Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner....

The Winner of our Giveaway for one wonderful autographed MAZED pattern is 

Pat

Pat blogs over at Bell Creek Quilts...

Congrats Pat!!

Email me your address and I will get the pattern right out to you...

The rest of you can head over to Kristy's Etsy Shop and snag you a pattern.. she has both paper patterns and PDF patterns available..

Thanks to Kristy for providing the pattern for the giveaway...

Nancy

Housekeeping.....

Woops!!!! Wanna know when the giveaway ends? Yea, so does everyone else. lol. Well, get those comments in before Wednesday am. I'll draw as oon as I have had my tea. Nancy

I can make a skirt in 20 minutes....

And so can you...   Do you have daughters, granddaughters, nieces, neighbor girls?  I started making these quick skirts early last month...  My granddaughters love them...


I am sure there are numerous tutorials out there that show how to make a quick gathered skirt.  This is how I do it...

You will need

Prewashed fabric for skirt (amount will depend on measurements of child)
piece of cardboard or card stock
Matching thread
1 inch wide Non Roll Elastic
pins
rotary cutter
cutting mat
sewing machine

 

The first  thing we need to do is figure out how big your skirt needs to be..  Measure the waist and length of the child. Add 1 inch to the waist measurement and 3 inches to the length measurement and WRITE THESE NUMBERS DOWN.. As fast as these skirts are to make you will need those numbers more than once.   Make sure you take the waist measurement at the place on the abdomen where the skirt will sit.  This might not be the natural waist.  The girls wear their skirts around their hips now..  My granddaughters wear a size 5 or 6 (depending on which granddaughter) but I make their skirts from the same measurements.  One wears hers a little lower nearer her hips. 

So for my 4 and 6 year old granddaughters I buy half yard of fabric and have some left over scraps.

Waist measurement  22 so I added 1 inch to equal 23
Skirt length is 10 so I added 3 inches to equal 13

 
Cut a piece of card stock 1 1/2 inches wide by the length of the piece of card stock.  You can also use a piece of card board from a cereal box.  You want the length to be between 10 - 12 inches.

So now we have our supplies -

Prewashed fabric
cut piece of card board or card stock
sewing notions..

Lets get started..  (fabric color will change within the photos as I made two different skirts.)

Using your rotary cutter, mat and ruler cut a rectangle that is WOF by the length measurement.

Mine is WOF x 13 inches

This fabric has a fold along the bottom of the photo...And it's a different size because this is for an older granddaughter...but that info comes later...

Take your rectangle and finish off all raw edges with a zigzag. Around all 4 sides..

 

Place your fabric on an ironing surface with long edges at top and bottom and short edges along sides. With wrong side of fabric facing you. fold the top edge of the fabric over the card stock and press. Do this along the bottom edge also..  You have now made the hem and waist line of the skirt.

 

 

Open up the folded edges and with right sides together pin the two shorter edges together.  Sew a 1/2 inch seam.

 You should now have a tube of fabric with pressed folded edges at top and bottom.  If you are using directional fabric now is the time to decide which is the top and which is the hem. 

Turn your tube of fabric right side out and stitch along the hem.  I  line up the edge of my sewing foot and move my needle to the left two notches.  Do whatever works with your machine.

Now lets work at the waist line.   At the center back seam, place a pin 1 1/2 inches down from the top edge of the skirt.  Don't pin the short folded edge.  Just use the pin to mark.

Now open up the fold and stitch the edges of the seam allowance down from the raw edge to the pin.  This will be very helpful when we are putting in the elastic. 

Now stitch the waist line just like you did the hem leaving an opening about two fingers wide just close to the back seam.  Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end.  

Thread your elastic through the casing. Overlap the elastic 1/2 inch and stitch together.  Make sure your ends aren't twisted. Stitch the opening closed and you are finished...

This is one of the three skirts I made the same afternoon..

For my older granddaughter who has a 28 1/2 inch waist and a 15 inch length I would buy 1 yard of fabric, cut two pieces 18 inches x WOF and seam them together along one short edge.. Then follow the same directions.   This makes a nice full skirt.. but one WOF makes it kind of skimpy... 

I hope all of this makes sense..  If you have any questions just email me.

Nancy

MAZED blog hop..

Stop by and see Kelly today....  It's her turn today to give you another chance to win a copy of this wonderful pattern...

Nancy

what i'm working on...

I have tons more blocks to make for this one, but I already have fabric pulled to make a two color version using the alternate block given with the ruler ...

Nancy

Ding. Ding. Ding ......

Just a bit of housekeeping. Seems I copied the ETSY coupon code incorrectly. Please use BlogHop52012 to get the discount on Kristy aMAZEDing pattern. Link to the ETSY shop is in the previous GIVEAWAY post. So go..... Buy.... Use corrected coupon code.... Nancy. Returning to sewing....

Blog Hop MAZED (with giveaway!)

A few months ago a fellow member of the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild sent a shout out looking for pattern testers..  I quickly responded and was chosen ..  Kristy blogs at St. Louis Folk Victorian, and is president of the StLMQG..  When she isn't working...or going to flea markets...or sewing.....it seems she has been doing a bit of designing..

Her first pattern has just been released and as one of the testers I have the privilege of giving away a "autographed" copy of her pattern..  Yes, autographed!!

I present to you,  (drum roll please!)

Got a basket of scraps? Then this pattern is perfect..  Got a jelly roll laying around?  Add a background and you have "instant quilt"...   Great directions with pictures...some alternative layout suggestions and you have a win-win combination..

I made a pillow top with some leftover jelly roll strips ...  I did add an alternate block and directions for it are included in the pattern..  Yea...it's still not quilted and made into a pillow yet...maybe this week?

Can't wait?  Don't feel lucky?  Need it now?

ETSY SHOP

Click this link and get either a printed version or PDF sent right to you...  Use the coupon code BLOGHOP2012 to get 15% off the pattern price until Saturday 5/12 10pm CST.

You might want to save this shop in your Etsy favorites...  This girl is someone to watch..



So leave me a comment and you will be in the drawing...No Reply bloggers, please leave an email in your comment.   Winner will be drawn on Wednesday May 16th..

The MAZED bloghop started Monday with

Mary Claire over at Splendorfalls

and

Kelly over at Live. Love. Create.  will have her post up Friday..

So three chances to win a fabulous pattern...

So go...leave me a comment...and then hop over to Mary Claires' and leave her a comment...and check out Kelly on Friday..

And CONGRATS to Kristy!!  We are so proud of her...

Nancy

BlogHop

Starts HERE today...

Come back Wednesday when it's my turn...\

Nancy

sorry...

Sorry for not blogging for a whole month...  Where does the time go?  We have started working on the house again...  We moved here last October and of course you don't do a lot outside that time of year.  Now we are catching up for the last twentyumpteen years of no one doing anything in the yard... 

So far we have (and I use the term WE very loosely here)
Dumped and spread 11 truckloads of top soil the front yard..
Planted grass and covered it in straw and watered it every night until this week when the rains came flooding down in our area..
Built two planter boxes using stone, then filled them with top soil and planted grapes and Hosta..
Cut the grass three times...
Pulled out multiple pieces of wood t
at was stuck haphazadardly all over the back yard...We have no idea why it was put there or why it was painted blue. 
Pulled down a post with a non-working bug zapper hanging from it..
Started the huge job of closing in underneath the deck...
Planted tomatoes...Ok...ok...that one doesn't count as I bought two tomato plants already in the container with the cage attached and just had to set it on the deck...

I have also been keeping up with my Bee blocks..

These were Tess's blocks for April..

Today I got Carolyn's block done...

 And started working on a new quilt..  I have 12 or 13 FQ's and after working most of the afternoon I have these blocks finished.  I am using a new ruler I bought at the AQS Show in Paducah this year.  You make a pinwheel block,  cut it with this special ruler and then add a triangle to four sides to make the square block...  It's a lot of cutting, pressing, sewing, pressing, trimming, cutting, sewing, pressing, cutting, sewing, pressing and a final cut...  I am kind of enjoying it..  I am calling it Winding Ways although I have no idea if that is the name of the block..

They finish at 6 inches so it's going to take me a while to get a large enough quilt for the guest room..  

I bought the ruler from the designer who has a website here...  I have the smaller size ruler which makes blocks from two inches to six inch finished.  The larger one makes blocks up to a twelve inch... 

So, yea...I went to Paducah this year...This was my 12th year and for the first time I stayed for longer than one day...Four of us left Tuesday morning and came back Thursday..  We had a great time and I didn't buy all that much..  I did buy a quilt kit, which I have NEVER done before..I turned the corner and there was the quilt hanging in the booth and I picked it up and bought it... It came with all the fabric and pattern and it will be the next project.  I also bought a 12 1/2 inch square up ruler..and a ruler by Bloc Loc that is truly unique..  There is a groove carved out of wrong side so the seams of your block sit into the grooves and allows you to trim the block without movement..  I bought the flying geese ruler...  and I think that is really all I bought... oh no...i forgot...I bought some Kona at Hancocks of Paducah...and some great decorator weight fabric to do this...

BEFORE

AFTER

 I love the new look...it's very cheery..however, there does seem to be a slight problem...

Sometimes your fabric disappears.. 

So, I will shut up now and let you go to the next blog...  but not before I tell you some exciting news...

Next week I am part of a BlogHop...  There are three of us that will be will giving away a quilt pattern from a new designer...  Check back here Monday for details...

Nancy