May 2018 – Page 2 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Big Stitch Update

I made some progress on the BAMaQG IRR at Craft Night the other night. The image shows the whole piece. Obviously, you can’t see the hand stitching, but you can get an overall view of the piece.

I am not using a pattern or marking much when I Big Stitch. I am following the stitching lines and eyeballing where my stitches go. They are mostly straight lines, a quarter inch from seams.

I plan to use different threads, especially the Sue Spargo threads I have been buying, but at the moment I am using an Aurifil embroidery thread.

The Flying Geese made some arrow type designs.

You can see, especially if you click on the image to make it larger, that I am doing multiple rows of outline stitching. I don’t want the piece to be stiff, so I probably won’t fill in the whole arrow, but I might do a few more lines. I’ll have to see.

I am pretty pleased with the way the back looks as well. Unlike 10 stitches to the inch hand quilting, the stitches on the back of a Big Stitched quilt are supposed to be smaller, according to Sarah Fielke. Mine are smaller and even, which is what I have been working to improve.

If I were to put stitches in all the solid areas so there was no open space, the look would be somewhat like one section I already did. The section between the green dots and blue flowers has about 4 lines of stitching that covers the whole area.

Stepping Stones n.2 is Back

Stepping Stones n.2 - May 2018 — Stepping Stones n.2 – May 2018

The Octagon Nine Patch is ready to go to Colleen and I put the Stepping Stones blocks back on the design wall. The last time I talked about this was only in March, so not an eternity ago. There is a lot of work to do on this piece: more cutting for the border. I am tempted to sew the upper patches into blocks and then sew the upper blocks together. I can’t really fit the whole piece on my design wall and that seems like a good solution. I am afraid I will end up with some blocks with all the same fabrics next to each other, however. I know it will look a lot better sewn together. It looks a lot more defined in the photo than it does in person.

I can’t decide if I am determined to get this done this time or not. I started this in about December of 2014, so it has been hanging around awhile. I should get it pieced and off to the quilter. I am not quite feeling the love. What a shame.

2018 Fair Entries

I entered my projects the other day into the fair. Not quite at the last minute, but the day before the last minute. I entered the following:

Rainbow Paper Wreath

DH’s Cal Shirt

Planned Improv Quilt

Superhero(ine) Apron

Zip Away Organizer

Flapper Apron

Let’s see if I can win something!

Octagon Nine Patch: Ready for Quilting

I finished the top and back over the weekend. I started this project in 2015 and am really glad to be done with it.

It is a nice quilt and I will send it off to friends after showing it around.

I made an effort to use cool colors on the border to pick up some of the cool colors in the Nine Patches. I think some of the darks in the border are too dark, but live and learn. This is not a pattern I will be repeating.

I tried to make the piece look like it was woven and I think, if you get close, you will see that impression. At least I hope you will. I couldn’t completely keep like colors away from each other, but I did my best. I am pleased with the way the whole thing came out.

I was fortunate to find a piece of Kaffe in my backing pile that fit the quilt widthwise. I only had to make a strip to cover the rest of the vertical. I was thrilled. Not only was the Kaffe the perfect size, but the colors make it look like it was made for this quilt. Yay!

Vintage Tuesday: Artbabies

I was thinking about Marrimeko fabric the other day and this quilt came to mind.

This quilt is pieced, but the smaller sections are not pieced. They are panels. They were already cut when I bought them at the Crate & Barrel outlet, so I sewed them together to make a quilt for the baby I was expecting. Machine quilt was something I was building as a skill with the new machine I had bought the year before so I decided to machine quilt it. Basting has always been a trial, so I thought I was being clever when I used Wonder Under to baste the quilt. It stayed together while I quilted it, but the quilt is stiff as a board, practically. We never really used it for a baby quilt. We did use it as a playmat. I still like it and could put a sleeve on it and hang it up.

This quilt was probably one of the last quilts I made until the YM was about 6 months, maybe a year old.

Design Wall Monday

My small design wall is fairly empty this Monday, but stuff is happening there. Mostly donation stuff.

On the bottom left are my new group of FOTY 2018 pieces. I posted about the most recent group on Saturday.

The middle of the design wall shows my most recent Spiky 16 Patches.

Below the Spiky 16 Patches is one last 9 patch. I forgot to include it in the Octagon Nine Patch.

On the right, a donation block in process.

I am linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, the relatively new hosting site of Design Wall Monday.

FOTY 2018 – April Progress

The last time I wrote about this project was March. I have actually made a lot of progress on this quilt, though it might not seem like it. The shape and size are small for this year, so I will really need to step up my cutting game.

Time has been short recently due to a lot of family events, but I have had time to press and cut shapes from my new fabrics. This means lots of new squares for FOTY 2018. In this group you will also see lots of familiar fabrics. Fabrics show up from the projects on which I have been working recently.

There is also something a little different this time: the butterfly. After I washed the fabric, I wrote myself a note to fussy cut one of the butterflies. I did, but I am not sure it will end up as is in the final project. I don’t want one fabric to dominate. If I buy (or use some already in the fabric closet) some other fabrics with fussy cuttable designs, then I might keep it. For now, the opportunity is there.

May Donation Blocks

Here are a few more donation blocks. From the Spiky 16 patch you can see why I have so few. I am getting down to my lesser favorite colors. I’ll have to make some black and grey blocks pretty soon.

Creative Spark #23: Repetition

“There is only one way to achieve the fluency, freedom and grace of the expert, and that is by doing” (The Little Spark, pg.97). I believe this quote. I live this quote. I sew a lot. I make a respectable number of quilts and chop up and sew back together a lot of fabric.

I get the impression that people think you can make one quilt and be an expert. I have made a lot of quilts and I still don’t consider myself an expert. “We get better at anything we try to do by doing it over and over (and over and over)” (pg.97).

I do think, as we progress towards becoming an expert, we gain “fluency and fluidity with the materials and…movements.” We “understand…the rhythm and harmony of the” materials, the tools and our “body.” We can feel our way through the” work ” instead of thinking…through” [it]. We become less attached to our work as we get better and we get better at telling the materials exactly what we want them to do using great economy of movement. As we get better, we are fully in control of our work and yet we choose to surrender that control to the materials. (pg.97)

“You don’t learn by thinking about doing. You might enjoy thinking and planning, but the learning comes from doing” (pg.97). Each time we make a quilt or, even, a block “a new awareness…is born. The reality is that you have to show up and do the work.

Carrie recommends that when you start to, she calls it, “throw a hundred bowls” (pg.97) that you not do it alone. In quiltmaking, guilds are great for that, but so are friends, classes and, in a pinch, the Internet. YouTube is a wonderful thing. The point is that if you get stuck and you don’t have a friend or support system, you will have an easier time stopping that if you have someone to lean on.

The text is followed by a quiz (pg.98-99), which helps determine your learning style.

Now, go make your hundred quilts or hundred blocks and improve your skills. Become an expert.

You can see the last post on this topic from last week.

Nota bene: we are working through Carrie Bloomston’s book, The Little Spark. Buy it. Support the artist. Play along. There is much more to each spark than what I am writing. The original chapters will help you. Go buy Carrie Bloomston’s book, so you get the full benefit of her fabulousness! You can see my book review, which is fueling this flight of fancy.

Weekend Progress- Octagon 9 Patch

Octagon 9 Patch - April Progress — Octagon 9 Patch – April Progress

I worked on the Octagon Nine Patch quite a bit over the weekend, despite the several hours I spent helping clear out my MIL’s house. I am pleased with my progress.

I didn’t want to do a complicated border, but the quilt demanded something more than a plain border and self-bordering is way better than sewing on a plain border any day! This means I am creating more Snowball units with the intention of “finishing off” the Nine Patches. In between the border snowball units I will put squares of grey. I am hoping it will look more woven this way, but I don’t know. You can see some of it coming together in the lower right hand corner.

Another Spiky 16 Patch

In between all that sewing for the Octagon 9 Patch, I made a few 16 patches and another Spiky 16 Patch. The center 16 patch is actually one of the 16 patches I made. Instead of putting in the pile and taking one of the centers I intended for the Spiky blocks, I just started adding bias rectangles to it.

I won’t be able to make anymore of these until I make some more of the left facing HRTs. I am almost all out and I always forget to make them.

Now I have three blocks for this donation quilt. I am thinking 4 or 5 blocks will make something nice. I want to set it a big asymmetrically like the giant Sawtooth Star quilts I made. I’ll have to play around as these 16″ blocks are larger than the Sawtooth Stars.

26 Projects: Moving Forward

I really took a big leap forward during the past couple of months and I am so pleased with my progress. I had a loose goal of completing two quilt tops (+backs, binding) before April 9th and I didn’t make my deadline. I did make some other small projects and crossing those projects off my list feels great. Having a lot of small things on my to do list was dragging me down. I was ‘shoulding’ on myself a lot. However, I still have the quilts on my list so I still need to get busy.

Finished 2018 Quilt Projects

I really feel like I have finished more quilts. I am keeping good track so I know I haven’t. I have worked on a lot of quilts that are still in process, so it just feels like I have finished more.

En Provence Quilt – finished 3/22/2018
Mostly Manor Lozenge Quilt -finished 1/1/2018
Planned Improv – finished 3/2018
Ta Dots & Stripes – finished 3/2018

Finished 2018 Non-Quilt Projects

YM’s hat – finished and sent
Cowl – finished and presented
EPP Travel pouch gift
Flapper Apron – finished
Hansel and Gretel dolls and accessories for my little niece.
Merit Hexie pillow cover – finished 4/4/2018
Roadtrip Bag – finished 3/2018
My new Sew Together Bag – finished 3/18/2018
SIL #2’s Sew Together Bag – finished 3/20/2018
1 Gift Sew Together Bag – finished 3/2018
Superhero(ine) Apron – finished 3/23/2018
Walking Foot WOW pillow cover – finished 3/24/2018
Zip Away Organizer – finished 3/31/2018

Doing Good

16 blocks: January Donation blocks
24 blocks: February Donation blocks
5 blocks: 2018 Donation blocks
5 blocks: New Year Donation blocks
4 blocks: March pre-meeting donation blocks
Ends Donation quilt n.3
Ends Donation quilt n.4
HRT Donation top and back
Terrain quilt – SIL and I made the top and back and Tim quilted it. He put the binding on at March’s Sew Day
Michael Miller donation blocks pt.1
Michael Miller donation blocks pt.2

In Process
The ‘In Process’ is used to denote projects on which I am actively working or pretending to stitch. I try not to put away projects, because that will ensure I never work on them

Pies and Points from 2016 Victoria Findlay Wolfe class. Julie and I had a playdate towards the beginning of April. I brought this piece with me so I could cut more elements (Julie has a Sizzix). I am more excited about this piece now. I thought I had done more, but I couldn’t find more than 2.5 sewn together pieces.
English Paper Piecing Project– half hexies – I have added about five stars. I also found some grey (did I buy it for this project or on spec?) that will be perfect for the border. Now I can’t find the &^%$# diamond papers. I know I bought some and I don’t know where they are.
Octagon 9 Patch: The pairs are all sewn together. I cut pieces for the border and am sewing those patches into units and then into sections. I am using the Self-bordering technique.

Still WIPs
I still have WIPs. Who doesn’t, after all? A project in the ‘UFO’ category means I am stalled. A nicer way of saying UFO is a WIP. The list is a lot shorter and the projects are newer, for the most part.

Aqua-Red Sampler – I need to lay the blocks out and put the piece together. No new progress, but it is coming up on the list.
BAMaQG Color Round Robin – no progress.
City Sampler – blocks all made. Need to sash the blocks and put the top together. Due to some issues I had with my seam allowance, some of the blocks are smaller than others, so I will have to adjust them in some way – either ripping and resewing, adding a piece or two to the block or with sashing. This is sort of a sticking point and while I consider this quilt ‘in process’ I hadn’t worked on it in awhile until I took the blocks to the BAM Sew Day and started measuring. Once I know what I am facing for each block, I can move forward. No new progress.
FOTY 2017 – pieces cut. Need to layout and start piecing. No new progress.
Handbag Sampler – this is a project about which I had forgotten. I actually don’t know exactly where the blocks are hiding. I have an idea and will crawl up in the far reaches of my fabric closet soon and see if I can find them. I haven’t even found a picture of all the blocks. The blocks were teaching samples when I taught a sampler class the time before I started writing the quilt class sampler tutorials.
Lobster – I still have more stitching to do and then I need to quilt it.
Pointillist Palette #4: Fourth is a series of 6 quilts; needs tiny square patches sewn together. No progress.
Self Portrait: started in 2006 at a class at Quilting Adventures in Richmond, Virginia. I am still stalled on this again. As my oldest (I am pretty sure) UFO, I put it on my blog and out into the Twitterverse and Diane suggested that I not consider this as a self portrait. I think that strategy is a great idea. I am now trying to think of a new persona for her.
Serendipity Lady Quilt: no new progress.
Stepping Stones #2 – I need to cut more patches and sew more border blocks. Now that the BAMaQG IRR is off the design wall, I am planning to put this back on it and work on it, but the Octagon 9 Patch made it up there first.
Under the Sea: class project; like the design and am happier with the colors. I have a new idea for it, which is to make a pillow and gift it to a friend.
Black and Red quilt – This came about because of two other projects. I made a whole bunch of bias tape as part of my failed attempt at doing the Mighty Lucky Club a few years ago. Another part of the inspiration came from my class with Tina of Little Blue Cottage fame. This was going to be for a nephew, but I think it will be for one of my SILs and BILs. I have rectangles cut and some bias tape ready. My next step is to sew the bias tape to the rectangles like pickup sticks. I don’t have any photos of this, so you’ll have to trust me.

Small Projects in Process

Most of my progress involves thinking or just cutting.

All Rolled Up Tote – part of Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, so on my list, but I haven’t actually started
Sewing Mat – part of Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, so on my list, but I haven’t actually started
4-Zip Organizer – part of Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, so on my list, but I haven’t actually started
Tool Tote – I bought the pattern at QuiltCon and started cutting it out at Sew Day in March

Ready for Quilting

nothing right now

In Quilting Process

BAMaQG IRR –The sandwich has been basted. I machine quilted a couple of lines and now I am doing the rest by hand quilting it using Big Stitch. I have quilted a few lines and plan to work on this at Craft Night, which has resumed.
Thanksgiving tablemat – I have the correct feet and just need to get busy.
Theoretically, the Tarts Come to Tea is in the quilting process, though I haven’t worked on it in a while. See above.

Binding

Hunting and Gathering

30 Something: I am still cutting 1.5 inch squares. I am pretty sure I have the 800 I need, but I am not ready to sew them together yet, so whenever I have a chance I cut more I cut more. It will give me choice when the time comes. I’ll have to think up a new name, too. My next step will be to figure out if I need to cut other sizes of squares and switch from cutting 1.5? squares to cutting the new size.
Blue Gradation Quilt: cutting 2.5 inch x 4.5 inch blue rectangles. It has to end sometime. I wasn’t sure I was ready to put this together, but I think I am. I might do a couple of gradation quilts in a row just to get the practice.
Blue Lemonade: cutting blue, green, purple 2 inch squares. I used a lot of these squares for En Provence, so I am slowly cutting more.
FOTY 2018: I have started cutting 2.5 inch squares for the 2018 version.
Pink Gradation Quilt: cutting 2.5 inch x 4.5 inch pink rectangles
Spin Wheel: really not started, but supplies gathered. I might have to cut some more background fabrics. I probably have enough fabrics and just need to decide to start.
Windmill quilt: Still hunting and gathering. I am supposed to be cutting a variety of greys for the background, which required the purchase of a new template. I should be able to get going again

Other

Stepping Stones #3 using the Macaron pre-cuts from Hoffman. I have all the fabric in pre-cuts and am just waiting for space (and desire) in my schedule.

I bought some fabric, so I am down on net usage. Still gross usage is just over 92 yards (45 net; yes I have bought about 45 yards worth of fabric this year!). I am pleased, but I want to hit 50 yards net as soon as possible. If I could make it to 100 yards NET used by the end of the year, I would be ecstatic.

What’s on your list?