Klosjes

I have put together my 4" klosjes ..... and gosh darn it, but it sure looks good (do you agree?). In the end, a few rows got knocked off and I went with this number of blocks instead. Now, I have gone ahead and am making 6" klosjes. Do you think I'm crazy ..... no, don't tell me that, please! :o) In the photo below, you can see the difference between the sizes. They are a lot easier to make and quicker to do.

In my last post, there were two comments about how my klosjes were made and what is English Paper Piecing. The following gazillion photos are all about these subjects. So, if you are not interested, bye, bye and see you later, aligator.

English Paper Piecing and how my klosjes are made.

A - I have EQ6 and Block Base software program and printed out the templates (for those of you who do not have EQ, my next post will show you how you can make a template for these klosjes). There is no seam allowance for these templates and I have cut around my templates leaving excess material for turning back. When I pin my templates to the material, I try to make sure the straight of grain is up/down.

B - the excess fabric has been folded over to the back of the paper template and basted. This is what they look like at the front.

C - This is what the back looks like. Looking towards the bottom of the photo, can you see blue arrows showing the direction of sewing? The pieces are whip stitched together in the direction you see. The blue broken lines just indicate where the thread is just passing through the back layer to get to the next seam to be sewn down, and so on. This way, I'm not stopping to secure, cutting and re-knotting the thread to start sewing the next seam. A little bit of a time saver. :o)

D - shows the direction to sew on the next piece.

E - you will have to do a bit of folding and pinning for the next section.

F - The last seam and the direction to sew. Secure your thread at the end of this seam.

G - sew in the last piece.

H - this is what your klosjes should look like now.

I - and this is the back. Do not remove your paper templates or basting stitches.

J - My klosjes will finish at 6", so I cut out a 6-1/2" square piece of background fabric and mark placement lines from corner to corner. I used Crayola Washable Markers and these blocks will be hand washed (and dried on a towel) to remove the lines before the blocks are sewn together and ironed.

Using the diagonal lines on my klosjes, move your klosjes around until all lines match up on the diagonal. Another thing, make sure your fabric is on the straight of grain when you pin your klosjes to the fabric, regardless if your klosjes are placed vertical (as shown below) or horizontal.

K - This is what my klosjes looks like after the circle has been appliqued onto the background fabric. My light backgrounds will have the klosjes sitting vertical and my dark backgrounds will have the klosjes placed horizontal.

L - This is the back, with the excess background material removed and all the paper templates and basting threads.

So, now you know how I do my klosjes.

Have a great day!

JC update

I've put aside my klosjes for now to work on my Joseph's Coat, which is way behind, BTW. In case you are wondering, my design wall is a slab of pink styrofoam. :o)

If I plug away at them, perhaps I just might get caught up by June with a total of 35 (there are only 14 so far .....). In the photo above, the circles are being sewn together and I have to say that it is an interesting method whereby you do not see any seams. My version will be queen size and I haven't figured out yet how many more will have to be done. A wide border will be added and perhaps I might even try a bit of scallop on the edges to mimic the petals. This beauty will be for moi! :o)

On my next update, I'm going to count up the number of different fabrics that were used. Some FQ's and a layer cake were purchased to add to the variety, but a lot of them came from my stash.

If you want to see more gorgeous versions of Joseph's Coat, go here. Lots and lots of eye candy!

Have a great day!

Klosjes counting

This is where I'm at with my klosjes ..... company came and I had to put them away for a few days while we did shopping and sightseeing.

In case you are wondering, the large squares are mostly from charm packs and the little klosjes were made from scraps. The pieces of fabric that you see laying on top of the large squares are my choices to make the klosjes with.

My klosjes are not very big, so they don't require a lot of fabric. My spools are 1-7/16" (4 cm) wide, the circles are 3" (7.6 cm) and the finished block size will be 4" (10.5cm). For those of you working with metric, forgive me if my measurements don't add up (I don't work with metric even though we switched to metric many, many years ago). Don't you just love this block?

I'm only going to do a wall hanging with these, but I can see myself making more of them for a bed quilt .... but not this small .... they sure are addictive and a great hand piecing project.

Have a great day!

Top done and Klosjes

Oopsies were fixed and borders quickly put on .... yes this top is done and can be added to the trunk along with my other tops waiting for quilting. I just love this top, so bright and cheery. There is a wave of klosjes (spools) being made. What started in The Netherlands has quickly spread around the world and I got bitten by the bug. Mine are different (what else is new, eh) and they are being made by English Paper Piecing method. The pattern for this block #3571 can be found on Electronic Quilt Company Block Base.

I'm going to make a wall hanging and these are my squares that will have the circle sewn onto. Another great hand piecing project.

Have a great day!

An oopsie moment ...

Don't these colours just scream spring/summer? I'm making a new lap quilt and noticed a couple of blocks that were turned around (like the one with the bright pink paper on the blue/yellow block) and after they were fixed, the rows are now being sewn together. Then, a major oopsie .... I cut the sashing for one row the wrong size and didn't notice until it got pinned onto the design wall. Oopsie ....

I'm off to repair that and finish making this top.

When you click onto this photo, your eyes are not deceiving you ..... I ran out of sashing material and substituted another fabric for the bottom portion.

Years ago, this would have bothered me to no end and all of the sashing would have been ripped out and a new sashing used that was the same throughout. These days, I'm beyond that and am OK with what has been done. You know, using the stash ....

Have a great day, eh!

It's over .... sob .... but I have a finish!

... the Olympics are over and I don't know about the rest of the world, but darn it ..... we had a blast! Our excitment for the Games to start was immediately stopped when we heard about the tragic death of the Georgian luger (may he rest in peace, dear God!) and then we held our breaths for the jinx to be broken with our first gold medal on Canadian soil to an all time record breaking number of gold medals ... whew .... there was a lot of tearful emotions we went through.

Ashes is glad that things have quieted down a lot and we can once again shower her with attention .... we scared the girls quite a number of times with our cheering and clapping. While watching the last day of the torch relay and during the Opening Ceremonies, I finished putting in the last stitches on my Dresden Plate. You have seen so many images of this quilt and I'm just so glad to finally say that .... it is done! Can I be so bold to claim a gold medal finish?

Here are close-up shots of my hand quilting and machine quilting.

Yes, I do combine both machine and hand quilting in my quilts (not all of them, mind you) and was quite surprised with the outcome of this one. With the close stipple machine quilting and larger meander along with hand quilting, I was expecting the blocks to be quite wonky, but somehow it worked and the quilt came out square all around.

So, enjoy my quilt and have a great day, eh!

Quilt size: queen (97" x 97" --- quilt top was 102-1/2 x 102-1/2 --- a loss of 5-1/2" x 5-1/2")

Quilt source: EQ6 for the Dresden Plates and the border is my original design.