Gardnergal, I think I only had to purchase 4 of these fabrics. While traveling the last weeks, DH made sure I got to some fabric stores and I knew just what I was looking for. I did fabric notecards before so lots of my cards have the cars, motorcycles and such on them. Was and is fun to work on.

It does not take long to get behind on reading on this thread.:) Welcome to everyone who is new and you have plenty of time to play catch up because there is not a deadline. So work at your own pace. Life happens as I have found the past couple of days. My back pain has escalated and has slowed me down considerably. No worries, Im fine and just have to move slower ya know. ;) Im still on track for Friday and even if I move at a snails pace.. so its all good. I hope that everyone's questions are getting answered as everyone has more pooled knowledge than I ever will. You can always PM me if its a stopper and you need an answer to move on. Tomorrow I will be an absentee from the board as I work to finish up the tutorial and the binding on my Quilt. Then I will hold off for a week before starting up the next project and technique. Or at least that is my current plan. :) Keep on sharing and posting pictures, I will catch up. :thumbup:

Everose - That transportation quilt is way too cute.:thumbup:

Pinmores, is the name of the product you place on the end of your pins, absolutely fantastic no more pricking and scratching not to mention drawing blood. I got mine from Leah Day

You did a great job on your quilt! It is beautiful, love the sewing machine VickiM.

Carrie love those colors!

Everose, that is really neat!

The new posts are so great. Love all the quilts/squares. I have to say tho, that the fabrics in carriem's set me right to drooling down my front. LOL
Those are some beautiful fabrics and no matter what you make with them, it has to be gorgeous. I would be thrilled to have your scraps just to be able to look at them and pet them. Smiles and hugssss

LOL Linda :) Glad you like my fabrics. Not sure how many scraps I am going to have. I am doing pieced borders to get the most out of the fabric. These were one of those I bought a little of each when I saw them with no pattern in mind (because I too REALLY liked them!) and now I am a little short, so stretching as much as I can!

I have enjoyed seeing everyone's blocks/quilts. Seeing the quilting "by the block" encourages me to try something new. I usually quilt by the row instead of by the block. I haven't done much FM, mostly just SITD, x's through blocks or cross hatching.

I love it! Most of the time when I see a D9P, I can't really see a pattern, but with this one--I love it! It's great! By using all different transportation fabrics, it makes a fascinating quilt. I love your idea...will have to try it.

Well, I have my blocks prepared. I considered what kind of quilting I want to do while I was cutting batting and backing pieces on Monday. Our little group meets on Tuesdays at the church and I got them all ready with the lines drawn on parchment paper and pinned them up.

Now I need some help from you. I had ALMOST picked a medium brown as the thread to use, but there is one block that has brown fabric and it would not show up so well. Do you think I should try for a look of a different thread for each block, or maybe go for a medium cream colored thread?

I love the design you're using for your blocks. I see you have traced the design onto parchment paper and pinned to the blocks. My question is how you will transfer this to your block...will you use a FMQ foot? I've never done this before and am very interested in learning how to do this.

I have only tried free motion once, and it would take a load of practice to get it to look good, so what I plan to do it just use the regular foot and slowly turn the block as I sew. I have done this before for a placemat exchance and they came out great! The little blocks are about 9 1/2 inches and even with the backing a bit larger, they will fit into the throat of the machine very easily. Thanks for asking.

Anne, you asked about thread color for your brown block... cream sounds like it would blend nicely. Are you using different color threads on your other blocks? Also, you mentioned you were going to use your regular foot for sewing instead of FMQ foot. Does that mean you are leaving your pattern paper on and stitching over the top of it? How will you keep the paper in place while you are sewing?

FMQ can be very intimidating. Most instructors will tell you that once you get everything ready and start to 'remember to breathe'. I thought that was funny but it is oh, so true. It mostly takes practise, practise, practise... I have not mastered it but I am more able to breathe now when I am FMQing. LOL

Yes, I will be stitching directly through the paper and taking it off after. I have re-thought the idea of a different color of thread for each one. That would be a lot of re-threading the machine. When I pinned the blocks I just put the paper on at the same time and everything is held together.

Here is a photo of some of my orphan blocks, do you see any possibilities? I have done several quilts with QAYG but they always look kind of messy on the back. Hope to see suggestions on how to finish the back.

I think the ladies and the stars might go together. If they are different sizes you could add-on a bit to any smaller ones. The back of the one I am working on will be a fall print for the blocks and also the sashing. I am hopeful that it will not show too much that they are all different pieces. Do you have enough of something that you could make it all the same?

I think any of your blocks would look good to practice on.

I use the tissue paper alot, myself...not real comfortable FMQ without. If you're not directly on the lines, it doesn't matter...once you take the paper off it looks good. So, go for it & use your FMQ foot, it's how you get the practice! Also, have you thought about using a varigated thread? Look closely at mine as few pages back...that's what I used. Varigated threads are great when you have lots of colors & don't want to change threads all the time, plus they tie the blocks together...especially if they're scrappy. Give yourself permission to try. :)

Vicki, I have thought about varigated thread many times while working on quilts. I will give it a try someday. On this on, I have started with a light cream color. Had two done before I got your message. I will do it someday though, I promise.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]356015[/ATTACH]Well, just finished putting the sashings on and sewing the rows together. I'm pleased with how this turned out. No not everything lines up exactly, but that's okay. When I do the next one it will be with fabrics that don't stand out as much when joining. Can't wait to see what Jen adds tomorrow.

Take care everyone.

here's an idea I have just looking at your different blocks -- take the 4 "kinda" log cabin type blocks and turn them to create a different look (this could be the center of the quilt). The scrappy stars could be placed around the center (align 3 on each side) then the ladies set along top and bottom. Place the butterflies in the corners.

without a design wall for me to play with your blocks, if you try this arrangement and take a pic, maybe we can help you further. Although I'm thinking you might have to add a couple more rows to those "center" blocks.

It could turn out awful once I see it on your wall but that's how I figure things out :-)

Vicig626, thanks for the suggestion. Going to give it a try in just a little while. I have more of the Indian girls and the strip star blocks. I also have strip pieces of the bright colored 9 patches that I could make up very quickly. Don't have any more of the other blocks. I do have more orphan blocks, but can't find them right now. I thought they were all together.

Everose, your quilt is adorable.

Adding borders
 

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Using the same sandwiching technique I used to make the squares, I cut my top borders to my finished size adding in the 1/4 inch seam allowance. I cut my batting at least half an inch larger then my top borders. I cut the back pieces almost the same size the my batting. I used spray basting adhesive. I lightly heat pressed the backing onto the batting first then I flipped over the unit and sprayed the batting with adhesive and then gently rolled my top border piece down the batting border smoothing and re-positioning as needed to center my top border piece onto the Border Sandwich. I have already chalked traced my design onto my top border. I did not heat set the top border because I was not sure if the iron would mess up my stenciling or possible set the colored chalk into the fabric.

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I ran a basting stitch around the edges of the Border Sandwich and then began to quilt my design on the border.

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When I quilted the center of the short and long side strips I rolled the front and back of the border into a scroll. I found that this gave me great control and I was easily able to guide the needle. (In the picture above I am quilting the bottom border. I did not take the extra step of basting all the way around the edges. I had found that the spray basting was holding well enough.) I don't know that this will always hold true. *** My personal thoughts are that the denser quilting designs such as stippling or tight geometrical designs need to have the extra hold of the sewn basting around the edges. ***

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I then trimmed the excess batting and backing.

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To give myself room for error I made my top border longer than it needed to be. So at this point I trimmed both sides of the top border in relation to the design of my quilting. Now Im ready to attach the border to my center piece.

ADDING BORDERS Part II
 

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Using the same length 1 inch top and the folded 1-3/4 back sashing strip I prepare to attach the top border strip to the central unit of the quilt.

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To help deal with the bulk of my center unit. I fan folded the center unit and used clips to hold it in place.

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This created a nice compact unit I could manage at the sewing machine.

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Once I finished attaching the border unit then I squared the corners.

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The top border is attached and I'm ready to move on to attaching the bottom and then the two sides in the same manner.

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I will post pictures of my front and back finished project picture as soon as I'm done with the binding. I look forward to seeing more finished projects Ladies. :thumbup:

Have an Awesome Day. :)

Oh Jenniky! I love the quiltin' ya put in the border strips!!!! Your instructions are so awesome!!!:thumbup:
PS. I'm still frog stitchin'.:thumbdown:

I found it at JoAnn's I dont remember the brand or who made it. Our JoAnn's here had apparently just received them in and was telling me how great they were. Here is a picture. If you havent found them or someone else can not give us a name then next time Im at JoAnn's I will look for them again and get the Brand Name. It seems to me they were in the aisle where all the Singer Sewing gadgets area. :confused: Also I have to say by the time I was done quilting and attaching the borders you could barely see the purple chalk on the white material. Once its washed I'm positive it will be clear as a whistle.. but before we whistle I will make sure and wash the quilt...LOL :D

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One jump backwards and two jumps forward. :thumbup:

I think a border o' the tan fabric that ya have in your blocks w/the blue corner squares would look great. IMOH Play around w/tha fabrics & see what ya think. Your gon'a make it great.

Jenniky, you have done a FANTASTIC job with this tutorial. Your instructions/photos were wonderful. I was able to follow along w/o any problems whatsoever. Thank you so much for doing this for us. I know you've spent quite a bit of time doing this and we all appreciate it so very much. I do have some photos of what I've accomplished so far and will post very soon. I'm so pleased to be able to learn this technique. I love the design on your border.

Jenniky - great tute on the borders. The trial I run into when getting the borders ready to quilt is lining up the top piece "straight". If it's not straight, I end up with my top being wavy and end up trimming more of my top piece than I would like in order to have a nice, straight border strip. I hope this makes sense.

I'm hoping to work on my project next week. I have some small projects to get finished first (makes money for me so it's important).

Everose...I agree with Dubib. I've used the piano key border before too but it was at the edge of a plain fabric so it didn't distract from the pattern of the quilt but rather complimented it. Think of the border as a picture frame for what you've done. The piano keys would actually work for the back of the border if you want to use up all of the scraps.

JenniKy...I've attached the side borders and so far so good. I'm using my quarter inch foot rather than my walking foot so I can be more accurate and that is working but I know my top piece isn't going through at the same speed as the bottom piece and some waves have probably developed. I'm laying it aside today and will get a fresh start on it tomorrow. So far thwt's my only concern...being able to keep my quilt square. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

Jenniky, thank you so much for the instructions. You are so clear in your descriptions and with the pictures added in, I feel that I can do this. Right now, I am at the quilting the blocks section. It is a learning experience. I will not be using magic marker for the lines on my parchment paper in the future. I have done three blocks with a light cream colored thread, and each time the needle punched though the paper it turned the thread a dark grey. Oh well, it is just a little lap quilt for me or Jim, and maybe I will get lucky and it will come out when it gets washed. (keep your fingers crossed for me).

Again, you are a wonderful instructor and you can be my teacher any time.

Okay, time for a design change. I checked I don't have enough of the tan/brown color for the borders, but I have enough of the dark blue. So my thought is to use the dark blue as borders with the tan/brown for the corners. Then I will use the piano keys and the blue squares for the back.

Thanks for your help.

Jen, thank you. You made this so picture friendly that I didn't have any trouble following along. Now just to do.