Card Trick is not impossible

(This post is dedicated to my friend, Franni, who gets high blood pressure and wants to cry at the mere mention of the Card Trick quilt block)

The Card Trick block is something that has mystified me for eons. It isn't that I don't understand how to put one together and have it look the way it is supposed to, it's that I can't understand how I seem to be one of four people on the planet who have figured it out.

Franni tells me the instructions she has seen in the past were confusing and she did not understand them. Well Franni, those who can not explain it simply, do not understand it well enough. Here is my attempt to show everyone how to make the Card Trick without needing massive doses of anti-anxiety meds when they are finished.

You will need:

Scissors
Seam ripper (just in case)
Rotary cutter (if you do not have one, do NOT attempt the Card Trick block. Your purchase will be well worth it, so I highly suggest investing. I can't live without mine.)
Cutting mat
Omnigrid ruler 9.5 x 9.5 (I also recommend the 6.5 x 6.5 as well as the 5 x 24)
Sewing machine
Steam iron and appropriate amounts of water to make the steam (You do not want to know how many times I thought my iron was broken because it was not steaming, and my silly butt had not filled it with water.)
Ironing board
Beverage of choice (I prefer a little coffee with my cream and sugar)
Catchy tunes

If you do not know what an Omnigrid ruler is, or why you so desperately need one, the short version is it is a clear ruler with bright yellow markings, a 45 degree line, and if you plan on putting any serious effort into quilting, it will be your best friend. You can see through it, so it makes it easy to line up edges for cutting and trimming. With the Card Trick block, you will find the 45 degree line the best invention since dirt. I promise to explain as we go through this.


(My Omnigrid and rotary cutter)

A note about rotary cutters: USE A SHARP, UN-NICKED BLADE! A nick in the blade will annoy you to no end, and you will press harder when you cut to force it to cut despite the nick. This will make your cutting mat cry. A dull blade is much, much, much more dangerous than a sharp blade. The expense of a new blade is far less than a trip to the emergency room for stitches. Keep the blade retracted when you aren't actively cutting.

On with the show.

First, you need to decide how big your block is going to be. I picked 12 x 12 because I'm making a king size quilt and did not want to have a million teeny blocks to sew. If you are doing a baby quilt, you may want a six inch block, or an eight inch block. Your quilt, your rules. Remember that.

Okay, you have your size, but your color options are limitless. You can have each "card" a different color or shade, like I did. You can have two colors and alternate them, or three colors. Three colors looks neat, especially if you are mixing the card trick with an alternate block such as the four patch. You could make the opposite cards the same color as one of the colors on the four patch, and the other two cards different from each other. Don't forget a consistent "background" color! You need something to go around the cards. I like to use solids for background colors so you are drawn to the cards, but your mileage may vary.

Cut your squares. By now you have decided how big you want your block. Mine is 12.5 x 12.5. It will be 12 x 12 when it's in the quilt, but standing alone, it is bigger. Seam allowances. At the end of this post I will give you a cutting guide for the block, for blocks from six inches (finished) to 12 inches (finished). We will skip that fancy stuff for now, because you are reading this and not trying to cut or sew, right now. You can print this for your own reference, or email me (karlee at uniquebykarlee dot com) and I can send you a .pdf with pictures. Free. I can not help you with the total yardage you will need for your quilt. I can give you tips on how to figure it up, but doing it for you? I'm sorry, I only have two brain cells and figuring your yardage might just implode both of them. Not fun.

Once you have cut and piled your different colors, you'll have a mess like this:




Woah, Karlee! Back up!! How do I cut good triangles? This thing is LOADED with triangles!!!
-weeps-

Oh. Right. Sorry.

You have your square. Cut your square on the diagonal. Sounds easy, but remember the 45 degree angle on your Omnigrid? Let it help you.




(Do you see the 45 degree line going from the middle top to lower left? Line that up with the edge of your fabric after you turned it on point. Line up the edge of the ruler with the top and bottom points for additional help, cut.)


(Repeat with the half triangle, when necessary)



Off to the ironing board we go.

A few words about ironing: Iron before you cut. Iron between sewing bits together. Iron your seams to the dark side, not toward the light, not open, iron to the dark side. Why the dark side? They have cookies. No, just kidding. If you iron to the light side, it will show through, especially if you are using white like I am. Iron to the dark and you can't see it. The only time you are ironing too much is when you scorch your fabric; then you've gone too far. If it isn't scorched, you haven't ironed too much.

I've seen people get so lost when putting a block together, it only makes sense to lay it out and sew in small bits. Lay it out, in a grid. You have nine mini-blocks in this one block, so lay out the mini-blocks in a grid with a little bit of a gap between them. Like this:


("But Karlee, it looks bad! Some of the bits are bigger than others and, and, and, and....." Yes. I know. It -needs- to be like this. Do NOT trim down what you think is too much. I will show you why, shortly.)

Look at your grid, carefully. You now see the mini-blocks, right? Start sewing them, one by one, and putting them back in their place on your grid. Keep your ironing board near your sewing machine unless you feel the extra exercise is necessary, then put it on the other side of the house.

You may sew them in whatever order you please, but I start in the upper right corner and work right to left, top to bottom. The first block I sewed was the upper right, and after I sewed, I ironed. I ironed the seam to the dark side.



The three piece mini-blocks really aren't that hard. Sew the two little pieces first, then open them and sew to the big one. Iron the seams, to the dark side. If you sew carefully, you can coax the seam of the two little pieces to the dark side as it is going through the machine. This will encourage that seam to lay toward the dark as you iron it.



The center mini-block gives the most problems for most people. It has points. People like points to match up. People cry, cuss, and scream when the points do not match up. Here is how to make it EASY. I promise. Follow the pictures.

First, fold half the block in on itself, like this:


(I pushed the top ones back a bit so you can see it better. Match up your edges when you sew.)

Sew the two inside seams to make two big triangles, but DO NOT SEW THE TWO BIG ONES. Go iron. But. I want you to iron it a special way, to make lining up the points EASY.


Look carefully. First, I laid the blocks back in the grid the way they were supposed to be, and then flipped them upside down laterally. I then ironed one seam to the left, and one to the right.

Ironing them in two different directions does a couple different things.
1. It makes butting up the points EASY.
2. It cuts down on the bulk at the exact center of the block.
3. By cutting down the bulk, it will lay flat. The flatter it lays, the prettier it is.


Here is a picture of the seams butting up so the points will be perfect. With one seam going one way, and the other going...well, the other...you can -feel- when they match up exactly.

Sew down the long side, and iron the seam whichever way you please. It does not matter on this one, unless you are using a light color on one of the blocks. In that case...iron to the dark.




(Perfection! Without tears!!)

Fast forward, all nine of your mini-blocks are sewed, and you need another cup of coffee. I know you are eager to now sew the little teeny blocks into your massive masterpiece, but DON'T!!!! STOP!!!!

No really. Don't. There is work to be done.

Years ago, I was in a quilt guild, and one of the ladies was 97 years old, and just a gem of a quilter. She had learned to quilt from her childhood best friend's mother. An Amish woman. Well, Flossie gave me a tidbit of information that I have carried with me since I met her, and it was the best, most important, most *valuable* thing, ever.

Square it.

Take your nine little mini-blocks back to your cutting mat and square them up before you do anything else.

First of all, you have little tag things hanging off each corner of the mini-block. This adds unnecessary bulk to your finished block. It also looks sloppy.

Squaring up isn't as hard as it sounds, and that 1/16th of an inch, or even the dust you shave off, can make all the difference in the world. I promise.

Take one of the two-piece mini-blocks, first. Line up the 45 degree line on your Omnigrid with the seam.



Line up the edges where they need to be. For this block, take the finished size and divide by three, then add a half inch. For me that is 4.5 inches. My mini block, when trimmed, should be exactly 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches. See the bits hanging off? Trim them. If you have to take a little bit off of all four sides, THAT IS OKAY. I'm giving you permission to cut off of all four sides to square your block. (Some people need this permission. You now have it.)


I took a close up for your benefit, and because this part is very important.

Where you have two fabrics coming together at the seam, make sure they join at the exact corner. If they are not going to join up at the exact corner, slide your Omnigrid around until they DO. This applies for all three types of mini-blocks.


(For reference...this is what I took off two sides of that mini. This much coming off CAN make a difference if you DON'T remove it. I promise.)



Three piece mini. It *looks* wonky on that white side, doesn't it? It is. I'll fix it by squaring it up. Remember: Keep the seam in the exact corner, even if you have to slide the Omnigrid around. This one had bits taken off all four sides to get it to perfection.





You get the idea. It is also okay to do this to the four piece block in the center. Cut, turn, cut, turn, as many times as you need to get it square and get the seams exactly in the corners.

Iron those mini-blocks again. They may have gotten rumpled when you were cutting.

Lay them back in the grid again.



Do you see the difference after you squared them up? No? Have a look at the "before".



WOW. What a difference, huh?

NOW you can sew the mini-blocks into strips. I work top to bottom.

A few things before you get started. Because I have a white background, I ironed away from it. This means SOME of the corners are not going to have one seam going one way and the other seam going the other. That's OKAY. Don't go trying to fix it...just work with it.



Sew your first three mini-blocks together and STOP. You need to iron, AGAIN, BUT.

Butbutbut. This next part is going to HELP you match up the rest of those points.

DO NOT go ironing willy-nilly.
DO NOT iron those two seams in the SAME direction.

No, no, no. Iron them in the opposite direction. On the top strip, I iron them both to the center block. On the middle strip, I iron them away from the center block. On the bottom strip, I iron them to the center. They are consistent, I can feel where they need to meet, and all is right and happy in the world.

But Karlee!!!! If I iron the top to the left, and the middle to the right, and the bottom to the left...

Uh huh. That works too, but it actually looks neater on the back doing it opposites instead of sames.



Get the three strips finished, then sew them together, using the same method of butting up the seams as before. You will find that since you squared everything up before you started this, all your seams match without bunching and your corners match properly.



In, out, in, then when you are done putting the strips together, iron the two last seams to the middle.

Now, flip it over. Look at your Card Trick.



Perfection!!!


Perfect point...


Perfect point...


Perfect point. This last one is on the edge, and not in the middle. Once it has been sewn into the quilt, it should meet up with the edge of the next block or the border.

Congratulations! You've made a Card Trick block while managing to keep your sanity.

Now for the sizes of the squares you will need for various size blocks.

First, there are two different triangles. Triangle A and Triangle B. Refer to the picture to see where what goes.



"A" Is a half square
"B" Is a quarter square

Cut as many of these pieces as you need from your various fabrics.

For a six inch block: For "A" you need to cut a square 2 7/8 x 2 7/8. For "B" you need 3 1/4 x 3 1/4.

For a seven inch block: For "A" you need a 3 1/8 x 3 1/8. For "B" you need 3 1/2 x 3 1/2.

For an eight inch block: For "A" you need a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2. For "B" you need 3 7/8 x 3 7/8.

For a nine inch block: For "A" you need 3 7/8 x 3 7/8. For "B" you need 4 1/4 x 4 1/4.

For a 10 inch block: For "A" you need 4 1/8 x 4 1/8. For "B" you need 4 1/2 x 4 1/2.

For an 11 inch block: For "A" you need 4 1/2 x 4 1/2. For "B" you need 4 7/8 x 4 7/8.

For a 12 inch block: For "A" you need 4 7/8 x 4 7/8. For "B" you need 5 1/4 x 5 1/4.

Happy sewing! Remember, if you need me, I'm only an email away.

I want to promote you!

Hi there! Looking for your first blog promotion? Your 17th? New to the whole online selling and need to get your name out there? Old hat?

Want free stuff?

You've come to the right place!!

I want to promote you. Yes, YOU.

What I want from you:

I want your shop banner (artfire, etsy, 1000markets, dawanda, etc). You can give me a link to the shop you want me to "steal" it from, or you can attach it.

I want 3 pics of your things. Your choice. Attach to the email please!

I also want to know (and this is the most important part, so PLEASE don't leave it out!)

1. Whacha make?
2. How long have you been crafting?
3. Favorite color to craft?
4. What inspires and motivates you?
5. Anything else you want to add?
   

We are curious folk here on the internet, so please tell us where we can see more of you! Give me your links to your shop(s), website, blog, twitter, plurk, facebook, myspace, and anywhere else you have an internet presence!

What I'm going to do with all this:

First of all, your banner will wind up on my website.

Your interview will wind up here, on the blog. The more you write, the more you will promote yourself!

Then, to top it off, I will put your name in TWO hats. One for the website, one for the blog. You get two chances to win a Coffee Coozie of your choice!

The drawing is 10 May...US Mother's Day, but ANYONE can participate in this!

If you win the coozie, and can't find the perfect one in my shop PLEASE email me so I can send you scans of the fabric I have cut but not sewed. I always have coozies cut to be sewed, but not all of it listed.

Free. Won't charge you for shipping or packaging. Free means FREE. You can keep it for yourself or give it as a gift. Please don't re-sell it, as it is copyrighted, and I'll get a little cranky. You wouldn't want to host a giveaway and have someone sell your widget to someone else, would you? Your consideration and respect is REALLY appreciated!

Now, on to the nuts and bolts.

Email me the information I'm asking for to karlee (at) uniquebykarlee (dot) com

I will email you when you are featured on the blog.

(To those of you already participating, I will be updating the website shortly!)

One more thing:

While there isn't anything really in it for you other than self promotion, I'd LOVE to host your tutorials here. Anything handmade, anything at all, even if you are my "competition", I want your tutorials. Type it out, let me know if you want me to fix grammar and spelling, and email it to me at the above address.

(There really isn't anything in it for me either, but this is about you, not me!)

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Tech help here.

We are living in a technology oriented world. You are reading this on a computer either directly on my blog or through a newsfeed reader (which I have yet to wrap my brain around).

There are a lot of tips and tricks for your browser that not a lot of people know, and I'm going to share them with you here. Please feel free to book mark this page for your future reference.

Before I go on, I want to say that I'm 100% self taught. I code my own website. When I blog here, I use the "Edit Html" tab instead of the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. I code my blog pages much like I code my website...and I don't use a fancy expensive program to write code, I use notepad. All the HTML and CSS tags are stored in my head. I have found that the expensive programs will give you more coding errors and won't get things exactly as you want them as easily as notepad.

Ok. On to the tips.

First and foremost, remember the ctrl key is your friend. I use keyboard shortcuts all the time, and this is a small snippet of what you can do with the ctrl key.

1.
There are times where you need to clear your cookies and cache to properly view a page that has been recently updated. What happens is the OLD cache and cookie get stored, and for faster loading, your browser will refer back to the OLD ones instead of knowing you want to refresh.

What do you do?

Well, most people take the long route. They go to tools, then options, clear cookies/history/cache and then close the browser, and reopen it.

Bah. Too many steps.

Easier to tell the browser to dump JUST THAT PAGE by pressing ctrl F5.

As soon as you press ctrl F5 it will refresh the page and loade the new cache and cookie.

2.
You have twelvity five tabs or windows open and want to close them quickly.

What do you do?

Most people again, take the long route. The click all the little red x's in the corner of the tab or window.

The fast way is ctrl w. It will close the tab you are on or the window you are viewing. alt F4 will do the same thing, but I find it easier to use ctrl w.

To close them quickly, hold the ctrl button while pressing and releasing the w key rapidly. It might take a few seconds for your machine to catch up, but they *will* close. Faster than if you click the x.

3.
Formatting your text. This drives some people nuts. When you have a thought, and want to get it out quickly with formatting, you stop, click, type, stop, click, type more. This works with blogger and artfire chatterbox.

Keep typing and use your ctrl key.

ctrl b will tell the bold function to work. Pressing it again at the appropriate time, will turn the bold off.

ctrl i will turn on italics. Just like with bold, press it again before you want to turn off your italics.

Sometimes ctrl u will turn on underline. It doesn't work in blogger, but it does work on AF.

Sometimes you can activate strikethrough with ctrl s. Sometimes you have to code it with <s>strikethrough</s>. (it works in wordpress, but not here)

Other random keyboard shortcuts:
~Tab will force you to go to the next open link, next text field etc.
~Space bar will check or uncheck a box.
~Space bar will also scroll down, depending on the page.
~When typing, the "home" key will take you to the beginning of your sentence.
~When typing, the "end" key will take you to the end of your sentence.
~When browsing, "home" takes you to the top of the page. "End" takes you to the absolute bottom.
~If you are typing and the enter key gives you a new paragraph, but you only wanted a new sentence, hold the ctrl key while pressing enter to cancel it out that one time.
~In windows, the print screen (prnt scrn) key will take a screen shot of your current page, so you can open it in a photo viewer. Just paste (ctrl v) in the new image once you get there.

Simple HTML.

HTML confuses a lot of people, especially beginners. It took me a long time to learn the different tags and what they did. I'll post some codes that will work in bloggers "edit html" section, because I have found adding pictures in the WYSIWYG editor can be a Royal Pain because they go to the TOP of the post instead of where you want them after you've typed and typed and typed.

You will need to change your links to fit you. Obviously the ones I used don't work and are only placeholders.

To make your links active:
<a href="http://www.url.com"> words words words</a>

To insert an image:
<img src="http://www.url.jpg">

To make your picture clickable, and open in a new window:
<a href="http://www.url.com"><img src="http://www.url.jpg"
target="_blank"></a>

To insert a witty email link:
<a href="mailto:me@myemail.com">email me</a>

Horizontal line (useful for dividing your post when you are switching subjects)
<hr>

If you have blogger HTML related questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on ArtFire, comment here, email me, yell at me, use a bullhorn, twitter me, or send smoke signals. I will respond as fast as humanly possible.

New way to open cans.

My dear friend Paula from Picardcreative does neat things with lids to tin cans. You know, fruit, veggies, beans, spaghetti, etc.



I love that one.

Anyway, I wanted to save lids for her also. One problem: no can opener that opens without the rough edges.

Looked *all* over town and no one had one. No one had even HEARD of them. Granted, this is Kansas, but are we *really* that far in the dark ages???

Time to think outside of the box!

My first experiment was on a can of beans. Not only did it work, it worked so well that now the lefty in the house can open cans too!

Here is a pic tutorial of how to do it with a "normal" can opener.

Can of pears. My snack. Here's to hoping it stays down. (I'm home sick from work)



Here is the can with my regular can opener. I think I paid $5 for it at walmart a thousand years ago.



I turned the can horizontal instead of vertical, like it should be...
(NOTE: you can see the can is punctured by looking at the handle...it's shut)



I've gone all the way around the can now, and slightly moved the lid away to show you. The good thing about doing it this way is that it doesn't fall into the can, it stays with the opener. The bad thing is it's hard to open tuna cans, you have to drain the tuna in a strainer. Oh, and occasionally you get a ribbon of paper in your food. It's easy to pull out, though. (One way around that is to remove the label *before* you open it)



Final pic, the lid is off. The sharp edges of the can have been happily smooshed to the lid, and are no longer a threat.



I'm sure Paula would love more lids, and now you don't have to get a new opener just to help her! Use the "contact" button in her studio to ask her where to ship the lids.

How-to: No Sew Fleece blanket

I love to give no-sew fleece blankets as gifts! They are warm, fuzzy, and they rarely get shoved to the back of the closet.

To make a no-sew fleece blanket, you don't need ANY sewing skills. None. It's great!

You will need:
Sharp scissors
Yardstick
ruler
Fleece (two kinds)

Let's talk about the fleece first. Fleece comes in different types, different qualities, and different colors and patterns.

For a no-sew blanket, you are going to want similar types of fleece, so if it shrinks, your blanket won't warp. I always suggest no-pill fleece because well...it doesn't pill in the dryer. It stays fuzzy and soft.

Fleece is normally between 58" and 60" (147cm and 152cm) wide, with the selvedge. The selvedge is the edge stuff that isn't always the prettiest, and often has brand and licensing information printed on it. You will want to trim this off before you start.

If you are doing a baby blanket, 1 yard of each fleece is enough.
Twin size you will need about 2 yards of each.
If you want to go bigger (such as a queen or king size blanket), you will have to stitch the fleece together.

Most blankets I make are made from 2 yards. I have gotten away with using panels before, but check the size first.

In my example, I used a bright floral with a neon pink. You want to contrast contrast contrast! Using two fleece of the same color won't give you as impressive as a result. The sky is the limit here with what you use, and your team colors (high school, college, pro-sports) are always a big hit! I will also apologize in advance for the blurry pics. My normal camera had died a horrible death, and these were taken with a camera phone. I have an easter blanket planned to do in the next few days, I will get better pictures then, and update.

First, spread your fleece out on the (clean) floor.



Layer your two fleece pieces together, and trim them up so they are identical in size.



In the above picture, you can not only see the contrast, but you can see how they line up.

Now is where you get your ruler. I use my clear grid rulers (for quilting) because they give me a reliable guide, but you can use a standard school ruler.

Start in one corner, and mark then cut out a 6 inch by 6 inch square.(15cm)



Now to cut...



Carefully cut out all 4 corners.

Use your yard stick or straight stick to line up a 6 inch (15cm) line all the way across your blanket. Your stick might not go that far, and thats fine, if you are careful during the next steps, you can measure up your 6 inch (15cm) line and leave your stick on it



Now you want to cut 1 inch (2.5cm) strips, 6 inches (15cm) up, all along the edge.

For your sanity, only do one side of the blanket at a time.



Got your side cut? Good! Now you start tying.

Tie it in a knot, looping twice. This will bring the "back" fleece to the front, and send the "front" fleece to the back.



Work your way around the blanket. Make sure you knot it fairly tight and don't leave any gaps between the front and the back.

When you are done, it should look something like these photos:





Happy no-sewing!

If you have any problems or questions, please do not hesitate to email me at karlee@uniquebykarlee.com and I'll do my best to get to you as soon as possible!