Design Wall Tuesday – Patriotic Pattern

Welcome to Design Wall Tuesday!

Finding time to sew during the summer can be a challenge, but several of us found some sewing time—whether at home or on a weekend trip. Read on to see what the staff of McCall’s Quilting and Quiltmaker has been up to:

From Content Director, Carolyn Beam:

Hello – once again it was a busy sewing weekend for me. I got the last of my magazine projects finished (the top anyway), and I’m actually going to work on cleaning up my sewing room. I find that when I’m in the middle of a project, or several projects as has been the case lately, that I tend to let the mess go. With a little break between projects, it’s time to clean up.

Here’s a sneak peak of the project I’ve been working on for Quick Quilts Dec/Jan issue using Eat, Drink and Be Ugly designed by Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics (click on the image to the left for a larger view).

I saw a cute patriotic pillow on Moda Fabric’s Cutting Table blog designed by Carrie Nelson. I fell in love with it and made one to set on my church pew in my foyer (click on the image to the left for a larger view). It has gotten rave reviews.

And, finally, I showed the Leaders & Enders project I’ve been working on. If you’re not familiar with Leaders & Enders, it’s the term Bonnie Hunter coined for the fabrics stitched together at the beginning and ending of a chain of stitching. I’m making a project using charm squares. With all my other sewing this weekend, I was able to make all my charm square blocks using four packages of charm squares – two from each of Uppercase and Uppercase Vol. 2  by Janine Vangool for Windham Fabrics. I love working on two projects at the same time!

I laid out some of these blocks trying to decide how I’m going to set them together. I think I’m going to sash them in white and add a cornerstone. What do you think?

These blocks are really easy. I cut the 5″ charm squares in half diagonally, sewed a 1 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ rectangle of solid white between the two halves and then trimmed them to  5 1/4″ square.

From Administrative Editor, Deb McDonald:

My husband and I went camping/glamping for the long holiday weekend. I always bring a couple books, my sewing machine and plenty of projects. One of my favorite places to sew is at the picnic table outside of our 5th wheel. This year we had a beautiful view of Longs Peak from our site.

I was able to finish a quilt top you will see in an upcoming issue of McCall’s Quick Quilts, a pair of flannel pillow cases featuring scottie dogs, work on a color option for a future Quiltmaker project and a block for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 16.

Why can’t we have a long weekend every weekend?

From Acquisitions Editor, Lori Baker:

It took me four tries to get the seams matched when I added the pale green and bright orange unit. With tiny pieces it’s a little harder to be accurate and the way I pressed the seams they don’t nest. But I finally got them. They match very nicely. But I looked at my drawing again and the colors are wrong. I was supposed to use pale yellow fabric for the background not pale green. I’m going back to the sewing machine to see if I can get it right.

From Associate Editor, Mary Kate Karr-Petras:

I’m a little behind in sharing this owing to my vacation last month, but here’s the completed pillow sham I made inspired by Candy Hargrove’s Homeland pattern, which we included in our June/July 2017 issue. The triangle-squares finish at 1-1/2″, resulting in a 15″ block to which I added narrow borders to fit my 16″ pillow form. I really like how these bright reds, whites and blues help celebrate summer holidays—next year I’ll bring it out at Memorial Day and and use it well into July.

From Managing Editor, Tricia Patterson:

​My granddaughters Morgan and Lily were with us in Colorado last week. We had so much fun together. Morgan, our 12-year old, decided she wanted to learn to quilt during this trip. So we quilted! Lily, age 8, designed her quilt on graph paper. I cut the patches out for her from the fabric she chose and she sewed them all together with a small beginner sewing machine. Morgan started the draft of her design on paper and then switched to Electric Quilt to identify her color placement. She selected her fabric and learned to use the design wall while auditioning fabric placement and to keep track while she sewed the patches together. I’m so impressed with these gals! Morgan has used a sewing machine before; it was Lily’s fist time. Their designs were perfect for their skill level and the time we had together. Lily finished her 60″ x 82″ quilt top of large 12″ patches and Morgan came very close to finishing her 82″ x 82″ quilt top, all sewn together except for the top and bottom border. We chose quilting designs for me to take to the quilter this week. On our way to the airport we talked about the quilts we will make during their summer visit next year. Yes!

Morgan

Lily

It’s always fun to see the different things each of us is working on during the weekends—from sewing with grandchildren to holiday projects to quilting while camping. What are your summer projects? We’d love to hear from you! Until next time, happy quilting!