Hello Fabric Friends,

Don't you just love sewing up something new? Today Elisa from the Production Design department teamed up with me to create Block #10 in the Community Sampler, the New- Four Patch. It's full of cute little four patch blocks and HST's. It was fun exchanging our favorite piecing methods and techniques and getting to know more about Eli. She has motivated me to start sewing more clothes for myself after sharing with me all the fun outfits that she has already made this year.  Read more about  Eli below and how she fell in love with all things quilty.

 We used Splendid Fusions to create our block. 

Do you always follow the instructions in a sewing pattern exactly how they are written? For this block Eli and I decided to change up the steps a little to simplify and speed up our quilt block process. 

Since all of our HST's are the same two fabrics we decided to use the Magic Eight Method for creating our HST's. Have you ever tried this method? It is amazing if you need to make a whole bunch of the same HST's. In this case we needed exactly eight HST's so this method was made for us! 

For the four patch blocks we decided to sew two 2" x WOF strips together and then sub cut 2" x 3 1/2" strips. Then we paired all our sub cut strips together to make all eight four patch blocks. 

Sewing up are block this way speed up the sewing process so much. As a quilter it's always great to find methods or techniques to make your life less stressful and more efficient. 

Let me introduce you to Eli, (below) make sure to comment below and get to know Eli. 

 How did you get into sewing?

Ever since I was little, I always had the interest in learning how to sew, but it wasn’t until my first year in college that I learned how to sew my first outfit, since then, I’ve always loved it.

What is your favorite thing to sew?

 It would be pillow cases. But on my free time at home, I love sewing my own clothes :)

Tell us about your first quilting experience… If you could go back and tell past you any advice what would you say?

 My first quilting experience was when I was sewing some pillowcases for Fall 2017 Quilt Market. We had so many products to sew that I barely had time to quilt so I just did straight lines calculating the distance of each line with the walking foot. They came out great though!

If I could go back in time and tell past me any advice I would have said;" hey, take your time to quilt, mark your designs before you quilt and sew at a more slower pace".

What is your favorite quilting technique that you use all the time

I would say, English Paper Piecing. Its so fun to do and I love to use this technique for my accessories projects.  Here is an example of one of my favorite accessory projects. 

Having the right sewing supplies to get the job done right saves a ton of stress. What is one sewing tool you could never live without. 

My fabric marking pen!!! I have the need to mark everything to make sure I get everything right.

Finishing a project gives all sewers a rush of happiness. What is your all time favorite sewing project you have completed?

It would be the Good Fortune Pillow case from Indigo & Aster collection. I sewed the two pillow cases and quilted both.

These pillows are definitely drool worthy!!! Didn't Eli do a amazing job!? These pillows are going on my to sew list for sure!

 Happy Sewing,

Meli