Learning can hurt

Learning can definitely hurt.  Your feelings!  Your confidence!  Your sense of creativity!  But it can make you grow....and this quilt has helped me grow in lots of ways.  Although there has been plenty of pain!

I'm so lucky to have mom22smartchix wanting to "invest" in my longarm improvement.  She kindly donated this homespun quilt top for me to "play" on and I decided that I would use each block as a "sampler" of stitches.   That seemed reasonable at first.  And a great "resource".  And it is.  But it hurts.

I chose to use 30wt thread -- which is HEAVY and shows every little glitch.  Basically, it's the thread that is used to topstitch jeans to give you an idea of what quilting with it was like.  I had just heard Angela Walters (who I deeply admire as a longarm expert) say that she didn't rip out stitches if things weren't perfect.  I chose that philosophy on this quilt.  Otherwise, I would have ripped out more than I put in.  Plus, ripping out stitches on solid homespuns is never a good idea.

I learned a lot.  I learned there are some fillers that I can do and want to do again. 

I learned there are some fillers that I am not ready to put on a quilt that I plan to give as a gift.

I learned that I don't know as many fillers as I thought I did.  But I made a few up.

I learned that skinny rectangles don't lend themselves to some stitches.

I learned that I should have been burying my stitches rather than backstitching.  They look like little nests.

But I learned!  And it was humbling.  And it was painful.  And it helped me grow as a longarmer.  

I hope you are learning (even if it creates a little "pain")!!!!

Jan

Re-entry

I don't know about you -- but it takes a bit of time for me to "re-enter" the habit or routine or pattern of spending time in my sewing room after a week away.  There are chores to be done.  Thoughts to be thought.  Bills to be paid.  Laundry to be done.  Work to catch up on.  Groceries to be bought.  Life just needs to happen before patterns can re-emerge and quilting restarts.  That includes blogs to be written apparently!

The good news is that there was "reentry" on Sunday after we got home on Wednesday.  I made time after church to play with fabrics, start new projects, revisit current works-in-progress and get on with it! I'm happy to say that I pulled some fabrics for a little project, made a top for a hospital quilt, and spent some time with these beauties.

These are the Caryl Bryer Fallert Gradations Collection from Benartex.  They were one of my splurges at Houston last year and have been teasing me ever since.  They are reproductions of her hand dyed fabrics and clearly aren't as subtle and rich as those -- nor as expensive.  And they will make a great quilt.

I'm not sure how many pieces there were in the collection but as you can see from this unedited picture, I had to lay them out one day months ago and just admire them before I started cutting anything.  I didn't have a pattern but I knew I wanted to maximize them.

Mom22smartchix and I each bought them and decided on the same pattern earlier this year which meant cutting them into 2.5" strips.  Here is the waste.  Every little smidgen of it.  I'd say we maximized our fabric, wouldn't you?

I have decided I want a summer quilt for our bed.  The last one we had we gave to our son and daughter-in-law because they liked it.  Of course I want them to have it and it's great fun to see they are sleeping under it.  But, somehow the bear paw out of homespuns is just a bit dark.  Soon the Christmas quilt will come out (too soon!) but for now, I think these may just be the ticket for a summer quilt next year.  It will be bright and make me happy -- if I have enough fabric for queen size.

It takes five strips to make three 10.5" blocks.  I have 33 made, lots of strips left, and will just sew until they are all used up and decide what to do from there.  Either buy more and make a great border or decide it's a full size quilt and move on.  It's a "win win" no matter which way it goes.  They are fun to work with since each block is slightly (or greatly) different from the other two.  I started out thinking I would just use the jewel tones -- I have since decided I'm going to use them all.  Including the browns which make me a little "itchy" but should be beautiful against a blue or lavender block.

But somehow, these are not quick blocks.  I can't quite figure out why they take as long as they do.  Creating two short strip sets, cutting the block, cutting the strip, recutting the block and inserting the strip.   They don't look like they should take that long, do they?  Mom22smartchix elected to cut all the elements separately (she has trouble following directions and the crowd).  Hers will have much more color variation and may be faster -- who knows (although cutting couldn't have been faster). It will be fun to see them side by side, someday.

In the meantime, I have been lucky enough to use AMA's Handi-quilter and was able to finish this in time to take it to the cottage for cool mornings and evenings.  All homespuns from 4" strips and homespun backing.  And now I WANT ONE TOO!  And yesterday, I'm happy to say that I quilted a child's quilt top AMA had given me and one of my hospital quilts.  So -- I'm definitely getting back in the groove!

I hope you're getting your creative groove on, as well!

Jan

And yet again....

I had to make it!  I don't remember the name of the book that this is from but I saw a sample on a wall at a shop and it began to dance in my head.  Again!  I would go back and visit and think about fabrics and finally started cutting the strips.

This is not strip pieced in the way you might think (and I thought at first).  Instead, you create two strips (staggered at the ends to account for the diagonal cut you're going to make) and sew them together at the top and botton (so you really have a tube).  You then cut the "tube" into a triangle and pick out the stitches at the peak of the triangle.  When it's opened you have a square....and you have homespuns on the bias with no foundation.  So, for this to work, you have to use WOF strips and not the "scraps" we normally have for foundation piecing string quilts.

I got really weary of this and all the sewing and put it up for two years.  I'm pleased to say I pulled it out in a fit of "finishing" last year and perservered to finish it.  I really like it but it lost some of it's appeal when I got tired of sewing, cutting, and re-sewing along the way.  The sashing is great,I think, and does a great job of stabilizing the blocks.  You can see just a bit of the piano key border -- which was a great way to use up scraps, thank goodness.  I had oodles.

My learnings are that maybe homespuns weren't a good choice for this type of construction.  Batiks would be great because they are not 'wishy washy' fabrics and they have a mind of their own.  But, too much sewing makes Jan a tired chick and that's what happened here.  I started getting pulled to new projects when I thought this might never end.  I have a few others of these out there and hope to get the finishing push back one of these days.

I'm happy to say I have one more complete and on the shelf and, by the way, it's heavy!!!  Between the seams and homespuns -- there's a lot of fabric in here.

I hope you have your mojo in full swing (who wouldn't after looking at all the amazing quilts at Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival).

Keep piecing, Jan