Catching Up On June Pt2: NewFOs and the Red, White & Blue Phase

In my last post, I showed my "Valor" UFO quilt finish.  However, that was not all that went on this month.  There was also a lot of NewFO fun going on:

On the left is the "Star Spangled" (finished) table runner, in the center is a "Quilts of Gee's Bend - Blocks and Strips" lap quilt flimsie and on the right is "Tribute", a (finished) mini quilt.  If you viewed the "Valor" quilt post, you probably recognize the fabric used for the runner and the mini -- they were both also made from Pat Sloan's "Tribute" fabric line from 2011 (which still can be found around the web as of today).

UFOs have been my primary focus this year and getting "Valor" done was part of that.  I had discovered the "Valor" kit in the Spring 2011 issue of Fabric Trends For Quilters (now Quilt Trends) magazine.  It had been designed to showcase Pat Sloan's (then) new line of fabric for P&B Textiles called "Tribute".  But also in that issue was a lap quilt called "Tribute" also designed by Pat.  I loved that it was made from the same fabrics as "Valor" as well as that it had applique on it.  Back then I had just learned how to do hand applique about six months prior so was on the lookout for projects to try my new skills on.  Having already decided to buy the "Valor" kit, I had hoped that like most kits, there might be a generous amount of fabric left from the primary project that could help jump start this one too.

"Valor" was completed as a top in 2011 but not quilted until this year.  By this time I had also purchased the Gee's Bend kit and looked forward to making it to display on my (brown) couch during the summer months between Memorial Day and July 4th.  So I didn't have a need for another patriotic colored lap quilt even though I still wanted very much to make Pat's "Tribute".  So the solution:  make it a MINI! 

The original lap quilt was designed to finish at 40"x 46".  My mini finished at a little larger than 14"x 16".  With the piece that small, I didn't do any hand applique after all (this was all fused with zigzag around the edges) but I did get to really stretch my ability to figure out just how small to go with all the design elements and still make the quilt look like the original.  I did have to change a few of the fabrics and eliminate a few design elements to make it all work but in the end, I think it's a pretty good approximation of the original.  I was particularly aided in that process by Quiltmaker Magazine editor Diane Harris' blog article on "Fabric Scale" that appeared on the Quilty Pleasures blog during the week I was working on this project.  What's even better is that I have a display space in my dining room for mini quilts so this patriotic beauty will get to be on display ALL year long!

The other new finish was a table runner called "Star Spangled".  The pattern for it appeared in a magazine:  Quiltmaker's July/August 2011 issue.  I think I had received it just around the time I was either contemplating or had already purchased the "Valor" kit.  So of course it was another case of "hey, this will be great for the kit leftovers!". 

 

As noted when I talked about "Valor" in the last post, I had actually purchased some more of this fabric line during a Fourth of July sale at Fabric.com.  During that sale I also picked up that Obama 2008 print.  When plans to display it somewhere else in the house were preempted, I decided to take a little of it and use it for the backing on this runner.  "Valor" will be displayed off of our terrace on July 4th and while sitting out there I can also use "Star Spangled".

And last but not least is this flimsie made from one of the "Quilts of Gee's Bend-Quilter's Collective History" Kits by Windham Fabrics.  The design is based on an original quilt by Loretta P. Bennett that was interpreted for the kit by Debby Kratovil and the fabrics are all hand dyes.

I realize that a kit is probably an ironic choice for attempting a quilt in the style of a Gee's Bend quilter since their quilts are truly improvisational and "make do" fabric-wise.  But I really chose this because I liked the colors of the quilt and haven't had an opportunity to use hand dyes before.  Oh and there's the fact that the kit was on sale and I love a good kit sale!  I've also been warming up to "modern" quilts and thought this design reminded me of the modern style.  I'm actually planning to try some of the modern quilt stitch patterns when I get around to quilting this.  It was extremely quick to make up -- definitely a "quilt in a day" because that's exactly how long it took to make! Although that time did not include pre-washing the fabrics (something I never do but highly recommended for these fabrics) and the cutting. 

I've seen another one of these kits for a good price so might buy and make another one.  I have a vow that along with UFO busting I want to complete any new projects I start this year so that I don't  add to the UFO pile I'm trying to whittle down.  But for now, this one will sit for awhile as I move back to projects already on the UFO list. 

I'll link this post to Barbara's June NewFO linky at the CatPatches blog once it's up.  Bye for now!

Catching Up On June Pt1: Another Quarter 2 Finish: Valor

I haven't blogged all month but you'll see from this and the next post that June was a busy quilting month for me.  First up:  UFO #2 for this quarter (and #4 for the year) is done!  Pat Sloan's Valor quilt is quilted and bound!

Edited to add:  The link to my original Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long List is here.

This one started back in 2011, the year we moved.  I first saw it in the Spring 2011 issue of Fabric Trends For Quilters (now Quilt Trends) magazine (when Mark Lipinski was still the Editorial Director).  I don't know what attracted me more: that it was a Pat Sloan design (of whom I'm a big fan) *OR* the Red,  White and Blue fabrics which I had been collecting because I'd been jonesing to make some Quilts Of Valor *OR* the Lemoyne stars (which gave me an excuse to invest in Deb Tucker's tool) *OR* that it came in a kit which (as always) I was suckered persuaded into believing that would mean a fast turnaround for the quilt *OR* the "dream" that I could have a new quilt to display in our house for the patriotic holidays.

Probably all of the above was enough to make me ignore unpacking boxes that year and rushing to buy the kit and few additional pieces from the "Tribute" fabric line which Pat had designed for P&B Textiles and had been newly introduced that year (and still can be found around the web).  The additional pieces that I purchased were not used in the quilt so were not included in the kit.  Unfortunately I didn't get started on it until right before the July 4th holiday that year (and in fact worked on it all during the holiday) and finally finished the top by the end of that month.  I thought it would get quilted before the next year's holiday rolled around but that was not to be so.  And this year it was on my list to be quilted in April, then got bumped up to the May schedule and yet still took until this month to complete.  But a finish, is a finish no matter how long it takes to get there!

Pat's instructions called for the Sawtooth and Lemoyne Stars to be made using triangle squares (HSTs) but I made the Sawtooth star points as Flying Geese blocks and used my favorite method for those:  Eleanor Burns rulers and what she calls the "Triangle Pieced Rectangle" method.  I call it the "Two Squares" method because that's all it takes:  two squares and sewing 1/4" on both sides of a center diagonal line twice and then you have four geese!  You can see Eleanor herself demonstrating the method here.  It should be noted that in the video Eleanor also squares up the blocks with a regular ruler but I will say that using her rulers (if you are willing to make that investment) does make the trimming go faster.

And what can I say about Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star ruler except that "I'm a complete convert"!  I always shied away from making Lemoynes because of the diamond unit cutting and set-in seams.  With her ruler and instructions, Deb has made it possible to strip piece these and sew them together with regular (straight) seams.  Now I'm collecting Lemoyne quilt ideas because I want to do more, more, more with this one!  I also love and have used her Tucker Trimmer ruler and have the Hunter Star ruler but haven't tried using that one just yet (yep, I'm a gadget fanatic!).

It should be noted that using these two methods meant I wound up being a little short on the background fabrics from the kit but as always the Quilt Muses were looking out for me.  Fabric.com just happened to have a "Red, White & Blue" fabric sale the week I started on this and was carrying the fabric line at that time so I was able to do a little discounted stash enhancement to help continue the journey (as well as start some new ones as you'll see in the next post).

So very happy to be 2 for 3 for this quarter and look forward to hanging this one outside off of our terrace for the July 4th holiday!

Thoughts From the Bloggers Quilt Festival

Whew!  I just finished viewing the last of the catgories for Amy Ellis' Bloggers Quilt Festival and voting for my favorites.  This is the fifth year Amy has hosted this online event which she holds twice a year in conjuction with the vendor Quilt Markets. 

Like all of the previous years, this was a great festival -- truly a chance to see what so many quilters around the world are working on.  This year Amy did it in a new format -- rather than just having one huge linky list, quilters added their projects into specific catagories like Bed Quilts, Wall Quilts, Hand Quilted, Art Quilts, ect.  This definitely made it less overwhelming to view all the entries.  

However, I also realized something while deciding what to vote for in each catagory.  Trying to choose between all the beautiful quilts I saw, I felt like I got a taste of what it must be like to be a Quilt Show Judge.  There were times when it was really, really hard to choose just one favorite.  Years ago, I listened to one of Annie Smith's podcasts where she talked about her experiences as a judge and what quilters entering contests should keep in mind about the process.  I did find all of what she said to be true as I tried to make my own selections from all the online entries.

I now really get the challenges involved when you have to try to pick a favorite from 50 or 60 quilts in a catagory.  Your first reaction will be to narrow it down by going for the visual --- choosing those quilts that most catch your eye.  You may like a lot of the quilts but there will probably be just a few that stand out visually above the rest to you.  With the online show, I found that then reading the stories behind them often influenced whether a quilt stayed in the running or not.  Maybe it was the effort the quilter had to put into getting the quilt from idea to finish or the inspiration behind the quilt or unique materials or techniques that were used (or invented) to make it.  I don't know if show judges have that information when they judge but for this festival it definitely was a factor. 

Another judging quilbble is making sure your quilt is in the right catagory.  There were a few instances in the festival where I saw quilts I liked but not for the catagory it was in.  In those instances, juding a quilt based on what the catgory is supposed to represent meant it scored lower for me than it would have if it had been placed in what I believed was a more appropriate catagory for it.  This is also something I've read is true for live judged shows.

The limitation of judging an online quilt show like this is that you can't actually see the quilt in person.  Bad pictures really work against the maker (something that I know I need to work on for my own projects).  This is also something that I've read is true when people send their quilt entries in for initial selection even before judging.

I have to say that even taking into account what I liked about some quilts it was still hard to choose just one to vote for!  So now I understand why at the quilt shows, the skill of construction of the quilt comes into play.  When faced with two quilts both equally visually beautiful, well executed, and with equally successful interpretations of design or theme, the only other factor that might distinguish the two might be how well it was made -- right down to the last stitch!  As quilters, we laugh when people tell us about judging critiques that talk about "the fullness of the binding (or lack thereof)" or being chided for "not hiding knots in the back of the quilt" or "uneven quilt stitching".  But if you're in the position where you  HAVE TO make a choice and some seemingly inconsequential issue is all that seperates one outstanding quilt from another, you're going to use it! 

This also brings to mind something else Annie said: that quilters need to remember that there is no doubt that judging does have a big subjective element to it.  Beyond the established or outlined judging criteria, a judge also brings their own preferences to the table.  So a judge that prefers hand work might boost that over an equally beautiful machine done quilt.  Or if you like intricate piecing over "liberated" or favor original works over intrepretations of published pattens those things may sway your vote towards a particular quilt.  As a quilter however, this also means that you must take judging comments and choices with a grain of salt.  You must remember that your quilt is not being judged just on its own merits, it is competing against other quilts.  Not winning or getting a ribbon DOES NOT mean your quilt is bad, it just means that when all the factors came together, someone else's quilt pushed more of the judges' buttons than yours did in this particular show.

All that said, all I can say is "thank goodness for Viewers Choice" --- although even there I could have really use more than one vote!  This is the chance for you to elevate a quilt that held a particular appeal for you towards the award platform.  We should all make it a point to take the time to fill out those Viewers Choice cards at any show we go to and give a boost to the quilts that might not "take the cake" but do "steal our hearts".

Bloggers Quilt Festival -- Spring 2013

It's been a while since I've posted so what better way to get back in the groove than to participate in the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Martingale quilt author Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side.

 This is a wonderful biannual tradition that was pioneered by Amy and allows quilters and non-quilters alike to sample all the glorious creativity going on in the quilting world today.  This is the first time in a few years that I've had something finished in time to coincide with the festival so I'm excited to contribute again.

The project I'm offering up is my Brrr! quilt in the Throw Quilt category.  Finishing at 65" x 88" it's large for a throw but too small to consider it a true bed quilt for my queen bed even though that's where I plan to display it during the winter months.

I'm happy to say that this one was a UFO that had been sitting around since 2009 awaiting quilting but is now finally done!  The pattern is "Brrr Park" by Minick & Simpson and made from their Moda fabric line "Winter" from a kit purchased in 2008 from Keepsake Quilting.  The backing, a lovely flannel (one of my favorite kinds of fabric) was also purchased from Keepsake.  I thought the theme of it was the perfect complement to the patten design.

I didn't make this right after purchasing it for one reason:  all those Half Square Triangle Squares (known in the quilt world as HSTs)!  I was put off by the prospect of making so many HSTs (there are 40 in each tree and another 166 around the first border).  The thing that jumpstarted the project for me at the time was Quilt-Pro coming out with their Print & Sew: Triangle Magic software.  This allows you to print out a sheet of paper (letter or legal, your choice) with HST sewing and cutting lines on it for the finished size HST you need.  Then you layer your fabrics right sides together, sew on the sewing lines, cut on the cutting lines and voila you have anywhere from 4 - 48 HSTs (again depending on the finished size needed) done in no time!

These were not from this project but you get the idea!

Brenda Henning also makes a similar program called Trianglulations that will do the same thing.  I highly recommend them if you have a project that calls for making gobs of HSTs (and any of you still waiting to start your Civil War Chronicles BOM will know what I mean!)

Once the top was made and promptly layered, this quilt sat around waiting for quilting.  I've spent the last few years trying to build up my machine quilting confidence.  Every machine quilting expert says that you have to put in the time on the machine to get better at it and they are absolutely right.  Every project I do shows some improvement in my stitching and (to use Carla Barrett's term), "quilt whispering" (deciding what to stitch where).  I particularly had a lot of fun with that on this quilt as I did a lot of different motifs:

Swirls

Free-form interpretive on the Trees

Snowflakes

Scriptwriting/Words

...and even a little straight-line stitching with a walking foot

As I often do with quilts that will be displayed on the bed, I also stitched up some coordinating accessories to go with it.

The print pillowcases and the neckroll cover were made from fabric from Moda's "Figgy Pudding" line by Basic Grey from a few years ago.  Now I just have to wait for Winter to return (but there's no rush there I assure you)!

So thanks for stopping by and please continue on your tour of all the fabulous projects being presented in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  Postings will be added through Friday 5/24.  Then you can vote on your favorites in each category from 5/27 - 5/30 and the winners will be announced on 5/31!  Enjoy the rest of the show!!

Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long List

So with April underway and the posting of my results for the first quarter of the Finish-A-Long done, I want to get a jump on listing my plans for the second quarter.

In this corner we have the following UFOs to tackle:

1.  Crazy Quilt Jewelry Roll and Pouch:  Finish embellishment/quilting and bind.

I started a jewelry roll and pouch for a friend of mine back in 2007.  The top is finished and it's all layered but I got stumped because I wanted to embellish it and couldn't get focused about what I wanted to do.  I thought inspiration would have hit over time but instead I got waylaid by other projects.  I've known my friend long enough that she hasn't hassled me about it until this year.  When she asked about it, I agreed with her that it's time to get this one underwraps.

As a further incentive, Thearica of the Pigtails and Quilts blog wrote on the HGTV Quilts and Needlework Forum a post about hosting an online Crazy Quilt competition in May.  I realized that once again this is a "kill two birds with one stone" opportunity:  to finish an old UFO and participate in a challenge.  Unfortunately, the piece you submit has to not have been seen before so I won't be able to show it until I have it ready to enter in the competition.

2. Heart & Home Wool BOM:  Finish blocks and top, quilt and bind.

I had started work on this one when Sinta began hosting her BOM Rehabs at her Pink Pincushion blog but again got waylaid by other projects and overwhelmed by a new love of all things wool.  This one was going to be a wallhanging for my bedroom.  However, recently I found another wool wallhanging project that is more "spring" like so would like to finish both and have this one for the fall/winter seasons.

3. Valor:  To be Quilted.

This was originally planned to be hung outside for the July 4th holiday in 2011 but I didn't get it finished for either that year or 2012.  So hopefully third year's the charm!





4. Civil War Chronicles (BOM):  To be Quilted.

This is the next up in my Civil War quilt series.  It's a bigun' and I'll have to give some thought to the quilting of it given my experiences with the Dresdens project (for more on that see this post).



5.  Brrr catch-up:  Finish Quilting, Bind.

Ambitious, but I would also really like to get the Brrr! quilt (from last quarter's FAL list) finished up.  Each day I have it laying out, my desire increases to finish it.  Hopefully before the quarter ends, that desire will push me over to actually working on it.



It should be noted that with each of these projects, I also have a new side project or two that I'd also like to try to work on along with the UFO.  Needles to say, expectations are that this will be a very busy quarter!!

I'll be linking this list to the Finish-A-Long linky when it's up on April 8th. 

Taking the Process Pledge

On my last post about the aborted quilting on the Brrr! quilt, I took the time to do a little "process" blogging.  If you are not familiar what that is, if you read a lot of quilt blogs, I'm sure you've seen the buttons around and about.  Back in 2010, Rossie a modern quilter blogging at the "Rossie Blog" blog, did a post that talked about seeing more posts where crafters talk about how they moved along the path to creative quilting (along a lot of other things related to defining the modern quilting movement and the origins of "original" design) . 

I have to admit I'm often as intrigued by the route a finished project takes as I am about the finish!  I keep a very detailed quilt journal for my own purposes but have also always felt I should do a little of that on the blog too.  I won't talk as much about my projects as I do in my journal since my posts are already too long!  But I do now want to start posting in a little more detail about how a project gets from idea to a finish.  For me that might even hopefully make for shorter, more pithy posts!

So I am taking the "Process Pledge" and vow to talk more about how my projects progress from here on in.  If you'd like to do that too, link up on Rossie's blog here and download the button below to show your allegiance to all access project blogging.

Q1 FAL Fallout

So I posted the finish I did get done for the first quarter here so now it's time to turn to what I didn't get done and why (and a  chance to do a little process blogging).

My first quarter list had four projects, three "official" projects and a bonus project that I hoped could squeeze in if I made good progress.  Item #3 and the bonus were two mystery quilts from Planet Patchwork that I wanted to complete.  One was from this January's New Years mystery. 

It still needs some border work and then quilting. 








The other is the Thanksgiving mystery from 2007 and only needs to be quilted.

My plan is to try some "Modern Quilting" (ala Angela Walters) on both of these so I want to work on them together.  Didn't happen in the first quarter and since I've already kind of scheduled out what I want to get done this year, I am not sure now when, if or how I will squeeze these back in later.


At the top of my list for Q1 was my Brrr! Park quilt.  It was a quilt designed by Minik & Simpson that I purchased as a kit from Keepsake Quilting back in 2008 and finished the top, layered and pin basted in late 2009.  But it was not until this year, after finishing the #2 item on my list, I started on the quilting of this late in March and really thought I'd push it through right up to the end.  But I had chosen some rayon thread to quilt it with and that was ultimately my undoing.  Surprisingly right up to the Friday before the end of the month, I had this much done:

The quilting plan was to first quilt stabilizing outline stitching around the blocks and borders with a cotton thread in cream.  This quilt has a flannel back and had been lying round pin basted since 2009 and admittedly the back seemed a bit "puffy".  I thought the stabilizing stitching would smooth that all out but I was definitely wrong on that one!  I wound up ripping out all the three days (!) of stitching I had done, completely re-basting the quilt and then re-sewing all the stabilizing stitching (although this time I got it done in one day)!! Lesson: baste only when you are ready to sit down and quilt.  Next step was to quilt tree trunks with bare branches over the tree blocks. 

I was using a light aqua blue rayon thread in the top I had picked up at some point during the years while waiting to work on this.  Continuing with that thread (and with the cream cotton still in the bobbin), I had different "Winter Words"phrases planned for the setting triangles around the edges of the top's center.

Finishing up with the blue thread, I decided on doing continuous curve stitching through the HSTs in the first border and then would do the cream halves when I changed over to cream thread in the top for the remainder of the quilting.

The first stitching with the cream thread was to quilt snowflakes randomly through the center of the top and fill around it with free motion swirls (note: this is three of the four flakes I had finished and was supposed to finish the other four and the fill on the last Saturday in March).

The final stitching was to be some straight-line stitching in the second border and then more of the swirl fill in the final outer border.  I admit I was a bit nervous about doing all of it.  When I finally sat down to do the initial stitching on the trees, the bobbin thread (the cream) would pull to the top when I tried to stitch backwards (away from me).  Doing some testing on the sides I realized that the "auto" tension setting on my machine wouldn't work.  I tried taking it down and found that the "1" setting was the lowest I could go and not experience the pull and still have good balance on the back. 

That done, I started back on the stitching and found that the thread kept shredding and breaking.  Now what?  Well the solution to that was to slow down my stitching.  There are two schools of thought about FMQ -- some people run the machine really fast while stitching and some run it slow to get good control of the length of their stitches.  I find I get better control running the machine fast.  But when I slowed it down, the thread breakage problems stopped.  So I moved ahead, albeit waaayyyy slower than I normally do.  It was agonizing to work that slowly but I got it done over another three days. 

On the last day, I also moved on to the "Winter Words".  I was expecting it to be a bit of a challenge too.  In the end, I decided to mark them to give me a guideline to work within for both the letter size and to keep it even.  This actually went easier than expected and when done they looked so beautiful!  I was so encouraged that I immediately started in on the continuous curve stitching that I had planned to do on the blue half of the HSTs in the first border .  This would be the last of the stitching with the blue thread (thank god!) and I could re-load the cream on top and (I thought) zoom through the rest of what I had to do at my normal full speed.

Next in the plan was snowflakes in the center and swirl fill around them.  The snowflakes were tricky:  do I mark them out completely or do them freehand?  I decided to do a combo of both.  I marked a circle of ray lines that represent the rays of the flake and a center circle for those designs where the rays terminated around a center circle.  Using this guide, I free-handed the designs, simplifying the elements of different snowflake pictures I had collected down to what I was doable for me.  The first day I managed to get four done.  They were not perfect but they looked good enough to my eye and if it put me closer to finishing, it was all good!  When I left off Friday evening, I was confident I could finish the remaining four and do the swirl fill the next day (even with shopping and errands that needed to be done) and then plan to do the continuous curve for the first border, the straight stitching for the second and the rest of the swirl and fill for the final border.  Then I could bind it up to just eke out the Q1 finish.  But Saturday morning I got a shock when I took the opportunity before we left for errands to get a good look at my work in the Saturday morning light:

 

Acck!  There is a mess of thread mess on the backs of the snowflakes!  I forget to put the thread tension back up for the cream stitching!!  And to a lesser extent, I had the same problem with the continuous curve and the "Words" stitching despite not having that problem with the trees.  Are there different loft issues when I go out towards the borders versus the center of the quilt?

Needless to say this took a lot of the wind out of my sails.  With time at a premium, I knew I could not rip everything and still get all I had to get done by deadline.  So sadly, I have to put this one aside for awhile.  In the end, I've decided to leave the blue thread stitching but will have to rip the snowflakes and re-do them. 

With the start of April, I had plans to take my machine in for servicing and move on to other things (with new deadlines) using my old machine.  So I will have to try to come back this when I've distanced myself from it a little and can approach it a little more objectively (a.k.a. with less lingering disappointment).  Time to re-group!!