Blog Archives - Page 3 of 15 - Childlike Fascination

Everyone’s Buzzing about this Quilt Planner

November 9, 2015 by Terri Swallow

It seems we are in that season, my dear friend Stephanie from Late Night Quilter has also recently launched a really amazing quilting product, the Quilter’s Planner!

She’s launched an IndieGoGo project to fund this venture and while she’s already raised almost 6 times her goal; if you’re a quilter this is going to be a must have for 2016 and a great gift for your favorite quilter this holiday season!

One thing I’m super excited about is being able to plan my projects and keep my projects organized within a day planner. This is something I’ve always struggled with as a creative person with a full time job. As Stephanie said in her video for the project, I also find myself with multiple notebooks and lists all over the place.

The page of projects in progress might also help me get really honest about prioritizing my time which will be essential since I’m starting life as a small business owner now too (cause I didn’t have enough things to do!)

I’m also excited to tell you that I’ll be in the planner as a Stephanie is including quilt and block patterns in the book too! My block, String Showcase, from the 2015 New Quilt Block Blog Hop will be in the planner! I’ll be amongst some fabulous other designers (and many other dear friends) like Cheryl Brickey of Meadowmist Designs, Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl, Amy Garro of 13 Spools, Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced, Mandy Leins of Mandalei Quilts, Pat Sloan and Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter!

Make sure you place your order through Indiegogo to make sure you get your planner and get ready to get organized for 2016!

Windermere Granny Square Placemats

November 3, 2015 by Terri Swallow

I’m now a 2 time Moda Bake Shop baker! Today my latest Moda Bake Shop post, Granny Windermere’s Placemats went up on their site, you can check out the full post over at the Moda Bake Shop.

I used the lovely Windermere line by Brenda Riddle Designs for this post and while it’s a bit of a more traditional palette than I typical use I really love how it came out.

The whole process of coming up with a design, planning, writing it out and photographing is such a fun process for me when I make enough time to do it in big chunks. Is it odd that I find the process of making just as beautiful as the finished product? I always end up with many more photos of the process than I could ever use!

In the design process I struggled with whether to leave the tan edges to make crisp corners or to give the design a softer look by cropping the tips of the sashing. Significantly inspired by how my EQ7 of this design came out I opted for cropping the tips of the sashing!

I’m so pleased with how the first of these placemats looks on the hutch I inherited from my Grandmother. It’s a very old piece of beautiful wood furniture and I’m glad there’s a soft place for things to land on it now!

PS. There’s a great post coming next week on how I bleached the background fabric to make a second placemat! Follow my the blog on Bloglovin or subscribe to the newsletter to get notified when that’s out, I can’t wait to show you!!!!

Coordinating Mini Barn Quilt

I had someone ask me about the Mini Barn Quilt in some of the pictures, I coordinated one of my kits to look perfect with this placemat, you can buy the kits for the shown Arkansas Traveler block or 5 other designs over at MiniBarnQuilts.com

Sneak Peek at Mini Barn Quilts and A Fabric Giveaway!

October 8, 2015 by Terri Swallow

Okay so many of you have seen the previews either on Periscope or Instagram but here’s another and the first official, first video, first time lapse sneak peek of my Mini Barn Quilt Kits in action (more about them below the video)

So yea, I had a crazy idea that I wanted to be able to make mini quilts by mixing wood and fabric. Through the magic of the Internet, some great feedback and some unusual events I decided I was going to give this idea a go and make decorative Mini Barn Quilts available for everyone to enjoy! The kits are not available for sale yet but will be in just under 2 weeks!

The video was with an early prototype and you can see below that the baseplates are etched for easier assembly.

I’ll be premiering them at the Charlton Sewing Center at the Massachusetts Shop Hop October 16-18th and they’ll be available for sale online that same weekend! There are 6 different designs: carpenter star, Missouri star, Arkansas traveler, hexiflower, flock of swallows and bear paw.

Now, the other reason I’m here today? I’ve got some fabric I’d like to giveaway.

I have been purging like crazy in my life to make room for this project and part of that was this 6.5 pound pile of fabric scraps. My definition of scraps is loose and I’ve always erred on the side of “buy a little more than you need just-in-case” mentality but then I have excess and scraps make me anxious (I know, I’m not the only one who feels this way!) So I want these scraps to have a good home. It’s a mix of mostly quilting cottons, some other fabric too. There’s both designer quilting cotton as well as big box store brands and there’s scraps of all different generous sizes.

So I packed them into a Priority mail box and now it’s time for Instagram to take it away:

Giveaway time! Enter to have this 6.5lb box of fabric shipped to you! All you have to do is follow @terriann and then tag at least 2 of your friends in the comment! Giveaway ends 10/10/15 @ 2PM EST, one entry per person, world wide entries welcome! T&C's on ChildlikeFascination.com (link in profile) Brownie points for tagging extra friends or using heart/drool emojis. *Brownie points do not translate into entries; they'll just make me smile! #fabricdestash #giveaway #freefabric

A photo posted by Terri Swallow (@terriann) on Oct 8, 2015 at 5:15am PDT

Giveaway Terms

Giveaway will run from ~8am EST Thursday, October 8th 2015 and ends at 2pm EST Saturday October 10th 2015. In order to enter: follow @terriann on Instagram and in the contest entry image and tag two of your friends (or more if you’d like!). I’ll announce the winner Saturday afternoon on Instagram!

One entry per person (minimum two friend tagged) world wide entries are welcomed! Winner will be picked at random using Random.org number generator.

Scrap fabric may or may not be pre-washed and comes from a dog friendly home

[instagram-feed num=5 cols=5]

Cottage Away from Home

September 22, 2015 by Terri Swallow

Boy has this summer been a whirlwind for me. I’ve been busy on a project recently (which I’m hoping to share more detail on before the end of the month) and it’s absorbed a lot of my energy. Along with that I got a promotion at work and that’s zapped a bit of my focus away.

Because of this I’m trying more and more to take some timeout for myself and I got a chance to do that over the Labor day weekend at my family’s cottage on the Long Island Sound, my favorite place on earth. My Gram, who passed away almost a year ago, lived there in the summers but now my aunt & uncle have moved in. They were away for the weekend and at one point the other family members who were around all went into town for one reason or another and I found myself at the cottage alone.

I’m 30 and in all of the times over the 30 years I’ve been visiting that cottage I’ve never been there alone for more than 45 minutes. This time I had nearly 3 hours to myself on one of the most glorious sunny September days and I did something I’ve always wanted to do: photograph and capture the bits and pieces of my happy place.

As I was able to quietly frame up the view and make the room just right I think I managed to capture the sense of peace that you get when you’re away but you still feel at home.

I setup the tripod and use a technique called HDR (high dynamic resolution) to really get my camera to capture the scene the way I see it in real life. I wanted to capture breath of fresh air as the light cascading through and filling the entire cottage.

If you’ve spent time around the ocean you can almost taste the salty warmth trapped in the air and smell the honeysuckle breeze fluttering in the window shades in these pictures. I feel like i’m back there now writing about it.

I can remember working my part time job in college and seeing this mirror in the gift section at the unfinished wood furniture store I worked at and immediately knowing I needed to get it for Gram to hang at the cottage.

These two chairs are the spots my grandparents always sat – my grandfather in his rocking chair and my gram in the wicker chair. Loss is a funny thing and it’s hard to put words on it. I had a sentence here but I rewrote it 4 times before deciding it was not mine to share; maybe photos will have to do that on their own.

Thank you for letting me share this with you. Tell me about your favorite place in the comments!

PS. Yes, this is the cottage where the wall hanging I’ve posted about before will hang.

PPS. There’s a giveaway coming on on Instagram involving 6.5 lbs of fabric later this week, follow me on Instagram to keep your eyes peeled!

[instagram-feed num=6 cols=6 showheader=false]

String Showcase Block Tutorial & New Quilt Block Hop

September 3, 2015 by Terri Swallow

Welcome to day 4 of the New Quilt Block Hop sponsored by Fabri-Quilt! I can’t even believe how many amazing blocks everyone has showcased this week.

Fabri-quilt generously donated fabric for myself and all the other bloggers today posting new blocks as part of the hop. We had 6 fat eighths of this fun watermelon summer color palette.

So today I get to share my block along with 15 of my dearest bloggy friends. Check out blocks on the blogs of all my other Fabri-Quilt New Block Hop hoppers to see the blocks they’ve created!

Host Terri Ann (that’s me!) of Childlike Fascination made a string showcase block
Robyn of Hoops & Thimbles made a seahorse star block
Helen of Midget Gem Quilts made a summer blog hopping
Jinger of Trials of a Newbie Quilter made a lovely sailboat block
Anja of Anja Quilts made a floor tile inspired block
Mary of Quilting is in my Blood made a taffy pull block
Emma of My Handmade Home made a fun pieced block
Francine of Mocha Wild Child made a treasure hunt block
Dena of Living Water Quilter made a beach ball frenzy block
Deb of The Farmhouse Quilter made a square sky block
Lori of SewPsyched! made a modern dogwood block
Amy of 13 Spools made a Adele star block
Denise of CrafTraditions made a magic squares block
Sandra of The Bias Edge made a chevron among chevrons block
Kathryn of Upitis Quilts made a modern popsicle block
Sandra of One Million Stitches made a Georgian flag block

The block I made is, what I’m calling, the String Showcase. It finished at 12″ finished block and uses 6 fat eighths. It reminds me of those fun striped beach umbrellas, perfect for our watermelon summer color palette!

12″ String Showcase Quilt Block Tutorial

Materials:

1 fat eighth for the corners
4 fat eighths for string pieces
2 sheets of paper
I use the Carol Doak’s foundation paper but you can use printer paper or newspaper, just make sure to drop your stitch length (I set my machine to 1.5)

Sew String Piece Squares

Step 1
Start off by cutting a piece 2 pieces paper 7 1/2″ square and draw a diagonal line across the paper

Step 2
Cut 4 @ 1″ x ~ 22″ strips from each string piece color. Cut then from the long edge of the fat 8th

Step 3
Lay two long strips right side together along the drawn line with the strips overhanging the edge of the paper by about 1/2″

Step 4
With your stitch length shorter than usual (I use stitch length 1.5) then sew through all three layers 1/4″ from the edge.

Step 5
Press strip open

Step 6
Continue sewing strips till you cover the corner of the paper

Step 7
Repeat in the other direction to cover the entire sheet

Step 8
Trim the excess to the edge of the paper

Step 9
Repeat steps 1-8 and make a second strip piece square

Sew Half Square Triangles

Step 1
Cut 2 @ 7 1/2″ square from the core. Mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of fabric

Step 2
Line up the string block with the solid square, the marked diagonal should go in the same direction as the string pieces

Step 3
Sew 1/4″ to both the left and right of the marked line and cut along marked line

Step 5
Press seam towards the solid color and repeat steps to make two more half square triangles

Finish the Block

Step 1
Trim all the half square triangles to 6 1/5″ square

Step 2
Piece blocks into pairs then sew the two halves together using a 1/4″ seam allowance

Tip: Use Clover wonder clips to keep the HST from shifting

About the paper
I leave the paper on until the end but as I sew the blocks together I rip the paper out of the seam allowance so I can press my seams nicely!

Once the block is complete I’ll use my seam ripper (and sometimes a pair of tweezers) to remove the scraps of paper that has been perforated by the stitches. The lower stitch length makes this easier to pull the paper away.

Now that we’ve completed the 12″ String Showcase blocks let’s get to the other fun part.

Giveaway Too?!?!

Fabri-Quilt was so kind to donate all the fabric for all the hoppers in this blog hop AND they’re topping it off by giving away a half yard bundle of the Watermelon Summer palette.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To enter today’s giveaway follow the Inspired by Fabric blog (either by email or blog reader) and let me know using the Rafflecopter widget. You can win an extra entry by leaving a comment on this post too! The giveaway is open to everyone (international entries welcome), and the giveaway will be open through Monday, September 7th at 11:59 pm EDT. Good luck! Inspired by Fabricis also hosting a *separate* giveaways this week too so make sure you check that out too!

Fabri-Quilt Blog Hop is On!

September 1, 2015 by Terri Swallow

I’m just catching up with the fun Fabri-Quilt blog hop this week. I feel so lucky to be hosting with Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs, Stephanie of Late Night Quilter. It’s been great meeting all the new bloggers in the New Blogger’s Blog Hop this summer and when many of them (plus other quilty blogging friends) joined in I knew this would be a great week of blocks & posts!

I am in awe with these amazing blocks that 60 other quilt blogger joined in to share with everyone! That’s one thing I really love about this blog hop; each block post includes a tutorial!

Jayne of Twig and Opal has been collecting links to all the amazing blocks that have been submitted making this a pretty great Pinterest board of free 12″ finished quilt block tutorials! (Jackpot!)

Fabri-Quilt is hosting a giveaway each day over on their blog Inspired by Fabric and there’s been a giveaway on one of the host’s blogs each day.

So do go hop about and repin you favorite blocks to your Pinterest boards and stop back on by Thursday when my group of bloggers get a chance to strut our blocky stuff!

PS. While catching up on the blocks I spotted that Wanda from Wanda’s Life Sampler made a Terri Ann block (how sweet is she!) and so resourceful getting 5 different 12″ finished blocks out of 6 fat eighths!

Fabri-Quilt Blog Hop

August 24, 2015 by Terri Swallow

Hi all! I’ve been so busy in the craft room this past month I’ve barely had time to sleep let alone write up some great new posts for you! One thing that’s been keeping me busy is the exciting Fabri-Quilt New Block Hop coming up the first week of September!

I’m joined again by the wonderful Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl, Stephanie from Late Night Quilter and Cheryl form Meadow Mist designs. I worked with those ladies on the 2015 New Quilt Blogger’s Blog Hop. Every day from August 31 to September 3rd we, along with over 50 of our dearest blogging friends will be bringing you block tutorials for fun blocks we’ve designed specifically for our color palette, Watermelon Summer!

Fabri-Quilt so generously donated fat 8ths to all the hop participants and afterwards we are going to have 3 fabulous quilts to donate to charity built from the blocks we created in all of our tutorials!

To top off that there will also be giveaways each day for bundles of fabric (cause we know you all need more fabric, right?)

My group is launching their blocks on September 3rd and that day I’ll be joined by

I’m so excited to finish up my tutorial for all of you and to see what the other groups are whipping up too!

PS. There will be more sneak peeks on what’s been keeping me so busy lately along with an update on my sailboat wall hanging and much more!

Sailboat Quilt Block Tutorial (Part 2: The Mast & Hull)

July 30, 2015 by Terri Swallow

I’m back with part 2 of the 12″ finished (12 1/2″ unfinished) sailboat quilt block tutorial. This fun nautical themed block is perfect for the cottage commissioned quilt I’ve been planning and working on. Next week I have a fun post planned to explore different layouts for this quilt block in a couple nautical themed quilt projects! You can see part one of this tutorial – how to make the sail in last week’s post.

Hull Instructions

Part one can be found here.

Materials:

G (1) 1 1/2″ squares mast fabric
H (1) 1 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ background fabric
I (1) 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ background fabric
J (2) 2 1/2″ squares background fabric
K (2) 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ background fabric
L (1) 2 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ hull fabric

1. Draw a diagonal line (with erasable) on the wrong side of both the (2) 2 1/2″ (J) background squares

2. Align the (2) 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ (J) background squares to the 2 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ (L) hull fabric as shown below (direction is important!)

3. Sew on the marked line then trim off corner 1/4″ away from the seam

4. Sew the (2) 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ (K) background strips to opposite sides of the hull unit

5. Sew the 1 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ (I) and 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ (H) background strips to opposite sides of the 1 1/2″ (G) square mast piece

6. Join the mast strip to the hull to the sail

6. Bask in the sunshine on you brand new 12″ Sailboat Quilt Block!

Isn’t is lovely?!?!

For my sailboat wall hanging I needed 12 of these 12″ finished sailboat blocks. Next week I’ll be talking about layouts you could use with this design to inspire your nautical sailboat project! Hope you enjoyed this two part tutorial!

Using Sandpaper to Mark Half Square Triangles

July 28, 2015 by Terri Swallow

In a recent tutorial you might have seen that I had a red sandpaper in the photos when I was marking my half square triangles (HST) or other bias line marking.

Draw a line to make half square triangles

In May I went to the Original Sewing Expo and one of the classes I took listed sandpaper as a material we needed to bring. I was a bit mind boggled by this but after a quick stop by the hardware store to pick up some fine sand paper I made my way to to expo and the class.

The instructor explained that the sandpaper helps keep the fabric in place as you mark lines that would usually cause the fabric to stretch, shift or cause your lines to not be as straight.

Such a very clever trick especially when using a marking device that tugs the fabric as you write.

Sailboat Quilt Block Tutorial (Part 1: The Sail)

July 23, 2015 by Terri Swallow

The other week I posted about the sailboat wall hanging I had been designing for my family’s cottage. After visiting a few design idea I ended up creating a fun 12″ finished (12 1/2″ unfinished) quilt blocks. Here’s part one on how to make this quilt block for yourself! I’ll be posting in the coming week with part 2 and some layout ideas! Part one of this free sailboat quilt block tutorial is to make the sail using half square triangles!

Pattern Yield: 12″ finished Sailboat Quilt Block

Sail Instructions

Materials:

A (6) 3 1/2″ squares background fabric *
B (6) 3 1/2″ squares sail fabric (2 ea. of 3 colors)*
C (2) 2 1/2″ squares background fabric
D (1) 4 1/2″ square background fabric
E (2) 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ background fabric
F (1) 1 1/2″ x 12 1/2″ background fabric

* You’ll see in the pictures, I used 5″ charms for pieces A and B. At that size there was more waste fabric when trimming the half square triangles than I like to have so the pattern is written for a more accurate size.

1. Draw a line diagonally across the wrong side of the (6) 3 1/2″ (A) background fabric squares

2. Pair up the 3 1/2″ (A) background squares with the 3 1/2″ (B) sail squares, right sides together

3. Sew a 1/4″ to both sides of the drawn line

4. Cut the fabric along the drawn line

5. Press seam allowances towards the dark fabric to yield 8 half square triangles (HST)

6. Trim all HST down to 2 1/2″ square

7. Arrange HST, the 2 1/2″ (C) bacgkround squares and the 4 1/2″ (D) background square as shown below

8. Sew the HST and 2 1/2″ (C) squares as shown below

9. Sew resulting squares together as a four patch

10. Sew the 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ (E) background fabric to the sides of the sail square

11. Sew the 1 1/2″ x 12 1/2″ (F) background fabric to the top of the sail

Sail, complete!

The hull post ~~will be up soon~~ can be found here: Sailboat Quilt Block Tutorial (Part 2: The Mast & Hull and the some ideas on layouts for this 12″ finished quilt block with some nautical themed ideas!

I used the it’s Sew Emma Alphabitties to mark the pieces for an easier tutorial. Please let me know in the comments if you think this was helpful and if I should continue using them for tutorials! I purchased them a couple months ago and this is the first time I’ve used them and I thought they were helpful.

Linking up with:

And Finish it up Friday

Everyone’s Buzzing about this Quilt Planner

Windermere Granny Square Placemats

Coordinating Mini Barn Quilt

Sneak Peek at Mini Barn Quilts and A Fabric Giveaway!

Giveaway Terms

Cottage Away from Home

String Showcase Block Tutorial & New Quilt Block Hop

12″ String Showcase Quilt Block Tutorial

Sew String Piece Squares

Sew Half Square Triangles

Finish the Block

Giveaway Too?!?!

Fabri-Quilt Blog Hop is On!

Fabri-Quilt Blog Hop

Sailboat Quilt Block Tutorial (Part 2: The Mast & Hull)

Hull Instructions

Using Sandpaper to Mark Half Square Triangles

Sailboat Quilt Block Tutorial (Part 1: The Sail)

Sail Instructions

Disclosure

Quilting Posts

Rainbow Medallion Mini Quilt

Logo Quilted Pillow

Fabric Postcard Swap – Yes this is a thing!

Spiked Star – Free 12″ Paper Piece Quilt Block

Community