Kaffe Fassett Quilt Finished (Strangely Mirroring my Tenure)

I'm going to do things a little different and do the big reveal first.

Here it is! My most recently finished quilt!

The quilt is 11x11 blocks that were 7" before quilting and washing. So I'd say the final quilt is about 72" square. Batting is cotton because that's what I used at the time I started it.

It was started in 2010, inspired simply by the fabrics I found:

I believe it was the first time I had seen Kaffe Fassett fabrics in real life. I think I dreamed up the (simple) idea for this quilt while perusing the one short shelf of Fassett prints.

I remember piecing it in the mornings before work. I had just changed jobs and suddenly not only had a 30-40 minute shorter commute, I also started an hour later! That was a lot of time in the morning I wasn't used to having. (Of course, by now I am sleeping as late as I can and have no time in the morning. Also, I recently told them I would be leaving after this season is finished. It can only be a coincidence, right? I'm sure it has nothing to do with this quilt being done.)

I laid out the squares on my "design wall" which was a flannel sheet hanging in front of the window in our dining room. While we were still finishing the drywall, apparently.

With this simple design (and all that time in the morning) it didn't take long to have the top together.

If you look closely, you'll see that not all the seams are sewn. I pieced the top in three strips so that I could try quilting in sections for the first time. I think I had just been to a talk by Marti Michell, who wrote the great book Machine Quilting in Sections (which I promptly purchased).

Here is the center section being layered on the counter. That's when we had our kitchen space laid out in the dining room. (Proof that although we make slow progress on the house, we do make progress. The kitchen is in the kitchen again and has been for a while.)

I took choosing a quilting design very seriously. It didn't take long to decide to sew big circles around the red squares, but what to do between them? Here's a practice mock-up square I did:

Don't worry -- it's a square lying on top of the quilt. I didn't practice on the actual quilt! (I eventually turned it into a pot holder for my sister's orange and yellow kitchen.)

After seeing it on the fabric, I loved the look of the design and texture created by the heavy quilting, but didn't like how the design looked on the fabric. They competed with each other instead of complementing each other. I ended up simplifying the quilting and let the design on the fabric determine the quilting. I also used matching thread instead of contrasting. Enough of the texture, none of the distraction.

Four of the practice squares got turned into this pillow:

Since then, it was damaged by a mouse digging into the centre looking for bedding (or food or who knows what). Now that the quilt's done, I may have to dig it out and see if it can be repaired or patched. But the pillow confirmed my decision to use a dark intense blue for the binding. I love how it looks as a border flange on the pillow.

Then it was time to start quilting the quilt.

I have pictures from 2010 and 2011 but then they stop. I don't think I have worked on this quilt at all since then.

It has lived on my UFO list on the Ravelry quilting group since I joined in Spring 2013. For whatever reason, this quarter it rose to the top and was the one I got out to work on.

And I did! A couple weeks ago, I had the idea that I could possibly get it done by the time of my sister's visit at the end of October. The quilt had nothing to do with her, but I thought it would be a fun surprise to have it finished without telling her. She's also a quilter so I knew she would share the pleasure of a finished quilt and enjoy the honour of being the first to sleep under it!

One by one, I pulled out the strips and finished the quilting. They weren't as far along as I thought, but I got them done:

I laid it out to make sure I had the diagonal stripes lined up correctly and then put in safety pins to make sure I got the right corners together while sewing.

I used a code to match corners. Either one safety pin or two
and either lined up horizontally or vertically.

Then it was time to put the pieces together -- something I had never done before. I pulled out Marti's book and reread the various options. (I think she explains six.) None of them really matched what I had, so I made up my own variation. Actually two.

For the first seam, I cut away the batting as close as I could to the stitching. Ideally, it would be right at the finished size. Then I trimmed the back and front on one side to 1/4 inch wider than the finished size. On the other side, I trimmed the front, but not the back. I left the backing fabric oversized.

Then I pinned the two sides together with the fronts facing each other and sewed a 1/4 inch seam, holding the oversized backing fabric out of the way and sewing through all the other layers.

Here's the back of the quilt showing the sewn seam:

I ironed the seam open as best I could. I had quilted to the edge so in some places I had to undo the quilting stitches a bit and in others, I just couldn't quite open the seam. I trimmed the backing fabric to about an inch. (I didn't measure.)

Next, I folded the raw edge of the backing fabric so it met the seam line:

Then I folded the backing fabric over the seam so it was flat, with the raw edge folded under:

Pin it in place and then sew it down the same way you would sew a binding:

For the second seam, I tried a little different method because I didn't want to have to pick out some of the quilting stitches. I cut a long strip of fabric (it was one of the pieces I trimmed off the quilt edge). I put the two sides of the quilt together with right sides together and then laid the long strip on the back of one side of the quilt with the "right" side down. I then stitched a 1/4 inch seam through all the layers:

 And then, apparently I stopped taking pictures. Hmmm.

Well, once the seam was sewn, I pressed it to one side (away from the facing strip). I folded under the raw edge and brought the facing strip over the seam allowance. Then I pinned it (as above) and sewed it.

Here are the final results:

Method 1

Method 2

Method 1 is a little less noticeable, both on the back where there is only one seam and on the front where the seam is flatter. But you have to leave a margin at the edge where there is no quilting.

Method 2 has two seams to see on the back (both sides of the facing strip) and is bulkier because all of the seam allowance is pressed to one side. But you can quilt however and wherever you want.

Neither one is at all noticeable on the front of the quilt if you don't get close and don't already know what you're looking for. Using all the same fabric on the back may make it less noticeable, but I suspect the seams between two matching fabrics may catch someone's attention more than seams between different fabrics.

I think this just looks like all of the pieced backs that are so popular right now. And really, why am I even concerned about someone seeing that I quilted in sections? It's not like there's something wrong with doing it that way!

Now that the quilt was in one piece, I was ready for the final step...binding. Thankfully I store everything for a project in one box so I didn't have to hunt for the fabric. I cut bias strips 3.25" wide and stitched them together end to end.

I folded the bias strips in half and stitched it to the front. I had trimmed all four sides of the quilt to 3/8" larger than finished size (1/8" past the edge of the top) so that I could have a nice wide binding.

I picked up the method of sewing the mitered corners somewhere online. I stitch to the corner and then turn 1/4" from the end (or however wide your seam is--3/8" in my case) and stitch toward the corner to make the 45 degree angle. Then I break the thread and fold the bias strip to make the corner and start stitching the next side. This works much better than trying to do it all in one pass.

But only recently did I think to apply this to the hand stitching on the back. And I took a few pictures.

Here the binding on the right side has been sewn down on the back of the quilt. I stop stitching at the top and make a few small stitches in the same spot, but don't break the thread.

Then I fold the binding down on the next side, forming the miter and making sure the folded edges meet right at the corner.

I then push the needle to the front and sew the miter angle closed from the inside edge to the outer corner.

Once at the corner, I push the needle to the backside and sew the mitered angle closed from the outer corner to the inside edge. I take a second stabilizing stitch in the same spot and then continue sewing along the new side.

I'm really happy with the result. (I've said it before...I used to really pooh pooh sewing down the miter corner. I mean, it's not like the fabric is going to come out. But it really does look better. Really.)

Here it is on the quilt:

I think the blue is an unexpected choice, but I really like it.

Here are a couple shots of the quilting on the final quilt, front

and back.

So that's one quilt done for this quarter's UFO club on Ravelry. That means I have earned a fat quarter (of fabric) from the other participants. It's also one less project in my craft closet. Of course, the box the supplies were in is already holding stuff for the next project I started. The way it goes....

Project Roundup

I'm not really up to pulling together a narrative today, so I'm going to give you an overview of the projects I have on the go, showing progress since the last time you've seen them.

1. I'm on the second sock of this pair that I started during a trip in July. This might be the first time you're seeing these.

I think this is the prettiest stitch pattern I've ever made:

It reminds me of stain glass somehow.

2. I'm making steady progress on my "Jeans socks" with the yarn I dyed. It's lovely to work with. The rayon in it gives it a very silky feel to my hand.

3. It took a few tries, but I got the sleeves done on this sweater for Wool-Aid. It's partially assembled, as you can see.

4. I like to sit and sew sets of these squares in the evening. I'm keeping them organized in sets for each star.

5. This bit of kntting will turn into a cowl. I've made the pattern before as a gift and wanted one for myself.

It's actually just a start to the set. I really started on it because I want to use a big fur pompom I bought myself a while ago on a chunky hat that will match.

6. This red and yellow quilt is on my list of projects to work on with the UFO* club on Ravelry.

We make a list each quarter and cheer each other on. And hopefully congratulate each other when we finish projects.

The quilting is finished except for the yellow squares so I've been making my way through them. This morning I got the second of three sections of the quilt done.

And there finishes this virtual tour of projects I have on the go.
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*UnFinished Object

Star Light, Diamonds Bright

My quilting mojo has been in overdrive lately. I'm not sure which came first--the mojo or finishing my orange and grey zig zag quilt in such a short time frame, but I'm sure they're related.

Since then, I have also sorted through and organized all my fabrics. I donated a full (tall kitchen-sized) garbage bag of fabrics I would be happy not to see again. (Perfectly fine, but I am "done" with them.) A lot of them were garment fabrics which I am just not sewing these days (or years).

I now have the fabrics sorted in boxes. (I use paper boxes from work. They're free, have lids, and come in a uniform size.) One for just my reds. One day I'll do a scrappy red quilt. One for upholstery-type fabrics. One for quilting cottons and one for scraps. I just roughly sorted them in "fat quarter" sized or smaller sized. The smaller pieces I put into ziplock bags to keep them from falling all over. One day (maybe soon) I'll do a quilt from the scraps too.

Anyway, I didn't have as much as I thought I might and it felt great to sort through it, organize it (a lot of new acquisitions had been loose on the shelves waiting for a box to go into) and put it away.

But part of the same movement was to consider some projects I had in the planning stages. You may recall that a couple years ago I went crazy buying bright bright batiks and other fabrics when I visited my mother-in-law. I had a a project in mind from the start, based on this great quilt from Wanda at Exuberant Color. It's a Kaffe Fassett pattern from his book Simple Shapes: Spectacular Quilts.

Bolstered by my success in finishing the zig zag quilt, and maybe reacting to my long work hours, I pulled out the fabrics and got started.

First I sorted them into eight "darks" and eight "lights":

There are a couple that could fit into either category depending on what you paired it with, but I put them in one pile or the other anyway. I was emboldened to break some quilting rules by Kaffe's comment in his book, "Although the border strips on this quilt are either lighter or darker than the diamonds inside them, the contrast of lightness and darkness is not very great. Likewise, there are alternate rows of lighter diamonds and darker diamonds, but the feel of richness is achieved by keeping the tones fairly close together."

I have more contrast in my fabrics than he did, but I was buoyed by a general feeling of "it's all good". Likewise, Kaffe's quilt does not use the same fabrics for the diamonds and diamond borders, but I didn't have enough variety to follow suit. So I cut diamonds from each of the fabrics and then cut strips for the borders from the same fabrics.

It looked like one selvage-to-selvage strips was meant to border one diamond, but it wasn't explicitly stated so I did one trial block:

I got the block bordered and had a couple inches left over. That let me know that I had enough. I didn't have to "squeeze" out as much as I could from the strip, but there wasn't a lot of room for error.

I assembled all the dark diamond/light border blocks first. I did them all by "chain piecing" one block after another.

First I put the first border side on all of them. Ironed and trimmed. Then proceeded to the next side, and so on.

It was the perfect sort of sewing for the end of the day when my brain was pretty fried. In no time, I had all the dark diamonds done and then the light diamonds not long after.

This morning I hung a flannel sheet on the new drywall in our bedroom and started placing blocks.

Here is a close up of some of the fabric combinations.

And here is a full view. I have not spent any time rearranging. I like it, but it doesn't knock my socks off. Maybe I have too much contrast? I don't know, but on the other hand it is exactly what I had wanted from the beginning and I do like it.

I changed one photo to black and white so I could judge contrast better.

I'm not sure if I'll move blocks around to spread out the "dark" spots. One thing I notice is a lot of "grey" areas and I'm happy about that. I think it means I got enough of the tones fairly close together, following Kaffe's original design.

The flannel wasn't super sticky, so I'm a little concerned that there will be a lot of pieces on the floor when I go back upstairs, but I haven't invested a lot of time in the arrangement so I think I can handle it.

This will be another exercise in diagonal rows when I piece the blocks together. I managed the zig zag quilt by laying it out on the bed at regular intervals. I'm sure I'll have to do the same with this one.

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ETA: What greeted me when I walked up the stairs an hour later:

Two good things to remember: I took a picture, and I wasn't overly invested in what was there. But I am sad that my design wall solution isn't going to be an actual "solution".