March 2020 – Page 2 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Frolic! Moves Along

You probably think Frolic! is taking forever. I think it is so you wouldn’t be wrong!

I pieced a lot this weekend, what with COVID-19 keeping me at home 24/7 (no, I am not sick, but everything is cancelled), I really had nothing else I wanted to do. I finally finished sewing together all of the whole blocks.

After not getting a response to my plea for the Amy Bradley fabric, I am cutting the last bits very carefully and scrounging every last bit. I won’t have enough to use for the half and quarter blocks, but I found another fabric that will work as well. It has a similar blue to the background of the Amy Bradley fabric, so will blend in.

Various & Sundry 2020 #4

Media

I read this essay on receiving a quilt as a gift and really thought it was spot on.

Remember Mel from the Great British Baking Show? Well, she is making a quilt along with a co-presenter on a podcast. It is described as “Mel Giedroyc is quilting. No really, she’s making a quilt. … Each week on this brand new podcast follow along as Mel Giedroyc and her presenter pal Andy Bush add to their patchwork quilt with new squares of material donated by friends, famous types and most importantly the listeners! They’ll find out the stories behind the fabrics, develop their sewing skills and naturally, have a big old chat. And a cup of tea. And probably some biscuits.… A Somethin’ Else production. ” I haven’t had a chance to listen yet. What do you think?

I found an article on the group project to finished a deceased quiltermaker’s map of the US.

Barbara Brackman talked about Kim McLean recently in a blog post. Kim makes quilts based on traditional designs (lots of applique’). She makes them fresh and new by using Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics. One of the things Barbara mentions is the trail of inspiration Kim used for one of her quilts. I found it so interesting. It reminded me of that scene in the elevator in 9 to 5 where the secretary is talking to the stock trader about how she came up with the idea of a trade or stock purchase.

Quiltmaking hits the mainstream on CBS This Morning with Jenny Doan!

Want to know about Rose Kretsinger? Thanks to Frances of the QuiltFiction podcast and the Off Kilter Quilt, I can offer up a video. “Assistant Curator of Exhibitions, Jonathan Gregory, discusses the life of quilt designer Rose Kretsinger (1886-1963) in this 2009 video from the International Quilt Study Center & Museum archive.”

Patterns, Projects and Tutorials

I saw flower pincushions and they made me smile. I thought I might be able to figure out the pattern by looking at the photos, but I think this is one pattern I would have to buy.

HandyLim Mum has a wordless double zipper pouch tutorial. It is surprisingly effective. Yes, I want to make one.

From Sewing Times, another wordless tutorial, comes a great cosmetic or go on retreat small bag. It has outside pockets and a small handle. Yes, I want to make this one, too.

Pink Pony Designs is a new designer of bags to me and she has great bags. I really like the shape of the Hollywood Handbag. She also has acrylic templates for some of her bags, which can be used with a rotary cutter to cut out bags. Her work is gorgeous – lots of leather (fake leather?), etc. She has a few free patterns as well.

Inspiration

Check out the gallery of improv quilts by Janet Steadman at the Pacific Northwest Art School.

Paul Klee’s personal notebooks are now online.

Barbara Brackman has a blog post about the pattern Broken Circle AKA Suspension Bridge. I really love the first example in red and white.

Other Artists

I sometimes mentioned QuiltDivaJulie. She makes a ton of tops! Recently she referred to a friend, Lynne Tyler, who is telling the story of how they met. Lynne is illustrating the series of posts with quilt mages. One REALLY grabbed me. It is a letter quilt, but the letters spell out the names of colors. Not blue, red, green, but turquoise, vermillion, malachite. I love the letters, but I also love the ingenuity in naming the colors. It makes them exotic, fabulous.

Supplies, Tools, Notions and Fabric

I found one of the best machine reviews I have read. The review covers a Juki TL-2200QVP Mini, mainly, but mentions other machines as well. I don’t have a Juki, but I have several friends who love theirs.

Traffic Jam Donation Top

Vicki Holloway of My Creative Corner3 induced me to try out the Traffic Jam Sew-a-Long with her FB group.

Traffic Jam is a free pattern by Pat Sloan. I didn’t need a pattern to make this quilt. I just started sewing my mini-charms together and cut the background fabrics to fit the standard 9 patch layout.

I did seek out the pattern after Vicki mentioned the secondary pattern that appears when the pattern is made with sashing. In the first photo, I didn’t see the secondary pattern, but in checking out the Linky photos, I did see it. Not sure I will add sashing and cornerstones, but we will see.

I am using that beige-ish fabric as the background as I probably won’t use it for one of my own quilts. I have no idea why I bought it, but it works pretty well for this piece. I have a yard and will make as many blocks as I can with that much fabric.

I am using mini-charm packs of Marmalade Dreams by Valori Wells. I collected a bunch of them at some point – at some quilt event. I probably won’t use them for another project, though I do like them.

Cyndi’s Ultimate Carry All

As I said, I went to Sew Day the other day. Cyndi blew us out of the water. Neither Lynette or I have made much progress with our bags. Cyndi brought her FINISHED and filled Ultimate Carry All Bag. Yep! The rockstar finished her bag.

This is part of my unhappiness at not being able to work on my bag: I wanted to be a model cheerleader. I am glad it is Cyndi who is the cheerleader.

Cyndi's Ultimate Carryall Bag -closed, front view — Cyndi’s Ultimate Carryall Bag -closed, front view

Cyndi retired recently and said that she became obsessed with the bag. We wanted people to be able to make the bag with support, so could feel successful. I thought people would do it a little at a time.

Cyndi's Ultimate Carryall Bag -closed, back view — Cyndi’s Ultimate Carryall Bag -closed, back view

She has not made the bag exactly as the pattern suggests, which seems to be the norm for our group.

She did a great job and I love the fabric, the changes and the fact that she finished already. I need to get my act together!

Cyndi's Ultimate Carry All-with ironing pad — Cyndi’s Ultimate Carry All-with ironing pad

One thing she did was put fabric on the inside bottom of the front (fall down) panel ( first photo above). This allowed her have a useful space and create a separate ironing pad. Having the ironing pad separate means she can remove the ironing pad to use it outside of the bag (photo left). GREAT idea! I think I may do this.

As I may have discussed, this bag has a lot of pockets. I want to say it has 37 pockets, but I might be making that up. You can see some of the pockets in good use in the photos of the open bag. Cyndi said she didn’t make all of the pockets. I plan to make them all, having made a start with the short front pocket, because I think I will eventually use them. Cyndi added a Clippy pocket after the fact by hand sewing it to what she has already made. That pleased me very much.

Cyndi's Ultimate Carry All-front pocket detail — Cyndi’s Ultimate Carry All-front pocket detail

Cyndi's Ultimate Carry All-center pockets — Cyndi’s Ultimate Carry All-center pockets

Cyndi has made good use of her pockets. I am really pleased.

Cyndi said the binding was the hardest part. I found that to be true with the Running with Scissors Tote. I need to get on this project so I can give advice.

St. Patrick’s Day Donation Blocks

I talked about Sew Day the other day. The blocks I made are below. I didn’t take photos of all of the blocks, unfortunately, but I got 12 of them.

Gifts for Gerre

Gerre's Classmates Tote — Gerre’s Classmates Tote

Gerre's Mega Pinnie Gift — Gerre’s Mega Pinnie Gift

Gerre's Journal Cover — Gerre’s Journal Cover

Gerre's Pillowcases - February 2019 — Gerre’s Pillowcases – February 2019

I have enjoyed revisiting gifts I made for Julie and my mom. I haven’t made as many gifts for Gerre, but I decided to revisit them anyway.

I am not trying to show what a great person I am. I enjoy making gifts for other, especially useful gifts. Revisiting them is just a way to enjoy them again, I guess.

Sew Day Projects

I had great intentions to get the pockets of my Ultimate Carryall Bag made during Sew Day. I also wanted to set a good example by working on it and encourage people to get it done.

Best laid plans.

I forgot my mesh and the interfacing. In reality, I thought I had everything already cut and prepared. I hadn’t cut the mesh and the interfacing wasn’t adhered. People were very kind and tried to help me out, but I gave it up as not possible.

St. Patrick's Day Donation block — St. Patrick’s Day Donation block

I turned to charity work. I grabbed some packs of 2.5 inch squares, which Peggy always has available, and started to make some squares.

I didn’t want to waste bringing my machine. If I couldn’t work on my own projects the next best thing was to do community service work.

I sewed the squares into blocks. It is an easy mindless task, though I did pay attention to color and print placement. I was able to follow the conversation fairly easily and still sew. My plan was just to sew a bunch of blocks. It turned out that I was pretty fast. Mary helped after she finished her project, so we were able to finish a baby quilt. Mary took the top home and will put borders on, then bring it to the meeting.

St. Patrick's Day Donation Top — St Patrick’s Day Donation Top

I am sad I didn’t get to work on the bag. The quilt project wasn’t planned, but I am pleased that I didn’t drag my machine down for nothing.

International Women’s Day Mega Pinnie

A couple of weekends ago, I realized it was a friend’s birthday today, so I needed to get busy and make a gift. I had decided to make another Mega Pinnie. I already had the fabrics and the pattern picked out. It was really just a matter of cutting and sewing.

She doesn’t celebrate her birthday anymore; she celebrates International Women’s Day.

Gerre's Mega Pinnie Gift - other side — Gerre’s Mega Pinnie Gift – other side

These are really fun to make. I really enjoyed making this one. It came together really easily (not too much unsewing). I chose some of the fabrics to go with the Dia de las Muertos fabric. I wanted to have an edgy urban look.

Gerre's Mega Pinnie Gift - detail — Gerre’s Mega Pinnie Gift – detail

I also did some things a little different. I quilted part of the main panels with decorative stitch. I thought about stitching the decorative stitch all the way down the panel, which I used to attach the pockets. I decided not to use the decorative stitch all the way down, so I switched to a straight stitch on the pockets.

I am pleased with the way this one came out. I might make another one for one of the raffle baskets.

Need Fabric

Peek-a-Boo fabric by Amy Bradley Designs, Pattern #13012

I am working on the Frolic! quilt, as you have seen and, of course, I have run out of fabric. This blue dotted fabric is an older fabric called Peek-a-Boo by Amy Bradley Designs for Moda Pattern #13012. I always try to think of running out of fabric as a design challenge. Thus, I have a relatively suitable substitute waiting in the wings, but would really prefer just a little more of this fabric. If you have any you are willing to sell or trade, please get in touch. I would really appreciate your help. Thanks!

Frolic! Progress Again

I spent another day Sunday, ostensibly sealing the fate of the cold I felt coming on, but really sewing. I did stay home in order to make sure I didn’t get sick. It was a great time to sew. I thought I would get as much done as I felt I had done on Saturday. It wasn’t to be.

I feel like I sewed as much, but I can’t see the progress. The progress isn’t as dramatic and I wanted visible progress.

After my efforts on Friday night and Saturday, I was hopeful that I would get the blocks done on Sunday. I had to make space on my design wall. I would gain space as the seams shrank the blocks together. That required sewing, so I got down to it. I forgot how much piecing Bonnie Hunter‘s quilt patterns require. I really did make progress. If you compare the two photos, they look similar at first glance, but do show the progress.

Frolic! - end of February 2020 — Frolic! – end of February 2020

Work finished Sunday:

Frolic! - early March — Frolic! – early March

I also know I am on the brink of really having my progress show up.

Blue Strips Donation Top Progress

I also made progress on the Blue Strip donation top Saturday. It is larger, so not moving along as quickly as I would like, but it is also not causing me any problems. I made progress on this piece as I worked on Frolic on Saturday.

Frolic! Relief

After last week’s Frolic! ‘progress’ and my lack of time to tinker with projects during the week lately, I felt like putting Frolic! away and working on something else. This is not a good strategy for me and would not have helped the project. I also don’t want more UFOs.

I decided on Friday that I go back to Clue 4 and start there. I decided I would spend a little time cutting as not having the pieces to work with seemed to be hampering me.

I have to acknowledge that I did sew blocks together last weekend and that was some project.

I, however, wanted major progress and that required cutting more pieces. I cut about 15 ‘sets’ on Friday night. When I was ready to sew on Saturday, that made a difference. I still had to do some cutting, but I was able to get a lot of sewing done. The blocks are not all sewn, but they are well on their way and my design wall is more full.

The best part was that I felt like I did good work and felt hopeful about this project again.

Vinyl Pouch Test

I was trolling YouTube for some some reason I can’t remember and found a video for a vinyl pouch. I actually found several, but one from So Sew Easy caught my attention. I think it caught my attention because I have been thinking about the vinyl pouches in the UCAB pattern and how I could make something more useful. I was thinking about making pouches similar to the Comfort Stitching Speedy pouches I made for the officer gifts. That pattern has a lot of binding, which is nice looking, but annoying to sew. All of these random bits of information contributed to my thoughts. The thoughts all sort of dovetailed when I saw this video.

I decided to use some scraps to make a pouch loosely based on this video. As you can see, I used some fabric scraps from the projects I have made for mom. I was lazy and the scraps were handy.

Instead of having the ends of the zipper sticking out, I wanted to try encasing them in the seam.I am pleased with the way the ends came out, but I finished the zipper tab and it meant there were a lot of layers through which to sew. In the future, I will leave the sides of the zipper tab open in order to reduce the number of layers. This assumes, of course, I can finish them and they don’t show on the inside. Unlike in the video, encasing the zipper in the ends of the pouch means that this will not be a widemouth pouch.

I also wanted to try boxing corners. Boxing corners means that the pouch will not be as tall, but the user will be able to put 3D objects inside. I was thinking of thread. The boxing worked well, but I had two problems. First boxing vinyl is a hassle. The video shows fabric on the top. I think, if i make something like this again, I will put a fabric strip on the bottom as well. One of the benefits of this pouch is seeing inside and I would want to preserve that feature. Second, I chose a size (1.5 inches) that was a little too small. I think I would try a 2 inch square next time.

The seams aren’t finished and that is always a problem for me, but I didn’t want to take the time. I would if there was fabric on the bottom.

This project is not a loss. It may not meet my perfectionist standards, but I think it is perfectly serviceable.

26 Projects 2020 #2

Finished 2020 Quilt Projects

Still none yet!

Finished 2020 Non-Quilt Projects

This category covers bags, toys, aprons and knitting as well as other non-quilt projects.

Mega Pinnie for Gerre – finished February 2020
Speedy Pouches – finished January 2020
Vinyl pouch – finished January 2020

Doing Good

Orange Strip Donation quilt – finished January 2020
White Improv Donation Top – finished January 2020

In Process
The ‘In Process’ is used to denote projects on which I am actively working or are on the design wall waiting for me to stitch. I try not to put away projects, because that will ensure I never work on them.

English Paper Piecing Project– half hexies – I have been making slow, but steady progress. I am adding another dots on white row to the piece to make it larger. I am still thinking of my friend Faye whenever I work on it. She says that I have to think of this as my slow project.
Frolic! – I am making progress. I did good work yesterday and am starting to see results after feeling like I was getting nowhere last week.
Serendipity Lady – I am still planning to take this piece to be framed.
Lobster – I finished the stitching. I plan to back it and overlock or satin stitch the edges. Even though I don’t need anymore cushions, I may turn this into a cushion.

Small Projects in Process

Most of my progress involves thinking or just cutting.

Retreat Organizer – another project from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, also on my list, but not yet started
Ultimate Project Organizer – another project from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, also on my list, but not yet started
Officer gifts for January 2021 – have the pattern and the supplies. Need to start so these are ready and I am not scrambling at the last minute

Ready for Quilting

Nothing now

In the Quilting Process

BAMQG Improv Round Robin
The Tarts come to Tea

In the Finishing Process

Cool Windmill – finished January 2020
Warm Windmill – finished January 2020

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.

FOTY 2018 – this has to be on the list now as I have cut a ton of squares and need to arrange and sew it together. This is next on my quilt list. I cut a bunch of black 2.5? squares so now I can get started.
FOTY 2019 – this is now on the list since 2019 is over and I have the squares.
Handbag Sampler – this is still the forgotten project. It should be on the UFO list. Too bad I don’t have one. The blocks were teaching samples when I taught a sampler class the time before I started writing the quilt class sampler tutorials. I found one block recently, but otherwise I actually don’t know exactly where the blocks are hiding. I have an idea and still have to 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. Sad.
Pies and Points from 2016 Victoria Findlay Wolfe class. The last time I worked on it was when Julie and I had a playdate in April 2018. I brought this piece with me so I could cut more elements (Julie has a Sizzix). I lost my excitement about this piece shortly thereafter and still have to get it back. Thus, I had to move this to the WIPs area.
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 one of 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.
Black and Red quilt – This project is creeping into my mind, so it might be up for work soon. The project originally 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 use your imagination.
Who Am I? – This piece is off my design. I have lost momentum, but I think that just has to do with the amount of satin stitching I am facing.