Tag: Project-Quilt

Posts about the piecing, applique’ of quilts. Don’t use for completed quilts or non-quilt projects.

Beach Town Update

Beach Town, Oct. 2009
Beach Town, Oct. 2009

We bought Tivo recently and it has revolutionized my world. Last night, while I was alone, I went downstairs to catch up on some shows, and brought Beach Town with me. With the show quilts off and the Flowering Snowball still in waiting mode, I thought it would be a good opportunity to make some progress on this piece. I noticed that it had been a long time since I posted a photo of it. You guys have never seen the quilting.

I really felt good working on this project. As I worked, I found that this project may not need as much embroidery/embellishing as House & Garden. I tried to figure out why. I don’t know for sure, but think that there is a lot more going on in this piece in terms of fabric – lots more commercial fabric with patterns on it. I also think that there are a lot more details, such as the flowers, the variety of beach houses, the tree, etc. I am going to do some embellishing on the pink striped cabana and add some windows and doors to the other houses.  I am not sure what other type of Perl cotton embellishment this calls for.

I do feel like the piece needs some beads or sequins. I’ll have to think about that some more before I rush into anything. I dug out my Therese De Dillmont Complete Guide to Needlework (Amazon doesn’t have my exact edition and no photo, sorry), a reprint of ancient book that I got somewhere. I wanted to see what stitches they suggested so that I could, perhaps, learn some new stitches for this piece as well as Kissy Fish. I haven’t done much else on that front thus far.

The first task last night was to rip out some of the stitching I did when I was in SoCal at the beginning of September. I really shouldn’t stitch when I am upset, because I end up ripping it out anyway.

Beach Town Window detail
Beach Town Window detail

I ripped out the blue zigzag stitching around the windows of the green house. It looked too subtle for me. I also didn’t like the unevenness of it. I wanted it to stand out and be more of an element.

Beach Town Window Redone, detail
Beach Town Window Redone, detail

The zigzag stitching is still around the window, as you can see, but I took it outside of the window frame so it is much more wonky and ‘alive’. I think it looks better. I do want to make sure I stay away from the spooky house look.

Beach Town Sun, detail
Beach Town Sun, detail

I had embellished the sun with some of Laura Wasilowski’s hand dyed Perl cotton early on. I didn’t like the look,  because the sun was just too puffy. I like my quilts densely quilted. I machine quilted the sun in a spiral, mimicking the handwork and carefully avoiding the existing Perl cotton. Quilting in a spiral isn’t for the faint of heart, but I took it slowly and am pleased with the results.

So, that is your Beach Town update for the duration. As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Last of the Infinity Blocks

Infinity Blocks, late September 2009
Infinity Blocks, late September 2009

Here are the last blocks from my SIL. I got them from my niece who brought them back from Maryland (family-mail). I have had them around for at least two months and I haven’t had a chance to put them up here on the blog.

I still have enough white squares to make at least one more block. I still have to do that. I seem to be distractible lately.

Whipped Cream

I’d like to baste the Tarts at the next CQFA meeting on Saturday. In order to accomplish that goal, I need to get the whipped cream on the pie. I made the pattern and have been auditioning it in slightly varied locations all over the pie.

Pie Cream #1
Pie Cream #1

The above photo shows the crust stitching (see below), but I still don’t like the placement.

Pie Cream, in context
Pie Cream, in context

The above shows the whipped cream on the pie from a little further back, so it can be seen in context. It does look better from this distance.

Pie Cream #2
Pie Cream #2

The above location does not work. I am rather proud of that crust and the location of the whipped cream covers up my lovely stitching.

I am thinking that the ultimate problem is that I made the pattern too big and it should be a smaller mound of whipped cream, like on the cupcake. I am also thinking about adding a cherry instead of whipped cream.

Sorbet Color

Sorbet EQ6 Pattern Key
Sorbet EQ6 Pattern Key

In a recent post, I posted a partially colored view of the patterns I had created in EQ6 for the Quilt Sorbet Quilt (not sure whether I will call it Sorbet or Quilt Sorbet or something else). Here is a fully colored rendering.

Some of the blocks are pretty obvious, but others kind of blend together.

My other thought was to create an EQ6 rendering where I color the blocks as I sew them.  That might make my life too complicated, but we will see. It might, on the other hand, make it easy for me to keep track of blocks I have made.

Last Flowering Snowball

Last Flowering Snowball, August 2009
Last Flowering Snowball, August 2009

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.

Tarts Milestone

I have a box of Recchiuti that I have been slowly savoring as I work on the Tarts project. The box is almost empty and, TA DAH, I have reached a major milestone in the work on the Tarts project!

Tarts Top Complete, August 2009
Tarts Top Complete, August 2009

Your eyes do not deceive you. The Tarts Come to Tea top is completely sewn together. I had some bits of time over the weekend and used those bits to work on the Tarts. I really need to get this piece off my design wall and work on something easy. I resisted the urge, especially after all this time, to just throw the thing together. I really looked at it as my last opportunity to fix any despicable design decisions.

My first order of business was to replace the yellow cup.

Yellow Print Cup
Yellow Print Cup

I like the cup itself and am pleased with the fussy cutting and satin stitch quality. As part of the complete Tarts Come to Tea design,  it didn’t work. My eye kept jumping to it. While I want the viewer’s eye to move around the piece, I didn’t want it to be glued to the yellow cup.

New Pie, August 2009
New Pie, August 2009

TFQ suggested pie.  Since I was thinking along the lines of a pastry or tart as well, I appliqued another piece of pie. I used the same design as the original piece of pie.

Old Pie, August 2009
Old Pie, August 2009

The problem was that they were too similar. I didn’t make enough changes to the design, even though the colors/fabrics are different. The similarities are highlighted because the two elements are close together in the piece.

I resolved the issue in my mind, however. I am going to applique’ some whipped cream on top of the new piece of pie, and perhaps a cherry. It will overlap on to the blue block above it. I planned to do it before the entire piece was sewn together, but I got caught up in the excitement and focus of the sewing and forgot. I’ll add it later this week or on the weekend.

Upper Left, August 2009
Upper Left, August 2009

I had already started to sew sections together last weekend when I tried to tell myself I was finished. Still, there was a lot of piecing to do, so I got too it.

Upper Middle, August 2009
Upper Middle, August 2009

One thing I forgot about improvisational piecing is that one has to add bits and pieces in between. I really didn’t want to do much of that, because I liked the look of the blocks being next to each other. That meant some trimming and adding little bits, which I did, and which will, hopefully, be mostly hidden once the piece is completed. I couldn’t avoid adding some bits and I had to pay attention to the checkerboards, because I didn’t want to cut them off in the middle of a square.

Lower Left, August 2009
Lower Left, August 2009

There were a few places where I couldn’t trim and augment. Those spots should be readily apparent from the photo. In general, I am pleased with the way the piece turned out.

Quilting is next, of course. As I mentioned in the last post about the Tarts, I seriously thinking about quilting the piece myself. I want it to be done a certain way. I don’t think I am good enough yet on the longarm to quilt the detailed design I have in mind. I really want the cups and pastries to stand out. More thinking on this is required.

I can’t really believe that it is together. It has been such a long process!

Fair Visit

Nosegay, August 2009
Nosegay, August 2009

I went to the San Mateo County Fair on Saturday. I was really pleased to discover that The Nosegay had won a 3rd place ribbon.

Third place isn’t first place, but I am so happy that I won something. It has been awhile since I won a ribbon. I couldn’t have done it without Colleen of Sew Little Time Quilting. She is a fabulous longarmer. She also sells fabric, teaches and designs patterns. Her longarm work is out of this world.

Anyway, I am reinspired to enter this quilt somewhere else. We’ll see if I can get my act together.

In general the Fair was fun. I ate two, yes 2, frozen, chocolate and nut covered bananas. I love them so much!! They just say fair to me. We saw fireworks, got free ice cream, watched hucksters and hawkers, and some people rode rides. I didn’t have as much time with the quilts as I would have liked, but got some nice pictures and will have some time to look at them carefully later.

Infinity Blocks from SIL

Infinity Blocks from Cathy
Infinity Blocks from Cathy

These are the blocks that my SIL sent to me via DH-mail. I think i will be interesting to take a photo of all of the blocks together.

I made another couple over the weekend, but am writing for an even number before I photograph them. It is more interesting if I have a few to show you.

Tarts Progress Nearing Finish Line

I was out of the house almost all of last weekend, which is not my usual routine.  While I had fun, I was disappointed not to get to spend copious amounts of time working on my projects. Still, as I mentioned on Wednesday, I did fit in a bit of work around the edges on the Tarts.

Tarts, Pie with no stitching
Tarts, Pie with no stitching

I played around with different looks for the piece of pie. I drew one, first, that the viewer looked at straight at, e.g. the viewer did not see the top of the pie at all.  It didn’t really work for me. I didn’t like the look, so I reworked it so that the view had a more angled view.

I didn’t have a good pie crust color that I wanted to use (‘wanted to use’ being the critical phrase, here) The orange makes the viewer do a double take, IMO. I will do something, perhaps, with the quilting on the piece to tone down the orange a bit. The orange does blend in with the other orange fabrics in the whole piece.

Tarts, Pie with Stitching
Tarts, Pie with Stitching

After I place everything the way I want it on the background, I stitch it down. In the last few pieces I have also been topstitching in addition to the machine appliqued zigzag stitching. I don’t think you can see the topstitching in this picture, but people who are able to view the piece in person will be able to see it, I think.

I picked the background to make a triangle with other purple pieces at the top of the piece. I picked it after I picked the ‘filling’ fabric. I wonder if they don’t allow each other to shine? I think this particular block looks better as part of the whole than by itself.

I left a bit of the fabrics above and below showing so you can see how it fits in close up.

Tarts, June 14, 2009, with Pie
Tarts, June 14, 2009, with Pie

Here is the whole current piece. I kind of miss that big white rectangle at the bottom and am having trouble assimilating the pie. I think I will manage to get used to it. I can’t imagine a big white rectangle in the piece would be a great design decision.

Am going to try to get to some studies for the silverware next to the red cups. I am also thinking I will add a few more black and white squares to the checkerboard on top of the frothy drink.

Eye Spy Photos

Eye Spy, detail
Eye Spy, detail

As with the Nosegay, I wasn’t able to get the whole Eye Spy quilt in the photos. Still, I am happy that I finally got a mostly entire picture of the quilt.

The Child loves his quilt, which makes my heart happy. He doesn’t search out the pictures that I carefully fussy cut. He arranges the quilt and folds it carefully over him.

Eye Spy, Full
Eye Spy, Full

Nosegay Photos

Nosegay, mostly full
Nosegay, mostly full

On Sunday, the sun was right, I had an assistant and time to fool around, so I went outside and  made an attempt to take full photos of the Nosegay and the Eye Spy. They are large and hard to photograph in the house.

The session wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped. I did get more of the Nosegay in one picture than I ever had before, but not all of it. I have to face reality that it is a HUGE quilt and I may never have the space to photograph the whole thing. I may break down and take it somewhere to be professionally photographed.

Nosegay, corner detail
Nosegay, corner detail

I took the opportunity to take some straight on detail shots. Right, is a corner – or most of the corner. There was a slight breeze that seemed to kick in just as I snapped the shutter.

Nosegay, center detail
Nosegay, center detail

This bottom photo is the center of the quilt. The whole reason this quilt is so big is because I put everything on point and had to have all the blocks spaced a certain way.  I hope it brings tears to the eyes of quilt historians someday, because at this moment the quilt feels like a big pain!

I am glad I got the photos I did. I had waited for a long time for everything to be right to photograph this quilt.

Beach Town Progress

Beach Town, June 7, 2009
Beach Town, June 7, 2009

I spent 10 hours in my workroom on Sunday. I spent most of it machine quilting Beach Town. The piece is relatively small, so I was surprised that it took so much work. The really surprising thing is that I have more machine quilting to go!

It was surprising, because I thought I did most of the machine quilting during my last session. It turns out that I  really wanted the quilting much closer together. I filled in some areas I already done. The new areas were quilted much closer together – only about 1-2 stitches apart.

The skinny tree needs some more stitching. It is raveling away and I’d like to save it before it goes completely.

Beach Town, Machine Quilting detail
Beach Town, Machine Quilting detail

I really hope you can see the machine quilting in this picture, because that is how it is almost all over the piece. There are a few sections left to do, but the bulk is done.

I was thinking, for future Pamela pieces, that I really needed to get the machine quilting done before I start in on the hand stitching. Not that the hand stitching hampered my machine quilting at all. It just makes better sense to do the machine work first and finish with the hand work.

Tarts Update

Tarts, May 31, 2009
Tarts, May 31, 2009

Most of the work on the Tarts has been mental lately. Those of you thinking mental case, may be right. 😉

With all of the rote sewing I have been doing lately I haven’t made the time to sit down and do the next drawing, which will be another pastry.

I am liking this layout. I think it adds a bit of movement at the top, though I am not sure why.  I like the vertical checkerboard next to the tea kettle and will put a piece of it above the tall frothy drink as well. The orange squiggles between the red cappucino cups and the tall frothy drink will probably be replaced by some vertical silverware. Onward!