Tag Archives: Tu-Na

Tu-Na Quilts: I Wish You A Merry Quilt-A-Long Block 8 Released Today

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In the spirit of giving, we give you another free pattern today. But don’t delay in downloading your patterns, as they are free only as long as the quilt-a-long is going on.

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This block may look challenging to some of you. But it goes together easily just follow the directions. I used the pictures a lot to tell me if I was on the right course or not.

Sola, at Alice Samuel’s Quilt Co., created this super cute pattern. You can find the pattern on her blog here. Don’t be overly worried about it. I’ve got a couple of construction tips for you to help you along your way and so do my fellow hosts listed below.

First, the pattern makes two identical present blocks within the block. At first, I thought I’d only make one present for my square. I should have done that and once finished I would have realized how easy they were and then gone on and made the second. Instead, I cut out for both presents and tried sewing them up together. I highly suggest cutting out and sewing up only one at a time. Why you ask?

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I accidently cut two of those white with red pieces that were to be set aside. This meant that the remaining piece would now be short and I would have to start over.

Next, when sewing the angled edges together, baste them in place along the seam line and then check. If the ribbons don’t match, you can easily remove the basting and try again. Why you ask?

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I machine basted just thru the ribbon seams to see how they lined up. It took me about six tries on each present before I got it right. Ripping out only this much saved me a lot of time. I use this technique a lot when matching angles.

I will add the ric rack bows and gift tags after the top is finished and quilted.

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I’ll use fray check on the ends of the ric rac. I had to find a way to sneak some ric rack into this block.

I think the bows and tags really dress up this gift and also help create the 3-D effect.

I hope I’ve inspired you to grab your fabric and sew up a couple of presents today.

Then post the picture on either Sola’s party link on her blog or on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page or tag # #iwishyouamerryqal on Instagram to win some prizes. Remember you have until October 23rd at 11.59 PM to link or post your pic to be entered to win.

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Thank you to Warm Crochet for offering this prize. In addition, they are also offering a discount code to all QAL participants. Use the code “ChristmasQAL” to get 10%OFF your purchase. Thank you also to Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for offering a pattern for this giveaway. You can find her shop here.

At the end of the QAL there will be a link to download a picture of your finished quilt. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Thank you to all these sponsors for prizes.

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Here’s all my blocks so far.

Find info on where to get the pattern and see my Block 3-Santa’s Belt here,  Block 4-Christmas Memories (ornaments) here, Block 5-Snowman here, and Block 6-Angel here, Block 7-Poinsettia here. As you can see, I am still working on blocks one and two, so you see, there’s still time for you to join along. You can find the pattern for block one-snowflake here and block 2-tree farm here.

I’ve got a start on the tree farm. I’m starting to see a secondary theme emerging. Do you?

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Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block

Look for Block 9 to be released on October 24th.

Coming soon:

My Art with Fabric Blog Hop post on Wednesday  (I hope you’ll be back to check it out as I’m really excited about it)

A visit to the Quilted Ceiling Quilt Shop in Valley City, ND.

A look at all the Quilt MN Shop Hop loot

What I Learned Today:

  1. Take more pics. I do take a lot but I could use more.
  2. When the camera stops working: take out the battery, wait 10 seconds, reinsert the battery, start taking pics again.
  3. Deer don’t like zucchini. They ate the watermelon but left the zucchini in the garden.

Question: What was a unique gift you gave or received? I made a jar of reindeer noses (malted milk balls and sour cherries) and gifted them to our neighbors at our AZ house a couple of years ago. They all enjoyed them. I should do that again.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

I Wish You a Merry QAL Linky Party at Alice Samuels Quilt Co.

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

WIPs at Silly Mama Quilts

Tu-Na Quilts: I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Block 7 Released Today

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 Did you know there’s a song about a poinsettia? It starts out:

♪ Percy the puny poinsettia
Is hanging his bloom in dismay
If they had just kept him wetta
He’d be a houseplant today
Folks liked the other plants betta
Now he’s alone on the shelf
Even a plant with no uncle or aunt
Shouldn’t spend Christmas Day by himself ♪

If you’re interested in finding out what happens to Percy, you can listen to it here.

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The seventh block in our I Wish You A Merry Quilt-A-Long just happens to be a poinsettia. However, this poinsettia definitely isn’t puny and it sure is cute.

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The pattern can be found here at SandyStar Designs.

You will have fun sewing this one. Ohhh, the possibilities! I wanted to use just one color for all of the petals but wanted to make a definition between them. Voila, ric rac to the rescue. I plan to use ric rac in many of these blocks. I liked ric rac as a little girl and still do. I think I’ll start a campaign to promote the use of ric rac again. There used to be so many colors to choose from at the store and now the selection is rather limited. So let’s start using more ric rac.

Adding the ric rac, took a bit of thought. I started by machine basting the ric rack onto the piece that I wanted it to lay flat against.

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Then I pressed the seam open.

Check the picture below to see how I easily squared the half square triangle/quarter square triangle pieces.

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I aligned the diagonal line on my square ruler along the seam line as noted by the black arrows. I made sure the cutting line on the right side of the ruler would fall exactly at 3.5 inches at the place where the quarter square triangle seams joined as noted by the red arrow. This is very important as it ensures the square will be cut accurately and each quarter square triangle will be the correct size helping tremendously when matching seams.

Sewing all that ric rac in the seams produced quite a clump in the middle. It was so thick when I joined the final two seams that I didn’t even try to sew through it. I didn’t want to break a needle but I tried to get as close as I could to the center.

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Once all the seams were sewn and pressed, I cut away the center making sure there would still be plenty of block that would be covered by the appliqued circle.

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Reducing this bulk, helped the appliqued center lie flat.

I used a vintage thread spool to trace around for the center part of the poinsettia.

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I often look for items to trace around especially round things.

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That’s how I made my pretty-but not puny-Poinsettia.

Are you making a Poinsettia this week?

Grab your fabric and sew up a poinsettia today.

Then post the picture on either Sandy’s party link on her blog or on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page or tag # #iwishyouamerryqal on Instagram to win some prizes. Remember you have until October 23rd at 11.59 PM to link or post your pic to be entered to win.

Prizes

Special thanks to Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter for supplying a pattern for the giveaway. You can find her pattern shop here.

At the end of the QAL there will be a link to download a picture of your finished quilt. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Thank you to all these sponsors for prizes.

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Here’s all my blocks.

Find info on where to get the pattern and see my Block 3-Santa’s Belt here,  Block 4-Christmas Memories (ornaments) here, Block 5-Snowman here, and Block 6-Angel here. As you can see, I am still working on blocks one and two, so you see, there’s still time for you to join along. You can find the pattern for block one-snowflake here and block 2-tree farm here.

Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block

Look for block 8 to be released today also! You can find my version of Block 8 here. Block 9 will be released on October 24th.

Coming soon:

A visit to the Quilted Ceiling Quilt Shop in Valley City, ND.

A look at all the Quilt MN Shop Hop loot

What I Learned Today?

  1. There appears to be a song written for just about anything.
  2. There’s a lot of creative quilters making this quilt. I Wish You a Merry QAL facebook page shows lots of creative versions of these blocks.
  3. Looking at all that creativity makes me want to start another one of these quilts but in blue and white.
  4. Someone, probably on four legs, stole all of our watermelons from the garden. My husband even put them in hiding amongst the vines and laid corn stalks over the top. We picked one last week and it was delicious. I hope they enjoyed them, too.

Question: Does your Christmas decorating include buying Poinsettia plants?  Do you use ric rac?

If you want to be notified of my posts when they publish, please subscribe to follow me using one of the three ways; email, WordPress, or Bloglovin, found on my sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

I Wish You a Merry QAL Linky Party at SandyStar Designs

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

WIPS at Silly Mama Quilts

Tu-Na Quilts: Art with Fabric Blog Hop Starting Monday

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The Art with Fabric Blog Hop is starting Monday. My day to post my project is Wednesday so please stop on back to see it then.

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You might be wondering what this blog hop is all about. Participating bloggers were invited to produce a quilted/sewn project using a well-known or lesser known work of art as our inspiration piece. You can see the last several years entries here.

The theme this fall was Mother Earth. So what did Tu-Na decide to make for her quilted art piece. You’ll just have to return on Wednesday to see.

Here’s the schedule:

Fall 2017 schedule

Monday, October 9th, 2017

 
Tuesday, October 10th, 2017
 
Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 
Thursday, October 12th, 2017 
Friday, October 13th, 2017 

What I Learned Today:

  1. There will be no apple cider days, no aroma of drying apples in our house for weeks, no fresh apple pie, and no fresh applesauce this year. Our apples did not survive the three hail storms we had this summer. There are not many apples on the trees. The few that did survive are very small, misshapen, dented, scabbed, and have other living things inside.
  2. This will be a busy blog week with two posts for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long scheduled for Tuesday and the Art with Fiber post on Wednesday. I have not forgotten about the loot posts or the one about The Quilted Ceiling. They will be coming. Maybe even this week!

Question:

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Tu-Na Quilts: I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Block 6 Released Today

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♪ Angels we have heard on high

Sweetly singing o’er the plain

And the mountains in reply

Echoing their joyous strains ♪

 

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Welcome to the Block 6 Release Party Day of the I Wish You A Merry Quilt-A-Long.

Here she is sweetly singing ♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo. ♪

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I’ve personalized this pattern a wee bit. She’s got a new “do” and some eyelet edging on her gown,  She’s also sporting a halo.

You’ll find this pattern at Sandra Healy Designs here. All the patterns are free until January 16th, 2018. So don’t delay, download your pattern today. Sandra’s also offering a 20% discount in her shop at Sandra Healy Designs until October 25, 2017. Just use the coupon code MERRYQAL20 when you check-out.

I learned a few tricks to make this angel a bit easier to put together.

  1. I don’t have a lightbox. In order to trace the applique portion of the pattern, I taped it on a window and then held the Lite Steam a Seam 2 over it with the yellow lines side facing me. Then I held the Steam a Seam over the paper and just traced the lines moving the Steam a Seam as needed for the next part of the applique. Make sure to leave about half an inch of space between each part.tunaquilts 2a

2. This pattern has lots of applique pieces with rounded edges. To make the rounded edges nice and smooth, I turned my prepared fabric applique piece while I cut holding the scissors in one place. This helps to make the rounded edges round and make nice crisp lines. It does make a difference. It is so much better than holding the fabric/paper still and moving the scissors cutting up and down. Having a really sharp scissors also helps. I also have a scissors that I only use for applique. The blades do get gummy and I clean them off with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab.

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O.k. This wasn’t the best pic to highlight this point. But it’s really hard to hold the scissors in one hand, and the fabric in the other hand, and the camera in another hand when I only have two hands!

3. I chose NOT to use a stabilizer this time. I used one when I made the ornaments and look what happened here. I’m still picking out the remnants. I think this angel block turned out well.  

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This looks so much better than the back of the ornament block. but that one will look nice, too, once I finish picking out all the paper. The block pulled in just slightly on the bottom but still finished very close to 12.5″. This was probably because of the bias tape edge of the eyelet lace trim. After thinking about it, I could have trimmed this bias edge away in the back before stitching it down. 

4. You can also see in the pic above that I used a piece of lightweight iron-on interfacing on the underside of the face. this is so that the embroidery thread French knots do not pull through the front.

5. I also found that the sewing machine needle will get gummy from the Steam a Seam although the package says it doesn’t. To remedy this, either clean off your needle when done with rubbing alcohol or use a needle that you save just for applique.

6. Finally, I encourage you to personalize your block to make it unique and to reflect a bit of yourself in it. Add some fun embellishments. If you look at Sandra’s pattern, you can see that I changed the angel’s hairstyle and added a halo. I also added a bit of eyelet trim to the bottom of her gown.

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She just got back from the hairdresser and is sporting a new “do.”

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I appliqued the feet first. Then stitched down the gown leaving the trim flying free.

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I think those toes are so cute just peeking out from under the gown.

What can you do to make your angel block unique?

Here’s how all my blocks look together. The gray, red, white, and yellow are all the same fabrics in each of the blocks. They just look different in the pics.

Find info on where to get the pattern and see my Block 3-Santa’s Belt here,  Block 4-Christmas Memories (ornaments) here, and Block 5-Snowman here. I am still working on blocks one and two, so you see, there’s still time for you to join along. You can find the pattern for block one-snowflake here and block 2-tree farm here.

That cute snowman pattern that was released two weeks ago is catching the eyes of everyone! In fact, my snowman above was featured last week on Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers. That was really exciting. So, Mr. Snowman, this one’s for you!

I’ve been enjoying seeing all the unique snowmen being posted on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page.

Grab your fabric and sew up an angel today. Then post the picture on either Sandra’s party link on her blog or on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page or tag # #iwishyouamerryqal on Instagram to win some prizes. Remember you have until October 9th at 11.59 PM to link or post your pic to be entered to win. Thank you to Island Batik for supplying the prize for this block.

block six prizes

The next two blocks will be released on October 10th at 12:01 AM Eastern time. The remaining blocks will be released every other Tuesday with the final block set to post on December 5th giving you just enough time to finish your quilt before Christmas.

At the end of the QAL there will be a link to download a picture of your finished quilt. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Thank you to all these sponsors for prizes.

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Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block:

Coming soon on Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats:

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of the Listed Loot

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of What Was Added to the List (a.k.a. The Big Splurge)

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of My 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop Fabric and a Bit More About the Designer

Tu-Na Quilts: A Few Words from Tu-Na Helper

Tu-Na Quilts: It’s All Out of the Bag (A Wrap up of the 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop)

Tu-Na Travels: Visiting the Quilted Ceiling in Valley City, ND

What I Learned Today:

  1. There’s a lot of creativity in the quilting world. Looking at all the blocks on the I Wish You a Merry QAL Facebook page makes me want to start about 4 more of these quilts.
  2. It’s easy to get behind even with fun things. I am behind in posting the remaining posts of the Quilt MN Shop Hop and my Valley City  Quilt Shop as I was busy preparing the post for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. But they will be coming.

Question: Are you sewing along with us? If you aren’t, what color fabrics would you choose?

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

At this time, I have no affiliation with any of the shops, products, companies, or services that I mention here on Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats.

Linking to:

Block 6 Linky Party at Sandra Healy Designs

BOMS Away at What a Hoot Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Moving It Forward Monday at Em’s Scrapbag

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

 

Tu-Na Quilts: Second Entry in Blogger’s Quilt Festival

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The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side is a virtual Quilt Show. All you need to do is sit in your favorite chair or at your desk and flip through lots of quilts on blogs using your computer. I think the best part about this virtual show is reading more about the quilts than one would get at a live show.

bqf-f2017-e1505776492695.pngI attend several live quilt shows each year but I do enjoy reading and seeing the quilts here at the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. This is my second year I’ve entered but I’ve been enjoying this festival for a few years. My last year’s entries were the Plus Quilt and the Little House on the Prairie Quilt.

 

This is my second entry into this year’s festival. (My first entry, Quilter’s Laundry Day Mini, can be found here.)

2a

This baby quilt contained a lot of tiny pieces and took me awhile to make.  I changed the pattern somewhat in that I have the bear on the front of the paw patch rather than having the green sashing going through the bear. I also left out the bear paw in the square with his rump. He does have a black eye as well as a black nose. I thought I had a close-up of it.

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I designed the back to look like that bear had walked right over it. Our exchange daughter, Kerstin, helped me with the layout of these blocks. The pattern included these paw prints to be used as a border around the larger size quilts but not the baby quilt. Since my mom says “Quilts just shouldn’t be square,” I added an extra row to make it longer.

I started this bear quilt last summer during a sewing day with my mom and sisters. I had a couple of projects going on. They offered to help, sort of.

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This pattern has lots of little pieces. But that’s ok as my motto is “I dabble in small pieces.”

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My sister, Bonnie, was in charge of pressing and quality control. If she didn’t like the way I’d sewn a square, it came back to me for correction. Don’t let those two irons fool you. She only used one at a time.

Eventually, there was quite a pile that needed trimming.

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Mom thought we should stay organized. So she used my Tupperware container and filled it up. Eventually, both containers were just about full.

At the end of the day, I found the scraps shaped like this.

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I think my mom was the creative artist behind it.

We got together last summer several times for sewing and eating. Really, there was more fun than sewing going on during those days. Mostly we’d eat. My sister, Sheila, was in charge of cooking because she said she doesn’t sew.

We’d have morning coffee with treats.

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If the weather was nice, we had our coffee outside in my gazebo. Coffee time usually lasted at least an hour and sometimes longer.

Then all too soon it was time for lunch.

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On this particular quilting day, Sheila made us homemade pizza on the grill. She said it would taste similar to my much-loved Punch pizza. Yes, she’s rolling out homemade dough.

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Even my husband was enlisted to help because he’s the grill master. After all, if you want to eat around here, you have to be part of the process.

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The pizza was yummy!! It had fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves. Grilling the crust worked. I’ll just have to write a separate post about the process.

Afternoon tea and treats followed.

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Where am I? The question really is; where is Tu-Na Helper (my husband)? If he’d been around, then I could be in the picture, too.

I had read through this MOD Bear Paw Quilt pattern for Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts offering suggestions before she published it. Then I started sewing it. The pattern can be purchased here on her pattern site if you’d like to sew one, too, and want your directions all in one spot. She also offered it as a free quilt-a-long on her blog. Find more info about the quilt-a-long tutorials and the free pattern here.

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My daughter, Emily, is showing me how the bear’s front paw should look when walking as I was questioning it. I think she makes a good bear model.

I learned a lot when making this quilt: the importance of sewing a scant 1/4″ seam especially when the block has lots of little pieces; using lots of spray starch (Best Press is my favorite) for easier cutting, sewing, and to make the seams and blocks lay flat; and asking someone to look over my work.

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That last tidbit of learning needs a bit of explaining. I had the quilt all laid out on our pool table (which serves mostly as a design table for me since it’s always covered with fabric—or folded clothes) when our exchange daughter, Kerstin, came to spend Christmas with us. She took one look and in about 30 seconds pointed out my mistake. I had turned a half-square triangle in one of the paws the wrong way. Out came the seam ripper so I could correct that mistake and then I enlisted her help to look for other errors. I was relieved when she didn’t find any more.

I gifted this quilt to my great-nephew (Bonnie’s grandson) at Christmas. It was a surprise for her, too, as I had not told her who was getting it. This little guy’s dad is a hunter. I think he liked it, too.

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: By Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts

Size: 47″ x 53″

Construction: Machine pieced by me.

Fabric: All 100% cotton from the stash, mine as well as some from my mom’s. The blue backing is cotton flannel.

Batting: Quilter’s Dream

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt.

Quilting: Machine quilted by me using my domestic sewing machine stitching horizontal wavy lines. They went much better after I drank a glass of wine.

What I Learned Today:

  1. Don’t wait so long to post about my projects as it takes longer to gather the pictures and remember the details.
  2. Tuesday is coming fast and I’d better finish that I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long block so it’ll be ready for it’s “birth day”. Are you quilting along with us?
  3. The loot posts are going to be rather embarrassing. I haven’t forgotten about them. Other things have needed to be done or written about first.
  4. I miss that old ironing board cover as I’ve replace it already. I can’t remember where I bought that one.

Question: Do you make quilts according to the pattern directions, or do you let creativity take over and change the pattern, or do you prefer to design your own? I make some using the pattern exactly and others I change. I haven’t done much designing yet.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

At this time, I have no affiliation with any of the shops, products, companies, or services that I mention here on Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats.

Linking to:

Blogger’s Quilt Festival at Amy’s Creative Side (Thanks Amy!)

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

Tu-Na Quilts: Entry for Blogger’s Quilt Festival

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I’m taking time off from photographing all the loot from my 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop to enter the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.

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I made this little mini as part of a blog hop in March.

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This mini quilt is 16.5″ square. The lighthouse quilt, between the two saguaros, is only 4 inches square and contains 47 pieces. I quilted sun rays using my domestic sewing machine.

I was even lucky to find some fabric with cacti when I was in Tucson last winter and used it for the back.

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I wanted to show off this quilt one more time because I am pretty pleased about that little mini in the mini.

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This little mini took me longer to make than the bigger mini in which I put this piece. So far, no one has linked any quilts on the Festival this small.

When I read that it was time to enter the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, I thought you might like to see it again and see how I embellished those saguaros.

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I added some tiny flower buttons and two barrel beads that I found at the thrift shop.

You’ll see the simple pattern that I started with, find out more info about this mini including my thoughts behind turning the clothesline posts into Saguaros, and get the links to the patterns on my post here.

If you’d like to see many great quilts on display without leaving your home, please visit Amy’s Creative Side. We’ll be linking up quilts all week so do take some time to see some quilty inspiration.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 16.5″ square

Fabric: The top is pieced with 100% cotton scraps I had on hand. The 100% cotton backing fabric was new but I don’t have the manufacturer info.

Batting: Warm and Natural

Quilted by: Myself using Aurifil thread

Welcome visitors!

If you are stopping by from the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, welcome to my journey where I blog about the things I love to do: quilting, traveling, and eating (cooking and baking actually but that didn’t sound as good in the title). I recently returned from a 10 day trip around Minnesota shopping 66 quilt shops and blogging about it. I hope you’ll check out some of those posts. The post giving you a sneak peak at all the loot I bought is here and contains links to the others which includes a featured shop each day. If you enjoyed what you read, I hope you’ll stop back again. To make it easy, please follow me; you’ll find a number of ways on my sidebar: email, WordPress, Bloglovin and Facebook.

What I Learned Today:

  1. I have a lot of loot to photograph, organize, and find places to store. It’s time to move it out of the guest room.
  2. I miss seeing this little mini. It’s at our other house.
  3. As the weather turns colder, our thoughts about our other house in Arizona increase.

Question: What have you been working on this week? I’m getting caught up with my bee blocks, working on the next block for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long as well as making blocks one and two that I am behind on, and photographing and writing the loot posts. I also want to get a good start on my Art with Fiber project that is due in October. So much to do, so little time.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

 

Linking to:

Quilt Blogger’s Festival at Amy’s Creative Side

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Tu-Na Quilts: I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Block 5 Released Today

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♪ It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go ♪

from my sewing room to the shops I visited today!

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I visited The Quilted Ceiling in Valley City, ND today and found this cute guy. More about that quilt shop in a future post.

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Lots of snowmen greeted me in that quilt shop.

Maybe you can say the same. It’s not too late to start quilting along with us on this merry adventure. Of course, the blocks are a mystery until they’re revealed every other Tuesday.

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Sherry at Powered by Quilting presents our block for today. You can visit her blog here for a free pattern of it.

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She’s included several ways to make this pattern your own.

I had a lot of fun sewing this one. It’s cute and quick and the directions are well-written. Be sure to use a scant 1/4″ seam so you won’t be making your block too small. I find when a block has lots of small pieces, and this one surely has some tiny ones, that one runs the risk of the block ending up being too small because the seam allowance was just slightly too big. Those slightly too big seam allowances can add up and one can find themselves with a block that is smaller than one needs. Yes, that’s experience talking…more than once. I’ve also learned to make sure I cut the pieces accurately.

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I thought I’d show you the lovely back. I guess if I’d known I was really going to use this picture, I’d have given this block a light mist of Best Press (no affiliate) just because I like the way it leaves the block all crisp and neat. Sherry’s pattern gives you directions which way to press the seams. I like that! I don’t like to have to guess because usually I end up having to repress those seams.

I’ll be adding some button eyes, buttons for a mouth, a carrot button nose (I have to find one first—I’ve seen them), and some buttons down his “suit.”

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On our shop hop trip, we found lots of carrot button noses and I even remarked about not being able to find apple buttons but I could buy lots of carrot buttons. Now I wish I had bought at least one. I think I’ll be using 5 small buttons for his mouth. Sometimes, after I see a block in a picture, I can tell how it would look better. I’ll sew them on after the quilt is all quilted so that’s a few months off, yet.

The pattern also includes directions for adding some twiggy arms which I’ll embroider later. If you don’t want to embroider yours, you can make some applique twiggy arms.

Be sure to check out all the handsome snowmen (and maybe some gorgeous snowgals) that will be popping up on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page as well as #iwishyouamerryqal on Instagram. If you are sewing one, be sure to link up at the party found on Powered by Quilting. Prizes are involved for a lucky person.

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The next block will be revealed on Sept. 26th. Can they get any cuter than these?

My block three–Santa’s Belt– see my post here and find the links to get your free pattern for it as well as links to other hosts to see their versions.

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My block four–Ornaments–see my initial post here to find the link to get your free pattern for it as well as links to other hosts to see their versions. You can see my finished block post here.

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I am still working on blocks one and two, so you see, there’s still time for you to join along.

Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block:

Coming soon on Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats:

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of the Listed Loot

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of What Was Added to the List (a.k.a. The Big Splurge)

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of My 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop Fabric and a Bit More About the Designer

Tu-Na Quilts: A Few Words from Tu-Na Helper

Tu-Na Quilts: It’s All Out of the Bag (A Wrap up of the 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop)

Tu-Na Travels: Visiting the Quilted Ceiling in Valley City, ND

What I Learned Today:

  1. My eye is healing nicely according to what my eye doctor said at today’s visit. This is good and bad news. It means that all is going well. But that also means that it’s good enough to schedule the other eye surgery for the end of the month. See this post for more info about that.
  2. I had an inkling that would be the report. This morning when I woke, my green, warning, wrist band fell off on it’s own.
  3. North Dakota has some great quilt shops, too. On our long way home from the doctor, Monday, we stopped at The Quilted Ceiling in Valley City. Lucky for me, and you, the owner was there and I got a lot of interesting tidbits about that shop and some pictures that I will be sharing in a future post.

Question: Do you live in an area that gets snow? Do you play in the snow? A number of years ago, I helped my girl scout troop make snow angels on the lawn of our state capitol building. We held that world record of simultaneous snow angels for a number of years. It was fun to be a part of that record-breaking moment.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

Block 5 Linky Party at Powered by Quilting

Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

 

Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block

Tu-Na Quilts: Block 4 Completed for I Wish You A Merry Quilt-A-Long

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This block was released almost two weeks ago here as part of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long. I finally finished it. If you remember from one of my latter posts here, I had just picked out my fabrics for this block. As what usually happens just before I cut, I changed my mind. So now I give you my completed block.

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This cute pattern is from Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter, link above. It’s not too late to make one and link up at her site for some prizes.

I think it will go nicely with the Santa Belt that I finished.

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The reds are the same fabric even if they look different here.

This was my first attempt at doing a blanket stitch on the machine to applique those ornaments down. I think I did well for my first time.

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It turned out very flat but I see it needs another good pressing.

But I added some stabilizer to the back and away I stitched. It stayed put nicely and didn’t pull in from the sides. I was impressed….until I turned it over.

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I will have lots of picking out to do.

Coming soon:

Tu-Na Quilts: Block 5 Unveiled for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long (Sept. 12th) Block 5 is revealed tomorrow (actually midnight eastern time. I hope you stop back to see mine. It’s a cute pattern and one I’m sure you’ll want to make…several times.

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of the Listed Loot

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of What Was Added to the List (a.k.a. The Big Splurge)

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of My 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop Fabric and a Bit More About the Designer

Tu-Na Quilts: A Few Words from Tu-Na Helper

Tu-Na Quilts: It’s All Out of the Bag (A Wrap up of the 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop)

What I Learned Today:

  1. Think twice before doing a blanket stitch using stabilizer. I had no problem tearing away the stabilizer from the straight stitch side but the other side is awful to remove.
  2. It’s ok to change my mind. I am glad I changed my mind about the fabrics for this block.

Question: Do you stabilize your applique or not? I don’t like how satin stitches on an applique pulls in the fabric but maybe the blanket stitch wouldn’t have done that anyway.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Linky Party for Block 3 at The Inquiring Quilter

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Moving It Forward at Em’s Scrapbag

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Tu-Na Quilts: A Sneak Peak at my Loot from the 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop

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Ahoy, me mateys!

Me be Cap’n Tu-Na. Me be back from our shoppin’ adventure ‘n and now me be protectin’ ‘n stowin’ th’ loot which me captured.

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Don’t get too close or ya be meetin’ up with a fat quarter bomb or a bit of spray. Oh, wait, me has to fill it first.

Shiver me timbers! Me didn’ plan t’ be a pirate again but some thin’s jus’ couldn’t be helped. Me been recuperatin’ from eye surgery that me had scheduled shortly aft we returned from thee 2017 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. While me been away from sewin’ ‘n readin’ n’ ‘ritin’ fer a few weeks, th’ loot has remained on this island in our guest cabin untouched from human hands, ‘cept fer mine fer an occasional pat.

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Me be a banded pirate. Thar green warning band prevents me from flyin’ or goin’ t’ places with high altitude. It says me has a gas bubble in me eye. But it’s gettin’ smaller just like it should and soon it’ll be completely gone. Me don’t has to wear the eye patch all the time, just when me eye gets tired o’ seein’.

Don’t be worried about that eye patch. Thee Eye Doctor has assured me that aft a few months, me be seein’ better than e’er. ‘N then me git t’ do it all over again with th’ other eye. Me can hardly wait. It’s quite a story ‘n me sure me be tellin’ ye more about it once it’s all over. Th’ good thing is that me has been excused from swabbin’ th’ deck around here ‘n cookin’ in th’ galley.  

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In th’ meantime, here’s a sneak peek at th’ booty. Me be aft to reveal just what’s in those bags ‘n how well me followed me list. Yo ho ho!

Coming Soon:

Tu-Na Quilts: Block 4 Completed for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long

Tu-Na Quilts: Block 5 Unveiled for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long (Sept. 12th)

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of the Listed Loot

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of What Was Added to the List (a.k.a. The Big Splurge)

Tu-Na Quilts: The Reveal of My 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop Fabric and a Bit More About the Designer

Tu-Na Quilts: A Few Words from Tu-Na Helper

Tu-Na Quilts: It’s All Out of the Bag (A Wrap up of the 2017 Quilt MN Shop Hop)

What I Learned Today:

  1. Eye sight is very precious.
  2. Good eye sight is so important for sewing/quilting.
  3. Eye patches look so much better on men in movies than women in real life.

Question: So what’s keeping you from working on your sewing/quilting projects?

I’ve enjoyed and appreciated every comment that you’ve left. Thank you so very much. Due to having a bit of difficulty with reading and writing for now, I’ve become quite far behind in responding. I’m hoping to one day get caught up on replying to them.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

See my other posts about the 2017 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop:

Tu-Na Travels: ♪Over Hill. Over Dale. We Will Hit the Dusty Trail. As the Quilt Hop Goes Rolling Along….♪

Tu-Na Travels: Day One, 352 Miles, 11 Shops, Only 55 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Two, 334 miles, 7 Shops, Only 48 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Three, 210 Miles, 4 Shops, 44 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Four, 276 Miles, 9 Shops, Only 35 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Five, 274 Miles, 8 Shops, Only 27 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Six, 243 Miles, 8 Shops, Only 19 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Seven, 259 Miles, 6 Shops, 13 Only Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Eight, 204 Miles, 6 Shops, Only 7 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Nine, 401 Miles, 4 Shops, Only 3 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Travels: Day Ten, 171 Miles, 3 Shops, 0 Shops Remaining

Tu-Na Quilts: Update on Johnny’s Quilt (I interviewed Johnny and his Grandma Sue on Day 6. Check out his progress here.)

All the links to my posts for last year’s Quilt MN Shop Hop can be found at the top of this blog under the Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats title. Click on the Shop Hop tab; in the drop down menu, click on 2016 Quilt MN Shop Hop Posts. You will find pictures and links to each of the posts for that year’s hop. I hope to get this year’s posts put up there soon.

Linking to:

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

 

Tu-Na Quilts: I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Block 4 Released Today

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Welcome to the second block release for today for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long. You can find my version of Block Three, Santa’s Belt, here. I’m just getting started and have some catching up to do so come along and join me as we explore some new patterns and blogs together.

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Block 4 designed by Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter

Jennifer’s titled her block “Christmas Memories.” It’s a gorgeous block of Christmas ornaments and you’ll have to pop over to her blog here to get your free copy.

I thought I’d share a memory about two of our tree ornaments. Many years ago, before we had children, my husband and I lived near Washington D.C. We would be spending our first Christmas by ourselves away from our families. I called and asked my mother-in-law to send a favorite tree ornament that would remind my husband of his home and his childhood Christmas memories.

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This glass ornament is my husband’s favorite from his childhood. He didn’t know it was coming from his mom.

I also talked to my mom and asked her to mail mine. I had the advantage as I knew just which one.

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This multi-faceted ball was made of metal. I’ve since found some plastic types at the dollar store but they are just not the same.

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We celebrated that Christmas by ourselves but we still hang these ornaments on our tree every year.

Now onto Jennifer’s block. Here’s as far as I got.

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I’ve only had time to pick out the fabrics for this block. Stay tuned while I put it together and post it.

Please see Jennifer’s blog here for the free pattern and tutorial so you can make one, too. I’ll be working on mine and as soon as it’s finished I’ll be posting some tips and tricks to putting this one together here on my blog and also on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page. It’s the best I can do for now as we have a printer that won’t work and I’ve been very busy petting some new fabric!

Update: I’ve now completed this block and you can see it here. FYI-I only used two of the fabrics above.

Jennifer is offering a 20% discount off all her patterns (PDF or printed) in her online store beginning August 29th and running through September 30th. You must enter the promo code MERRYQAL20 at checkout to get the discount.

Block 4 Christmas Memories designed by Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter

Be sure and visit our other designers and hosts to see their version of Jennifer’s block, Christmas Memories.

What I Learned Today:

  1. My fake pine trees by my fireplace need dusting.
  2. I need to make a trip to the fabric store to get some transfer photo fabric for another project and also fusible webbing for this applique project. Good grief. I should have been looking for those in the 66 quilt shops that we visited!

Question: Do you have a special ornament that you hang on your Christmas tree? I shared mine above. My sister made the nativity out of a walnut shell. I’ll have to post a picture of that when I have my block made as it’s also a favorite of mine.

Coming Soon:

  • Tu-Na Helper’s Side of the 2017 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop
  • A Look at the Loot that I acquired or purchased on that shop hop

Welcome: I’m glad you stopped by on the quilt-a-long. I hope you’ll be back. If you like what you read and want to make sure you don’t miss any posts, please follow me by subscribing by email, WordPress or Bloglovin.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

Midweek Makers at QuiltFabrication

WIPs at Silly Mama Quilts

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter