A Very Special Comission

I've been asked to make a quilt for a friend of my mothers who's husband passed away. She's been hanging unto his ties and dress shirts, and has given me a bin of them to create into a queen sized bed quilt. On a last minute whim, she also tossed in a piece of her wedding dress to also incorporate into the design.

I've been reading up on using ties as quilt material (stabilizing the fabric with interfacing seems to be key), how to cut apart men's shirts, and whether or not to wash the ties and wedding dress (yes). Most importantly, I've been mulling over patterns and designs, wanting to find the perfect one. Making a quilt for someone else can be nerve-wracking, and the pressure's on with this one in particular. 

Thankfully, there's no timeline for completion, so I can take my time to make sure things are just right.

Back in the saddle again!

Well, after almost three weeks without touching my sewing machine, I'm back at it again! 

Unfortunately I don't have anything too thrilling to share, because I'm STILL working on the Nouveau Wedding Ring quilt. Grrrrr. This is when I wish I had two sewing machines, so I could have one set up for free motion quilting, and one for piecing and I could switch back and forth at will. Oh well...at least I'm forced to focus and finish a quilt once I start to free motion quilt, and this one is almost finished, I swear. I'm almost to the binding....

Vacation Time (again!)

Work has been kicking my butt lately, so I have't had any time to sew. My machine looks exactly the same as my last post: 

And now tomorrow, I leave on a week-long Caribbean cruise, so it'll really be dead around here. I'm planning on coming back and sewing like a madman over my Christmas break, so stay tuned. I'm GONNA finish that double wedding ring, I swear!

Memory quilts

Word has spread amongst my coworkers that I "sew things", and I've been approached by two people in the past week who would like me to make memory quilts for their kids. I had to research exactly what these memory quilts were, as I have no kids and am not up on modern mothering trends. Apparently, moms save all their kids sports jerseys and t-shirts, and make them (or have them made) into a quilt for their kid to take to college after they graduate high school. From the looks of most pictures online, they tend to be rather bulky and unattractive, but that doesn't seem to be an issue for the proud mothers and their sporty children. 

This is a quandary for me. I'm completely uninspired by the idea of doing this, however this is a chance for me to make a little money to spend on something I am inspired by down the road. Do I sell my soul now for a little future fulfillment? Do I give the people what they want and sew the damn sports jersey quilts?

Wednesday WIP: Nouveau Wedding Ring

So, the wedding ring quilt top has been complete for some time now, and I started quilting it! I'm doing it in a combination of some angular triangles in the middle, and then swirls and figure 8's in the rings, with a stipple along the edges. There's about a six inch border that I'm not sure what to do with yet - maybe a feather or some sort of paisley would be nice...we'll see. It's all going well sor far, but this is a big quilt and I'm not even half way done yet. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it by Sunday. 

Friday Finish: Hapi Mystery Quilt

Yes, that's snow on the deck. Sad times

Well, despite all the frustration over the free motion quilting in my previous post, I did finish this one. I actually like the design and intend to continue practicing it so I can use it again on once I'm better at it.

I'm still not sure if I'll give it to my friend for her birthday as I originally planned to or not. The reality is, most people would not notice all it's flaws - only quilters or really strange critical people notice that stuff. I think even though she'd be pleased with it, I don't know if I'm OK with giving away something I don't feel great about.

I did go and unpick that one really terrible part where my machine seemed to lose all tension for about 8 inches, so at least that's gone. And the good thing is that the prints are so busy, you can't really see the quilting weirdness on the front.

I dunno...this one was a learning experience. And I'm a newly humbled quilter.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday...Oh Dear

So, this quilter is in a pickle. Should she indulge in some fabric shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or should she stay strong and say to herself, "Self, you don't have any room for more fabric and you already have more than you know what to do with!".

That second option is very hard to contemplate.

Happy Thanksgiving, BTW.

Free Motion Frustration

So, I've been free-motion quilting for a year now, and have gotten decently good at exactly three designs: Stipple, Spiral, and Loops. Each time I quilt something, I feel like I get better and better, and the last quilt I did was just about pretty darn good, so I've been feeling  confident about my skills. Free motion quilting? Yep, got that down.

Wrong.  So wrong.

The Amy Butler quilt was ready, so I decided to try a new design from A Few Scraps called "Wayward".  In theory this is an easy design, and one I should have been able to master fairly easily, if I wasn't such an over-confident bozo and actually practiced a little first. But oh no, I just dove in.

Here's what went down:

What happened here? Did I forget the design for 30 seconds and just decided to free-style? Apparently so.

The quilt is just FULL of these lovelies - these are bad starts and stops...it's a learned skill to do these well, and it seems like I have not mastered this in the slightest.

This looks like a machine tension problem, but it's not. It's just me swinging around a circle WAY too fast...rookie mistake.

I don't even know where to begin on this - tons of variation on stitch length (some micro stitches, some homongous ones), lots of weird jigs and jiggles with the design. Oh Gawd.

And then this? I think my machine just decided to protest having such an inept owner and staged a silent and deadly protest.

So the bottom line is, I know nothing and I really need to practice. Also, I don't think I can give this quilt to it's planned recipient anymore. It's bad people, really bad.

Quilting Tip: Draw on your Rulers!

Every now and then I'll pick up a quilting tip somewhere that really is an Aha moment for me, and makes a big difference in how I do something. It's also usually something really basic and easy!

I took a class from Anita Grossman Solomon, and I spent half of the class smacking my forehead and saying, "Duh - Why didn't I think of that!"

Have you ever needed to square up your quilt blocks or units to a certain size, only you don't have that exact size ruler, so then you spend time fiddling around doing math and trying to figure out how to make a different ruler work, and it always seems to take more time and be more confusing? Anita's solution? Just use a permanent marker and mark the ruler with the size square you need.

For example, if you need to trim your 1/2 square triangle blocks to 2 1/2 inches, just mark off 2 1/2 inches on your ruler, and use that as a template to trim. Voila! No more confusing math or trying to figure out exactly where the ruler goes - just slap it down on your block, and start trimming!

When you're finished, wipe down the ruler with rubbing alcohol, and the permanent marker disappears. Easy-peasy!

Trifle Dish Sew-Along: Borders

All the layers are sewn together with "whipped cream sashing", and now I'm working on the brick border.

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to do this border - it's a pretty time-consuming design, and I wasn't sold on the design. But I also had a lot of leftover fabric, so I decided to dive in.

I'm glad I did, because I think it really finishes off the quilt nicely. I have one more side to do, and then this project can go in my basting pile!

Moda Trifle Dish: Layer Seven and Eight

So I went like gangbusters on the Trifle Dish quilt the last few days, and finished up layers seven and eight.

Layer 7 was just 1/2 square triangles with an extra small triangle sewed unto the bottom corner of each square - easy-peasey!

Layer 8 was half four patch blocks and half hourglass blocks. Also easy!

So now, I just have to sew all the rows together with strips of sashing in between each row. The end is in sight!

Moda Trifle Dish: Layer Six

Things are coming along with the Trifle Dish quilt-along. These little flowers are the cutest thing ever, which makes sense when I realized that the designer for this row is Cory Yoder, author of the book "Playful Petals", which I wrote about here. Everything she makes is adorable. The downside is, man - these things are really putzy. Each block has 27 little pieces in it, and there are 13 blocks!

I'm piecing and cutting very carefully and pressing and squaring up each step of the way. Really, I'm shocking myself with my excellent quilting behavior. So far so good. Only two more layers to go, and they're easy ones.

WIP Wednesday: Hapi Mystery Quilt

So, the Amy Butler quilt top is finished and basted. This was kind of a weird one, because the top was pieced together, and then trimmed in such a way to make the blocks appear on the diagonal. It's a cool effect, but half the quilt was trimmed away in the process, which is kind of a waste. Don't worry - of course I saved all the scraps and will do something else with them. But it's sort of annoying when you have to make 13 blocks for a quilt, and then are instructed to cut half of them off! This fabric doesn't grow on trees, designers! 

So now I'm auditioning thread choices for quilting, although with the fabric being such a riot of different colors, I think I could use pretty much any thread and it would be fine. 

I'm also playing around with some doodling. I'm good at exactly three designs when it comes to free motion quilting: spiral, stipple, and loops. It's time to branch out, and this'll be the perfect quilt to practice on. Doodling is a good way to figure out what might work and start to commit the design to muscle memory.

Wednesday WIP: Amy Butler Hapi Quilt

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you should know I have a fondness for the fabric designer Amy Butler. Seeing her fabrics sort of got me back into quilting again, about a year ago now, and whenever I'm in need of inspiration, I just go straight to her website. Or I pull out some of her fabric from my stash and fondle it.

Her latest collection is called Hapi, and I started on a mystery quilt last night that uses it. Here's the thing about mystery quilts: You never know if it's going to be something you love or hate. You just have to go with it. Apparently the quilt designer thought it'd be a great idea to just jumble all the fabrics together into one big mess and call it a quilt. At least, that's how it seems to me after getting this pretty much pieced together. And you know what? I sorta love it.

It feels decadent and just a little too much, like a crazy chocolate dessert or something, and I'm all over that.

My Sewing Space Needs Some Work...

This weekend is going to be all about organization. That, and finishing up some things. I've got three quilt tops to be basted, fabric to pull for the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt challenge, and a very dirty sewing space. Time to buckle down and put some of this stuff to bed!

I'm Back!

So, New York was fabulous. There was lots of this:

Wo Hop restaurant in Chinatown

And this:

Cheesecake from the Carnegie Deli

And a little of this sort of thing:

Culturally speaking, there was this:

And these:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum of Modern Art

You know what there wasn't any of?
Quilting!!!

And I really missed it. It seems that some quilters bring some handwork with them when they go places, like hand-pieced hexagons or something so that they're always working on a project. I think it's good for me to step away entirely for a bit. Not that I was feeling burnt out, but is it good for me to sew ALL the time? Maybe not so much. Maybe it's OK to go on a plane ride, and I don't know...READ or talk to the girl next to me about how Taylor Swift and Orlando Bloom live in same Tribeca bldg as her friend, and maybe she'll seem them when she visits!!!

So, a little hiatus is a good thing, and now I'm ready to get back in the saddle again.

Wednesday WIP: Hopscotch...and a lovely new ruler

This Hopscotch Quilt is designed by Amy Smart, and was a kit I purchased from Craftsy (of course). After reading through the directions and seeing that most of the top is constructed from half-square triangles, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a special ruler. Normally I try to avoid accumulating lots of different rulers and gadgets, but I really struggle when it comes to squaring up half square triangles, and after seeing Amy write about this ruler on her blog, I couldn't resist.

I've written about Eleanor Burns before, and how much I love her. And now, after using her ruler, I love her even more. You determine what the final size of your block will be, and put that number on the seam line of your unopened half square triangle. Two simple cuts, and thats it. You open it up, and viola! A perfectly squared block.

I couldn't believe how fast and effortlessly I was able to square up my blocks, all 160 of them. Something that would have normally taken hours took me only 45 minutes! And it was actually kind of fun!

This ruler cost me $16, and is worth every single penny. Half square triangles are no longer my nemesis!

Vacation Time!

I'll be in New York City for a little vacation. Back next week for more quilting updates!

Friday Finish: Front Porch

I quilted the Front Porch quilt in doodly figure 8's. I wanted a simple all-over design, and I think they fit the bill nicely. It only took me about 3 hours to quilt, and I'm a big fan of that!

The backing is pieced together with yardage from my stash. For the binding, I was supposed to use a print from the Front Porch Moda fabric collection, but I decided to use that in the back, and bind it in they grey instead. I thought the grey was a better accent.

This is going to a friend at work who just found out she's getting let go at the end of the year. She definitely needs a comforting quilt to snuggle up with.

Wednesday WIP: Hopscotch

This is a quilt designed by Amy Smart that I've started. I'm only at the cutting part, but the colors are so pretty! I never work in just solids, so this is something a little different for me...

My favorite thing is unfurling a Jelly Roll...

New Book! "Playful Petals"

Connecting Threads had their entire stock of books on sale for 40% off, so I took advantage of the sale and bought a few. The one I'm most excited about is Corey Yoder's "Playful Petals".

Usually with a quilting book or magazine, there'll be a couple projects that I want to try making, but this book? Literally every single project is on my To Do list now!

The whole process of fusible applique is outlined in the book, so I'm going to definitely have to get over my unfounded dislike for this technique, and dive in. There are 9 quilt patterns in the book, and each pattern has an accompanying pillow pattern too. So far, I haven't jumped on the whole quilted pillows bandwagon, but I might just have to with this book.

This is timely  for me, because my scrap baskets are getting a bit out of hand, and I'm thinking some of these petal projects would be perfect scrap busters! Stay tuned...

Sooo...I did a little shopping

Last week, I stocked up on battings and thread from Connecting Threads, and I thought, "There! That should last me through the winter, and I don't have to buy stuff for awhile."

All stocked up on battings!

Ha - silly me!

The day after I placed my Connecting Threads order, I got a Craftsy notification: Time for their big semi-annual fabric sale. Gulp.

Let's just say, NOW I don't have to buy anything for awhile. Like, probably a year.

Sugar Block Club: September

I'm a bit behind on my Sugar Block Club, as I just finished September's block. This was all made of half-square triangles, which definitely made the cutting easy:

I was very careful pressing this, and all went well. I liked the block, and I was thinking about making more of them. We'll see how this mystery quilt finishes, and maybe I'll add some additional ones of my favorites to make it bigger.