38 posts tagged “quilt”

Well, I'm back from my quilt camp at Toni's.  It was a very productive five days.  I managed to finish the bindings on 5 quilts, start an English Paper Piecing class sample, and work on my block of the month project.  When Linda saw all of the quilts I was finishing off she was not to be outdone so she brought 5 quilts that needed binding (though she does hers completely by machine) and got them done.

In this top picture the two quilts hanging on the wall are Toni's and were completed several years ago.  Starting from the left: Linda's Underground Railroad, the basket quilt Jimmie is hand quilting, (on the floor) one of my fractures, Linda's Just Can't Cut It, my sawtooth star, Linda's scrap quilt, (on the couch) Double Wedding Ring for John's parents.

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In the bottom picture: (on the couch) Linda's easter quilt, Linda's Window Panes (her own pattern and the same pattern as the two quilts hanging on the wall in the picture above), my medallion quilt, (on the floor) a quilt top Linda finished piecing, a quilt top Toni finished.

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There was a lot more accomplished besides those finished pieces.

We all had a wonderful time and ate way too much food (as usual)!  It was good to come home and sleep in my own bed.  Can't wait to do it again!

I met my goal.  The quilt is now ready to come off of the machine.  I am extremely pleased with the way it turned out.  Having the binding already attached to the top did not present any problems at all.  After I basted the edge of the top down I simply pinned the binding out of the way so that I could quilt.  I had no trouble getting right up to the edge.  I will definitely use this trick again when appropriate.

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Quilting words into a quilt is not difficult, but I always worry that I'm going to misspell something or my penmanship is going to be lousy.  The only problem I had with this quilt was cramming that 10 letter last name all onto one line, but I got 'er in there!

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And for those of you still with me--Here's my Hoffman challenge (I haven't bound it yet).

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1961 pieces of fabric have finally come together into a quilt top!  The directions called for attaching the binding before I quilt it as this made it easier to open up those tight corners between the arcs.  I've never done this before so it remains to be seen if it will be a problem for me while I'm quilting.  I don't think it will be a problem, but I've been wrong before. 

Now I just have to wait for the customer to give me the information I need for the label so that I can get it printed out and sewn onto the backing fabric before I start quilting.  I've got two other quilts to get on the machine ahead of this one, but if I'm quick with them maybe I can start quilting this one Sunday or Monday.

I didn't get started working quite as early as I wanted to today (darn Ken and his extra day off for the holiday!) so I didn't get as much work done as I'd hoped.  Not sure if I'll get all the piecing done tomorrow, but it will be ready to load onto the quilting machine before the end of the day Friday!

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Show us something in your house from the 1970s.

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This is the very first quilt top I ever pieced.  I did the blocks during the summer between 9th and 10th grades (that was 1974 for those of you keeping score).  Most of the fabrics in them are left over from projects I made in my 9th grade sewing class.  The green sashing and yellow border are 100% polyester (ick!).  I finished putting the quilt top together in my 10th grade sewing class.  I marked the quilting designs on it right away, but did not hand quilt it until I was 30 years old.  That polyester fabric was a real bear to quilt through!  In spite of its very amateur quality I can honestly say it makes me just as happy today as it did when I first pieced it.

If you've been paying any attention at all you've probably figured out that I love a good challenge.  Quilting challenges make me especially happy.  I belong to a small group of art quilters who meet once a month and in April we issued ourselves a challenge.  At our May meeting we were each to bring one piece of fabric from our stashes that we thought was absolutely hideous (we've all got 'em!).  These fabrics were hidden in little paper sacks and we each drew one.  Here's the piece I came home with.

Ugly Fabric

The rules for challenge are simple:

1. The ugly fabric must appear on the front of the quilt.
2. The ugly fabric must be recognizable.
3. The quilt should measure roughly the size of a fat quarter. [1]
4. The quilt can be any shape.
5. Use any techniques you like.
6. Embellish as little or as much as you like.
7. The quilt must be finished and ready to display (binding is optional).
8. The quilt is due at our July 1 meeting.

It took me a bit to figure out what to do with this piece of fabric.  I didn't care for the color scheme at all so I was having trouble getting inspired.  One day somebody mentioned Ricky Tims and I remembered that I've been wanting to make a convergence quilt, but had never gotten around to it.  Perhaps now was the time.  At that time I also decided that the ugly fabric did not need to set the color scheme for the quilt.  I'd just use it as a supporting fabric. 

The next step was to go into my stash and locate 3 more fabrics to go with the ugly one.  The floral that I chose is one that I have been in love with ever since I first found it.  The stripe and the green were very close to it in the pile and, to me, worked perfectly.  I was ready to go!

When I got ready to do the actual piecing I discovered I didn't have enough of the stripe so I had to substitute a purple plaid in its place. [2]  I neglected to take a picture of the pieced top before it was quilted, but here it is quilted and bound.

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Darcy looked at it right after I finished piecing it and said that I should have mitered the outside border where it changes colors.  I don't think I would have liked those diagonal lines contrasting with the horizontal and vertical lines of the convergence, but I do agree that it's a little jarring like this.  So I opened up my drawer of embellishments

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and added a few finishing touches to my quilt.

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I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.  And I'm done 5 days early!!  8:-)


[1] For you non quilters a fat quarter is a piece of fabric that measures 18" x 22".
[2] The stripe still made it into the quilt.  It's that little tiny inner border.

The other day Jamie commented that one of my fractures made her think she was drunk.  When I first started playing with them two years ago I heard that comment a lot.  Not being one to resist the opportunity for a good joke I pulled this bolt of fabric off the shelf

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and made this quilt.

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It was while sewing these hundreds of little tiny squares together that I figured out a faster and easier way to do it. 

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This morning I made myself quilt another top for my book.  I now have two quilts waiting to be bound and one that is completely done.

I just got off the phone from ordering a fabric panel that I want to use for the book. Also, I have some photos printed off on fabric to remake a quilt that was already done before the book came along, but I want to tweak it a bit.

It's taken 3 weeks worth of Wednesday's, but I've finally completed the class sample I need to turn in to The Savage Quilter before this weekend.

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It's just a little string pieced quilt (4.5" blocks, the top is 40.5" x 54"), but it took two full Wednesdays plus a little time this morning to get all the strings sewn together (and the strips were already cut!).  Today I trimmed the blocks to size and pieced the top together.  I really like the way that strong blue fabric in the center of each block pulls the whole quilt together.

But my favorite part is the backside:

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A perfect use for 2 yards of absolutely abominable Wal-Mart fabric that I just couldn't quite bring myself to throw in the trash.