Denim Angel Quilt Block Tutorial

 I cannot take credit for this idea.  I found it on Pinterest and have to give Kudos where Kudos are due.  It started out as X-mas Ornament:Angels at the Selimut-ku blog.  But the denim colored blue angel from El Patchwork De Kris caught my eye and I thought that might make a quilt block.  And it did quite nicely.

I do machine quilting on a regular machine, so I always try to work with a 10-inch block.  It is limiting but just easier to maneuver around in the space on regular machine and so set about trying to increase the size of the angel to fit nicely on a 10-inch block.  So I started by trying to find something perfectly round in my kitchen to use for my circles and I came up with the bottom of a paper towel holder.  I think the top of a whipped cream container would have worked just as well. 

The diameter (measuring across from one side thru the center to the other) of the cut circle was 7 1/4 by 7 1/4.

Next I went to my Photoshop Elements and started with a new document with measurements of 5 1/4 and I chose a heart shape and stretched it to fit the measurements and printed.  I layered Wonder Under and my fabric that would be the wings and cut the heart out.

I cut circles from my denim to make my angels.  All of my denim is recycled and I tried to choose a denim that was faded a bit more than my denim blocks because I wanted that contrast in color.  I chose my 10-inch denim blocks that I had already premade and made sure that I chose blocks that had very little seam to them.  And sewed my circles with a over locking stitch right at the very edge leaving about an inch or two for turning.  Usually a seam is recommended and then you clip the seam to work around the circle but because I was working with denim and denim tends to fray I felt that close to the edge with the locking stitch was called for.  I turned my circles and just my closed scissors to help push the edges out.  I ironed the circle being sure to turn in the inch or so that was unsewn.  And went back to my machine to do a scalloped decorative stitch around the edge. 

When I was done the edges tended to want to curl up a bit probably because of the way that I had decided to do the over lock stitch but I was ok with it.  I just thought we would have a bit of a flirty angel.

Next I turned down the collar or what will make the little cape of the angel and ironed.  I was making 4 for the same quilt so I made sure that they were all the same.

This is where I started playing to decide if my colors were balanced and pleasing to me.  I called on my sister to help me decide which looked the best.

I folded down the collar leaving a bit of a space at the top for the head. 

 I created yoyos from different printed fabrics to see which I thought was most appealing. I tried them with the gathers turned up and with them turned down.

We tried them with little black eyes.

We tried them with a rose embellishment.

And with a button embellishment.



With opposite printed fabrics for the face.

With a pink face.

And a white face.  This is the one that we finally settled on.  I like denim for the dress and I think it shows off the decorative stitch so much better than the others.















At this point I positioned everything on my block where I wanted it to be with the Wonder Under beneath the heart, moved the angel off the heart and ironed my heart to my denim 10-inch block.

I have not been turning the edges of my appliques down and I hope that I don't regret this after the wash but I think the wonder under will hold everything in place.  If you think you would rather turn your edges under just cut the heart a 1/4 inch larger and do that before you iron it in place.

Next I used a decorative blank stitch and stitched around the raw edge of the heart.

Next I moved the angel onto the block and centered and pinned it in place.

Next I opened the collar up so that I could see the crease.

And I sewed along the crease.  The contrasting color will not hurt here as the collar will fold back down and cover it.

Then I folded the collar back into place.

And then tacked the collar to secure.  Not to worry with my stitches because the button embellishment will hide any faults.

Next I tacked the button in place.

Then I used the same blanket stich to go around the head.

I love my denim angel block.  I think she is just gorgeous.  I hope the tutorial was useful.

Wonderful News!!!

Well I feel like I have just left everything hanging here...but really think I had a good reason.  I went for my kidney surgery but when they did it my colon was nicked and they had to call someone in to repair it.  So instead of just the robotic removal of half the kidney, which they did, I had to be opened up for that repair.  I got home and still was feeling terrible and about a week later woke to a pool of blood in my bed and had to go back to the emergency room to be opened up again and all the flood cleaned out and was sent back home with a wound vac.  I am finally off the vac but still have an open wound that has to be dressed every other day.

But the wonderful news is that when the pathology results came back on the kidney it was denign...woot woot!

Lap Quilts Delivered

Two lap quilts made as gifts for friends...met one of my friends for dinner last night to deliver them.  The other friend doesn't know that it is coming...so it will be a nice surprise for her.

Life goes on

I am bound and determined that I am not going to let this get me down.  I have been working on two lap quilts and finished one for a friend today.  She has been the best.  She helps me in so many ways.  I am so very blessed.  Here are the pictures...but dang...I am going to have to stop being so lazy and break that camera out to get better photos...the I-phone just doesn't quite do it.

Sometimes Things just do not Workout as we Planned

I've just recently found out that my kidney cancer has returned.  I have struggled with this since I found out almost two weeks ago and then finding out about a week ago that they are wanting to remove 1/2 my kidney.  But I have finally decide to go ahead with this surgery and have 1/2 half of the kidney removed on the 23rd.  Please pray for me.

Another Try

Ok, so I decided one more try at the stars and I am a little more pleased with this set than the last but I have decided they really just aren't my thing...I will use them in a quilt but so far all of my recycled jeans/denim quilts have all been put together in a mod podge way so hopefully they won't stand out like a sore thumb.

This time I started with a 12 1/2-inch square and when I trimmed they were at 10-inches but one of the points I think is too close to the edge and I'm concerned my sashing with probably cover a bit of it when I go to put my block together.  This time I did not stack and slash but used some lines on my ruler that I normally don't use for angles and tried to line the edge of each block at the same place to try to get the cuts to run across each block at the same place.  The blocks did come out some better but I don't know...doing this block just feels a bit stressful to me and I don't like that feeling when I am quilting...to me that is my relaxing time...and I guess I don't like thinking quite that hard... :-)

Here are my blocks....

Hearts and Stars, a Bit of a Fail and a Bit of a Save, Never give Up

I can't hardly believe I didn't do a post about my heart blocks...

They were a bit of a booger bear to get to center correctly.  I would start by centering the bottom of the heart and had all the seams cut and lined out before starting but as I worked up it would migrate to the right in the direction that I was sewing.

I had also been wanting to try a stack and slash block for a star using the denim.  I finally got to that this weekend but about half way through...I got that feeling...you know...that I've been there done that feeling...meaning that I was already starting to feel a bit of a fail with it and I'm not sure I will try this again.  I got the idea from jmday.com which has a excellent tutorial for the stack and slash star but thought I would put a denim twist on it thinking that the different shades would make the star.

So I started with 5 12-inch squares wanting to work toward a 10-inch square since that is usually what I do in my jean/denim quilts and I try to choose old jeans at different levels of fade.  That was my first mistake....I should have started with a 13-inch as I typically will do just a bit more than a 1/4-inch seam on denim because it will fray sometimes.  Also all of my blocks had a seam because when you a recycling jeans there typically is no place that you can get a solid 12-inch square without a seam running through it.  My first thought was to use that seam as the starting slash but decided against that because the contrast in one jean to the next is part of what would make the star pop.  And I decided to turn the seam for each block...so for the top block I had it at the top...the next it was to the right...then to the bottom and so forth for all 5 blocks so that as I slashed through each stack those seems would not be stacked on top of each other making it difficult to cut through (why I thought there would be any ease to cutting through a stack of 5 denim blocks only God knows).  And I take care to stack so that none that are anywhere near being at the same level of fade are not next to one another but I found this hard to do as my jeans seemed to be more like a only two levels of fade.

So here I am through my first slash...not too bad so far although I was having to saw with my rotary cutter even on this first cut...apparently I need a new blade.  But from the top section I pull the bottom piece to the top...with the idea that this would be that this would be the mix for each block.  Then disappointment this is where I noticed that the top and bottom block were close to the same level of fade (too close to the same color)...but I decided to trudge on and sewed all my block back to gather and used a decorative stitch of about the same color.  On looking back I am wondering if I should not have just used a white thread for a little more contrast.

The thread is blending with the material pretty good here.

I worked at trying to make sure that I got my seams lined up good with my next stack, slash and sew.

So far so good...one seam seemed to be off just a bit but not bad and I am ready to do my next stack and slash.  My cutter has gotten worse so I decided to resort to scissors and I have to pull each cut piece away just a little to be able to get my scissors where they needed to be.  Ugh!!!!

And I get the next seam sewn and I am wondering now why my point at the top of the star doesn't match with the point of the little piece that you can see at the top...but there is no extra fabric at the end of any of my seams so again...trudging on.

So I stack, slash, and sew my next seam. There should be a total of 5 stack and slash.

And finally the last stack and slash.

And I have cluse where I got off...see how this final point is off center. 

I think this is the only one where the points all seemed to center correctly on the very middle of the star.

But as you can see here none of them came out to the 10-inch square when I  was done with my trimming as I had set as my goal when I started.  So I will sew a sash up the short edges if necessary.  After all these are just for me and my family.  They will still make good usable quilts.