Wedding Quilt Update #1

Things are chugging right along on the wedding quilt.  I can't believe that I am lucky enough to have friends willing to do such a special thing for and with me.  Check out all the stars hanging on Kristal's design wall!  

I must admit that most of those stars are from Kristal, but a few of them are mine!  If you roll over the above photo in flickr, I've made a note about which blocks are mine.

It seems like a lot, but it's not really much, or at least that's what everyone else is saying.  This is supposed to end up a queen sized quilt-- as of right now Kristal maintains that we've only got enough for a crib sized quilt.

No big deal, though, because I am really enjoying making these blocks.  I've dug into my stash for grays-- I hoarded a million a couple years ago during Fat Quarter Frenzy at Quilting  Adventures--  and am trying not to mooch too many beautiful batiks from Kristal.  I've had to buy a few blues, and have swapped a few, too.

The wonky star is much easier to make than I thought it would be.  Now that I've done several I hardly have to think about the process anymore.  Of course, that's how I've always felt about "improv"-- it's not as improvisational as everyone would have you think.  There's actually a fair bit of planning and consideration that goes into it.  Or maybe that's just my brain.  Thoughts?

Man Vs Quilt

Well, folks.  I'm here with some sad, sad news today.  I'm allergic to my favorite quilt.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I'm allergic to it; it makes me sick.  How can this be?

Well, since the beautiful, wonderful, snuggly quilt in question is bound and bordered in a very dark black fabric, I'm assuming I'm having a reaction to the fabric dyes used to color the cloth.  Each time I touch or use this quilt, I end up with angry red welts all over my body, focused especially on my hands.

Strangest of all, perhaps, is that I never experienced any difficulties of this sort while I was handling the fabric to make the quilt.  Bizarre, no?

Anyway.  Now I'm at a loss.  Wash it, of course, but what if the spots return?!  I worked so long and hard on this quilt-- a year, by hand!-- and it is the first and only quilt I have ever really made for myself.

 

Just like a teenager, it has turned on me with lightning quickness.

Christmas Future

That's really what my Christmas quilt is right now-- a ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  It will not be done in time for this Christmas.  It will, however, be amazingly cute and festive.  I think it's worth the wait.  And when it's finally finished, I will throw open the windows and yell down into the street, "You, there!  What day is it?"  Upon finding out that it is Christmas Day, I will purchase a huge turkey for Tiny Tim and his family.  Then I will become a beloved old man and a legend of classic literature.

Until then, these off-kilter nine-patch blocks.

Sea Glass

Today I hand-stitched 252 inches of binding.  My hands are feeling a bit gnarled.  But, I finished the Sea Glass quilt, just in time for the heat wave coming next week.  I slaved myself over the binding for hours today just so that Lesly could see it before she hops a plane to Berlin.

The finished quilt measures 60"x66" and is made entirely of half-square triangles.  I used my tried and true method to get gorgeous half-square triangles.  All you have to do is cut squares 7/8" larger than your finished size, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner, stack, and sew 1/4" from either side of the line.  When you cut it in half, you'll have two perfect half-square triangles!

My inspiration for this project comes from this quilt.  I loved the purple-brown solid she used and the collection of vibrant blues and turquoise prints.  When I saw it I knew immediately that I had to work with that color palette!  I must admit-- I pretty much copied her quilt but I don't feel terribly bad about it.

This quilt is stuffed with bamboo batting, which is soft and silky and easy to sew.  Of course, bamboo fibers also attach to everything, so this quilt is covered in fuzz.  I didn't have any single pieces large enough for this quilt, so I stitched to large scraps together.  You can't even notice in the quilting!

I quilted this in a grid pattern following the seam lines.  The quilting lines are 1/4" from the vertical and horizontal seams, but there is only one line for each seam.  After I quilted the vertical grid, I started having problems with fabric pushing and puckering, so I decided to stop after one set each of horizontal and vertical lines.

I used a green variegated thread (King Tut #923) on top and a yellow 50 wt thread in the bobbin (Wonderfil KT403).  The top thread looks gorgeous and the bobbin thread blends beautifully with the background.  The only problem is that I can see the knots from the top thread on the back.  Anyone know how to solve this problem?

Fabrics used include a bunch of random prints I found at my LQS, some Alexander Henry, some Kaffe Fassett, and two Lantern Bloom prints (Tile Mosaic in turquoise and citron), as well as a beautiful brown Kona cotton.  The quilt is backed with citron Tile Mosaic from the Lantern Bloom collection and bound with the same Kona brown from the front.

Overall, I'd say it's gorgeous.  It definitely has some flaws-- my quilting hasn't reached the quality level that I desire, but that can only change with practice.  As the ladies at the LQS say, "better finished than perfect."  Except my binding is perfect.  For the record.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

This year, I decided to enter my piece de resistance, my modern opus, my masterpiece-- my hand pieced grandmother's flower garden quilt. I was inspired to create this quilt by an enormous patch of coneflowers that blooms in front of the Virginia Fine Arts Museum every year. The museum is just down the street from my apartment, so I get to enjoy the flowers all season, every year. The flowers are so colorful and full, and I get sad when they burn up and wilt each summer. Now I can have those flowers all year long!

The quilt measures approximately 93" x 67" finished and unwashed. I used a cotton-poly batting had it professionally quilted by Rebekah Richardson of Kept In Stitches Quilting (Richmond, VA).

The center of the top is entirely hand pieced by me. I followed the English paper piecing method seen here. Each piece is whip-stitched together using waxed or glace thread. For the flowers I used batik cottons, and the path is created with my favorite pink fabric ever, Lakehouse Antique Dots in Berry.

I created a pieced back using leftover pink squares and Cufflink in the Leaf colorway from Summer Soiree by Paula Prass. The quilt is bound with a really cool dot designed by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics. It's super black, and it turned my fingers grey while I was finishing the binding.

I love this quilt and can't wait to use it for many years to come!

Bow Tie Quilt

This has been finished for a while.  Sorry it's taken so long for me to blog it!

The Bow Tie Quilt was originally supposed to be my sister's birthday present.  However, I fell in absolute love with the fabrics and the quilt during the construction process and decided to keep it for myself.   Good thing, because Katie says it's a little too shabby-chic for her.

She's a bit right; I didn't realize that until after she'd said so.  It's not normally my taste either, but I just can't help myself this time.  The whole thing is very sweet.  I love it!

Fabrics are mostly from Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt, but there are some favorites from Freshcut by Heather Bailey as well as a brown print that is recent (but I can't remember where it comes from).  Bound with the Prairie Rose print in the Piney Woods color way.  Backed with a pink damask from the Promises line.

It measures 70"x70" and is perfect for napping on the couch.  I quilted it in mostly evenly-spaced mostly-straight lines.  Try not to notice those incorrectly placed blocks in the corner... I didn't notice them until after the whole thing was basted, quilted, and bound. Too late to fix, otherwise I would have done so.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

This is the quilt that I am proudest of, to date. It's pretty recent, so if you've seen it, sorry!



This is a generous twin One Block Wonder. I made this quilt for Gloria, my sister, upon her high school graduation and decision to go to College of William & Mary. Each of the times I've visited her at school, I've dragged the quilt off her bed and inspected it for any damage that needs to be repaired. Of course, Gloria keeps it in pristine condition-- she doesn't even use it as a cover. It's more of a decoration. She was scandalized when I suggested taking it as the picnic blanket for screen on the green festivities.

I'm so happy that she loves this quilt because it is the most labor intensive product I have finished to date. There are around 800 patches in that quilt, all cut and sewn by me.

Still, to this day, I look at it in awe and say, "I can't believe I made that."

Reports from the Field

Remember this cool little quilt?



Sorry for the bad photo, by the way.

So Jack's (recipient of aforementioned quilt) grandmother just moved to the area, and there were some family adventures this weekend. Apparently, Jack was hanging around all weekend playing on his quilt.

It was so nice to hear that the quilt is actually being used, which means the family liked their gift! I'm a nervous gift-giver, so this update was exactly the kind of reassurance that I needed.

Patchwork!

It's been a little silent around here. I may not be blogging, but I am working on something!



This is the first time I've ever created half-square triangles. I didn't do any crazy methods, just did squares and sewed 1/4" from the middle line. Very simple.




Here's me taking the last stitches on the quilt top. Please ignore all that fuzz on my presser foot and shank. I promise I clean my machine.




Check out my finished quilt top. Even though the top seems so simple, it challenged me in many ways.

First, I struggled with the color scheme. Red is a very bold color and each time I looked at the pieces coming together I was felt sure that the red was taking over the entire quilt. I also don't love the khaki that I included. I feel that it's a little drab, and I'd rather have used an off white. I think it would look cleaner.

Layout also gave me some difficulty. I tried several different arrangements but none seemed quite right. However, when I moved the pieces to this current layout everything fell together. It was sort of like a magic eye puzzle. It finally looked right!

All fabrics are Kona cotton solids. Very nice to work with.

I'm not so sure how I like it. I think it's a bit manly looking, but also sort of fresh and modern. I'd rather have worked in softer colors, but this one isn't for me, so I chose fabrics according to the recipient's taste.

As I'm sitting here staring at it, it's kind of growing on me...

Gloria's Quilt

DSC04275
Originally uploaded by jenamoured

I'm finally getting around to posting this.

I delivered Gloria's quilt last weekend when I went home to help her pack for departure to William & Mary College.

She loved it! We snuggled under it and dragged it around the house all weekend, refusing to pack it until the very last minute.

You can see the two of us holding the quilt over the loft railing. Lucky that house is so big so that we could get a great full view, far away picture.


STATS
76x92"
Machine pieced, hand bound
Machine quilted by Rebekah Richardson of Kept In Stitches Quilting in Richmond, VA

I used fabric from the Natural Effects line by Marcus Fabrics. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of my original fabric, so I had to supplement with another fabric from the Natural Effects line (same print, smaller scale) and one Al Fresco print, which is also used as the backing. I used this as the border, along with a couple blender batiks.


I, personally, think it looks beautiful. I'm so proud of my work and I can't believe I actually made that thing.

My aunt emailed it to a family member, who wrote back to ask if the center section was a single piece of fabric. It felt great to say, "Nope! That's patchwork!"

I.
Am.
The Bomb.

French Braid

French Braid
Originally uploaded by jenamoured

Here's the quilt top for the French Braid quilt. Of course, it is not at all square and I've already cut off several inches in an attempt to get it square. I decided to fold it up and put it away until after vacation-- that way I don't end up with a placemat out of frustration.

I've still got to add borders to this thing.

!@#% Basting

I pieced the backing to the one block wonder quilt and then spent two hours basting it.




Of course, after I basted and the top was perfect, I turned the monster over to make sure the back was good... Not so much. It had wrinkled and puckered everywhere. Probably because I had been crawling around on it and it shifted.

So, I guess I will be re-basting at the quilt store tomorrow, instead of quilting. Alas.

!!!

Alright, so, finally I got Gloria's quilt top completely finished. It looks wonderful! I have a few ugly pictures to show so that all of you readers (ie, zero) can get an idea of what's going on here. Then, when it's all quilted up, I'll show the final product.



I used fabric from the Natural Effects line by Marcus Fabrics. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of my original fabric, so I had to supplement with another fabric from the Natural Effects line (same print, smaller scale) and one Al Fresco print. I used this as the border, along with a couple blender batiks.

I think it looks great.

The employees at Quilting Adventures are the bomb because they really helped me out with this quilt, from fabric choice, to layout, to teaching me how to do mitered corners! Also, that's where I took the class to learn how to do a One Block Wonder. They also let me invade their shop and use their huge tables to do my work, otherwise I'd have been sewing that huge top in this:



I'll be basting this weekend so that I can begin quilting it on Monday.

Finished Objects?

No! But we're getting there!

Just thought I'd share pictures of what I've been working on...

My flower garden quilt is growing. I've been working on it during babysitting gigs (a girl has to get tattoo money somehow). The kids seem to be fascinated with the act of sewing-- most of the moms I sit for don't sew. (One mother, however, showed me her Husqvarna from 1970. It was pristine and beautiful. She said it sews perfectly. I wanted to trade my machine for hers.)





That's my favorite fabric in the whole bunch. I love that batik. It's from timeless treasures. I have the item number, but can't seem to find that colorway anywhere on the web. :(



I have pieced but not quilted this cute, simple quilt for Caithlin's newborn Oscar. I love that traffic jam fabric.





And last, but not least, I am in the final stages of completing the Eye Spy quilt (the one that's not ugly)! I have quilted it, squared it, sewn on rock pockets (via Sew, Mama, Sew!), and attached binding. Almost done...

I used the Fons & Porter Easy Binding Tool to help create my continuous binding tape. The directions are not all that easy to read, but once you read through them and if you take it slow, it's actually very easy to use. And it produces PERFECT continuous binding. Get one. Seriously.

Mad Scientist

Last weekend I did a few experiments. Exciting, right?

Firstly, I finally (and I mean finally) used the free motion quilting foot that I bought at the end of the summer. I'll admit, I was afraid of it. I had no idea how easy (or hard) it would be to use that thing. I could only imagine what it would be like, fighting the quilt sandwich around, dragging it through the machine, using all the muscles I could muster.

Turns out it was really easy. Must have been because I didn't have to work against the feed dogs.

Secondly (this is the real news), I designed my very own mini quilt top. As far as I'm concerned, it's gorgeous.

My inspiration came from The BooDilly on flickr (who, I discovered, has a blog). These two quilts inspired in me by their quilting motif and boldness of color. And, I agree, simpler is better.





Wonderful, right?

So I made some plans.



Then I cut some fabric and sewed it together and ended up with this.



It's not quilted yet. I've got it hanging up in the sewing room so that I can keep looking at it and make up my mind about what quilting motif to go with. Lines or arcs, that's how I'm leaning.