And the winner is..........

I am pleased to announce that the winner picked by the Random number generator is 67
Muddling Through and her comment was: How sweet of you and Vicki. I would like the neutral pack if my number is chosen.  Elaine, send me your snail mail address and I'll forward it to Vicki. 
Just a reminder, Vicki has offered free shipping on domestic US orders over $40 of her hand dyed fabric and the coupon code is WANDAFUL. International customers can add the code to the comments and she will refund $5 to their order. It expires on the 18th of May.

My friend (and also quilting teacher) Sarah tested out my directions for the Boston Commons quilt yesterday by making a tablerunner approximately 13" x 32" and a smaller piece about placemat size.   She said she used 6 fat quarters so it took 2 strips to equal one of 44".  She cut four 2" strips from each fat quarter.   If you wanted to make 2 long tablerunners you could cut 5-6 strips from each fabric.  Thanks Sarah for testing it right away.  She found a couple minor changes that I will make to the tutorial, just additional hints, not anything that changes the assembly directions.  If you downloaded the PDF yesterday you may want to delete it and download the new version I updated this morning.  The changes are on pages 3 and 4 so if you already printed it, you only need to print those pages again.

Tutorial

Two for one: Grandmother’s Dream and Boston Commons

Fabrics:  Any number of fabrics will work, odd or even number.  If using 3” strips, 15 fabrics will make a 50” wide quilt, 20 fabrics will make a 68” wide quilt, 23 fabrics will make a 78” wide quilt.  Each square is about 3.4” on the diagonal so you can do an approximate estimate for any number of fabrics.

Two color families work well in this set of quilts.  Then you can easily figure out which quilt the created quarters go to.

Choose your fabrics in a run from light to dark.  The light of the 2 colors of fabric will meet at the center of the strata.  For example, dark green to light green meeting light blue and proceeding to dark blue. 

Pressing: every strata must be pressed identically. Seams will be pressed one up, one down throughout the strata.  This means if you press the seam toward fabric 1 on the first strata it must be pressed the same on every strata. This eliminates the confusion in directions that call for half of the stratas pressed up and half of the stratas pressed down and continually deciding which pile of slices to choose from.

Sewing:  Straight seams are SO important.  Sew at the speed that produces straight seams, no faster.  Use a 2.0 seam length because the strata will be cut through many times.  This will prevent stitches popping out at the ends.

Stratas will be left flat, NOT JOINED INTO A TUBE like some other trip around the world techniques.

If you want to make a small sample I would suggest two 2” strips of 9 fabrics to make one of each of the styles of quilts. These will be doll quilt size or table topper size.

For larger quilts I would suggest 3” strips.

For quilts approximately 50” wide (15 fabrics) I sewed 5 stratas of 3” strips.  For a quilt approximately 68” (20 fabrics) wide you will need at least 6 stratas, 7 if you want to elongate it further.  For a quilt approximately 78” wide (23 fabrics) you will need at least 7 stratas, possibly 8 depending on the length you need.  If you are making both quilts rectangular (Boston Commons) you will need to add at least another half or whole strata for the elongating rows.

Decide what size you are making, choose fabric and cut strips.  You may want to make a color card with the fabrics numbered for reference as you are sewing.

Sew the required number of stratas for the size you are making.  Press the seams one up, one down, the same way in every strata.

Cut the stratas into strips (slices).  For small stratas place the first strata down along a line on your mat, place the second strata on top, moving it down one line, add a third strata, again moving it down one line.  Trim the left edge so it is straight along a line on the mat and then cut slices (the same width as your original strips to make the strata).  You should be able to get 14 three inch slices out of batiks, maybe only 12-13 out of regular quilting cottons that have been prewashed.  Here is a photo of staggering the stratas from another quilt I was making.

I have left the right edge peeled back so you can see the layers.  In this case I was cutting segments for 4 patches but the technique is the same no matter how many strips are in the strata.  Larger stratas may need to be folded in half to be shorter than your ruler and then cut 1-2 stratas at a time.

Unpicking comes next.  The first strip is left full length, the rest of the strips have a part picked off which then becomes part of a quarter for the other quilt.  You will need a large table for this.

Choose the color to be the center of the left hand section and the first strip will be a whole strip.  The second strip will have the first center color picked off and placed to the right for another quarter.  The third strip will have a section of 2 center colors picked off and placed to the right in the other quarter.  The fourth strip will have a section of 3 center colors picked off and placed to the right in the other quarter.  You will continue like this until you have just one piece in the left quarter and the rest of the strip in the right quarter.  The left quarter is for one quilt the right quarter for the other quilt.  Below are photos of pieces for all 4 quarters of both quilts.  Notice 2 quarters are one strip shorter than the other 2 quarters.  Photos below.

 

 
 

You need to unpick 2 identical groups of each quarter. (8 quarters total, 4 for each quilt).  Photo below.

 

You can stack each quarter and clip or pin them together to take to the sewing machine.  Four quarters will have one color at the center; the other four quarters will have the other color at the center.

Next you will sew the quarters.  If you are making the Grandmother’s Dream (square quilt) one quarter will be smaller than the other 3.  Notice the top quarter is the largest with the center square in it.  The 2 side quarters are identical and the bottom quarter is 2 strips smaller than the top quarter (you will not sew the 2 longest strips into that bottom quarter).

 

 

If you are making the Boston Commons version, there are 2 identical quarters top and bottom and 2 identical quarters on the 2 sides.  This gives it 2 center squares and each elongating strip (one full strip and one strip with the center square picked off) adds more center squares.  You can add as many elongating rows  as you wish to achieve the length of quilt that you want.

 

(Yes I know that a square is missing off the bottom corner.  I will fix that.)

Below are 2 others so you can see how other colors look in these quilts.

If you want the easy to print PDF version go to this post.

Tutorial for Two for One, Grandmother's Dream and Boston Commons

PDF for Two for One method for Grandmother's Dream and Boston Commons

 

Boston Commons

Grandmother's Dream

Frustrated...........

The day started out OK, talking with friends at our twice monthly sewing session.  I took my yo-yo makers along again and made 15 new ones.  NO plan in mind, just busy work.

Last night I spent over 2 hours trying to put my Boston Commons tutorial in my blog.  I used to be able to copy a Word document and paste it into my post.  With the new version of Word, none of the photos are there.  That means I will have to put in each photo and resize it all over again.  I tried Windows Live Writer, same thing, no photos.  I can't figure out any way to attach a PDF file to my blog either.  It makes me wish I didn't create it in Word.  Can anyone help me?  I don't know a thing about HTML so I can't do it that way.

My other frustration, more commenters that are NO REPLY.
I hate to tell all of you that are using Google + that you are NO REPLY.  Also a bunch more of you have a Blogger accounts but you have not checked the box by Show my Email, and then scroll down and SAVE.  Why am I telling you this?  Because you are signing up for giveaways on lots of blogs and you will never have a chance of winning because you can't be contacted.  I feel bad about this.  I want you to have a chance.  Seven more NO REPLY people today with no email in their comment.  Giveaway ends tonight at 10 p.m CST.  See post from 2 days ago if you haven't entered.

Triangles again......

I sewed another pile of triangle squares last night.  I was so sore from digging and mowing that I had to do some low key sewing.  I dug out all of my tall tiger lilies and replanted one bunch in the original spot and planted 8 of them in the back garden.  I have another 8-10 that I will put in pots today.  I dug/pulled a bunch more volunteer tree sprouts.  My battery powered mower stopped working half way through the front yard so I hope my neighbor will finish mowing for me.    I tried to finish up with my push mower (no motor) but the grass was too long and it kept jamming.

I took this photo Tuesday with the sunlight shining on the Indigo Bunting's feathers.  It totally changed the color of blue.  I think they have continued on their migration since I didn't see any yesterday.

Now, for yesterday's post for the giveaway: 22 of the 112 commenters by 11 p.m. last night are no reply and did not put their email address in their comment.  That makes the other 90 people very happy because there are better odds of their winning.  It makes me unhappy however because I think some do not know they have no way to be contacted when they are a no reply.  I'm going to list all of them here and give them another chance to comment on this post with an email address (or fix their settings so they aren't a no reply).  Here they are in sequence from morning to evening: Joan, Stoney, Joyce, Rebecca Wilson, Lola-Sue, Jane, ran, Elaine Swatniki, Ellen White, Phyllis, witje, Rachel, Jody, Linda Schiffer, Liz, Margaret Griffiths, Judi, Sukie0111, Lisa Shenk, Anonymous-Valerie, Karen Pryce, Ann.

You either have a Google account but haven't put a check in the box that says Show my Email Address, or you have a Google+ which has no way to contact you or you are truly anonymous.

Again as I said yesterday, in your email address use the word at instead of the symbol and the word dot instead of a period for security reasons.

Sashing fabric, hand dyed fabric giveaway............

The sashing fabric for my Stepping Stones quilt is a custom hand dyed fabric by Vicki Welsh.  I have her gray to black gradation and described the area that I thought would work and it came out perfect.  Grouting in stepping stones wouldn't be jet black, it would be softer like a charcoal so that is what I wanted.  I hope you can see the mottled look.  It really is hard to photograph it. 

I got a few strips sewn in last night and it is perfect.  The top right block has both strips sewn in.  In this quilt I used batiks, Kaffe Fassett prints and hand dyed fabric.  They all work well together.

My other project with the triangles has hand dyes left over from the Streak of Lightning zig zag quilt that I made last year along with Kaffe fabric, and maybe I'll add the black and white prints.

I might do alternate blocks.  This is a Brandon Mably fabric. 

Maybe I'll use the umbrella fabric.  I like busy quilts........the hand dyes look great with the Kaffe prints.  They are from Vicki's Stash Packs where you get a great variety.

Now for the giveaway: I don't like long drawn out productions so the drawing will be closed 10 p.m. Central Standard time on Friday May 10 so I can announce the winner Saturday morning May 11.  If you are a no reply commenter include your email in your comment using the word 'at' instead of the symbol and the word 'dot' instead of a period for safety reasons.  I probably won't reply to any comments.  The giveaway...

 

Vicki has generously offered a Stash Pack AND a 2.5 yard pack of black Mistyfuse to one of my readers.  Good luck!  I will use the Random Number Generator to pick the winner.Giveaway closed!!

 

If you decide to purchase some fabric while you are there she is offering free shipping on domestic US orders over $40 and the coupon code is WANDAFUL. International customers can add the code to the comments and she will refund $5 to their order. It expires on the 18th of May.

Computer work, volunteer mini trees, flowers.........

I spent over 3 hours yesterday morning working on my tutorial for the Grandmother's Dream/Boston Commons quilts.  Now I have to reread it several times to be sure I have everything right and I will post it sometime this week.  My sashing fabric for the Stepping Stones quilt came today but I had some outside work that needed to be done instead of cutting.  My front flower bed had about 20 volunteer mini trees in it and I had to dig them out.  I also got rid of some Goldenrod and Asters while I was at it.  There is more work to be done but my short attention span had me moving on to something else.  Or maybe I should admit that I'm out of shape and couldn't bend over one more time.

The last cactus bud has finally opened.  Pretty soon it will be time to set the plants outside for the summer.  Since I have so many they take turns out there.

I just needed some mindless sewing last night while I watched Castle so I sewed sets of triangles together.

Here is another view of my tulip bouquet.  They are so pretty.