Emerald Eyes Table Topper

And its National Quilter Circle Live Facebook event for the beginning of March. So we are working on um a project called Emerald Eyes and you can see the project here beside me. Um I have chosen an array of green and white fabrics, I think in the munch month of March, we all are just a little bit Irish. In fact, I am Irish. Um My dad's side of the family actually came here from Ireland. So it has an extra special meaning for me to celebrate um my heritage from Ireland and that influence. So as you join in, you can go to National Culture Circle. It's in the description, it'll give you the um address for getting to the pattern, so you can download the pattern there. It um has all the materials and the instructions you'll need to work your way through emerald eyes. Um Actually the person that I had Piper out in California even beat me to the punch. She finished my, hers before I finished mine. So this is definitely an easy uh project one that you can easily complete before Saint Patrick's Day rolls around. Or if you're just in the mood for something green. Um We have been through a rough winter in the Midwest and down into the south even so something green kind of makes us feel alive and vibrant. So, um, this emerald I pattern is maybe one that you wanna put on your um, docket of things to work on. Uh The fabrics that I have selected. Let's go through those really quick. I picked a dark green, um, a medium green, I picked a white on white that actually has words in it. I know on the camera that it's impossible to pick up. And a lot of times white on whites are like that they um just have kind of a hidden message in them. This one actually has words that says, blessings gather family roots simply um happiness. Those are messages I wanted to secretly put into my quote. So when you go shopping or you look online, look for those white and whites that might have just a little message um printed into the fabric. And then I decided that I had some good greens going on and I wanted to use an ombre fabric. Now, if you don't want to work with ombre, I totally understand there's a difference in color as it goes across the fabric and you can see here it works from a light at the fold to a darker on the outer edge. This happens to be one from VN company. If you're curious what it is. Um it comes in a variety of fab of color ways. Um They're all tone on tone, one color from light to dark. But if you haven't worked with Hombres before and you're just a little worried about, worried about how will the placement and cutting be on an Hombre. You can easily pick up a light print is which my uh pattern tester did and it turned out fabulous. So those fabrics, four simple fabrics you're gonna need also um binding and backing, which is listed in the instructions of how much of each of those fabrics you will need for this fun little pattern. So we have been working on little projects all along and sometimes a little bit bigger project is maybe something we want to jump into. And maybe you wanna learn some new techniques. If you enjoy watching these, maybe you would like to join us for National Quilt Circle and Quilter Circle and Craftsy teaming up to do a row by row virtual quilt retreat. Now I realize none of us or most of us, I don't really feel comfortable going to a retreat right now. We don't really want to get into a big crowd of people that we don't know very well. And trying to find a way to bring quilters together. We decided that maybe a virtual retreat, I realize we're not going to be in the same room, but we will be in the same room working on um different techniques trying to help you along. And this row by row is kind of fun. I'm getting teamed up with Kelly Ashton who's done some things for crafty. She loves color and if you love color, come and see what she's created, she's gonna be teaching some partial seam techniques. Um I am going to be teaching y seam techniques. Now, if that strikes fear in your heart, don't worry, we are going to walk you through the process, step by step in various ways so that her quilt, we repeat partial seams, my p my quilt, my blocks as you can see over my shoulder on the um ladder behind me in the corner has um the Y sea repeated over and over so that we kind of get comfortable. How do we tackle these? So if you're looking for something fun to do, it's the 30th and 31st of March. Look to National Culture Circle. Look to craft, see, see what the virtual row by row. Maybe it's the ticket for something in that stop gap between the park, the lockdown we're coming out of and being able to go to the quilt retreat in person. So maybe we can get you through the next little section of how has life changed and how can I still keep moving forward and learning techniques? A lot of laughter, a lot of hours of instruction, a little bit of fun. Join us there for that quilt retreat. Now, back to emerald eyes, emerald eyes, I'm gonna hold up here so you can see the entire thing when we think of the Eye of the Storm, we're in the center, right? Well, we might be coming out of the eye of a pandemic, but we look to the center and then work our way out. So emerald eyes is my interpretation for Saint Patrick's Day working with those colors kind of working from the center out. Um These are all the same size block, you could twist and turn and create your own design even from the same pieces. So the versatility and fun can be had making this. So let's look at the one block that we're gonna make over and over and the technique to get us there. The idea is that some people and more power to them. If you love to cut triangles and join triangles and make units that look like this, more power to you, I only have so many hours in the OK. So any technique that helps me make those quicker, more accurate, more accurate. And in batches is the ticket for me. So there is a technique and if you haven't seen it yet, if you're new to, to quilting eight at a time triangle squares, if you've already done this technique, that's fine too. Now, you have another pattern to use that technique in because this is really set up using the eight at a time method so that we can make really accurate perfect little triangle squares to fit together and have fun in the process. So how do we make eight at a time triangle squares? The pattern will tell you um the cutting of how many of each the uh light or background fabric. A me a light print, a medium print, a dark print that you will need. So cut those, keep them together according to their color. And then as you work your way through the pattern, it will tell you how many to collect of each. So for example, in step one, it tells you to collect three dark green and three ombre print or a lighter uh color green, um eight inch squares and the process what you're going to do with those. So let's work through that process. You're going to be pairing up 28 inch squares. So I'm taking out one white and one of the medium green here, I've got some extras just in case because you never know what will happen when you're live on video. Uh You're gonna be using marking tool and a straight edge, straight edge could be your ruler. It can be a smaller tool like this. It's only one inch wide, but something that will stretch across the eight inch block. So you can make a straight line. Now, on the backside of your light fabric, one that you can mark and see the line, that's why I picked the white one to mark on, I'm going to make a diagonal line from corner to corner, using a fabric marking pencil or pen, find one that you are comfortable with. There are many on the market so that you can pick and choose something, something that you enjoy using that needs to be something that makes a fine line and doesn't make, um, a dusty line that's kind of smudgy and you can't really tell where the line is at. You need something fairly exact. Now, some people like to use a mechanical pencil on the back, that's totally fine. But remember, uh, pencil head does not work, wash out. How do I know this? Because I've tried and it does not come out. So make sure you're on the backside of fabric. If you're using a um pencil, a mechanical pencil and make sure it's a very light line just visible enough to, to work your way through the machine, but not so that it will bleed to the other side or be seen on the other side at all. So you're gonna mark in both directions, a diagonal line corner to corner and this happens to be a friction pen so that when I hit it with heat, it disappears. Yes, sometimes I leave ghost lines, but I'm on the backside of my fabric and I'm go actually marking the cutting line. So this is not going to be seen at all on the top portion of my, um, quilt lock. Now, I'm going to put these right sides together. So this is my right side, right side of my print fabric line those up. And for some people, you can fly blind and take this to the machine, others like to put pins in so that things don't shift if you're moving a long distance from maybe a cutting marking table to your swing surface. So uh a few pins to help this, that doesn't shift, You really want to match up the outer corners as best you can. The process that I'm teaching actually gives you a trimming step. So if it's not exact, it's for, it's forgivable at this point. So close does count. We talked about close count. So like this, now we are going to be taking this to the sewing machine and we're going to stitch one quarter inch outside of the line on both sides. Now, if that strikes fear in your heart because you're new to sewing and that quarter inch is just hard for you to keep accurate. Don't be afraid there are tools out there that you could use in place of just one line because remember I'm all about fast and dirty and getting this done one line will suffice. But if you need um what I would call training wheels so that you get a quarter inch seam. There are tools out there, there are quarter inch seam markers of a variety um of companies make them. This just happens to be one of them, there is a line down the center of the stool and it's exactly one quarter inch out from each side that you can line this up on the block and you can mark on both sides, which would then be your stitching line. So if you need training wheels and making sure that your quarter inch seam is accurate, use one of these tools or just pick up a ruler remembering where your quarter inch is though and mark your stitching lines on each side if you need that, if not, we're off to the sewing machine. Ok. So we are going to put this under the needle and I've got just a little piece of fabric here as a spider. So my threads don't nest when I start, I'm gonna set my machine for that quarter inch. I know that the edge of my pressor foot because I've adjusted it. If you've got a quarter inch foot, your quarter inch foot will now be riding along that center line if you don't have your, um, your bumpers or your lines drawn, so its edge of your foot is on that line that divides perfectly down the diagonal and then you just do your perfect forage. See across you blocked. Now, for some people going fast is an issue. Sometimes if we go too slow though, we tend to wobble. Remember when you first learned to drive and you oversteered and you were going too slow. And your parents kept saying, give it more gas, give it more gas is because the slower we go, the more we tend to oversteer and not allow, uh, the machine to do the work and it will follow in. If you just guide it gently, I'm just letting my fingertips ride just barely on the fabric and sometimes it's a little faster. It actually makes a straighter line. So we go across Albert. Now, I would normally be using probably a, a very light gray thread on this since we've got a dark fabric and a light fabric coming together. So selecting a very neutral thread, it could be a cream color thread. Also, I'm using black so that it will be really visible when I get done and you'll be able to see where my stitching line are. So I'm trying to be as straight as possible. We'll see how this goes. The other thing is that I'm trimming as I go, I'm taking up that my machine does do a cut at the end. But in order to kind of clean up as we work, I'm trimming that tail that it leaves at the end. Some machines will um trim a little closer than others. Some leave a long tail, some won't cut it off. So trying to be neat and tidy as we move along, keeps the back of our quilt project, our patchwork top and as neat and tidy too. Then you don't have those little threads, you have to go back later to trim off. So as we bring this back over, you can see my stitching lines, get a board here so I can prop it up for the camera a little better. Yeah, my stitching lines may not be perfect this morning but pretty close. So we've got an X across the fabric like this. Now, when I take this to the ironing board, we will see that the um friction pen, which is heat sensitive will make the lines go away. And all we're gonna see is my stitching left behind. So then we'll really see how strict they are. Ok. I'm just doing a quick press so that you can see where those lines are the big X reveal. There we go. Now, as you look at that, you think, well, how does that make blocks? Because it looks like you've just locked everything together and there's nowhere to open anything up. Well, we're going to do a little slice and dice next. Ok. So we're going to take a ruler. I'm gonna use a rotating mat. Now, some of you have purchased rotating mats and maybe not utilize them to the fullest. And some of you are thinking, hm, do I wanna buy one? Do I need one? How would I use it? So, um I had mine put away for a long time until I realized I could utilize this so that my cutting would always be away from my body and be safe. So this is how we're gonna use the rotating mat here. Now, what we're gonna be doing is we're going to cut down between the railroad tracks, the X that we created. But we're also gonna be cutting here like a window pane down through the center and across through the middle like this. Now, it doesn't really matter, I suppose which direction you cut first because it's all gonna be cut up in the end. So I'm gonna rotate this so that I can cut. Well, now you can see my wobble in my line. There is not too perfect. OK. I'm placing this from corner to corner so that I can cut down through the middle. Then I'm going to not move anything. That's why I'm using the rotating mat. I want everything to stay really pretty much in place so that I don't disturb any of my um pieces. Now, I'm gonna come in from this side to a better angle if I stand. OK, not disturbing anything that direction. Now, this is an eight inch block which means four would be the middle just to double check myself. I'm gonna look for the four inch line here. It does intersect my black lines in the center, my thread lines. So I've got one cut here and then one more rotation. See how easy that is. You don't have to move the pieces and reassemble anything and you're always cutting in a safe direction away from the body. If we have to stop and get stitches, we don't get to produce as much fun. Ok, then Voila, we now have triangle squares. All exactly alike. All nice and neat. What we need to do is spring these over. Then your pile to the ironing surface and you need to press your seam allowances first. I usually just hit it with this a little bit of heat to warm up the thread. And then toward the dark side, I'm pressing my seam allowance toward the darker print fabric. So I won't have show through as much there. And then on to the next one, I tend to leave this one behind and then just build on top because there's heat on the ironing board surface and it will come up and help me out. So then I'm doing my second one and I just keep going down through the entire stack to get everything pressed nice and flat. Now you will then work through the rest of the pattern. It will tell you the other fabric combinations to pick up and join together in this process. So you'll repeat it over. You're gonna have a few left over. Actually, these were the four pieces I have left over. So there are four that you don't use, but you'll have all of the pieces like that. You're also gonna be cutting. There's one other thing, remember we were cutting eight inch squares, you're gonna cut 8, 3.5 inch squares and those are also gonna be used in the layout. So don't forget about those, those guys left behind. Now, remember when I told you that there's going to be a trimming process just in case everything isn't perfect. Well, I tend to be kind of a person who enjoys the trim so that my pieces really nest together nicely. I'm not overly um energetic pinner if I can get by with just putting pieces, patchwork pieces, piece to piece and keep on sewing and leave the pins off to the side until I really need them. I really enjoy that process. So you're gonna take these and you're going to trim them to 3.5. That's why I suggested using a 4.5 inch ruler or something in that size so that it has at least a 3.5 inch square. Now over and over again, I see quilters, um calling shops are asking for a specific size tool and you don't have to have a 3.5 to match what you're cutting here as long as you can get a 3.5 inch square over the top of this area to trim. That's all you really need. It doesn't have to be a perfectly matched um uh ruler to the block. So if you have a 6.5. If you have a 5.5, those will work. If you even have a 12.5, there is a corner of it that will, you can easily find 3.5 if it's confusing and it's hard for you to remember. Ok. I'm just trimming this little corner and which corner of the ruler to use? You can go to Glow Line tape like this, which is a highlighter tape. It will remind you where you're going to be lining up your pieces or you can use painter's tape post. It notes some other things so that you can highlight the portion of the of the ruler. So you remember which side to twirl it to and don't get confused. That can be a really big assistance. OK? So I'm gonna lay my ruler on here 3.5. Just means I'm trimming a tiny, tiny bit off. Now I'm gonna stand so that I can have a better angle on my um cutting mat and my rotary cutter, there's a diagonal line on most rulers that are square. So the diagonal line I'm matching with my um see where the two fabrics join together so that I know that that's going to be square. Then I'm gonna come in making sure that I'm on top of the fabric. I'm just going to trim off two sides. Now you can use your rotating map for this also if you'd like. So you can twirl it on, maybe lay out three or four blocks at once. Trim two sides, twirl the whole thing from the other two sides, but I'm just gonna demo one here. So 3.5 is what we're going for. So making sure I have 3.5 here. 3.5 on this side that my diagonal again is matched up nice neatly down through the center of my block there And this is all I'm going to trim off. It's just like giving it a tiny haircut. So that now I have that precision of the 3.5 inch square, triangle square that um will make this block and this table top or go together really nicely. So once you have all of your blocks made, then pick up your pattern. I have given you a color code, um letter assigned to each combination. So when you put the dark green and the hombre or your light green together, you're gonna la you're gonna label that stack as letter A, then you're gonna have a white and a medium, you're gonna call those B. So if you need post it notes or something to put on top of each stack, because there is a diagram I went through and I labeled all of the placement in the pattern here. So if you have a through e laying ahead at the top of your table, then you can just go to your iron or your design wall, your cutting mat table, wherever you wanna lay this out. And it's like a deck of cards, you can shuffle them through into the right orientation so that, you know, you have the right block in the right place. You also find in that pattern that there is a pressing guide along the outside edge to the right. You'll find um directions to press each of the rows of cellos. When you join block to block, I tend to work in horizontal rows. Some people work in vertical rows. Um I tend to work in that horizontal as if I'm reading a book. So I work my way across. So that means in row one, I'm pressing all my sea alone to the right next row to the left, back and forth through the quilt so that when you get to joining rows together, then you can easily have opposing scenes and you get nice black intersections. Now, when it comes to quilting, that is quilter's choice and layering and binding. Um I've listed, I've taken um the choice of using the darker fabric is my binding. The pattern just says binding. So you can choose whatever you decide to put on that outer edge of your quilt. Looking to see if there's any questions this morning and I'm not seeing it come up on my screen. So let's see if I can find you. Oh, there's people all over. This is fabulous. I love it. And some people are interested possibly in the row by row. That's fun too. Um, because we don't have any other way to reach out right now. This is as close as we can get. Um, we're gonna hopefully try to connect with you as much as possible. I, I believe they'll be able to send questions in if we do something that you can't see well enough that and remember we're gonna have really great camera men there too. Not just me and the video camera in my studio, we're gonna have great lighting, great camera angles so that um it will be something where you feel like you're in the classroom with us. We aren't going to let you um get upset or dis discouraged by not being able to see what's going on. I realize here in, in my studio, this is a little bit uh a little bit more winging it. So the virtual retreat, you'll have those wonderful um opportunities and it's so nice to see people joining from all over today. Um I don't see any specific questions. Oh Somebody's from Minnesota where I'm headed to, to do video. That'll be fun. OK. And let's see if there's anything up here. Yep, you'll find the pattern in the link that's at National Culture Circle. Um If you're on Facebook, you should be able to find it there too. Just keep looking our admin mo my moderator today will really help you out. She is the best. Um What's the ruler called the measure? The quarter inch seam. Ok. There are at least two, maybe three or four out there on the market. This one happens to have been made by Fons and Porter. Um, it was a quarter inch seam marker. Um The, the one that I originally started work working with was the quick quarter back when I first started quilting. It's a blue tool. It comes in two different sizes or maybe three. Now, it has a slot down the center instead of just a line to match up the top corner to corner alignment. So um go out there, ask at quilt shops, um Google images for to see what um quarter inch seam markers and see what's out there. They are really inexpensive. When I first started quilting, I did an entire quilt and didn't know about this, the quarter inch seam marker. And somebody later said, well, why didn't you use a quick order? And I'm like a what? So if you're new to cool thing, we thought we have so many tools out there and if somebody doesn't tell you about them, you won't know. So I had been using just my big old Riddler trying to ma put a quarter inch seam on each side and this is a lot to drag around to do those little marking. So a little tool or even just the one inch ruler like this is really fun to use. OK? Is there any other question that I can pick up real quick? Um Let's see. Oh Yeah, everybody has their favorite tool up there. That's great. Um And the rotating mat. Yes, it is fun to use. The other thing when I first got it was, it's two pieces and it had a lot of static and it looks like it's been around the block a few times. It had a lot of static in it and it didn't want to twirl. So I went and got some baby powder. Don't ask me why I thought of that and I smeared a little baby powder on here and, and then I put them back together and held it up and amazingly, it cut the static and it made a twirl really great. So if you don't use baby powder for other things, you can use it in the quiet room just a little though. Not too much. Um Let's see. Is there anything else that people taught to do the horizontal and vertical cut first at, in the eight at a time? That's true. You can, you can really do it in a, in any direction as long as you don't disturb the pieces. That's the biggest thing I think. And if you don't have a, a rotating mat and you're working a surface, if you have a little bit smaller mat, you can just rotate the entire mat. So if you don't want to invest in a rotating mat just rotate the one you have. So that works too. Ok. The last fun part and I kind of revealed the corner of it. When I flip this over. I love to have fun with the back of my quilts no matter what project I'm working on. Uh People sometimes look at me and I then say, what did you use? I, well, this fabric came in recently and I just couldn't resist because it's just the most fun floral maybe because it's been so bleak and so cold here that this just looked like almost like bali kind of a a tropical feel with all kinds of pinks and yellows and greens in it. So I put this on the back because I figure, well when Saint Patty's Day is done, I can still leave this on my kitchen table and put a big base of bloom daffodils at the top of it for Easter. So, you know, there's a lot of places we fall in love with fabric and we like to use them wherever we can. So maybe the backside of the quilt is where that one piece that you don't know what to do with that. You don't wanna cut up becomes a showcase as the, as your quilt back. So enjoy emerald eyes and join me next time for Facebook Live or the virtual court retreat. Thanks for joining me today.