Stack ‘n Whack

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Finally got this customer quilt finished after a dryer crisis and being sick 2 days last week…  Beth made this Stack ‘n Whack quilt and is giving it to her brother for Christmas.  She wanted feathers (for those of you who are not quilters, they are the paisley/heart/half-heart shaped designs stitched into the quilt) all over it with the background filled in with stippling, which is a tight meander.  What do you think?

Beth's quilt 010

This is the “before.”

Dryer and Beth Matthews 003

And, this is after I turned the quilt on the frame and did some quilting.

Beth's quilt 001

Here’s another angle so you can see more.

Beth's quilt 003

And, a close-up of one of the Stack ‘n Whack blocks… Stack ‘n Whack is basically fussy cutting fabric so that those triangles all look the same.  You stack the fabric so that the copies are all on top of one another and then whack (cut) it.  Or… you can do it other ways which I will let you research on your own…

Beth's quilt 004

Quilting between the “stacks”

Beth's quilt 006

I think Beth did a superb job of picking out the color of thread.  You can’t tell it here, but she chose a sage green to “pop” off the background sueded blue fabric, and it also went well with her stacks, borders, and backing fabric.  I was really impressed that she knew exactly what she wanted when we first discussed this quilt.   I think she did a great job on it and hope she likes the quilting I’ve done for her.

The Reveal

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So, “the reveal” of the raffle quilt was today.  That means I can share pictures of the finished product.  I’ve given you a couple of tastes of it before, but here is the whole thing.

raffle quilt 003

And, here are a few close ups.  The fans at the top in the pillow topper are hand appliqued with embroidery added.  There is taupe piping along the edge of the big kimono block/medallion in the center to go along with the thinner taupe colored inside border.  I learned from quilter Cathy Wiggins that you should repeat your colors or fabrics elsewhere within your quilt, so you should have them 2 or more times.   I was trying to pick up the taupe in the outer border fabric, so that’s how I wound up with the inner border and then the piping.  You might notice several different fabrics for a scrappy look. I saw that outer border and knew it would be the basis of the quilt, so I pulled as many indigo fabrics as I could find that would go with it.  And, of course I needed to pull that rose color in from the border fabric as well, so that’s how I wound up with the fabric for the Kanji and sleeves of a couple of kimonos (cream background with cherry blossoms).   A lot of these fabrics are Kona Bay fabrics (http://konabay.com) that I bought from the a local quilt store, Quilter’s Haven (www.quiltershaven.com), in Olathe, Kansas.  They have quite the variety of Asian fabrics.

raffle quilt 008 raffle quilt 010 raffle quilt 013 raffle quilt 014  raffle quilt 028raffle quilt 018 raffle quilt 027

The appliqued Kanji symbols say “Health, Weath, & Happiness.”  So, that is what the quilt is named.   Putting this quilt together was quick.  What seemed to take forever was the quilting.  In an earlier post I demonstrated a couple of strategies I used for marking designs onto it.  There are lots of ways to mark for quilting.  Quilters like to say, “If you can draw it, you can quilt it.”  Of course, I like to say, “If you can trace a design from a Dover copyright-free book, you have a quilting design.”  I got the designs for the motifs on the kimonos from a couple of Dover clip art books.  If you know anything at all about me, you know I like to sneak fun stuff into my quilting, so I have lots of Dover books in my stash to use for ideas.

Hope you enjoyed the “quilt” show!

Black Friday Specials

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There’s still time to do some online shopping for your favorite quilter, embroiderer or sewing enthusiast… and at great discounts!  Sew Cal Gal has posted a list of websites that are offering discounts and the codes for each discount.  Head on over to http://www.fingertipshopping.blogspot.com/2012/11/black-fridaycyber-monday-deals.html and check out the great savings.  Many thanks (from ME) to Sew Cal Gal for doing the leg work for us!!!

Longarmers like extra backing and batting

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Longarm Quilters like for their customers to provide extra batting and backing for many reasons. One of the reasons is because our quilting foot hits the grippers holding the sides of the quilts, so it is very difficult to stitch within 3+ inches of those grippers.  However, for me, the biggest reason we like extra fabric  is because the backing and batting draw up during the quilting process. Another reason is so that we can accurately provide good stitch quality and tension for your quilt. Longarm machines are so finicky when it comes to tension; much, much, much more so than a domestic machine, that it can be difficult to achieve good tension and good stitches. So, most of us will test out the tension and stitching on a side piece before we add it to the quilt.  If you look closely at this picture, you will see the side border of the quilt I was working on.  There is about 6 inches of extra backing and batting.  I added a 3″ wide piece of fabric  at the side of the border and tested my stitches there with each thread change before stitching on the actual quilt.

Marking a Quilt using Press ‘n Seal

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Remember that link I told you about awhile back where the blogger uses Press ‘n Seal to mark her quilts?  Here is the link in case you need a refresher: http://quiltsbyrosemary.blogspot.com/2011/06/marking-quilting-pattern-using-pressn.html.  Well, I decided to try it on my latest quilt.

I’ve been working on one of my quilt guild’s raffle quilt, or as they like to call it, the “2013 Opportunity Quilt.”  I am letting the cat out of the bag here by posting pictures.  I am nearly done and want to have it finished by our next meeting on December 4th.  I just have a few more motifs to sew and a small border and then I can take it off the quilting frame, bind it, put a hanging sleeve and quilt label on it, and it’ll ready to be hung for “unveiling” at the December 4th meeting.  As you will see from the pictures, it’s an Asian themed quilt, with kimonos all over it.  I won’t put a picture on here yet of the whole thing, but will wait until after the official unveiling on the 4th for that.

I quilted interlocking circles along 3 borders.  It was a little tedious trying to do that around applique Kanji (above, shown before quilting the interlocking circles), but necessary to make it look okay.  Clam shells were quilted inside the kimono blocks and a different Japanese motif was quilted in the middle of each kimono.  I won’t tell you too much about the kimonos, because I want to save that for the final unveiling pictures.  But, I can post a picture of one of the kimonos.

I used the Press ‘n Seal that Rosemary suggested on the above block and the block pictured below.  Here are a couple of pictures of the process.

       

I had already copied all my patterns onto vellum paper and am planning on using those in the same way, but I wanted to give the Press ‘n Seal a try on a small area before I try it on a larger area.

If you know anything at all about Judy Lyon, you know she does amazing things with pantographs.  You can find her work here: http://www.meadowlyon.com/.  When I saw her pantograph “Geisha Garden,” I knew I had to have it, and I wanted to add it into this quilt.  But where?   I already had the whole thing planned out, so the only place it would fit would be on the bottom border of the quilt.  And, how on earth would I get it on there?   Unless you are Matt or Bradie Sparrow, who can quilt a pantograph from the front of their machine using a BobbinCam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRDp2LZOPv8, then you need to come up with another way.   Normally a pantograph is quilted from the back of the machine, so I would have to be VERY precise with how I did this.  Plus, I had the quilt loaded to face the front of the machine, so that would mean taking the quilt off and reloading it the other direction.  That’s when I decided to just draw the design onto the quilt, but that, too, would be difficult.  I could use a roll of paper, but paper that is too big will get torn and mess up.  So, Press ‘n Seal was the way to go with this.  And, you know what?  It worked really well!

Drawing it onto the Press ‘n Seal… See why I HAD to put this design into the quilt?

 

Pressing it down along the bottom border – it worked REALLY well and stayed in place the whole time.

 

 

 

After I ripped the plastic off…

The only “con” for this, I think, was that it took a little longer for me to pull the plastic off than it did for me to run the stitches over the Press ‘n Seal.  Be careful of tiny little places where the plastic can get stuck.  Try to either sew those closed or make them bigger, more open spaces.

 

 

 

Latest works

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So, this is what I have been busy with lately.  Mary made this quilt for her brother-in-law who needs a kidney transplant but, through a long and drawn-out process already, cannot seem to find a suitable donor.  If any of you are willing to give up a kidney to help him, please contact me and I forward your information on to her.   Mary chose straight line quilting for her modern quilt.  I learned a ton from working on her quilt.  The first problem I encountered was puckers in her flannel backing.  The puckers ran along the seam lines of the quilt top.  Well, I can’t have puckers, so I ripped those stitches out and chatted with a fellow quilter about what to do about those puckers.  She said to raise the hopping foot on my longarm machine when working with flannel, thick batting, etc.  Duh!  If your hopping foot is smashing the layers as you try to travel along the quilt, it is only going to drag, warp, and pucker the fabric… AND your thread will constantly break, which happened to me.  When it was all done, I was so glad to be able to quilt with flannel.  I love the feel of it and think it makes a very comforting quilt, especially as a gift.  Some people refuse to quilt with it, I found out, but I think I am going to go buy some flannel for my own quilts now.  My whole idea of quilts and quilting is comfort; comfort for sleeping, comfort for your emotions and spirit, and warmth as you wrap your quilt around you in a hug.

The other issue I had was that I had ordered a cross-hatching ruler online and was waiting for it to arrive.  I had tried using the other various rulers I have, and they worked fine, but, let me tell you, they did not work nearly as well as this one.  I was surprised at how quickly the rest of the quilting went when I had this crosshatching ruler from Quilters Rule.

If you look closely, you will see the base of the ruler pushed against the roller bar on the left side of the picture.  The ruler attaches to the base for straight line quilting.  Now, it’s called a cross hatch ruler, but for modern quilts with straight lines, this is the perfect tool for the job and worth every penny.  Believe me, this simplified the job of stitching at an angle on a longarm so much!  If you don’t already have one for your quilting business, I highly recommend buying one!  Check them out at: http://www.quiltersrule.com/template/mqt-chr.html

The other quilt I’ve been working on was made by Barbara with jelly roll fabric.  She is giving it as a gift to her daughter-in-law for Christmas and wanted the family names and personal notes written on it.  Can you see the writing in this picture?

 

Even her backing fabric is cute and goes well with the chartreuse thread she chose.

 

So, now that I’ve got those done, it’s back to the Opportunity Quilt that I need to finish.  I am working at our guild’s quilt show later this week, so I’d better get busy.

 

 

Quilting Tutorial

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Do any of you follow “Insights from SewCalGal” blog?  They’ve got a fantastic quilting tutorial (with Diane Loomis) as their post today.   If you do any of your own machine quilting at all, you should check it out and also follow along throughout the year.  Check out this post in particular: 

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/10/2012-free-motion-quilting-challenge_15.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InsightsFromSewcalgal+%28Insights+From+SewCalGal%29

Quilt Retreat

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One of the guilds I belong to had a quilt retreat this past Saturday.  It was my very first quilting retreat EVER!  I thought to myself, “What on earth am I going to do for almost 12 hours at a quilting retreat?”  I mostly have longarm quilting to catch up on, so I had to really think about what to bring.   A friend suggested I bring something I hadn’t been able to work on in quite some time, some of my UFOs.  Well, I have a couple of those, so I took along plenty of stuff, sure I’d finish each and every one of the 4 items in my bag.  As it turns out, there is a LOT of socializing at these retreats and not as much work gets done as you might expect.  Actually, in my case, it was AVOIDANCE.  I started this quilt over a year ago and, after volunteering on the board of 2 separate quilt guilds and in between all the eye surgeries, this project got pushed aside, balled up, messed up, and out of the way on so many occasions that I had forgotten about it.  At this point, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to finish even what I did on Saturday and this project would be pushed to the back burner again and again.  And, it probably will, because I just have too many ideas floating around in my pea brain, demanding my attention.  It can get really frustrating, and I try to avoid quilting challenges, because that just sets my mind awhirl once again.  But, I am SOOO happy that I got this portion of the quilt done.  It will be the foundation for future dabblings to add to the quilt.  So, here is a sneak peek of what I worked on Saturday.

 

 

 

And, here are some pictures of folks who also attended the retreat.

      

 

If you are a quilter and haven’t yet attended a retreat yet, you should try it!  Even if you walk away with only one thing completed, you will feel like you’ve accomplished a lot!

She’s a handy girly whirly

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My husband does not have a handy bone in his body, but I do.  The way my siblings and I were raised, we learned to live with what we had and to fix things.  My husband, on the other hand, is a super chef (at home, not as a career), and I am not.  I cook out of necessity, not because I enjoy it.  My husband has a knack for flavors and creating some of the most scrumptious dishes.  As for me, I sew and fix things.  What more could a husband ask for?  And, when I do fix things, my husband says, “She’s a handy girly whirly!”  He acts like he is amazed at the things I fix.  Of course, I am amazed at the things he can cook!  So, anyhow, this is my latest project.

As you can see, we are in the basement – I call it the dungeon.  That is where my longarm quilting machine resides.  I never seem to have enough counter space, so I built this countertop to sit on top of my 2 cubicle bookshelves.  It serves a double purpose as a work desk for me, as I have a drafters chair that rolls right into place in the middle.

Since the bookshelves are 36 inch square, I took a piece of plywood and had it cut at the hardware store to 3 ft x 6 ft.  I then added trim along the sides that would extend a bit along the bottom of the counter to hold it in place on top of the bookshelves. When I added that trim, I left about 1/8 of an inch lip on the top to insert my cutting mats to hold them in place as well.  I then added some measuring tape sticky note tape stuff along the edge that I bought from JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts.

It serves its purpose fairly well, but I still don’t feel like I have enough counter space.  I am planning on and saving up to finish the dungeon and have added power tools and hardware gift cards to my Christmas wish list.    Others might think I’m weird for wishing for power tools, but I don’t want to feel like I’m in a dungeon while I work and create.  And, I know my husband isn’t going to finish it, nor do we have the $$$ to hire it out.  So, it’ll be me, on my own.  I think I will line 2 of the walls with low bookshelves or cabinets.  Not only will that provide storage, but it will also provide that much needed counter space.  I can also hang shelves on the wall when it’s finished, and there will be a ledge that will run along the corner, so all of that will help.

My dream is to have a small kitchenette and bathroom down here.  The kitchenette would be a great place for me to dye fabrics.  And, of course, the bathroom would be handy for this handy girly whirly.  But… I don’t have a clue how to do that nor the muscles for doing plumbing.  Anyone know someone who would be willing to do plumbing for charity?  😉

As for my latest quilting project, I wanted to work on curved crosshatching.  For whatever reason (I guess it’s the freedom that comes with it), I love quilting charity quilts.  The fabric can be some of the most God-awful stuff and it may not be perfect, but it’s a cheap way for me to practice, practice, practice.  After I got in to quilting this a bit and realizing how much time it was taking up, not to mention the fact that this would probably go to a male child, I realized that curved crosshatching is not the thing to put on charity quilts.  Ever!  I didn’t want to rip it out, so I continued on my merry way.  This was a beautifully pieced quilt, and I could have done so much more and better with it.  But, lesson learned!  And, as I like to say, “It’s all (life) a learning process.”  We make mistakes and hopefully learn from them, and in the mean time, it’s not as bad as we think.  As for this one, if I hadn’t done custom quilting on it like this, I probably would have just done an edge-2-edge, which would have done nothing to add to the piecing on this quilt.  But, then, I’m not sure this did, either.