Crossed Canoes on a Starry Night

The binding has been sewn down on my mini quilt and I set about blocking it. First a long soak in the tub; I don't have a sink large enough to let it spread out.

I was (a little) worried about the colours bleeding as I didn't think I had pre-washed the fabrics or even tested for colour fastness. (I know, I'm living on the edge!)

Anyway, if the colours were going to bleed, I didn't want the yellows sitting on the blues. When I checked on the quilt after a short time, the water did look bluish. I threw in a colour catcher sheet, but I'm not sure it was necessary. Although some colour may have released into the water, it did not deposit back onto the quilt. (Dodged a bullet there!)

After a good soaking, I let the tub drain, let the quilt drip most of the water out, and then put it between two old towels to roll up and squeeze the rest of the water out.
Once most of the water was out, I then set it out on my trusty foamboard, pushed it into shape, and let it dry. I was not only relieved to see that the blues didn't bleed, but also that the water soluble pen washed out completely. (It had been on the fabric for months...they say not to do that.)

And I can now give you a look at the final quilt:
If I were forced to name it, I think it'd be Crossed Canoes on a Starry Night. The whole project has been driven by a desire to explore the colour combination. Once it was all together, the colours really reminded me of van Gogh's use of blue and yellow, especially in Starry Night.

The yellow piping really does pop against the darker blues in the border and binding. You'll notice the binding has some nice mitered corners.

Once it was all put together, I could address the hanging. I found a nice metal dowel of a suitable length just waiting for me in the basement. By inserting each end under the pockets that were incorporated into the backing
I had a secure easy way to hang the quilt.

The quilt is not very big (less than 24" each side), but it packs a big punch for the corner of a room.
I started this quilt in 2006; it's hard to say why it took me so long to finish it.Project Stats
Started: Fall '06
Finished: Jan '10
Pattern: personal design
Materials: scraps, fat quarters; backing & binding from square dancing outfit! (Est $20.)

All told, I bet it was only about half a dozen sessions--they were just spread out over more than three years! I designed the "block" so I could play with the yellow and blue colour combination. The overall crossed canoe design was formed by 1.25" squares.

The center was done with paper piecing: each quarter was divided into vertical strips. Each strip was paper pieced and then joined with the next strip. The four quarters were joined and then borders added.

I don't actually get out in canoes much any more, but I like to remember the times that I did. With its title, the quilt really makes me think of the few times I was out on a lake in the dark. There's nothing like it.

Sunday Quilting: January

Although I certainly missed the socializing I would have gotten at Red Purl today if I had gone to the new afghan knit-along, I got a good bit done today on my first solo quilt work day here at home. I got myself set up in the living room with a fire in the woodstove on one side and football on the TV on the other. (And I certainly didn't get either of those at Red Purl!)

I decided to start the year off with my crossed canoes mini-quilt. I had a suspicion that I could get it done or nearly done with a good session. We haven't seen this quilt since July and when we left it, I had finished a good part of the quilting but didn't know what to do for the rest.

Back in October, I took it back out to try and figure it out.

I got out the foamboard, taped together enough paper to fit under the quilt, and then laid down the quilt:

I stuck all the major intersections through with pins to transfer the quilt design to the paper:

I then connected the dots.
(It is funny how much of what you learned in elementary school you do use again later in life.)

I then played around with some curves and a pencil. (And used a lot of an eraser too.)
Until I settled on something I thought might work:
I then transferred it all to the quilt itself, using a water soluble blue marker on the yellow and white chalk on the blue. And then pinned the pattern and quilt onto the foamboard and lived with it for a while:

Yes, that means it was literally sitting on a table in my living room since October. But the more I looked at it, the more I thought it would work. Maybe not the perfect pattern, or the best, but definitely one of possibly many successful possibilities. (I get kind of stuck on trying to find the "right" design, when really there's not really one right way to do it. Pick one and move on!)

So today, I unpinned the quilt and started sewing. First the blue central design:
Then the yellow:

And that meant everything was quilted--Wow!

Next step was to baste the yellow piping that I made in July around the edges:
I did not miter the piping at the corners, but just crossed them over each other. Every strip goes under at one end and over at the other.

Once the strips were sewn on, I could finally cut the outside edges to size. Such a relief to finally neaten them up!

I used the tool that came with my Piping Hot Binding kit. The two grooves fit over the piping to keep everything lined up, and are spaced a half inch and a quarter inch from the edge. You can chose which of those two you want as a seam allowance.

Since this is a small quilt, I chose the quarter inch side, and cut all four sides.
I'm telling you, there's nothing like getting the edges cut off to make you feel like you are finally getting close to the end.

Before adding the final edging (binding), I basted on the two corner hangers. They're just four inch squares folded in half diagonally.
You put them on the back of the quilt at the upper two corners. When the quilt is done, you can slip a small dowel in the pockets and use it to hang the quilt. Pretty slick, eh? This is the first time I've tried it, so I'll let you know how it works.

The one thing I didn't get to was sewing the binding down to the back of the quilt (something I do by hand).
After that is done, the quilt will be finished...oh, except for the blocking. What, blocking fabric? Yes, this is something I've learned recently: blocking's not just for wool anymore. I'll give more details when I get to it.

And with all that in front of me, I'll leave you with a little peak of what the finished quilt may look like:

Not bad for my first quilt day of 2010!

Mini Quilt Retreat

My sister, Kim, came to visit this past week and I had the brilliant--if I may say so myself--idea of exchanging our usual "girls only" trip to the quilt store for some actual quilting. We both have more projects that need sewing than money that needs spending right now anyway, so it worked out great.

I arranged some time and facilities at my church and we had an entire afternoon of sewing.

(Don't we look so pleased with ourselves?)

Kim especially wanted me to show her paper (foundation) piecing. (Apparently she missed my tutorial.) She is making a crib quilt with hearts galore, including four different paper pieced blocks.

Here she is displaying her first paper pieced block:
Isn't it lovely?

That evening we got in a little more quilting at home after her kids were tucked into bed, and Kim managed to finish her second block.

It is my favourite of her heart patterns. (The one on the left.) The blocks are laying on our current top pick for the sashing fabric. If you thought my toddler quilt was pink, this one will make you think you've fallen into a bubblegum bubble.

And what was I working on? My Mini Crossed Canoes quilt. Here it is a year ago when I was deciding how to apply the outer pieced border:
I got very interested in mini quilts a few years ago and this idea appealed to me as a way to try it out. True mini quilts are scaled down versions of large quilt patterns. (Some of them with the tiniest of pieces.)

Not wanted to commit to that much, I instead used 1.5" inch (finished size) blocks to make up one large block pattern. The finished quilt will be about 20" to a side, well under the 24" which I think is the standard limit for a mini quilt.

It also gave me a chance to play around with colour, mixing and matching shades but with the intent to have it all blend. I never realized how much I love blue and yellow until I could hardly turn away from all the fat quarters in their lovely colours and patterns!

And how far did I get? Well, I had marked and quilted on the yellow portions of the outside border last April (2009)
and then got kind of stuck on how to mark the blue portions. My water soluble marker is blue. The white chalk and chalk pencil weren't working. On our quilt retreat I tried one more marking tool that I found in my sewing box: a water soluble chalk pencil. And despite being blue as well, it worked! I marked up one section, got it quilted, and then got bold and quilted the other blue section without marking at all. After all the practice, it worked out well.

Because of a few interruptions (and tutoring Kim), that's all I finished on the actual retreat. But when we were sewing at home, I started the free motion quilting on the main body of the quilt. It took me a while to get there, but I had decided to quilt in a style that I had seen on a lot of art and landscape quilts in the magazines the last few years.

It's very simple but remarkably effective at blending the blue blocks together. And it reminds me of water somehow. (It is a Crossed Canoes pattern after all.) I got the two easy sections done, and then plunged in and got the two harder sections done too!

Then I was stalled because I don't have a firm plan for the rest. I think I'm going to draw out a water lily in the middle section and have some "tendrils" go out onto the yellow sections. Maybe in green thread. We'll see.

Being loath to waste sewing time, however, I took care of some of the more mundane tasks. Like cutting and seaming 90 inches of binding:
(That's left over fabric from the square dancing outfit I made in our clubs colours!)

And then I worked on making some piping with my Piping Hot Binding kit.

I did not need to buy a special piping foot as my buttonhole foot (I think that's what it is; foot C if you have a Viking Sapphire) worked very well. It has a groove in the bottom, it has a ledge on the left side that the piping can run against, and by moving my needle to the right just one click, I could sew my own perfect piping. Life is good.

We had a great time, although I must say we talk at lot less when we're sewing than when we're shopping. There was a lot of concentrating going on which didn't leave a lot of room in the brain for "catching up." But whenever we were both on a little break, we were happy to admire each other's work and tell each other how good we were doing! Nothing like a lot of mutual encouragement!