Done…and done!

Well, it's done -- and I mean really done.  I had thought I would add some borders out of the neutral sashing fabric but when I auditioned them, they didn't do a thing for it.  They only made it bigger and didn't seem to frame it like I saw it in my head.  So, surprisingly, this lap quilt is finished and ready to be quilted.

Because I chose to go with sashing that finishes at 1/2", I actually lost about 7" across the width of the quilt (compared to sashing that finishes the same size as the blocks -- 3/4").  Don't ask me how I could even think that a 3/4" sashing looked clunky -- but I did.  I made two sample blocks and left them on my design wall for about a week.  Every time I looked at the one with 3/4" sashing, I didn't like it as well as the one with smaller strips controlling the little 4-patches.  Seriously.  It makes no sense to me, either.

I originally thought I would count the pieces in this top and then I thought again.  There are 960 4-patches that finish at 1.5" plus all kinds of sashing strips.  I'm probably better off not knowing.  It finished about 60' x 64' so it will be a good lap quilt with lots of fabrics to look at if I get bored.

The "underbelly" is a bit of a hot mess.  Most of the seams are pressed open -- or at least started that way.  Talk about "the good, the bad, and the ugly!"

As I mentioned in previous posts -- I really like it.  But not enough to do it again!

I hope you are working on something that is unique and challenging!

Jan

Lola -- L O L A -- Lola!

Can you hear the music in your head?

I'm thrilled to say that Lola moved in with us in early October. She is a HandiQuilter Avante with no fancy computers -- just tolerant of my learning curve and a great temperament. I am living my dream with my own long arm. I never thought I would have one and so this is the best ever.

I have been so fortunate in my quilting world. I first had LogCabinQuilter who trusted me enough to train me on her Gammill and then rent the machine to me. At that point, I could only do loops and those weren't very good. I could not fathom pantographs and how to line them up so I frequently paid her to finish some quilts that were important to me.  Particularly when wonky loops weren't right.

I then was lucky enough that MacQuilts gave me complete access to her home (when she was there and when she wasn't) and I used her Gammill (Sadie). I was able to make progress in my quilting and learn to do more things. After moving to Kentucky, I went back frequently for quilting marathons and to see friends. I have been known to quilt six quilts in 2.5 days. Yikes - did my shoulders and knees hurt for a few days - plus I had a 7.5 hour drive to and from! But again - more generosity and trust.

After getting settled in Kentucky, MonkeyMamaQuilts opened her doors and gave me free rein on her HQ16 (Ethel -- she also has a more sophisticated Fusion with a computer who is named Loosey). I was able to start working on my backlog of tops and get back to a more regular schedule of long arming.

Fast forward to August or September when Mr Iquiltforfun and I were talking about how wonderful it would to have my own long arm so I could improve my skills. When you are invading someone else's home, there is a bit of pressure to get in, get it done, and let them get back to their lives. That was completely internal and my issue. Not theirs. They couldn't have been more accommodating for those times when I had to leave a quilt on their machine and come back later.

The other complication here is that it meant the machine would have to go in the living room. I love my living room. It has great morning light. It is separate from the family room and kitchen and there is a bit of privacy. And, the idea of taking over our "parlor" was a stumbling block for me. Never mind that EVERY single member of my family told me I should make the living room my studio before we ever moved in the house. But I couldn't. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I realized last summer that we had not entertained in there once in the two years we had been in the house!  Not once!

So -- Lola is in the living room and having a couch is quite convenient when I need to ponder next steps. Am I getting better? Not yet. Am I trying new threads and new techniques and playing when I want to? I sure am! I have no intention of starting a business and taking on the pressure of showing good faith in making a profit nor working on someone else's masterpiece. MacQuilts said it best when she told me one time that I would go nuts trying to fix someone else's mistakes and would hate every minute of it. And she's right. I'm happy to do charity quilts for a few people. I'm happy to share Lola with friends and family who might want to use her. I'm happy to learn about tension and know that the world won't come to an end if I mess it up!

This was a challenge quilt from fabric that MacQuilts bought for Mom22smartchix and me about two years ago. I love this fabric by Andover Fabrics. And I had enough to make two quilts. This is the first one and the quilting is called "continuous curves" (or CC). This quilt is symbolic of what it means to have my own long arm. This took forever!  It looks easy and it should be.  But it is not easy for me to be consistent so most of these were done with a template and very carefully for a number of reasons. I would never ever have been able to do this on someone else's machine. I sometimes worked for 10 minutes before church. I sometimes work for three hours. I sometimes didn't work at all if I wasn't on my "A" game since I'm a bit intimidated by ruler work. But, it's finished! I often would go into the living room and just look at it.  The texture when the light was right made me ever so happy.

And Lola makes me ever so happy!  Now when I want to see my friends, I can "visit" and not engage in a quilting marathon.  That also makes me ever so happy!

I hope there is something in your life that is making you ever so happy!

Jan

AND -- as an aside -- here's something to make you ever so happy!

Have you heard?  Keepsake Quilting is giving away fabric for 20 years to one quilter!  How about that?

All you have to do is click on this link to enter.  It's simple. It's fast. And it could mean fabric for the rest of your life -- or at least 20 years!  Give it a go….and enjoy!

http://ck.upickem.net/r/4aV3RJQyx5v?r=734125

Flying in Circles

Don't you love these colors? This quilt hangs on a wall in my living room and makes me smile every time I see it.  This is the most recent circle quilt I've made but it's certainly not going to be the last one.  I've fallen in love with this block again.

When I posted the picture of the circles out of our challenge fabric, I had pulled out the templates I bought years ago at the Chicago version of the International Quilt Festival.  They are from Elisa's Back Porch and work like a charm.  There were several of us who bought the templates and packets of 20 FQ of batiks which makes a medium sized quilt.  One of us (logcabinquilting) stayed up until 2am to finish hers that night! One of the reason I love them is that you get a 8.5" block with just two pieces!  How cool and quick is that?

The purple quilt was my first circle quilt from those templates.  Unfortunately I didn't take any close ups when I made the quilt.  But there was sufficient fabric left over from the fat quarters to make a little wallhanging for a co-worker as a thanks for a kindness she provided. I have to say that making the larger circles is a lot more fun than the smaller ones!

This quilt was made for my niece when she graduated from college and got her first apartment.  I loved the colors and I called it "Tequila Sunrise".

I also decided to make one for my son's girlfriend after they had been dating a bit (now my daughter-in-law I'd like to say!).  This is when I decided my stash needed more black and white fabrics to go with the ant fabric I found in Virginia a year or so before.

This had been a "find" since she was working on her PhD and had been studying leaf cutter ants. I grabbed it when I saw it and hoped that there might be an occasion to put in a quilt.  So -- lots of collecting started and the end result was a large lap sized quilt.

And, because she is Canadian, I thought I'd make a special label.  That was not smart.  I made up a pattern of the maple leaf and cut it into pieces in order to paper piece it.  Never again.  This was hard.  I'm reasonably happy with result but some of the teeny-tiny pieces and points made me fidget way too much.  And -- for all our Canadian family and readers -- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I was lucky enough to have a few circles and fabric left over to make a Project Linus quilt that ended up being displayed in the Project Linus booth at the Chicago International Quilt Festival.  That was pretty cool!

Which brings us "full circle" to my last circle quilt -- Flying in Circles.  I got the plaid fabric in a swap at a small quilt group I attended in Chicago.  So, using it as a focus fabric I pulled golds, purples, blues, plums, etc.  The border is brick colored and a bit deeper than it shows up here and I used the last of the fabrics to make some flying geese for the border.

I'm looking forward to pulling randomly from the challenge fabrics and seeing how many blocks I can make.  I have no idea when I can get to it -- but they are cut and waiting for me and I can periodically pick up 2 fabrics, sew one seam, and have an 8" (finished) block.  Gotta love that.

I have one quality control trick that I use that ends up creating close to perfect circles and avoids the square not meeting the circle at the end.  I use one pin in these blocks.  I pin at the top to make sure I have the pieces square and lined up.  I then finger press each piece to get the center and cut the tiniest of notches in each (pins fall out somewhere in the process).  All I have to do is slowly sew the pieces (square wedge on top and slowly straightening it as I sew -- but not stretching it).  When I get to the notches and they are "close" I know I'm on track and I keep sewing.  If they are off too much, then I've probably stretched, didn't maintain a 1/4" seam, lost my focus or didn't have them square at the start.  So, I stop and rip.  It's easy enough to go on and maybe compensate for it and end up pretty close at the end.  But, I'd rather rip a few inches and try again.  If the same thing happens again, I've cut badly or notched badly and I rip again and take a deep breath!  I hate for the block to win.  At the end, a pair of tweezers is wonderful to keep the pieces moving through the machine and squared up since squaring at the end is just as important.  

I hope you have been flying in circles in only the best of ways!  Jan

Bouncy - Bouncy - Bouncy

Well this has been a week of bouncing around like a rubber ball.  

I had a perfectly good plan of action -- try to re-purpose the florals that didn't work in the D9P, finish the challenge quilt top out of the fabric line you see above, clean up the quilt mess that has exploded in my quilt room.   A good plan.  And then this happened:

My-niece-the-quilter came to visit and brought more goodies than should be allowed.  The tote had strips and strips -- yards and yards of strips.  The bag had 1" cuts and some selvages (one addiction I don't have), and a few other scraps.

I love her good taste in fabric!  Modas.  Batiks.  Sock monkeys.  Kaffe.  The list goes on.....

Did I mention a jelly roll of batiks that are pre-cut to 10.5" and pinned together?  WHAT IS SHE THINKING?

My head has been bouncing like a rubber ball since all this came to live with me.  I had already cut the circles that you see above out of the balance of the challenge fabric (that was instead of finishing the challenge quilt which I decided needed 8 more blocks).  

But, I kept being distracted by the batiks.  I mean really distracted!  I have never had a jelly roll of batiks and these colors are incredible.  This is the perfect chance to try Wanda's (Exuberant Color) tutorial on separating lights, darks, mediums.    Wanda is a master (mistress?) on value and you will love reading her blog and learning from her if you're not already a follower.

This is my design wall after bouncing around.  A few circles from the challenge fabrics led me to think about my shirts and what a circle quilt from the plaids/stripes might look like so I made a block.  I had the templates out anyway, right?  The workmanship is not the best but I think I like it and believe I could get king sized quilt out of just sleeves -- never mind the backs and fronts.

I also made two practice string blocks from the 1" goodies -- I think this will make a great donation quilt for a child.  And these are very different fabrics from my normal stash. How can you work on these and not smile?  They are cut at 5.5" to finish at 5".  Aren't they the cutest?

And, because I had to go a funeral three hours away in the beautiful Appalachians, I decided to take a break on the way home and see if I could find a companion fabric (besides black or another solid) for my pink FQs that was my birthday gift from my-niece-the-quilter.  I love this -- it works with the light salmon on one end of the spectrum and the deep pink on the other.  

What a week!  I love the fabrics but I honestly don't understand gifting such a treasure trove.  This young woman buys good stuff -- and I've been telling her since before she was born that I was her favorite aunt.  I think she believes me, don't you?  And -- to add more joy and anticipation to the future quilting here at iquiltforfun -- my-niece-the-athlete has decided she wants a large queen out of batiks.  I can't wait to go shopping with her to see what she selects or what jelly rolls she decides on.  She's doing lots of research and will pick the fabric and pattern.  I get to the the cutting and sewing and quilting.  I love my girlies!

I hope you have had a wonderful week full of good quilting surprises and family that loves and appreciates you!  I certainly have.   

Jan

Finally Finished -- Hurray!

I am so so happy to say that I finally forced myself to put everything up and get out my Orca Bay (Bonnie Hunter mystery from last winter) and sew down the binding.

Because I have fallen out of love with this quilt, I had the binding sewn on and just decided to sew it down on my machine rather than by hand.  I want it over and put up.

I'm hoping I will love it more one of these days.  That's what happened with this quilt -- it was also a mystery and I got weary of it, didn't like my color choices, and put it up.  I later needed a quilt for a friend, pulled it out, and decided it wasn't half bad.  I'm hoping for the same thing with Orca.  Time will tell -- literally.

In addition to finishing this, I finally started the MacQuilt challenge with fabric that was gifted in honor of Mom22SmartChix's birthday challenge.  We are to have our tops done by October (next month!).  I have 56 blocks made, on the floor for final adjusting, and should be able to meet the deadline if I keep paying attention.

Details about the challenge fabrics was in this post -- there are 9.5 yards (I miscounted originally) -- and I hope to make two lap sized quilts with different patterns.  Interestingly, this is a fabric line that reads as solids but is a directional print!  That means I would be itchy if I tried to do triangles.  Would have made me nuts to have lines going different directions -- I had enough problem keeping the directions straight with squares.

I also finished two charity quilts and they are quilted, bound and ready to be delivered next week.  That is always a relief as I try to make two each month (other than a one month sabbatical in August).  I did free motion stippling on these which makes me tense beyond words.  I kept having a bit of drag on my lucite/plastic quilting table that fits my machine.  I was hesitant to wax or polish it -- any advice from anyone out there on what to put on there to give me as much 'glide' as possible?  I'm happy the backs (flannel) don't show the herky-jerky stitching in a few places.  I know these are the perfect size to practice on in order to improve my free motion quilting.  You can only do so much on a practice sandwich.

The icing on the cake is we have four men working diligently digging up our back yard for a new patio.  This will be great eventually.  It is not great now.

I hope you are loving whatever project you are working on!  Jan

First Break All the Rules!

Seriously!

I love this quilt but it took every ounce of effort I had to "let go" and let it flow.  This is from Victoria at Bumblebeans and is her Waverunner quilt.  I fell in love with it when I first saw it and knew that I wanted to make one.  But I had no solids.  What's quilter to do?

Buy solids, of course! So when it was my turn to host a challenge for MacQuilts and Mom22smartchix, I bought nine different solids (Moda and Kona) and we each took 1/3 yard.  We could then add up to 4 different fabrics to the collection but you had to use every fabric in whatever quilt you chose.

 

Unfortunately, I cannot convey the look on MacQuilts face when she saw the solids--and especially the tan and dark brownish-burgundy.  She is a batik and Kaffe girl for the most part and it was priceless.  "Horror" is slightly overstated -- but not by much.  She added a great batik and made very modern quilted placemats which are used daily and the back has the scary fabrics on the back.  Clever!

Mom22smartchix made an incredible Amish themed quilt which still needs to be quilted and will also be spectacular when it's done.

For me -- this was hard.  I am pretty focused on good process and quality control so letting go and following the "waverunner way" took some getting used to.

Cut on a straight line?  Goodness no!
Press not iron?  Heck no -- steam the fire out of it!  Make it fit!

Measure twice and cut once?  Why would you do that?
If a block doesn't work, rip it out and redo?  Of course not. Add a strip!

1/4" seam allowance?  Sort of!
Square up blocks before sewing?  Well you could, but why bother?

Follow a pattern?  Why?  This is yours!
Same fabrics can't touch?  Are you nuts!  Who cares if yellow and cheddar are side by side!

Amidst the dogwood petals that are letting go this morning.  Alas....they were beautiful.

In the end -- this was a blast and I love the quilt.  It's bound in red and I smile every single time I see it.  I'm not exactly sure why I waited six months to bind it -- that was silly now that it's emerged again.   There are a few tucks in it and once I wash it, I believe that the crinkles of washing will really blend with the quilting.

This little gem will be entered in this spring's Bloggers Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy's Creative Side.  Have a go at it if you've never had a chance to see what she does. It's amazing and there is so much inspiration over there, it will make your head spin.  Seriously!

I hope you're having a wonderful day and following the rules if that makes you happy or making your own rules if that's even more fun.  I get it!  Jan

Quilters' Day Out

Today was my first Quilters' Day Out which is an internationally recognized day (third Saturday in March) that is set aside to honor and celebrate the art of quilting.  Interestingly, this special day originated in Kentucky many years ago - expanded to a few other states - and has now grown to a day that is recognized throughout the world.

The small guild that I belong to had a "Crayon Challenge" among the members to reveal at the show.  The rules were:

1. Two crayons were blindly pulled from a bag that included 64 Crayola Crayons.
2. If you hated one of the colors, you could put one back in and draw again.  One time.  No more!
3. Fabrics had to be in the colors of the crayons you drew -- and you could use any shade that could be created by coloring on a white sheet of paper - depending on the pressure you used.
4. You were allowed to add one more color to the quilt -- but it had to be from the box of 64 crayons and that shade only.  No scribbling for shades.
5. Size could be anywhere from 40" x 40" to 51" x 51".

The pictures I took are terrible and don't do the quilts justice.  

Pink Carnation and Red Violet were drawn and White was added as accent.  This quilter actually used her crayons to color in the squares and heat set shavings in the outer border.

I'm so sorry I didn't get a better picture of this one.  She drew Pink and Blue and didn't want to make the expected baby quilt so she added black and with with an Amish look.  She had seen the pattern in Quiltmaker and modified it slightly by adding flying geese.

This quilter drew Olive Green and Yellow and added Sky Blue as her accent.  This came from March, 2001 Quiltmaker Magazine.

This quilt was beautifully done. I don't recall which colors she drew but she embellished with yellow buttons and did some amazing quilting in the open spaces.

This quilter drew Salmon and Navy Blue and elected not to use an accent color.  Hand quilted.

This quilter drew Yellow and Green and made these cute little pieced baskets with her White accent color.  Hand quilted.

Brown and Blue-Green were the colors drawn for this quilt and she added Dandelion.  This was Viewer's Choice and much more striking in person.

Unfortunately, this one didn't get finished due to illness.   She drew Orange and Black and I think others were expecting a Halloween quilt.  Surprise!

The primary crayons for this quilt was Spring Green and Raw Sienna and Salmon was added as an accent. It's made from Celtic Pieced Illusions by Karen Combs.  Alas, it wasn't finished either.

I hope you've had a chance to celebrate quilting in whatever manner worked best for you today!  Jan