PennyQuilts

I've moved!

2009-10-15T06:22:00.000-04:00

Please visit me at my new blog - a quiltmaker's journal

No pictures

2009-10-08T05:36:00.000-04:00

I'd be happiIly sharing pictures of some more work I've done recenty, excpet that my camera has gone missing - I always have the cord attached to it, the one that connects it to the computer, and that makes it easier for me to find. Yesterday I found the cord, where the camera usually sits, but no camera! My family members swear innocence. My dogs, I'm not so sure. Me, well, yep it could have been me. But I can't understand why part of it would be left behind - a game of Clue with my camera.

More Applique and Stash Scavenging

2009-10-04T05:42:00.001-04:00

Let me see if I can re-trace the steps some of my fabric bundles have travelled in the past few weeks. I often put my fabric into sets - if its obvious they go together to make something - those sets then get shuffled about and experimented with.

Some thimbleberries fat quarters came into the studio, for some certain reason - can't remember what now! They were tried out for a Lori Smith applique, a sixteen-baskets applique, and finally the magic vine applique...maybe some piecing projects in between. Finally they happily landed on the Pushin Up Spring design.

For the Magic Vine, the thimbleberries set was replaced by some assorted fabrics - I had posted a picture of these a few days ago. Tried out those fabrics, but blah - didn't like the white background, couldn't find a cream or any other colour background in my stash.

Then I spied my pile of batiks and hand dyes - not a huge pile - but enough certainly to do something with. Out went the assorted fabrics, in went the batiks, on black. Well, this was okay - but I felt that the simplicity of the magic vine designs, needed some kind of busy print or something. And niggling in the back of my mind was a very nice assortment of white on black, that would go nicely with those hand dyes and blacks....

next thing you know, I've got out my Bountiful Baskets pattern from the Rabbit Factory - and voila!

And, digging through my baggies of fabric set scraps, I found enough of mostly a line called Summer's Baskets of Flowers to make the Magic Vine.

So, some successfull stash scavenging, lots of handwork to look forward to, no buying new fabric - yet - and one fabric set left over! Pretty good work for a week when I've been recovering from a nasty throat infection and cold.

Pushin' up Spring

2009-10-03T06:40:00.000-04:00

It's October - already! - and I'm working on an applique mystery quilt called Pushin' Up Spring. This should bring bright thoughts throughout the winter. This free applique quilt is designed by Connie Sue at Apple Blossom Quilts. Sign up for the newsletter - quick! - and on the 15 th of each month, she'll send out a new installment. I'm looking forward to seeing her other signs of Spring. This is a large block with very easy applique - great especially for beginners.

Magic Vine

2009-09-25T03:39:00.003-04:00

For a long time, I considered making a version of the Magic Vine quilt. I waffled between the blocks offered, free, from Gayle at Sentimental Stitches; and the book of patterns by Eleanor Burns. Finally I purchased the book, and I'm glad I did. She has re-printed all the original newspaper articles that were used to make this quilt, which makes greaet reading; the book also offers great ideas for embellishing with hand embroidery, machine stitches, crystals, and ribbon. There are many quilt layouts in various colour schemes to give lots of ideas on how to make your own Magic Vine.

Here are three blocks I've made - I did them as needleturn, with starch turned edge on the leaf that sticks out of the top, mean to be sewn down as the blocks are joined as vine - quick and easy to sew, and the embellishing is a little bit extra to think about.

I think this looks pretty good - almost a keeper! But, I'm not sure those really are the colours I want to use; and I've now decided to set each block on point instead of in a vine, in a strippy setting. I'm going to shrink them to 6" from 7" and do a 25 block layout, so I should end up with a nice size wall hanging. Well, that's the plan for now.

I went digging through my stash yesterday, and found this odd piece of focus fabric, and then dug up a whole new selection of colours that could make a bright spring version of magic vine -

I think I'll try a few blocks with these colours, and see how it looks.

Note to self - add more busy and/or large print focus fabrics to my stash! It really is a pretty easy way to pick colours, an idea that I rarely make use of.

What's your end of day or morning clutter?

2009-09-22T06:23:00.005-04:00

In response to my friend Peggi's great question - what's on you're cutting table? (her blog is at http://pwl-cyberhome.blogspot.com/ - I've slightly revised it to show what is also surrounding my cutting table! I won't show the ironing board, or my sewing table (that would be just too much information :) - but here's what my cutting table and work area looked like this morning -

Here, I have a new "fit to frame" applique pattern by Lori smith. This one has a little dog under a tree, a great cute chicken, and few other motifs that just made me *have * to get it. The fabric baggie is a possibility for this little project. Also, is one of the new spools of thread that I just received from Tristan B.C. They sell a terrific selection of European cotton threads, including Aurifil. And, the kitchen scissors somehow got on to my cutting table.

Hmmm....here I have some green fabrics that are now leaves on a vine, for Garden at Dusk, my version of Cindy Lammon's quilt in her book Gathered from the Garden. The cover of the new Lori Smith pattern is tossed on top of that book. The plastic storage box is for my sewing feet - that bo does not belong there.... Then, because I have age-onset a.d.d., I had to pull out a file of patterns pulled from Australian Patchwork & Quilting, looking for something that had just jumped into my head for yet another idea on a blue and white quilt.

Cottage Crossing Quilted

2009-09-21T13:23:00.004-04:00

Here's a little corner of finished quilt - I'm not up to getting a whole picture - I’m quite happy with how this quilt turned out – and I didn’t un-stitch too much, either! There are free motion curves in each courner of the geese crossing block, and free motion vines/leaves in the houses. Just straight stitching on the sashing, and on the borders. Now here is the problem - for the first time *ever* my lovely quilt has ripply edges, and the solid blue looks almost like its been feather quilted, but it hasn't - its gone all ripply. It hasn't yet been washed, so hopefully it will sort itself out; and, this is a gift for my sister, and I sure don't like something weird like this happening to a gift quilt - and why this one?! I can't think of one thing I did any differently than anyother of my quilts.

Here's a pic of the whole quilt top, before it was quilted -

I have actually got some other projects started that are actual keepers! I'm going to try to get back to posting every day or two, as I almost always have something, or some idea, to share.

So much indecision

2009-09-01T05:57:00.002-04:00

This “hobby” of quilting just seems to feed my habit of not being able to make a decision.

In real life, if you make decision, and act upon it, its done. Rarely do you get to go back.

But in my quilting studio, boy do I go back! and forward! and left and right!

I have spent the last several days – as I often do – just shuffling patterns and fabric.

I made one block from the gypsy rose fabric and nutmeg flannel, for the Plain and Simple quilt.

This looked good, and you’d think I’d leave it alone. But….I’ve been thinking about the new applique pattern called Southern Gentleman that Sindy at FatCat Patterns has offered – pulling out some yardage for the Plain and Simple quilt, as well as some pieces that were meant for finishing some orphan blocks – and doesn’t that look pretty?

And what if I added some navy?

And now that looks so nice, maybe I need to find a different pattern – do I really want that combination to be used on Southern Gentleman? What else is lurking around the corner to tempt me?

Here are a few applique blocks I fiddled with this week – then I gave up on the idea of vegetables as really, what would I do with a fruit and veg themed quilt? Although it would be fun to do….

And, sometime this past week I decided I *really* did not like where I was going with some blocks I made for Eleanor Burns’ Egg Money quilts sampler – thirties on red. I’m not even showing a picture :) So I’ve decided to re-do these in a them I’ve wanted for a long time – solids on black. Some of the blocks are prepped and ready to sew.

Can I also admit that I’ve given up already on Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler in blue and white? It just wasn’t looking like a project I could stick with – only 8 blocks in so that’s a good time to stop before I get much further. So what else can I make with blue and white? And I ordered a dozen red and cream fat quarters that I fell in love with – something else to puzzle over.

Finally – and this is a good thing – I finished the top from Jane Patek’s girl gang quilt. Isn’t it wonderful? *this* will be Fraser and Kaitlyn’s wedding quilt….yes, I did order and have a pile of fabric for a more modern quilt that I was going to make them….but this top just calls to me as their wedding gift quilt.

Some sewing done this past week….

2009-08-24T08:14:00.001-04:00

I did three blocks towards the Secret Garden quilt by Cindy Lammon, with hand applique leaves on the honeybee block.

I kept up with Pearl P. Pereira’s mystery block of the month – and here’s my version of the quilt to date.

I decided that the some of those large flower prints from the Portugal line were just too much for me – so I cut up the fabrics I did like to start a Sunshine and Shadow quilt, pattern from the book Radiant Sunshine and Shadow by Helen Frost.

I caught up on the bunnyhill tisket a tasket blocks – redwork version. I was going to change the stars to maple leaves on the July block, but then thought that leaves will likely show up on a fall design. So I added a moon, because I thought of the nighttime summer sky (maybe while camping...). But my moon looks like its backwards. I kept the sheep because he's cute. I completely changed August - cupcakes don't mean much to me, and I thought of what August might mean when I was flipping through books for design ideas when I found a doodle by Betty Alderman - just the idea of August when you have the chance to have to daydream on a hot muggy day.

And…I did get a quilt sandwiched, although it nearly did me in, but its ready to go when I am.

Design and Planning frenzy

2009-08-17T15:48:00.004-04:00

Over the past couple of weeks, since my last posting of August 2, I've been in a frenzy - or daze - or an obsession - about planning some new quilts. I've finished up the tops that I really wanted to get done...the leaf border on one of them will have to wait. I really needed to find some new fabric combinations, some new block designs, something interesting to keep me motivated. I haven't done much sewing at all during these two weeks, just a lot of book and magazine browsing, EQ designing, web shop browsing, and of course going through my stash over and over and over.

So these will be my latest works in progress, I think -

Sleep Tight in Poseyville, by Beth Ferrier, using fabrics from Moda Portugal line. The green leaves in each corner of the blocks are appliqued. I've got one block sewn, and is it ever a departure from my usual colours - pale yellow, white, and pink.

Secret Garden, by Cindy Lammon, using Moda Glace. I think I'll be making changes to some of the blocks - switching one for another. I've never made a primarily red and blue quilt - and these colours are softer than the usual repros I commonly use.

And, Plain and Simple bed quilt from Kim Diehl, using Gypsy Rose charm squares and a "nutmeg" coloured flannel - its about time I had a flannel bed quilt for winter!

During all this dreaming and planning, I was hoping to come up with a couple of miniatures and or wall hangings. I have lots of scraps, put into zip loc baggies so they're kind of coordinate. Somehow I ended up with all large quilts...but I do hope to soon make a small one to freshen things up for late summer/fall. Oh, and of course get to some quilting of the tops I do have ready to go.

Scrap Quilt Surprise!

2009-08-02T13:18:00.002-04:00

I’ve finished sewing together the top for Pick & Choose – it looks much different than the original, because of the sashing substitution.

But before the big picture - imagine my surprise when pressing the top, to discover…

Who *is* that man in my quilt?!!

He must have just jumped in at the last minute ‘cause its amazing his whole self is in that triangle!

Oops!

2009-07-31T09:40:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I decided I would finish the centre of Pick and Choose. Not too much to do – just finish putting together the four patches into blocks, then piece the sashing strips.

I got the blocks put together, counted them, and came up with 18, instead of 20. Okay….there are two more somewhere that I had made up some time ago just to see how the block would look. Now, where the heck did I put them?

The sashing strips are made up of umpteen 1 1/2” by 6” strips, pieced to form long strips that come to about 75”. Two of these strips are sewn together lengthwise to end up with a 2” finished size sashing. I sewed up 9 or 10 of these, then proceeded to cut up enough of these long strips to 12 1/2” to make the short sashing strips. I grabbed my 12” ruler – cut, cut, cut – 24 pieces – sat down to sew them to my block – ack! They’re short, or my block is too big! Or….I just made the stupidest mistake ever, because 12” is not 12 1/2”!!!!! Oh my – these pieces are not exactly replaceable scraps.

By now I’m tired, and fed up, and mad as all get out. I grab a basket of cut up neutrals that were meant for another background – they were cut up to a size that might work, and they were neutrals – and started to sew those into the proper lengths. By the time I realized that what I really had to do was make all the sashings neutral – that I couldn’t get away with short neutrals and long strips of scrappy – I had to put it down for the day.

But first – I had to find those darn two missing blocks. Which were no where. For a few moments, I seriously considered making the quilt with 3 x 4 block setting, instead of 4 x 5; but forced myself to find enough leftover pieces to make 2 more blocks. I did have to stop for the day though, while my sewing room looked like something had exploded.

This morning I got right back to it, before I forgot what it was I planned to do; and before I chickened out. I did get the new sashings sewn, the new blocks sewn, the centre of the top sewn. Now just the final pieced border remains.

More applique play

2009-07-28T06:13:00.001-04:00

I made yet another partial applique block yesterday – this time a design from one of Kim Diehl’s book. I’ve now decided that I definitely need to treat myself to some new fabric :)

I’m bored with my stash; unhappy with how the fabrics I want to use are looking in the projects I thought they’d be good for. Time for some new stuff – some style familiar, not so different that I won’t be happy working with it – but different enough that I get a little lift.

I’m also looking for a “just right” pattern – not really flowers, vines, wreaths, samplers – I’m looking for some pattern that has a repetition of a single block. Something I can slowly work away at, just to keep up my needleturn skills.

I keep thinking of the Applique Sampler I did from the Piece O Cake ladies – that quilt was all done in FigTree quilts moda fabric. I love the look, but never went back to it. Kind of got stuck in a rut of civil war repros, and tiny prints and tone on tones. Tried some brights, but they weren’t my style.

So I’ll do some shopping, I’ve got yet another pattern in mind, Twining Blooms & Baskets by Elly Sienkiewicz and hopefully have some positive results soon!

Fiddling with applique

2009-07-27T05:10:00.001-04:00

I spent the weekend playing with the idea of another applique project. While I already have handwork on the go (redwork, wool applique, even hexagons), and I have a few machine applique projects happening, I very much miss needleturn applique.

I keep thinking I’ll approach an applique pattern via needleturn, then reality sinks in and I’ll end up using a machine applique method. I am very slow at needleturn applique, what with periodic hand shakes, stiffness and cramping. I also have this annoying self talk going on – you *can* make a needleturn masterpiece!; no, what’s the point? I want my quilts to be used and loved and I already have made two pretty darn good needleturn wallhangings!

I would just like a project that I can pick up and put down without any timetable in my head – whenever I get the itch to needleturn!

Here are my experiments from this weekend – all were easy to sew, all are okay fabrics, but none gave me the *eureka!* moment – because of the fabric, the pattern, or both.

The first three are from a basket pattern in Kay MacKenzie’s Baskets to Applique; the last one is a basket pattern from Piece O Cake, the flower arrangment is from Bountiful Baskets by The Rabbit Factory.

I’ll keep searching and playing with fabric and EQ – experimenting with applique is my biggest challenge, and although I have taken the easy road with a few block of the month appliques quilts, I am learning a lot from them regarding colour placement, background fabric choices, and design. This will I’m sure help me to eventually make up my own version of a great needleturn quilt.

Hmmm…an ugly quilt in the making?

2009-07-23T06:27:00.002-04:00

I’m making up a quilt from a pattern called “Pick and Choose” by Carrie Nelson (Miss Rosie Quilt Co.) published in American Patchwork & Quilting June 2009.

All I can say is thank goodness I precut *everything* for this quilt – or else I might just have given it up somewhere along the line.

There is a lot of sewing in these blocks. Each block is made of four units, each unit is made up of two four-patches and two hsts, – I’ve sewn all the units, and made about 9 of the 20 blocks (the pattern calls for a 5 x 5 setting, I’m making 4 x 5). Oops – I can see a placement mistake in one of the blocks :) Then there is a pieced sashing, and a pieced border. The fabrics are almost all 1800s repros and a variety of printed neutrals. Right now I think it looks a bit like the dog’s breakfast, but amazing things have been known to happen when quilt blocks turn into a quilt – so I’m hoping!

The wonderful “old” Singer sewing machines

2009-07-18T16:16:00.001-04:00

Here’s a picture of a wonderful Singer sewing machine that I’ve brought out for use for a while…

I have a second hand Designer I that I bought for its embroidery ability, but now mostly use only for piecing and machine applique. I enjoy using this machine because of all its bells and whistles which enable me to sew with less physical effort – auto presser foot lift; needle up down; even auto thread cutter – all this means that my hands stay on my fabric, and my foot stays on the pedal.

Today my D1 ended up with a broken bobbin winder – first it went clunk clunk when it started winding; after pushing it back into the non-winding postion, and then again into the winding postion, the bobbin winder post and something else went clunk down into the depths of the machine. So it has to go the sewing machine doctor.

I do have a second machine – a wonderful Viking Sapphire that I bought almost two years ago – I use this for garment sewing; home dec; and most important, quilting! I like to be able to set up my quilting, then walk away, and still do some piecing without having to disturb the quilting set up.

So my husband took a Singer 411G out of the cupboard for me. We cleaned it up and oiled it. Gee, I’ve forgotten just how much I love these older mechanical machines (they aren’t really old, because its younger than me! lol). The clear view to the needle, the great straight stitch, the humm of the motor. And, its just so much more interesting to look at than the current styles of plastic sewing machines.

The little metal gadget to the right of the needle in this picture is a seam guide – place it so the short edge is up against your fabric, the required distance from the needle – tighten with the screw and voila! a pefect seam allowance.

The 411 is very similar to the Singer 401, except made in Germany instead of the States and if you have the right accessories, it can also do a chain stitch – handy for basting and decorative sewing. The 401 was the first Singer machine made specifically for home use that did more than just a straight stitch. As quilters, we’re all familiar with the Featherweight; the last straight stitch machines produced were a 201 and a 301, both full size. There is a model called a 316 and its cousin, 319, that do zig zag and other fancy stitches, but this was made with more “industrial” type use in mind, and required special needles.

Prairie Vine

2009-07-18T04:55:00.002-04:00

When I saw this quilt in Quilt Sampler, Fall 2007, magazine, I just fell in love with it. The pattern stuck in the back of my mind for some time, and when I made an order for some of the Hearth & Home fabric line from Connecting Threads, I realized that even though I had ordered the fabric for some other quilt (since forgotten), this fabric was actually perfect for the Praire Vine pattern.

It was meant to be a straight setting of double x blocks, seperated by sashing, with the vine border. When I finished the blocks, I still had lots of fabric left over, and got to playing on EQ, of course. I fiddled with the double x block, simplified it, and set them as an alternate blocks, in a diagonal set.

There will be a lot of leaves to applique! I’ve set aside the blocks for now; I have to order the border fabric; and I already have lots of handwork. I’m not sure how I’ll be doing the leaves – so many choices for applique!

Centre of the Storm, and getting back on track

2009-07-16T06:49:00.002-04:00

I haven’t been posting a note for while as I’ve been, well, unable to write or focus much, as even now I’ve re-written this opening sentence about five times!

My family has been going through some rocky times, each person with their concerns and problems, all affecting me as wife and mother – how can i support them? - how can I fix it?!! (i know, can’t be done) – am I listening well enough? – am I letting them know I’m there to help, without crowding?what can I do other than worry?

My quilting is usually where I dump all this self-talk, and focus on creating, while my brain subconsciously works though the problems. The past few weeks though, this has been difficult, and all I’ve got is several projects, started or finished, that just don’t seem to make me happy. I sure hope I can get out of this slump soon – I do believe that if I’m happy, then those around me might catch it!

I’ve been working away at some piecing and finishing, thinking that eventually there’ll be “click” of aaahhh. this is good :)

This morning I was looking for a picture of a finished quilt, somewhere on my computer. I know its here, because I’ve used it on a blog post. But i cannot find the actual picture, and I’d like to print it out to doodle on for quilting ideas. I also can’t remember under what EQ file name its saved under, and I have too many EQ quilts to count. This made me realize that things have gotten way out of hand – I’ve been in too much of a fog of disorganziation and . So because this blog is meant to share a quilting journal - I better get back to it before I get to lost.

Here’s a finished top, that I completed a few of weeks ago. Its Lori Smith’s pattern, 30’s sampler. I’m not very happy with how the arrangement of colours turned out – the quilt just looks crowded, with no one place to look at.

This is a good example of why I do some quilts as a block of the month. I rely heavily on EQ for my quilt planning, and with a sampler quilt such as this it really can’t be done. I don’t have a full size design board, and if I did, I’m sure I would have arranged the blocks differently, or chosen colours differently.

I finished up the sampler because I got an itch to start the sampler blocks in the new book Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler. I made myself finish this one, which was hard as I knew it was going in a direction I didn’t much like. The new sampler, which I’m simply calling Elm Creek, will be all blues on an ivory background. Much easier for me to work on, knowing at the end it pretty much has to look right with a one colour scheme.

Now, i should go and do some clean up on the blog lists on the sidebar, and remember to use tags and such so I can better organize my posts!

Baskets of Wishes

2009-06-10T09:33:00.001-04:00

Here it is! Finally done and ready to be delivered to my Mom as her birthday gift. Based on a pattern called Noel Sampler, Fons & Porter magazine, Aug-Dec 2005,

New pieced projects….and one quilt top quilted

2009-06-02T12:07:00.001-04:00

I thought that I was very slowly working working away at quilting my Mom’s quilt, and I discovered that you really can get a lot done, just 15 or 30 minutes at a time. On Sunday, the quilting was done, the binding is on now, and I’ve got two weeks – lots of time – to hand sew the back of the binding.

While I was taking my time quilting, the still cool weather got me going on a few new pieced quilt tops. As my list shows, I do like a lot of variety to choose from :)

First there is a scrappy quilt from civil war repro fqs and bits and pieces, called Pick and Choose, from American Patchwork & Quilting. Here are four sections that will form a block. There are hundreds (well, maybe not hundreds) of hsts and strips to sew before I can sort them out to put together the blocks.

I got a Dresden Plate finally started, using “twice the charm” strips from Thimbleberries Three’s Company, brights. No picture here, because I haven’t yet picked out what I”ll be using the for the centre circles.

There is a quilt on the cover of Quilt Sampler from Fall/Winter 2007 that I so liked and have thought about ever since. Connecting Threads’ new line, Hearth & Home, was to me just perfect for this pattern - here’s one block done. I don’t know why the centre square looks crooked…

Then these baskets-in-waiting. Six pieced, one filled. Waiting for there bounty….pattern called Bountiful Baskets by Lydia Quigley at the The Rabbit Factory. The fruit are fused and machine stitched, but I’m not sure yet if that is the final choice in the applique method.

And, I finally got a drawer stocked with a great selection of solids and black yardage – waiting for that perfect patttern so i can finally make a quilt with solids that I’ve been wanting to try for so long.

One more pattern that I have on my mind is Stardust Serenade from the Rabbit Factory – I’m having trouble deciding on its colours but I’m in no hurry – I’m sure they’ll jump out at me one day.

"Invisible" Machine Applique

2009-05-28T04:47:00.003-04:00

I would definitely recommend Pearl's DVD for learning the process of freezer paper applique - however - she does not show any machine stitching in the DVD, just hand applique.

After a long time of practicing and reading up on various methods of stitching, I finally learned that the best way to accomplish "invisible" machine applique is to experiment with the stitches on your machine, and with the threads you have. Here are two blog postings that can be helpful on choosing the stitch settings for your machine: BlackBird Designs and BunnyHill Designs. On my Viking D1, I use a blanket stitch that has a couple of forward stitches, followed by one stitch bite going into the fabric. The width is set at .5 and the length at 1.0. This does take practice, and it does seem at first that the needle isn't even going into the fabric because of the very narrow width. Just practice on your machine and find what's right for you! Don't forget too, that through the quilting process your applique pieces will likely get "sunk" into the batting and back, so the stitches will likely become even less visisble.

“Redwork” Outline Embroidery

2009-05-25T05:51:00.001-04:00

I so enjoyed sewing the black outline embroidery blocks from Lydia Quigley’s Whitework Applique Samper. (more about this in previous posts).

I’ve since added a couple of more outline embroidery projects to the list of handwork projects.

At first I thought I would make up some blocks from Margaret Docherty’s book Hearts and Tulips, using both fusible applique and outline embroidery. Here’s a picture of the first block, I was partly through the second block when I thought this wasn’t turning out the way I’d like. So that book and its lovely patterns are shelved for a while!

I have often thought of a series of flower applique drawings in a Better Homes and Garden book, but I never did take the idea to planning a quilt with them. I now realize they would make up very nicely as bluework sampler – blue outline embroidery with blue and white setting pieced blocks; the block size is just 4” so they are a great little quick project. These flowers are all American state flowers, fifty are presented but there are some duplicates. Some of those duplicates are the same as ones that represent out provinces, and I’ll make up drawings for our provinces as well. I don’t care what the flowers might officially represent, I just like the detailed drawings and the flower name given and drawn on each block pattern.

Then I came aross this month’s installment of Anne Sutton’s A Tisket a Tasket. Looking at the previous blocks I had made, I realized that they were looking too cluttered with the orphan blocks that I wanted to use with them in a quilt – and, these blocks kind of deserved their own fabric theme. So I started to make them up with a dark brown thread outline embroidery which I think will go very nicely with the orphan blocks – here are two done, shown with paper copies of two more and a possible block setting.

For outline embroidery, I back my fabric with a very light fusible interfacing. This gives the fabric just enough body that I don’t need a hoop. I used a red transfer pencil for the basket blocks, and a black transfer marker for the flower blocks. I’ve also in the past just pencil traced the outline with the help of a lightbox.

Applique – Honoring Emma

2009-05-17T16:02:00.001-04:00

I was happy to find Lori Smith’s new applique pattern – Honoring Emma– I like Lori Smith’s applique designs because of their flowy curvy shapes, and this one had just the right size of blocks, a small centre medallion, and a good variety of designs throughout the blocks. (Oh! and her new sampler patterns are wonderful too – I will likely end up starting one of those soon as well :))

I ended up making 3 versions of the first block (well, the two cotton ones aren’t fully finished). As my optometrist would say, “better A, or better B? Better B or better C?”, lol. I’m going with C – the wool applique.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with A and B, they just somehow didn’t seem right to me – not the look I wanted to achieve. C is the first wool applique I’ve done and it was fun. I used a flannel background, and wool felt which was I think 60/40 wool/rayon. The layout was much easier than with needleturn, the stitching was quick and easy, and I got to do a bit of decorative embroidery on some of the flowers. So I will soon move on, finally, to block two.

Try, Try, Again

2009-05-16T06:14:00.001-04:00

Anyone who has read this blog, or knows my quilting style, knows that I am indecisive in choosing and sticking to quilt project. I’ll plan a wonderful quilt, start a block and yuck. I’ll prep a kit for quilt, then decide later to use those fabrics, or part of them, in something else. I have sewn countless applique blocks in the past two years, all from different sources and never ending up to be just what I wanted.

The past few weeks I’ve sewn two needleturn blocks – the same but different fabrics – and now I’m making it up as wool applique on felt. I’ve also sewn one and half bluework blocks, from Margaret Docherty’s Hearts and Tulips book, but came to realize that it wasn’t working out how I imagined. The past few months I’ve been following Anne Sutton’s (BunnyHill Designs) A Tisket a Tasket block of the month, working it as a fusible applique project. Now I’m thinking of turning it into a redwork quilt. I’ll post pictures of all these efforts in the next few days.

Meanwhile, I did get a quilt quilted! (With of course one or two areas tried out, ripped out, and re-quilted). Here’s the Stars and Nine Patch,

Two more tops!

2009-04-25T17:02:00.003-04:00

After almost two weeks without making a stitch with a sewing machine, I got back into it with a bang on Friday morning.

First up was a quilt top that need the intervention of an Exorcist. Really. It was intended to have four outline stitched blocks set diagonally with framed sixteen patch blocks. I had the centre sewn, the pieced border bits made up (see post about "January", below) , and I ordered a wonderful border fabric to bring out the red and black in the fabrics and embroidery. No luck – when it arrived, it was way short than I needed, end of bolt. So back to the drawing board, and a decision to use the embroidered blocks in a wallhanging; and make up some other blocks to add into the quilt, which would make it bigger, without needing the wide border.

After much fighting with the diagonal set, and working out the measurement of the four patch borders, voila! – a quilt called Changes – representing all the variations of this top; and most important the pinwheels representing the whirling challenges of life with two teenagers and my oldest son’s wedding in the fall.

Then I got to a quilt I’m naming Hodgepodge Strippy – I had written about the top in an earlier note. I had some concern that I wouldn’t have enough 4” patches to make up a good amount of blocks for a lap quiilt, and sure enough the most I could make was 20. EQ saved my sanity on this quilt. I was constantly drawing and re-drawing it to use up what I had without running out! What I wanted to do, and would have liked best, was 6 rows of 5 blocks each, with a 5” sash in between each row. But….nope.

So this is what I came up with – even the border ended up to be much narrower than I would have liked because I ran out of fabric. I’m going to use a red fabric for the binding, to bring out the slight pink in the sashing/border fabric. I’d also like to quilt it in such a way that all the plain fabric sort of blends together to make the coloured hodgepodge strips look as if they’re floating.

This quilt will be for my neice, or my sister, depending on how fast I want to quilt it! Neice’s birthday is in June, sister’s is in August.

Both of these pictures could have been better – the quilts are even and squared – but a teenager was being held against his will to hold them up for pictures!

Sewing on the porch

2009-04-16T07:22:00.002-04:00

Spring has finally arrived here, and with it the anticipation that I now get to spend more time outside, doing what I like best in the warmer months – applique and hand work.

Over the years I seem to have fallen into a routine of piecing and quilt-top making during the winter, and quilting and applique in the summer. While I do work on all types throughout the year, there’s definitely an emphasis on quilting and applique in the summer. I get to enjoy the weather, and when its too hot, I can sit in the air conditioning and quilt my quilts at the machine. Little ironing is needed, which is great, because my studio is small and even a hot iron on for a couple of hours can really make thngs warm!

It was good timing on my part when I went browsing for patterns at Lori Smith's website about a week ago. She had just posted some new patterns, one which I very much liked called Honoring Emma, An Album Quilt. It arrived yesterday and I was again very lucky to pretty decisively choose my fabrics – decisive is not my strong point!. I enjoyed a lovely afternoon out in the sun, cutting up fabric and making little block kits for the pattern.

Another quilt that I’ve started is from Margaret Docherty’s new book Hearts and Tulips. I’ve decided to sew the blocks with a blue outline stitch with highlights of blanket stitch applique – all blue on white.

I “had” to get in on a a block of the month wallhanging size applique quilt called Summertime (that’s appropriate, lol) at Homestead Hearth. I looked at the quilt and program for a few weeks, and felt it was something I didn’t want to pass up :)

As with piecing, I like to have a variety of applique and handwork projects on the go – none of these are meant to be done this summer, or even this year!

Another top … and a 1/2….done

2009-04-11T11:50:00.001-04:00

Here’s a picture of the finished Cottage Crossing quilt top. The cottage block is from Fig Tree Quilts’ Houses book.

And the centre of “January” is done – it needs a few borders, two of which are pieced. One is ready to go, the other is waiting for a final dark fabric that needs to be added to the mix. The pieced blocks are from a quilt in Tea in the Garden by Cynthia Tomaszewski, and the outline embroidery blocks are the Whitework Sampler by Lydia Quigley at the Rabbit Factory.

Machine Applique – Fun with Thread Accents

2009-04-11T04:01:00.001-04:00

I love handwork – needleturn applique, outline embroidery, hand piecing, and blanket stitch applique. But – I have so much on my list of want-to-do’s that I also have learned to enjoy the benefits of applique by machine.

It can be far more than just cutting and fusing shapes to the background. Over the past few years I have managed a pretty good collection of variegated and heavy threads that I use for machine applique, and for quilting. I buy one or two every time I buy ordinary piecing thread, or when I’m shopping for a specific thread for a quilt.

I enjoy picking through my threads, and using accent colours to stitch the blanket stitch, or a variegated thread (I love the Sulky 30 wt. threads for this!). I’ve been working on the first block of A Primitive Garden, a block of the month quilt from HoneyBee Fabrics. I knew for sure that I could not needleturn all these blocks – just too much of a challenge physically and for time spent, and I also wanted this quilt to be used and enjoyed (meaning lots of machine washing and drying). So I thought I might hand blanket stitch the fused pieces…but that was going to be slow going, an outline stitch project is wanting to get done, and at least two needleturn applique patterns are calling my name!

So I set about the machine applique and am I ever enjoying it! There is a challenge to evenly blanket stitch around a narrow corner, or a circle….its interesting to pick a thread and see the result on the fabric…and more options available when stitching stems and other bits and pieces. Almost all newer sewing machines have lots of stitches, and a way to alter their stitch width and length. I keep a little scrap of fabric with odd shaped fused pieces nearby so I can sew out a stitch and see what happens, before I put it to use.

Cherry Berry Album top done

2009-04-07T05:43:00.001-04:00

The blocks in this quilt are from the book Favourite Applique and Embroidery Quilts by Betty Alderman. I can’t say the quilt is one of the patterns – as I didn’t end up finishing it as presented.

All of the blocks were done with fusible machine applique, using sulky blendable thread 30 wt for the stitching – what a nice thread! Adds just enough highlight and accent to the batiks.Two of the blocks, once finished, I just didn’t care for. The Rooster, especially, and another one which was a kind of horn-of-plenty. I could substitute the blocks, or make the quilt smaller.

This was my first attempt at the layout – I meant for the corner blocks to be the darker blue, but I miscut (several times!) and didn’t have enough to do the job properly. So I put the lighter blue in the corners, which I think gave me nightmares all last night, lol.

This morning I got up and decided to see what it would look like if I just squared off the corners – after a pressing preview, off I went with the rotary cutter. Now I’m happy! This quilt is destined for the kids’ basement room, it will certainly brighten it up.

Determination

2009-04-05T17:09:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I brought out my box of somewhat prepped blocks for Lori Smith’s 30s sampler. I was disappointed to discover that I was only on block 13 of 40 or so – it felt like I’ve working on this forever – but I think its been only a couple of months :)

I looked at the block I was to do, a 9 inch star – and I rolled my eyes. I love Lori Smith’s patterns, but her sampler blocks can be challenging – a lot of pieces, and a lot of 1/8” measurements. Not counting cutting time, it took almost two hours for me to finish this block! But look at it – amazingly, its almost perfect and its very pretty – too bad it will get lost amongst all the other blocks in this sampler.

To recover from yesterday’s piecing trauma, I played with scrap blocks today. The first is Charlotte’s Hodgepodge – made from leftover Charlotte line fabric, the pattern is dead easy,see making hodgepodge. I chose a very pale pink as my centre square so there is something to follow within the quilt.

Then I laid out the Strip Mine quilt, from a class I took at Quilt U. Another quick, easy, and fun block, this one I’m making from civil war repro style fabrics.

I was going to make more of these today, but then I ended up getting involved in planning the final borders of the Cottage Crossing quilt; the got restless and ended up pulling out the Cherry Berry Album blocks – guess what? We just might see two finished tops this week!

Paper piecing

2009-04-02T06:13:00.001-04:00

I have to say that while I like the idea of paper piecing, and I like the accuracy and final result of paper piecing, I despise the process! To me, its slow and fidgety, uses more fabric than I would with regular piecing, and taking out the papers is on the bottom of my list as far as things I’d like to be doing :)

But, after several days effort, I got 12 goose chase blocks done that will be set alternately with the cottage blocks I finished earlier in March. And they sure do look great, don’t they? – even lying out on the floor like this.

This week I also did the binding on vintage tiger lily quilt – its not so bad as I thought, and its hanging in the side hall. It is nice to have something new and bright on the walls for Spring.

Mini Spring Scrappy

2009-03-23T03:11:00.001-04:00

I prepared the top for this mini quilt last fall. I had planned on sewing down the appliques as part of the quilting, and it turned out great, although I wouldn’t recommend it for anything much bigger than this top, about 20 x 20 inches. I’m glad I have a new, bright, spring wallhanging to look at! I’m pretty sure its a Kim Diehl pattern, but i’m not sure from which of her books.

I ordered some fabric for the binding on the Tiger Lily quilt – the same line as the inner points and borders are, but a bit darker. I’m hoping it will finish off the quilt just right, and I’ll start to like it again :)

Quilter’s Block

2009-03-20T14:17:00.001-04:00

I am fortunate to have two sewing machines – one a longer arm Saphhire 870 that I use mostly to quilt, and another Husqvarana that I use for piecing and machine applique. My sewing room is small, so my second machine is kept in the dining room. This works out really well, as I don’t have to disturb a quilt in progress in order to do some other sewing or piecing….this also works out not so well when I need motivation to finish a quilt!

I think the Tiger Lily quilt has been sitting with the centre quilted, for about two weeks, under the needle and set up to quilt the borders. But I was stuck, I just didn’t know what to do about those borders. So I was able to ignore it, except for a guilty glance or an exasperated sigh aimed at the quilt when I was working in the room at the cutting board or worktable. All along I knew I wanted it hung for the first day of Spring, and all of sudden here it is.

Today was not the day to get started again, I have a bad shoulder and a major headache, but I plunged ahead and I think it turned out fine – in fact, it took less than a couple of hours all together to finish it – hopefully, it doesn’t look that way. But I don’t like it! I really don’t like it! I just want to roll it up in a corner and stuff it away. I think many of us feel this way about our quilts at some point, and I’m hoping this is a temporary feeling – but there is just something wrong with the colours or design of the top that bother me.

Now that I’m ready for binding I cannot find the piece of green border fabric that I am sure I put away….I don’t have any other large pieces of the other fabrics in the quilt…so I think I’ll have to use something all together different. Yet another excuse to bury this quilt :)

Well I try out some binding fabrics, and finish it, and maybe hang it where I can’t see it too often….if I can’t easily find a binding fabric, well its going away somewhere!

Lots of sewing done!

2009-03-09T05:50:00.001-04:00

I had a great few days of piecing and machine applique – I had a great time and there was hardly a hitch!

These are 16 cottages from the book Fig Tree Quilts Houses. I’ll be putting in black sashings, two scrappy borders on either side of a pinwheel block border. This will be a happy quilt for me – I’ve have always wanted a house quilt but never got this far.

Then I got crazy with machine applique, and got caught up on Sindy Rodenmayer’s Fat Cat Patterns Summer Pond. I had a few already done, and got four more sewn. I am looking forward to seeing the whole quilt, and it sure is a different theme than my usual flowers and piecing!

Blocks of the month

2009-03-03T07:14:00.001-05:00

Blocks of the month offered by some wonderful quilt designers, for free, and those by paid subscription, are a great solution for me to feel like I’m getting a lot done without a lot of effort!

I cannot sew for long periods of time, and I can’t cut or press for long periods of time. The idea of making a quilt in a weekend, or even a week, would be a goal that would just frustrate me.

By following the patterns offered on a monthly basis, I can pretty quickly cut and sew the block, and feel like I got something accomplished that day. I enjoy seeing the quilt grow, and using my stash for making up the blocks. Here’s a pic of the blocks done in January and February -

The two on the left column are from My Quilt Village, and will be a wallhanging. The star in the upper middle column is from Women of Influence, the Kansas City Star 2009 block of the month (This one does cost $3 for each month as a pdf download, and comes with a little history about a “woman of influence” in the later 1800s. Below the star are the first two blocks of Beth Ferrier’s b.o.m. Now and Forever. The upper right corner is a Pearl P. Perrera mystery quilt (register or sign in to the message board to access the blocks), and the baskets are from Anne Sutton’s Bunny Hill Designs called A Tisket A Tasket.

Coincidences

2009-03-03T06:28:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I wonder if my subsconscious knows things before I do. Here’s what happened over the course of a few days the weekend before last. On Sunday, I had a thought, coming from nowehere, that I don’t like the blue and tan fusible applique quilt I’m doing – I should stop and put the pattern away for another time when I’m prepared to do it as a needleturn projecT. Later in the day, I thought about making it up as a “redwork” project, and asked dh to copy and shrink the block patterns to 9”.

Two days later, I start to ponder Bether Ferrier’s new b.o.m., which I very much wanted to do but had given up as I couldn’t get the fabrics together in my stash. Oh! The blue and tan would be perfect – with green and maybe pink accents in the flowers!

And then the next day – I’m working on one of the Rachel’s Reels blocks and get frustrated at my dog who is jumping all over dh who is beside me the couch – I should have stopped sewing but I didn’t and the result was a very messy inside corner.

Dinner came and went, and I’ve suddenly got the idea to use those applique/redwork patterns on this quilt! How come it all works out so neatly?

Kitting the stash

2009-02-24T03:50:00.001-05:00

I’ve been busy the past week, going through my stash and making fabric kits for various patterns and on-line blocks of the month.

Of course, this gave me an opportunity for one of my most favourite quilting activities – playing on EQ.

The first quilt started out as a variation of a quilt in Cynthia Tomaszewski’s Tea in the Garden. After a week or two of working on leaves and stemstitch vines, I realized I would be bored to death with all those sashings and that the quilt might never get made. So along came this: As much as I like it, I thought it might be nice to do another applique block or design that’s been on my list. So I’ve ended up with this, using “Rachel’s Reel” by Jo Morton:

After much mucking about, I made up this quilt layout to use up particular fabrics in my stash, based on Cotswald Cottages from Fig Tree Houses.

And then there were my leftover Charlotte fabrics – I think I came up with twenty different ideas for them. Then this morning I realized that there must be something else I can try that isn’t hsts and squares, or applique. I dug out I’my drunkard path templates and came up with this - Then there are a few online blocks of the month that that | wanted to do, and had the fabrics for – so I’ve kitted Now and Forever, by Beth Ferrier; a Tisket a Tasket, by Anne Sutton at BunnyHill Designs; and Pearl P. Perriera’s mystery block of the month. I think I better stop now – as I’ve also enrolled in a couple of applique subscription blocks of the month. Yikes. These applique quilts - A Primitve Garden, and a Winter Garden/Love Letters, are quilts that I know I’m going to wish I had done years from now – even if it takes me years to make them up!

Polyester thread for hand applique?

2009-02-16T08:31:00.001-05:00

Well, I say yes! I was quickly running out of my favourite colour of Aurifil thread – a green/grey/brown colour that happily went with just all my greens. I went to Tristan B.C. and discovered that they were no longer selling Aurifil, and that they only had a mixed bag on clearance. Sad face, as my teenage daughter would say.

The great thing about buying my quilting supplies on the internet is finding terrific stores that meet most of my needs, have reasonable shipping costs and good prices. Sew Thankful is where I buy most of my thread, and they don’t carry Aurifil. The not so great part of internet shopping is finding those stores, so you aren’t buying one thing here, one thing there, and spending lots of dollars on shipping. Well hours wasted on google just showed me that I would have to invest a minimum of $3.00 a spool for the correct weight (60 or 50 wt., 2 ply) cotton thread that I like to do applique. But applique doesn’t need a whole spool of thread – a spool could last a year! Then I spent more time investigating silk thread – but again the $ outlay was more than I wanted to spend to try something.

I then discovered Masterpiece Superior Bottom Line polyester thread pre-filled bobbins, 60 wt 2 ply. Lots of pretty colours! Very reasonable price! And I had some at home to try – I have two light neutral spools that I often use when free motioning, and for machine applique.

I appliqued the leaf on the left (with the pin in it) with the cream coloured poly thread and you cannot see the stitches. What’s more, the thread is easier to thread on the needle, and seems less prone to tangling and shredding. And, unlike the polyester thread of years gone by, it is not really “hard” or “springy” – I can easily snap/break a piece just as easily as cotton thread.

A little of this, a little of that

2009-02-14T05:05:00.001-05:00

This week I worked on various blocks of the month - self-planned are tan and blue applique sampler, cherry berry applique album, lori smith 30’s sampler, and Seasons.

The new internet b.o.m.s are Anne Sutton’s A Tisket A Tasket, and Pearl P. Peirara’s mystery quilt block a month.

I also sat down and sewed 84 strip pieced blocks for an interesting top – pic will follow soon. I had all the strips ready to sew, and I knew that if I didn’t get these blocks sewn soon they be destined for a dark hiding place; at least now I know the project is finishable (is that a word?).

And I’ve been playing with some new designs – one is an adaptation of a quilt called Sweet Dreams by Cynthia Tomaszewski in her book “Tea in the Garden”.

Another idea popped into my head this week when I re-found the basket of chain blocks I had made earlier this fall/winter – I’m thinking of using some of the 30’s scraps I have to make crazy blocks with redwork accents. I have Alex Anderson’s book Shadow Redwork, which has been on my to do list for years, and I think the fruit redwork would look great in this quilt.

The Tiger Lily wallhanging is sandwiched and ready to quilt, but inspiration or energy hasn’t struck yet, but it’s ready when I am!

Tiger Lily applique wallhanging done

2009-02-08T09:41:00.002-05:00

When I was a teenager, I learned to ski. I went on many ski trips over a few winters, and I was a terrific skiier if I say so myself :) I only had one problem – I could not handle any chair lift, or tow lift. I was a menace to anyone behind me on the lifts. Despite coaching, and resucing, by the ski patrol at the top of the lifts, I always always fell down, or slipped backwards and caused a commotion. My friends ceased to want to go skiing with me – I was an embarrassment and a danger to others, lol.

This story illustrates my problem with applique, using a vinyl or paper layout guide, or a ruler to measure; then glue or pins or even thread, I carefully place my piece where it belongs. Magically, after its sewn, it moves – just an 1/8th here or a 16th of an inch there. Arrgghh. This is particularly noticeable on symmetrical designs – on this quilt its blaring at me that the leaves on the top bar stem are a further distance to the stem than the leaves on the bottom bar. But, this time I’m only a danger to myself, ha ha, and I will continue on with my individual interpretation of designs.

Relief! The baskets and stars is done!

2009-02-02T06:01:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I finished the machine applique on the borders, and pieced and cut the corner blocks. I decided in the end to do applique on the bottom corners only, as this will be going on her bed, and a pieced corner block in the upper border. This morning I sewed on the borders and its done done done. This quilt came sooo close to being a permanent UFO – and now its another top to be quilted. The quilting will be fairly easy as I know my Mom likes the fluffy quilts, so I’ll use a high loft batting and very simple quilting, or even machine tying.

So now I have a few tops to quilt – the mini red and white, nine patch and stars, the wonder blocks/somewhere in time (I had forgotten that one until now!), and the baskets and stars. Hmmm…now I think my list of tops is too long!

getting off track….

2009-02-01T05:10:00.001-05:00

I had been doing so well in finishing up some UFOs and turning them in to tops. The red and white mini quilt, done. The stars and nine patch, done. Then I attacked – there is no other word for it – a quilt I’m calling baskets and stars strippy. Here’s a picture of what it was like a few months ago, well this past summer:

I had started this quilt for my Mom, then decided not to put the applique vines in the centre bars. While I was thinking this would be her Christmas present, I put it away to work on some other projects. Then my Mom decided she wanted my prize winning quilt from fair – At Home and Away. The last four or five months has been a frustrating experience with my Mom as she keeps saying that At Home and Away is too narrow for her bed and she can’t keep it unless I “fix” it. I tell her I can’t (or won’t) make it bigger, and I already have a quilt that was being made for her. This conversation repeated itself over and over. Now finally, I here from her that At Home and Away is in a bag, sitting in the trunk of her car (!) waiting for delivery to me. This could be another few weeks. And I have finally convinced her, I think, to accept the strippy quilt as her birthday gift. Arrghh.

I spent several hours this week working on how to finish this quilt with the fabric I have left, to make it the specific size she has decided on. I’ve added a wide border to all four sides, a small applique vine (the fusible appliques had been made months ago) on the bottom corners, and pieces cornerstone blocks. All I have to do is sew down the appliques and then sew on the borders…but I’ve been putting it off, because…

I finally decided to cut up block bags for Lori Smith’s 30s Sampler I had already had some fabric put away for this, and I ordered the remainder. My fabrics aren’t exactly 30s, but they are somewhat pastel and traditional. It arrived on Friday and I spent Friday and yesterday organizing colours and cutting. Still not done! Today I really should get back to the baskets and stars and have the top done.

Stars and Nine Patch

2009-01-28T04:23:00.001-05:00

After looking at the box of scraps leftover from this top, I think it is a great idea to save them for a future applique project….pressing them, and trying to cut them into some specific sizes for a border, and hoping for enough, was just more work than I wanted to do for this quilt. I did have a length of a nice bright but soft blue that went well, so this top is done and ready for quilting when I get the backing.

UFO Madness

2009-01-26T15:56:00.001-05:00

This weekend, and today, I attacked the two baskets of ufo’s – or they should be called USOs, unsewn objects. One was a small quilt I had cut out I don’t know how long ago, and everytime I saw the basket of pieces I couldn’t understand what I was thinking when I chose the pieces. They looked very odd in their basket. When I put the blocks (small pieces, blocks finished at 3”) and the quilt together, I was so surprised and happy at the result – I think this will be one of my favourite little quilts. The pattern is called “Pepperment Twist” from Fat Quarter Small Quilts by Darlene Zimmerman.

Next up was a basket of pieces from a quilt I was going to do called ``Colourful Thoughts`¨ by Peggy Waltman. I had cut up some the fabrics for the blue and green blocks, then the remaining fabric got stolen for another quilt – the Stars and Nine Patch that I posted about last week. This left me with sixteen chain blocks that I will turn into a quilt someday. I`m thinking of using some of my wonderful embroidery designs and setting these blocks with alternate redwork embroidered blocks.

And, I made a decision on the A Tisket a Tasket block of the month by Anne Sutton at Bunny Hill Designs. I`m going to use the leftover bits from the Garden Patch quilt that would likely never get finished as a result of losing those blocks. I`m hoping that at the end of the series, I will be able to put the applique blocks together with the Garden Patch blocks that I do have.

Why have I been so busy? Well, its darn cold outside! Too cold for me, and I`ve been stuck indoors for the past couple of weeks – really, I haven`t left the house. I`ve had lots of rest and I decided to put it to good use.

The other reason is this box of scraps leftover from the Stars and Nine Patch. This top needs a border – and I need to go through this pile and see what range of fabrics I have left and in what sizes. Then I can decide how much effort I want to put into a border…I`m also thinking of hanging on to these scraps for a someday applique project.

Thimbleberies Village

2009-01-25T13:25:00.001-05:00

Today I finished the third block in this quilt pattern, for my son’s wedding in November.

Thimbleberries patterns are always interesting to sew. For the most part, I don’t need instructions when sewing most quilt blocks, but with thimbleberries methods you’re never sure where or how the individual pieces go together. There’s a lot of layering, diagonal sewing, and folding of corners. The instructions are very good, and I enjoy looking at the block after its done to think how I would have sewn it without the thimblerries methods.

Stars and Nine Patch

2009-01-20T04:56:00.001-05:00

Here’s a picture of the completed top for this quilt – dh was in a rush, the top was freshly ironed, and this was the best he was going to do -

This was the most challenging diagonal set that I’ve ever put together. When I first put some of these blocks on the design board I realized that some colours were going to sort of clump together and some not. So I decided to plan it so that the colours were grouped together. That meant laying out the rows on the floor, then figuring out what colours to make the pieced triangles which are a kind of half nine-patch. Then after carefully counting and sewing all the appropriate triangles, I drew a map of what colour went where. I have a very small workspace and there was no room to lay them out as I sewed them, so there was row labels, and my map to keep me in line. I was so happy to see it looking right when I put the final top on the floor!

The pattern calls for a pieced nine patch border set on point – but all my scraps left are really scraps so I’m not sure how I’ll use them, if at all, and I also have a nice bright light blue that I’d like to use in the border.

Tiger Lily applique

2009-01-20T04:34:00.001-05:00

I’ve completd a Tiger Lily block, pattern by Ruth Ohol (Quilters Newsletter April/04) . The sashing and centre block look a little odd as I haven't pieced it yet, and am still thinking about those fabrics.

I had originally planned to do a lap or full sized quilt, but realize
now that I think this block would be a great spring wallhanging. I'll
do the floral middle border as in the pattern, and larger pieced
triangles as inner and outer borders.

Balancing “Fun” and “Challenging”

2009-01-15T06:54:00.001-05:00

I've been forced to rest on the couch this week, and my quilting activity has slowed down accordingly. As result, I've been thinking about the balance between having fun while piecing, applique, and quilting, and choosing projects that are challenging.

For example, I often hear on message boards and email lists that "I can't stipple! its drives me crazy! I've tried everything!" well, then don't! - unless you are really really sure that's what you want. Just because many people do stippling and meandering, you can do your own thing and enjoy it - there are so many other options, as well as ones you can make up on your own.

This applies to just about every aspect of quilting. For me, needleturn applique is where I have problems finding the balance between a fun hobby and a challenging obsession! I so enjoy looking at the variety of styles and patterns, and while I know my skills are good, and I am able to do the small pieces, or the sharp skinny corners, do I really want to? Wouldn't I enjoy it more if I stuck to a pattern that was larger, or had less challenging parts? But then comes the envy - she can do it, so why don't I? Well, I have to learn to be happy with my choices - celebrate others' achievements and always remember why you chose to do what you did.

In Sue Garman's new block a month at The Quilt Show, she presents instructions for a paper pieced feathered star for the first block. And then, she offers an alternate star - making it clear to all that some of us just might not want to take on the feathered star, and we will be perfectly okay - and happier - if we did the alternate block.,
I chose the feathered star, even though I despise paper piecing, because it was just one block and I was up for the challenge. If it was more than one, I don't think I would have done it - it would crossed the line between fun and challenging.

So with these thoughts running through my head, I've edited my must do projects for this year -

my son's wedding quilt will be a Thimbleberries pattern that was once a block of the month, called Thimbleberries Village - I'm calling it Seasons. This past weekend I got the fabrics sorted for each block, so it will be easy going to have it ready for November/09.

an applique pattern called Vintage Tulips - I've shrunk the size of the blocks by eighty percent, as they were just two large. I'm going to set it in a four block setting, and perhaps add an extra border to make it lap size.
Stars for a New Day - which I am going to call Quilt Stars - very scrappy, from 1800's repro style fabric

a Tisket, a Tasket, from Anne Sutton at Bunny Hill Designs - if you only knew how many basket quilts I've started! This one is easy applique and stitching, one small block a month, presented as a mystery - lets hope I stick with it

I do still have three scrappypieced tops in progress, and two fusbile applique projects in progress, as well as the Jan Patek's Favourite Things b.o.m. So I've cancelled the Aunt Millie's Garden b.o.m., as much as I loved the idea of having the red background and applique fabrics delivered every month - the challenge of staying up to date on these blocks on a monthly basis will cross the challenging - fun line that I'm going to stay aware of this year.

Here's a picture of my feathered star -

Garden Patch

2009-01-09T16:58:00.001-05:00

I’ve been slowly working on this quilt pattern by Kim Diehl. I am like so much how this top is turning out – I could see it as being my favourite pieced top that I’ve made in a while. The centre is made from basic nine patch blocks, but they are bright and happy to look at. The real beautyh of this quilt will come later with an appliqued border on a bright blue fabric that I have put aside.

Now the bad news – I seem to have lost 25 of the small nine patches that make up some of the blocks. I am beyond upset that I can’t find them. I had what I thought were all the little nine patches in a basket, with their background squares, ready to sew up the blocks. I sewed 5 and ran out! I have gone through everything I can think of and can’t find them. I guess I’ll have to put this to rest for a while, and if I can’t find the rest of the blocks I’ll have to make it into a wall hanging.

Stars for a New Day, cont…now Quilt Soup Stars

2009-01-07T15:29:00.001-05:00

Well I couldn’t leave it alone. Made some tea, thought about dinner, and ended up pulling out the bin of repros (mostly fqs here), the pale yellows, and a piece of white. I think this will work! The yellows as setting pieces, the white for background, and the repros for everything else. I might even find some suitable border fabric when I get far enough in to this. I will just have to promise myself to let it flow…and the end will result will at least be an interesting surprise.

Stars for a New Day – The Quilt Show b.o.m.

2009-01-07T14:47:00.001-05:00

I looked at the fabric requirements for this beautiful quilt and just about gave up. 22 yards!! Whoa!

Stars for a New Day

I’m on a restricted fabric diet this year – trying to start a quilt top with fabrics from the stash, and adding only what I’m sure I need.

After much searching, I came up with several fabrics that would work – but only a few colours. I was very lucky in finding a wonderful print online, to link together all the colours, and when it came it matched perfectly!

Now, though, despite what I already have, I realize I’m already very short. I know this is a block of the month, that does last one year, but I do think that I shouldn’t be adding new fabrics on the last borders or two without having them somewhere else in the inner part of the quilt, or else it would look like an add on.

This is what I have so far:

The yellow fabrics in the middle were going to be my background fabric – six yards needed, and I don’t have that much – I could change it to a scrappy white background but I don’t know how much the yellow would then show up. I think I also need to find some lighter versions of the pink, blue and green, and maybe even add a brown. But I’m not buying more!

The pattern calls for five fabrics that each need 1 1/4 to 2 yards . That could be the multi floral, the pindot (3rd down in the middle), the blue floral….that’s it so far. Maybe the yellow? And then 18 fabrics that are 1/2 yard! So far I have six, and I’m not sure I have a whole 1/2 yard of these.

As much as I love this quilt design, and have even bought fabric for it, I’m thinking I might have to pass. Its just way too much fabric to find, and store, unless I could possibly come up with at least 9 of the 1/2 yards, and bought the border fabrics later.

I already have three or four pieced quilts on the go, many more to tempt me, and one more pieced quilt that I must decide on that will be both a wedding quilt for my son, and my fair entry for this fall.

More thought needed – I’m really happy with how these fabrics play together and maybe they’d be happier in another quilt.

Another thought – I have a lot of civil war repros, and a – confession here – monthly subscription for a 12- fat eighth collection – maybe I’ll try the quilt in completely random scrappy – just go nuts and throw everything in there! Don’t even look at the parts together, or think about anything more than what I’m doing that month -Stars for a New Day – or Quilt Soup Stars!!, lol. Oh, I think I’m liking this idea :)

A different way of edge finishing - Almost Log Cabin done!

2009-01-06T05:41:00.001-05:00

I completed this top in the Fall, and had the centre quilted, when an oops occurred - I don't even remember what was the oops - but the result was a good sized rip through the border. At the time, I thought I could fix it by adding another border (I had about 3-4" of batting overhanging the top) , making the red border narrower, or patching the rip then adding appliques.

When I pulled it out of hiding - my table needed a bright non-christmasy table topper - I decided on a rather unique way of finishing off this quilt.

I had a length of fabric that would go with the top, and I Aripped lengths of it, 10" wide. Each length I folded in half lengthwise and pinned it to the border, measuring how far in I had to go cover the original rip. After sewing all four sides, opposite sides first, I had a nice flange added to the quilt. But - another oops - even being a garment sewer I didn't take into account that I should have measured the last two lengths in order to hem them in and have a finished outer edge. And, I thought there was a bit of oomph still needed.

I dug out my little box of heavy threads, and with bobbin work (working upside down, wrong side up, with the embroidery floss in the bobbin so it would show on top) I did a neat little zig zag all around. I am ever happy with the result! The whole job was much quicker than a traditional binding, much quicker than adding and quilting a second border.

Cherry Berry Album

2009-01-05T04:43:00.004-05:00

I started this project in September, five blocks left to go. The pattern is from Betty Alderman's book, Favourite Applique And Emboirdery Quilts.

I wanted to make this bright, so I've used assorted batiks in colours similar to those in the original quilt. What makes the blocks wonderful is the 30 wt. Sulky Blendables thread - those colours shine! I might have used the 12 wt., but I had already had a few of the 30 wt., so it was less expensive to just add a couple rather than buy several new spools.

It started out as hand blanket stitch, but I got involved in other hand work, and wanted to see this top progress, so I changed over to machine blanket stitch - right in the middle of the third block! I was quite surprised and happy to see how well the two get along - there really is very little difference.

Star and Nine Patch

2009-01-03T10:44:00.004-05:00

I had quite a bit of leftover 30's fabrics when I finished the Sally Post quilt. I went through my books and patterns, sewed a few blocks from different quilt patterns, then settled on this one - simply named Star and Nine Patch,, from Stashbuster Quilts by Lynne Edwards. I combined some of the left over 30's fabrics with some complimentary bits from my stash, and I had some novelty type 30's type nickel charms that I used for the inner points of the stars.

When I was putting up these blocks on the design board, it seems that whenever I moved one, to better separate colours, I ended up near another smilar colour. These blocks are less than half the total blocks, but I'm thinking that when I'm done and ready for layout, I may try to purposely lay them out in colour sections - red, pink, purple, orange, yellow, blue, green.

Jan Patek's Favourite Things

2009-01-03T07:24:00.002-05:00

Over the next few days, I hope to post pictures of each of my current tops-in-progress. These are five blocks of a b.o.m. from Homestead Hearth, Jan Patek's Girl Gang's Favourite Things.

I chose to do these applique blocks with the freezer paper method, and an open fine zig zag with a neutral tan thread. This I think suits the folk art look of the blocks. Sometimes that thread blends right in, other times it is a nice accent. I do like the look of freezer paper applique, it has a dimension rather than the sometimes flat-ness of fusible applique. What I don't like about freezer paper is taking out from the back!

I've looked into Sharon Schamber's method of using a wash-out but not stabilizer type product, but I don't think its something I want to have to constantly stock from the States - Purple Daises is the name of her affiliate store - as it doesn't seem to be available anywhere but at her site (although I'm still thinking of trying it - with the idea that it would be good to use on the top layers of an applique, and the freezer paper on the layer closest to the background); and, the convenience of freezer paper is that you don't need to glue down the template - an iron will do the trick.

Whitework - Bluework?

2009-01-01T04:09:00.007-05:00

About a month ago I posted a picture of an applique quilt block from the pattern "Whitework Sampler" by the Rabbit Factory. I used white on yellow fabrics. I wasn't happy with that, and experimented with a few different ideas, coming up with a scheme of a variety of blues on a range of tan/beige fabrics. I've now completed three blocks -

I strongly believe that to make machine fusible applique successful, the choice of thread is as important as the choice of fabrics! To me, if monofilament or a closely matching thread is used, the block just looks too flat. I love the look of closely blended colours in a variegated thread - for this quilt top I've chosen three different spools of blue that are each a range of blue, from YLI threads.

Sewing the edge finishes on the applique pieces takes a bit of practice, and its easy to sometimes stop paying attention as the work can be hynotizing! Go very slow, slower than you might think, then the turns will be smooth as you try to always keep the stitching at a right angle to the edge of the fabric.

Flannel Peaks

2008-12-30T04:39:00.004-05:00

I had time to quickly quilt the Flannel Peaks quilt before I "closed" the sewing room before Christmas. I put a fleece backing on it, with no batting. The neat thing about the fleece is how the quilting carves into it, creating a wonderful backing. It makes me want to think about making a whole cloth quilt with fleece!

Christmas busy-ness is over...

2008-12-29T10:37:00.004-05:00

and now I can get back to my sewing room, and pick up where I left off a couple of weeks ago. I hosted two family Christmas dinners, and as our families are large and my house isn't, and my sewing room jutts off the kitchen, it is cleaned up so that the counters and ironing board can be used as a pantry/storage/holding area while entertaining. It feels so good to get my room back, even just a week or two away from it makes me sad!

I have lots of projects on the go - three quilt tops that will be pieced, all with at least the initial cutting done, and some sewing and prepping for the next steps. Two of these tops are nine patch and variations and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the blocks up on the design wall soon.

I also have various applique that I am working on - two fusible with decorative machine stitching; one freezer paper applique invisible machine stitching; one needleturn applique; one hand blanket stitch applique. Two of these are well on there way, two are in their infancy, and one seems to be on hold.

What's best is the sun is shining, and as tired as I am from the work and fun of the past several days, I've pulled open the drapes in the sewing room, turned on my favourite radio station (CBC Radio One), and I'm happily piecing, pressing, and cutting. Even if I can do this for just an hour, I'll be happier than a quilter with new yardage!

Digital Quilting Magazines

2008-12-13T07:46:00.004-05:00

In the space of one week, I encountered three different variations of electronic quilting magazines.

Cotton Spice is a good read, lots of variety, patterns, and website.

Fons & Porter offered a half off special for a cd of three years' magazines - for $29.95!

Quilter's World is offering a one year digital subscription to their print magazine, plus two years of past issues, for $14.95.

This has really got me to thinking. I am a loyal subscriber to Fons & Porter's magazine - I have years worth stacked up on the bookshelf - many ragged from reading, photocopying, some even have rotary cut slashes on a page or two! Do I really want to replace those with the electronic version? Even though a laptop can sit on my lap, it really doesn't replace - for me - the comfort of curling up on the couch (of course with a quilt over me) and browing through a new magazine, or a stack of older ones.

I've downloaded Cotton Spice but must admit to not reading all that I wanted to. I haven't adjusted to long reading sessions on the computer, and I guess I never will if I don't practice, but there is a strong urge just to hit print, and take the pages to the couch!

Then there's Quilter's World. For $14.95 this is a pretty good deal - they have lots of patterns, with a wide variety of skill levels. Good articles. The decision to be made is, how much does the convenience of storing the magazine on the computer - with being able to do computer like things with the issues such as searching, printing, image saving - override the paper effect of having the magazine in my hands? The cost in this case does make a difference too - in Canada, my subscription rate would be about $30 - the $14.95 is about the price of one pattern or maybe a book - and this is far more than that!

I also wonder, if we support these electronic versions will they eventually phase out paper versions? I know this has been a fear of newspapers for years, and it hasn't yet come true. But newspapers aren't quilt patterns meant to be kept as ideas and references for years to come.

Workin' in the Scrap Yard

2008-12-05T06:24:00.003-05:00

Well the time has come, the need is there, and I'm tired of so many bits taking up space!

I've been cutting up my sraps - I've often looked at the Quiltville site (http://quiltville.com/)and admired all the lovely quilts made with all those scraps of fabric that would otherwise be overlooked for years. I picked out two or three patterns that I could at least have a starting point on what size to cut - deciding on 2 1/2" strips for the Scrappy Bargello and 2" and 3 1/2" strips for either Disappearing Spools or Disappearing Pinwheels. I've also made a basket - or two, or three - of strips and crumbs. And with the larger pieces I've made 5" squares that can be cut up into lots of things, and even 10" squares.

I began with the overflowing box under the ironing board, went to the basket of ugly fat quarters that I'll never use, on to the baskets of bits and pieces from test blocks and other things. Finally got through those! Then I realized I have three more drawers of larger pieces....now what? Well these I'll cut into fat eighths first, then the other sizes.

I think I have more scraps than yardage! Pictures of all my hard work later today...

Poinsettia wall hanging

2008-11-30T06:39:00.002-05:00

This pretty wall hanging will let me enjoy fresh poinsettas throughout the holiday season - no watering required! A smaller version of a pattern by Kim Diehl in her book "A Cozy Quilted Christmas".

An Array of Aprons

2008-11-29T05:56:00.004-05:00

I've made five aprons in the past couple of weeks - still to go is one for my daughter and one for me. I used the pattern booklet More Retro Aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates. This was a great pattern, but I would avoid view "C" - it is the most eye-catching, but I found that the instructions and method for this view to be overly complicated without the best results. The other views sewed up just as you'd expect - but there is a fair amount of tedious ironing involved :)

Knowing when to put a w.i.p. away

2008-11-25T17:12:00.003-05:00

Today I brought out the JellyRoll Snowmen top to get it ready for quilting. I had bought some very inexpensive poly batt from Walmart to use in this project - I just felt that for a quilt like this I didn't want to put too much into it.

While I was spray basting it, I realized what I knew when I was making the top was true - I didn't really like how it turned out. The curse of the Christmas quilts strikes again. I have made, or tried to make, a few holiday themed quilts and never finished any of them or if I did they've gone away, hee hee.

But I didn't listen to that voice, that one that we often try to ignore, and proceeded anyway. The initial stitch in the ditch quilting went badly and I ended up with a big ripple - something that hasn't happened to me in years. If I felt the quilt wasn't good enough to be treated right, with a good bat, then why was even quilting it?

The redwork snowman was part of a quilt pattern (The Snowman Collector by The Stitch Connection) that I really should have made more attention to throughout the year - I think I'll try to make myself do a block of the month with this quilt and make it as should it be and then finally at Christmas '09 I'll have a real holiday quilt!

Somewhere in Time

2008-11-25T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday I found myself finishing the quilt with the Somewhere in Time orphan blocks, that I`m now calling Wonder Stars, as I`m using Wonder Blocks (from the book of the same name) to make up this scrappy quilt.

As I mentioned in my other posts about wonder blocks I am amazed at how fast these blocks come together, and how useful they can be.

I had wanted to make enough wonder blocks to fill up the centre areas, but in the end I had to frame some in order to have enough to go around the border.

The picture below is the best I could do, it is blurry due to a bit of shakiness on my part.

Whitework Sampler

2008-11-16T05:15:00.004-05:00

I set out to hand applique a pattern called Whitework Sampler by the Rabbit Factory. I settled on a deep yellow with the white applique - my problem is that all the tone on tone whites I've got seem to be wimpy - flimsy, almost transparent, no uummpph.

After needleturn applique-ing part of one block, I remembered Sue Nickel's book about machine applique and proceeded to make a block by decorating the yellow background with machine stitches, then using fusible to machine stitch the applique -

While I think this is great, I'm really not interested in doing a bed sized quilt with fusible applique - I think that the method is great for smaller quilts but I'd be concerned that with a bed sized quit it would jsut get weighed down and stiff, no matter how little fusible I tried to use.

I completed this block last weekend and have since been thinking about it in the back of my mind - I'm now trying different colour combinations and trying to determine if I can find a white fabric with more body.

Allow yourself to have your own quilting style!

2008-11-10T15:58:00.007-05:00

Staring at the small kaleidoscope quilt that I made a couple of weeks ago, I realized that once again I'm stumped about how to quilt it. I knew that I wanted to emphasise the circles that seem to appear within the design - but that's about it. All along, when working on piecing and making tops lately, I've been hearing advice from successful quilters that its important to plan your quilting along with your piecing. Well, I've decided that that just isn't my style.

For years, I've kicked myself while starting to quilt a top, then realizing I didn't like it, then ripping it out and starting again. Well, that seems to be my style! Seriously, my style does seem to be having to have the quilt right under the needle, with threads at the ready, willing to experiment to find just the right thing to do. I'm getting better at getting it right the first time, and the kaleidoscope quilt was the first time I stopped and changed direction but didn't feel as if I had to rip out what was done. I am very happy with the quilting on the quilt - obviously, lol, but really it has been an eye opener to me to trust the process that is my style.

I also seemed to have conquered leaves! I can free motion pretty well - flowers, feathers, letters, hearts, whatever - but leaves have just had me making round lumps. Uck. Well I think I've got it now :)

Time to get organized!

2008-11-06T05:52:00.002-05:00

Its early November and the holiday season is creeping up on me, and a new year will be starting in a just a couple of months. I've had a great quilting year - I've been happy with the skills I've learned and the quilts in progress and completed - although there are a few tops and partly quilted quilts that might never see the light of day as I now consider them an investment in learning as they weren't quite as successful as I'd like.

The batik baskets were a nightmare to decide on quilting. I had that quilt sitting at my machine for I think two or three weeks, walking by it and starting at and not knowing where to start. Finally, I decided to stitch in the ditch around the baskets and the hst handles; then, I started to sew veins and details on the leaves using free motion stitching with monofilament thread. Now, I can see the quilt finished - swirly free motion stitching around the leaves, heavy stippling to flatten the open area in the baskets, and maybe a few leaves in the open spaces between the leaves. Problem is, I don't want to spend the time on this right now so I've put it away until after the holdiays or even until next fall.

What I do want to be doing right now is -
quilt the little kaleidocope wallhanging
make 7 (!) aprons for Christmas gifts
quilt the redwork snowman
plan some kind of quilt for my son's wedding next fall
and, I've got a few tops ready to be pieced and in progress, so I can work on those anytime I'd like, as well as applique

So that doesn't look as bad as I thought, and I hope I'll remember this list when I want to start yet another project or go off in some other direction

Batik Baskets

2008-10-30T04:41:00.002-04:00

This quilt has been sitting, sandwiched and ready to quilt, by my sewing machine all week. I never started quilting it as something about it just didn't sit right. I decided it was the leaves, and yesterday cut out new leaf shapes and fused them right over the originals - I like it much better, more to look at and more movement.

I've had a great month of piecing and playing - I have three quilt tops ready to quilt, but none necessary for any particular time. Today I think I'll take a look at my baskets and drawers and bags to really see what wips and ufos I have.

Jelly Roll Snowman

2008-10-29T06:42:00.004-04:00

I got the Jelly Roll Snowman quilt done - playing with EQ and my little design board I finally came up with something that used up all the pieces I had. A visitor posted a message with a good idea but it was too late :)

The quilt can be folded up with just the centre showing and placed like a pillow when I have guests

And... here is a pic of the Delectable Mountains flannel quilt

Redwork Snowmen and a Jelly Roll

2008-10-28T04:32:00.002-04:00

The top for the Delectable Mountains was done on Friday - however no good picture yet.

Then I started on yet another top that I wanted to be for the Christmas holidays. I'm beginning to think that I wasn't meant to make a Christmas quilt or wallhanging - every attempt, other than the first successful wreath I made years ago, has turned out badly. Just not what I wanted.

This one holds more promise, but I'm still feeling kind of stuck. It all started with a jelly roll, and a disk of redwork machine embroidery snowmen (Snowman Collector by the Stitch Connection). I wanted to combine these into I think a lap quilt, but now I'm thinking a wall quilt. That wreath from years ago is looking kind of tired :)

I started making strip pieced hsts, then proceeded to four piece rail fences, then played on EQ to decide if I should make the snowman a centre or a border. Three days later, and this is what I have -

I will definitely add some heavy red decorative stitching around the snow people, before quilting. I'll need to add a small plain border to the centre to make it big enough for the rail fence blocks, and add some kind of pieced corner blocks. Then there is the problem of the hsts - even though they came from the same pack, the way I divided them - lights and darks - made it so that there is suddenly this blue colour in the hsts - the background of the redwork is a very pale yellow which matches the yellows in the fabric design - but the only blue so far is the bits in the hsts. I have enough of the hsts to go around the whole quilt, to make it lap size, but I'm not sure that's what I want to do. I'm hestitating sewing the rest together in case I want to re-arrange everything. I really should just put it away for now.

Isn't chain piecing great?!

2008-10-23T14:29:00.006-04:00

While planning the Delectable Mountains quilt top that I started ages ago, I had cut the preliminary squares, and sewed the diagonal lines, as in a giant half square triangle. I had also cut a few of these and made the blocks.

This week I went ahead and cut up those giant hsts into strips to make the delectable mountain blocks, v-e-r-y carefully laid out each set on a mat (this is where I get confused - I think that laying them out in their mirror image required was like one of those put the round peg in the square hole kind of test :)). I then chain pieced all those blocks together - look at this!

And then....I looked at the pattern. Oops. Something in the layout diagram doesn't look right compared to what I have...much reading later, I 've discovered that some of these blocks were meant to be half blocks, and others full mountains. So now I have some ripping out to do.

I thought I wasn't getting much done this week as I've been obsessed with quilt planning on EQ - spending literally hours having fun making virtual quilts. Two I'm going to get started on planning (I like to have my fabrics all cut if possible, or sorted into groups for different blocks, then I can just sew any time I want. One quilt used birds in the air blocks, the other is an applique scrappy quilt using circles and squares.

This is a block called Spin Wheel by Peggy Glebrich, from Fons & Porter June 08. I loved this block when I saw it in the magazine, then I discovered that I could make this block with Inklingo shapes printed out on the fabric, making it super accurate and easy to sew either by hand or machine.

I also started a few of these chain blocks that I had already cut up using scraps of 30s fabrics. The pattern is from Peggy Waltman called Colourful Thoughts , and I've put those aside to cheer me up on the dark grey days of winter. (Making my photo skills worse, is that on a laptop, colours can look much different depending on the viewing angle - these colours really are nice and bright!).

Last Friday I did get done the second block of Cherry Berry Album - but haven't done much applique at all this week

Piecing by hand

2008-10-17T05:10:00.003-04:00

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with opportunities to catch up with both "sides" of my family - however on Tuesday, with a belated birthday lunch planned with my Mom - I encountered a major flare up and have been on the couch ever since.

Luckily, I had a printed some inklingo shapes while cooking the pumpkin pies on the weekend. I got to work on hand piecing, and enjoyed being able to sew quilt blocks while laid up - different than the applique sewing I usually do while I'm in recovery mode.

So here are the little shapes I made - these are from "Monkey Exercise #1" from Linda Franz's Inkingo website.

I'm always curious about how dh and I ever get along - we are so different in many ways - here's an example. I picked out my favourite two of these shapes, and asked him to do the same. While we did both agree that our least favourite was the blue and pink star, with blue triangle edges (it looks like a radioactive symbol!); his second least favourites were my favourites - the white hexagon with blue edges, and the brown pinwheel. Huh - maybe I should give this little quiz to my son and his fiancee!

I tried to take a picture of the inklingo shapes with their printed stitching lines and cross hairs, but I couldn't get the lines to show up on the picture. (Another reason why a digital photo class would be interesting).

I got involved in Inklingo because I discovered that you can print half square triangle sewing grids directily on the fabric - similar to Triangulations and Thangles. With the one "collection 2" I can print half square, quarter square, and flying geese. I don't mean to sound like a commerical, but really the Inklingo method is worth a try - www.lindafranz.com

I will be looking out for ideas on a hand pieced quilt top - doesn't have to be diamonds or hexagons, can be squares or triangles or just about anything.

I'm looking forward to hopefully getting in to the basket top quilting this weekend, maybe some machine piecing, and finish the second Cherry Berry Album applique block.

Green Kaleidoscope

2008-10-13T17:26:00.004-04:00

That's an original quilt name! I have to think of something different...

I really enjoyed sewing these blocks. They were more challenging than the usual strip piecing or basic triangle and square shapes, yet not so challenging that caused frustration or moments of arrrggghhh. I used Marti Mitchells' kaleidoscope ruler (small) and her Kaleidoscope ABCs book. The book was important to my enjoyment of making these, I think. While I could have figured out the piecing of these on my own, her step by step instructions and drawings were key to successful sewing and results. There was some chain piecing, and some fiddly bits. On almost all my blocks, that points do meet in the middle, and I don't think there are more than a few with a very tiny tip cut off, they all sit nice and flat. I think I'll start cutting up small kaleidoscope pieces from scraps, to gradually build a scrap version.

And...this weekend I got involved in Inklingo, but that's another post :) Take a look at http://lindafranz.com/ Linda is a Canadian designer that has come up with a truly original and easy to use method of printing your quilt pieces on directly on the fabric for cutting and either machine or hand piecing. Don't miss the free download - give it a try!

Cutting up fabric, for....

2008-10-10T13:35:00.003-04:00

I've started some quilt piecing, but I'm not sure where I'm going.

First up was an attempt at stack and whack, but I got stuck at the stack and didn't get to whack. I am trying to use my stash, so I picked out a piece of floral print that had a 12" repeat, but I didn't measure its length, and I didn't read the directions quite right, so I ended up with 6 stacks and not enough fabric left to do any more. Hmmm....then I cut those stacks into squares, and then into hsts, figuring maybe I could make it do something interesting, but no luck. Now that I had that fabric pretty much used up for nothing, I thought I'd make some kaleidoscope blocks from it. So I cut up some scrap pieces in colours that came from the floral, and I thought I'd make alternate blocks - one scrappy, one with the floral.

I tried to work on the basket applique yesterday but I kept walking by the design wall with those kaleidoscope blocks on it. I didn't like the 6" size, as a lot of blocks are needed in a quilt top to make the effect, and I didn't want a top much larger than 25". I didn't much like the scrappy colours combined with the floral, either. Then toward the end of the day, I decided to ditch that whole idea and start again.

So, I proceeded to attempt 4" green and ivory kaleidoscope blocks. This is what I have so far, and I'm not too impressed. It needs some kind of pop. I have fifteen more to finish piecing - there all set, just need the final seam to make two haves a whole.

I think that there are some days, or weeks, when its better to just follow a pattern using specific recommended colours; playing can just be frustration - until you reach the ah ha! moment. Maybe once the blocks are sewn together they'll look better, maybe they need sashing....I think I'll play on eq.

2008-10-08T05:38:00.002-04:00

Last spring I had started a quilt top from Beth Ferrier's book, Out of the Cupboard and Onto the Bed.

I got as far as piecing the baskets and making the centre, sewing the diagonal setting squares, and then I decided I didn't like how it was looking. It went to quilt jail - the baskets on my shelf, way up high where I need a stool to reach. So I brought it down and went to work on the vines and leaves - I plan on using a free motion thread painting idea to sew down the fused applique leaves, following ideas from Anne Fahl's Colouring with Thread. Now that I have put the leaves and berries on, its looking much better - I think I even like it!

This month I would really like to try some new things - I have a few tops planned and cut out, but what I would really like to do is play with ideas that have been brewing, and some rulers and books that I've bought but not used. On the list is a kaleidoscope top, a stack and whack, some kind of diamonds or stars - all small wallhanging or table topper size. They say if you state a goal, you're more likely to get it done! So in that spirit, I bought myself three more books! - The Its Okay if you Sit on my Quilt book, which I have always wanted but never got; Stars by Magic by Nancy Srebro-Johnson, which I truly hope will let me make lemoyne stars by magic; and the Border Workbook which I will use to create some kind of new, wonderful, easy! border for my Mom's strippy basket and stars.

I also have to let myself cut into my nice fabric for these quilts - I find that when I know I'm experimenting, I tend to hold back and pick bits and pieces that aren't all that nice, therefore undermining my efforts. So, if I have to cut up a whole beautiful fat quarter just to use one or two strips, so be it!!

Mike gave me a wonderful OttLite for my birthday, so now I can sit and happily applique on the darkest winter night with the best light. It sits on the table next to "my" seat on the couch and can reach and move to exactly where I want it - it even has a magnifier! Although why I'd want to magnify my work I don't know...

Sally Post Floral Sampler

2008-10-06T08:49:00.003-04:00

This quilt pattern was presented by Gayle at Sentimental Stitches,(http://sentimentalstitches.net/) recreating an original quilt by Sally Post, c. 1854. When quilting, I put buttons on the sashing squares and yo yos on the border corner squares, to pick up the 30s fabric theme that I used.

A 1st and a 4th!

2008-10-02T13:43:00.003-04:00

I have had the most exciting morning....I'm suprised I'm still standing after all this shock and to-do.

This morning was the day the quilts would be displayed with their winning ribbons. A Toronto television show thats very popular because they are so viewer oriented were doing their live eye broadcast from the Markham Fair, hosted by Jennifer. My daughter emailed them before school and asked them to film the quilts so that her Mom might see what quilts had ribbons, as she was very very nervous about her entry and results.

One thing led to another and just before 9:00 I was on the phone...on the air.... live!... while Jennifer talked to me with the show host to announce if I had placed in the "quilt competition". They showed Folk Art Finery and said I had won 4th out of 12 entries! I was soooo happy!! I had done some unusual and difficult to me quilting on that quilt, and i was just happy happy that the judges had recognized my hard work.

But that left dh and I wondering what happened to the tied quilt. Its cold and windy here today, and I need to use the wheelchair tbecause the homecraft building is quite a walk from the parking lot,so Mike went off for me (of course with camera). He called and said At Home and Away got 1st. 1st! And I designed it :)

How does colour and print effect you?

2008-10-01T16:34:00.003-04:00

I am ironing some fat quarters that I've recently received and washed...the following is a photo of one of these. This print just made me feel, well, nauseous. I really don't like it. I could hardly look at it long enough to know why I don'tt like it.

The next photo shows one that I had ironed earlier in the pile, and this one I loved - loved it so much, it gave me the feeling that I wanted to step into it, or crawl into it and have a nap, lol. Does that sound too weird?

Just in case it was the structured pattern of the 2nd piece I liked, and the unstructure of the 1st piece that was bothering me, here's a photo of a similarly unstructured piece with different colours, that I do like.

The colour difference between piece 1 and 2 is the addition of a pink and a green - I like these colours! I use them a lot! So, I just don't know what turns me off that particular piece.

Okay, so now I'm nervous

2008-09-30T06:55:00.002-04:00

I'm not nervous about whether or not I'll win a prize at the fair, I'm nervous that my quilts will gain entry because I've followed all the rules; I'm nervous because I hope my workmanship is at least acceptable (this sounds stupid even to me, as I know I do good work, but the mind cannot be controlled!); I'm nervous about having my quilt displayed in public; and I think I might be even nervous that I do win!

I don't belong to a guild, so I have few opportunities to show and tell my work. A couple of quilty friends have seen my work, and the comments were good. I have donated a quilt to the church and it was displayed for a few weeks, and suprisingly earned quite a bit of money through a donation and draw program. But still...this is the first time one of my quilts will be thrown out there to the quilty world in general. I will feel so much better when they are gone, out of the house, and out of my control.

I went through each this morning, checked for threads, cringed a few times at tiny things that went wrong that was little I could do about, attached labels and samples, and had Mike check them while he helped me fold them. I then said, well - there is nothing more to do. Yep, he said, and you're not allowed to open those bags while I'm gone for the next few hours. I know, but it will be so tempting to take on more look, or what if I have one more thought about something to check? And then he walks by a piece of scrap fabric and puts it on the table - ack! - its one from the sample baggie for Folk Art Finery. Was it a duplicate? or did I not include ?fabric at all? did it fall off my zig zagged strip? I will not look, I will not look. What will be will be.

I have no idea how prizes are announced - so I don't know what the next few days will bring - stay tuned!

Fall Fair Entry Madness

2008-09-29T06:48:00.000-04:00

My husband Mike was confirming with me when my Fair quilts have to be dropped off - this Tuesday.

And then what, he asks? How do you find out if you win something, and what do you win? Well, first they are judged and then they are all hung on display, with the winning quilts having ribbons attached. What do you win, he asks? Uhhhhh...maybe $10, or even $5. And you *paid* $5.50 to enter these? He was shocked and appalled, as the saying goes in our house. He is the biggest supporter of my quilting habit, and I know he knew I wasn`t going to win a fortune if I did win, but I do think he`s quite amazed that I might be lucky to just get my money back! I said, look at it as investment in the arts and culture future of our children and grandchildren.

[I've just looked it up, the first prize for tied quilt is $20, fourth prize is $8; for the machine quilted quilt its $30 for 1st price and $15 for 4th - but I'm competing with hand quilters which for some reason I think is favoured at this fair; so...must inform hubby that the prizes are much grander than I first said, lol]

So, on to the labels. I have never been a happy label maker. Just write the information on a piece of muslin, with a pigma pen, try to make it legible, slap it on the quilt with fusible web after pinking the edges. But lucky for me Pat Sloan is having a virtual retreat weekend all about labels! So here are my efforts - still not as wonderful as one could make them, but a huge improvement over what they could have been.

So I`ve mailed in my form and fee, washed the quilts, counted the hours, made the labels, and now the nonsense of `samples must be attached`. Because some people with more ego than brains have in the past entered quilts that they bought instead of made, we are all now required to attach samples of the fabrics used in the quilt. But - the samples are generally smaller than the 1" size required (the At Home and Away I didn't decide to enter till after it was done - I had trouble finding anything! - lesson learned:)) This is what I came up with :

Meanwhile, I'm working hard on the Sally Post quilt - this is the third quilt I've done for others in the past couple of months - that's two quilts too many at all for me, and I'm really getting tired of this. The next one that's for someone else is my Mom's Christmas present, so I'm leaving that till December - I hope! Quilting quilts to leave the home for me are somewhat more stressful - I try to be extra neat, sitches straight and even, quilting imaginative, and of course the piecing or applique the best it can be. Quilting for home is fun - these quilts are well used by my family so I have lots of room to practice skills, try new things, and not worry about lopped points or frayed edges :)

How many hours? continued

2008-09-28T04:33:00.003-04:00

This is really driving me nuts. I just can't sense any reality in whatever numbers I might come up with.

Folk Art Finery now has a total of 35.5 hours which includes 14 hours for quilting.

At Home and Away is whole other story. I just don't know how to begin. I designed this myself, so I was done over a period of almost a year...working on EQ, planning blocks, sewing them and then testing their placement and maybe not using them. For a while, I had two more borders which aren't there now!

At Home and Away is a tied quilt, so lets say its quilting took about 8 hours. There is no applique, but lots of piecing. I could say there are 9 groups of blocks, an average of about 4 hours per group - now I'm really guessing! - so 36 hours plus 8 equals 44 hours.

Hmmm....I think I'll say 45 hours for Folk Art Finery and 54 hours for At Home and Away. I never will keep track of hours, as who really wants to know?

Theraputic Quilting

2008-09-27T08:04:00.009-04:00

My Mom had decided to not answer her phone - she lives alone, and is in reasonably good health, but there are reasons to worry when she doesn't answer the phone or call back sometime during the day. My sister, who lives close by, would go and check on her but she's out of town until tomorrow night. My Mom has in the past arbitrarily decided that she is mad at someone and that is her reason for ignoring the phone - when we finally reach her she gets very upset (read, angry) at the thought of us being worried and checking up on her (meaning...is she so old that we have to check and worry? - yes...) This of course does not work two ways - I have to check in daily or give a reason ahead of time (sort of like school) ever since I wound up in hospital eight years ago (to be fair, there has been a few emergency visits since, so I sort of understand her worry - but Mike would be sure to tell if there was a problem).

All day yesterday she was not answering her phone, and without my sister I was worried - although I knew deep down she was likely fine and just doing her thing. A sleepless night, then waking up and realizing I had a few hours until I could phone her after 8:00. So - I pieced. A charm square table runner.

I phoned at 8:15 and she answered - I calmly explained that I was worried that she hadn`t answered her phone, or called back, yesterday. She says, ``oh, that`s sweet....you know that area that`s being rebuilt near my home, they have lovely stores....`` and she launches into a story about her shopping adventures, purchase of a new bench for her hall, and blah blah blah. Not an apology or explanation. Again, this is typical of her and I fell for it :)

So mad at myself - I should know better - I quilted that table runner - and its lovely! It will always be a reminder to me to not worry when there`s nothing to be done - except quilt, lol.

The pattern is Crossroads, in the Charmed and Dangerous book by Ankas Treasures; the fabric is Victoria from Benartex (those wonderful almost free charms that arrive at my door a few times a year for just $25 annually - see the Benartex website for the club details).

Butterfly Garden

2008-09-27T08:04:00.005-04:00

This week, I did a lot of applique - partly because I wasn't having fun quilting the Sally Post Sampler. I did one block of Butterfly Garden, an easy needleturn quilt from the summer issue of Fons & Porter. I liked this block because it gives free rein to completely mix up colours, use big prints, some uglies from the stash, and just generally go wild with no concern at all for a colour scheme.

I have mixed feelings about the finished block - its very large (to me, who usually works on smaller pieces), I don't like the flower and especially its leaves, and I'm not happy with the solid black I chose for the butterfly body.

What I'll do with the next one is try a 9" block instead of 12", try a black and white print fabric for the body, and use a different flower and leaves. The Piece O Cake book Applique Delights has a few ideas, and so does Janet Pitmans' Applique, the Basics and Beyond. I may end up making the quilt from 12, 9 and 6 inch blocks, with various flowers and leaves or none at at all on the smaller blocks.

I also completed another 21 birds block, and got everything organized and fused - and even started sewing - the next Cherry Berry Album block.

How Many Hours?

2008-09-26T05:53:00.002-04:00

The rule book for the quilting entries at our local fall fair states to write down on the tag "how many hours did it take to make this quilt". (Actually, I'm sure I read this somewhere, as I've been thinking about this a lot, but now of course I can't find that rule - I'll figure it out anyway, just to be sure I have it available).

How many hours.....wow, have you ever kept track? I guess if you quilt on commission you might, but the best I can do right now is guesstimate.

So, first up is Folk Art Finery -
9 blocks, machine appliqued - 20 minutes prep each, 15 minutes sewing each - so, about 1/2 hour each block....4 1/2 hours? I'm sure it took much longer than that!
machine appliqued border swags - 14 total, about 10 minutes prep, 10 minutes sewing, 20 x 14 is about 4 hours
yo yos - 1 hour
quilting - days and days!! I guess I could say to myself that I did an average of an hour a day total, for about two weeks, so about 14 hours?
binding - lets just say about 15 minutes for each third long side and half short side, so about 2 and half hours

This has got me laughing - as I could never sit and do anything for longer than a half hour at a time, I really have no way to know if it really might be possible to do any of the above in the amount of time I've come up with.

The total hours at this point in the game would be 35 1/2 hours. One full work week! Is this at all a realistic estimate?

Tomorrow, I'll do the math on At Home and Away, and see if I can come up with some numbers I think might be reasonable.

Thimbles

2008-09-22T06:52:00.005-04:00

I spent the weekend practicing the use of thimbles. Well, first I did some needleturn on the porch on Saturday morning - a beautiful fall day, sunny and just warm enough. My poor third finger is a mess - peeling, swollen, and stabbed beyond its tolerance :) Two full sized quilt bindings, and two blanket stitch applique blocks, had done their damage as I do not use a thimble. I have tried and tried, but somehow I think I developed a way of sewing where I rely on that finger for more than just pushing the needle. But after the third stab of the day on Saturday, I cried uncle.

I went looking for the leather coin thimble I had tried to use at some point, but obviously I hated it more than I remembered as I had hidden it real well and it could not be found. Next up was the wide variety of metal thimbles I had collected from various places over the years. I quickly gave up on the closed one, and was having some success with the open top one.

Mike went off to Walmart on Sunday morning, and I asked him to take a look at the notions wall just to see what they might have (they have recently closed their fabric department, so I wasn't even sure what sewing notions might be kept).

To my suprise, he came home with two fairly good options. They both kind of work! I can't really decide which one I like best, and I'm still applique-ing very slowly, practicing on a little needleturn block - but I think with patience and practice I will get used to one of these and save my finger from permanent damage and callouses.

On the left, "assorted flexible thimbles", 3 in a package, Unique

In the middle, an old metal thimble with open top

On the right, "fingertip thimble", Dritz

Creativity strikes!

2008-09-19T12:12:00.005-04:00

I love these days when suddenly I have great ideas that just make things click.

This morning I got to basting the Sally Post sampler, from sentimentalstitches.net. I've promised this quilt to the church, as early as September 30 - so I thought I better get going! I so enjoy the fusible batting that makes life so much easier. As I'm basting, I'm thinking....how am I going to quilt this? The only thing I could think of was something somewhat traditional, but after that I was blank. Rolled it up and put it aside for now.

Meanwhile, while I'm very happy with 21 Birds and Cherry Berry Album, I want something to needleturn applique - I keep thinking of vines. I've been flipping through my patterns, books and magazines, drawing on eq, when I remembered the Nancy Page Club Magic Vine quilt - another great applique design put together by Gayle at Sentimental Stitches. Well, this will fit the bill for me exactly - small easy pieces that my motor/brain skills can handle! (And, to confess, I've also been planning on a butterflies quilt from a summer issue of Fons & Porter - but that one will be done very slowly as I collect the right kind of large prints). But now I'm thinking - I don't want to go through this fabric grief again.

Off for a rest, when I thought of a "set" of fabric from Connecting Threads that I had put away - got it out, and within a half hour I'm working on the first Magic Vine block :) Then, while I'm working on that, my brain is quietly chugging away on design possibilities for the Sally Post quilt - and voila! - I've got it. Laid it on the floor, measured out the grid which I'll do with the machine hand quilt look stitch, and now I just have to pick out the right thread - as I'll be sewing over red, green, and peach

I just love these days! The sun is shining, my brain is in gear, and even if I don't get much sewing done, I've had fun.

An Applique Block Done - and its a keeper!

2008-09-18T08:29:00.006-04:00

Here's my first block of the Cherry Berry Album, design by Betty Alderman.

I used 30 wt sulky blendables cotton thread to do the hand blanket stitch.

Meanwhile, I decided to do some clothing sewing. I used to sew a lot of my clothes, now its just some shirts, blouses, and pants. Believe it or not, my pants pattern is so easy, its faster than trying to buy ready-to-wear, and they fit too. So this week I'm just doing a couple of longer sleeve t shirts and a blouse. I'll do a pair of pants and tunic for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks.

A Picture of indecision!

2008-09-15T07:02:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I found myself planning yet another applique quilt - I think I found just the one that will give me the easy needleturn that I need. When I looked for a drawer in my sewing room that could hold the pattern and fabrics, look what I found:

There are ten blocks here - and these are just the ones I found in the drawer. I think there might be a couple more lurking around elsewhere - and I'm almost certain that some backgrounds I re-used after unstitching a piece or two. And don't forget - these represent not just sewing a patch or more, but planning a quilt layout colours and drawing templates or preparing a block for backbasting.Even I was suprised to see just how much trouble I've been having with making a decision on applique.

I'm not indecisive on planning piecing - I find a block or quilt I like, change it or tweak it a bit, pick the colours, and get going!

I did get some piecing done this weekend - three more flannel peaks blocks, and one more block from the 30s sampler.

Wonder Blocks

2008-09-14T04:47:00.009-04:00

About a month or so ago I wrote in my blog about planning quilts - one that I was going to do was orphan blocks from a series "somewhere in time" combined with blocks from Terry Martin's Wonder Blocks book.

Wow! These sure are wonder blocks. I had cut up the fabric a month or so ago, and yesterday wanted to do some simple piecing. 42 6" blocks in about an hour and half total sewing time.

And when I put a few up on my small design "wall", I could see how useful these blocks can be. There was no thinking, really, on how to arrange them. They looked great no matter what. I'll have to remember these blocks whenever I have orphan blocks, or a border, or even just want to make a quick quilt.

The star block in the centre of the picture is from "Somewhere in Time", a series I started but didn't finish. An earlier post in my blog shows the planning for what I'll be doing with this quilt.

Hand Blanket Stitch

2008-09-12T05:29:00.004-04:00

Here's the first of Twenty One Birds....pretty cute, eh? He just makes me smile. So I'll have to remember to sew on of these whenever I'm feeling tense - its quick and easy, fusible and hand blanket stitch with two strands of floss. I did the wing's stitches a little larger to give it more accent.

Meanwhile, I've discovered that I can't needleturn applique Cherry Berry Album. I tend to have eye fatigue, hand shakes, and some coordination problems and the small details in this pattern are just too much for me to do well. So I've ended up deciding to do that one with a hand blanket stitch as well. With the blanket stitch, I can just keep poking at the cloth until I'm sure I'm where I want to be, there's no risk of fraying, the thread is easy to see. I've started stitching it with two strands of sulky cotton blendables 30 wt. I think it looks good so far. Hopefully a picture will be here by the end of the weekend.

So now I'm without a needle turn project, which is disappointing. Perhaps I can keep looking and find one with very easy curves and points.

I still haven't turned on a sewing machine all week - today I would really like to get going on some piecing or quilting as I do enjoy it so much - if I don't get caught up with looking for yet another applique pattern!

21 Birds

2008-09-09T05:42:00.005-04:00

21 Birds could also be called, 21 different ways to do applique....

Indecision seems to rule my quilting life. Once I get a "good idea" in my head, I can't seem to let go of it until I have come up with a plan to incorporate it into something. This often leads to a domino effe ct amongst my list of quilts to do.

I received Betty Alderman's book and was still very happy with the Cherry Berry Album pattern. I quickly discovered though that some of the pieces would be challenging for my experience with needleturn, and perhaps I ought to look into other ways of making up this design. Betty Alderman uses fused pieces and hand blanket stitch.

Onto an email group, Applique Addicts, where I got great help. Into my books and patterns and samples, where I had more ideas to think about. Wool applique for this quilt was definitely calling my name.

All said and done, I think I've decided to stick with needleturn for Cherry Berry Album, redraw some templates to make it a bit easier for needleturn and embellish where necessary with hand embroidery stitches. I've also found enough batiks and hand dyes to use on this project, with just a bit of supplementing from the quilt shop, as I do think they will behave better on the tight curves and long narrow inner points.

And, as I am still interested in exploring hand blanket stitch, but not wanting to buy more fabric, I've decided to pursue another quilt called 21 Birds (from the book Stitched Raw Edge Applique by Sue Holly and Pat Nickels) - using fused applique and hand blanket stitch. So I've added another project to the list, and I certainly won't be lacking choices when I sit to do some hand sewing when resting or in the evening.

I'm still in a stage of not feeling up to much, I haven't turned on a sewing machine or an iron, or picked up a rotary cutter, since Friday. I hope that I can get to work on something today - even if its finishing my EQ lessons, or starting on one of those birds! I might even get the templates and overlays done for one of the Cherry Berry blocks.

Where I'm At - Current Projects

2008-09-07T05:57:00.006-04:00

I'm tired and recovering from all the intense work on the fair quilts....I've also had an intense week dealing with Wendy's 16th birthday and especially the complete mess up of her timetable, including missing classes, and an additional computer glitch where she lost an entire two credits from last year. That, and coaching and monitoring Scott's entry into first year high school.

So, I will sit and ponder what I've got in my definite would like to work on projects for the remainder of the year -

Quilting -

Almost Log Cabin - I've started quilting this, and really only have about a day's work left
Sally Post Floral Sampler - an almost queen size quilt that is ready for basting, and I would like to have ready for the church at the end of September
Three small Christmas/Winter theme quilts - these are small wallhangings or table toppers that I started as gifts for my sisters and sister in law last Christmas, they're basted and ready to go - they're definitely headed out the door this year, but to whom I'm no longer certain
Sudoku - this one I started quilting when my Sapphire came back to me, reincarnated as an 870. Practiced and got my faith back in using the Sapphire before starting the fair quilts - I'm in no hurry to finish this by any specific time

Piecing and machine applique

Strippy Basket Sampler - this just needs wide borders added, to make it a bit bigger for my Mom, and needs to be quilted by Christmas!
Redwork Christmas and Jelly Roll - I have to start giving this some serious thought - I have a machine embroidery disk for the Snowman Collector quilt by the Stitch Connection, and a winter themed jelly roll bought last year - should this be a lap quilt or a wallhanging? This Chrimas or next?
Flannel peaks, the delectable mountain pattern that has the preliminary cutting done - I'd like this top done in January but its such an easy one to pick up the odd block or two I just might have the top done much sooner
30s sampler - long term project that I'd like to work a little bit on each week or two
two BOM quilts - Jan Patek's 2008-2009 girl gang, and Liz Lois' Just Plain Nuts

For me, this list is too heavy on the quilting and too light on the piecing. I have a few other ufos and wips that I might get into this fall, and I certainly would like to make a new small (20 x 20) wallhanging for a certain area in my home; and also, a new Christmas wall hanging (36" square or so) to replace a wreath wall hanging that's been in use for too many years.

Handwork

Applique - the Cherry Berry Sampler pattern book arrived, and I'm still in love with it. Some pieces look a bit challenging for needleturn, especially if not using the firmly woven batiks or handdyes. So I'm thinking about whether to indeed go with batiks, or stick with the fabrics I've chosen and do fusible applique with hand blanket stitch.
Hexagons - yep, I'm still slowly working with those vintage fabrics and english paper pieced hexagons
Hand piecing! - I would very much like to explore this a bit more, especially as I have a small collection Australian Patchwork and Quitling magazines that have a number of patterns that can really only be done well by hand piecing, and I think I'd enjoy learning

Okay, now I'm beginning to wish I never started this. I don't know if it makes me feel better to see how much I can do, or be thinking that I've set too many goals. Quilting is more than a hobby to me. As I am almost housebound, I have plenty of time to work on projects when the time is right. Despite being able to work only about a half hour at a time, and a doctor's rule of resting - one time rest for 2 times activity (meaning, 1/2 hour of activity means 15 minutes of rest); and often one time rest for one time activity; its amazing how much I can get done. Whenever I have the opportunity to try something new, or learn something new, I can. I'm studying Patsy Thompson's free motion dvds - fantastic - and I'm also taking a Quilt U class on Electric Quilt layouts.

Wish me luck - and please don't tell me how many days until Christmas!

They're Done!

2008-09-05T10:56:00.006-04:00

The quilts that I plan to enter in the local fair later this month are finally all done -
binding done, washed, and safely put away.

Folk Art Finery, designed by Lydia Quigley (The Rabbit Factory); machine piecing and applique; machine quilting

At Home and Away, designed on EQ6, machine pieced and quilted.

Ohhhhmmmm...piecing

2008-09-02T05:38:00.004-04:00

Sometimes, most of the time, I find quilt piecing to be meditative and peaceful. Something about putting all those little pieces under the needle, rhythmically chain piecing and gradually building bigger and bigger pieces as they are joined.

Yesterday, after months of searching I finally found my hand applique project. And then I needed to piece!

First up is a delectable mountains pattern that I found in an older issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting. Last fall I made my first and only flannel quilt and the family has fought over it ever since - our house can be very cold in the winter. I promised to make another. I bought a flannel layer cake (10" squares) on super sale in January - no wonder they were on super sale - the colours didn't have much range, nor did they have much range in light to dark. So I've been puzzling over this for a while, and this pattern seemed perfect. It is easy easy sewing - brilliant method for making rectangular delectable mountains (unfortunately, I can't give it here as that wouldn't be nice to the designer).

From very dull to very bright, next up is a Lori Smith pattern. 30's Sampler, that a quilt elf delivered to my sewing room. She must have snuck in one evening and found my leftover 30s fabric, from the Sally Post Floral Sampler, and came back and delivered the pattern into the box. Wonderful! I like to have a loooong term project with lots of variety. The picture here is of the first block, somewhat pieced, and with a little mistake in one corner!

I found it! THE applique pattern!

2008-09-01T13:07:00.004-04:00

Here it is, designed by Betty Alderman, called Cherry Berry Album

Its got style, whimsy, even a rooster! And, I think it will work with the colours I've already picked out....now to wait for it to arrive.

Now, the bad part. First I found the pattern itself. Ready to order...then, when looking for the best place to order it from, I found a book of Betty Alderman's patterns, including this one but also including some others that look interesting. Please I hope I won't change my mind when it arrives - and it cost me more than just the pattern or the book as I have an agreement with the kids which is they get a book each when I get a book from Amazon or Chapters/Indigo.

Now that's settled, I think I'll clean up my fabric mess, maybe do some piecing, and get back to the binding.

Applique Planning

2008-09-01T05:27:00.005-04:00

I think I've lost count on how many applique tops I've planned but not sewn over the past several months. I get the fabric right, but don't like the pattern. I get the pattern right, but can't find the fabric. I *think* I have both the fabric and a patttern I like, but realize after one block that it wasn't really what I wanted.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for - something challenging, but not so hard that I can't sew at night while a little tired :) Not necessarily floral. Something that will adapt to everyday quilting cottons, and doesn't need batiks or hand dyes to give the effect - I just can't afford these usually, and I don't usually work with these and have them in my stash. Something with solids would nice, too. I tend to like small blocks, less than 12", rather than larger ones. I don't know - I've played with vines, borders, samplers, florals, traditional cut work shapes as in oak leaf and reel, hawaiin cut work, combined pieced and floral....what on earth do I expect to find out there, or to dream up?

This is my latest gathering of fabrics that I would like to put into an applique pattern,

The pattern I've settled on - but still wishing for something else - is this sampler from Applique Delights by Piece O Cake. I've even set up a block ready to sew, but I'm still hestitating as I can't quite get the feeling that I *am* settling. So much work goes into these needleturn applique blocks that I really want to know that I'll be happy with each piece as I work with it!

Computer Scramble!

2008-08-31T05:05:00.004-04:00

It all started last spring when my daughter sent me weekly, sometimes daily, requests via email (even though she lives at home, and is in high school, this is her preferred method of communicating with me!) asking for a laptop computer.

She already has a laptop computer, supplied by her school, as part of a program whereby kids with communication "disabilities" are able to use a laptop in class to improve their writing and organization of school work. In Wendy's case - thank goodness! - as her handwriting is worse than egyption heiroglyphics.

But, Wendy kept saying that the school laptop was a drag because everytime anything went wrong the school board tech people had to take it away to fix it, sometimes write before a term paper or exam.

So we listened to her saaaad tale, and saved up and bought her a laptop - presented it to her last week as her 16th birthday present, which will be Sept. 5. She hates it! We couldn't figure out why when everytime we got in an argument, or she was in the doghouse, she would say "take my computer back then!!". So finally we got down to it the other day, and discovered that she would prefer her school laptop, even though its heavy and slow, as there are restrictions at the school for use of personal laptops. And, she never said that she wanted her birthday gift "used up" on a laptop.

So now what? When I grew up we had hand-me-down clothes, now we have hand-me-down computers. Younger brother Scott got Wendy's desktop which was better than his, and we even stole some bits from his computer and added it to Wendy's to make a super new computer for Scott, rendering Scott's old computer pretty useless. Following me so far?

So now, Wendy has no desktop computer and doesn't want a laptop computer, and has decided she'd rather have some kind of furniture for her room (I think she has unfortunately inherited my mom and sister's compulsion to constantly re-decorate and move furniture!).

The decision was eventually made that we would return her new laptop, buy *me* a cheaper less fancy laptop, and give her my desktop which takes up less deskspace for her as it has a flat monitor and smaller CPU (?). Buying me a less fancy laptop will give us money back toward her new furniture.

That meant that for the past two days I've been playing - no, working, sweating, and hair pulling - at getting my stuff from my desktop to the laptop - Vista and XP don't particulary like each other.

Its done now, and I'm more or less back in business. Major major problem though is my EQ6 "ran out of activations" - meaning I can't use it. This was likely because we've done similar computer scrambles with desktops over the years between the three kids and me. I've written to EQ imploring them to let me use my software - all my current quilts are in there, as well as a new class to take at Quilt U next week!!

The really good news with all this, is as waited for the computers to "do stuff" I finished sewing on the binding on at Home and Away - yay! The bad news is that somehow a little corner of the folded binding at the corner somehow got snipped and looks quite sad - don't know how I'll fix that yet.

So, more Vista learning for me, and getting acquainted with a laptop which sure has its quirks compared to a desktop, and to start sewing the back of the binding on Folk Art Finery.

Happy Dance! Folk Art Finery is Quilted

2008-08-27T04:11:00.004-04:00

It just needs the binding. This quilt represents the most challenging piece of quilting I've done to date. I can't say that I've particularly enjoyed quilting this quilt - I made mistakes that I've never made on other quilts, and have done way too much ripping (there were times I wondered if the backing would survive). However, I am very happy with the results, and it does represent a new level of quilting for me. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that it will survive a washing - which I very much want to do as I like the shrink-y look that is achieved afterward. But binding first.

Applique using the sewing machine

2008-08-27T03:53:00.004-04:00

I very much enjoy hand applique, but somehow I found myself exploring machine applique over the past several months - there is so much versatility to this method, and lots of pizzazz and style can be added to your applique. I found that that these books were especially good for learning and discovering the wide choices available for machine applique -

Beth Ferrier - Invisible Applique by Machine - very good instructions on freezer paper applique, using a glue stick to turn the raw edges under
Anne Fahl - Coloring with Thread - inspirational - and do-able - thread painting on fusible applique
Janet Pitman - Applique, the Basics and Beyond - explores all kinds of applique including needleturn by hand and various methods of preparing pieces for machine applique
Sue Nickels and Pat Holly - Stitched Raw Edge Applique - these ladies have written book, with great patterns, that will inspire you to let your machine applique show and be part of the design

Here's a picture of two small examples I worked on from Anne Fahl's book -

And here's a picture of the first block of the month, Flower Pot, from the new Jan Patek b.o.m. I did turned edge on freezer paper, then did a small zig zag with a tan-gold thread - I'll use this everywhere on the quilt. I then decided to go ahead and use fusible applique for the star that is on top of the flower.

When it came to the applique for the "five cent fairy garden" - I decided to not do the method I talked about in an earlier post. All the ideas from the books listed above kept floating in my head - and I think I'll have fun stitching these appliques using some neat techniques. As it turned out quite "springy" looking, I think I'll put it away until the depths of winter when I'll really need the sunshine and bright colours it has.

I've remembered a basket wall hanging that I put away last spring, thinking it was too fall!! So now I"m going to find that one and see what needs to be finished.

Why I like...Quilt Block of the Month

2008-08-24T11:18:00.005-04:00

I really enjoy subscribing to a mail-order quilt block of the month. There are many advantages, to me, and very few disadvantages - *if* you subscribe through a quilt shop that you know yourself, or have a recommendation from. The two quilt shops I have used so far have been extremely good with their blocks of the month; but, I have heard horror stories from some quilters about fabric shortages, lack of directions, fabric selections, and timely mailings.

Why I do like a block of the month?
- no puzzling over what fabrics to use
- sometimes the pattern is currently only available as a block of the month
- a little surprise each month to look forward to
- you don't have to store all the fabrics, and you don't have to worry about running short, when you need more border fabric a year after starting the quilt top
- if you don't like a fabric, you can substitute your own to put your own spin on the project
- each block or monthly mailing doesn't take long to make, as the fabric is cut into usable pieces, and you are just making what is in front of you - again, just those directions, just those fabrics - no decisions necessary! - just fun creating and sewing
- an easy to pay for way to make a quilt over a long period of time - after all, the quilt shop is choosing the fabrics, cutting them, sorting, and including directions - all you need to add is backing and batting - the costs may add up, but if you do only one or two of these a year the costs are worth it to me

What can be not-so-good about a block of the month?
- no puzzling over what fabrics to use - sometimes that *is* the best part of making a quilt - just planning it, even if you never sew it
- each block or monthly mailing includes fabric cut into usable pieces - what if I make a mistake and use up all the piece the wrong way? - I could include my own fabric, which I often do anyway, but the quilt shop will likely have another piece available
- your finished quilt will likely look like many many others out there - this has to be one of those quilts that you can't "make your own", too much - although you might be surprised at just how much fiddling you can do along the way!
-knowing that you have to continue paying for the quilt for a number of months

I have subscribed to two blocks of the month at Homestead Hearth. One is Jan Patek's girl gang 2008. This one is because the pattern for her Girl Gang quilts are usually only available as a b.o.m. , I like the interesting layout, and the design is not something I would usually do.

I'll have pics soon I hope of the first block, as soon as my camera is working or replaced.