Let the quilting commence

The intimidation I felt about quilting a large quilt on my teensy, little Janome sewing machine was unfounded. I can say that now, now that I’ve started those first stitches. I am happy to say that since my decision three days ago to bite the bullet, I am really pleased with how it is going.

It has been more than a year since I’ve finished this quilt, the Garden Charm quilt from a Lynette Jensen’s pattern in a Craftsy Class. It is just the kind of quilt that will be fun to quilt because there are so many pieces and so many designs that are just ripe for stitching.

A few weeks ago I pin basted this quilt with every intention of starting on the quilting right away. One thing or another got in the way of that, but I have finally gotten to it. In fact, finishing this quilt was as close to a New Year’s Resolution as I’ll ever come.

I must say, I am really pleased that this isn’t as bad as I thought. In fact, it isn’t bad at all. I was a little terrified about the sheer bulk of fabric that I had to push beneath my needle, but as long as I take it slow, it seems to work just fine. There probably is more maneuvering than actual sewing, but that is because I’m starting in the very middle. It will get easier as I work toward the edges.

I worried about my small quilting space, wondering if it could accommodate a quilt of this size. But, in reality, my quilting space is perfect. It is a small breakfast counter, which offers room behind and to the left of my machine. Beneath the counter, I store my ironing board. When I quilt, I pull the ironing board out, which is just at the right height. Between the ironing board and the counter top, it is easy to handle the entire weight of this unwieldy amount of bulk.

The first thing I did was stitch-in-the-ditch around the center medallion, which consists of several small hourglass blocks. I didn’t think it would even be possible to move the quilt enough to stipple, which requires a fair amount of movement of the quilt, but as illustrated, it was quite easy to get a large enough space in which to work.

I feel as though I’ve crossed a hurdle and am happy to say that finishing this quilt is no longer daunting. In fact, I’m looking forward to working on it. I’m so happy to say that quilting is enjoyable again. I have no idea what quilt designs I am going to use, but that will be half the fun.

Finally

I have finally accomplished a major roadblock in my quilting life.

I have pin basted my unfinished quilt, my Garden Charms quilt, which has been lying around for more than a year. It was initially a Craftsy project, a class taught by Lynette Jensen.

I followed the pattern completely, except for picking my own colors. Finishing this quilt has been nagging at me for such a long time that I have been in such a quandary over it.
 
My quilting life had to take a backseat to my personal life—I have just had too many other responsibilities that have kept me from doing the activity I love. I’ve had a hard time getting back to it. 

• The piecing gave me fits. I re-did several steps in this multi-step process. The pattern was complicated, but that is also what made it lots of fun to complete. I even made a table runner out of a couple of the pinwheel blocks to practice. It turned out great, so I was more comfortable with all those points. It came out imperfect, but not bad. I wrote about this in a previous post. 

• Over a year ago I ordered eight yards of fabric for the quilt back. Until very recently, it remained in the bag in which it arrived. Finally, just a month ago, I measured it and cut it, sewed it, and turned it into my quilt back. 

• The most challenging part of quilting for me is the small space for which I have to work. I watched several videos about laying out and basting the quilt in a small space for inspiration. Finally, the other day I bit the bullet, I cleared off my small dining room table, (a feat in itself) purchased a few small clamps to keep things taut, and some curved safety pins, and set out to pin baste this quilt. 

Alas, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. This is the largest quilt I have ever attempted, so it was a bit unwieldy to put it onto my small dining table without wrinkles and without the constant help from my four cats.

I know it is going to be a challenge to machine quilt this quilt, but I am determined. I know I’m not the first to be intimidated by this. Most of the free-motion projects I have done have either been ‘quilt as you go’ projects or small pieces. The biggest quilt I’ve ever machine quilted was a baby quilt. That was a breeze, so I figure this is just like four of those, albeit attached.

I’m not sure when I will start this, but I’m getting rather excite. My next step is to take a picture of the various aspects of the quilt, print it out as a line drawing, and design quilting designs. I think I’m going to use all white thread, since the quilt is so colorful. Or, perhaps I’ll use hot pink, which might be fun. I’ll have to figure that out too.

I look forward to a subsequent post which will answer those questions and report on my progress. Wish me luck.

I’ve always believed that quilting was good therapy. But as of late, I know it.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my husband had a debilitating stroke almost four years ago. He is now getting around in a power chair. I do love when he can wheel over to where I left the remote or can bring glasses into the kitchen when I just can't imagine leaving my comfy spot on the couch.

But, his illness has left more chores to do, so I am busier than ever before. And somehow, I’m not getting any younger. I have little time or energy for quilting, though I have two projects I’m anxious to work on. One is to be hand quilted; the other to be machine quilted, yet all three layers are not yet put together. My imagination has seen better days and it seems my creativity quotient is running in the negatives. I’ve even had some bouts with anxiety lately that exacerbate my fears of the ‘what-if’s’ and the ‘oh no, another birthday is coming around.’

I am making progress however. The other day I cleared off the dining room table, pitching all the junk mail out, and made a space to work with. I got took out the 8 yards of backing fabric that I ordered more than a year ago for my second project, a Craftsy quilt that is rather large. I pieced the backing fabric, and spray starched and ironed it along with the quilt top. They just need the batting, which remains rolled up in the closet. Oh, and then there is the dreaded basting. I’m not fond of this step, which is probably why I haven’t done it yet. I have only small spaces on which to work and I’ve yet to find a satisfactory way to get this done. I’m leaning toward spray basting, but I also just purchased some new curved safety pins.

I have also begun working on my hand quilted project, a Dresden Plate quilt that I started ages ago. I’ve found that hand quilting isn’t as easy as I remember. I think the multiple layers of those little wedges are a deterrent, but I’m convinced that I want this traditional quilt to be hand-quilted. In just one afternoon, I broke 3 needles. This is not the way I remember it.

But much to my surprise, I’ve found that physically putting the needle to fabric isn’t the only way to satisfy my quilting fix and relax my ever racing mind. In general, I’ve been watching quilting videos.

In particular, I’ve been watching The Quilt Show (TQS) hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. I had not been acquainted with Ricky, but was a big fan of Alex through her work on “Simply Quilts,” her television series several years ago that inspired me to actually make my first quilt. I consider Alex Anderson to be a quilting mentor for me. Her hand quilting is wonderful and as a 30-year quilter, she is also a wonderful teacher.

I’m almost ashamed to say that even though I subscribed to TQS I had only watched a couple episodes.

One day I returned to the website, already listed as a favorite on my browser toolbar, only to learn that my current subscription had run out. I hurriedly renewed it and started watching the current episode. It had the same appeal that had always endeared me to Alex Anderson, except this time, I was so intrigued by Ricky’s approach to quilting. Not only is he a renowned quilter, but he is a musician who writes and performs the kind of music I love.

I found that as I binge-watched a couple episodes, I was feeling relaxed and even inspired by the wealth of information presented by so many quilt artists.

I began to watch shows whenever I felt the least bit stressed. I’ve started watching from the very beginning—in 2009, season by season. It is fun to see how far quilting has come and the myriad ideas that have and continue to shape the quilting world. Every now and then I will notice I’m watching a rerun of a show I’d already seen. No worries. It is always nice to brush up on skills, tips, hints, and trends. So even if I’m not doing as much quilting as I’d like, I still feel as though I have my hands in it, so to speak. So once again, Alex Anderson for leading the way for me. And Ricky, I love what he does as well. He brings a fresh, new, artistic approach which perfectly complements Alex’s more traditional work.

Watching TQS is no longer limited to those moments when I feel a panic attack coming on. I now watch just because I love it.

Quilting again, better with color

Life is busy. And, it seems that sometimes it is just too busy to enjoy the things I really love, like quilting. I haven’t touched my sewing machine in way too long. I have a quilt in the works to be hand-quilted and one that just needs to be put together with backing and batting to be quilted. There just always seems to be something else more pressing to do. Ironically, that is the very reason quilting is so necessary. It soothes me, makes me happy, and keeps me somewhat sane.

Recently I decided to add some color to my kitchen. More info is available about this color choice at my personal blog at CHMusings.

What better project for a kitchen face-lift than a new table runner? I chose my new color in the kitchen to be turquoise, so I went through my fabric stash and picked out some fabrics. I have come to love this color and enjoyed working with it.

I decided to make the same table runner I have made many times before using the Double Star quilt block. I like to think of this as my signature block because I have made so many of them.

The table runner consists of three blocks, joined by a strip of sashing, with a similar border all around.

Rather than use my own pattern since I wasn’t quite sure where it was, and I was anxious to get started, I decided to just look for one online. Big mistake. There are several flying geese in this block and there are many different ways to make them. The pattern I downloaded used templates to cut and sew the pieces together. Have I mentioned before that I hate working with triangles? It may bear repeating. Although there was no waste involved in this method, the precision, at least for me, left much to be desired. I finished one block and was glad I didn’t cut out the pieces for all three, because I didn’t like the result. Haste does make waste. So, I decided to find the pattern I’m familiar with.

I like the method, such as in this tutorial from Connecting Threads, which makes flying geese using squares sewn to rectangles and then trimming the corners. There is a bit of waste involved, but it is so worth it to have points match and end up with uniform pieces.

I became acquainted with this block during a Craftsy project, the 2012 Block of the Month. I loved making that quilt and fell in love with the Double Star.

Once I found the pattern, I cut out all my pieces and began to sew them together. It went much smoother this time around. In fact, I found it all to be pretty enjoyable. It was nice to be back into the swing of it. I’ve really missed working with my sewing machine. While a little out of practice, I like how the table runner turned out. I’m pretty happy with it. It adds just the right splash of color to an ordinary drab part of my kitchen.

I got lucky

I am a firm believer in luck, of being in the right place at the right time. And I hit the jackpot recently when I attended a local estate sale that advertised “fabric.”

I walked into an outbuilding, along with a huge crush of others, into what had clearly been used as a sewing studio at one time. Talk about a kid in a candy store. That is exactly how I felt. My vision was filled with dreamy colors: paisleys, plaids, stripes, polka dots, and solids. The studio contained numerous sewing machines, dozens of bolts of fabric, all neatly stacked in shelves along the walls. There were a number of bins filled with sewing notions from pins and needles to scissors and rotary cutters. There were yards of batting, cutting mats, and more. But most of all, there were boxes and boxes of fabric on tables, some sorted, some not. This was a fabric stash that was a quilter’s dream come true.

Normally when I buy fabric, I take my time, studying the colors, and thinking about various projects I might create. I try to visualize what is in my own stash, and what is lacking there. Yet, when I walked into this place, there wasn’t time to consider what I wanted. I just let it speak to me. I picked up what I liked with no thought to what I would do with it. There just wasn’t time for that. And, if I liked something and didn’t grab it, one of the others shopping there would have. So, I wasn’t even really aware of what I bought until I got home and spent some time with it, imagining what part it would play in future quilts. One of the first things I did was wind it onto cardboard in preparation for storage. I love

fabric and everything about it makes me happy.

I spent about $40 for material that would have otherwise cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. This was a sale of a lifetime.

That said I would be remiss not to mention the downside.

I’m aware that my joy is related to someone else’s agony. I don’t know the story of what became of the person who owned that studio, the person who initially bought each and every yard of fabric contained there. I can’t even speculate. But it always makes me sad to realize that when someone’s household items are ‘liquidated,’ it is usually because someone died or was forced to move away.

I cherish each and every yard of fabric I have, but I respect this even more because of how it was obtained. I hope when the day comes that my children have to dispose of my fabric that it will be go to quilters. Quilters are very caring people, and they understand what our fabric means to us.

I’m anxious to start my next project.

Quilting is learning

Every quilting project is a learning experience. My latest one, an incomplete project, was no exception.

I actually wrote about this quilt –my calendar block of the month quilt--last month when I decided to finish it. http://chquilts.ozarkattitude.com/2018/01/pretty-doesnt-need-perfection.html I love doing block of the month (BOM) projects because they tend to keep me interested. Every month is a challenge. Because I started this in 2012, there were some real challenges for me because of some techniques I had never done before. I had never done paper piecing and hadn’t done too many appliques either. This had both.

This was the first BOM I ever did. I really enjoyed learning new techniques and practicing the skills I already knew. Piecing was difficult for me back then, as was matching seams and achieving perfect points. To be sure, I did neither in this project, but I did the best I could at the time. Thankfully, I have improved since then.

Although I loved making the individual blocks, I wasn’t so enamored with the quilt itself. It was smaller than I would have liked. It never occurred to me to add blocks or borders to increase its size. If I was to do another one like this, I would probably do both of those things. I thought this project had little cohesiveness. I was bothered that it all seemed so helter-skelter.

Now that I have finished it, I really like how it turned out. I am no longer “afraid” of all the colors in it. I’m pleased that it has a theme—months of the year-- which really is its cohesiveness. My thinking has evolved since I first looked at all these unrelated blocks. I’ve also grown in my color appreciation. I am no longer turned off by the many colors here.

Quilting the quilt

One of the hardest things to do for myself and many other quilters is to decide how to quilt the quilt. I’ve often heard it said, and I now agree, the quilt will tell you how to quilt it. I know how hokey this sounds, but it is true; the quilt will speak to you.

For example, I had no idea how I was going to quilt the February block.

I knew I wanted the cats to stand out. I was rather fond of this block because I happen to have four cats. So, I used a tiny stipple to make the background dense. I also densely quilted the hearts, so the cats themselves would come forward.

One of the cats had a seam that had come loose. So, I decided to quilt an outline around the heart shape, which in turn, would tame that seam. Worked out great. This remains one of my favorite blocks.

Another one that gave me fits was the July block. I decided to use a red, white, and blue variegated thread. Big mistake, but I didn’t learn until it was way too late.

The blue stars didn’t turn out quite like I wanted them too. The red and white portion of the thread shows up on the blue background, but the blue does not. The problem with the feathers was that the white portion of the thread just looked like an unquilted space. I decided to do what so many quilters tell you to do if you are unhappy with how something turns out. Just throw more thread at it. I did that and they look so much better without the blank spots. 

I had no idea what to do with those pesky bird houses depicting June. There were no holes for the birds to fly into, so that was the first thing I had to do. I wanted to quilt them all differently, so I looked at the fabric and let it tell me what to do. On the blue/yellow one, I quilted wonky lines, following the fabric grid. I did the same on the yellow roof. In order to add some cohesion to the block, I added diagonal lines for the background. So, all of them look like they belong together, but remain all different.

Another place I used the fabric print to guide the quilting was on the jar that is the September block. I’ve been asked what the significance of that is. I assumed the jar was chosen to depict jelly making or canning vegetables from the harvest. My quilt is mine though, so I chose my jar to be filled with bugs. It reminded me of catching lightening bugs when I was a little girl. The fabric has bugs on it. So, I simply drew circles around them, in a form of pebbling. I like how the texture turned out on this block.

And that was the approach I took to all of the blocks. I enjoyed thinking through some of these issues.

This was the biggest project I have made with free-motion quilting. Everyone says it can be done, so I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Normally, I do quilt-as-you-go project, where the quilting is done on each block and they are assembled afterward. This was done traditionally. Truthfully, I didn’t see any real problem with quilting the whole quilt. Oh, it did take a little more muscle to fit the bulk of the fabric in the tiny space, but it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. I’m no longer afraid of quilting a large quilt.

Quilting is always on my mind

While free-motion quilting is serious business resulting in beautiful pieces of art, I like to remind myself that it is also an enjoyable pastime. 

I never want to take myself too seriously, so I try to keep it light sometimes, which is why I prepare my morning breakfast--Toaster Strudel--with all kinds of swirls, squiggles, and potential quilting designs.

While a hearty breakfast often consists of a more healthy fare, there are just times when my sweet tooth wakes up and demands one of my favorite go-tos. So, why not?

There isn't much skill included in my breakfast design which caters more to my sense of humor than to actual quilting practice, but, that's OK too. 

I plan to work on my latest quilting project later this afternoon, but for now, clearly, quilting is on my mind.