished.)  So I place the 7 3/4" (7 3/4 + 7 3/4 = 15 1/2) mark along the fold line, as best I can.  Then I trim the fabric off to the right of this ruler.

Back to the two ruler technique we used earlier.  See here for a refresher.  My long
horizontal ruler on the right is on the 15 1/2" line.  I snug my vertical left
ruler up against the end of the first ruler.  Next, remove the first ruler and cut along
the ruler on the left.  

Two edges are now "square." 

The previously trimmed edges are at the top and bottom of this picture.  (The scrap to
the left is a leftover from a previous cut.  Sorry I didn't notice it when I took the picture.  Just pretend it
isn't there, please. )  The ruler's 7 3/4" mark is lined up on the finger pressed axis.  Note, the
ruler's top end is used to make sure the cut will be perpendicular to your previously squared edges.
See below.

Close up of the above step and ruler placement.  This area is from the side
looking at the top of the square in the above picture.

Last cut.  The 15 1/2" mark on the ruler is lined up on the right side.  The
"top" of the ruler is aligned with the top edge of the block to make sure the
last cut is square.

Your blocks are now complete.  Here is a layout diagram for the queen size quilt.

And here is the layout diagram for the throw size.

Please spread all your blocks out in a mock layout.  You might just want 

to do a bit of tweaking.

Oops.  Time for a confession.
Following my fabric placement chart I end up with too much of the
pink background fabrics on the upper left side.  There will need to be some
rearranging after all.  Best laid plans and all that...

I exchanged a plain number one fabric block (2nd down on far left column) with

a plain number two fabric block (4th down on the far left column) to balance

out the strong pink areas.  Other than that I followed the layout diagram.

Sew your columns together.  

Then join the columns.  

And your quilt top is done!!!

Wouldn't you know the lighting threw off the pink color for its completion shot!  But I still love how it turned out.  What do you think?

I hope to find a lovely way to use the 12" leftover circles--any ideas???  Any chunks of fabric leftover will probably go on the back, and I haven't decided whether scrappy or one of the darker pink fabrics for binding.  Any opinions?

How are all your quilts coming along?   Please note the comments on the previous posts--they lead you to at least one fresh idea from a Crafty Mom in Maine.  Our flickr stream has some photos submitted of some fabric choices made by one of our loyal readers.  

Again, if you want to join in any time the steps are in the label column to the left by clicking on Dinner Plates.  We would love to receive pictures via the "contact us" bar above, and we can put them in the photo stream if you do not know how to add to Flickr.

We will be here next Tuesday, hope you can be too.

Dinner Plates Free Modern Quilt Pattern, Quilt Along, Sew Along Step 3

Marny here...welcome back everybody.  This is the third post of the modern quilt pattern, Dinner Plates.  The quilt along is open to anyone at any time.  All the posts can be accessed by clicking on "Dinner Plates" in the Label side bar.  Fabric choices were described here and the initial cutting instructions were posted here.  We'd love to see any fabric choices, your progress in making blocks, and, of course, completed quilt tops and finished quilts.  You can post your photos here please.  (You can always email us photos and we can post them.  Use the contact bar above to reach us.)

The Great Circle Cutting and Insertion day has arrived.
This is going to be fun!

We will discuss how to cut the circles, followed by how to cut the backgrounds in preparation for inserting the circles.  Then I will try to document the actual insertion process.  The techniques are also well described on Cheryl Phillips' site.  (Please note that her video shows going on to a Drunkard's Path layout.  Follow the directions that come with the ruler to cut the circles.  The video show the cutting for a Drunkard's Path.  Note where we align the folded fabric, not on the seam allowance line, but on the Fold Line.  Do not cut your inserted circles into quadrants.  We will be using them whole.)  I will be using her Cut-A-Round ruler.

The first step is to pair up the each circle fabric with its correct background.

Now we can begin.

Take one "circle" square.  

Fold it in half.  Finger press.

Fold in half again.  Finger press the folds.

Place the Cut-A-Round ruler on the folded fabrics.
The folded edges of the fabric should be under the "Fold Line" markings
on the ruler.  (Not the outside, 1/4" seam allowance marking.)

Cut along the 13" line with your 45mm rotary cutter.

Pull away the excess fabric.

And voila, you have a beautiful circle cut with fold lines showing.

Now take the "background" fabric that pairs with the circle you just cut.

Repeat the folding of the square as before.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  you will cut the "hole" in
the background one inch smaller than the circle you cut before.  

So I will be using the 12 inch marking.

Pull away the circle.

And voila, the background to insert your circle into.

Line up your circle, with its fold lines meeting up with the fold lines of the background.

Gently pull the background up and over the circle, and pin,
right sides together, at the fold marks.

Continue around the four fold lines, matching and pinning.

Now you can pin in-between your four pins.
Some of you might be most comfortable using a lot of pins 

And others of you will be happiest using fewer pins.

Ready to sew.

Stitch with a quarter inch seam.

Here it is coming out of the back of the machine.

Here it is sewn all the way around.

Press the stitching lightly.  Be careful not to press in any creases.

I started with the block facing up.  I pressed both thicknesses of the seam
allowance away from the circle.  

This is the completed block from the wrong side.

And here it is from the right side.  Perfect, and so easy to do!

Get all your circles inserted in the next two weeks.  On Tuesday, September 13th I will post Step 4, the final layout for Dinner Plates.

Couple of reminders before I go.  Jill and I are teaching our new Market Values pattern on Thursday, September 22nd at the Quilting Connection here in Ames, from 10-4.  The class is structured like a mystery class-you won't see the finished project till you are done.  Students will be sworn to secrecy, since the pattern is not for sale as yet.  $45.00 includes lunch and the pattern.  Call 515-233-3048 for more information, or stop in the store to sign up.

And, here is a repeat from the previous post.  On Friday, September 30th from 4-5 we are presenting a lecture/trunk show at the Des Moines AQS show.  Our talk is entitled "A Little Taste of Modern."  We'll discuss techniques, fabrics, design and market influences pertaining to the new modern. We'll explain a bit about the Modern Quilt Guild movement and it's influence on current quilting trends.  And of course we will show some quilts and help define some modern quilt elements.  There is a whole list of classes and lectures available in addition to all the vendors and quilt shows to inspire your quilting! Come check us out and we'll make it worth your while! 


So see you here in two weeks.  Let me know if you have any questions about Dinner Plates.  And we would love to see your photos!