Quilt Decorating II: Barn Quilt # 2

Back in June I made a Barn Quilt which I posted about here:

It is a quilt decoration that I had always wanted to do to hang on my terrace wall.  I have always planned to make a few so I could switch them out with the seasons.   When my DH had brought me a large board to make the signs with, I cut it into two approximately 24" squares that I figured I could paint on both the front and back and have four different designs.  Not to mention that if I wanted to do a new design, the boards can always be whitewashed and a new design painted over it.

The one I did in June is meant to be a summer piece so now its time for something for the Fall.  Since I have a wreath I also display out there, I wanted to get the sign done fairly early so I could switch to the wreath for late Fall/Thanksgiving and then leave it up but change out the foliage on it for Christmas.  It took me awhile to get the background paint I wanted for it and then to finally get a break between projects to work on it. 

Originally my plan was to use another of the quilt blocks from my original inspiration piece, the "Barn Quilt Trail Midwest Medallion Quilt" by author Suzi Parron.

My plan was to use the leaf design on the center right.  However, I realized there were couple of issues:  the first  was that I wanted more color for the sign and wasn't sure how or where to add it.  The other was that the original orientation of the Medallion block is on-point.  My board already has a hole drilled in it for hanging it "straight set".   So the debate was did I want to have the motif placed as a straight set so then it was oriented on the diagonal or did I want to drill a different hole and try hanging the board "on point"?  I was concerned about whether a hole in the corner would be able to hold the weight of the board and how the new hole would affect the original block that is painted on the reverse side.  I decided to look round for another design I could use.

Eventually I came across this one:

This the "Autumn Fantasy" block and quilt from Judy Martin's "The Creative Pattern Book".  I liked that this block was designed to be straight set and viewed on the diagonal (solves that problem) and loved the range of coloring in it.  Sold!  So after bringing in the Summer barn quilt and cleaning it off, I painted the background, traced off the design and pulled out my little pots of paint. Some colors had to be mixed.  

It took me a few days to tape off and paint sections and then let them dry before moving to the next section. I also added a stem because I felt it helped finish the design.

By the end of the last full week of October, I was almost done with all the painting when I ran into a problem:

I had planned to paint the last section by combining the dark purple on right with the burgundy color on the left.  However, it is a large area and I was out of the burgundy paint and had used up all of my blue paint when I made the summer sign so couldn't even mix up my own.  Truthfully, I also didn't have much of the purple left either.  Time for a change of plans!

It took me a few days to decide on a color.  Some of the block variations in Judy's inspiration quilt used more green in them and I liked the idea of adding more in mine also.  However, I also wondered if brown or some other color might also work.  I wasn't trusting what I was visualizing in my head but didn't want to paint test spots on the actual board that I might have to paint over.  Then I realized I could use the "Draw" function on my phone to test out colors. 

I finally settled on using a medium dark olive green and painted that in.  The last bit of painting was the final narrow border of black painted in around the edge.  Once all the painting and a few little touch-ups were done, it was time to seal it with polyurethane.  It was pretty cold that week so I had to wait for it to get warm enough for that step which finally happened the Sunday before Halloween.  Once finished, here's it hanging:

I'm thrilled to get another one done.  I'll see if I get any feedback (positive or negative) from my neighbors again.  I'm already thinking about spring --- I want to take the other (empty) board I have and do a basket design with some "applique" motifs.  We'll see!

"Call of Duty" T-shirt Couch Quilt Finished!

**Warning: Process Post, long on details, heavy on photos!**

So what do you do when you live in a house full of guys, and your couch looks like this?

Oh, and the guys are all gamers?

You make a t-shirt quilt for your couch out of the guys old t-shirts!

I love my comfy couch but hated the peeling "leather" on the arm.  I had checked out a patch kit at Joann's but it said that it had to be applied from underneath the spot to be repaired.  Since I can't do that with this couch I had to find another option.  Years ago, my DH had gotten a t-shirt for "Call of Duty" as a promotional item with the game.  It was too small for him to wear and the boys didn't want it so I used to drape it on the back of our living room chair because, I admit, I liked the cheddar color in the logo!  Then one day I had draped it over the arm of the couch and liked the way the logo fit perfectly there.  Only problem was that any time someone sat on that end of the couch, they would invariably knock the shirt off the arm so I was constantly putting it back in place.    

Then one day it dawned on me that since I had always wanted to make a t-shirt quilt, why not make one for the couch?  I have kept a lot of our old shirts for a "one day" project and was pretty sure we had some that would coordinate.  From a design standpoint, I figured that if I made it long enough to drape down both sides of the arm of the couch and extended it under the cushions, it would help it stay in place.  The more I looked at the original t-shirt, I realized that after using the front motif there was still a lot of fabric left in the back.  I could use that to make a pocket to hold our TV and cable box remotes and the weekly TV guide from the Sunday paper so that those things no longer needed to lay around either!

Fortunately for me, since a t-shirt quilt has long been on the "To Do" list, I had purchased some t-shirt quilt interfacing two years ago during a sale so with that and a supply of shirts I was ready to rumble! 

I originally picked six shirts that coordinated with the "Call of Duty" shirt.  I wasn't sure which motifs I'd use or how big I would cut them or how much space I wanted to cover.  Some shirts yielded more than one motif.  In the end I picked a group of shirts that could be trimmed to fit the width of the inspiration shirt which was about 24 inches. 

I cut out the motifs from the shirts and backed them with the interfacing and I played around with them until I had a layout I liked.

Of course that meant that some other motifs I had cut wouldn't be used now but are already prepped for use in a later project.

Once I had a layout, I had to decide whether to just sew them together or add sashing.  I opted for sashing but wasn't sure what I wanted for that.  I wanted to keep the colors and patterns muted -- my living room is informal but it's not only a man cave!  Eventually I  found a camouflage fabric that channeled all the shirt background colors and surprisingly was also a knit! 

Laying out the images from the shirts again, I found I didn't need wide sashing.  What was used varies in width but are no wider than 2" (cut) in any area.  Once I interfaced and added the sashing, another motif got eliminated because I swapped in another small motif and then I didn't need the additional length:

The t-shirt interfacing makes the knit fabric thick so when sewn together, seams were pressed open to reduce bulk.  I had a remnant piece of "Star Trek" flannel I had picked up earlier this year.  Between the fact that it is one of my DH's favorite shows and I love flannel quilt backs, this was obviously destined for this project!

With the now heavier knits and flannel for the back,  I knew I needed a lightweight batting.  The lightest batting I already had in house that was close to the size of the project was some fusible fleece. 

Fortunately the top was not wide so I could cut this up and "Frankenstein" it back together to have a piece of batting the right dimensions for the project.  After picking out threads from the stash for the quilting (sorry for the fuzzy picture):

....and once it was all layered up (easy since the fleece batting was 2-sided fusible), you know what's next:  how to quilt it?  

I started by "stitching in the ditch" around the sashing to both stabilize the top and define the sashing areas.  After that, I took this as an opportunity to try get in some Free-motion practice.  There's a little bit of everything here:  On the Olive shirt I did Stippling.  On the Black shirt I did a free-motion rendition of a design from a pantograph I saw on-line.  For the big "Call of Duty" header, I just outlined the logo and did some organic (no marking) free-motion vertical line background fill:

Although you can't see them in this picture, on the black shirt there are some minute "pokies" of the white backing thread coming up to the top.  At first I was a little concerned about that but I ended up liking that they mirrored the "flaked off" condition of the t-shirt motif!  (That t-shirt is for Microsoft OS (operating system) 2 so you KNOW how old THAT shirt is!!)

For the pocket piece I took the back of the "Call of Duty" shirt, interfaced it, folded it in half and quilted it with a piece of the leftover fleece sandwiched between the halves.  I did the same straight line fill for the pocket but did it horizontally and with a walking foot because I had trouble maneuvering the smaller section by free-motion (stitched a few lines, struggled with it, ripped them out and changed machine feet and method).  When I attached it to the top, I stitched it down in two places to create three pockets: 

On the light grey basketball shirt,  the printed motif is raised and rather rubbery so I decided to stick to quilting just around the edge of it with a "rounded rays" design I had used before on this quilt.  On the black Kung Fu shirt, the motif and words were outlined and then echo quilted.  On the small light grey section (the later addition which was also cut from the basketball shirt), it was supposed to be basketballs and pebbling but by this time I was rushing to finish this up so the balls didn't get conveyed too well.  Oh well....

Once the big sections were done, I went back in with the walking foot and stitched about a quarter inch away from the sashing seams and in some of the wider sashing sections also stitched down the middle of them. 

I bound the whole thing with more of the camouflage fabric although this time with no interfacing, so it's applied as double fold binding.  I actually had to do two different widths of binding: 2-1/2" for the three sides and 3" around the pocket area since it was six layers thick.  The binding was attached by machine, front to back and then glue basted onto the back to make it easier to do the front finishing "stitching in the ditch".    I did however have to hand sew it when I overlapped the 3" binding over the ends of the 2-1/2" binding with a fake mitered "join".  

And with that, this one is in the can!  Onto some seasonal decor projects!

Quilt Decorating I: Barn Quilts

When I did my "Get It Done!" recap for June, I said I would do a detail post on the Barn Quilt I made. This is the picture of it that I had shared before (as it's seen from street level):

Hmmm, that's a little hazy.  Need to take another picture of it!

.....and here it is close up:

I've always wanted to do a barn quilt for my terrace wall.  In the past, I have displayed a large grape ivy wreath there during the fall/winter seasons.  I'd decorate it with faux fall foliage and then drape it with evergreen pine boughs and ornaments for the Christmas holiday.  I've also always loved the articles I've read about Barn Quilts.   Since I'm big on using quilts as decoration, I figured that as a quilter, an exterior quilt block would be another way to announce my "hobby" to the world.  My plan was to use the signs for outside decoration in the spring and summer months.

I had mentioned this more than a few times to my DH.  One day in 2013 he found a big board of 3/4" thick pressed plywood discarded along his delivery route (he used to be a UPS driver but now drives their tractor trailers) and brought it home for me wondering if I could use it to make the "signs" I had so often talked about.  I was encouraged by his support since usually when I do these DIY type things he's skeptical (aka, thinks I'm a crazy lady) at best.  After getting the wood that year, I finally bought my own circular saw (always wanted one!) and cut the board down into two approximately 24" square pieces.  I figured I could paint on both the front and back of each and have four different block designs to make and display. 

We have a big heavy nail driven into the back wall of our terrace that was left from the previous tenants (good because we are technically not allowed to nail into the outer walls).  It's the same one I hang the wreath from so I drilled a hole in the top of each board for that.  I stocked up on water based craft paint at the local Michael's when they had sales.  But I admit I dragged my feet about the actual painting, primarily stalled about what block designs I wanted to do and what colors I wanted to use.   

Then in 2014 I saw that the always inspiring Elaine, who blogs at "Elaine Adair Pieces", posted about a Barn Quilt she painted as a gift for a friend.  Check out her work on it here:
 

http://elaineadairpieces.blogspot.com/2014/07/making-quilt-barn-blocks.html

 

Elaine had also previously painted some blocks on the side of her "barn" (aka her garage):

 

http://elaineadairpieces.blogspot.com/2013/08/barn-blocks-lady-of-lake.html

 

When I saw Elaine's post, my enthusiasm for the project was renewed!  She and I exchanged a couple of emailed conversations about what she had done and I realized that there were quite a few tips shared in her posts (oh, the power of blogging!) that gave me the confidence to push forward on this again.  Unfortunately, I had read her post towards the end of September so decided to wait until the next spring to try again.  Yeah, that would have been Spring of 2015 --- well, better late than never!  When this year's Spring season started late and I finally got my terrace cleared off and planting set up after Memorial Day, I decided that this would be the year to finally get this project done!

One of the first helpful tips in Elaine's post was to treat wood that's not smooth by sanding it a bit before painting.  I had always planned to paint a base coat first but found the next tip in her post -- to use an oil-based house paint as the base coat -- to be another very good idea since mine would hang outside in the elements.  I had also always planned that after using the craft paint for the block colors, I was going to seal the whole thing with polyurethane afterwards to further protect the design from the elements. 

The other good tip I got from her post was the idea of being conscious of using good contrast when choosing the colors for your blocks.  The wall my block would hang against is red brick so when I started to consider colors, it was like we always say in quilting "color gets all the credit but value (and contrast) does all the work"!  So I took that into account when I began to look around for a good quilt block to render.  Fortunately, just then I got the monthly e-newsletter from Quilting In the Country and it featured the popular "Barn Quilt Trail Midwest Medallion Quilt" by author Suzi Parron as a Block of the Month project. 

Note:  Quilting in The Country is no longer operating as a retail shop but still offers items online, although not this one.  If you're interested in a kit for the Medallion quilt, you can find it at Connecting Threads.

My eye was drawn to the block in the upper left hand corner.  I loved the blue and white and the use of orange, an analogous color to red, made it a perfect color combination for the patriotic summer months, not to mention pleasing to me as a NY Mets fan!  So with Elaine's tips and now a firm block plan in place, I was ready to go.
 

From cutting table to painting station!

I set about working on it just prior to my MIL (also a quilter) coming to stay with us for the second time this year, deciding that this would be a good "welcome" piece for the house.  So even if my neighbors or passers-by didn't appreciate it, I knew my guest would!   It took me altogether about a week to paint and dry the white base layer on both sides and the edges (done outdoors on the terrace), tape off and paint the different color sections (done indoors as seen above), touch up some spots after removing the tape and then seal it with a coat of spray polyurethane (back outdoors again). 

The good news is that when it was finished and hung, I did get compliments  on it from my neighbors too (as well as the opportunity to explain what a Barn Quilt is and that no, it was not made of fabric)!  On the Medallion quilt,  I also like the block in the lower right corner too.  If I can stay productive as I finish out the summer, I might paint that one to display in the early fall before putting the wreath out.  This was a fun project and another great way to bring quilty goodness into one's life!

Get It Done! June Recap, July Goals

Once again, I'm a day late getting this done!  It was also another busy month so not as much accomplished on my part as hoped.  My MIL returned to NC on Monday after staying with us for a week to attend my youngest son's high school graduation.  We did get some quilting done --- but all of it was on her projects!  With my help, we worked on the designs for two lap quilt tops which she completed and we started work on a third.  I also invited one of her friends to come stitch with us last Saturday.  I had taught both of them to quilt and we used to sew together at my MIL's house when she still lived here in New York.  Their friendship started when they were co-workers, then they scrapbooked together and now both are obsessed fully committed to quilting!  We helped her friend design a pieced back for a baby quilt and she brought her new sewing machine and we helped her learn about some of its features.  Between coaching and hosting, I forgot to take pictures!

I truly appreciate the value of a quilt retreat now --- had I not been preparing for guests and hosting, I might have gotten more done myself.  Note to self:  in the future, I have to set up some "mindless sewing" tasks if I'm hosting --- something that only needs to just be run through the machine.  I need a "no thinking involved" project if I want to be able to be productive while hosting and teaching.

With regards to the June list, here's what happened:

1. Quilt CW Chronicles:  NOT DONE

 

 

The plan was to quilt this project from the March GID list to use on our new high riser beds.  I had planned to set them up pushed together to offer the equivalent of a King size bed.  However, the guest plans changed from my MIL coming with her husband to my MIL coming with her sister.  That meant needing the two twin beds to stay separate and since I already had quilts for them and with so much else to do in preparation, I decided to put this one on the back burner again. 

2. The T-shirt Quilt :  STARTED

I did get this one from April's GID list at least started.  The above picture was of the shirts I had picked out for this project back in April.   Using a pack of t-shirt quilt interfacing I had bought sometime last year, I only managed to get it attached to the shirts, cut out the elements I wanted to use and start working on the layout. 

I've decided I want to add sashing also cut from the shirt backs so have more fusing and cutting to do and found that hard to focus on with company around.  So this one, which is the first time I've attempted to make this type of quilt, will also be an ongoing project.     

3. Pastel baby quilt: NOT DONE

  

 

This is a commission project that I still need to work out the color placement for.  Again not something I could do while paying attention to company so it too moves forward. 

4. Graduation quilt:  NOT DONE

 

This is a gift project for a family friend who is finishing up a degree.  It also needs some thought given to fabric placement as well as some more stash enhancement!  Like the previous project, that was not something I could do with company around so work on it will have to move forward too. 

5. Quilts Of Valor:   NOT DONE
 

A shot of the stash storage!

The plan to start on these had already made an appearance on the May list and I had really expected to get a chance to pick a project and start work on these with my guests.  But again, I should have done all that before they got here so I was ready to just sew.  I'm hoping to use the July 4 holiday weekend to finally get started on this. 

6.  (Not a quilt but quilt related)  Terrace Barn Sign  Quilt:  DONE!

Well at least I did get something done even if it wasn't with fabric!  I think it looks pretty good and two of my neighbors complemented it as well.  Last month I called it a "barn sign" but after doing some research on the topic, I stand corrected:  it is actually a "barn quilt".  I will do a separate post on the details soon.

Oh, and not "officially" on the list but mentioned:   I also did get to augment, with batting, the pillow form for the CW repro pillow I had made.  My not-so-filled pillow went from this:

...to this....

....so now resides on the chair with the Kaye England "CW Legacy" quilt.

 

This was made from my repro leftovers using the "Fussy-Cut Flowers" Pillow  pattern on the American Patchwork & Quilting website.  It also gave me a chance to use my Accuquilt Go! cutter to cut out the applique circles with fusible attached.

For July, the list consists of all the carryovers:

1. Quilts Of Valor.  Moving this to the top of the list since I hope to work on it some this weekend.
2. The T-shirt Quilt.  Next priority since I need it for the house.
3. Pastel baby quilt. Like to get this commission job done.
4. Graduation quilt:  Much like the QOVs, if not done, at least started.
5. Quilt CW Chronicles:  This one is long overdue and I'm actually looking forward to doing some custom quilting on it so fingers crossed I finally get to it.

With all the major family commitments now done, I'm looking forward to being able to actually focus on all the things I personally want to do for the rest of the summer.  Let's see if I can make that dream happen!

"High Strung + 2" Is A "Book It!" Finish!

It took a while but it's finally done!!!
 

And a great shot with a new lighting system I set up!

This quilt just goes to show that you do not have to make each quilt in a book individually, you can combine elements of a few into one project!  "High Strung + 2" is made with a combination of motifs from quilts in the book "Tis the Season:  Quilts and Other Comforts" by Jeanne Large and Shelley Wicks.   From the book, I combined the overall design of "High Strung":

....with the Stars and Circles from "Holiday Stars Trio":

 ....and a Reindeer from  "To All A Good Night":

These aren't the only designs I've used from this book -- I also made their quilt "Vintage Cherries".  Mine was called "Vintage Cherries For Valentines" because the colors they used made me think of chocolate covered cherries!  That one was finished last year (pictured below) and has been hanging on the back of my couch in celebration of the holiday this month.

For "High Strung + 2", if you are interested in a little (ok, a lot) of process then read on.....

My original plan for the year was that I'd start it off hand quilting a wholecloth project.  However, when my sewing machines went out just before Christmas, I realized it was an opportunity to finish up some other projects by hand instead of by machine as originally intended.  I decided that one of them would be this holiday quilt.  I had started it in December 2014 with plans to have it ready for that Christmas but that didn't happen.  I then worked to complete the top in January of 2015 and figured that with the rest of the year to complete it, it would be ready for the holiday at the end of the year.  The machine fiasco nixed that plan and if this quilting hobby has taught me anything, it is that persistence is the key to a finish!   

After learning to hand quilt in 2010, I have long wanted to try the "Big Stitch" version of it.  My decision to try it with this project was advanced when Craftsy had a year-end sale and I saw a set of Valdani threads for sale.  These were the threads as they were pictured on the site:

The green variegated (2nd row, third from the left) with what looked like purple or burgundy, the light gold (next to it) and the red (1st row, third from the left) all seemed perfect for using on the High Strung quilt.  So I worked on hand basting the quilt while I waited for the thread to arrive.  However when they did arrive, I was a little taken aback because what I received actually looked like this:

Important lesson here:  I've learned over the years that when buying fabric over the internet you have to take the color presented on screen "with a grain of salt" meaning you have to allow for the possibility that the color may vary some or even a lot from what is rendered on screen. If you want exact matches to something, you are better off shopping in person in a LQS or craft store.  Now I know that's also true for thread!  However Craftsy is not to be faulted in this case.  When I took pictures of the spools, the initial shots (both in natural light and under flash) looked like this:

As you can see this shot is pretty close to what Craftsy showed!  The picture I used earlier which is (to my eye) closer to what the spools actually look like in person, had to be taken nestled deep in my couch to get that image.  So the issue here is that these threads really seem to react to the light around them when it comes to picture taking although I do believe that the green/purple/burgundy variegated was actually substituted with a completely different color thread.  In any event, the less variegated green, the cream/tan (what had looked white in the original Craftsy picture) and the red would still work for this quilt so I changed my expectations a bit and moved on, albeit starting on the stitching a little later than I had planned. 

So, after hand basting the quilt (to stick with the "Hand Work" theme):

.....it took some time to "Quilt Whisper" this one.  I really wanted to follow the swirl of the "stars and circles chain" so that was my first stitch choice.  I also wanted to do a "seed stitch" style of quilting in the top section.  This is a warm-up for quilting my Heart & Home top since I had an idea to do something like it on that one too.  I ended up stitching these much bigger than I originally envisioned.  I started out making them very small but then ripped those out in favor of these bigger stitches.  


Not sure you can see it here, it was hard to get a good shot of these.

 

I did very little marking when I started stitching the bottom section so unfortunately while I started off good, when I came around the bottom instead of following the last star and circle down, I went up.  So while I think that diminished the impact of the swirl, the overall texture of the background still looks good. 

Another feature I liked for this quilt is the reindeer harness.  I managed to dig out a scrap of some faux leather I had laying around.  Initially, I had attached some silver beads to embellish it that were pretty hard to secure.  I did it by trying to sew a big French knot through the bead before basting the quilt.  Unfortunately as I worked on the quilting, the beads began popping off!

Fortunately, during the course of working on this I had signed up for and attended an introductory jewelry making course at a local Joann's store (yeah, I know, like I really need another hobby!).  To prepare for the class I had gone through some supplies of my mother's that I had.  At one point she had started making earrings and embellishing felt tams.  I truly lucked up when I found these among the things from her stash:

Little Jingle Bells!  Perfect!  Also good is that they had a shank on the back so were much easier to attach even with having to do that after the quilting!   Another hurray for sticking to a theme!

The green and burgundy fabrics, the applique background and the red border and binding fabrics were all cottons from Connecting Threads "Prim Pennies" line from two years ago with a few injections of other green fabrics from their "Candy Basics" line and the green plaid with orange is from their line called "Mix It Up!".  The applique motifs were flannel scraps and stash from the making of my "Flying For Cover" and "Triangle Trips" quilts back in 2010.  The finished wall hanging is 45" x 65-1/2". 

Looks like, for once, I'll be ready with Christmas decorations before the holiday for a change!  If you'd like to see what other projects from books have been made this month, head on over to Sharon's at Vrooman's Quilts.  You might just see a project that has been sitting on your bookshelf waiting for you!