No, this is not another insane project of mine. The Pineapple is my insane project and I am not starting another until that piece is done.
Mom's DWR
A few weeks ago my mom and I went to the DeYoung to see the Amish Abstractions Exhibit, as you might remember. In that exhibit was a Double Wedding Ring quilt. My mom has been working on a DWR for awhile. She is a really good seamstress and the arcs, etc don’t bother her. She is also fearless. She was going to give it to someone and then decided it was too much work for that particular recipient. When I saw the DWR I asked her about hers and we decided that hers might be about the size of the one in the exhibit. She was under the impression that she needed to make 190 arcs or some such crazy number. I asked her to bring the pieces over.
Mom's DWR (other side)
A few days later she brought them over and we laid them out on my living room floor to see the approximate size. I know the photos are not the best, but they were hard to photograph given the angle of my living room. You can kind of see the curves in the way we laid out the pieces.
Mom's DWR detail
As you can see from the photo (above) she is using foundation piecing. She is having some challenges:
She recently gave away all of her scraps in a fit of cleaning. Now I get to cut scraps for her.
She was having a hard time visualizing the size. She doesn’t have a design wall (or a wall big enough to hang a design wall) so she uses my living room floor as her design wall.
Fortunately, she was able to see the size when she laid it out while having the quilt from the exhibit in her mind. I think she is going to finish the arcs that she has and then start putting it together.
This past weekend was our annual CQFA retreat by the beach. I spent the weekend working on the FOTY 2009. I also relaxed a little even though I spent a lot of time hard at hard sewing. My body is rebelling a bit from sitting so much and standing so much.
Last few FOTY blocks
First, I found the last few FOTY blocks on my design wall before I left and I wanted to post a picture of them. I didn’t think I would use the one with the earthy brown (middle row, middle block) on the front, but I ended up using it.
FOTY 2009 in progress
I really worked hard on the piece. As with last year’s piece, there is a lot of sewing and pressing. The process, after I figured out the size and laid the blocks out was to sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall, sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall and then repeat that process 133 times. Once I sewed sets of blocks together, then I sewed two sets of two blocks together to make a set of four. I did that approximately 67 times. Since I wasn’t in my own workroom I had to walk around my table, past another table and into the corner to get to the iron. The distance was inconvenient, but also good, because it forced me to stretch my body. Putting the top together was a lot of rote sewing, but it was the perfect project for the retreat.
I did a few things differently this year. One was to count up the blocks and try to make a plan as to how I would lay them out before I arrived at the retreat location and was standing in front of my design wall. I knew I had 225 blocks, so I thought I would lay them out in a 15×15 format. What I didn’t take into the consideration was the size of the portable design wall. If I placed 15 blocks down, 3 of them were on the floor. I didn’t want to work with blocks on the floor even though I could have. It is hard to photograph the in progress piece. It is easy to forget some of the blocks, etc. I reconfigured the layout and ended up with, I believe, 12 down and 19 across. I prefer a rectangular layout anyway so it worked out. I needed another block, however, so the earthy brown one ended up on the front. In the grand scheme, it doesn’t scream brown out of the quilt.
Color Sorting
I also sorted the blocks. Last year, I think I just put them up in general areas on the design wall and then I had to move them around a lot. This time I sorted the fabrics on the table, put them in Roy G. Biv + white and black order and then put them up on the design wall. This strategy was a lot easier. I didn’t have move such large groups of blocks over and over. I had to move some groups, but the whole process was much easier. Below is a progression of how the piece evolved as I worked on the color:
#1 Blocks on the design wall#2 Blocks on the design wall#3 Blocks on the design wall#4 Blocks on the design wall
Another thing I did differently this year was ask some of the other retreaters if any blocks stood out to them in an “I am out of place in this quilt” kind of way. Many of the CQFAers are really skilled designers, others are skilled colorists. All of them have something wonderful to offer if I remember to ask and listen.
I was looking at FOTY 2008 last week and found that there were some rectangles I really should have moved. It is by no means a horrible quilt, but I should have played with the layout a bit more. Asking for help was a great strategy, because people mostly liked the color work I did and I got lots of kudos, but some of the blocks jumped out at them. Funnily enough the blocks they noticed, for the most part, did not jump out at me. Almost exclusively, these were blocks that were hard to place – multi-color fabrics, conversationals, light backgrounds almost completely covered by various colors, etc. The CQFA group is great, because they helped me place the problematic blocks to their best advantage. In this way, I also learned.
FOTY 2009 Upper left cornerFOTY 2009 Lower left cornerFOTY 2009 Upper right cornerFOTY 2009 Lower right corner
I spent a good portion of the retreat sewing the quilt top together. Open house at school was today, so I had to leave the retreat early and only got some straps for my next Anna Maria HornerMulti-tasker tote done. I really wanted to stay, but am glad I was able to have a chat with various teachers at school as well. There is always so much to do!
SIL already used up a bunch of the Infinity blocks we swapped to make this quilt. She entered it in her county fair and won third place. I was so pleased for her.
I love the layout as well. Very clever of her to use the various values of the blues to make a design. A you can see from some of my photos, I was thinking more about how the blues and whites touched each other when I put the blocks together.
What I don’t love is that she has already made a quilt and I still have a block or two to go! I had better get busy!
I received another batch of Infinity blocks from my SIL in the mail last week. Here is the large group (about 31) that I received.
Blocks from SIL, August 2009
It is so interesting to see her fabric selections and the fabrics she has and compare those two points to the blocks I have made and the fabric I have used. I was also thrilled and amazed to see some of the fabrics that she owns/chose for this project. We get along pretty well, but, sadly, we don’t get to spend very much time together since we live on different coasts. See the bottom right, second block in? That is not a fabric I would have suspected SIL of having, yet I am thrilled that she included it! It shows me another side of her quiltmaking.
After laying these out I decided to lay out all of the blocks I had, so I gathered up the various stashes of Infinity blocks and laid them out on the floor of my workroom.
All Infinity Blocks, August 2009
The above group has about 80 blocks in it. WOW! I can’t believe that we have made that many. I realized that there are a few elsewhere that aren’t included. So, there will be at least one more photo of these quilt blocks for your perusal.
I am glad we are working on this project together. I feel like it brings us closer together.
Last Sunday night, I went over and watched a movie with my SIL. We often craft together and this night was no exception. We watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat and stitched. I was able to finish the last middle block of the Flowering Snowball/Cross Block project.
Now I need to worry about the border blocks. I haven’t taken the time to make the pattern for those. I will soon.
I know that I ignored you all weekend. I spent about 24 hours over the three days sewing and really got a lot done. It is difficult to be at work today, because I am still desperate to be at my sewing machine. Needless to say, I have a ton to discuss.
Yes, I am doing it again. If you want to read the torure from previous years, I have gathered the posts into one search just for you.
My goal is to have them done before school ends this year, which is June 12. I actually have until June 11 this year as I am, sadly, not attending the conference I usually attend that week. Still, I want these babies done and out of my hair ASAP.
Some weeks ago, on a rip to IKEA for light bulbs (now I know I can get the same ones at Lowe’s, which is closer!) I found pillows for $1.50. They are an ugly baby blue, but solid and they will make fine pillow forms. They are not as fluffy as the ones I have bought in the past, but tough times call for economies.
Yesterday, I corraled The Child and had him choose blocks. I also had him do drawings for the back.
This is the Greek Cross block and it is for the aide. The others are Tangled Star, Omega and one with a lot of triangles. I am working on the latter. Another day I will post all of the photos.
I don’t know where this month has gone. Frankly, I am glad February is coming to a close, but I still wonder what happened to the days.
My next longarm day is March 2 and the Eye Spy is in line to be quilted. As a result, I needed to make a back and get the Eye Spy in shape for finishing. I put the diamonds in to fill in the diamond shaped space, so that I wouldn’t have to hack through any of the hexagons (which is what most patterns recommend). I didn’t want a zig zaggy border, so I started out by cutting off the excess from the diamonds. I had intended just to leave the edges straight after cutting – no borders.
While cutting the diamonds in half, I realized that the middle of those diamonds was one big bias edge. This brand spanking new bias in addition to 3 sides of each hexagon being on the bias was asking for trouble during the quilting process. The top needed some stabilization, so I added some borders and corners to the odd shaped corners of the top.
Corner detail
The little star printed piece is the patch I had to insert into the corner to make the corner a 90 degree angle. You can see it really well above.
Above is a picture of half of the top. The quilt top is another monster and I gave up on moving furniture to fit the whole thing into one picture. I am going to have to think up a way to photograph whole quilts, especially these huge things I seem to be making.
I used a new (to me) method of measuring for borders. I measured width-wise (across) and lengthwise (down) in three places on the quilt and cut the borders to the average size. I did have to ease, but the top is flat and I am happy about that. I found one little tuck that I will need to fix before the longarming. All in all it worked pretty well.
Scary backing fabric
I acquired the crocodile fabric a long time ago, perhaps in the early 1990s from a woman named Joan who was getting rid of everything. It is a Joe Boxer fabric and I never saw anything like it. I also never heard of Joe Boxer selling fabric, but they totally should, because their fabrics have such a sense of humor.
At one point, I thought I would cut out the alligators (crocodiles??) and applique’ them on something, but the inspiration never struck. Also, I only have about a half yard, which limited what project I could complete using the fabric. I came across the fabric over the weekend and proposed it as a backing fabric. The Child took a liking to it, so I will use it as part of the backing. Shopping in my fabric closet can be fun!
hexagons on the back
I had some leftover hexagons, so I put some straight edges on them and will also use this piece for the back. I need to find a nice way of making this bit play nicely with the crocs.
I was on my blog and directing traffic and tweaking a lot during the past three or four days. The blog move has been somewhat time consuming, but is mostly done, and worth the effort so far. One of the things I did was scroll through recent posts about four hundred times. In doing that it dawned on me that I was in avoidance mode because nothing I posted was quilt-related.
Origami Train Dude
Sketches
More Sketches
None of that is quilting and since the blog is about quilting, I needed to get back to it before all of you got fed up and went and read some other blog. I needed to take stock and figure out what was going on.
It turns out, after a little investigating it is all about The Tarts Come to Tea. I faced up to reality that I am really in avoidance mode over that project. Some of the issues I discussed about change of focus in a previous post are so true with this project. I am not enthused with machine applique right at the moment and I want/need to redo several of the blocks, because they don’t fit my current interest or style. It just seems depressing. The sad part is that every time someone enters my workroom they gush over it and say how wonderful it is, which enhances the guilt factor. Bleah.
Design Wall 2/22/2009
I was able to avoid a bit more this weekend, because I realized that my longarm day is next Monday and I haven’t done the back for the Eye Spy project, so the back had to go to the front burner. My quiltmaker SIL was also in town so I spent some time at Always Quilting with her. I bought the fabrics above. The smaller pieces were all in a pack that I had been coveting for awhile. I got home to find buyers remorse waiting for me, though, because when I unwrapped them, some of the fabrics are a bit off the colors I thought they were. I was thinking of doing something like the Yellow Brick Road (from Terri Atkinson) quilt with them. I still am, but will have to go shopping in my stash to replace some of the greens. More piecing, you notice and not machine applique’.
I was able to continue to avoid the Tarts on Saturday because of family obligations, which isn’t to say I haven’t been working on them at all.
This is the layout/design drawing for the block in the middle on the right of the photo of my design wall above. It has a green background. What I decided was that I would make one block and see how I felt about the project afterwards. I need to find my notes on machine applique’ – or ask someone – because I can’t remember what method I used or any method, frankly.
I feel a strong need to make some kind of effort, but this piece is definitely teetering on the verge of abandonment.
I have learned something about myself since I dragged The Tarts out. Leaving quilts laying around with the top half finished doesn’t always work for me. I need to think about bring them to a logical stopping point (e.g. the top and back are done and are waiting on quilting).
I finished this top, the Fabric of the Year 2008 top, at the quilt retreat this past weekend. It was a great project for the retreat, because it was enough work to consume almost all of my sewing time there.
The FOTY concept was created by TFQ, who decided that it would be a good idea to try and use a piece of fabric shortly after buying it for a couple of reasons:
If she liked the fabric, she would find out while the fabric was still available.
It would be a good exercise to confirm what fabrics she commonly used so she could buy similar ones later.
She would still like the fabrics
I really like this top. I think it glows. It is very cheerful.
I will have more about this later, but I had to post this for your viewing enjoyment.
The binding is on. The piecing is finished. The sleeve has been handstitched on to the back. It is a large quilt, so I will have to post it again after I get a professional photo taken.
I finished sewing the sleeve on to the back while watching The Queen last Saturday night while the boys were gone. I had to watch some of the bonus features (sadly, no deleted scenes) in order to get the last bit done.
So many “hands” have touched this work. By that I mean I have received so much help with this project: TFQ, quiltmakers from CQFA, Doreen Speckman, the teacher of the class in which I started the project, Colleen.
I am thrilled to have a finished project – a quilt project.
I started this project sometime in the past. TFQ and I made some tops using a technique that we called Improvisational piecing. Mostly we did this type of piecing at her house. When I came home after one trip, I decided to take an idea for a hot drink quilt and work on it on my own using the technique. After doing quite a bit of work, I put it away.
I was spurred on to take this piece up again after writing the UFO report for 2008. I want he UFO list to be shorter on 12/31/2009. Either some of these projects have to be completed or they have to be abandoned. It isn’t about just getting things done, though, it is about deciding whether I want to devote mental energy to projects that no longer make my heart sing.
I have put it on my design wall as the first step in getting it off the “to do” list. I decided that I wanted to look at it for awhile before I decided how to proceed. There are elements that I really like about it, but others that I want to redo. My plan is to work on a few other projects (like cutting FOTY patches!) while I look at The Tarts and figure out what needs to be done. I already have a small list of parts that will change.
1. The plaid has to go.
2. The cup in the middle with the striped print will morph into a cup with a sleeve on it, like a Starbuck’s or Peet’s cup.
3. I need to add some more of the red/white dot print that is currently in only two of the cappuccino cups.
4. The random piecing under the grey tea pot with the purple background has to go.
TFQ and I worked on a list of elements to change and add, but I can’t find the piece of paper anywhere, so I have started to recreate it.
When I first took the pieces out of the box, I thought I would just abandon the whole project, but I see possibilities now. I will work on it a bit and see if I can generate some enthusiasm. Looking at this project has made me realize how I have evolved as a quiltmaker: different types of fabrics, different colors, more piecing. Some of what I talked about in the Word of the Day: Time post applies here.
I decided to work on the Hop Skip and Jump pattern by Denyse Schmidt (Denyse Schmidt Quilts book) as my next project right now. I rarely sew from patterns, but this one seemed like a good one to use with the blues that I had weeded out from my new fabrics. I had thought of modifying the pattern so that there were no curved pieces, but I didn’t. I am not afraid of curved piecing (note Flowering Snowballs/Cross Blocks), but each of the 16 pieces required for each block must be cut out separately. It is an arduous task, but I am into it now and will just continue on.
One problem I already had was with the copy place. The pattern directs the maker to enlarge the pattern by 400%. I have terrible problems with office equipment, copiers in particular, so I went to an office shop and they offered to do it for me. The girl couldn’t get the entire pattern on an 11″x17″ sheet of paper. She asked me at one point if it would be a problem to have the top of the pieces cut off. Finally, I told her she could reduce the size slightly and that seemed to work. It doesn’t bother me to have slightly smaller blocks. I can make a few more with no problem.
For once I have cut all the blue pieces for 6 blocks before I have sewed any of them together. I haven’t decided on the background yet, so I haven’t cut background pieces. I thought I had just bought a white on white that I would use, but I can’t find it so either it was my imagination, it is hiding from me or it isn’t washed yet.
This is my favorite. The background is a very cheerful dot print where the dots are irregular and a variety of different colors. I am all about cheerful, you know. 😉
The above is my second favorite. I don’t have enough of this particular black on white print, so I would have to use a variety of different black on white prints with the same weight/ratio of black to white. I wouldn’t want it to be too overly black.
I really wanted a very calm looking quilt, thus all the blues. This background is one of the P&B New Basics from 2000. I recently bought a yard of it and have at least a fat quarter somewhere else. The problem is that it is very close to some of the value of the other fabrics so the pieces blend together. I think they blend together a little too much.
There are a couple of factors for the background: one is that it has to have the look that I want. Another is that I have to have enough of the chosen fabric to use as a background. The bottom line is that I want this to be a quick quilt. I don’t want to spend weeks on picking the background. I also, however, don’t want to hate it when I am halfway through the sewing. I am happy to hear what you think.
My design wall is empty because I have finished piecing the Eye Spy (hexagon quilt)! Hooray!
I worried about not posting any progress or anything here during the past few days, but I wanted to soldier through the piecing. I knew you would all wait for me ;-), but I do like to write every day and this blog gives me one opportunity to do so.
Eventually I had to take the top part of the piece off the design wall and put it on the floor. I don’t have a design wall that allows me to see a whole twin sixed quilt. Having the bottom of the piece on the floor and the top on the wall just didn’t work for me.
Having it on the floor is inconvenient at the best of times, and was really inconvenient this time, because I had to move a lot of stuff from around the room to get the piece to fit. Still, the inconvenience gave me an incentive to soldier on; I was able to see what fit together where and how to piece it, so it worked out. As you can see from the photo above, it fits a lot better now that it is pieced together.
This is a detail of the finished [bottom left] corner. I added the red diamonds after deciding that I did not want a wonky border. I will cut half of the diamonds off to make the border straight….eventually.
I really had topuzzle through some areas. The [bottom right] corner was one of those. That hole just appeared when I laid the piece down on the floor and I didn’t know whether it would be taken up with piecing or if I needed to add a piece. I ended up adding two of the hexagon units eventually to fill in.
So, now the piece is in the closet with 4 other quilts that need to be quilted. I will send the Cheerful Baskets to TFQ to be quilted by The Quilting Loft as soon as I make the label and back. I had a strong desire to piece tops after finishing the Cheerful Baskets. While The Tarts Come to Tea fluttered in and out of my mind, nothing sprang to mind and demanded my attention after finishing the hexagons. Perhaps finishing will be on the list. Perhaps I need to make those backs and get that sleeve done, etc.
I did have sewing the FOTY blocks into a quilt on my list, but have decided to take that to the CQFA quilt retreat to sew. By that time, I will have, hopefully, finished washing and pressing all the fabric I bought in 2008 and will really have a large block of time to get busy on it.
I am also still working on the hexagons. I am in a spot where there is a lot of sewing triangles to hexagons and then pressing. It is the part where it looks like not much progress is being made.
However, I did take some time to figure out the bottom of the quilt. I am at the point where I need to shift everything up.
Since my design wall isn’t big enough to handle a twin sized quilt, I need to shift the top off the design wall, leave a few pieces so I know how to hook the top and bottom together and then slap up the hexagons destined to be on the bottom of the quilt.
So far, it isn’t working. I haven’t gotten the right steps in my head enough to move forward so I am sewing equilateral triangles to hexagons (check!), pressing (half check!) and sewing together four hexagon units to make diamonds.
I am also still thinking about the side borders. My decision was to have an uneven border. That decision is still not settling completely well with me. I am thinking of making a big diamond template and sewing a plain red piece (or use different fabrics) onto the edges.
