Sandwiching Quilt Tops

Yesterday was full of surprises in my quilt room!  I went to my batting bin  with the intent of preparing Stars for a New Day for quilting...I was suprised to discover that I'm all out of  fresh batting - those still new and wrapped in their package.  So instead I had to rummage through the leftovers and strips cut from other quilts.  So I started to lay out batting bits, and finding tops to fit the bits.  Looking for quilt tops to fit the batting I could make, I found tops I had forgotten all about!  They never made it to my "list of tops to quilt".  What a nice suprise.

To make a new piece of batting, I lay out pieces that will then make up a size appropriate for the top.  Let's say I have two strips.  I layer one strip on top of another, and with scissors I cut a clean edge along both strips at once.  Then, its easy for them to butt together and use a zig zag stitch  to make a permanent join.

[caption id="attachment_1091" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cherry Berry Album blocks, machine applique, approx 36"x36" This will be great in my daughter's room, she's hardly ever home now and hasn't even unpacked in the new house![/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A variation of Meadow Breeze, by Pat Soan. Wool applique. Approx. 42 x 42[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1092" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dresden wall hanging, (or table topper?) 24 " 24"[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1096" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The pattern is "From the Heart" by Lori Smith, using Farmer's Wife blocks,
machine applique, 60" x 78"[/caption]

 

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[caption id="attachment_1094" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Twelve of Eleven, 42" x 42". I'm hoping that my new grandbaby will be a girl - I think I'd love for her to have this quilt![/caption]

Framed Sampler

This summer I wanted to get started on, or finish, putting together tops from sampler type blocks.  Dear Jane, Farmer's Wife, and some 30s style blocks were the three on my list.

Sharyn Craig has a terrific book called "Great Sets" where she presents wonderful ideas for putting together quilt blocks into wonderful quilts.  This book was a great reference for me to come up with a setting plan for the tops-to-be.

First one that was finished was a group of 30s blocks that I set with bright blue, it will be a quilt for my niece Emily.





 

I drew the block from Sharyn's book in Electric Quilt.



Then I decided to add a frame around the centre, to increase the size of the finished block, and so the size of the quilt.



Then I used the Serendipidity tool on the block table to merge my sampler block into the frame block



Then, I was able to play with my quilt, changing fabrics and colourings of the block.  I ended up with 30 quilts in my sketchbook, and at least 10 colourings of the block!  When I was done, I had Sharyn's instructions on how to create the frame, and I also had some measurements from EQ to help me with the construction.

 

Stitch good thoughts!

Clamshell Border

The Antique Sampler quilt has a clamshell border, where each clamshell shape is english paperpieced, joined in a row, then appliqued on to the base fabric.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I had to make up my own method on how to do this consistently.  The centre blocks of the quilt are reverse applique circles...the fabric left from cutting those circles is what's used in the clamshells.  A template makes it easy to cut the clamshell shape.  But now you have a piece of fabric with a 1/4" seam allowance all around, so I pinned the paper piecing shape to the fabric to leave the seam allowance unfolded (as this will later form part of the seam allowance to sew the border onto the quilt)

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The clamshells are then set together to form a row.  Each is joined along the side with the usual small stitching done for english paper piecing.



I quickly discovered that I had to determine a consistent point at which to stop the stitching....where was my "top" of the side?  Placing a pin at the stopping point let me make a consistent looking curve from piece to piece.

Summer stitching

Lots of hand sttching was done this summer, especially in July when it was so hot!  I got two rws of clamshells done for the borders on Antique Sampler.  The instructions for this part of the quilt were disappointing, kind of like...prepare 20 clamshells for each border.  I'll post more tomorrow on just how I went about making and appliqueing them.

I worked on some of the blocks for Summer Reigns, a pattern by Kathy Schmitz.

Thanks to Gayle at Sentimental Stitches, I really got going on backbasting for preparing applique.  I had used this method off and on, but was never entirely happy with how it worked.  

I discovered that for me to be really able to see the holes left by the basting thread, I use a size 7 sharp needle - this needle is consistently thick all the way from tip to eye - and glazed hand quilting thread.  These holes also tend to give you a turn line even when you can't see the holes!!

I got started on Jacqueline's Album quilt...one I've wanted to do for a long time, but never could seem to choose the right fabrics...so I'm making it as a block of the month from the Quilted Crow, it may not be yellows like I wanted in memory of my Aunt Jacqueline, but I'll be sure to think of her everytime I sew it!

a block for Just Takes 2 - I don't think I could have laid out this block so precisely
without backbasting prep!

a block from Jacqueline's Album, showing basting stitches

Stitch good thoughts!

Whimsical Garden progress

I did come up with some great applique setting designs in Electric Quilt, but they couldn't be used as the applique elements in this quilt overlap on to other blocks.  Eventually, I had this idea, to apply narrow sashings between the blocks, which I think worked well enough to make some difference in the quilt's overall appearance.

 

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I made narrow strips of the fabric that's in the block frames...a clover bias tape maker that I usually use for making stems gave me the finished edge.  I cut 1/2" strips from the fabric and sprayed with Best Press. Put the fabric through the bias tape maker, and voila!  instant narrow sashing!

I "quilted" it on to the quilt with a narrow serpentine (curvy) stitch, following the seam line between the blocks.  In this picture it looks like its not quite on centre, but I don't think fussi-ness is necessary in this quilt, because the whole thing has a folk-art-primitive feeling.

"fun" with Whimsical Quilt Garden

Yesterday afternoon I made a terrible mistake and shared with my husband that I hate a quilt.  This quilt....
This is Whimsical Quilt Garden.  It did look like this.

While preparing it for quilting, I kept feeling like something was off with the setting, or the applique, or the colours, or something.  I delayed about three weeks finishing the sandwiching while staring at the quilt laid out on the bed.  Finally I  decided to leave it alone, and began quilting it.  Well, hardly...it sat at my machine for a week or two while I played with a bit of quilting on it, mostly some free motion anchor stitching on the narrowest inner block frame.  This quilt was just not making me happy...this seems to me happening a lot to me lately!  Making a quilt then changing my mind!

The background here is more of the true colour...if it was as white as the picture above, I think that would have been a better background choice.

I ripped off the borders (while the quilt was still sandwiched!) and sewed on new narrow navy borders.  I was thinking that those diamonds didn't seem to fit, and there should have been a wider band of navy between them and the centre of quilt...I had tried to do that when first adding the diamonds but the math didn't work without making the inner border too wide or the diamonds too small.  So off went the diamonds!  On went a narrow border!

When Mike came home, I showed him the quilt and tried to explain .... while I like the pattern of the applique, I think I chose the wrong colours for the "modern" feel of the pattern, the setting seems dark and crowded, and I just don't like it.   He said that it was a fine quilt, and plenty of people would be happy to have it...maybe so I said, but not with my name on it!

I went to the kitchen to make coffee, came back to the living room, and Mike and the quilt were gone!  He had taken the quilt across the street to a neighbour and showed it to their 14 year old daughter!!!  Oh I was mad.  According to Mike, she liked it and wanted to have it after it's finished. I knew that there wasn't anything terribly wrong with the design, but that it could be improved.

I came up with some great drawings on EQ, but now realize that because many elements of the applique lean on to another block....re-setting is not likely an option.  Still thinking!

Why do I blog?

I've not posted all summer....because I've been thinking about why I blog.  First I have to say that I don't like the word blog.  It just feels like an odd word!

If this is my quiltmaker's journal, I should be writing a lot more about my thinking and planning, my mistakes, my wishes, disappointments, and success!  I should be writing every day!  I think one of the reasons why I don't, is that often when I post a quilt plan, or an idea, that I'm sure I'll follow through on....well, it doesn't happen!  When I look through my posts, I see so many ideas that have come and gone.  But that shouldn't be a bad thing...because really, it's those ideas that lead to others and evenutally a wonderful quilt will come from it!

Another reason why I might not post as often as I should is that I find it difficult to share ... there are so many quilting blogs out there, can I really make any contribution to anyone's quilting adventures?  My answer to that, and I must remember this:  when I buy a book or a pattern, I may never make a quilt or block from that reference, but I will almost always pick up one nugget of information that is new to me.  So, my blog might just give that lightbulb moment to others!

I have been piecing and appliqueing a lot this summer, and I'll be posting pics of my summer quilting soon!

For now, here's a pic of my Stupendous Stitching finished piece.