Project-Quilt – Page 19 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Star Sampler Fabrics

Time flies when you are having fun. I am enjoying musing over possibilities for this project. I didn’t think I would since I like to get sewing quickly, but I am determined to enjoy this fabric selection process and it, as it turns out, is not difficult.

I bought a couple of fabrics last week when most of the network was down at work, except the Internet. I did do work, really, I did – more than others, I think – but at some point, I couldn’t get into my email and there wasn’t any new work coming in. After you clean your desk and read all your piled up magazines, contracts and make a ton of phone calls that have been put off, what else is there to do but buy fabric? 😉

The fabrics came yesterday, which was perfect timing, because I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and they made me happy. I was able to play a bit and I even washed a couple of the fabrics.

There is always a surprise when I buy multiple fabrics and the turquoise and chocolate dot on white (middle of photo, right) was one of those happy surprises. I really like it and think if it had purple instead of the chocolate, it might be a perfect background for the stars. Still, I like it, but the chocolate does stand out a little more than I would like. I suppose I could add chocolate to the entire piece to add a bit of spark. I’ll have to try some out and see what I think.

I have to make visual decisions visually, so I will make a sample star, as well, before I decide.

Really, there is no shortage of blues at my house, but I seem to crave the calm feeling they project, so I keep buying more. The three blues on white in the middle are also background candidates. I didn’t even buy them with that in mind, but thought of it when I saw them.

I almost bought more of the leafy V&Co print without even trying it. I stopped myself, because I want to make a sample and make sure the leafy blues and greens, don’t bleed into the other fabrics, destroying the crispness of the stars. I do think the leafy print would be a bold choice, because of the leaves.

I think the large dot on the middle left would be a pain. I think the pooling of the color at the bottom (top in the photo) would make it hard to use as a background. I do think it will work as an adjunct fabric for a star. The turquoise squares on white are a more conventional choice and might be a good one to fall back on in a pinch.

I keep thinking of this see-through star from someone else’s quilt in the quilt-a-long Flickr group when I think of the background. I don’t think I want to use a solid, but I do like the effect of looking through the star to the background, so I want to be sure and choose something that will help achieve that effect.

These fabrics all look good together and I think any of them would be fine, really. I think the leafy print looks good with the purples and the greens are similar, too.

At the moment, I am completely ignoring the purples I want, and need, to add. I like that Chicopee purple, but I need something that is a more bluey purple as well, like the background of the Philip Jacobs print. I’ll keep working at the fabric selection.

I have to admit that I thought about completely changing direction and going with pinks. Perhaps I will do two of these at the same time…except that that would mean I would have to pick background fabrics for two quilts.

I started talking about this project in a post a few days ago.

Star Sampler

TFQ and I decided we wanted to work on a project together. We will each do our own quilts, but we will do the same pattern.

We thought about Bonnie Hunter’s mystery challenge Easy Street, but decided to do our own project. We will be working on a star sampler along the lines of Oh My Stars. The whole idea is to be able to chat about some project together.

One fun thing we found is that boards on Pinterest can be shared! Who knew? That was fun. I probably could have done that forever, but TFQ moved me along.

At the moment, we are both gathering fabrics. I think TFQ is farther ahead than I am on that front, but I am excited about the fabrics I have picked so far.

Of course, I have a Philip Jacobs fabric. This fabric pulled my color scheme together, sort of. I saw the non-PJ fabrics laying on top of the PJ fabrics and thought they would work together. The solids are from the Chicopee line and the dots are just….dots.

I need more fabrics; I want the piece to be scrappy, but a controlled kind of scrappy. I just haven’t taken the time to look yet. I think I need another purple or violet as well. I know I want a lot more fabrics.

One big problem, for me, is the background. We need about 4.5 yards for the background and I don’t have that much of any fabric. I am not sure what look I want for the background. I thought about one of the dots that I have with a white background. Some of the fabrics I have may be a possibility, but I have to look–I have to make visual decisions visually.

Spiderweb Top Complete

I am really pleased to say that the Spiderweb top is finished. There are still a lot of things to do to get this finished into a quilt, but I am pleased, really pleased, that the top is finished.

The paper is still in most of the blocks. I had to pull out some of the paper as I sewed, but there is still a lot to pull out.

As usual, the piece looks a lot better sewn together. The sewing together brings the whole thing together. I am pleased with the overall look, though I still think the background is a bit dark. I can tell that my tastes have changed, because the new blocks are filled with much clearer fabrics, more pink, aqua, and chartreuse. I do wonder what this piece would look like with a lighter background, but am NOT making another.

I have enough fabric, I think to make a binding. I have been thinking about the binding and wonder if I should make a straight of grain binding rather than my usual bias binding. There are bits of the border on the bias, because of the kite shaped pieces.

Because I couldn’t match up all the bottoms of the webs, there are some that don’t match up. I am going to be ok with the differences.

Spiderweb Again

Nothing for years and then a blast of Spiderweb posts. When it rains it pours, right? Thursday I wrote about working on the Spiderweb and how that felt. I mentioned the 7 blocks I had done and thought I should post about those.

From this picture you can get an idea of what the quilt will look like. In order to complete the whole section, I will need 5 more border blocks and 1 center block. I have labelled the photo below so you can see what I mean.

As usual, what I am trying to do is to complete the plates. I want each of the plates to be complete. I don’t want any of them to be cut in half or just show a quarter. There is nothing wrong with those types of layouts, but they are not for me at this time.

Sometimes the border blocks take too long and I need to make some progress, get a little bang for my buck. At those times I grab some center blocks and sew them together. I think that alternating keeps me from getting bored. When I sew some center blocks together, I feel like I am making real progress.

I walked by my Sampler quilt, the first one I ever made and saw the Spiderweb block in that quilt and it made me think that the first Spiderweb block in the Sampler quilt was just a taste or precursor to this quilt. OR I might be getting just a bit too philosophical.

Spiderweb Feelings

I really hope you can understand this when you read it. I stayed up too late watching the election Tuesday night and, as I write this, the exhaustion is taking over.

The last time I wrote about the Spiderweb was last December. Nearly a year later, something is finally happening. But the worst part of the story is that I started this project in 1998. I looked at the blocks many times and my tastes had changed and I didn’t really want to work with dark backgrounds. The project languished, but the 26 Projects list has forced me to get to it. Forced is a strong word. I could have donated all of the blocks to the Charity Girls and been done with it, but something prevented me from doing that.

I started small by buying some Carol Doak foundation paper. Then I continued by printing the main foundations for the border blocks. Then I started sewing and found I printed the foundations the wrong size, so I started over. Finally, I was able to sew enough to get some blocks put together.

In the process, I found something really remarkable. I feel really good making these blocks. I don’t know why. They don’t seem especially gorgeous, though they are pretty. I get a warm glowy feeling inside each time I work on them. It is so odd.

I have all of the center blocks done, but, like the Flowering Snowball, I needed to make special border blocks so the border plates weren’t cut up. I wanted them to be finished.

In the photo, right, I have put numbers on the border blocks. You can see the differences, if you compare them with the center blocks.

The border blocks are definitely brighter and more cheerful, because of the newer fabrics I am using. I hope there isn’t a big disparity when the quilt is finished.

My biggest problem, however, is that I have nowhere to lay this quilt out. My design walls are full and the quilt, since there is foundation piecing paper on the back of the blocks, wouldn’t stay on the design wall without pins anyway. For the moment it is on the floor in front of a design wall and blocking the closet. This isn’t going to last long, but I don’t have a solution right now.

At the moment, I have 7 border blocks complete and one needing some trimming and pressing. The quilt will be 8 blocks wide and 10 blocks tall. I have about 32 more blocks to make and I hope I don’t run out of the border fabric. If I do, I will have to make the quilt smaller and donate a few of the leftover blocks to the Charity Girls.

Good-bye Garden

I had it on my list to deal with the disposition of a couple of projects and the Flower Garden was one of them.

Once I pulled it out of the closet, I was a little sorry to see it go as I do like the stitching and the border, but I still don’t like the flowers, so off it goes to a better life. I am going to use the border idea again, perhaps in piecing, definitely in fusible applique’.

Of course I will do stitching with Perl cotton in other pieces.

More Sashing

The first picture in this recent post by Camille Roskelley (I just can’t stay away from her blog! If she posted 10 times a day I would be reading all the time and not going to work, cooking for my family or washing my hair) made my eyes pop out of my head. I know you have gone to look at the photo and are thinking “well, yeah, it is a polka dot, you love polka dots, Jaye, big whoop.” Why my eyes popped out of my head when I saw Camille’s work is because of sashing.

Huh? you think.

Yes, dear readers, sashing. Remember that I was puzzling over sashing options for the A-B-C Challenge earlier this week? The whole time I have been making these blocks I have been lamenting that Pat Bravo did not include a really good red in the line. I gnashed my teeth further because the Zoe Pearns dot has a wonderful red in it. I have lots of red and white dots. My idea may not work (make visual decisions visually!!!), but right at the moment I feel brilliant.

I love this big dot, but I don’t think it works with the A-B-C Challenge blocks.

The color is ok, though. It is hard to say, though, because the large dots interfere with the blocks. I think it might be from the Half Moon Street collection, but am not sure.

I think the smaller dots are better. This fabric is from the Sevenberry (?) collection. I am not sure, though. Not quite right. Why? I don’t know. I do have a large enough piece, though, so perhaps I will go with it just because of that. Bad reason to choose a sashing, though, I know.

Still, I liked the smaller dots, so I looked for another. A mini fabric avalanche (fabri-lanche?) gave me another idea.

I thought, perhaps, the problem was that I was trying out the fabrics with a straight set, so i got out a different red and tried the blocks on point. Some of the blocks, like the baskets, look ok, but most of the blocks just look weird. It is probably just that I have been looking at them in a straight set, but I don’t like the on point set.

Here is the same fabric, but in a straight set. I like it, but the red is very strong.

A lot of what I like is the idea of the red. I like using a strong color for sashing and background. I also like the idea of bringing out that little red in the Zoe Pearns dots I mentioned above. It might be a dumb idea, because you can even tell. I can’t tell even when I standing with my nose next to the design wall.

Small dot #2 straight set - detail — Small dot #2 straight set – detail

More quilt drama. I am glad I am working on this now, because if I had 5 minutes one weekend to sew these blocks together and I was trying to do this, I know I would make a bad choice and have to live with it.

I thought you might like to see a close up of this fabric with the blocks on it. Of course, there are a lot of other factors that will affect the final outcome of this quilt: width of sashing, width of binding, arrangement of blocks (beyond straight or on point set), etc.

As much as I hate to say it, after all of the drama and hand wringing over red above, I think this grey is the winner. The blocks look really good. The grey is not too brown. The blocks stand out and do not blend into the background. All the colors look good. The grey is not as stark as a white.

The problem is that I have to get more. I found some on Quiltshops.com and PayPal wouldn’t let me pay. Even if I decide to go with the red, I can use this grey for something else.

Famous last words.

Infinity Quilt

This photo is old news for you, but I thought it should be shown, so I could tell you that I have finished the back and you would know that the two of them go together.

I still have not decided what to do about the border. It is possible that I will leave the grey border and just bind it with the striped fabric that every liked best. I have time to decide; it is not at the quitlter yet.

Some time ago (years, perhaps), I bought some Harry Potter fabric. I bought it make something for the Young Man when he was in the throes of his Harry Potter mania, but then never made it. Renditions of beloved characters are never as imagined, though the Young Man didn’t seem to care. As this quilt will go to one of the nephews, I thought it would be a good opportunity to finally use it. He is just about to start reading the books, so I hope he will like the back. I spent Sunday (a week ago) making the back.

While I made the back, I tried to be calm about it. I didn’t want to make another back, but I also did not want to be angry about making the back. Angry when I am sewing? Odd, I know, but as I mentioned, performing the same parts of the quiltmaking process over and over gets tedious after awhile. I could have put this quilt away again and waited to do the back, but, instead, I decided to just making it and move forward. I really do see benefit in making up backs and bindings as soon as I am done with the top. It makes the finishing process so much easier.

Also, the pieces were large, so I didn’t have to fiddle too much. I was able to sew quite a lot of donation squares together in between sewing the back. That was gratifying.

Corner Store Once More

Apparently, I am still thinking about this quilt and you are, too.

Rhonda wrote in a comment “I’ve been thinking a lot about this quilt. Probably because the whole idea of a “souless quilt” is so sad! If this were my souless quilt, here’s what I would do. I would keep it as is, including the white border that is the same width as the squares. Then I would add a 6- or 8-inch wide border in a warm solid color, maybe red, or orange, or magenta. The border would need to be wide enough to balance out the white with color. I would probably do the binding in the same solid as the wide border. Maybe then it would look like the border was trying to contain/constrain all those active little triangles that are dying to get out of the box, and create some tension. Some applique on the border of escaping/leaking triangles would be fun, too. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.”

When she wrote that I thought I would see how the quilt would look with a red border. I’m not sure, though I do see an improvement. I bought the red for something else, but it does add something to the quilt. I would have to make the back larger, if I decided to add another border.

Infinity Alternate Layouts

CLW's Infinity Layout — CLW’s Infinity Layout

My SIL kindly sent me some photos of the layouts she tested before putting her Infinity blocks together. It is interesting to see the use of color to create the layout. This type of layout did not even occur to me. I was thinking more about the wreath effect of the piecing.

CLW's Infinity Layout #2 — CLW’s Infinity Layout #2

I am really glad my SIL sent me these photos so I could be reminded of the other ways to layout blocks.

A-B-C Challenge Sashing

This is a fabric I bought at Quiltology. I didn’t have the blocks with me, but I thought it might work. In the end, a person has make visually decisions visually. Looking at it with the blocks on the design wall, I am not so sure. I think the grey has too much beige or brown in it, but it isn’t terrible.

I have to make a few more blocks, but the more important thing I need to figure out is this sashing thing.

I thought the grey Half Moon Dot would work, but looking at in the photo makes me think that the dots are too large and it makes the piece look too busy. It’s too bad. I do like those dots, but not for this piece. I do have to think of something to do with the Half Moon Street Collection, though. Soon.

The dots were a good idea, though, so I looked at some other dots I had. No shortage of dots, of course.

I have to use a fabric of which I have enough (one of the bad things about stashing fabric is that you might have the perfect fabric, but not have enough of it: design challenge, I think, yes.)

I like the large dot a lot. I like it because it looks cheerful. I also like it because it showcases the blocks better than the grey does. I do worry that the white will run into the white of some of the backgrounds I used. I also worry about the colors of the dots not being the same, but I think the colors of the dots are similar enough, so that is not so much of a worry. I don’t think the Zoe Pearns Sweet Nothings dots don’t conflict too much with these large dots.

This small dot works, I think, but the dot might be too small.

Click to make the last photo larger to see how the small dots look against the blocks. The small dot works well with the Zoe Pearns Sweet Nothings in the blocks. It is also bright enough, but the white doesn’t seem to suck the life out of this piece.

What do you think?

Infinity Quilt Border

This is the fabric I thought I would use for a border first. I have it in my fabric closet already, but I only have a yard, so I don’t think I would be able to add it lengthwise (the stripes running parallel to the edge of the quilt). I guess I should have taken a picture of the fabric oriented in the way I was thinking of using it.

Oh well, use your imagination.

I do like the color of it – actually the color feel of it. It has the right feel to go with the rest of the quilt. It is a very restful border. I am concerned that I don’t have enough yardage and I don’t want to be fumbling around trying to make it work. I usually buy enough of a striped fabric for bindings and not borders. A yard is usually enough for a bias binding and if it isn’t, I have no business making a quilt that big.

I bought this piece at Quiltology. I tried to drape it so that you could see how it would look if I added it to the quilt as a border. How did I do? The colors aren’t quite right, but I do like adding a bit of yellow. One thing about adding these types of colors brings out some of the fabrics in the blocks that tend towards green.

I have to say that I am bit concerned about the grey border I added. I thought it would be the final border of the quilt, but then decided that the quilt needed to be finished off with something a bit darker.

My concern lies with the grey. It is very different from the white in the blocks, which is why I added it. I wonder, though, if it isn’t so different that it doesn’t work. I kind of like it, but I don’t want people snickering behind their hands at my poor judgment.

This piece, also purchased at Quiltology, has much more green it. I didn’t realize that it had so much green until I got it home. I think that this is an issue of the type of light I live in. When I saw it in my workroom, I thought it had much too much green, but seeing it in the photo makes me think that it also brings out the blocks with green in them.

Frankly, in the end, I don’t care that much. I would like to be done with this project and I don’t want to spend much more time agonizing about border fabric. alternatively, I don’t want to look at it after it is finished and wish I had done something different.

Again with the artistic angst! I hope this isn’t becoming a habit.

Fabric of the Year 2012 – Late June

FOTY - Late June 2012 — FOTY – Late June 2012

In addition to sewing I have been cutting.

All of the pinks in the Pink Donation Quilt have a square in the piece on the left. There are a few from some fabrics I bought in the last little while. I also have some patches from the Art Gallery scraps I received.

I have to admit that I arranged the scraps a bit so they look good in the photos I post for you. Look for these patches in the final piece.

Garden Progress

It is monumental that I am quilting. I hope you appreciate the momentousness of the occasion. 😉

Really, I do quilt small things, but most of my larger pieces are quilted by someone else. Part of the reason is an old injury, which doesn’t allow the pushing and tugging a quilt through the machine required. I also have an older machine (though I bought it when it was a top of the line machine) and the arm is the old normal size, not one of the super sized free arms that look so fantastic. The other part of the reason is that I quilt very densely. I quilt about 1/8th – 1/4 of an inch away from the nearest line of quilting. I don’t know why, but it takes a long time.

Still this is a small piece, perhaps 18×24″ and I wanted to quilt it myself. I have been working on the background in small increments. I am really nearing the end of that part of the project, which makes me want to jump for joy. There are parts that I would have free motion quilted, but my machine is not up to it, so I just did straight line stitching. I like the quilting to melt into the background so it works for me.

In order to melt the quilting into the fabric, I needed to quilt the sky in three different sections using different color thread.

Another reason I quilt this way is to reward the ardent viewer. If a viewer comes up and puts his/her nose to my quilt, s/he will get the reward of seeing some additional details. I like to try and layer my pieces in an overt way, above and beyond the textural quality of the quilting.

I don’t really use special thread. I have a number of different colors of Aurifil and I use those to quilt with. I like that the they are thin.

I was particularly pleased with the blue background. I used some of Libby Lehman’s Bottom Line purple thread and it just melted into the background. I get good results when I unwind the thread from the spool and lay it on the area where I plan to use it. I find that the color on the spool – when the threads are laying nicely next to each other – is very different than the color of one strand.

I am sure more experienced machine quilters have better tips for you than this, but this post describes what I do and since I am pleased with the results, I thought I would share.

I am pleased that this project, which is on the 26 Projects list is moving forward!

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