How Many Hours?

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.

They're Done!

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.

Happy Dance! Folk Art Finery is Quilted

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.

Unstitching Stippling and a Little Quilt

Ugh. I had planned out what I thought was the best quilting design for the borders on Folk Art Finery - I practiced and test sewed on scraps and it looked great. Only problem was I didn't account for the fact that monofilament thread on black just sinks right into the fabric and the result was very blah, especially that there was a lot of work involved that just didn't show up properly. This meant a lot of ripping out of stippling - this has got to be the worst job - two days where I spent any and all quilting time just picking picking picking. Here's a pic of a part of the section which is about 3" x 7" - of course, with the flash the stitching shows up nicely, if only it showed up as nicely in all lights.

After that, I just needed to take a break from quilting that Folk Art Finery. Luckily my sister gave me the perfect excuse by sending me her address to her new home that she's moving to next week - which meant I could do up a little quilt to send off to her as a house warming gift. I used baltimore album style redwork designs in the block centres, and I think I'll include a note that explains some of their symbolism which would relate to a new home.

Now that I'm looking at this quilt top this morning (oops! my pic cut off the bottom border), I wondering if its too much green and red, and too Christmas-y. But yesterday, I was doing a happy dance that I was able to find just the right colours in my stash. I'm going to go ahead an quilt it quick - just a large meander stitch everywhere - and get it in the mail for her.

Quilting for judging

This is my first entry into any quilt competition, and as small and local as it may be, I'm sure the judges and viewers will be just the same as those at any other quilt show.

When I sat down to start quilting Folk Art Finery, the quilt police were looming my head - chattering away and telling me all the things I should be doing. I froze, and could hardly even begin to put the needle into the quilt. I soon relaxed, after a firm talking to myself, and reminded myself that this is my quilt that I want to enjoy making, I'm entering it into the competition to make myself be more public with my quilts, and finally, just to get the experience of what its like to have a quilt judged.

I have since found plenty to be critical about, from a technical point of view, regarding my free motion quilting which is what I've ended up doing on all of this quilt.

But - more importantly -as it stand now, with the centre done and the border quilting planned, I feel that this quilt is a personal triumph for me! I am so happy with the quilting designs, and I've had the most confidence ever in choosing and using those designs. I've made my own little list of what I consider to be "marks against" the quilt - I've got them written down and will share them after I see what the judges have to say.

Here's a picture of part of the quilting - and that's all I'm posting of this quilt until after its gone to the Fair.

One thing disappointing and frustrating was that I discovered I could definitely improve the look of the border quilting with a different presser foot offered by Viking - Mike went to get it for me and its on order!!! Grrrr. The store might be able to get it tomorrow, which means pick up on Saturday, or it may be a week or more. This will force me to make a decision as to whether to continue with the feet I have, or wait.....I want this done by Labour Day which believe it or not is just three weeks away!

Fusible Batting

I've been steadily working on the two quilts I hope to enter into the Markham Fair in September. The tying on At Home and Away is about 3/4ths done, and I have finally made some progress on Folk Art Finery.

My favourite batt is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 and when I discovered they offered a fusible version, I was more than happy to try! This is the best thing next to my rotary cutter :)

It turns out that the fusible batt is actually, according to tests, less likely to have fusible chemicals stay in the quilt after its washed. I've found that the two lap quilts I've done with the batt have no noticable difference after the quilt is complete and washed. Also, machine quilting seems just the same as the Hobbs Heirloom without the fusible - and much better than the odd time I used a spray fusible.

The other intersting characteristic of this batting is that both sides are somewhat sticky because of the fusbile. This allows you to get pretty much perfect placement of the batting on your backing, all smoothed out, then add the top and get its blocks and borders centred and squared before proceeding with the pressing. Pressing is important - do not do anything more than just plop the iron on a space and then pick it up and plop it on the next space. If there are any mistakes when you're done, its easy to just peel off the layer and smooth it out again. I do use pins along the borders, only because it does peel off and knowing me I would catch the top on something and whoosh! the whole thing would be undone :)

I can easily do a top about 60 x 80 on my dining room table - I have one of those large cardboard layout mats that are used for dressmaking - that protects the table from the iron. Its okay if parts of the quilt are draped over, as they've kind of been stuck in place as described above.

Applique
I started yet another applique block, about the middle of last week, and made great progress on it. I liked the colours and the pattern, but put it down to work on tying. Now it seems to have vanished - gone - not in my needlecase, not on the coffee table, not on the porch, not in my sewing room. I suspect a dog's tail is the problem. Our lab, Chevy, gets very excieted sometimes and has his tail is way too long, one swoop can knock many things on the floor - from the tables, couches, and chairs. I don't even have an interest in starting another block while all the binding sewing awaits me - but I sure hope I find this one.

Backbasting revisited

I learned to hand applique using Ellie Seinkowicz' book "Applique 12 Different Ways" - this was an excellent introduction to the many different ways that one can achieve needleturn applique.



As mentioned in previous posts, I then discovered the Piece O Cake ladies, who use templates for the applique pieces but these templates are made from a kind of laminate paper available at Walmart and business supply stores; also they use a plastic overlay for the entire design so that you can place the pieces where needed on your block. I loved this method, and successfully sewed up my first large wallhaning - the new Applique Sampler, and also went on to Lori Smith's Simple Pleasures using the same method.



Then along came back-basting. First there was a little discussion about it on a few applique lists - I think that an applique pattern b.o.m. by Apple Blossom Quilts was the first to start this off. Over the past year or so there seems to have been an explosion of back basting converts - those who have learned it, spread the word and the technique - which has a lot of postives such as no templates, no overlay, no pins!! And absolutely accurate for achieving the piece's shape and placement.


Well, I gave it a try, about a year or so ago, and felt it was just not my thing. It felt awkward, too much work, etc etc. Then this past month or so while I've been literally goofing around with patterns and fabrics, I decided to give it another try.



Back basting simply means this -
transfer the entire block pattern to the back of your block fabric, using a light box or a window and drawing with a pencil or washable marker
take the first piece to applique, following the usual order of "underneath" pieces first - for example, a leaf - place the applique fabric right side up on the top of your block fabric, hold it up to the light or use pins to make sure it is covering the drawn shape on the back, then sew it to the block fabric following the drawn leaf line you made on the back - am I making any sense?
now, you can needleturn applique the leaf on the front, following your sewn line as your marked line



here are a couple of excellent tutorials:

http://www.appleblossomquilts.com/tips/backBasting/index.jsp

http://www.thequiltersjewel.com/tips/TemplateFreeApplique.html



My main frustration with backbasting had to do with just not being able see the holes. I've used a large embroidery needle, double thread, and still those holes elude me. So then I figured out that I could simply take my pencil or chalk and draw around the sewing line I've made - that helped, but it seemed to me add to the work. I also sometimes had trouble getting the front piece to line up with drawn lines in the back, without using a piece much too large and wasting fabric - sort of the same problem I have with paper piecing.



I gave up on back basting, again, and went back to a variety of templates; drawing the design on the back and pin placement on the front; and freestyle placement using just the vine placement as a starting point.



A friend on an email group brought up a discussion about a wonderful Canadian applique artist - that is what she is, I think - Katie Friesen - you can see some of her work and patterns here -

http://www.thequiltersjewel.com/kits/originaljewels.html




I thought about back basting, again, and decided to give it another try. I really liked the idea of no pins - they are a real pain when sewing. I came to the realization that I could do the basting with machine stitching. Well, this seems to be the trick for me. Bigger holes, some of which I can actually see - combined with a drawn pencil line over the stitching, my nice big sewing light to help with placement of the fabric on the front, quick - and not at all hard to pick out as I sew. I think I just might be a back basting convert :)

Pictures tomorrow, of my first little block completed with back basting.



The Rabbit Factory - Lydia Quigley


I sent a picture of my Folk Art Finery top to the folks at The Rabbit Factory, to get permission to display it at the Markham Fair as I might be entering this quilt in the fall. They've posted my picture on their blog! I'm very glad that Lydia is happy with the few small changes I made to her design.


For some reason, this site doesn't want to work on Mozilla Firefox, but it does work on Internet Explorer:

http://www.therabbitfactory.com/

Folk Art Finery - top done!

Its quite amazing what can get done when you work at it just a little at a time. I've been unwell the past several days, and have spent much less time than I usually do at my quilting. I had started the scallops on the Folk Art Finery borders this past weekend - and found them quite daunting! I've never worked with such large applique pieces (using freezer paper machine applique), and I chose to do yo yo's instead of circles so that was also something new to me as far as sewing down the yo yo's onto the top. But little by little, I was suprised to discover that I had sewn down the last yo yo this morning, and with some neatening up, the top will be ready to quilt :)

I ordered the backing - a nice purple and gold print that somewhat matches the inner border and yo yo colours, along with an extra couple of queen size Hobbs Heirloom batts.

I'm still working on quilting the Sudoku quilt - mostly because I'm not feeling that well, and also because I'm really in no hurry to have it to someone or to finish it for a particular reason. I'm still going with the idea of using a different free motion design or meander pattern in each large block - two done and I'm liking it so far.

My Mom has taken a liking to the strippy baskets and stars top - although she wants it for her queen size bed. I think if add a wide border to each side, that will make it big enough. I'll have to think about what pattern though, as it has to be interesting enough on its own to be such a wide border, but she does not want any green! - so that rules out any florals. In finally found the pattern reference for this quilt - its called Noel Sampler, Fons & Porter, July/August 2005 (three part series starting that month). My top bears little resemblance to the original!

Of course the downside to not actively working on my quilts is that I find myself actively *thinking* about my quilts! More ideas of designs to make, fabrics to wish for, and uses for UFOS are all bouncing about in my head - but one step at a time. Most important is basting the queen sized At Home and Away top for tying, which is at the top of my list as soon as the weather cools off and as soon as both I'm ready and Mike has time to help.