Last Post of 2010

It looks like the last finish for 2010 will be my Schnibble now called "Tribal Scratch":

It was finished on Wednesday.  I thought I'd get to also quilt the last two quilts on deck but had no energy on Thursday (actually stayed up late to finish so was just too tired the next day to do anything).  I am working on the Crumb quilt today but it doesn't look like it will be done by day's end.  No matter, I'll probably spend the rest of the weekend and even early next week finishing them so they will not be hanging over my head as I move on to the PHD Challenge projects list.

Once again, wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year's.  See you in 2011!!

Quilters Accountability 12/22/10

It was a productive week.  As usual, not as much done as one would like but enough to feel real good about what did get done.

Last Week's Goals:

1. Do the quilting on the blue & white quilt and mail off both doll quilts. Done!
2. Quilt the Tree Skirt (and decorate the tree purchased on Sunday!) Done!
3. Layer the Schnibble and Crumb quilts and quilt them.  Schnibble is layered, Crumb quilt's borders are on and quilting not done yet.
4. Start quilting the Brrr Park! quilt (already layered from last year).  Nope.

So the doll quilts are finished and were mailed off to my Aunt Monday morning.  I got a Christmas card/letter from her that afternoon saying she hadn't heard from me in a while.  So now I am really looking forward to her getting the surprise package.  It was sent Priority Mail so should reach her before the end of the week.

I finished the quilting and binding on the Tree Skirt on Sunday and decorated the tree on Monday.  I was surprised that the skirt instructions did not include ties or a way to close the opening.  But after laying it around the base of the tree I found out why -- the open ends overlap to surround the base so it doesn't need closures!  Cool!

I layered the Schnibble quilt yesterday and had hoped to also get the Crumb block top done too so that I could just quilt the next three quilts one right after the other.  But that required attaching the borders of the Crumb top.  And part of the borders meant attaching the beaded barrel trim that is serving as the inner border.  Sewing the trim on was a lot more difficult than I expected.  I basted it to the top first which (note to self and any others planning on using decorative trims on your quilt tops) would have been much easier if I had planned for a wider outside edge seam rather than the standard 1/4".  It took a lot of finessing to get it in place yesterday so I had to wait until today to attach the outer border which again, due to the narrow seam and the thickness of the trim, took some finessing to get on.  But it is done and since it will be quilted simply (stitch in the ditch around the Crumb blocks and do some kind of decorative stitch in the sashing squares to give it a "tufted" look), I am hoping the layering will go fast tomorrow.

I also got a bonus project done on Friday:

This little runner was sewn up back in 2008 when I made the quilt blogged about here. It is one of three (in different styles) made from the leftover fabric from the quilt.   It is a Karen Montgomery design that I picked up from the Timeless Treasures fabric company website when I made the quilt (and can be seen in full here but is no longer offered for free and can be purchased here).  The fusible Hobbs batting used for the Gathering Garden quilt and the tree skirt had left me with just enough batting to layer this.  This is another "pillow turn"  project that I knew would be simple to quilt because the lines of the stripe provided all the quilting guidance I needed.  Nothing fancy here, just stitching with smoke monofilament thread around each stripe border and between the little sawtooth star and brown solid square motifs in the center. I had considered also edge-stitching around the outermost edge until I realized that after stitching to the right of the red fabric of the stripe that circled the edge, it looked just like a traditional binding so with that faux finish, it was done!  I am only considering this a bonus project (not a UFO finish) because I don't plan to sew up the other two until after the New Year.

This Week's Goals:

1. Layer the Crumb quilt.
2. Quilt the Schnibble, Crumb and Brrrr! quilts.
3. Finish up the Sage Sampler blocks.
4. Get back to work on the DWR top. 

So go check in with Bari and see what everyone else has planned as we make the final descent to the end of the year.

Quilters Accountability 12/15/10

FINALLY SOME FINISHES!!!

It has taken far longer than I had expected but I finally got some finishes on the board!  When I pledged nine projects for Finn's Year-End Challenge in October, I did it thinking that the two doll quilts I have been struggling with for weeks -- no months -- would have been finished by the end of October at the latest.  Now that they are finished I am hoping that momentum will kick in for the rest of the projects I want to do.  Most of them just need quilting.  I may not complete nine but I am still hopeful (with sixteen more days left?!?!) that I can get pretty close.

Last Week's Goals:

1. Finish the quilting on the Amish Doll Quilt.  Done!
2. Make the blue and white doll quilt top. Done!
3. Work steadily on the DWR top. O.k., did not get to this one.
4. Layer #2, the Christmas Tree skirt, the Schnibble top and the Crumb top for quilting. The first two are DONE, the other two - nope.

I am glad to say the Amish Doll quilt (now called "Amish Furrows and Flowers") finally, finally, FIN-AL-LY got finished. It is a little more than 18 inches square. The applique is still rough but I am happy with it. 


Finished quilt before washing off the markings.

It took until almost near the end for me to get into “flow” on this one and have “momentum” finally kick in. What is flow and momentum you say? You can read about them here and here respectively but to put it simply, it’s the point in working on a project when the work just seems to happen and move smoothly and before you know it you’ve reached a milestone and STILL want to do more and keep working until you reach the end which you are now hungering for. I finished up the last of the stitching on Sunday night while watching “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” and then the season premiere of “Leverage”. On Monday, I decided that since this has been a mostly hand worked piece, I should finish it the same way. Usually I put my bindings on completely by machine but for this one I sewed it on with the machine (to help secure the hand quilted edges) and finished it by hand.  Today I put it in with the laundry to wash out the markings.

And here it is with its "mother", the Trip Around The World quilt I made in 2006 (and blogged about here).  It was the leftover pieced strips and fabrics from that project that provided the start for this little project.  I've always said that  I see my quilting as an "independent art study" and with this one done, I have finished the semester on "Hand Work" that started back in the summer with the Applique and Hand Quilting classes.

And here is the little blue & white quilt (now called "Gathering A Garden In a Twister" after the fabric line and block used).  I ended up "pillow turning" the backing and doing a piped edge.  I wanted to use the dark blue leafy fabric for binding but thought it would be a little strong as a regular binding on a square edge quilt. 

I used Susan Cleveland's "Piping Hot Binding" Kit (that included the cording for the piping and a tool to trim it). 

 

Edited To Add:

 

 

According to her instructions, in order to use the piping around the edge I had to have curved corners so I decided to create a wavy edge all around.  I like that it softened the look of the quilt even further.  It is a little more than 22 inches square and completes the two credit course in miniature quilts. :)

I am glad this one is also done but I think the fabrics blend too much to be really effective using this “Twister” block design. I think my original pattern choice, the blended nine-patch would have probably worked a little  better with these fabrics.  But I love, love, love how quickly and easily it went together and since I couldn’t get more of the fabric that I would have needed to complete the nine-patch design this will more than suffice.  I am also glad I finally got a chance to do one of these types of quilts and look forward to doing another one.  I still have to do some light quilting on this one to finish it up:  I'll just stitch in the ditch around the narrow green border and the outside outline of the Twister blocks and tack stitch the center of each pinwheel.  Once that is done, I can email Finn to post two finishes for my pledge tally.

And last but not least the Tree Skirt is layered.  I was lucky -- back in March Connecting Threads had a big batting sale and I had purchased a couple of Hobbs crib size fusible batts for use with wall quilt projects.  I was able to layer both the blue & white quilt and the tree skirt with one package.

This Week's Goals:

1. Do the quilting on the blue & white quilt and mail off both doll quilts.
2. Quilt the Tree Skirt (and decorate the tree purchased on Sunday!)
3. Layer the Schnibble and Crumb quilts and quilt them.
4. Start quilting the Brrr Park! quilt (already layered from last year).

As I said at the start, I don't know how many projects I will complete for the Year-End Challenge.  Last week I saw a post for Myra's PHD (Projects Half Done) Challenge for January - June of 2011 (and I see that Finn has signed up this week!).  I've already made a list because even if by some lucky chance I get my pledged projects done before year-end, I've still got another stack that needs to be worked on!  Myra has asked  that if you join the challenge, you start off with a post with pictures of your pledged projects so I am going to try and gather those up this week and then submit my name for inclusion.  I am also picking up on another goal that someone mentioned on their blog:  to try to finish next year with no PHD's/UFO's which at this moment is doable.  But to finish with no HSY's (pronounced "Hussies" and stands for Haven't Started Yet) is a whole 'nother story!

So keeping hope alive, head on over to Bari's to see what everyone else has in store for the remaining weeks of 2010.

Handwork Updates

In my last post, I was working on a lot of hand work projects for two classes I took at Quilt University.  As of last Monday, all the class projects and one additional block had been finished. 

 

On the left is the Hand Quilting piece from Nancy Chong's Hand Quilting Class, on the right were the two class blocks from her Hand Applique class.  The little center block is part of a sampler project I've wanted to do for a while (more on that later).  For now, the large applique blocks are orphans. 

 

Update:  The Pink Hawaiian Applique block was used to make a journal cover in 2013 and can be seen in this post.   

 

But now that my eyes have been opened to the pleasures of doing hand work, I've been looking at a lot of potential applique projects and the ideas are piling up.  So far, I've got preliminary plans for the wreath block to become the center of a medallion quilt but both could also eventually wind up in samplers.  On Friday, the Hand Quilting piece became this (rather large) bed pillow cover:

I'll be washing it with the laundry tomorrow to take out all the stencil markings and I've still got to make a pillow insert by serging some squares of muslin together and stuffing it with batting scraps.  I was glad to find a good outer ruffle fabric -- it will go with a number of the quilts I've already made for my bed and another one I hope to finish by year's end.  I love the double ruffle but next time I make one I will make two single (hemmed) layers rather than folding each layer together to create the finished edges.  Those four layers of fabric were a devil to ruffle (too thick to do on the serger) although they do form a nice firm edge around the pillow.

The little green and white Hawaiian applique block will be added to other blocks as part of a "framed sampler" project that I started waaayyy back in 2004 (I think?).  

 I had always wanted to try to make a paper-cut style applique block for this piece but at the time I was only doing machine applique and was not sure I could get it done.  When I realized this style of applique was also covered in the Hand Applique class, I was elated to think I might get this one done and made sure to pick a design and baste and stitch it up along with the larger class project.  The blocks for this sampler will finish at 3" (I've still got to trim the background of the applique block down) and will be pieced, paper-pieced and (now) hand appliqued.  The very wonky Nosegay block on the lower left may or may not stay -- I like the fabrics but the piecing is pretty bad.  On the paper in the lower right corner is a list of the other potential blocks I want to make for this such as Churn Dash, Card Trick and Goose Chase/Dutchman's Puzzle.  I would love to get this one finally finished before the end of the year and cross it off the WISP list.

 

Update:  That also didn't happen until 2013 and you can see the finished sampler in this post.

As noted in the previous post, all this hand work focus was also supposed to help get me back to this project:

This was a doll quilt I started in 2007 for my aunt who collects dolls and will be the second one I've made for her.  The center strips were leftovers from the Amish "Trip Around the World" quilt I made back in 2006 which I talked about in my "Bucket List" post.  The applique design is from the "Pineapple Welcome" quilt in the "The Scrap Savers Solution Book" book by Connie Kaufman, reduced in size by 50%.  Unfortunately, I had completed most of the previous hand work projects while listening to the NY Yankees play in the American League championships (even though I am officially a life-long NY Mets fan) but now that they have been eliminated, I've got to find something else to listen to while stitching.  Fortunately, there are always my favorites -- podcasts.  This afternoon I will listen to Pat Sloan's show and I know that Sandy at Quilting For The Rest of Us has a new episode I also need to catch up on so that should keep me busy.  

Both this and the sampler project are part of the nine (!) project commitment I've made for Finn's "Year End Challenge" this year (button on the side bar).  I didn't do so great last year but I hope my "Spring Finish" productivity will be repeated for this one. And if I can get it finished by the end of the week, I am hoping that this will be my "Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival" entry (button also on the side bar) since I missed posting in the last one.

That's all for now but hopefully more to come later this week.  Happy Quilting!

Summer Replay – Part 2

In my last post I told you I had bought a new sewing machine, a Janome Horizon 7700. 

 

 And if ‘ya got a new machine,  ‘ya gotta test it out right?  Warranty and all that.  So what have I been testing my new baby on?

On the non-quilting front:

I made a summer top – the first clothing sewing I’ve done in about twenty years.  Even had to put in a zipper!

I recently ordered some more patterns – despite having three file cabinet drawers filled with patterns from the old days.  Unfortunately I’ve gotten a little more “mature” in size so many are no longer my size.  I hope to do more clothing sewing on a regular basis from now on.  

                                

On the quilting front:

1.   

   I completed a donation quilt!

D     Dino Sports 2 began with the leftovers of the quilt I made for my cousin’s son from a kit last year (and blogged about here).  I saw the pattern for it in the Spring 2009 issue of Easy Quilts magazine and knew it was perfect for using up the leftovers (with a few additional purchases needed to round out the project).  Earlier this summer I had participated in Victoria's Bumble Beans Inc. Block Gather, where she collected house blocks from quilters to be made, by her, into quilts for donation to the Basics Promesa organization that helps homeless people get resettled which I blogged about here. (If you would like to see the quilts she made from all the donated blocks, you can see them here).

      After the Block Gather was so successful, she made arrangements with the organization to accept finished quilts from other quilters.  When I heard about this, I knew this was the perfect destination for the Dino Sports 2 quilt since I’d only made it to use up the fabrics and I didn’t have any more young relatives to gift it to.  I already had the quilt half way quilted when I bought my new machine so I got to finish the quilting, binding (attached by machine which is the way I bind all my quilts), a pillowcase and the best part, made a monogrammed label for the quilt and donated it in early August for the Basics Quilt Gather.

Please note: they are still accepting donations of quilts for this cause.  If you are interested, click the links in the above paragraph or the one on the sidebar.

I made my first Schnibble!

       Like many, I’ve long wanted to work on a charm pack project.  Last year, I started following the “Year of Schnibbles” group on Sinta's and Sherri's blogs and became enamored of the cute patterns Carrie Nelson designs for her company Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.  Then earlier this year I heard that she was coming out with a new book, “Schnibbles Times Two”, and I decided to purchase it to see first hand what all the fuss was about.  Of course there were numerous designs in the book I wanted to try, figuring that they’d be small and therefore quick to piece and great for quilt stitch practice.  

      I came across some batik charm square packs that I really liked (Venetian and Atmosphere by Benartex which I got from Clotilde.com) and quickly realized they’d be great for a Schnibbles project and purchased them and some background fabric (Dots/ Batik Landscape from Keepsake Quilting).  I finished “Scratch” in late July and its now waiting layering and quilting.  The green brown batik on the side will be the backing and “turned to the front” binding (using the “Quick Easy Mitered-Binding Tool").

  

Update:  You can see the finished quilt here.

 

 

I also made my first jelly roll project! 

    

       A quilting friend had given me the book "Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts" by Pam and Nicky Linott (of The Quilt Room in the U.K.) earlier this year.  I felt about jelly rolls the same way I did about charm packs so plotted the chance to make one of the projects in the book.  The push was – as it often is – a fabric sale, this one by Connecting Threads.  They had the 2-1/2” strips and yardage of their “Sweet & Sour” line (and other fabrics) on clearance so I was able to pick up the fabric and backing for this project for a really low price.  After I finished the top (“Jigsaw”),  I really felt that I wanted to add another border to it.

      

      I wanted to get more of the background fabric for the border but unfortunately, it was was no longer available.  But then I checked out some of the kits using this fabric line and found one for a lap quilt (also on clearance) that had enough of the same fabric I wanted for the border and the lap quilt's design was such that I figured I could find another fabric to substitute for what I'd take out and still be able to make the kit quilt.

Here's "Jigsaw" with the additional border added

        This one is also now ready for layering and quilting.

3.     As noted above, I purchased a lap quilt kit in order to use some of the fabric from it for the jelly roll project.  On Labor Day, I finished the top for that quilt, “Flowing Silk”, using a Hoffman fabric (the purple floral) I purchased from Hartsdale Fabrics to replace the Connecting Threads print I purloined from the kit and now lastly, this too is ready for layering and quilting.

 

 

       Update:  This quilt was finished in 2012 and donated to charity.  See this post.

I      I also did some work on some old projects (started last summer, blogged about here) .  I had my sons sew more strips for the string and denim tumbling block quilts I want to finish for them for the winter season.  I had planned for this to be one of the summer activities I did with them and while I did let them to sew on my new machine for a little while, there is still a lot of work to be done on this. 

 

I also finished all the pieced arcs I need for my Double Wedding Ring quilt project which was supposed to have been the project I focused on this summer.  Last summer, I had picked out all the fabrics I wanted to use for the ring centers and melons so now I have to do the appliqué for the centers and then cut the centers and melons and attach them to the arcs to create the rings.  I’d like to at least get this to the “completed top” stage by the end of this year but you know how that goes – only time will tell.

Well, that catches me up.  Hopefully with school started, I can try to post more regularly.  Hope your Summer was good and your Fall will be even better!

Quilters Accountability 6/2/10 and Spring Finish Recap

Last week's goals:

1. Quilt last border of Charming Log Cabin quilt, bind. Done and finito!  The grid quilting of the border ends and the binding took ALOT longer than I expected.  But I am very pleased with the results and glad I got it done by the deadline.  Now if I could just get a decent picture of it!

2.  Layer and baste Dino Sports 2 quilt, quilt, bind and make a pillowcase.  Nope.  Because of the above, I just got to buy the batting today and will layer it tonight and (hopefully) get it quilted and bound by the end of the week.

3. Add border trim and outer borders of Paisley Crumb quilt, layer to backing, quilt and bind. Nope for the same reasons as the above.  But this one will either get started on the weekend or next week, either way, I am determined to get it done by the end of June. 

Only downside, I didn't get to post something for the Blogger Quilt Festival! No matter, with the deadlines put to bed, now I can spend time each day checking out all the great posts.  Now THAT will be fun!

So, the Spring Finish is finished and I'm pleased that this year I got quite a bit done:

Quilted and Bound:  Stashbuster
                                  Vintage Treasures
                                  Charming Log Cabin

Blocks Made:  5 House blocks for Basics Block Gather
                         15 blocks for Underground Railroad Sampler
                         12 blocks for Pioneer Sampler

O.k. it seemed like a lot more when I was doing it but it's still a lot for a little more than a month's work.  I'd like to thank Bari again for making this forum available, I don't know that I would have stayed on track to meet the deadline without it.  And more importantly, thank you to all the QA gals for the positive reinforcement each week, both your comments and the example you set with your own goals.

Now I can slow it down a bit and start easing toward the summer and some new projects (well, after the last two get done).  As always, you can check back at Bari's and see how everyone else did with their goals this week and get some inspiration for getting your own projects done!

Quilters Accountability 5/19/10

Sorry for the late post but I NEEDED to finish up an important part of last week's goals -- mentally, I just didn't want to take it into the next week.  So without further ado.....

Last week's goals:

1.  Construct clamshell binding, attach and finish detail quilting on Vintage Treasures quilt.  Today I finished handsewing  the backing to the binding edge so for the most part this project is in the can for Spring Finish!  I still have some detail stitching to finish but I'll do that tonight or first thing tomorrow and do a detail post on the whole project later.

2.  Start and complete the quilting on Charming Log Cabin.  The quilting was started but I'm not sure I like the stitch pattern I chose.  I need to look this one over, decide on the continued course of action and finish this up next week.

3.  Finish the last two blocks of the Pioneer sampler.  Done and now all the blocks for the sampler are done (last two are in the bottom row, right).  And I finally found a border fabric too (underneath the blocks).  I was supposed to be making these with two other quilters but one has gone down south for the summer and the other hasn't started hers, so I don't know if I'll move forward with this (after the Spring Finish challenge is over, of course!) or hold the finishing until the Fall.  We'll see.

So once again, keeping it light for the next week:

1. Finish the quilting and bind the Charming Log Cabin quilt.
2. Layer and quilt the Dino Sports2 quilt for charity donation.

That's it for now, dinner is waiting!  If you've already finished your dinner, check out what's on other quilter's "To Do" lists at Bari's blog.

Quilters Accountability Report 4/28/10

 Checking In.....let's see how I did this week:

Last week's goals were:

1. Finish quilting and bind the Stashbuster Quilt.  Done!
2. Make up the blocks promised for Bumble Beans House Gather -- the deadline is April 30 so got to get moving on those. Done, but less than planned and harder than I thought!
3. Work on at least two UGRR/Pioneer blocks (one from each).  Nope, but maybe I will work on these after posting.
4. Work on two Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks (might be a long shot).  Nope, knew it was a long shot.
5. If I get the Stashbuster done as quickly as I hope, continue the quilting on the Vintage Treasures BOM and (maybe?) have the quilting completed by the next post.  Extra time spent on the house blocks nixed that!

So the good news is that I did get my Stashbuster quilt finished and I am very happy about that.  It is my first Spring Finish finish and another completed project for 2010.

                         Front                                                                                                               Back

This was a project that started as a stashbuster challenge by Judy Laquidara at the Patchwork Times blog (2/23/09 post).  While I do like the quirky funkiness of my finished quilt, I've got to say that it looks quite different from her original design (which is now available on her site as a free pattern called "Out of the Bag").  Judy works only in tone-on-tones and designs her quilts the same way.  Her finished quilt and most of the ones by the quilters who participated in the challenge reflect that.  My stash has mostly prints so that's what I worked with.  My fabric choices and the limitations thereof forced me to eliminate the float for the center blocks and the inner border that were features in the original design.  But in the end it got done and all but the backing and binding fabric from stash.

This top had been finished since last year and was also on my list for last year's Spring Finish challenge.  So this was long overdue to get done.  My hope at the time was use it as quilt stitch practice and since that goal is the same this year, I still got to do that.  I did freehand Fans (on my DSM) for the first time.  A great all over fill (that's why it's a classic stitch pattern) and not that hard but I will say that if I use it again, I need to use a smaller repeat -- I used an 8" repeat which made it hard to keep the arcs evenly curved and spaced as they got to the larger half rounds.

                          Quilting Detail

The other thing I got done this week was to make the blocks promised for the Bumble Beans Basics House Gather.  I thought this would be a simple block to do so I didn't rush even as the deadline (April 30th) was looming.  Well, it's a good thing Victoria posted that she will still be accepting blocks even after the deadline (the deadline is for a chance at a give-away) since these took me waaayyy longer to do than expected.  I seemed to have a complete block (no pun intended) when it came to doing these.  The first block I did was 1/4" too narrow (they are supposed to finish 10-1/2" square).  I made adustments to some of the cutting specs but still managed to sew the next block too small, sewed parts together wrong or decided to change elements at the last minute.  I wanted to do ten blocks but I admit I reached the limit of my perseverence, so will mail these five out tomorrow.  The good news is that these blocks, along with those submitted by others, will be made into quilts that will be donated to a housing charity in my borough (which is why I refused to completely give up although I was tempted to many, many times).   The other good news is that she is arranging with the organization she is working with to agree to accept completed quilts for future donations (for details see here) and I have a top and back ready that I hope to quilt and donate.

The three other blocks I made that "weren't quite right" went into my "Orphan Block Bag" so will one day become part of a scrap quilt or journal cover and won't go to waste! 

So for next week I need to.....

1. 
   
   Finish the quilting on the Vintage Treasures BOM, get the clamshell binding made and finish the quilt.
2. 
   
   Work on four UGRR/Pioneer blocks (two from each).
3. 
   
   Try, once again, to work on two Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks.
4. 
   
   Restart my sons on sewing strings together for their "Denim Blue Lagoon" quilts and cut string pieced and denim triangles for the blocks.

And when you are finished here, check out what everyone else has planned for the coming week at Bari's Quilter's Accountability Report --- or even better post your own!

  

Flannel Series Finale (For Now)

So this is the latest installment of the "Flannel Series" and the second finish for 2010. As I noted in the previous post, this was one of two kits I got an email about from Keepsake Quilting. It's called "Triangle Trips" and was designed by Keri Nichols of Mountainpeek Creations. 

As I've said (too many times) before, I love flannel quilts and the first one I made (blogged about here) was made to be a couch snuggle but once I finished it and used it, I would not let it leave my bed! The problem was since it was only lap sized, if both my DH and I tried to use it together, a tug of war ensued. So when this kit came out and it was a generous 84" x 84", I knew I had to make it! 

The more masculine colors were an attraction too -- with all the quilts and flower arrangements I already have in our bedroom, I'm always looking to add a little something that the DH can relate to. I also have to admit that being on what's supposed to be a restrained quilting budget, I am a lot more happy to buy a kit that's bed-sized than one that's lap-sized given the fact that the cost of both tend to be almost the same.

This one was started in January while I was house sitting for my cousin while her house was undergoing an energy audit. Over two days, while workers examined her home's exterior, windows, walls, insulation and appliances and evaluated them for energy efficiency, I cut all the fabric into squares to make the triangle squares and the outer border and then sewed all the triangle pairs together. Back home I laid them out on the bed to organize the layout then sewed up the top. As always once I had the top done it was a long while before I set out to quilt it.

I wasn't sure how I wanted it quilted since I wanted the color rounds to remain the focus and preferred an all-over stitch design in order to get the quilting done fast. My original choice was just to do straight lines but I was afraid that would be too boring. The woodsy colors tempted me to consider doing a pictorial scene across the quilt with a river and mountain peaks, forest animals and a campsite scene but at this stage of my quilting skills, I knew that was an ambitious project that I would likely procrastinate on if I tried to tackle it. Eventually, I came across a "pebble" design at Leah Day's blog "365 Days of Free Motion Quilting". Eliminating the "stream" portion of it, this was a perfect union of something within my immediate abilities that I felt also spoke to the colors and feel of the quilt. A picture of the quilting detail and the backing fabric are below:

The quilting took me longer than expected and I wound up using a lot more thread than anticipated but it gives good texture and a rugged look to the quilt. Once again, the backing fabric was a brushed cotton courtesy of AAA Quilters Supply. My name for the quilt is "Manly Yes, But I Like It Too!" since the back is a flowery contrast to the front (and those of you old enough will remember that as the tag line of the Old Spice commercials from the seventies). I really felt that all this quilting did a lot to improve my control when doing free motion and I am encouraged to get moving on the rest of the quilts I have basted from last year.

And a bit of quilting serendipity happened too. Just as I finished the work on this, I thought again about how I still needed more guidance on choosing the quilt stitches for my projects. A long time ago, I had put Lee Cleland's "Quilting Makes The Quilt" on my Amazon wish list. Although the book is over ten years old, even used copies of it have always sold at a premium price. Checking in, as luck would have it, someone offered a copy for about $10. Needless to say I snatched it up! 

When it came, I have to say it is a real education in how different choices of stitches and their placement on the top can really effect the look of a quilt.  In the book, Lee quilts the same quilt five different ways (and at the time, made all the tops herself in order to prepare them for the quilting!) to show the different ways to organize the stitching on various quilt tops. It turned out to be a great companion to another book I bought last year, Christine Maraccini's "Machine Quilting Solutions", a more recent book that takes the same approach -- quilting the same quilt three different ways to consider how the quilt stitches chosen and their placement affect the finished project. Lee is also profiled in another of my favorite quilt books (a must purchase after I read it at the library) "Celebrating Traditions: Quiltmakers in Australia".

The good news is that Jacqui at Tallgrass Prairie Studio is gearing up to host another "Spring Finish" quilt-a-long this year. Maybe participating in that will further motivate me to get to all the quilting I need to do.  Also I must get to the House Blocks I promised to do for Victoria's "House Gather" that she will be making into quilts for charity.  The deadline is April 30th so there is till time if you'd also like to contribute blocks.  And as promised in the last post I hope to get back here soon with some ruminations on my quilting "Bucket List".  Whew!  A lot to do!  Thanks for stopping by!

The Flannel Series Continued

Last week I finished my second finish for 2010 and the latest quilt in the "Flannel Series", so as promised in my last post, I wanted to give the details for both projects.  First up is the finished quilt pictured in that post.

It's called "Flying For Cover". I learned about it when Keepsake Quilting sent me an email last October about projects using flannel.  This was one of two quilts offered as a kits. I thought it was a gorgeous quilt, loved the fact that it was in flannel and probably most important, would fulfill two "Bucket List" desires.  You know, the Bucket List -- the list of quilts you want to make before you "kick the bucket"!  

While I plan to do another post about that later, I will say that the two quilts this satisfied for me was doing a strippy quilt and doing a quilt with (a lot of) Flying Geese.  I wasn't able to purchase the actual kit for this though -- at the time I wanted it Keepsake had it on back order for quite awhile.  I was able to find the sashing and border fabrics ("Two In The Bush" by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studios) at EQuilter.com and the flannel tone-on-tones at Fabric.com and then bought the pattern at Keepsake (which was also sold separately from the kit but also can be purchased from the pattern designer's website).  With everything gathered, I was able to put together my own "kit".  Later, the backing fabric came from AAA Quilters Supply another favorite Internet vendor.

Most of the time when I make a quilt, I am also looking to try new techniques.  In this case doing the Flying Geese allowed me to finally get a chance to use what I call "Eleanor Burn's Two Squares" method of making them.  I saw her demonstrate this when she did the "Pioneer Sampler" and the "Underground Railroad Sampler" on her Quilt In A Day TV shows.  If you've never seen her technique check out Mary's post on this blog or go to the Quilt In A Day channel on Quilters TV.com and watch any of the Pioneer Sampler episodes or any other episodes using what Eleanor calls the "Triangle Pieced Rectangle" method. 

Although the finished units can be squared up with a regular ruler, I knew if I ever did a project with a lot of flying geese, using hers would be easier but I hated the fact that you needed a different ruler (sold separately) for each different size geese (actually each ruler makes two sizes).  I resisted buying them until I was able to get her Mini Ruler set on sale. Unfortunately the mini set didn't make the size needed for this pattern so I wound up also buying the Jumbo set.  Once I started making them, I was hooked (it's such an efficient method) and then wanted all the rulers which I wound up buying before I finished this project!  Prior to this my favorite method was the "five squares" method demonstrated here but now this is my favorite.

Another technique I got to try was Sharon Schamber's hand basting technique.  You can watch videos of it here and here.  It was really easy to do although I disagree with her that it's any faster than pin basting.  She says you can baste any size quilt using this method.  However, you should take note that to do a large quilt like a queen or king size will require a couple of long tables to hold the whole top stretched out end to end.  However for this lap size quilt, my cutting table accommodated it just fine.

This method worked really well, in the end I had no puckers on the back and as she notes in her demo it was very easy to remove the basting stitches as I quilted. While I won't give up pin basting (I baste on my cutting table so physically it is not hard), I definitely would use this technique again as well.

The finished quilt was quilted in a clamshell pattern.  I got that idea from the pattern designer Janet Locey of Henscratch Quilting. In the picture of the quilt on her website, that was what she used and I felt it was doable.  While I have always quilted my own quilts, I am not always confident about doing it before I start.  I started out with the plan to use templates printed on sticky-backed full sheet labels as instructed in the book "One Line At A Time" by Charlotte Warr Anderson, one of the many quilt stitch books I invested in last year.  But after doing two rows across the quilt I felt confident enough to finish the rest of the quilt freehand.  I can't say the clamshells were all even but in the end, the texture on the quilt looked real good.

In the next post I'll detail the latest installment of the Flannel Series.