Jay Hess 2/4/12 Jay Hess 2/4/12

rough circles quilt along...part four

If you have been hanging in there with me I am so proud! I know that quilting can be daunting, but it is so rewarding when you are finished. Today you will get the first glimpse of your soon-to-be finished quilt! For most people, right behind picking out the fabrics themselves, piecing the quilt together and matching up the fabrics are the most difficult/intimidating task. Here are some pointers that I have learned:

1. Don't Fret. You/no one else will ever stare down each piece of your quilt and think critically of it ever again. So do not stress too much!

2. Decide what you like. Do you like it when no two pieces touch, do like some corky type piecing, letting some like fabrics touch on purpose? What is your style? Remember this is art and there is no right answer. Do your homework, look all over blogs, pinterest and in magazines for styles you like.

3. Take a picture, it lasts longer. When making the final decision when the quilt is laid out on your floor/table/bed take a picture, really. Stand back as far away as possible while still getting everything in the shot and snap away. By looking at the picture instead of the quilt itself you will be able to see the quilt as a whole and not individual pieces. This will help you see patterns that you may be too close to see without the picture.

Okay so back to you and your quilt...

First take all of your square quarters, match them to a partner, sew front sides together and press. Your pile should have been cut in half. Now take all of your halves, match those with a partner, sew front sides together and press again to create one whole wonky looking block.

When you are matching quarters and halves together, be sure to be aware that your circles edges are matching together. I found that when forced to choose I would of rather have the edges of the circle match more precisely than the inside circle. If you are a dynamite cutter and piecer, you will not have this problem. Me, I am not detail oriented enough to do anything that perfectly!

When you are sewing all these small pieces together, do not, cut each one off after every individual square. Create a chain...feeding one piece in after the other, letting them all stack up behind your machine. You only need to leave one or two stitches in between each piece. This will make things go much quicker...when you are finished you may have something that looks like quilters garland!

So now that you have all of your fully pieced squares it is time to lay it out. The size of this quilt forced me off of the table or even bed and onto the floor. It was the only place it would fit. I always lay out a blanket before I start piecing to avoid dog hair and this allows me to quickly roll it up if I have a crying baby or enormous amounts of indecision and have to come back to it later.

After you have it all the way you like and you are ready to move on, stack all the rows and label them by numbering them. This will help you get these squares back in the same order that you laid them out in.

If you make it through this step you are rounding third and heading for home! Good job! Next week we will sew these bad boys together and start thinking about quilting!

-melissa

If you have joined the quilt along party late in the game here is what you missed! parts one, two and three.

Jay Hess 2/3/12 Jay Hess 2/3/12

world traveler...well maybe country traveler

Most people know that I travel for work. ~~Inter~~national Man of Mystery? Traveling Salesman? Secret Agent Man? I try to explain to people what I do, but more often than not they just get confused. I love to travel and I always have. Like today for instance I'm in Phoenix. I've never been to Phoenix before and so far I love it. The weather is amazing. I even got lucky and have a two-door sporty car while I'm here. I like airports, hotels and everything about travel. So in honor of my travels I wanted to share some pictures along the way, so here is the first installment of some places I traveled over in the past year. My trips always begin/end by circling around Richmond. Here's a great shot of the buildings, bridges and river.

If I'm lucky enough, sometimes I get upgraded and get to sit in first class. I enjoy that. Lots of room and all of the snacks you can imagine, but most of the time I sit in the exit row which affords me some great over the wing shots. Here is one of my favorites.

Here's another one from the trip Melissa and I took to Seattle last year. Say Hi to Mount Rainier.

From first class you can see the engine underwing on this 737. Beautiful shot in my opinion.

Great shot of the clouds.

Neat shot from out west.

Love how this Nebraska farm land turned out.

The great salt lake.

Flooding in the plains.

Sometimes I even run across stuff like Air Force One.

And I've got a hunch that I've got a great travel buddy in the making.

I hope you enjoyed these. I'll try to post more as I travel the world....I mean country....I mean lower 48 states.

-jay

Jay Hess 1/28/12 Jay Hess 1/28/12

rough circles quilt along part 3

If you have been quilting along with me, you have put in some good quality time with this quilt and I know you are looking for the finish line soon. I promise, it is near! By the end of this post you will have a nice stack of squares that look something like this!

To get to this point you need to take all those circles that you worked so hard on and press them. After you press them so they are looking oh so crisp, it is time to cut them to shreds! Cut each square into four equal squares with your rotary cutter. Remember this does not need to be done one at a time, smart quilting is using your time wisely, so don't be afraid to stack a few up and then cut!

Once you have these cut into perfect little squares, pull the circle slice (blue above) back and cut off a triangle of the base fabric (orange above) with scissors in order to keep the quilt from becoming too bulky.

Next week we start piecing the main squares back together, before you know it you will have one snuggly quilt ready for the rest of winter!

Missing something? Here is rough circles quilt along one and two.

Jay Hess 1/27/12 Jay Hess 1/27/12

quilt gift card for a dear friend

You know those friends that you meet and you just click immediately. You are not sure why, you may not even have too much in common, but you just click. I have one of those and today is her birthday. We have worked together, been in bible studies together, book clubs, she is the one that I call when the husband is out of town, I have a fever and I am afraid to hold C because I am dizzy. She is the one that will drive two hours with a screaming baby in the car just so I have someone to go crazy with. She is great. She has wanted a quilt for some time, and she never seems to get one. She has not had a baby recently or been married recently, so she has not received any quilt action. Well, with me reflecting on how much she means to me and our family, I think it is about time.

I have a major problem though. I am currently making two other quilts for birthdays and babies and I knew a couple of weeks ago that it was not going to get finished in time. So I decided to not even start it. I thought I would really like for her to pick out the color scheme and the pattern so as it would be one of kind, just for her. But what do you give someone saying I am going to make you a quilt? A nice card? A letter? Nah, that is too normal..how about a gift card of sorts?

I whipped up this simple and very small quilt in one Sunday afternoon. Here is how it is done.

sew strips together...