More Christmas squares for Emily

I'm with Amy and Camie. I really like this square. I LOVE, LOVE Emily's fabric choice and the square was easy. 

(Unless you don't pay attention to the directions and make SIXTEEN half square triangles!) 

Luckily, I found some extra fabric online and did it right! 

Snow Globe for Amy

Amy, this was such a fun square! I apologize for taking so long. But it is "in the mail".  I can't wait to see it finished.

Merry Christmas! 

Mardie

America, The Beautiful!

Over the past 2 years, 12squared has been helping me with a patriotic quilt. I finished it in time to display it for the 4th of July! Woo Hoo!! (Can you find your squares? lol)

I quilted a few pillows to match! Including some freehand stars on the front!


It makes me feel like I am at the Olympics just to see these! : )

Thanks for all of your help.
Mardie

April fabric brings May Hearts!

This heart was so fun and quick to sew together.

I think it's going to be a really sweet quilt when finished.   And since I hate waste,  I went ahead and sewed the parts we cut off into half-square triangles for you to make a matching something with.  

If everybody sent you the extras I bet you could almost make a second small quilt. I know a couple people have already made theirs, but maybe they still have the scraps?  :)
I did that with a quilt I made for myself and ended up with enough to make a second full quilt for my daughter.

Camie's Trees!

Ok! I forgot to post my trees for Camie. I sent them to her...but I never posted them.
Camie, I am excited to see your finished quilt.

Mardie's Heart Quilt

Here is my heart!

I found this quilt on Pinterest (http://pin.it/T0kG26w). I  really do hate to violate copyright laws, so I worked hard to find the pattern in order that I could purchase it. I failed. The first link was to "Tula Pink". It was supposed to be in one of their books, which I could not find. I found another "Pin" that resembled the one I liked so much. It was from "Craftsy". Then I found a kit that was put together by our very own "Stitch'in Post"! But it was sold out! Not to be deterred, I got out pencil and graph paper and started creating a pattern for us to use. Here is the result:

 

I looked at the individual square on the right and thought..."Good heavens! That's 36 tiny little squares and HST's! That is too much!" Anyway, I pruned it down to a much more reasonable square.

Here we go. You will receive fabric for your square in the mail. Two pieces of red fabric, 2 pieces of turquoise fabric & 4 pieces of gray fabric.  (The color in my photos is really off Sorry.)

Trim your pieces to:

Red:     One 12 1/2" X 6 1/2" rectangles

Turquoise:    Two  6 1/2" X 6 1/2" squares

Gray:    Four  2 1/2" X 2 1/2" squares

(Some of the pieces that I am sending will not need trimming. It depended on how I needed to cut off the fabric I had. PLEASE check them all for accuracy.  Don't make any assumptions.)

To create your HST (half squared triangles) start by drawing a pencil line diagonally on the back of your turquoise and gray squares. 

Then lay out your two heart pieces. It's hard to see in the picture on the right, but it is assembled so that each half is a mirror image of the other. 

Pin turquoise squares at bottom corners as shown. Pin gray squares as shown at top of red piece. (Hopefully you can see from the diagram above, that when stitched along the square's diagonal lines, there is the formation of a heart. )

Stitch along the diagonal lines. Please secure stitches with a few back stitches. Sometimes on a diagonal line, my beginning stitches get bunched up when I back stitch. I like to start in a few stitches and back stitch first before proceeding. 

PLEASE USE A 1/4" STITCH!! The more uniform we can be in our cutting and sewing, the more uniform the squares that we send to each other will be. (I'm finishing a quilt with many squares sent by others. There were several small squares. I had to "square" the rest of the squares down to the size of the small ones. Unfortunately, it messed up the design that was to be created when all of  the squares came together.)

As you can see, 1/4" is a bit less than the 1/4" hash on the foot. PLEASE measure your stitches.We can't rely on the measurement of the presser foot.

Next, Trim your diagonal seams to 1/4". 

After sewing your diagonal seam and trimming them, your heart will look like this:

Press the seams open.

Pin the 2 heart sides together. PLEASE carefully match up the top and bottom of the heart.

Stitch the center seam of the heart.

Press open.

Here us the finished heart. The gray on top and the turquoise on the bottom work beautifully into the overall pattern of the quilt. My pictures definitely do not show the beauty of the colors.

Thanks for helping! I am excited!

Love,

Mardie

Hi. I'm Mardie... I am addicted to fabric.

My story goes back a long time. I think I can blame my mother... you know the kind. She had a wall in the basement that had shelves full of fabric. I think her motto was, "The one with the most fabric, WINS!" She sewed our clothes. She braided rugs. She used a large loom to weave strips of wool into long rag-rugs that we sewed into an entire carpet.

Now, I have a room full of fabric... and machines.  I have fallen in love with quilting. Especially now that I am able to machine quilt to finish them. I started with my speciality, "Stitch-in-the-vicinity-of-the-ditch." Then my daughter encouraged me to try freestyle quilting. I loved it. Then, my husband gave me a "mid-arm" quilting machine! I think he loves me!

I am wife to 1, mother to 5, mother-in-law to 4, grandmother to 13 (on earth). We live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three of our married children and 11 of our grandchildren live within 15 minutes of us. Are we blessed or what! Our youngest is a student at BYU-I and a daughter lives in Nampa, Idaho with her 2 boys and husband.

I also love gardening. I just took a tour around the yard today. There are daffodils up and some of our azaleas are blooming! The trees are budding. The grass is still brown.

I love music. I am the choir director at church.

I love traveling. We get the "itch" to travel often.

Being an active member of the Mormon church takes up the rest of my time.
   Now, let's hear from the rest of the group. Welcome to 12squared!

Mardie

Happy New Year, 12squared!!

Welcome to the new year of 12squared!

Welcome new members!

Welcome returning members!

Good Bye (for now) to members who are taking a sabbatical! We hope you will be able to come back in the future. 

For now, please continue to check in from time to time and share your current projects and to comment on what you see.

Our 12squared quilters and assigned months for 1216 are:

Camie McCullough-February

Mardie Tobler-April

Amy Charles-June

Emily Sigler-August

Valine Vikari- October

Emolyn Wilson-January 2017

With 6 members right now, we will take 2 months for each square. Camie has chosen a square for February. 

She will be posting the information and tutorial very soon. Thank you, Camie!!

Please let me know if your assigned month won't work for you.

As you can see, the main blog itself has not been updated with our new information. 

I will get that done when I learn how! I also need to find out how to give the new members access to the blog. But, for now, this should get us started for 2016! 

Thank you! 

Mardie

Christmas Pinwheels for Becca

I've turned over a new leaf! Here is my post for September...wait for it...IN SEPTEMBER!!
My real goal in life is to finish and post before Camie! Hope you like them, Becca.

Love, Mardie

I keep forgetting to ask Liz about using the labels... Help?

Mardie is catching up on all her posts...

Most of these squares have been sent off long ago...in fact, I sent of Amy Gardiner's without taking a picture first! With great embarrassment, I present the following: For Camie, Kristin, Jen, Nicole and Amy C.

(Why, Oh, Why is Kristin's square off to the right like that!!! Arrrggghhhhh!!)

Amy, we have books on umbrellas, ballerinas, birdhouses, homes, foreign places and ships anchors! I can't wait to see this finished!

Rose Trellis or (Hugs and Kisses) for Liz's baby Charlotte.
"Miss Kate
 by Bonnie and Camille 

Some other projects from this year:

Baby Charlotte on a simple stacked block baby quilt.
"30's Playtime" by Cloe's Closet

Railroad Crossings for my Idaho daughter Grace's baby, Andy.
Loved this "Oh, Boy!" by Blake Riley

 I am struggling with the blog... I will just publish with love to all. 

Thanks for my Patriotic Stars which keep coming in the mail! I'm so excited!

Mardie's Twin Star Tutorial (Red Square)

Here is an example of the block pattern for the Twin Stars Quilt.

Last year we made blue stars, this year we will make red squares. 

I am asking you to make 2 RED squares. They are small squares (8 1/2").  

I am sending all of the fabric to you. (Mailed this morning!)

This is the red square that we will do this month.

Enclosed in your mailed packet, PLEASE find 2 1/2" strips or squares of:

Cream fabric

Red with flowers fabric

Cream with Red berries

Cream with Blue and Ivy fabric

Cream with Red flowers

Cream with Red "mums"

Red and White stripe

Please do not substitute any of the fabrics. If you need more, let me know. 

Be careful cutting, some of the strips are cut close. 

Mostly you will have extra fabric after cutting. 

Please return any excess with your finished squares. I may need it for finishing other squares.

When sewing, please use 1/4" seams

PLEASE pay attention to the orientation of the fabrics. 

Flowers and stripes, vertically, up and down, etc.

This square is made up of Half-square triangles, and a few Flying Geese. 

A. Let's start with the Flying Geese. You will make 4 of these units.

Cut the Cream with Blue and Ivy fabric strip into Four  4 1/2" X 2 1/2" rectangles.

You will need Eight 2 1/2" squares of the Cream.

 

Draw a line from corner to corner of the Cream squares.
Place 1 Cream square in the corner of the Cream with Blue and Ivy rectangle. 

 

 Stitch ON the drawn line.

 
Press to the dark. Trim 1/4". Press again.
Repeat...Three more times.

 

B. Half-square triangles, lots of them!

2 Units: Red stripe with Cream and "mums"

2 Units: Red with flowers and Cream with small red flowers

4 Units: Red with flowers and Cream with Red berries

Cut all (if needed) into 2 1/2" squares. 

 
  

 

Draw a line from corner to corner on one of your matching squares. Plan out your orientation NOW. So that the lines and flowers are correct vertically.

  

Stitch from corner to corner ON the drawn line. Trim 1/4" as shown. Press to light. 

Lay out your Half-square triangles as shown above. Again, check your orientation. As you stitch these together, then press seams open to lessen thickness.  
 



C. Repeat the process for the corner units. Again, watch and plan for proper orientation. 
I had to deconstruct a finished square to get some pictures of the corner units. Now I can't get the photos to transfer to my computer! Aarrrgghhhh!!!! Please use your imagination. Lol.

Assemble the corner squares as above. (except that it is not finished)

D. With all of the units ready, lay out the square as follows. (Yup, this is the only picture I have.)

Stitch the units together in columns, press open.

Stitch columns together to complete the square. Press seams open. 

Please do not trim the square(s). 

When I get the photos to transfer I will put them in for a more complete ending. Although, I doubt if I need to do so. You are all so able and talented.
Thank you, ladies! I hope you liked the square(s). 
Mardie