Christmas Quilt

I managed to finish another quilt in-between my other projects.

The center part was made from a pattern by Fabric Café.  I changed the borders a bit and didn't use their signature chenille by the inch.  The back is fleece.  This woman wanted a warm quilt, but I find it difficult to quilt thick batting on my home machine so I thought the fleece backing would add extra warmth.

It's been unseasonably cold here...good weather to snuggle under a quilt and read a book! 

Fair Trade Sewing

I haven't linked with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet in a long time, but this month I'm going to join in the fun.  So, if you've wandered here from Lily's place, "Welcome." and "Nice to meet you!"

I mentioned in a previous post about Son #1's new adventures in retail.  He has been working on the structure of his new booth at a local farmer's market.  He hopes to set it up on a fair trade model and have a variety of sewists contribute items for sale.

So far I've made him a sign:

 Some pot holders:

Some pillows:

Some placemats:

And a few zippered and drawstring bags:

This was the "new stock".  He sold out of some items in the first batch and had a few requests so that determined the items in this batch.  I'm anxious to see what sells the next time around.

It's been fun to have something to work on together.  It can be difficult to find things to enjoy together with grown male offspring so this has been a great activity in so many ways. And it's nice to have reasons to use other features on my machine like decorative stitches and the embroidery module.  My quilt output has suffered a bit but it has been a lot of fun to work on this stuff.
 

Bias Stripes: Finally Another Quilt Finish!

It's been a long time since I've had a quilt finish to report.  Most of my sewing time has been directed at small items for son #1's new farmer's market booth (more about that in another post).  I have finished several tops but thought I'd wait until I had them quilted to write about them, never thinking that it would take this long!

My local guild started a PhD program this year.  It's like the old UFO (Un Finished Objects) with a new title - Projects Half Done.  I decided to join.  For the "cost" of two fat quarters you list 6 projects that you want to finish this year (September to August).  Every other meeting a number is drawn and you have two months to finish that numbered project.  The fine for not finishing is another fat quarter.  At the end of the year the amassed fat quarters are awarded by drawing to one of the participants in the program.  My list consists of three tops that need to be quilted and three quilts never yet started!  They are the remaining three projects of a Craftsy class by Elizabeth Hartman that I started in 2012.  Of course, the first number chosen was one of the quilts not yet started.  But, it was a design that I had looked at and decided would work with my scraps and make a good donation quilt.

So here we have Bias Stripes, an Elizabeth Hartman modern quilt design:

The stripes are foundation pieced on large format copy paper.

My critique:

• This is not the first time that I've struggled with straight quilting on the sashing. I used a walking foot but still the fabric wants to migrate downward.  I don't think I will try this again unless I decide to change something significant in my machine set up.
• The whole piece is a bit off kilter in shape.  Again, I'm not sure why.
• I like the loopy free motion design in the striped boxes. 
• I like the fleece backing (sorry, no picture).  The backing is actually a re-purposed snuggly from a year when many were exchanged as Christmas gifts but none were every used.  They really have a lot of yardage in them.
• I used a blue thread for the quilting.  I hardly ever use contrasting thread but I thought it would help the white sashing.  And I think it did.  It makes the quilting more visible - for better or worse!

So, overall I'm partially pleased with this one. Hopefully, it will serve to keep it's owner warm through the winter this year.  It will go to the donations for the service bee I'm a member of.  We are donating quilts to a local organization that provides services to the elderly.  We meet once a month and sew and chat and share lunch.  It's a great format to get to know each other better.

Next during service bee I'm going to get working on the green scrap bin!
 

Blogs, Life and Choices - and Quilting

It seems like, in general, you either make your life happen or your life happens to you.  And usually we have seasons of one - having some order or control over what is going on in our lives and seasons of the second - reacting to life happening around us.  Lately I've been in that second category of watching life swirl around me.  And consequently blogging hasn't been at the top of my list.  I have a paper by my computer of topics I want to blog about but haven't, for one reason or another.  But I have had so many thoughts and ponderings and getting older means that those thoughts will only stay with me for so long unless they get written down.

Long ago, at the start of my blog I wondered why blogs stop.  I was new to following blogs and would often find one that I enjoyed but taking a closer look at the dates I realized that the writer had been gone for months or sometimes years.  There was no conclusion like a book, no season finale like a TV series, no final thoughts.  The blog just seemed abandoned like someone had walked out of their house one day and left everything behind.  Now, having blogged for several years, I think I understand a little better.  Sometimes life happens.  Other interests take over.  Writing down thoughts and activities no longer adds to our day, it just becomes another thing to do.  Sometimes the whole process of picture taking and editing and posting is more than we want to deal with.  But we still sort of like the idea.  Maybe life will slow down or inspiration will strike so we just sort of put our bookmark in place and set the blog aside.  Then time moves on and suddenly it's been months or years and blogging becomes something we did "back then"- sort of like diaries of old or paper and pencil journaling (both of which I've done in the past).  I guess the main difference is that no one knew when those writings were started or when they ended.  No, I'm not getting out of the blogosphere.....just acknowledging a little insight into some old questions I've had.

That sort of leads me to my second pondering (which actually has a quilting connection).   We often think of choices in life in terms of what we choose, but in reality choices are more about what we DON'T choose.....what we say "no" to can be as important as what we say "yes" to.  Son #1 had a very broad assortment of interests in high school - from drama to art to engineering to logic and debate to science.  But to be good at one he would have to spend less time with the others.  His dilemma was not finding what he liked or should pursue in life but acknowledging the need to say  "no" to other likes.  So maybe my missing bloggers have decided to say "yes" to other interests for awhile and need to harness some of the time and energy spent on blogging in their other areas.  Just like (wait for it.....here comes the quilting transition) choosing fabrics for a quilt.  We may have 20 fabrics that seem to go together and that are all pleasing to us.  But saying "yes" to all of them would create a chaotic design.  So we need to figure out what to say "no" to so that we can accomplish our final goal of a coordinated pattern that we like.  Did we like ALL of the fabrics?  Yes.  But we couldn't make our quilt with all of them.  Did Son #1 like all of those varied interests? Yes.  But pursuing his eventual profession required a total concentration of his time and energy for several years.  Saying "no" to good things is sometimes needed so that we can say "yes" to other good things.

So, life is still happening to me and probably won't slow down for awhile yet, but I'm not ready to say "no" to blogging.....just a bit slow at it. 

Life's Buttons

Several years ago I wrote a post about buttons.  I have both my mother's and my mother-in-law's button collection along with my own.  Both reflect the woman who owned them - as I'm sure mine does.  And I have a deep inability to use some of the buttons in any project that will leave me and never come back again.  They are so much more than buttons to me.  Some of the ones in my mother's box have been there since I was a little girl.  I remember looking through them during the long lazy summer days.  I just can't seem to part with them.

Yesterday our quilt guild speaker, Deborah Schupp of Gumbo Design Studios shared several of her quilt designs.  This one caught my eye and a bit of my heart:

She made this wall hanging out of buttons from her mother and grandmothers...and maybe great grandmothers.

There is definitely one of these in my future!

Vacation Quilty-ness

This year our beach vacation was spent at a different rental than usual.  We really liked this house.  There was a great place to fly the pig flag:

When we stay on the ocean side the pig flag helps us remember which stairs off the beach go to "our" house.  Here we put it on the mailbox on the day that our daughter-in-law was joining us so that she could find the house.  The rest of the time it flew off the deck to announce that we were "in residence".

But I thought it was a real sign that this was our new favorite home when I saw this on the master bed:

 I sort of fell in love with this quilt.  In fact, some day I'm going to make my own in this pattern.  I guess it just shows that a quilter may be away from the machine for awhile or take a break from sewing tasks, but she is always thinking about patterns, admiring quilts and planning the next project.  Or at least I am.

"Q" is for WHISPER Quilts

Several of the Whisper Quilts were displayed at the Quilt Show.  I shared about these along the way, but to recap:  this challenge placed us in groups of five.  Each person choose a picture that they liked.  The picture was passed on to another person who interpreted it into a block.  Then that block (but not the picture) was passed to a second person who interpreted it into another block which was then passed on again and one more time.  The results were surprising and not what you would expect at all.  Here are a few of them:

 

 Some of them are difficult to appreciate in such small pictures.  The last one is my favorite.  The original picture wasn't included, though and I'm curious weather it was a picture of a sunflower or the sun.  I also wonder if it's hanging upside down? 

So, I think that wraps up my "quilt show report".   I'm heading to the show in Hershey, PA at the end of the month with some quilting friends for some more quilty eye candy.

"Q" Is For Quilts, Russian Challenge Exhibit

Remember this fabric......

.....that was given to my quilt guild by our sister guild in Russia with the challenge to create a quilt that expressed our view of Russia?  And that I used to make this....

 Well, all of the quilts along with all of those made by our sister guild and showing their interpretation of the USA were exhibited at our recent quilt show. 

 

I thought the uniformity of the Russia to US quilts was quite a contrast to the variety of the US to Russia entries.  The pictures on the quilts made in Russia are a bit hard to see here but they are images of: cowboys, Indians, the US Capital, basketball players, a sax player, a mountain landscape and a city skyline. There is some talk of this exhibit traveling to some other shows but eventually the US to Russia quilts will be given to the Russian guild and their quilts to us will stay here.

"Q" is For Quilts

This past weekend was our local quilt show titles: "Q" is For Quilts.  This was the first show I've participated in since joining the guild.  It was a lot of work, but a great experience.  There were nine categories of quilts and judging was done by those attending the show. 

In any case, this quilt won Best of Show and clearly deserved the honor with any kind of voting:

Here are a few others:

 I entered several quilts in a variety of categories and was very excited to come home with a red (second place) ribbon in the First Time Entry category for this one:

One more - the write up on this next quilt said that the maker bought the unfinished top in a thrift store.  When she brought it home her husband declared it, "The ugliest top ever."  But, she felt like every quilt deserved a home so she finished it and displayed the result.  She said that her husband still thinks it's an ugly quilt.

The title:  "Ugly, Homely Quilts Need Love, Too."

My Quilt for Russia

A long while back I mentioned that my quilt guild had been issued a challenge by our sister guild in Russia.  They provided us with some Russian fabric and we were to make small quilts that expressed our view of their country incorporating the fabric.  We in turn gave them fabric from this country and they are making quilts of their view of the USA.  They will be sending their quilts to us in time for our June show and both sets will be displayed side by side.  Then our quilts will be sent on to the Russian guild. 

I see Russia as a grey country - hence the grey boarders.  But the people seem to fill it with so much color.  The blocks are red square, nesting dolls, babushka kerchiefs and onion dome buildings.  The red and green flowered fabric is the Russian fabric.  Here's a few close ups:

I had a lot of fun with this project using my decorative stitches in several places and metallic thread on the domes.  I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the collection.

Whisper Block #4: The Mystery Revealed

Saturday was the big Whisper Block reveal at my quilt guild meeting.  I'll soon share the blocks that I received made from the picture that I provided.  As a teaser let me mention that over the course of the four blocks a dog morphed into a fish.

But, remember just a few weeks ago when I shared my Christmas tree created from a...well, a something?  Here is the full transition.

The first person submitted this picture:

Quilters number one and two made these (#1 on the left, #2 on the right) from the above picture:

Quilter number three made this which she told me was an earing:



And I made this:

I'm not really sure what to say!!

Celtic Solstice: The Conclusion

I've finally finished Celtic Solstice - Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt for 2013.  Now, that might sound like I'm right up to date on quilting projects, but for full disclosure let me mention that I still have the mystery quilt top for 2012 waiting to be quilted as well as my Craftsy Block of the Month from last year.

We had a beautiful day today so I tried my hand at some outside photography:

I used a paper pattern to quilt this time.  On my last quilt I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't keep an even density on the stippling and I thought following a set pattern would be good practice to learn that.  I'm not so sure that I would do this again.  It seemed to make the whole process more complicated.  First of all I had to thread baste the sandwich since you can't have pins under paper and expect to be successful.  Secondly you have to tear off all that paper which is no small task.  There are still tiny pieces that I keep finding under the stitching.  And thirdly, when you are stitching over paper you can't really view your stitching too well making it difficult to get good stop and start places.  But, I did discover the answer to one of my nagging free motion quilting problems while finishing this quilt!  I've had trouble with the thread shredding and breaking when I move my quilt to the right during a free motion design.  After paying attention to the details of the problem I finally decided that it was my needle.  I've been using Superior topstitch needles which I love for everything, but apparently on my machine they are not the best for free motion.  The larger eye which is normally a plus allows my thread to rub against the last thread guide on the machine when moving in that particular direction.  The smaller eye on a regular Schmetz needle held the thread away from the guide.  Problem solved!  Yeah!!  I still love Superior topstitch needles but I guess when free motioning on my machine I need to give them a rest.

 

I also used one of my toys from last years travels and was much more impressed with it this time. The Fabulous Fabric Glide is made by The Gypsy Quilter.  The idea is that you put this around the area you are quilting and it helps you guide the fabric. It made the quilting process much kinder to my old arthritic hands and I'll probably give them another go without the paper this time.

I put flannel on the backing of this one just because I like it and I rounded the corners...same reason.

 So....that closes the book on this quilt.  On to the next project.

      

                                                                                                                                                                 



Country Threads Block of the Month 2013: The Big Reveal!

Last year I participated in two "Block of the Month" projects.  One of them was organized by Country Threads.  I posted pictures each month of the finished blocks along with my ponderings on how to construct the finished top.  The original layout had the blocks next to each other but I decided on a bit of sashing to calm things down a bit.  Well...here it is:

I really like the sashing.  It also helped to even out my uneven block sizes.  Over the year my attention to detail improved and my block sizes became truer, but I still had a wide difference in the sizes of the blocks made at the start of the year.  The quilting is free motion on my home sewing machine and Sashiko around the borders.  This was only my second Sashiko project so my learning curve is still pretty broad.  I noticed that the stitching showed up nicely on the more solid border but was sort of lost on the border with more print.  Of course I decided to Sashiko after I had already chosen the fabrics and added the borders.  (And, to think that my boys  accused me of being an over-planner when they were younger!) Here are some close-ups to show you what I mean:

I used black thread for the quilting following a suggestion I read somewhere that using the same color as the sashing helps to reinforce the contrast.  It would not have been my first choice on some of the lighter areas, but overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result.  The backing (which I forgot to take a picture of) is a linen small scale plaid with one corner of black print because someone might have measured for the backing, bought the fabric and THEN decided to add the wide border leaving the yardage just a tiny bit short.

Here's a picture of the original layout.  You can see that I also changed up the border and a few of the filler blocks:

I also did the binding the traditional way: machine sew it to the front and then hand sew it onto the back.  I've always hated how long binding takes to put on, but this time I just planned for several evenings in front of the TV.  I had to learn the thread lesson yet again, though.  I thought that this hand sewing project would be a good time to use up some of my old thread.  But, alas, it isn't even good for sewing on binding by hand.  After becoming totally frustrated with thread tangles I went upstairs and came down with my good thread and the sewing went much smoother.

 

It really feels good to finally be able to say that I've finished a large project this year!!

The Quilts of 2013: A Tribute

For the past few  years I've made a small wall hanging to sort of commemorate the quilts that I made throughout the year using scraps from each of the projects.  I have the ones from 2012 and 2011 hanging in my sewing room.  This year I decided to go a slightly different route.  One of my Christmas presents was a Sashiko sewing machine.   The machine didn't come with a cover so using scraps from my projects in 2013 I created a cover and quilted it with the Sashiko itself:

 It was a great opportunity to practice using the machine.  It makes this great stitch that looks like hand sewing.  You can vary the length of the stitch and/or the spacing between the stitches.  Amazingly those two little changes really give a different look to the final piece.

 It uses only one thread - in the bobbin and the threading process is unlike any machine I've ever used. I will say, it can be a persnickety little thing.  It likes things to be the same, so the settings that worked on fabric and batting didn't like sewing on the bottom finished edge which required going through multiple layers. 

Next I'm going to try it on the border of the quilt I'm presently working on.  And I have a few decorative pillow ideas in mind, too, whenever I get through my backlog of projects.  I keep reminding myself that it's about the journey, not the destination.  It's important to enjoy the process, not just try to cross another thing off the list. 

Hmmm.....that would make a good wall hanging.  Oh, but that's another project, isn't it?