Category Archives: designing

Shrinking Solution

Get more Harry Potter patterns on Fandom in Stitches!

When Cheryl over at Cheryl’s Teapots2Quilting asked for permission to use some of my free patterns for an upcoming project she’s working on, I enthusiastically agreed!

What’s her project?

Well, you’ll just have to wait and see…don’t worry, I’ll share when she does!

What I can tell you is that she asked to use six of my Harry Potter patterns. She was planning to reduce each pattern to 4″, but I volunteered to do it myself.

All this happened at the same time that the hard drive on my laptop crashed. I have access to many of my files on my backup drive, but not EQ7, the design software I’ve been using for the last couple of years and I’m waiting for my laptop to be repaired and before I will have access to all my design tools. While I wait, I decided to try out Quilt Assistant, free block design software

I recommend this software all the time based on the experience of other designers I know over at Fandom In Stitches. It’s about time I try it out myself!

Now this software is not EQ7, and I knew that going in. I wasn’t expecting the bells and whistles of fancy design software, layout options, etc. QA is intended for individual block design, and if that’s what you need, and all you need, it’s perfect for that. I found it super easy to navigate and use and had redrafted several blocks using my original designs in a relatively short amount of time.

In addition to drafting patterns, you can also import a photo to follow, color and number images, as well as export and print different versions of your pattern.

Since most of the patterns I was redrafting were originally designed in Photoshop and not EQ7, I worked from my quilt blocks and “printed” my work to PDF.

I’m a picky girl when it comes to the way my patterns are presented. I like clear, concise lettering that goes left to right and top to bottom. If you’ve used any of my patterns previously, you will find they are all labeled this way. If a design software exists that allows complete control over labeling, I have not found it yet!

The following four images were generated using Quilt Assistant print options:

QA Print Option: Design at true size, no seam allowance added. Numbers generated with QA.

QA Print Option: Paper Pieced Pattern, no seam allowance added.

QA Print Option: Paper Pieced Pattern, Seam Allowance Added.

QA Print Option: Paper Pieced Pattern, Seam Allowance and Colors Added.

I printed to PDF as a paper pieced pattern with seam allowance but no color (third option above). I opened up each PDF file in Photoshop and rearranged the pieces so they would be as close to the actual piecing order as possible. In EQ7, arranging pattern piece placement on the page is an option before printing, one I use often.

I also deleted all the numbers generated by QA and renumbered each pattern myself so they would reflect my personal design style. I started designing back in 2004 using Photoshop for every step of the process. I still color and label all my patterns with it, even my patterns drafted in EQ7.

You will also find sewing order on all my patterns. When I first started paper piecing, I came across a very complicated pattern with oodles of asymmetrical pieces and no instructions whatsoever. It took me ages to figure out how it went together. Because of that, I started adding sewing order with my very first design!

Making it mine: How the Cauldron pattern looked when I finished editing.

Download the 4″ Cauldron pattern

In a nutshell, Quilt Assistant is free, it’s easy to use and you can share your patterns from it by printing them to PDF with software like Primo PDF or Cute PDF. If you want to make changes, use Photoshop or open source software like Gimp. Save the file as a PDF for easier printing.

The best part about this for me? Well, a couple of things. First, I got to revisit some of my older Harry Potter patterns that I hadn’t played around with in ages. Second, I get to share these patterns with Cheryl and look forward to her upcoming project (and I hope you will, too!). Last of all, as soon as I’m up and running on my own computer again, I can export these files to EQ format and edit them just like any of my other EQ7 projects!

Direct links to the magically shrunken versions of the above blocks:

I hope my little review of Quilt Assistant is useful to you. If you’re still on the fence about designing your own paper pieced patterns or about using design software and you’re looking to draft individual blocks, give it a try. It’s a nifty tool, it’s free, and if you decide to upgrade to EQ7, all your QA work is exportable!

Visit the Quilt Assistant Website

A footnote: I am reviewing QA because I want to and for no other reason, but if you happen to take up pattern drafting, consider becoming a Fandom In Stitches Designer! Fandom In Stitches is my all-fandom quilt pattern site featuring Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Doctor Who, Sesame Street and much, much more! All the patterns are free and all the designers are volunteers!

To celebrate the Tabby Face Block Lotto, use coupon code TABBY in my Etsy shop to receive 10% off your total order during the month of September!

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Time is running out!

Learn to paper piece with me now through December with my full-length video workshop available only through STITCHED. You get access to over 20 classes AND instructors and registration is now only $40! Click for details.

Inside The Closet

Looking back at “Tails”

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Miles “Tails” Prower
74″ x 94″
made 2008, photographed July 2011

Once upon a time, I made a quilt for my son. The coolest part about this quilt is that he designed it himself. He was 10* at the time.

With a tiny bit of help from me, my kiddo created this chart using an image he loved of his favorite video game character. The main part of the quilt, excluding the solid pieces of fabric at the top and bottom, is made of 1,054 individual 2″ squares.

I pieced almost all of the mosaic while at retreat with my bee in 2008 on my Singer 301A. I remember chain piecing from different colored stacks of 2 1/2″ squares that I had cut beforehand. I pieced and pieced…and pieced, all along following the chart and keeping track of everything with Post-It notes!

Much of the following is taken from a post I made over on Fandom Quilts back in June 2008, after I’d completed quilting and binding the quilt.

The blue sparkle background fabric was cut in 2 1/2″ strips (except the top and bottom, which were wider), with the other colors all being 2 1/2″ squares (2″ finished). I quilted 2″ squares to give the illusion that the entire quilt was made from squares. You can still see the chalk lines from the grid I drew on the solid fabric.

The entire quilt was quilted on my home sewing machine using a walking foot and straight-line quilting.

Hanging from the side of our trampoline (photo taken in 2008) just for SCALE. You can see the quilting better in here. I think you can also tell that there are two colors of orange, and the subtle difference between the white and off-white. We gave this trampoline away earlier this year, 2011.

This awesome swirly red fabric was chosen by the kiddo for the back.

For quilting, I outlined the major shapes (the white quilting in the pic is one of the hands). When there were more than two or three blocks of the same color, I quilted around to echo the outside shape.

Grid quilting the top and bottom of the quilt created the illusion of 2″ squares on the solid top and bottom pieces of the quilt top.

If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this post and you like what you see, visit The Quilting Gallery’s Quilts for Little Boys contest and vote! There are lots of great quilts there to see, including “Tails!”

Oh, Portal!

Strawberry Ice Cream Baby Blanket goes Knit Picks!

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Strawberry Ice Cream Baby Blanket, made by Knit Picks

Some days, the good news can’t get any better!

On Friday, Knit Picks, a site that any yarn lover will know, published one of my crochet patterns, Strawberry Ice Cream Baby Blanket!

How exciting is that!?

Download the pattern free from Knit Picks

The original Strawberry Ice Cream Baby Blanket was donated to The Linus Connection in March 2009, blogged.

Thank you Knit Picks, for publishing my pattern and making my day! Thanks to Stacey for making it easy as ice cream!

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vlog: TTMT – Wear Pink!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Facets of Friendship

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It’s hard to believe it’s already time for another Blogger’s Quilt Festival! It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was writing up a my post for the Spring Festival!

Facets of Friendship, 2008

Last year, my best friend, Jewells, of Julia Makes Stuff, had a big birthday. It was one of those lovely, once-in-a-decade numbers that seem ever so daunting when we’re staring them in the face.

She and I have been friends since college. In some ways, we’re polar opposites, but in all the ways that count, we’re not. The older we get, the more in common we seem to have. Jewells has been there for me through some crazy times in my life. She knew me before I started dating my husband of 15 years, before I had kids or a college degree. She stood up for me at my wedding and has been more like a sister to me than anything. The only thing I would change about our relationship is the geographic distance between us.

Jen & Jewells in 2007

To celebrate the big birthday and all the years we’ve been friends, I designed a quilt for her called Facets of Friendship. In it, I used only scrap fabrics from other projects I’d done. I wanted her to have a little piece of (almost!) everything I’ve made over the last decade and a half, just like she’d been woven in and out of my life over that time.

The quilt is inspired by a quilt top I found in a thrift store. It was completely hand pieced and unfinished, with a couple of blocks coming apart at the seams when I found it. I made my own version of the Four Pointed Star/Arkansas Snowflake pattern (paper pieced, of course!) in order to fill in those couple of damaged blocks. Those couple of blocks spawned the idea that to make an entire quilt for Jewells with that same paper pieced pattern.

The Thrift Store quilt that inspired Facets of Friendship

Over the course of several months, I shared lots of teaser photos, trying to not give more of a clue than I could. I wanted her to know I was working on something big for her, because, in my opinion, anticipation is one of the best parts of life!

Pile of Fabric
collecting the scraps (teaser #1)

all the quarters pieced (close up)

all the quarters pieced…close up! (this was teaser #2)

I also took photos of the process, so I could share them with her once the quilt was finished and in her hands.

arranging the quarters into blocks…with Marie’s help

The back pieced…with the paper still on

chain piecing the neutral border

the top pieced

My favorite way to gift a quilt – in a coordinating pillow case.

Jewells’ birthday is coming up next week on October 16. Her gift this year is not quite so exciting as last year, but she is still my best friend, so I guess that’s okay!

If you’re reading this, I’d love for you to take a minute to tell my best friend Happy Birthday over on her blog!

vlog: TTMT A Whole Lot of Harry

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