My problem hasn’t been recording the videos necessarily, but editing them down so I can upload them to YouTube.

This one was particularly hilarious; I watched in growing horror, then amusement, as I talked for 10 minutes about the wrong die.

Luckily, I was able to salvage enough of me talking about the right die to bring you this 7 minute video, which is a tip for minimizing the waste on a quarter square triangle die.  Although this video is geared toward the Studio, it’s a tip that should work on nearly any die with the angled sides of the triangle facing out, as most quarter square triangles do.  You just have to find the right balance of “extra” fabric, so you can turn what would be waste into perfectly usable shapes.

Get More Triangles from AccuQuilt Studio Quilt Block D

I learned quite a bit myself during this workshop, mostly about room setup, workshop flow, and what to bring (or not).

We were in a beautiful, bright space, and everyone was able to get a table to themselves.  I think this is important for people to have enough room to sew & to lay out their pieces to stitch and experiment.

Both the cutter and my sewing station were positioned at the front of the room.  There was also a screen, projector, and video camera connected so people could see what I was doing without having to crowd around my machine.

With this camera angle, I was able to demonstrate block assembly.  At another point, I had the camera positioned near the presser foot, so people could watch the curved piecing demonstration.

I got some great comments about my technique for curved piecing, and the ladies really got the hang of it after a couple of tries.  They said the biggest contributor to successful curved piecing was to “pay no attention to the piece on top.”  If you haven’t seen my technique, I’ll have some videos posted in a couple of weeks.

I’m quite partial to ladybugs, and this quilter is making her Drunkard’s path quilt completely from ladybug prints.

Another quilter decided to make hers larger, so she cut a LOT of drunkard’s path units.

This quilter decided that she didn’t like her original fabric choices, so she mixed her two blocks together so they each had a little punch!

I love the Drunkard’s path block because it is so versatile.  The ladies had a great time at the workshop and were remarking that we should host the workshop again so that more guild members could take advantage of it.

Robbi and I had a lot to talk about when I visited her house, and when I got back home, I realized that we talked for 40 minutes straight on ONE segment alone. Since I know that’s too much video even for the most patient of viewers, I’ve cut this one into bite-sized segments for your viewing pleasure. This particular video is 6 minutes long, and in it, we talk about dies, mats, storage, and a couple of other cool things, including Robbi’s new die.

Robbi Eklow Talks AccuQuilt Dies Mats and Storage

This is demonstrated on the GO! Baby with the Critters Die, but you could cut this on the GO! or the Studio with any of the applique dies.

Materials:

• one leather or suede elbow patch
• six 6mm plastic crystal beads
• six 3mm plastic crystal beads
• ~12″ of 12 gauge wire
• one 3/4″ button
• one hair elastic
• wire cutters
• awl (or other sharp, pointy object)
• needle-nose or jewelry pliers

You can usually get the elbow patches at local craft or general stores.  I do have some extra materials, so if you want to win a kit, just leave a comment below!  I have about 4 kits available (leather not included), and one lucky winner will get one of the leather butterflies I already made.

GO! Leather Butterfly

Marking GO! Dies with Robbi Eklow

Robbi Eklow Opens Her GO!

I also wanted to pause and let everyone know why I haven’t been posting here in a little while We are now just days away from a complete overhaul of the website, and I was trying not to make too many changes to this one before the cut-over.  Of course, I didn’t imagine that this would take so long, but we actually had to start completely over right in the middle of the changes. It’s been a long road, but I’m really excited for you to see the new site.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the wonderful quilt tops from the people who finished them, well let me show them to you now. They are simply amazing!

To refresh your memory, this is the original quilt.

This one is from Micki - so bright and colorful and lovely! This quilt just looks like a party waiting to happen, and I want to go!

This is Norma's - quilted and bound! I absolutely love this color scheme. Very dramatic, and not something I would have come up with myself.

This is Nancy's - also quilted and bound! This is actually a good lesson to me, as I warned Nancy not to use directional prints and and one color family, but consider me awestruck. It's beautiful.

This is Jeanne's! She stuck to the color chart, but I love some of the whimsical little touches she put in to make it her own.

So there were four people who finished their quilt tops in time to be eligible for prizes, so instead of only awarding 3 prizes, I’ll go ahead and do four. I think they all deserve prizes anyway because they have been hanging in there since February – certainly one of the longest quilts alongs I’ve ever seen!

I’m going to let Random.org pick our winner here, so let’s give them numbers first.

1. Micki

2. Norma

3. Nancy

4. Jeanne

And the winner is….

NORMA!!!!

Congratulations, Norma – you get the Studio die of your choice (up to $100)! Make sure you leave a comment so I can grab your email address and contact you for prizes. Prizes for the other three of you will be a copy of my Knot So Fast 1 pattern, so please also leave a comment and I’ll be in touch for mailing instructions.

Maybe it was the universe’s way of saying, “You write too much” but I really wish the universe would have more respect for my time.  So I apologize if this third attempt isn’t as lighthearted and chipper as the first two posts were.  I am working against a serious deadline and I cannot afford to spend another three hours writing the same post again.  So let’s begin, shall we?

This is the finished quilt:

What follows is mostly a pictorial of how to stitch the blocks together.  I figure if you’ve gotten this far, you don’t really need me to show you pictures of putting blocks RST and telling you to stitch with a 1/4″ seam.  We’ll be stitching blocks into several groupings of sub-assemblies, and at the end, we’ll assemble these into the final quilt using a set-in seam.  Because of the set-in seam, there aren’t really “rows” per se, but I think if you just refer back to the original drawing you’ll see what we’re doing.

Sub-assembly 1

Block 2- Baseball (color on inside), Block 8- Triangle in a Square. Use two Color 4 and one Color 6, arranged as shown.

Subunit from previous step, Block 8- Triangle in a Square. Use two Color 4 and two Color 6, arranged as shown.

Subunit from previous step, one Block 5a- Half Seminole

Block 3b- Cross 2, subunit from previous step.

Block 4a- Modified Whirlpool, one Block 5a- Half Seminole, and Block 9- Doris' Half Seminole, arranged as shown.

Take the subunits from the two previous steps and stitch them together as shown.

Four Block 10- Winding Ways, one Block 7a- Wild Goose Chase. Not the direction of Block 7a.

Take the subunits from the two previous steps and stitch them together as shown.

Sub-assembly 2

Two Block 5a- Half Seminole, three Block 7a - Wild Goose Chase

Block 4b- Dutchman's Puzzle, Block 5b- Twirling Chisels, three Block 7a- Wild Goose Chase

Take the subunits from the two previous steps and stitch them together as shown.

Sub-assembly 3

Block 6a- Rob Peter to Pay Paul (square it up to 21-1/2"), Block 8- Triangle in a Square. Use three Color 3 and four Color 2, arranged as shown.

Block 7b- Nine Patch, subunit from the previous step.

Block 2- Baseball (color on outside), Block 8-Triangle in a Square (use three Color 4 and three Color 6), Block 9- Doris' Delight

Take the subunits from the two previous steps and stitch them together as shown.

Block 3a- Broken Sash Strip 2, Block 6b- Hourglass. You need all units from both blocks for this subunit. Note the placement of the half-Block 3a.

Take the subunits from the two previous steps and stitch them together as shown.

Sub-assembly 4

Block 1- Five Spot, Block 8- Triangle in a Square. At this point, you'll be using all of the remaining Block 8 units; three of each Color 3 and Color 2 on the sides, and four of each Color 3 and Color 2 at the top and bottom.

I found it easier to stitch the Block 8 units together to form strips.

First attach the side strips, then the top and bottom strips.

At this point, you should have four larger sub-assemblies, and one loose Block 5a- Half Seminole. When laid out, you can see there is a gap next to the Five Spot sub-assembly. You will need to fill this gap with something that measures 4-1/2" x 24-1/2" unfinished. I chose to just do four-patch units out of red and neutral fabric.

Here is my Five Spot unit with my four-patch units. These started out as 2-1/2" strips. You can do whatever you want here; the original drawing shows a plain strip, but you can add anything as long as the unfinished measurement is 4-1/2" x 24-1/2".

Now we can stitch this puppy together!  The set-in seam revolves around that loose Half Seminole block, so let’s start there.

Take the loose Half-Seminole with Sub-assembly 1 (the one with the Winding Ways blocks.)

With RST, lay the Half Seminole block on top of Sub-assembly 1. You are only going to stitch a little more than halfway across, so stop sewing where you see the two purple flower pins. This will give you plenty of room to maneuver the rest of the quilt as it gets assembled.

Press the Half Seminole block away from Sub-assembly 1. Be careful not to press the part of the seam that is not stitched - notice the loose flap!

Now take Sub-assembly 2 and stitch it to the left of the units you stitched in the previous step.

Next, Sub-assembly 4 gets stitched at the top of the other pieced assemblies.

Sub-assembly 3 gets stitched to the right of Sub-assembly 4. So pin it with RST and stitch, matching seams where possible.

Final seam! With those units together, you can now complete the final seam from where you left off on the loose Half-Seminole, all the way to the right edge of the quilt top. Congratulations on completing a set-in seam!

And here is a photo of the completed quilt top!  That was a lot of work, and a lot of fun to stitch.  This was quite an adventure, wasn’t it?

When you finish your quilt top, please post it in the Flickr group! Because of the delay in getting the quilt top instructions posted, I’m extending the deadline for finished quilt tops to August 25th at midnight CDT.  That gives you an entire month to catch up if you are behind, and get your quilt top assembled to be eligible for prizes.  It actually goes together fairly easily once you know where everything goes. 

BTDF is a monthly publication featuring cutting charts for contemporary and traditional blocks, especially for Studio and GO! owners.

You can read more about it here and download the first issue for free.

Thanks everyone for your support, I’m so excited to finally be able to reveal this little venture of mine!

This video is packed with tips to show you how to get great cuts out of your tote bag die, especially now that it has been updated to the correct measurements.

I have a couple of other new videos planned, including how to make a wider, taller tote and how to install a zipper to close the top.  What other videos would you like to see?

AccuQuilt Studio Tote Bag Die