Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Yes, the Swoon is finally finished. I finished putting the binding on it last Tuesday and I am pretty pleased. I think that I will enter it into the county fair next year since I believe I have missed the PIQF deadline already.
It looks nice, I think.
Yes, Sparkle Pink is finished. This quilt and Swoon are both large and have the same binding, so I thought I was binding Swoon. When I was finished, I opened it up and found Sparkle Pink! I am binding the Swoon now, so stay tuned.
I am really pleased. It is a cheerful quilt and the pinks are happy. On the front, the orange is there but pink still dominates.
It is a subtle quilt in that it is mostly monochromatic. It invites the viewer to come closer to see some parts that are more blendy. It doesn’t have the high contrast that quilts with dark on light fabrics do.
Remember that this was a pattern from All Washed Up, lent to me by Mallory. The pattern is called Sparkling Cider and you can order it by calling them. I assume local quilt shops have it as well. Apparently, the company does not update their blog anymore and I don’t see a website that is functional.
I said before that I liked this quilt because, though the blocks were large, they were not boring. I do think that the fabric has a lot to do with the outcome. Not just my fabric, but any version. I suppose that is true for all quilts.
The orange shows up more prominently on the back, which is fun. Do you use orange with your pinks?
How do you like that Philip Jacobs rose print. Isn’t it fabulous? If I can’t have loose covers from it for summer, then a quilt back is the next best thing.
I just noticed that the fabrics don’t blend as much into each other on the back as they do on the front. The poppies show up really well and don’t seem to clash much with the roses.
I am still loving these Joel Dewberry Notting Hill prints. They are bold, but happy and cheerful. Amanda had a zipper pouch made from the tulips in the canary colorway and it was all I could do not to take it home with me. Good thing I am, basically, honest. I have the fabric now and will ask her to help me make a pouch like hers.
Look! I used dots in the quilt as well. No more hoarding of dots.
This is a quilt that I made very fast. I remember making it, but there are very few mentions of it on the blog, aside from the 26 Projects list. You can find the mentions here.
Yes, I completed the Petrillo Bag.
Really and truly.
Cross my heart.
I sewed the inside bottom opening I used for turning and the bag is done. I haven’t used it yet, because I entered it in the Fair and don’t want to get it dirty or anything before that event. I will take it to guild this weekend and next and show it off.
It occurred to me that one good thing about this bag is that it wasn’t too easy and it wasn’t too difficult. There was the right amount of challenge in the making.
I have to say I love that Soft & Stable. I’ll have to see if they have it at Joann or Beverly’s. The way it makes the bag stand up is awesome!
Now I am thinking about the next one. My list of to dos or changes to the next version are:
I don’t know why I can’t just be happy with a bag as is. I can’t, though. I can’t help myself.
Other relevant posts:
For you Tweeps, you can follow Sara at @SewSweetness.
Ta! Da!
The A-B-C Challenge is finished. I hope the others in the group will finish theirs so we can enter the County Fair as a group. It was fun to do that last year.
The quilting is magnificent, though I have to say using the Art Gallery Fabric as binding was not magnificent. It is very fine fabric, which I think is why there was a lot of pulling as I stitched the binding down to the back. I found it was very hard to hide the stitches. I love Art Gallery Fabrics, because they are so soft and fine, but will have to remember not to use it for binding.
The quilting is extremely magnificent. I was thrilled when I got the quilt back from my quilter. She has had a tough time in the past year or so and when I saw this quilt, I realized that she was back. I have to show you a few details of quilt’s fabulosity.
I wasn’t sure about the thread when I saw the quilted quilt. I don’t like beige, remember?After looking at this quilt for awhile, I think it works. It doesn’t take away anything yet the viewer can see the quilting if s/he walks up and looks closely.
You have to click on the blocks to see the awesomeness.
Lincoln turned from kind of pale, restful, background block into a ‘reward block’. That isn’t a real term; I just made it up. Remember how I talked about quilts that reward you if you look closer? Well, this block is completely like that. It is a nice block with which you could do some great things if you pieced a lot of them. In this quilt, it is the reward block. If you look at it closely you see the really great quilting that my quilter did.
See those great leaves?
The spirals? Sigh. I am over the moon with the quilting of this quilt. As you can see, this is much more than a drive by “Hey, I’m done! See you later post”
I decided to take photos of the various corners and sections of the quilt so you see, more closely, how nicely these blocks play together. I am really glad I used a limited palette.
And I have included a few more blocks for their detail
There is also a photo of the back.
I finished Calm last week. I had quilted it Friday a week ago and then spent some nights last week sinking threads and stitching down the binding. The quilting part was a little troublesome and I think it needed more basting.
The back is made especially for the recipient.
Fabric of the Year 2011 is finally finished!
It took a little more time than the quilts in this series normally would take, but I am thrilled that it is done, not only from a finished point of view, but also from the point of view that I really like this quilt.
I have to say that I wasn’t really thrilled with the result when I finished the top. Colleen did a great job quilting it and really made the whole piece.
I am trying to decide whether or not to hang it in my office or in my hallway.
One thing that I have been trying to do with the pieces I have been finishing lately is making beautiful backs. I am pretty pleased with the back of this one. It feels light and airy to me.
As you know, I have been using larger prints or prints that don’t look good cut up into small pieces to make the backs. This one uses some prints I bought with lettering on them.
In my heart of hearts I would love to have a show with all of these quilts.
I finished the Stepping Stones on Thursday night. I was able to take a photo in front of the house when I had a spare young man to help hold the quilt.
I like the way this quilt came out and after I show it off at the guild, I will send it off to one of the nephews.
In general, I am pleased with it. I think it does look better close up. Of course, the quilting is fantastic. Looking at from this distance makes me see how the colors could be done differently.
Sandy, of Quilting…for the Rest of Us, in episode 116 and 117 spoke about the differences between the way Bonnie Hunter and Kimberly Einmo explained how to choose fabrics for their mystery quilt projects. It made me thinking about the pattern for this quilt and I think the same principles apply. The authors of the book assume you are going to use the same fabrics they used, though I think they do mention that you can use any fabrics in passing. They don’t say where you need contrast and where you need some parts emphasized. From looking at this picture, I see how I should have extended the points of the diamonds into the border (the border was my own design) and how some of the reds have too much white in them. I think the book would have more shelf life if more attention was given to the fabrics. Kind of a shame, really.
I do want to make the pattern again so I can try to do better. You know I have been working on sample blocks using various Bonnie and Camille lines. The biggest thing I realized is that I need contrast – a lot of contrast – between the background and the foreground.
I did most of the work on The Garden in 2012. I nearly finished this before the New Year turned, but I didn’t have enough time.
As a result, this is my second finish of 2013. I am very pleased.
This is a post that I have written a little differently from most of the posts I write. I am going to write and then post it right away. Normally, I write a few days ahead and schedule my posts so I am not in a rush to get something posted at the last second.
We had a nice New Year’s Eve and also a nice New Year’s Day. We went and saw Skyfall last night after going to dinner. Today we watched the Rose Parade, did some stuff around the house and then went to our BIL and SIL’s house for a potluck-football watching-socializing kind of day.
I planned on being at the machine a good portion of the day, but didn’t want to seem anti-social, so I worked on the Corner Store while watching the Rose Parade and on the Garden while over at SIL’s.
Why is this all relevant? Because I finished the Corner Store this morning! I wasn’t looking for such a big finish, but I do like to finish something on New Year’s Day as a way of setting the tone for the New Year. I suppose it is my version of a resolution since I don’t make the normal kind of resolutions.
I had a little bit of binding left and two repairs (don’t ask). Just stitching away for half an hour got the job done.
This quilt will go to my brother-in-law, who is ill. I hope he wraps up in it and feels people hugging him all the time.
Take a look at the last post about quilting this piece. It might be a long time until you read about me quilting again! 😉
Yes, after YEARS this quilt is finally finished. I love finishing quilts. I love working on them, too, in case you hadn’t noticed, but finishing a quilt is awesome as well. I am pleased with how this one came out.
It is a great pattern and I would encourage you to try it out.
After the skirt misadventure, TFQ and I decided to make a charger case. I was using a very elegant vegetable bag crammed full of tangled cords and that was the inspiration.
We used a SewCraftyJess tutorial for a jewelry case and modified it slightly.
Some of the modifications we made had to do with size.I also noticed that Jess, who did the tutorial, must have had a different type of vinyl (I used the leftovers from my clear bag project), because she did not need a roller foot or tissue paper. I need both of those at various times to force the vinyl through the machine. I don’t think this is problem/issue if you are using some of the flannel back oilcloth and keep the flannel side against the machine bed. For the purposes of this charger case, I couldn’t guarantee that I could have something between the vinyl and the machine bed at all times. This is when I put the tissue under the vinyl. Yes, the bits of tissue paper had to be picked out with tweezers, but that was the lesser of two evils (the first evil being me screaming and berating the vinyl, my machine, etc). I have some tweezers with very sharp points and long handles and they worked very well.
Also, as the layers built up (vinyl twice for top stitching, zipper, etc), the thread started to break, so I lengthened the stitch length and that worked better. I might use a larger thread than 50wt if I made another charger case.
I thought not stitching the back to the front would be a problem, but it seems not to be, though you could stitch all the way through the layers if you wanted.
The tie was a bit of a puzzle. I ended up machine sewing it to the center of the binding on one of the short ends. It seems to work fine. I might try velcro or a magnetic snap if I made this again. I used the technique for making the ties that I use for making bag handles (4x desired width, fold in half and press, fold outside edges to press line and press again, fold on original press line, stitch around entire outside edge). The ties would have had more style if I had made a point at the end.
I am pretty happy with how it came out, though I am thinking that aqua dots might have been a better choice for the inside. I wanted something light so I could see what chargers were where. All of these little tweaks are why I made things more than once – to see if my imagined tweaks would work better.
No other name really occurred to me as I was working on this quilt. It is kind of sad, because most of my other quilts have much better names. Still, it is better than “The No Name Quilt” and it is descriptive.
I finished the binding in time to show the quilt at BAMQG. I was excited to see the other pieces in the challenge. I wasn’t the only one who used a colored background, but mine was the only red and aqua quilt. It received a good response.
I will put a sleeve on this quilt, but I want to have the back photographed before I do that, thus it is not in the back photo I am showing today and I don’t know when/if I will show a picture of the sleeve.
I have to say that the binding went on to this quilt really fast.
Did I tell you? I’d like to use this design again for another rendition of this quilt. I wouldn’t do it as a whole cloth quilt again, but perhaps fusible applique’.
Finally! A finish! It has been so long since I finished a quilt completely that I forgot how great it was.
Yes, I have finished a lot of tops and some smaller projects, but quilts are different. They feel more real.
Really, I still have to put the sleeve on, but I couldn’t wait to put up a Finish post.
Enjoy!
I know I already posted today, but I have posts for the whole week waiting to be posted and I just couldn’t let another week go by without posting this finish!
I finished the binding last week, which means the Food Quilt is FINISHED!!! Hooray!!!!
Aside from just finishing something, this is great for a lot of other reasons:
The bad part is that I am out of hand work. Really out, not just sort of out. I am diligently quilting on the Garden quilt so the beading and embroidery on that quilt can be my hand work, but I am not there yet.
Still, I am thrilled to be done with another project. The Young Man piled this quilt on top of the other ones and has slept under it for a few nights already. I took it to BAMQG without washing it and hope no boy smell permeated the room! People liked it.
It’s all good.
I was back in pillow hell on Monday, except that it wasn’t really hellish. I made four pillows using embroidery panels my SIL and I created on her embroidery machine when I was in Maryland/DC last year. My part in that was saying yes or no to colors of thread and whether the letters should be curved or not. She is the embroidery queen and I was just her humble assistant.
While I was in Maryland, we made a few pillows for the Native Daughters, of which we are both lurker members, but I took the embroidered panels home to make the Native Sons pillows later. As I have mentioned, my DH in on the Board of Trustees of a non-profit. When they are running for off their parlor (e.g. chapter) sponsors a hospitality suite at the Grand Parlor (e.g. annual conference). In the hospitality suite, they play cards, offer liquid refreshments and raise money for their Cleft Palate charity using raffles. For the past year or two, since DH has been running, I have made pillows for him to raffle off. They were wildly popular the first year and he raised a record amount for the charity.
Guess what?
“Later” is this weekend! Can you say last minute? I wasn’t planning on spending my day off making pillows, but this coming Saturday would be even more last minute, so I did the job. I was prepared for drama and there was none. I think I only had to rip out one seam. I measured correctly, counted properly and generally made 4 pillows in record time.
The big difference was that Cathy, my SIL, suggested using batting as a foundation. It makes the block look nice and gives the maker a goal. You cut the batting the size (including seam allowance, so if finished is 14″ you cut the batting 14.5″, etc) you want the pillow and then sew on top of it. I don’t know how this would work if you didn’t have a flip and sew friendly pattern, but I am sure there is a way to figure that out.
Anyway, the pillows are done and packaged ready to head to NSGW Grand Parlor. DH was pleased and I am going to the dentist and then am going to work on something fun that doesn’t feel like “quilt work.”
The Sunday Stash Report (a la Pam at Hip to be a Square podcast) is 2 yards. More on that later.
Nota bene: if you think there are photos missing, there are. I am having trouble uploading some pictures to the blog. Check back later. It will be resolved eventually.