A Finish and Fun!

Finally!  Have you ever had one of those "holy moly" moments when you realized that a gift quilt is going to be needed sooner than you expected?

Meet the quilt top for Baby C who is coming in August.  I'm not sure why I hadn't focused on the fact that August is around the corner and I will need a gift in July.  Seriously....it comes at the same time every year.  I had my "holy moly" moment two weeks ago and started looking for fabric that would work with this pattern.

Luckily, I remembered I had been hoarding this Moda Three Sisters  fabric for a baby quilt and had more than enough to make a quilt for Baby C.  And, there was diversity in patterns -- different scaled florals, fabrics that read as solids, stripes, polka dots, paisley.  All in all, I decided it should work.  These fabrics were those that I bought in an absolute panic to make a quilt for a young woman who was diagnosed with bone cancer while in medical school.  She was in the same high school class as my son, we were in Chicago and feeling very far away, and I knew I had to do something.  So -- I wanted to make a quilt that was peaceful.  This fabric fit the bill!  I was very busy at work and impulsively ordered a 50 fat quarter pack so that I didn't have to spend time searching!  I have also used this fabric for my Oak Park Beauty.  And I had some left over which was sequestered for another project.

So, Baby C will have a lovely feminine baby quilt and I'll continue to look for the right nursery fabrics for a later quilt.

This pattern is from Cozy Modern Quilts by Kim Schaeffer and is not the first baby quilt I've made from her book.  As you can see from this post, I made two at once by resizing the block and improving (I think) the construction process.  The Mahalo quilt was also made from this pattern. So, it's tried and true and fast!

Making this quilt top should have taken less than a week but it ended up taking a bit more than two weeks.  But I have a very good excuse!  One of the kind and generous quilters from our little church group loaned me her Accu-Cut Studio cutter.  Oh, how fun!  And efficient! This shelf of men's shirts was attacked in full force.  The smaller cuts that you see here are sleeves and they are awkward to cut with a rotary cutter.  With the 2.5" die in place, they all were cut and scraps thrown in the scrap bag!  Great improvement in the shelf.

And for good measure, I cut a bunch of fabric that I had bought for baby charity quilts and finally had to force myself to stop cutting.  Otherwise, I was going to start pulling fabric "willy nilly" from the shelves to cut with no idea what the final purpose was.  I managed to cut 10.5" stack of 2.5" strips and came to be a believer in the Studio!  For those of you who have them, kudos to you!

I have to say, I'm feeling pretty productive and I have a lot of blocks leftover and believe I can make a quilt for a friend's daughter that will "fit the bill" as well.

I hope you have had a creative week -- productive or not.  

Jan

What a great pattern!

Don't you love this pattern?  I have been looking for a denim quilt pattern to make use of a full tote of jeans parts that I've had for years.

EDITED on 2.20.16 This is by Alicia at Lucy's Quilts and she makes it available through her Etsy shop, Lucys Quilts, -- for $10.  It goes together like a dream and you never sew denim to denim.  That is exactly what I had been waiting for! PLEASE NOTE.  I DO NOT SHARE THIS PATTERN. IT IS NOT MINE.  Please click on the link at the start of this paragraph and go to Alicia's site.

The sashing is 1" wide and you press to the sashing; the back is flat for quilting as you can see below.  She ties most of her quilts but I will try to long arm this one.  Alicia recommends an 80-12 needle and sewing this was crazy easy.  Her instructions are clear, supplemented with a schematic, and are modified from a Kaffe Fassett pattern. How cool is that?

And the assembly is in sections and not readily apparent when you look at it.  She has made 100+ and I will definitely make more - but not that many more.   This one goes to mriquiltforfun (seen here) for fishing or camping or picnicking or the back of his car or who knows what.  It should be terribly sturdy and last for years.

Alicia estimates that a quilt takes about 5-6 pairs of jeans.  Here is one pair of jeans that I cut up last weekend.  As you can see, there is not a lot of waste when you cut up jeans.  And in my family, we have big jeans.  Our son is 6'5" and mriquiltforfun is about 6' and I'm 5'10". My sister and nieces are much smaller but I'm guessing I only need four pairs of "our" jeans to make one quilt!  I have left in some "imperfections" -- paint, pen marks, small grease marks, unidentified substances. These reflect the history of my family and I like capturing some of it in the blocks.

I made this quilt from the loose jeans you see here and the bags haven't been touched...and then there is the huge tote upstairs waiting for cutting into blocks. I am guessing I have enough enough denim to make another 6-8 of these. Over time -- not in a row.

Like sewing with men's shirts, there is something amazingly rewarding to me to take perfectly good fabric that is no longer wearable due to size or holes or whatever and create a quilt with it.

I hope you are working on something that is fun and easy!

Jan

Sometimes it's not "just fabric"

So, you know how we justify using that special piece of fabric we love or have been saving? We say things like "it's just fabric" -- and we're right....to a point.  I do not feel that way about these fabrics.

I adore them.  I revere them.  I want to do them justice.

They are Daiwabo fabrics from Japan.  I don't really know a lot about their history but I do know that very few mills produce them and they are muted with a "taupe" overtone.  The patterns and designs are amazing.  I have never ever felt this way about fabric before - Kaffe, Cherrywoods, batiks, anything.

When I was working on these blocks, I trimmed them each to 5.5" to square them up, ripped out those that weren't quite right, and re-made the blocks.  Not to mention starching them into submission.  Love the fabrics - don't love the raveling!

I ended up keeping one of my seam rippers at the ironing board so I could rip out whatever made me unhappy right there before I pressed it.  I was not in a hurry.  The strips finish at 1/2" and much variation shows a lot -- as you can see in a few of the blocks.

This is a terrible picture of the finished top -- the wind would not cooperate.  So, I'll just say that the borders are much larger and mitered and leave it at that.

How did I come to have these wonderful fabrics? Well, that's another story for another post.  In the meantime, I'm waiting for a calm day to take a picture of the quilt top so I can do it justice.

I hope you have fabric in your stash that you adore.  It's so fun when you start to use it!

Keep piecing (and ripping!),

Jan

Shave and a Haircut

Sometimes you just have to adjust your plans...and show the fabric who is boss.

I am working on a quilt that I absolutely love.  I love the fabrics.  I love the colors.  I love the pattern.  I love how I came to be working on it.  Unfortunately, I do not love the way the blocks are constructed or the fact that they are a bit stretchy and ravel if you look at them.  

After some thought and putting this back in its shoebox several times, it occurred to me that I was the "boss of it" and I decided two weeks ago to starch the fire out of the blocks. I made sure that I used a dry iron - the last thing I wanted was to stretch the blocks with steam.  Starch the back of the block, turn the block over, press the front (no ironing back and forth), repeat! That helped considerably as it stabilized them.  But, the construction of the block still created problems.  I have fixed that!

I decided to give them a little trim.  Literally, a shave and a haircut!  The blocks were to be 5 3/4" unfinished.  They are now 5 1/2" and going together like a dream.  Stiff as a board and equally sized.  I am still in love with them.

Because of all the starching, I used my modified ironing pad.  When I'm using a lot of starch and want to protect my ironing board, I simply put my June Tailor ironing/cutting pad on it.

This is the typical June Tailor pad that I had used so much the original ironing pad was ripped and no longer usable.  I put some cotton batting on top of it, took an overused towel, made a "sleeve" from the towel, slipped the board in the sleeve, and pinned it on.  It is not fancy.  It is not pretty.  It is incredibly effective, travels easily, and can be washed when it gets a bit gummy.  And, it repurposes a tool that had worn out and it's now just as usable as before.  Gotta love that.

In this case, I've actually thrown away the towel sleeve and will make another one. It was SO stiff and covered in threads from the blocks that it's not worth it.  I don't want those threads in my washer or dryer and you can see the scorch marks where I have used the same spot over and over.  

I hope you are lucky enough to be working on a project that is bringing you joy...

Keep piecing (and starching!)

Jan

800 for Starters

This will take forever....

And this is why....

A swap.  A swap of 800 4 patches that will finish at 1.5". Of course -- who wouldn't want to use up 1.25" strips, right? That means you can go right to your strings and not have to cut from your stash.

I'll spare you the details of construction for now. Suffice it to say that 1" sashing will take a while as will the creation of blocks of four 4-patches that will eventually become  a block of 16 patches.  The larger blocks are being assembled with no regard to color, direction, or duplication. They will finish at 8" and are the perfect leader-ender project since it's a matter of grabbing and sewing.  Pressing seams open is another story for another day!

I do have to say, I like the periodic cornerstones that finish at 1/2".  I'm always looking for ways to use a 1" square! Oh, and did I mention that I made too many of these little darlings and have about 100 extra that will need to be added to the top? The ones in the picture above are my "leftovers" and were already being used as leader-ender fun prior to the big shipment.

I hope you have had a week of productivity and color!

Jan

Legacies

Recently, one of the members our little quilt guild died suddenly -- only weeks before she was being featured in a local quilt show.  I really didn't know DT well but apparently she was a talented quilter;  I don't remember her bringing any of her quilts to guild so I'm not sure I've ever seen her work.

But others had and she loved quilting.  In honor of her passion, her casket was draped with a quilt that was to be featured in her show.  Don't you love that?  How fitting.  And her family was honored to loan her quilts to the show so that she could be honored in her absence.

This has led me to recall P from our Chicago quilt group (not even loosely defined as a "guild").  P died way too young and suddenly.  She was also a wonderful quilter and and I remember smiling as I walked into the funeral home and there were quilts all over the visitation room.  What incredible color to compete with the floral arrangements. Her daughters were telling the story of each of the quilts as they visited with those that came to pay their respects.  I will never forget the snippets of fabrics and small quilt blocks that were slipped into P's casket -- and even into her hands.  

I don't intend for this to be morbid or maudlin -- but rather to celebrate the community and love of quilting that we share.  We see it in life and we see it in death.

The following poem was included in DT's memorial card.  I have never seen this before and can't give credit where credit is due.  There was none in the card as well.  If anyone knows the origin, please let me know so I can update with author's name.  

Edited 4.19.13.  Thanks to Snowcatcher for letting me know this was written by Shutta Crum for her mother.  The link is here.

My Mother Taught Me to Quilt

I learned from my mother how to quilt—

how to measure the width and length,

how to find the exact shade of a rainy day

or the hue of a grandchild’s trust.

She taught me that the whole is made up

of the piecings of each day, sewn one to the next.

And to save scraps; you never know when you’ll need one.

 

She taught me to ease dissonance

into harmonies of pattern, and when to stitch blind.

She told me that the straight grain is strong

but I must learn to work with bias—

for there are days when the fabric must stretch.

And she said there would be rough patches

over which I could appliqué flowers.

 

Then she taught me how to layer it together—

how to rock my needle, hand-stitching this work of mine

to the warm core and to the hardy backing.

Finally, she taught me to be proud—

to tuck in raw edges and bind the whole with boldness.

This is what I learned from my mother

when she taught me to quilt.

Everyone leaves a legacy....and I think quilters have the privilege of leaving one that will transcend generations.  We learn life lessons from quilting (as noted above) and we share that love (and those lessons) with others.  Aren't we fortunate?

I hope you have been sharing your life lessons and legacies with those you love!

Jan

180 Degrees

Well, if you read my last post, you know I was bouncing around from project to project like Jumpin' Jack Flash.  This week has been the exact opposite.  My machine was only turned on for about 30 minutes of sewing -- all week.

Instead, I got focused on selecting fabrics for this block.  This is my third (of 16!) block from Kim McLean's Lollypop Quilt pattern.  I love it -- but choosing fabrics and making decisions makes me a little nuts.

This color palette is completely out of my comfort zone -- to the point that I made myself a note reminding me that I wanted it to be pink and orange.  Turns out I didn't have much orange -- so it ended up pink, yellow, and a bit of orange.

This is not fast for me -- before even getting to the fabric selection and block prepping, I trace every piece that is not a circle onto Beth Ferrier's appliqué paper.  I normally use freezer paper but the denser foundation of Beth's paper gives me more stability.  I did a practice block and used freezer paper -- I found that even subtle shifting impacted the design.  As you can see, this is a mirror image block and one stem creeping up 1/4" and the other stem slipping 1/4" is obvious.

The patterns are well done but they take a lot of paper!  And once I got the pink block done, it seemed silly not to do another one!  No sense gluing the pieces down for just one block.

That leads to deciding on the primary color for that next block and digging into my tote of Kaffe fabrics!  

I ended up with yet another block prepped that is not in the colors that make me most comfortable (blues and reds and purples!).  I have added a bobbin to the lower right hand circle to get a perspective on the size of the blocks.

So -- what now?  I have devoted the entire week to tracing, prepping, selecting, cutting, gluing, and pinning wonderful fabrics to patterns that make me very happy.  Before I pull out the Roxanne's appliqué glue -- maybe I should prep one more!  After all, I need 16 and I only have two completed and these two ready to finalize.  And, there are about a million small applique blocks for the border -- but I can't even think about those right now!

I hope you have had a good week doing whatever makes you happy -- and playing with great fabric!

Jan