A Story of Three Fabrics

Apparently it is too much for me to haul out the laptop, edit and load pictures, and then write a post. So I'm trying this on my phone to see if that feels any easier to me. Maybe I will update here more often then.

What I'm showing you today is a little quilt that was born of various fabrics coming together.

First I had the little dotted squares. It was a charm pack (5" squares) I picked up because I thought they would make great cornerstones in sashing, especially if cut into four smaller squares. (Like you can see on the far right of the picture.)

Then my mom went on a trip to Pennsylvania with my quilting sister and "somehow" ended up in a lot of fabric stores. Well, the fabric fumes must have overcome her too because she bought some fabric for me, including a fat quarter bundle of the bright semi-solids. (They're similar to a grunge look.) I noticed right away that they coordinated perfectly with my dots. (There was a green too but it somehow got separated and didn't make it into this picture.)

Then sometime in the last year when I was at my mom's, she had some fabric from an aunt that my sister and I could go through. We took turns choosing but we both knew the elephants were mine! :) And then look how well those colours went with the rest. Kismet!

I vaguely debated for a while with myself about what design to do and eventually settled on something simple that would use some of each type of fabric in each block. The size was mostly determined by the size of the cornerstones (2.5"). By cutting the 5" squares into four, each one would work for one quilt block. I paired the dots with the solids and made 16 blocks.

Then I had fun trying layouts.

And decided on this:

It didn't take long to stitch the top together. I alternated all the seams so I could twirl the intersections.

And once that was done it didn't take long for me to find time to baste it too! I had just the right size of a different elephant fabric for the backing and taped it to my coffee table to keep it straight and taut.

I then layered the batting and then the top on top of it.

After sliding my cutting mat underneath to protect the table, I pinned everything that was on the top of the table.

I then took off the tape, slid the layers one way to pin one edge and then slid it the other way to pin the other edge. Now it's hanging on my project board again, waiting for me to quilt it. (Shouldn't take long, I would imagine!)

Plaidish Done-ish

Picture from Kitchen Table Quilting.
Pattern is "Plaidish"

Remember the Plaidish Quilt I was working on?

It didn't take long after my last post about it to finish sewing all the blocks. Soon after that I took them to church and laid them out on the tables there:

I laid them out in whatever order they were piled up in. Although there wasn't much I could do to "organize" them in any particular way, I did a little rearranging based on colours but not very much. I did convert the picture to black and white to check my values.

My darks could be a lot darker, but it worked well enough. To get some pieces light enough, I used the back side of the fabric, but you don't have that option to make a fabric darker!

You may notice in the pictures above that there are two empty spots. Despite my organization and counting everything at least twice, I still ended up two blocks short! Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I was working on two quilts at once. ;) I had my extra bits and pieces (I cut more than I needed in some cases) with me so I put together the blocks while I had it all laid out.

This week I was itching to put them together and I managed to do so!

I don't have immediate plans to quilt it, so I hung it on my wall so I can enjoy it. One great thing about this scrap quilt is that I could use fabrics I categorize as "multi coloured". Most of my scrap projects are organized by colour and it's hard to use fabrics that have more than one major colour. In this quilt, it didn't matter as long as they were the same value.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! on Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

Not So Merrily

I've been working on the blocks for my Merrily Christmas quilt steadily. (Some might say obsessively, but you know, tomayto, tomahto.) By last Friday I had all twelve blocks done. After the red and grey ones I showed in the last post about this quilt, I finished the two brown and four green ones:

I pinned all the blocks to my design wall so I could work on arrangements and see what I had. I planned each block individually working with the limited fabric I had but after seeing them all together, I made a few changes.

One thing I did was change the position of the light and dark on the corner units of this block. (It's the top left block in the picture above):

I also switched out the center of one of the green blocks where I had used grey. I realized I could use white there instead. (No, I don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place.) It brightened up the block a lot.

I also swapped the centers of the two grey blocks (link to picture). The center of each block used the same fabric as the outer corners. By switching the centers, I got a little more variety within the blocks.

You can see the animals inserted as
blocks in the magazine.

Once that was done, I worked on the animals from the panel. Since the animals appeared in this very quilt pattern in the magazine, I didn't expect any more trouble than making sure I cut out a proper square.

Well. Not quite.

The four animals came on a panel of fabric a yard long. This makes it easy for shops to sell one yard and everyone gets all four animals. Now a little simple math. A yard is 36". Since the animals are printed 2x2 on the yard, each animal is half a yard, which is 18". My blocks are 18.5" (unfinished). I'm sure that was simple enough for you to notice that my 18" animals blocks weren't going to be large enough to be sewn to the 18.5" blocks. I let that realization sit over night.

I had a few small scraps from cutting the height down to 18.5". Fabric is 42-44" wide so the animals were about 21" tall. Cutting them to 18.5" gave me an inch and a half if I was lucky. (I know the math doesn't work there, but you lose some of the width from squaring the block and removing the selvage.)

I used the four widest strips to add width to the blocks even though that would add an extra seam. (Boo!)

Of course, the strips were only 18" long so I had to piece in a patch to the patch to get the full 18.5" length:

But once you have one seam, what's adding one more? (That was sarcasm in case my sarcasm font isn't working.)

I put them all up on the wall to see how I liked it:

I can get over the extra seams, but one of the strips wasn't really wide enough. The text on the edge of the block below will mostly get caught up in the seam, but there's a line printed to the left of the text and that won't be in the seam.

I put it on the back side, but since it's a light fabric it will be visible on the front. I'm not sure I want to live with that.

As an alternate arrangement, I could put all four animals in the center of the quilt. With a frame around them and between them, they would be wide enough.

I could use white for the frame or I have some yardage of one of the green fabrics from this line. I don't like this option as much as the first layout, but it's always good to realize you have options.

PS: Aren't these animals adorable!? So cute!

A Constellation

I may put a project aside and not work on it for a while, but it's rare that I stop thinking about it. If I know what the next steps are, I think through how I'm going to accomplish it. If I'm undecided, then I think about different options. Of course, sometimes during this mulling stage, what I think I'm going to do is replaced by another idea that occurs to me.

I got the bright stars on black quilt back on track in preparation for the family craft retreat in February. I completed the centre section of the top, finished up the border stars and laid it out to figure out where they should go.

But I spent most of the retreat working on my blue and white quilt. So this quilt came home in the same state it left.

Sometime between then and last Thursday, I settled on how I was going to arrange the little stars in the outer border.

The squares of the centre were cut at 5" and finished at 4.5". The stars in the border finish at 5", so I knew they weren't going to line up. I thought all I had to do was calculate the number that would evenly space the stars across the quilt.

Then I thought about spacing them unevenly, closer together on one side gradually moving to further apart on the other. I played with some numbers and found a series that not only fit within my idea, but worked out on even 1/2 or 1/4" measurements.

And boom! put it together:

It was super windy this day. (The beginning of the storm that brought snow the following night.) I clipped small books to the lower corners to keep it down and the wind happy waved them around like nothing.

I moved inside and was able to get a better overall shot:

The effect of the different spacing between the border stars wasn't as noticeable as I hoped, but it's what I could do within my constraints. (For one thing, I didn't want a huge space on the one side - that meant I couldn't make the space very small on the other.) And it's not so bad to have subtle effects in a quilt. :)

The other thing this uneven spacing did was spread out the border stars better. I didn't have quite the variety I needed, but I tried to match them to the colours in the middle of the quilt. I didn't really have enough purple (top left) or blue (bottom right). Putting the wider spacing there kept the blocks of similar colour lined up better. See why I jumped on this idea when it occurred to me? It solved a problem that was nagging at me and I thought I would just have to live with.

Next step for this quilt is layering and quilting. I thought about using a black batting (for my first time) to avoid any noticeable "bearding". (That's where batting is pushed through the fabric and visible on the outside, usually by the stitching.) But I've decided my bigger priority is to keep the bright fabrics bright, and a white batting will have that effect.

I have oodles and oodles of this black fabric, but it's all in smaller pieces (most about 12"x15"). I think I'm going to piece the backing out of it just to use it up and because I don't have a better idea. The binding will be black as well, and it's going to be extra wide to act as a final border around the outside of the quilt.

Hmm...or maybe I should add a black border and then do a bright scrappy piping inside a black binding. I'll have to mull that over for a while...

Bright Diamonds Quilt Top Assembled

When you last saw this quilt (in 2015), it was scattered over the floor after it fell off my flannel sheet design board. I thought the cotton just didn't stick to the flannel, but I later realized the window was open and the breeze would get behind the flannel and flick it against the wall, effectively tossing off all of the blocks.

I got busy with work or whatever and put these blocks in a box and didn't take them out again until last week.

It being winter (and freakishly cold), I didn't think an open window would be a problem if I used the design wall. I laid out the blocks again, moved them around a little bit and ended with this:

The diamonds have to be sewn together in diagonal rows. It's not any harder really, but it does take a little more thought to make sure you don't mix things up. I took the blocks off the wall from top to bottom in the rows from upper right to lower left. I pinned a number on them to indicate which row they were and then managed to sew them together. (I only put one row on upside down and caught it soon enough that I didn't do any more seam ripping than necessary.)

I put the completed top back on the wall and decided it was too narrow. I'm aiming for a single (I think that's the same as a "twin") and it was less than 60" wide. I decided to add half blocks to fill in the spaces on the right and left sides. This meant putting together more blocks.

I pulled out the fabrics and put together five more diamonds. I cut them in half to use one half on each side and cut two of the halves in half again for the four corners.

The quilt police would say that you can never make a block and cut in half to use like this because it doesn't allow for a 1/4" seam allowance. So you're supposed to make a partial block just a little bigger than a half block. With this pattern, I just don't have to be that fussy. The points of the main diamonds (the inner ones of each block) won't be cut off and no one will care that the border is cut off 1/4". Now that I've proven to the quilt police I know what they know, we can move on.

On the first side, I tried to "insert" the half diamonds with Y seams and without taking out any of the existing seams. I got it done, but it's not very pretty. On the other side, I did the extra step of undoing a couple inches of the existing seam before adding the new half block. It did take a little more time but it was less fiddly.

I thought about ironing all the seams between the blocks open so that they would be nice and flat and no block would be more dominant than another, but I ended up pressing to one side and furling the seams.

You can see the intersection circled in white. Sorry to keep showing it, but I still love the effect of this method! And since each block ends up with two seams pressed in and two pressed out, none of them dominate.

While I was inserting the blocks, I discovered that one of my border strips had a little cut in it. The fabric was cut just about to the seam.

This is probably an "overcut" from cutting a previous piece that I missed when cutting this strip. I decided to mend it instead of replace it, and just stitched it to the other piece of fabric in the seam allowance. Now there won't be any pressure on the cut and it shouldn't tear any further. The seam allowance will be slightly thicker but it won't be noticeable.

Once the top was together, I trimmed the points from the edges and sewed a line of stay stitching around the outside.

This helps prevent the quilt from stretching at the edges, helps to lock any seams that weren't backstitched to prevent them from popping open, and keeps seam allowances in place as you layer the quilt.

And then I could call the quilt top done:

I think I know how I would quilt this and (unfortunately) it isn't really suited to using a longarm machine, so that means quilting it on my home machine. But I am also considering having it done by a professional longarmer with a computerized machine. I have an idea how I would like that done as well so I'm going to get a quote.

So how long does it take to make a quilt? I bought the fabric over a couple days in 2014. I cut and made the blocks in a week in 2015. And I pieced the quilt in a week in 2018. So that's four years for a quilt top, right? :)

While I was adding the half blocks on the sides, I stitched some scraps together in between each seam. (This saves you from pulling out a few inches of thread at the end of every seam and saves you from cutting those ends at the beginning of each seam.)

I ended up with a 10" block and some units that can be used in a future block or other project. Slab blocks like this are so much fun. Sticking with one colour at a time makes them surprisingly versatile, but I have no particular plans for this one.

Farm Girl Vintage Quilt - Putting it all Together

In all my enthusiasm for my nine patch quilt, my Farm Girl Vintage blocks have been sitting in the same box that they came home in after Christmas.

Since I'm hoping to have it done or nearly done by Easter I thought it was time to get to the next step. On Sunday I got them out of the box and organized them. (Basically sorting them by top row, left side, right side, etc.)

On Monday at 10:50 pm I decided I had done all the work I was going to do that night and had the thought that I could sew for 10 minutes before bedtime. Since my sewing machine has been living on my coffee table (where I've been sewing), there was time wasted with set up.

I pulled out the blocks and sewed the first row together. That's as far as I got, but it was something. (And no, I didn't finish in by 11:00. When you start sewing for 10 minutes, it's most likely going to turn into 30.)

Thursday was another evening with
very limited sewing time but I
did manage to get two sets of rows
pinned and ready for sewing when I
had another "quick minute" to sew.

Over the next couple days, I got all the blocks sewn into rows. And then slowly but steadily rows were joined with other rows.

I decided to press the seams open because I couldn't decide how to deal with the excessive bulk where the diagonal "cornerstones" were inserted. I thought it would also make the separate sashing pieces look more convincing as one piece. It's pretty subtle, but I think it makes a difference.

And I think because I came to quilting after garment sewing, I still am used to an open seam. Even though I get why pressing to one side works so well for quilting, deep down I still am bothered by the extra bulk!

Tonight, being Friday night, I gave myself extra sewing time and got all of the rows together and the whole top pressed.

The top right now is about 66" x 75". Adding one more border should make it a generous double bed size, and plenty big to be useful for a queen size.

I had thoughts for a pieced transition from the border to the center of the quilt and now is the time to decide if it's worth it/the quilt needs it/will it work?

I'll let you know....

Nocturne Star Quilt Top

As soon as the pressure of finishing the haunted house season was over (that is, Thanksgiving weekend), I cast around for some quilt projects I could sew on. I was done all the Farm Girl Vintage blocks and I felt up to pulling out the machine.

I thought of the squares for my Nocturne Star quilt. I laid them out in early June:

I changed the layout slightly after this picture, but that was basically it. I wasn't sure what I would find when I opened the box--I wasn't looking forward to laying them out again trying to match what I had before.

And lo and behold, before taking the blocks off the wall, I labeled them so I would know how they went together!! I was so grateful to June Christina for doing that for me!!

I sewed all the seams in one direction without cutting the thread in between blocks.

See the orange sticker? They didn't stay on very well when
I started moving the quilt around, but they stayed on long
enough for me to be able to put the blocks together.

Not only are all the blocks held in position to sew the seams in the other direction, but you can also examine the quilt top before you sew them. I laid it out on my bed to check for misplaced or rotated blocks.

Vertical seams are sewn. Horizontal seams still
need to be sewn.

I had the added bonus of having my sister visit the same day so she could see the quilt in progress. I didn't find any errors, so I went ahead and sewed the rest of the seams. As I recall, I had them done by Friday evening of Thanksgiving weekend.

Then I took out the extra strips from the top and others I cut to use in the border. I sorted them by value (light/dark) and then sewed them end to end in strips long enough to fit the quilt edge.

I started with the lightest colours to match the background of the quilt center and then worked darker toward the outside. When I was done,  I stepped back and it looked just like I pictured it! Happy success.

Here is the entire top:

I am hoping to quilt it in early 2017. Before then I have to come up with a back. I'll look through the leftovers and see what's there.

My plan is to take it to a local shop that I found out has a long arm machine you can rent time on. It would be so exciting to get it quilted in an afternoon!!! :)

The top is 92"x100" and Troy will be happy to finally have a blanket that is wide enough to go over the sides of the mattress! (We're making do right now.)

The last few people to whom I showed the quilt (or pictures of) asked me what I was making it for. I.e., who was I giving it to? Um, me. In my head I was thinking, "Back off from the quilt...it's mine and you can't have it!"

Quilt Top

I finished the last seam in my orange and grey zig zag quilt top this morning. I was glad to be done that stage since it is necessary to get to the next stage, (repeat last step as many times as necessary) to get the quilt done.

But then I threw it on my bed so I could make sure I didn't get mixed up by the diagonal seams and did actually end up with a rectangle.

And then I got excited to have finished the last seam in the quilt top. It happens every single time: I am amazed at what a difference it makes to have all the seams sewn as opposed to loose pieces on a design wall (or curtain as the case may be). I love this top. I still love that with straight seams and no triangles, you get wonderful zig zags.

I don't know how well you can see it (maybe at the bottom), but I have left all the edges "sawtooth" and did not cut them straight. I'm not going to put a border on the quilt and I'm going to layer the top like it is with the backing and batting. I'll cut it all straight after all of the quilting is done. That way I won't have any cut bias edges that can stretch and distort.

And speaking of the backing, I have no idea what I'm going to do! I'm not sure I have enough leftover fabric to piece together a back. My preference would be to have several large pieces I can put together, but I used a lot of fat quarters for this quilt. I'm going to have to dig out the "extras" box and see what I have.

Otherwise it will be a trip to the fabric store. I'll look through the extra-wide backing fabrics first to see if there's anything that will do but somehow I doubt they're going to have a lot of orange options. We'll see.