Setting a Circle into a Square: A Finishing Technique for the Hard Candy Block Pattern

For the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild's 2015 BOM, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to design the February block. I'm calling it "Hard Candy" since it's designed after these Japanese hard candies I found at the grocery store.

It was super fun coming up with inspiration and designing the block (more on that later maybe?) but the real challenge was putting my techniques into words for others to follow.

If you're getting the block pattern from the LAMQG newsleter then YAY! You may have read the instructions (or seen my presentation at the meeting) and wondered what the heck I was talking about when I mentioned piecing the circle portion of the block into the background using a facing. Well, that's what this post is about. It's a tutorial for that method of piecing circles into blocks.

If you're not a member of the LAMQG you can get the block from the link below:

Hard Candy Block Pattern!!!

And please, everyone, let me know how you like the pattern in the comments! Con Crit is very welcome! This is my first formal block pattern and I'd love feedback.

Using a facing to set a shape into a block:

This method works for most shapes! All you need is some scrap fabric. The facing won't show in the end so feel free to grab whatever you have lying around, matching or not. **Please note that the grey floral Flea Market Fancy print in these pictures is the fabric on my ironing board, and not part of the block**

Step 1: 

Cut your scrap fabric exactly to the shape/size of the piece that you want to set in. For the Block, you'll cut a circle about 8" in diameter.

Step 2: 

Pin this piece to the RIGHT side of your background. For the LAMQG block example I centered this piece by pressing my facing AND my 12.5" background in quarters and then matching the centers. 

Once pinned, sew around the circle (or other shape) 1/4"-1/5"  from the edge (Keep it even all the way around. Make sure to stitch in a nice clean shape)

Step 3: 

Cut out the center 1/5" inch inside your stitch line. Cut through both the facing and your background fabric. You are cutting your hole!

Clip curves of inside seam allowance making sure not to cut through your stitching. 

Flip all seam allowance and facing fabric to the wrong-side of the background piece and press. You should not be able to see any of the facing fabric or seam allowance from the right-side of the background. You should have a nice clean hole. (There is no better way to phrase that. Sorry)

Step 4:

Place background on TOP of finished "Candy piece so that the candy is centered in the circle in the background. Pin if necessary  and then sew the candy to the background by stitching just to the left of your previously stitched circle (where you stitched the facing to the background). 3 layers of seam allowance should be to the right of your stitching and should roughly match up with the edge of your "candy".

Once you have stitched all the way around the candy following your previous stitching press your completed block flat.

Here's the block in the official LAMQG BOM colors!

 Boom! You're done! Congrats, it looks great!

Please don't forget to post feedback: what you like and what can be improved and tag photos of your finished block with #hardcandyblock Cheers!

Stars in your Eyes

Monday night I attended my first LAMQG meeting and loved it! Such a friendly and welcoming group of people, much like I'm finding all of LA to be. LA has this reputation to be fake, and guarded and inaccessible to many, and while I'm not exactly finding that to be entirely untrue, I'm also not finding that to be the case with the majority of my experiences here. I miss my SBAMQG ladies, but I have a happy home here in LA.

I managed to finish a new quilt to share by the meeting. It began as a fusion between the Sparkle Punch and the Single girl quilts, and became "Stars in Your Eyes". I'm in love with the palette and the concept, and my piecing, but I'm kind of in hate with my quilting. It began as a sophisticated concept, but I think I accidentally ruined it with children's scribbles. It was intended to be more starry night than birthday party, but by the time I recognized my mistake I was too far along to tear my stitches out. My City Scape late night photo-shoot also didn't work out very well, so better, daytime or dusk pictures are to hopefully come.

I also wanted to preview the next quilt I'm working on while wishing for Fall:

Inspired

I know, I know, it's been a while! And even after promising myself that I would make a blog schedule for myself. It's shameful really, but I'm back now, making an effort.

During my last post I mentioned the "Inspiration" challenge for my quilt guild. Well the challenge is over (it was due in April! Golly, it HAS been a while!) and I love the results!

It was so exciting to see this quilt top come together pretty much exactly how I wanted it. Not all of my points match up, but it reads like I wanted. I chose a litho print of Alphonse Mucha's Zodiac and made rows of wonky star blocks in colors to coordinate. I used mostly cotton couture colors from Michael Miller (so, so, so yummy!!!!). As of now, its still just a top since I had no idea how to quilt it. But I recently purchased a free motion foot for my machine, so once I get the hang of it to my satisfaction, I think I'll quilt in a wonky star pattern. Until then.... coasters, coasters, coasters!!!
 

Since my last post, I've also fallen love with asterisk blocks and granny squares! So much fun! I love taking blocks and blowing them up. I think next I'm going to have to do a giant asterisk, because that block is a cutie!

Additionally, I was given the honor of being given a Liebster award from Anne and Gillian over at Play Crafts! The Liebster award goes to great blogs with fewer than 200 followers (I know, I fit one of those categories for sure!). Once awarded the Liebster, the blog owner chooses 5 other qualifying blogs to receive it.

Or, in bullet format:
1. Thank my Liebster Blog Award presenters.
2. Link back to my presenters’ blogs.
3. Copy & paste the blog award on my blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to five blogs with 200 or fewer followers that I feel deserve to be noticed and post links to their blogs on my blog.
5. Let the recipients know they have been given the Liebster Blog Award by posting a comment on their blog.

This is so cool! Love to baby blogs! However, since my circle of blog friends is pretty small, step 4 is going to be an ongoing process for me. Most of the blogs I follow were awarded already by the Play Crafts ladies, but this will encourage me to make more friends :p

I will award my first blog though!

Megan, AKA Dinomeg has a totally "stitchin'" blog that chronicles all of her fiber arts love. She is a crafty crazy cat lady with mega talent, and a quirky personality. Plus you can spot me once or twice over there ;) She is wayyyyyy better about documenting her craft-ventures than I am!

 She also made me this scarf!

So thanks again Play Crafts! And I promise to share more amazing blogs as I discover them!

Meanwhile, you should check out the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild blog, and the Harts Fabric blog where I've been making posts (along with my co-workers and other guild officers). You'd think that since I'm responsible for some "real" blogs that I'd actually be able to update my own once in a while... ha! Oh well.

Next up... Fanime costumes and graduation! (from college!!!! GASP!!!!)

Inspiration

It's no secret that I have somewhat eclectic tastes. So when it was announced that our first guild challenge for the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild would be to draw inspiration from a photograph or painting, I was instantly overwhelmed with inspiration. Now I am stuck in the predicament of choosing just one image. I may just have to do multiple quilts!

Clockwise from top right: A water color by Naomi Ito, Horoscope by Alphonse Mucha, Maru in a box, and a random gorgeous image that I found on Tumblr ages ago (I would love the source/creator)

There's a little bit of everything that makes me happy here. I think that the Mucha could be the most challenging, but perhaps the most interesting, while I have good ideas for all of the others that I know I could execute. 

This challenge certainly has me thinking about my inspiration, where I find inspiration from and the way that it manifests its self in the things I create. It's also got me thinking about what kinds of images that I find beautiful and comforting, and how I want that to be represented in what I make and present to the world. There is more to think about on this subject for sure. 

I can't wait to see what I choose (Ha!) and I can't wait to see what other members do!

Holiday Wrap Up (heh)

Happy 2012 blog followers! 2011 went by so fast that it's just now sinking in that a new year is starting in.

2012 is going to be a huge year for me, I'll finally be graduating college and entering the "real world". WHile I should be appropriately terrified of that notion, I'm actually excited to have a little extra crafting time (priorities anyone?).

My resolutions for the new year can be summed up as: Craft more, eat less. Lol, although that's not the entire story. For 2012 I would really like to push the boundaries of my crafting abilities by tackling more challenging projects and work on refining my techniques. I also want to go back to eating healthier (not just less) and being smarter about meal planning and calorie intake. Easy, right? We'll see!!!

Here's a round up (or wrap-up, get it?) of presents and projects I made for my Handmade Holidays of 2011.

Last year I made my boyfriend a quilt for Christmas, and my dad was touched by the idea. So this year, I decided that my father (who is an avid vegetable gardener) would be the recipient of a quilt. I spent all year gathering the fabrics (my usual shop was out of many of the prints in this series by the time I decided on the theme) and the pattern is a modified version of "A Wedding Quilt" from the Purl Bee. I'm happy to say that he was thrilled and moved by the gift.

I made these easy leather pouches super last minute for a white elephant gift exchange. I wanted something useful and not gender exclusive. The large one is sized for a phone or bills (or cosmetics etc.) and the small one is perfect for business cards or coins.

While I had grand plans for some adorable crocheted cat toys, that plan never came to fruition. Thus, the wool felt cat toys were born, and they were a huge hit. I honestly think that the cats in my life were the most pleased with their home made holiday gifts this year (although if I had filled all of my other gifts with "drugs" then the story might have been different. haha, I kid, I kid).
These little guys are simply stuffed with some polyfil and a generous amount of catnip and used wool felt that I had laying around the house. I get my wool/rayon crafting felt here.

I also rounded the gift list off with several silk scarves by using about 1/3 of a yard of silk, and then finished the edges with a rolled hem on my serger. Fast, easy, fun.


And as a reward to myself, I finally started on a quilt that I have been promising myself that I would make for ages now: My Heather Ross Quilt.

Photo taken at SueDee's in Scotts Valley at January's South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting.

Heather Ross is easily my favorite fabric designer, and over the years I have amassed large scraps of her fabric from other projects that I have made, and decided that this project needed to be done. The center panel is from one of her banner kits, and today I am adding a large aqua border to make it "sofa sized". The back will have a scrappy stripe with large blocks of tangerine and snow, and the binding will be just a little bit scrappy. I'm so excited about this project! And it will be the first ever quilt that I have made for myself and not as a gift.

So far I'm satisfied with my productivity over Winter Break, but I still have a few more things I want to work on before school starts up again next week. Eek!