Disappearing 4 Patch Quilt

When I came home from England I was in desperate need of a creative outlet and my best friend was engaged! Since I had lots of time on my hands I decided to make her a quilt. As I began to think of all the designs I could do I started with simple large squares of fabric but then like most projects It got more and more complex. Until I decided to do a disappearing 4 patch with dresden plate flowers. Both of these techniques were brand new to me. I started by picking out my main fabrics navy blue and white/grey. I pretty much pulled all of these colors off the shelves of Joann's and had them laid out on the counter figuring out what was going to work. After I washed and ironed all my fabric it was time to cut them into 5in squares. 326 squares cut in 4 days! Phew now I can start sewing. I then sewed them into a 4 patch of 2 of the same blue and white. 70 blocks later it was time to cut them all again!

Hansel is the best sewing partner along with my Yorkshire Tea! I cut each block 1.25 in off each seam. Then I rotated the cut pieces around so that the pattern went 

white square, blue strip, white strip, blue square.  I used this tutorial. And then I sewed them all back up. This took a long time. Something really important that I forgot to do was to iron my seams so that it was easier to sew the blocks together. I dont think you can do it so they lock but it might work better if you ironed them open instead of off to one side. When I squared up my blocks they 7.75 in. I then needed to take a break from all the gray and blue because they were driving me crazy. I move over to figure out how to make my flowers using the dresden plate design. I made a stencil that 1 in on the bottom, 6 in tall, and 3 in centered at the top. I used that stencil to cut out 5 different yellow fabrics. Once I had stacks of trapeziums I sewed the 3 in edge right sides together. You then flip the seam inside out so you get a triangle at the top and iron so it holds its shape making sure the seam is pressed open.  

I used this tutorial. Now you have lots of petals.  You can then lay them out in a circle and it becomes a flower! Just sew them together with the normal 1/4 in seam and press open. I did off to one side but I think open would have been better. 

I got my center fabric and cut out a larger circle than I needed and ironed it around a cardboard cut out of my desired circle size. Once your center fabric will hold the circle shape had stitch it on to your flower. And you are done! These were so easy and fun to make. I cant wait to do lots of them! It would also be a great scrap buster. 

Back to my blocks now. Before I could sew them together I had to lay them out to get the right pattern and to make sure the same fabrics were not touching. This was the hardest part. When I had the design I liked I started sewing the blocks together into strips. Then the strips together to get my final quilt top. I was so frustrated with it at this point because I  could only see my mistakes and all the places my corners didn't mach up. I had to put it away for a few weeks until I was ready to put the border on it. I got this great dark blue with a bit of texture in it. I folded it along the long side and cut 5 inches wide for the border. This worked so well for getting straight long pieces of fabric! Once the border was on it changed the whole look of the quilt and I could finally see it coming together. It helped your eye see the blue and grey pattern rather than the individual fabrics and mistakes. I began liking the quilt again. 

Because it was so big my back piece of flannel had to be 2 separate pieces sewn together. Instead of having a seam I used a piece of the blue border and a flower. I loved the modern look it had and the flannel was so soft. 

I machine sewed the flowers on going right along the edge of each petal.  

I could see then end now and wanted to finish it so bad. It was time to baste and pin it. I used a spray adhesive baster and then pined it in place. Now that it was together I decided to quilt it by going 1/4 in off the main seams on either side. I went right over the flowers and they wrinkled a bit but not too bad. Next time I would have chalked the line I needed to follow. This quilting was a great idea. It looked so good on the top and very clean on the back. 

Once the quilting was done I had left 2 inches of over lap of my flannel back so I could try a new way of binding it. I folded the extra 2 inches over in half right along the quilt and the over on top of the quilt. At the corners I folded it up before folding it over. My corners were perfect! I just did a 1/4 in seam along the edge of the flannel binding all the way around. Then to finish it off I hand stitched the corners closed. It was finished!!! I am so proud of it, it looks so good! This is the largest most complicated quilt I have done so far. I now have more confidence to tackle bigger projects. I gave it to Kim a little late for her wedding but she and her husband Brandon loved it so much! It is big enough for two to cuddle under it or to put on a twin bed. 

Until my next quilting adventure...

My Favorite City! YORK!

York is absolutely my favorite city in all of the UK perhaps the World! I love the charm and feel of York. It is a very old quaint town that is full of history and culture while maintaining its northern English roots. Mom and I got to spend 3 days there over Christmas then we took Drew and Dana back there a few days later because we loved it so much. At school we had the opportunity to go for a day and I jumped on it! It was so fun with my family but equally fun and different with my friends. Our first views of York was the amazing towers of The Minster. The bells were chiming while were there and filled the whole city with their loud scales of notes. We explored the walls around the city and got amazing views of The Minster. Then we had tea in this adorable cafe called Vanilla Tea. It was the exactly what you would think of for a cute English tea house. After that we explored the shops, the chocolate factory, and the Shambles. Which is a really cool street that has a Diagon Alley feel to it. All of the shops are small locally owned and have lots of locally hand crafted items. It is so fun to explore with wonder in all the shop windows while holding amazing dark hot chocolate. My favorite moment of the day was breaking off on my own and sitting in the park behind The Minster on a very comfortable wooden bench gazing at this huge beautiful place of worship of my God! In that moment I felt Peace and so close to Jesus. At the end of the day we were all tired from walking we made it back to the buss and got to expierence one of the brightest most colorful sunsets I have seen in a long time. For me York is always worth the trip!

(Me in front of The Minster)

( Me in the adorable Tea shop with little flags and tulips by the window)

(My crazy group of friends front to back, Kayla, Franzi, Lene, Anna, Elle, and not pictured were Shaun, Aundrea, and Melissa)

(Perfect English Yorkshire Tea in a china tea cup)

(A cute 1,000 year old church we stumbled upon) 

(The Shambles!)

(Me with my dark hot chocolate in the Shambles) 

(My favorite street because of the shops)

(Me and a few of the girls walking on the Roman walls that surround the city)

(Pretty views of York Minster from the walls)

(More views of York Minster)

(Kayla and I in front of York Minster)

(Me in my favorite spot in York)

(My favorite spot in the park behind the Minster looking at the side with he flying buttresses and the big tower in the middle) 

(The magnificent sun set behind the silhouette of York Minster) 

1st Camping Trip of the Summer

The weekend of Mothers Day Mom and I decided to take our first camping trip of the summer! Where else would we go for a fun, relaxing, beautiful weekend than our favorite little spot we found at Monterey Bay, CA. The weather was amazing! It was sunny and warm…well it was also SUPER windy when we got there and most of the nights. But it was still awesome! Gotham also came… he really likes eating the ground so he hung out in his crate a lot. We spent our day exploring the town a little more than we did last time. We went and looked at the light house and walked along the cliffs overlooking the ocean in hopes of seeing a whale. No luck this time.

 

We went down to the water to look at the tide pools and there was this really cool big rusty pipe that stretched out towards the ocean. The 3 of us followed it as far as we could. At one point it went over a big tide pool and you defiantly didn’t want to fall off or you would get very wet. With Gotham in toe we went across watching our footing the whole way. At the very end the little man falls off and I had to pull him up on to the rock.

It was so windy we had to keep our hoods up so our hair wouldn’t fly away. After looking at the tide pools we sat on a rock overlooking a small cove and saw about 5 baby harbor seals playing in the water. We then walked along the big beach and Gotham had so much fun trying to get the foam bubbles that the waves carried in.

The next morning we had our Ziploc omelets and stopped at an adorable coffee/book store. They had an amazing tea selection also. Then we were off to Carmel. Oh the traffic was terrible! It was so crowded we didn’t stay and jumped back on Hwy 1. We found this other beach that was beautiful and empty! We parked our car and hiked down to the water.

The beach was made up of all these small pebbles that were all different colors and perfectly smooth. Mom found this beautiful periwinkle stone that she had to come and show me. Well I decided to venture out on to a rock that was dangerously close to where the waves were breaking on shore.  Just when Mom comes out a massive wave crashed on to the rock we were on and soak us from the waist down.

Poor Gotham was completely soaked. We run back to dry sand laughing and dripping wet. We found a flat rock and laid out on it so we could dry. For the rest of the trip Gotham did not like the ocean waves.

The next day we had planned on going to the aquarium. On our way there we stopped at this little French bakery and got delicious almond croissants. We ate them while overlooking the bay. Our tour of the aquarium was so nice this time. We took out time sitting in front of the big tanks just enjoying the fish passing by. We also watched several movies so Gotham could have a break from all the people. Gotham really doesn’t like shopping and would sit under the shirts as I was looking at them.

It was so relaxing to just take our time and only see the things we wanted to see. That night we went for a nice long walk along the shore and watched the sun set into the ocean. Our last morning we walked alon the shore again and we saw a mommy and her baby otter  resting in a cove. So cute! 

Over all one of the best camping trips we have had.

Happy Mother’s Day Mommy!!!