Tamarinis

Exploring the Basics: Diamond in a Rectangle

 

We looked at a Square in a Square block earlier (find that post here) - and the Diamond in a Rectangle block is a close cousin of that block.  The principal is the same, but the look and dimensions are, well, rectangular instead of square!

And yes, Studio 180 has a tool that makes piecing this block a breeze.  Often folks will paper piece it for maximum accuracy, or use templates.  But Studio 180's Diamond Rects tool eliminates the need for paper piecing or templates, and like most of the tools, allows you to make the Diamond Rects (the diamond in a rectangle) in multiple sizes.

Let's look at the steps to make a Diamond in a Square (from a Studio 180 perspective, of course!).

Step One: Strip Sets

Like other Studio 180 tools, the Diamond Rects comes with instructions and easy to read charts that help you determine what size strips to begin with for your selected block size.  You'll use one strip size for the diamonds, and another to cut the corners.

Step 2: Cut the Diamond Center

As with a square in a square, the center size is usually an odd size, so that is just one more reason the tool is so handy.  Cutting the diamond center is easy because you don't have to worry about the "odd" size - simply line up the strip on the marked lines, cut along the angle, and then turn and trim down to size.  Easy Peasy!

Step 3: Cut the Corner Pieces

Cutting the oversized corner pieces is easy as well.  The opposite end of the tool has markings for the corner pieces as well.  If you stack your strips right sides (or wrong sides) together, you'll get opposing sides with each cut!

Step 4: Piecing

The piecing goes fairly quickly, as you can piece opposite corners before pressing!  Once centered and sewn, press away from the center diamond.

Then repeat the process on the remaining two side, again centering, stitching, and then pressing away from the center diamond.

Step 5: Trim

Now it is simply a matter of lining up the seam lines with the markings on the trim corner of the Diamond Rects tool and trimming the block down.  The result?  A practically perfect Diamond in a Rectangle!

Head over to Kate's blog to get some additional ideas on square in a square as well.

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis?

Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  PS - I'm trying to get to the next milestone number on Facebook and Instagram (I am trying to get 2000+ followers) and would REALLY appreciate your help - so please click and follow!  Thanks so much!

Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  

And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!

Just My Type Odif Challenge

A few weeks ago, I challenged several of my pattern designer pals to come up with digital projects using my new fabric line, Just My Type, created for the folks at Island Batik.  You can visit that post here and see a TON of amazing projects.  But this time, I thought it would be fun to see what my fellow Odif ambassodors could create with my Just My Type fabrics and the versatile Odif products.  Not familiar with Odif?  They are the fabulous folks that make the 505 spray, 606 spray and more!

Here is the fabric line.  Cute, right?!  I know - I LOVE it too!  So let's see what those talented ambassadors created.  Each ambassador was given four different Just My Type fat quarters to play with.  That was it - use the fabrics and an Odif product.  Simple - but the results are amazing!

Debby Brown of Debby Brown Quilts

Debby made a beautiful infinity scarf!  Please visit her blog here to get more information on her process, which Odif product she used,  and her project!

 

Afton Warrick of Quilting Mod

Afton created this fun spooky house block from a Flying Parrot Quilts pattern.  I love how she used the "period" print to make google eyes!  Visit Afton's IG feed here to get more great inspiration and to see how Odif helped her make this fun project!

 

Becca Fenstermaker of Pretty Piney

Becca made a beautiful little quilt using four of the Just My Type fabrics.  Love it!  I never would have thought to use them like this.  Visit Becca's Facebook page for more info on her great patterns and how she used Odif for this project.

 

Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting

Sherry made these adorable coasters and coated them with OdiCoat so they would be water resistant!  How awesome is that?  Get more fun ideas from Sherry when you visit her website!

 

Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis (hey, that's me!)

Yes, I wanted to play along too!  So I transformed two dollar store styrofoam pumpkins into a more Tamarinis style decor.  I used fabric strips and OdiCoat to take them from solid orange to these fun blue versions!

Thanks for dropping by!  Please visit the websites and social media feeds of the Odif ambassadors for more details on their projects and for more creative inspiration all around!

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis?

Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  PS - I'm trying to get to the next milestone number on Facebook and Instagram (I am trying to get 2000+ followers) and would REALLY appreciate your help - so please click and follow!  Thanks so much!

Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  

And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!

A Quilter's Alphabet: E

 

 

Ease

                                                                                        

 

Does this ever happen - no matter how carefully you cut and sew, two pieces that SHOULD match up just don't?  Ease is when you make adjustments in sewing to help those two pieces match up at the seams.  While I'm not matching seams, I have a short little video here for you showing one approach to easing fabric to help pieces match.

 

 

Echo Quilting

 

Echo quilting is when the quilting stitches follow (or echo) an appliqué shape OR the shape of the block or seam.  

An easy approach to echo quilting is to use a reference, such as the width of your machine's presser foot, or a marking, to keep your lines consistent.  Others prefer to free hand it, and just follow the line of the block, seam or applique without worrying about creating a consistent distance from one quilting line to the next.

In the close up above, the quilting inside the star echos the shape of the block, while the stitching in the background echoes the seam lines.  

 

Embroidery

 

Embroidery is the process of adding decorative stitches (either by hand or by machine) using a variety of threads and thread weights.

In the example above from Lotta Love, hand embroidery using cotton floss adds detail and dimension to the project. 

 

 

Embellishment:

Embellishment is the adding of decorative details to a work.  Embellishment can be achieved by adding buttons, charms, beads, ribbon, lace, or embroidery stitches.

In the sweet little pincushion above from Your Love Gives Me Wings, machine embroidery stitches were added to give detail to the wings and to the heart, and french knots were added by hand to the small fused circles for additional interest.  The ornament has machine stitched embroidery detail, and has beads added as additional embellishment in the heart and on the small circles surrounding the heart.  Yes, you can combine hand and machine stitching, and different embellishments in one project!

Visit Kate's blog to get definitions of other "E" terms: English paper piecing (EPP), equilateral triangle, estimating fabric amount, even feed foot!

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis?

Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  PS - I'm trying to get to the next milestone number on Facebook and Instagram (I am trying to get 2000+ followers) and would REALLY appreciate your help - so please click and follow!  Thanks so much!

Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  

And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!

Exploring the Basics: Square in a Square

 

A couple of weeks ago we chatted about the stitch and flip method (if you missed it, you can see it here).  This method is often used to make the Square in a Square block.....but.....I'm not going to talk about THAT method today.  Nope - instead I'm going to share with you another way that makes the Square in a Square super accurate!  Yes - exciting!

A square in a square block is - well, a square patch inside another square.  Hence the name!  But it doesn't stop there!  You can continue to add rounds to the block.  so let's talk about the variations.

Above is the basic square in a square - again, pretty self explanatory.  The name says it all!  But what happens when we add another round of piecing to the basic square in a square block?

Well, then you have the Economy Block - a cousin of the square in a square block!  Can we go further and add more?  Of course!

Adding more than two rounds to a square gives you the Stacked Squares block - still in the square in a square family, but much more interesting!

I mentioned that I was going to share a technique OTHER than stitch and flip - and here we go!  I'm a Certified Studio 180 instructor - which means I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Studio 180 tools.  Why?  Because they make stitching accurate blocks a breeze.  How?  By having you cut oversized piecing and using the tools to trim them down.  

Here is a close up of a very small square in a square block that has just been trimmed.  You can see the lines on the tool that line up (pretty close - hey I didn't claim to be perfect!) with my stitch lines.  When I trimmed away the excess, you can see that I'll have perfect points because I also have a dashed line that shows me where the seam allowance is.   Okay  - so that's how the trim down side of the tool works - providing guidelines for trimming your units down as you go.  So keep that in mind as I share the steps to creating a Stacked Squares block.

Here is my very small center unit.  The rust square will be my block center (obviously!), and you can see that my four side pieces are definitely oversized.  That's ok - because after each round of sewing I will use the tool (shown above) to trim it down.  One of the awesome aspects of the Square Squared tool by Studio 180 (no, this is not an affiliate post - I just really really like the tool!) is that one side of the tool enables you to cut those truly weird center sizes that are needed to make a Square in a Square block (or Economy block or Stacked Squares block) the correct size.  The other end has markings for trimming.

Yes, it looks a bit unwieldy at this point - but remember, I'm going to use the markings on the Square Squared tool, Studio 180's answer to making square in square blocks super easy, to trim it down.

The next round is more of the same - oversized side pieces.  You may notice that with each round, I am pressing AWAY from my center square.  

You can start to see the pattern emerge - and how the points are lining up perfectly!  Take a look at the center.  No cut off points!

With each round, you are sewing on slightly oversized units with an accurate 1/4" seam allowance, then using the markings on the tool to trim down to provide an accurate 1/4" seam allowance.

Just one last step - to trim!  And then the small Stacked Squares block will be complete.

Ta da!  It's a Mary Poppins block - practically perfect!  No it isn't perfect - but it is pretty darn close.  Now if you are wanting to know what size to cut everything - here's the deal.  The folks at Studio 180 have these cheat sheets called Technique Sheets - and they sell them.  So it just wouldn't be correct of me to give away some of that info to you, would it?  Nope.  But you at least now have a slightly better understanding of the blocks (square in a square, economy, stacked squares) and how the process works!

Head over to Kate's blog to get some additional ideas on square in a square as well.

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis?

Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  PS - I'm trying to get to the next milestone number on Facebook and Instagram (I am trying to get 2000+ followers) and would REALLY appreciate your help - so please click and follow!  Thanks so much!

Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  

And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!

The Just My Type Digital Challenge

My newest fabric line, Just My Type, is shipping to stores now (hey if you are a quilt shop, it's not too late - you can still order!!!).  So....I challenged some of my super talented quilty pals to work up some digital images using the super fun (she says modestly!) fabric!

Here's the fabric.  Fun, right?!  I know.  I'm having a hard time picking my favorite (ok, they are ALL my favorites!).  Which is YOUR favorite?  Hard to choose!

Ok enough of that - let's move on to the REAL eye candy - the amazing quilts all of these folks created!  So, in alphabetical order, here we go! Grab a cup of coffee, tea, or a glass of your favorite relaxing beverage - this is a no judgement zone - and enjoy the virtual quilt show!

(NOTE: if the quilt design is available as a pattern for purchase AND the designer provided a link, I have linked the image, so you can click on it to be directed to their site)

Bea Lea of Beaquilter

Blue Lagoon

 

Blooming Onion

 

Nighttime By the River

 

This Little Piggy

 

Trip Around the Rainbow

 

Janellea Macbeth

She's So Crafty - And Just My Type

 

Jen Frost of Faith and Fabric

Sand Crabs

 

Jennifer Fulton of Inquiring Quilter

Broken Road

Cane Weave Version 1

 

Cane Weave Version 2

 

I's Have It

 

Joanne Hillestad of Fat Quarter Gypsy

Equal Rights

 

Focus Pocus

 

Modern Weave

 

 

Streamline

 

Karen Overton of The Quilt Rambler

Enchanted Stars

 

Illuminated Journey

 

Mint Chocolate Chip

 

Kate Colleran of Seams Like a Dream

Savannah Squares

 

Tropical Sunset

 

Kris Poor of Poorhouse Quilt Designs

Honeycomb Bag

 

Laura Piland of Slice of Pi Quilts

Exploding Heart

 

Rockslide

 

Split Arrows

 

Linda Sullivan of Colourwerx

All Stacked Up

 

Swan Sheridan of Swan Amity Designs

Shape Shifter

 

Several of these talented ladies also blogged about their amazing projects.  Please visit their blogs and get their insights into working with my Just My Type fabric line!

 

Beaquilter  https://www.beaquilter.com/2020/11/just-my-type-blog-hop.html

Colourwerx https://colourwerx.wordpress.com/

Faith and Fabric https://faithandfabricdesign.com/2020/11/just-my-type-fabrics-by-tamarinis.html

Fat Quarter Gypsy http://www.fatquartergypsy.com/Lex-Luther-Blog.html

Janellea Macbeth http://www.janelleamacbeth.com/?p=6657

Poorhouse Quilt Design https://www.poorhousequiltdesigns.com/post/just-my-type-of-travel

Seams Like A Dream https://seamslikeadream.com/digital-quilt-challenge/

Slice of Pi Quilts  https://www.sliceofpiquilts.com/2020/11/just-my-type-digital-blog-hop.html

The Quilt Rambler https://thequiltrambler.com/just-my-type-digital-challenge/11/03/2020/

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis?

Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  PS - I'm trying to get to the next milestone number on Facebook and Instagram (I am trying to get 2000+ followers) and would REALLY appreciate your help - so please click and follow!  Thanks so much!

Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  

And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!

 

A Quilter's Alphabet: D

 

 

Diagonal Set

In a diagonal set quilt, the blocks are set on point.  Because of this, the quilt rows are on the diagonal rather than horizontal/vertical.  

In Elementz BOM (above), above, you can see the blocks are set on point.  This is a diagonal set quilt, because the rows are assembled on the diagonal to accommodate the on point blocks.

For a more in-depth look at diagonal set, as well as other quilt layouts, visit my Exploring the Basics post on Quilt Layout.

 

Die Cutting

Using a die (I know, it seems redundant), which is a metal template, to cut fabric (often multiple layers) using a die cutting machine.  A die cutting machine uses pressure, plates and rollers to push the die into the fabric and cut it to the shape of the die.  

A real positive of die cutting is that you can very quickly cut multiple shapes very cleanly and accurately.  The draw back - the machines and the dies themselves can quickly get pricy!

Directional Fabric

Directional fabric is fabric with a print or design that has a strong, obvious direction to it.  Stripes, for example, clearly go top to bottom, left to right, or diagonal.  

In my new Just My Type turquoise typewriter keys print (isn't it just tooooo cute??!!), the print is directional.  There is an obvious top and bottom to the print.

Directional fabrics can be challenging to work with, as you will have to pay close attention to how the fabric is cut and how it is placed in blocks, but many find it adds wonderful movement and interest to a quilt.

 

Visit Kate's blog to get definitions of other "D" terms: design wall, dog ears and Drunkard's Path!

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis?

Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  PS - I'm trying to get to the next milestone number on Facebook and Instagram (I am trying to get 2000+ followers) and would REALLY appreciate your help - so please click and follow!  Thanks so much!

Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  

And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!