New Piecing Tips Video Is Live!

Precision Pathways Block, McCall's Quilting Jan/Feb 2014

The Block Builders Workshop video I taped awhile back with tips for precision piecing is now live at McCallsQuilting.com. Click here to watch! It's seven and a half minutes of totally FREE tips and techniques. Enjoy!

Breaking in the New Sewing Space

I finally got to sew in my new space, and it worked amazingly well. I definitely need a larger cutting space, but other than that, everything was very efficient and comfortable. And here's what I worked on this weekend:

This design will be for a McCall's Quilting Block Builders Workshop on partial seam construction.

And I'm pretty sure this will be for a Block Builders Workshop on string piecing on a foundation. This was made with random string piecing on a quarter-arc. Four arcs were sewn together, and then raw-edge circle was appliqued to the white square with machine buttonhole stitch. What a fun way to use up strippy scraps!

I also got a lot of hand quilting done on the mini Bonham Beauty this weekend. It's nearly done...photo to come!

New Block Builders Workshop

Time to start making samples for the next two Block Builders Workshop patterns and videos. I'm thinking partial seam construction tips for one of them, and string piecing for the other. We try to do 12" blocks for all these patterns, so this star would include 8 string-pieced squares that each finish 3" square. Could use up a lot of strippy scraps making a few of those babies! Sample making this weekend in my new sewing space...yeah!

New How-To Video Today

A video I made awhile back about cutting trapezoid shapes from fabric using a template taped to a ruler just went live on YouTube today. Hope you'll take a look...I'm pretty proud of this one (except for the missed cut with the rotary cutter...oops!). The technique is for the Block Builders Workshop Mosaic Treasures block from the November/December 2013 issue of McCall's Quilting, and fabrics are by Gerri Robinson for Red Rooster Fabrics. It's a fun block with a nice secondary pattern when set together. Click on the triangle on the video window to start watching, and enjoy!

Precise Piecing ROCKS!

Scheduled for McCall's Quilting January/February 2014 Block Builders Workshop; fabrics from the Prayer Flag collection by April Cornell, courtesy of Moda

What you're looking at there is a block that has 160 patches in it, that measures 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" WITHOUT ANY TRIMMING! Precision techniques take a long time, I'm not going to kid you, but the result was amazing. Look at those points, folks!

I need a break, and then I have to get step by step samples ready for video taping on Tuesday. Miles to go, miles to go...

Building a Block

I need to design a block for the Block Builders Workshop page of the Jan/Feb 2014 issue of McCall's Quilting. It needs to include half-square triangle units, square-in-a-square units, and pinwheels, since the lesson will be piecing tips using half-square triangles. I started playing in EQ and came up with this possible block:

But I wanted to be sure it was a good block for placing in a straight setting. What do you think of this?

Nice stars pop out, and I'm liking the strong diagonals. It's a work in progress, but it needs to be done ASAP!