'There's a Bear in There' - Marti Michell Mini Quilt Blog Hop

Welcome to this long-neglected corner of the internet.  Since we last spoke, Vee and I have pulled the pin on cat&vee (while continuing to be great friends), and are following our own (as yet blog-less) paths as HelloFromCat and HelloFromVee - you can keep up as much or as little as you like via Instagram, we'd love to see you over there.

Now - on with today's tutorial for my 'There's a Bear in There' mini, made with Marti Michell templates.

I had clearly been living under a quilting rock, as I had not come across the magical Marti Michell templates prior to joining Angie on the Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt Sew-along.  I was a very quick convert and have very much enjoyed the opportunity to discover new ways of using them through this Marti Michell Mini Quilt Blog Hop - please click through to read all about the hop on Angie's blog. All the bloggers' links appear there, and also at the end of this post.  And here is the link to Marti's shop - the home of the templates and also her fabulous book 'More Bang for the Buck' - it's a total must-have if you love Marti's templates and would like to learn how to use them in your regular quilting life.

When it came time to create my mini, I'd been having a minor obsession with square-in-square blocks.  It was also around the time that Play School's 50th Birthday celebrations had been on TV (along with a bunch of awesome short celebratory videos on You Tube!) - so I came up with 'There's a Bear in There'. If you're not familiar with the Play School song, here is their home page.

'There's a Bear in There' mini quilt details

Finished size 22" square
Templates used - Marti Michell A + B sets.
Fabric (specific requirements are detailed below):
 - four fussy cuts and various coordinating scraps for your square-in-square blocks.
- various scraps for your square-in-square borders - no bigger than 2.5" x 10.5" will be needed for any one piece.
- strips for your sashing.
- 24" batting.
- 24" backing fabric.
- 2.25" x WOF for binding - cut and join three WOF strips. You won't need the full amount, so will have a small amount left over for another binding project.

Please note - I am assuming you know how to quilt and bind a mini, and so have not given instructions for that, other than fabric requirements.  This mini lends itself to either machine or hand quilting, so please go ahead and quilt to your heart's desire.  I chose a low volume binding, so the mini would 'run off the edge' rather than be framed by it - again, please choose whatever coordinating or contrasting binding leaps out at you from your fabric stash.

Marti Michell templates + cutting instructions
Each of the four blocks uses different Marti Michell templates from the A and B sets.  Below is a full photo of the finished mini, plus a full diagram of the mini, followed by the template and cutting instructions needed for each block, working clockwise around from the top left Butterfly block.  Please refer to the photo and diagram below for template and strip placement.  In the cutting instructions, I've included my own fabric choices in italics, to (hopefully!) make it easier for you to see to which template + strip I'm referring.

Butterfly block:
- Marti Michell templates: one B10 centre square (butterfly) + four B13 triangles (teal/navy stars) + four B11 triangles (orange spools).
- cut strips: two 1.75" x 6" strips + two 1.75" x 8.5" strips (Cotton + Steel lady face dots) + one 2.5" x 8.5" (multi-coloured flowers) + one 2.5" x 10.5" (grey floral lace).

Telephone block:
- Marti Michell templates: one A1 centre square (telephone) + four A4 triangles (teal beads) + four A2 templates (orange with white spots).
- cut strips: two 1.5" x 6.5" + two 1.5" x 8.5" (cats) + one 2.5" x 8.5" (grey background with white flowers) + one 2.5" x 10.5" (blue houses on white background).

Bear block:
- Marti Michell templates: one A3 centre square (bear) + four A6 triangles (poo dot) + four A4 triangles (orange/brown butterflies).
- cut strips: two 2.5" x 4.75" + two 2.5" x 8.5" (pugs) + one 2.5" x 8.5" (orange circles) + one 2.5" x 10.5" (black/white/red text print).



Typewriter block:
- Marti Michell templates: one B8 centre square  (typewriter) + four B11 triangles (blue spools) + four B9 triangles (orange flowers).
- cut strips: one 2.5" x 8.5" (rain drops) + one 2.5" x 10.5" (black dot on white background).



Sashing:
- Marti Michell templates: one B12 cornerstone square.
- cut strips: four 2.5" x 10.5".  I used a Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman chair print (because "There's a bear in there, and a chair as well ...").  As the print is directional, I made sure to cut two strips with the 10.5" length horizontal, and two with it vertical.  If you are not cutting a directional print, you won't need to worry about that.



To construct your mini:
1. Make each block separately by sewing the inner round of triangles to the centre square, followed by the outer round of triangles.  Press your seams in your preferred way as you go - I normally press open, but chose to press towards the triangles in each instance here.


2. Refer to the mini-diagram above to add your border strips around each square-in-square block.  My fabric notes in italics above may also assist you with your chosen fabric placement.



3. Work out your preferred placement for your four blocks.  Use a 2.5" x 10.5" sashing strip to join the top left and top right blocks, and another to join the bottom left and bottom right blocks - taking care if you are using directional prints. Press seams towards the sashing.

4. Join the remaining sashing strips to the Marti Michell B12 cornerstone square. Press seams towards the sashing strips.



5. Sew the horizontal sashing strip to your top row, taking care to match the vertical sashing seams with the cornerstone square seams.  Add the bottom row.  Press seams towards the sashing strip.

6. Give your mini top a good press, and you are done!

7. Layer your mini top, batting and backing together and quilt as desired.  I chose to hand-quilt, as I needed a good on-the-go project for all the times I sit in the car / at activities waiting for my kids!

8. Add your binding - and your 'Through the Window' Marti Michell mini is done!

I hope you love making the mini as much as I did - it's a great way to showcase some favourite fussy cuts and prints.  If you would like more Marti Michell template inspiration, please click through to the other bloggers on the hop.

12 August 2016 Angie @ GnomeAngel.com

19 August 2016 Tonya  @ The Crafty Mummy

26 August 2016 Lucy @ Charm About You

2 September 2016 Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts

9 September 2016 Cat @ cat&vee (you are here now!)

16 September 2016 Nathalie @ Les Ouvrages de Nat

23 September 2016 Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts

30 September 2016 Peta @ She Quilts A Lot

7 October 2016 Lisa @ Sweet Little Pretties

14 October 2016 Rachel @ Wooden Spoon Quilts

21 October 2016 Raylee @ Sunflower Quilting

28 October 2016 Lisa @ In the Boon Docks

4 November 2016 Marti Michell! 

But wait, there's more! 
If you make and enter a mini quilt - following any of the tutorials above - you will be in the running to win a Marti Michell prize pack!  To enter, make a mini (you must follow one of the tutorials) and submit a photo:
- to the link-up tool that each of the participating bloggers will post on their blogs on Friday, 18 November 2016;
- to the specific album in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Facebook Group; or
- on your Instagram with the hashtag #MartiMichellMiniQuiltmania and tag both Angie @gnomeangel and Marti @martimichell on your photo

Thanks very much to Angie and to Marti for inviting me to hop along with you all - it's been fun.  Here's to Marti's templates making themselves at home in your sewing room. xoxo cat

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.: Round the World Blog Hop :.

The Round the World Blog Hop has landed here, thanks to a tag from the lovely Kirsty of Bonjour Quilts - it's taken a couple of WEEKS to bounce around Brisbane from Kirsty's place to here - I had such good intentions of writing and publishing a post before we went away on hols, but end-of-term and packing-for-holidays combined to leave the good intentions unrealised.  We've since been to Sydney, Canberra and Dubbo - but we are home again and it's time to unleash those good intentions.

You will by now have seen lots of Round the World posts - it's fun to read a little behind-the-scenes action in our Bloglovin' feed each week.  I'm not even sure who started the blog hop, but I AM sure that by now it's bounced around the world several times already.

I met Kirsty at Camille's Red Letter Day class a few months ago, and we've since caught up a couple of times for a coffee, a chat, and a little look at fabric.  Kirsty's recently released her very awesome Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern - click through and take a look.

And now on with the questions.

1. What am I working on

Much of my sewing time is spent on bee-blocks, swaps and gifts for others.  I really do need to make time to sew more for my family and home.  The four projects I really want to concentrate on in the short term - hopefully before Christmas-sewing gets cracking anyway - are:

- Nested Churn Dash quilt.  After attending lovely Jane's class recently, and getting a move on chain-piecing my blocks, I managed to sew all my blocks together after getting home from Dubbo last week.  This one now just needs to be quilted (not by me!) and bound.  I love it.  Jane's pattern is here.

[close up of the corner stones - Cotton+Steel lions!]

- starting to plan my combined 'x+ word' (or 'cross plus word') quilt.  I made a heap of x+ blocks last year and then thought to add them to the word blocks I received from the AusModBee girls.  I've decided to now also ask for word blocks in my new Sew Sisters bee - so hopefully - by the Christmas holidays, I'll have all my word blocks and can start working on a layout, combining them with my x+ blocks.   Here are a few favourite x+ blocks, and a close up of the newspaper cat print, which I think is hysterical - those cat faces!

- quilts for my girls.  I'm like a broken record with this one - but seriously - I've never made my girls a quilt.  Shocking.  I have a pretty big pile of blocks sitting ready to go, but still need to make l-o-o-o-o-o-o-ts more, so I'm going to commit to a block a week each, and hopefully have them ready to sew together by the Christmas holidays.  The blocks are a mix of houses, words, stars, churn dashes, log cabins ... which is possibly why it's taking me so long - there's no real plan and no pattern for any of the blocks - I'm just making blocks and words for the girls in colours that they like, and hoping that they will look very awesome when sewn together.  THAT's the plan!

- Teeny Weeny Swap. This is a swap started by Berene of the Vancouver MQG and Lorena of the Greater Western Sydney MQG.  They had a few spots left open, and Lorena kindly contacted the Brisbane MQG to fill them - wahoo! - all the spots were snapped up very quickly.   This is a secret swap, with a few rules, the main one being you have to sew with teeny weeny pieces.  I have a plan AND a pattern for this one, but to get with the Teeny Weeny theme, I've sewn up a little patchwork panel using 1 1/2" squares.  Some of the girls will be sewing with much smaller pieces than these, but these squares are teeny weeny enough for me!

2. How does my work differ from those also in my genre

I'm not sure what my genre is - sewing-wise, I make quilts, bags, cushions, zip pouches, coasters - and Vee and I also design and print fabric panels.  There's lots going on.  One point of difference might be my fussy-cutting obsession - in pretty much every project I've ever made, I've fussy-cut something for it.  I can't think of a single thing I've made, where fussy cutting hasn't been involved.  So maybe that's a point of difference.   That, and I have a lot of trouble sewing with solids.  So - fussy-cutting and not-solids - we'll run with those two.

3. Why do I create what I do

I love to make bright, happy things to have about the house and to give as gifts or for bees and swaps.  I like to have a bit of humour and meaning in everything I sew too - whether that humour and meaning comes across doesn't really matter, as long as I know it's there!  Essentially, I love to sew and design, and get a little twitchy if too many days go by when I'm not making something.

4. How does my creative process work

I think a lot about who I am making something for, and spend a lot of time looking at my stash and thinking through what I'm going to make.  I'll change out fabrics pretty often even once I've started sewing, as I like each piece to be exactly right.  I draw sketches and scribble fabric ideas down - such as in the little fabric-table I made for my Nested Churn Dash quilt.

I'm very messy when I'm making something too - there's always a fabric mountain sitting next to my cutting mat - but I do try to fold it all away before starting on the next project.  That doesn't always happen though, and once I can't find a particular fabric that's buried in the mountain, I know it's time to stop and tidy up.

As for my blogging creative-process - that's way too random and reactionary, and I'm trying to make it more organised.  Right now, if I make something, I then take pics and write a blog post.  If I don't make something, I don't take pics and don't write a blog post.  I'd like to try and improve on that very basic, unplanned, setting-the-bar-very-low situation - by possibly planning a few posts (what?!), linking up with weekly linky parties, and also blogging about our beyond-sewing interests.  I've been thinking a lot about the 'why do we blog' question since having a drink with the fabulous Angie in Canberra (more on that in another post - but it was really awesome to meet and chat with Angie!).

So - that's pretty much it for our Round the World Blog Hop.  Thanks for tagging us Kirsty.  It probably won't surprise anyone to know that I've not organised to tag anyone ... but thankfully the blog hop will continue hopping round the world and not stop with me (that makes me think of primary school chain letters! - thankfully there's no 'pass it on to six people or else' pressure!).

Our school hols are at an end - just one more day - and then it's on with term 4.  Hope your long weekend is a good one.  xoxo cat