BluePip Designs

July is coming to a smokey end thanks to a drought and Canadian wildfires, and I've spent most of the month on my computer , working on the Chalk Stars pattern release (Monday!) and tutorials to support it.  I've also biked over 250 miles!  Because of all that, I didn't spent very much time piecing quilts, but I did quilt two of them and bind four (the two I quilted, plus two that were finished last month ).  What a successful, fun month! Quilt Tally WIP List at beginning of month: 16 WIP List at end of month: 12 Untouched in 2021: 5 Active QAL Projects: 1 Kid Projects: 2 Quilts Finished Sparrow Party (March 2021) Scrappy Diamonds (April 2021) - Blog post coming soon! Garden Stars (May 2021) - Pattern Release on Monday! Trinket Remix (June 2021) Quilts Started None - thrilled to see that WIP count go down so much this month! Quilt Progress (4 WIPs touched) Summer Sampler 2019 - Are you surprised I came back to this?  I am!  But when ins

There are lots of different ways to back a quilt, and I'm pretty sure I've experimented with most of them. Today I'm taking a look at some of the different ways that I personally have backed a quilt. Single Fabric Single fabric quilt backs are the holy grail of quilting - there's no prep work and it's ready to go as soon as your quilt top is finished.  This is the reason that all my baby quilts are 38-40" wide - I can squeak it out with a single piece of fabric as long as I'm quilting it myself (long-arm quilters do require more overhang so their machines can grab it).   Blueberry Jam I don't normally take a full picture of these because it's not really that interesting - you can see all the fabric repeats in this subsection! But big quilts aren't left out of this category either - the selection of wideback fabrics, which are typically 90" wide, is bigger every time I look!  My favorite place to sh

The Sparrows are having a party!  They started off in my stash, extras from projects finished or never started, and finished up by throwing an outdoor party! I made this quilt as part of a  quilt-along hosted by Pen+Paper Patterns back in April and May.  I finished on schedule, but once it was done the poor top just sat and sat.  The birds patiently waited while I finished up my secret sewing projects, and they were first in line for finishing once those were done. Lindsey's pattern called for neat, orderly rows of birds, but I felt like that was too much pressure to make all the birds exactly identical.  So I decided that doing the same number of rows, but with only three birds per row, randomly spaced, would be more fun. The quilt-along also included a bonus mini paper-pieced bird block, which of course I had to make.  He didn't quite fit in on the top, but he looks great on the back of the quilt.  The numbers print is quite old - I bought it about five years ago to back a

I'm on a mission to make everyone love sewing curves, also known as drunkard's path blocks, as much as I do.  And to celebrate the stand-alone pattern release of  Chalk Stars , I'm sharing my pin-free method for sewing them. Templates and Cutting There's no way around template cutting when you are sewing curves.  The pattern includes paper templates you can use to make sturdy cardboard versions.  Cut out the templates, then glue or trace them on a piece of cardboard (I used a cereal box).  The extra thickness makes it easier to go around the curved edge with your rotary cutter. Speaking of rotary cutting, besides the obvious "use a sharp blade when cutting," a smaller size blade is invaluable for smooth, clean cuts!  I have four different-sized rotary cutters in my sewing room and I always use the 18mm one when cutting curves.  The smaller size glides around the curved template pieces.

It's July!  I told myself at the beginning of the month that this was going to be more of "computer" month than a sewing month, and sitting down to take a look back at the year so far fits that theme perfectly! Summer Scrap Progress The one sewing project I am making time for almost daily is my  Summer Scrap project , which is literally just adding one scrappy plus each day.  It's a little breath of pleasure sewing.  And yes, some days I add two and some days I don't add any, but it's exactly what I need right now!  I'm mainly working on the final draft and supporting tutorials of my stand-alone Chalk Stars pattern, so it's nice to have some mindless-but-satisfying sewing going on at the same time. Forgotten Fat Quarter - A finished 2019 WIP I'm very happy with the front end of my year: I started 14 quilts.  Nine of them are completely finished, but three of them are unblogged because they are on a scheduled release.  Fi