Moda Trifle Dish: Layer Five

Layer Five of the Moda Trifle Dish sew-along is called Jewel Block. These were fun to piece, especially because the center of each block has an hourglass, and I particularly enjoy those.

Only three more layers to go!

I am Not a Perfectionist

I've never been a perfectionist. Ever since I can remember, if I'd make something that had less than stellar results, I'd either bluff and say "that's the way it's supposed to be!" or just turn it into something else - fudge not cooked enough? Chocolate sauce! Chocolate sauce overcooked? Fudge!

It's always been more important to me to try things and complete projects than to achieve perfect results. If things don't turn out, I learn from what went wrong, and either try it again, or move on to the next thing.

I think my quilting has benefited from my natural acceptance of imperfection. I've read many times of quilters who have given up with free motion quilting because they tried it and couldn't accept their less than flawless results. I'll never forget being part of a class where one woman spent most of the time unpicking what she had sewn because her flying geese points weren't perfectly lined up. She didn't end up completing the class because she was so frustrated and paralyzed by her perfectionism

Quilting has traditionally encouraged this focus on the faultless- there is a lot of talk about things like "Precision Piecing" or how to sew "Perfect Points" or the "Perfect 1/4 inch seam", and there are lots of quilters who find joy in obtaining those sought-after accomplishments. For me though, quilting is about the tactile delight of playing with shapes, colors, and textures, the sense of quiet fulfillment I feel when practicing my craft, and the joy of giving away my creations to others.

Obviously, technique plays a big part in constructing a well-made quilt, and I'm not trying to downplay that. After all, it was lack of proper technique that led me to give up on quilting (temporarily) when I was in my teens. I'm steadily working on improving this, but for me, the focus of quilting will probably never be on technical prowess. This realization has freed me to sew with abandon and disregard for the rule-makers or "Quilting Police". It has also allowed me to bask in the journey of creating and not get caught up in what I think the results should be.

I still have lots to learn when it comes to quilting, but I've slain the perfectionist dragon good and dead. 

From the Archives: Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month

Every year, Craftsy does a free Block of the Month series, and this was the first one I participated in. I was still very new to most quilting techniques, so this was the perfect chance for me to have my hand held through curved piecing, English paper-pieced hexies, regular paper piecing, string blocks, and wonky blocks.

Amy Gibson was the teacher, and she seems to be the kindest most lovely lady, even though she says "Mkay?" about 50,000 times. It was fun, looking forward to the monthly video and seeing what new blocks I'd be learning that month.

I made this entirely out of scraps, and when I look at it now my eyes kind of hurt - orange, blue, and green? That is SO not my usual thing, but I was intent on using what I had and not buying anything new. Hmmm...I should probably try to be more like that these days.

I wasn't able to free-motion quilt back then, so I pieced this in rows of four blocks, straight-line quilted them with my walking foot, and then joined them all together with sashing strips using a mish-mash of quilt-as-you-go techniques from the internet. It worked somewhat well, but was just fussy enough to push me into getting a decent machine, which I did about a month after this was finished.

Wednesday WIP: Dancing Quill

This was the Craftsy July mystery quilt that I'm just getting around to doing. Obviously, it's not such a mystery at this point, but that's a good thing because, my goodness - what a mess this whole thing was!

The fabric designer Valori Wells designed this quilt, using her new fabric line "Quill", and maybe fabric designers just aren't such great pattern writers or something.

First of all, Craftsy told everyone the pattern was ready before it was actually posted, so all thousands of us rabid mystery-quilters were furiously scouring the website trying to figure out where it was and pestering customer service. Then, when it was finally released and we could begin, the measurements were wrong. Then a corrected version was posted, only that one was also wrong. Then, they took the whole thing down for two weeks and told everyone to hold off on beginning until they could get it straightened out. But by then lots of people had already started, and were discovering they were short on fabric, and because the measurements were wrong, their blocks were turning out all goofy. And poor Valori Wells was stuck trying to answer everyone's questions about why they didn't get enough fabric and how come this whole thing was such a mess?

So then, Craftsy took Valori Wells off the project and assigned some other Craftsy employee to handle the whole thing. So now the instructions are correct, but people are still confused if the version they have is the right one, and whether the person they're emailing is Valori Wells or someone else, and everyone is giving everyone else contradictory advice on how to make this darn quilt.

After sitting back and observing this whole debacle, I'm finally diving in to start cutting my fabric. Right away, I can see where everyone's frustrations are coming from. The whole quilt is made up of equilateral triangles of two different sizes, so the whole thing is on the bias. I've never dealt with such vague instructions and I'm someone who generally know what I'm doing, so I can't imagine doing this if I was a beginner, and that's who this was marketed to!

So, we shall see...the fabric is pretty though, yes?

On a different note, I'm very proud of myself for figuring out how to cut equilateral triangles with my normal ruler using the 60 degree markings. It makes me happy to know I can do this without investing in a whole separate ruler or template.

From the Archives: Dresden Plate

This was the first quilt I made after my 12 year hiatus. My aunt had just loaned me a sewing machine, and I'd unearthed a stash of fabrics I'd forgotten I had that all seemed to go together.

For some reason, and I don't remember why, I'd decided that a Dresden Plate would be fun to make, so I googled directions and came across Jenny Doan's Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial. After making a trip to Joanne Fabrics to purchase the required template, I was off to the races.

In retrospect, this was the perfect project for me to start out on. The piecing was fun and easy, and accuracy isn't such a huge issue for this pattern, so I could get away with being my natural slightly half-assed self. The blocks came together quickly, so there was a lot of instant gratification, which is always encouraging when attempting new things.

The background blocks all came from a Shabby Chic cotton shower curtain, and the batting is an old IKEA duvet - I remember not wanting to drive to the fabric store and the hobby budget being tight, so that explains those creative choices.  I was bound and determined to machine quilt it, so I marked it with a pencil (!) and rammed the whole business through my aunts poor Singer. It was a challenge, but I managed and it turned out surprisingly well, if one can overlook the massive puckers on the back. And I can.

For some reason, I decided not to do a binding, but instead wrapped the extra material from the back around to the front and sewed it down. It should have worked in theory, but it looked horrible in reality. I ignored this, and since my mother thinks everything I make is beautiful, she proudly hung it on her wall. A few months ago, I finally took it back and put a proper binding on it.

Friday Finish: Baby Free as a Bird

Well, I'm happy to report that I finished up the rush order Free as a Bird baby quilt!

I'm so happy with how it turned out - the colors, the border, the binding...everything is as is should be.

I quilted this in an meandering stipple, because it's fast and I'm pretty good at it. I chose a pink toile for the backing, and finished it with with the green plaid binding from the same collection as the birdhouses.

I love it, and as we speak these birdies are on their way to Delaware to their new owner. My mother said this baby girl better not turn out to be a surprise boy, but that's out of my hands.

Wednesday WIP: Nouveau Wedding Ring

First of all, I realize I'm posting my Wednesday WIP on Thursday, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Years and years ago, back before I knew any better, I promised my sister a double-wedding ring quilt when she got married. I jumped the gun a little when I was in my early 20's and decided to make one "just for fun". I cut out all the pieces, got my templates ready...and THEN realized that Double Wedding Ring quilts required curved piecing, and I didn't know how to do that. The entire project disappeared into a grocery sack, never to be seen again.

Fast forward to 2013: My sister gets married. I know she'll remind me of that promised wedding ring quilt again, and of course, she does. I start to do some online research - surely there's some easy technique or crazy new way people are piecing these quilts nowadays that doesn't involve 5000 pins and agonizing hours at your sewing machine. Sure enough, there is, and it's Eleanor Burns to the rescue!

Eleanor Burns is the Grand Dame of quilting - she started the Quilt in a Day series, and pretty much invented strip piecing. It's crazy to think of a time when they didn't do strip piecing - it's like thinking about quilting before rotary cutters - is such a thing possible? She's in her 70's now and still coming up with oodles of time saving techniques, including the Nouveau Wedding Ring pattern that I was so happy to discover.

The premise of this quilt is that your draw the curved pieces unto interfacing, sandwich that with your fabric, and sew on the lines. The units are then cut out, flipped inside-out, and stitched unto your background. So instead of piecing the rings, you're really just appliqueing them. It's totally cheating, but I'm happy to cheat if it gets me the same result with a lot less work.

The handy thing about Eleanor Burns patterns is that they are usually accompanied by an online video of her making them, so if you have questions or need clarification, you can just go straight to the source. My favorite part of the Nouveau Wedding Ring video is when she's explaining that a hemostat makes a good tool for turning the curves inside out, and she wagles the hemostat at the audience and says in a naughty sing-song voice, "I know what you did with these in college!" and the audience giggles. And then she says "I was like Bill Clinton though, I never inhaled." Love that lady!

I'm putting the final border on, and then it's ready for basting and quilting.

From the Archives: Rail Fence Quilt

This was the first quilt I free-motion quilted. When I purchased my Juki dream-machine, I didn't happen to have any finished quilt tops, so I practiced my free-motion quilting on scraps of material and batting, but I knew it wasn't the same as working on an actual quilt.

I happened to mention this to a friend at work, and she said she had a UFO (Unfinished Object in quilting language) that I could feel free to experiment on. After making sure it was understood that I was a beginner and could quite possibly ruin her quilt, she handed it over without a qualm.

This was a quilt top from a class my friend took. Unfortunately, whoever taught the class neglected to stress the importance of a small stitch length, because the whole thing was falling apart. I re-sewed all the seams, added the border, and basted it.

It's really a testament to my machine that it turned out so well, vs. any great skill of mine. Looking back, I can't believe that I did this without my Machinger Gloves and a Supreme Slider, because I'm so attached to those tools now. But overall, it turned out better than I expected. I didn't know how to bring up my bobbin thread, so a huge rats nest of thread formed on the back in one spot...I pulled out what I could and ignored the rest.

When I gave it back to my friend, she cried she was so happy with it, rats nest aside, and I knew that I was hooked on making quilts start to finish!

Scrappy Paper Piecing

I save all my scraps. Strips go in one bin, large pieces go in another. The small ones, or the irregular shaped ones go in one I keep right by my sewing machine.

Don't throw away those scraps!

This bin tends to fill up the fastest and when it starts to over-flow I pull out a sheet of paper, slice it into strips, and paper-piece all the fabric bits unto it.

Overflowing scrap bin

Paper piecing is something that I'm slowly starting to do more of, and this is it at most basic and elemental. This is quick brainless sewing, perfect for those times when I really want to sew, but not necessarily follow a pattern or think too hard.

Slowly growing stack of strips

I think these strips would make a stunning border, or I could sew them into blocks that I think would look like modern stained-glass...I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet, but it's satisfying to see my scrap bin slowly empty out in readiness for the next influx.

Problem Solved: Baby Birds

The baby Free as a Bird quilt is coming along, slow but sure. I got a little side-tracked with my Rain Check quilt, but have refocused my efforts. After all, the 20th is NEXT WEEK!!!

Templates found online

I found some smaller bird templates online, and these seem to be just the ticket. I'm not sure about the colors...at first I thought I'd do just the pink and aqua birds, but now I think I might throw in a few yellow ones too, just for fun.

Next up: Leaves.

Problem Solved: Raincheck Quilt

The solution for the umbrella handles on the Raincheck Quilt? Quarter inch bias tape!

The fabric store didn't have the right color in pre-made tape, so I got a handy bias tape maker and made my own, thank you very much.

I cut 1/2 inch fabric strips (on the bias of course), poked them into one end of the tape maker, and slowly pulled while ironing. Out came perfect bias tape!

Once I had all the tape made, I marked the design on my blocks and sewed the tape down with a straight stitch. Now that I know how easy it is to make your own bias tape, I think I'm going to get a tape maker in 1/2 and 1 inch sizes.

Moda Trifle Dish Sew-Along: Layer 4

Layer four of the Trifle Dish Sew-Along is called "Strawberries", and these berries gave me all kinds of trouble.

First of all, I don't think they look like strawberries at all, so that made me crabby. After perusing the internet, it seems like other Trifle Dish sew-alongers agree with me and lots of them are doing something else for Layer 4. I decided to stick with the pattern, because I think when they're sewn in with all the other layers, the do actually look cute.

These are hearts, not berries!

This pattern uses a flipped corner technique with rectangles, and I've done this before but for some reason the instructions confused me and I had to do lots of seam ripping before I figured it all out. The pattern writer included more detailed instructions on her blog, and I wish I'd known that before all the ripping and re-sewing fun!

And THEN, once all my blocks were finished I discovered that somehow I messed up the cutting and they're all about 1 1/2 inches too narrow. I have no idea how that happened, but I'm going with it. I'll need to add larger strips of fabric between each block in order to make the row fit, but that's OK.

WIP Wednesday: Baby Free as a Bird

The birdhouse blocks are complete for the rush-order baby quilt! I decided not to add extra borders around each block, and just sewed them together in rows of five. I think this makes the birdhouses pop a little more against the white background, and I'm pleased with how it's looking so far.

The birdhouse holes were a pain - they're a little too small for my typical interface applique method, so instead I used a cardboard template, wrapped my fabric around that, encased the whole business in tinfoil, and then ironed the bejeezus out of it. This is a method that I learned from Sarah Fielke, and I've had mixed results with it. The thing is, circles are troublesome no matter what - it's hard to get them perfect, so I've learned not to fuss too much with them and accept my slightly wonky results.

Next challenge will be the birds themselves. The templates in the pattern are too big for this scaled down version, so I need to figure out how to make them smaller, or come up with different birds altogether.

Sugar Block Club: August

I participate in Amy Gibson's Sugar Block Club. Every first of the month we get a pattern e-mailed to us, along with a yummy dessert recipe. It's something fun to look forward to, and I usually try to get my block finished right away. It wasn't until I got the September block e-mailed to me yesterday that I realized I hadn't done August yet!

I'm making these blocks out of a FreeSpirit fat quarter bundle. The collection is called "Garden" and all the different colors and patterns lend themselves well to Amy's designs.

Please pardon the sad state of my ironing board cover. Thank you

The August block was paper-pieced. I don't do paper-piecing very often, but I enjoy a small project now and then. My favorite part is when the blocks are all trimmed and you see what was once a mish-mash of fabrics all pointed in different directions and looking crazy become a lovely mathematically accurate block.

Bad Thread or Naughty Machine?

I love my sewing machine. It's a Juki TL2010 QI and I've had it just about a year. It's never given me any problems, except last month I started having issues with my thread shredding. Well, I don't know that shredding is the right word. More like bunching. The thread starts to bunch up right at the needle, until the strand becomes thinner and thinner and eventually breaks. At which point I stop, swear, rethread, and continue.

Things I have tried to fix this have included: re-threading my machine, cleaning my machine, changing the needle, and other general fiddling. I didn't think the thread was the issue, because I've been using the same huge cone of Connecting Threads cotton for awhile, and why would it suddenly start to give me problems? It happens mostly when I'm free motion quilting. Also, it happens more if my sewing speed is fast. Which is usually always.

Finally, last night in a fit of desperation, I changed out my thread to a spool of good old Coats & Clark. I sewed at top speed for 4 hours with no shredding or breakage.

So, what's going on? Did my machine just decide one day to hate the thread it had previously had a good relationship with? Is it possible for a spool of thread to have bad sections on it? Or is something wrong with my machine? I would be inclined to just blame the thread, but why would my machine to do well with it for so long before issues started popping up?

For now, it remains a mystery, and until I solve it, I'm stocking up on Coats & Clark.