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.