Quilting Roll Roll Cotton Boll

I've started quilting Roll Roll Cotton Boll, a scrap quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter.  I realized while sewing together the blocks that I wasn't very successful at string piecing!  My seam allowances were somehow too narrow in some places, and there were a few areas where the seams came apart.  So the first order of business after sandwiching the quilt was to use a decorative stitch over those seams to close them up. Hardly noticeable, on the front.

I had to tackle quilting those big string pieced blocks.  Up till now, I 've avoided any quilt with large open areas that have had to be quilted!  I figured this would be a great practice piece.  I can stipple, meander, echo quilt, do some leaves,  make loops and circles, even M and W kind of lines and squares, but not much else...and I seem to always fall back on this type of free motion.

I have a few of Patsy Thompson's free motion quilting dvds, and I used her seashells idea to quilt these squares.  A lot of work!!   I've done one or two blocks a day, and it seems that I'm getting nowhere...just now I thought I had one block left, but I actually have two left, and the setting triangles to consider).

I can make the initial design, and basically keep going...but then, I kind of lose track and next thing you know I'm making some other echo pattern, or have worked myself into some strange space to fill up, or I've crossed a line or more...but, good practice, and I can see my stitches getting more even and I'm better at re-tracing a line.  I'm pretty happy with it, but I think I should have made a different choice.  It looks good, but because of all the seams in those blocks, and now the quilting filling it in, the quilt is getting a little too compact for my liking.  So I'll have to do some real thinking on how to do the pieced blocks, as a quilt is supposed to have an equal or  proportionate amount of quilting in all areas, but I don't want any more heavy quilting. Rule breaking here I come!

Applique Planning, continued

The Jacqueline's Album quilt pattern arrived yesterday and I started to cut up my fabrics.  I have found that for me to be at all successful in committng to an applique quilt on my own, without the benefit of block of the month mailings, I have to choose and cut out the main fabrics for each block prior to starting to sew. 

I am really pretty comfortable with my colour planning skills with pieced quilts, but as I have said many times before, applique quilts just bring me trouble.  I think its because I'm too busy thinking, would two flowers in the same bunch really have two different colours?  would there really be that many shades of green in the leaves?  should I match two flowers, and put something interesting as a third? etc. 

I cut out a square of fabric for each main element of the block, not cutting out leaf or stem fabric.  This gives me a good idea of how the colours or fabrics are being used block to block.  Well, first disappointment working on this quilt was that gee, these fabrics are boring.  They almost all read as solid.  (I've thought often of doing an applique quilt with just solids, and this may be just the one! ).  Then, as I'm getting to block three or four, I realize my oranges, which there are just two, are either not enough or not right.  So switch the orange to pink, dig around my bits and pieces tub a bit more, and find a couple of more fabrics with a bit more range of colour.  But...its niggling at me that these colours just aren't making me happy.  The yellow is too bright, the purple and yellow combination in these shades are just not in my comfort zone.  I gave up the effort after about eight blocks planned, and this morning I said to myelf I'd carry on and likely be happier as I see the blocks sewn.

However,  applique quilts can take a loooong time to make, and with all the applique and handwork I've got going on right now, this one could easily take a year or more, especially with the border.  So one has to be very happy and comfortable with the fabric choices...and this just isn't going to work.

I'd still like to stick with yellow in rememberance of my Aunt, but I'll have to find some other more subdued colour palette.

Applique Quilt Planning

Lori Smith has a new applique quilt pattern called Jacqueline's Album.  My mother's twin sister was named Jacqueline, she died from cancer far too young.  Jacqueline gave me the opportunity to learn much from her while she was ill, and I would love to make this quilt while thinking of her.  These are the colours I have selected, starting with yellow for the yellow daffodils from the Cancer Society fundraising,  that I mark her remembrance with every Spring.

Over the past couple of weeks I've enjoyed sewing a jelly roll sampler quilt for my teenage niece.  It was the first time I've worked with a jelly roll, and I had fun planning the colours for each block, and that the pre-cut strips made for easy sewing and easier math!  The pattern came from the book Jelly Roll Sampler Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  A lot of great patterns in this book that I'm sure I'll be sewing!

My  niece is a tomboy, and doesn't like anything that might be considered girl-ish.  The prints in this quilt, Grande Finale by Sandy Gervais,  did allow me to sneak in some flower-like doodles and leaves.  Her favourite colour is yellow, so that worked for the sashing.  And I chose a black solid for the setting squares and final border, to hopefully add some drama and take away anything feminine!

I also quilted a small version of Stars and Sprigs, pattern by Kim McLean.  I really have a problem with batiks, which I know makes me an odd duck amongst many quilters!  Although I like the look they give, and working with them  never seem to be in my comfort zone.  I seem to be stuck in the traditional fabric style category :)  I'll be starting this quilt again, using reproduction fabrics as in the Kim's original quilt.

Quilts for Twin Girls!

My niece is expecting her first babies in December...twin girls! Here are the quilt tops I designed and made.




My mother was a twin, and she tells me stories how she didn't like to be dressed or treated like her sister; but if they weren't dressed or treated the same she always felt her sister got the best! How's that for a predicament?


With that in mind, I made the quilts the same, but set slightly different and with different applique centres. The blocks were inspired by a quilt in "Country Threads goes to Charm School". I used their idea of setting the little blocks with sashing...from there I made four blocks into one block, forming an x or an o. Can you see it? One quilt has Xs in the corner, the other has Os in the corner. The applique are from an EQ collection by Sue Spargo.


After deciding to raid another planned quilt for its background fabric, from Lollipop by Sandy Gervais, I went online to look for other fabrics from that collection. I added a red and yellow from the collection, the rest from my stash. And I fell in love with the little fishies print. As it turned out, it didn't work in the quilt, but it made a great pieced backing; one with red, and one with yellow.





As twins are often premature, and these babies are considered high-risk, I wanted to have the tops ready to quilt! It should only take a few days to quilt them lightly, and I'll be sure to have them ready to go by the end of October.