Baby Quilt Mania

As two co-workers are shortly due, I simply must fly to get their baby quilts done. E. is due first, actually on Palm Sunday apropos as she is a preacher. What date could be more fitting for her first child's birth than one of the holiest days of the year. I have all the pieces cut out and am almost done with their piecing. It's the curse of cute tiny quilts. All those little pieces that will make this baby quilt adorable.

So its, been a little while since I started this.  E's baby actually came second as K. wound up going into labor first.  Even better she waited until after Easter Sunday.  Now as I am just passing their second birthdays still working on their quilts.  E's quilt is almost done, I'm just working on hand quilting it, and am so darn close to finishing.  Then its only three more for the other work colleagues who have had their children &/or are pregnant right now.

Close up of center

All laid out

Here are a few pics of her quilt from when I laid it out to sew.
Can you find the few that are mislaid?  While, I didn't find them before I sewed it all together, it just really emphasizes the homemade nature of the quilt. It also doesn't help my timeline that I've been hand quilting this one, a heart in each of the tan squares.

Part of the problem is that I like to design the quilt so much, but the actual follow through & quilting is not my favorite.  So I like to create an original design for each kid, thus I wind up spending time on that and not finishing up the quilt as I should.

Quilting Break

So its kind of nuts how long its been since I've had a chance to do some quilting.

I've been struggling to find the time, in between the changes in work that have increased my responsibilities & stresses and that I started going to the gym.  I would say its been at least six months, if not more for anything outside of some EPP on my grandmother's flower garden.

Test Block w/ sashing on 2 sides

So while I had a little staycation the last few days, I've been able to get some quilting done. I had to do a test block (pictured here) on W's wedding quilt to double check that my math was right. It's been so long that I was really questioning that it was right.  And what do you know, it was all right.  It was just a reaffirmation that I should stop doubting myself and trust that I know what I'm doing.  I love that I've gotten to do some test blocks, it will really let me RD the quilting for the overall quilt.

Since the design of the block, I've wound up going a different direction. The construction is easier, as a log cabin style block put on point; instead of the original design which involved paper piecing.  W. wanted her quilt to be made of kona solids in her wedding colors, the equivalent of coal and bright pink. Although I really liked it done with the batiks & color shifts in the original version of the quilt design, its her quilt and I want her to love it.

Piecing stack

I've really enjoyed getting back to quilting, and need to start making time for it again.

New Designs

As its nearly spring time again, I thought I would share some of my spring bounties. So check out my new designs.

Origami Wedding Rings

DNA

Robot Hands

Rainbow Twist Auction Quilt

Original Design - September/October 2010

This quilt was created for an auction. Originally, it was going to be the backing for another quilt, but I liked it so much that I decided to make it a top.

The simplicity of the quilt is striking and the colors are more vibrant than they appear in the pictures. I would love to find out more about how to photograph quilts to their best advantage.

I quilted each lengthwise strip, with a decreasing labyrinth in the color of the strip. And on the strips across the width I did diamonds between the colors. With a skinny strip of minky for the binding. I am really happy with how it turned out.

Plus, I heard it was a rather hot item at the auction. Yay!

Update and new quilt designs

Given that it has been over a year since I last posted. I thought I should share a little about my quilting over the passage of time in this period.

I have been anything but prolific in making quilts. I finished one quilt and two more tops. I have several others in development and design but I haven't finished making any quilts recently. Though I have designed several with witch I am really happy. So I thought I would share a couple of the designs I really like.

Crescent Circles

This is my take on the traditional orange peel quilt. I think it will have be applique. I am kind of excited getting around to it, as it will be my first applique quilt. I really like the bright vibrancy of the quilt, and think I would prefer it as very simple two-tone quilt.

Floating Bridges

I like this one. I don't really remember what inspired me. I think it would be fun to quilt with a bunch of names, kind of like graffiti artists marking up bridges.

Rectangle Shift/Sliding Doors

This is one of my favorite designs. I can't wait to make it. I think it would be great to make as a large queen size quilt. For whatever reason, the vertical aspect really appeals to me.

Well once I relocate, I will have to make a point of spending more time sewing. After my machine broke down, I finally replaced it but had fallen out of the habit of sewing and it has given me a hard time finding the time to pick it back up.

9-patch sew along and overall progress

Well, I just counted and I stand at 36 blocks. Due to the fact, that I am making four squares right now, I have been trying to make two a day. Though I must admit that I am not someone who sits down and does a little each day. It works much better for me to sit down and do a massive session to let me get ahead for the days when I can't do anything or focus on other projects.

I want to share photos of them, as I really love some of the blocks and would love to hear thoughts on some of the others as I just am not sure about them. If they are really unsuccessful is it better to hide in a massive project, on the back, or to deconstruct and try something else. Unfortunately, my computer is crashing every time I try to upload my photos so it has to wait until I can borrow someones, perhaps this weekend.


UPDATE: I just finished up the ones for today so I am now at 38. Enough for 19 days so I am good for another two days.

I have been keeping busy with my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I have finished two flowers with the third row of green. I several more that are the simple flowers with just the petals and center. I finally found a yellow that works really well for the center. YAY. I am still trying to figure out if I want a cream/white/none for the path between the flowers.

Grandma's Flower Garden (GFG)

I re-started my GFG. This time instead of using the paper pieces I cut, I am using June Tailor's Simple Shapes - hexagon, so that my flowers will be consistent and uniform. These are available via JoAnn's ($10/25 shapes) and really quite reasonable when using your coupons or they are on sale. I had a lot of problems with my earlier paper pieced flowers with trying to match up the sides, as my papers were not uniform. I cut them myself and got a little sloppy while making them. They caused my flowers to wind up looking really amateurish. Now with the uniform shapes, I am really pleased by how they are turning out.

I have quite a few flower petals ready to assembled. They are just waiting on me to find the right fabric for the center. I have been struggling with finding a good yellow that fits the overall theme of the quilt.

I am surrounding each flower with a ring of green, then creating a path of white or cream. I still can't decide which color-way will look better. I am also trying to figure out if I want to put a path between each flower or simply add another ring of the neutral color (white or cream). The difference is one row of white/cream between the flowers or two. I can't decide what would look better.

I am really pleased though that I was able to get enough of the green to allow me make my GFG either a large full or queen sized quilt.

I have to admit that I am a little surprised, I didn't think I would enjoy the hand piecing this much. Even better, with a GFG I am able to spend a great deal of time quilting without having to spend a great deal of money.

With my other quilts, it was starting to get a little expensive as it only takes me about two or three hours to piece a top. So I can piece a top in one afternoon/evening. Now, it takes me longer to quilt the tops, but even so its getting quilts done in a matter of days instead of weeks and the cost of fabric, batting, and thread really adds up.

The GFG takes up time, is portable, and cost effective. So, I highly recommend at least giving it a try.

Mod Sampler Quilt along progress

I have decided to use a natural muslin for the sashing and can not wait to finish up the quilt. However, my sewing machine decided to act up and well it has taken until now to get it working again.

I really like how the blocks have turned out. I am really looking forward the finished quilt. I picked up orange and red flannel solid for the back. It will be very cool. I even have variegated thread in both orange and red for the stippling.

One A Day Quilt Along

I'm joining Crazy Mom Quilts' One a Day Quilt Along. I am really excited, I love the quilt on witch it is based. Though I am running a little late on getting started, have to wait for the semester to finish up.

My mom is interested in making her own version of this quilt as well. Since, she doesn't have a blog I will share her progress on mine. So you get to see two versions for the price of one.

Now, because I plan on using the scraps left over from my Grandma's Flower Garden Quilt for this project the majority of my blocks will actually be four square patches. I am not sure if I want to make the entire thing with four squares or if I want to do rows of nines and rows of fours. I will have to see how it goes as the time progresses.

When making my Grandma's Flower Garden Quilt, I get two charm packs and cut each charm into four 2.5" squares. I use six of the 2.5 squares for the petals. Its nice to now have a project for the other two squares.

To compensate for the overall size, since the quilt along quilt is made of nine patches, I plan on making two four patch squares a day once I am able to catch up.

Cool Present Wrapping

I like to fancy wrap presents and I was thinking about a cool wrapping for quilters. I like to wrap the present in a quilting fabric, and wrap it with some binding - I personally really like to use the packets of satin binding as the ribbon. I tape it with scotch tape after cutting the edges with pinking sheers, and think of it as a nice way to tie the present together. This is a great way to share some of your favorite fabrics with your friends.

This is an especially nice way to wrap presents when giving something made with fabric, like a quilt or to a quilter. When I gave my brother his last quilt, I put it into a box and wrapped the box with the pillowcase I made to match.

Jo-Ann's Sale

I went to Jo-Ann's for their Daffodil Dash sale, and stocked up on fabric. I really love that they put the clearance fabric on sale. They had some fabrics that made me think of vintage sheets so I was excited to get them. Plus, I was able to pick up what was left of a green 30's style daisy vine that I really like. It was a great find, because I originally picked up the fabric for my Grandma's Flower Garden Quilt, but my mom found she really likes it for her vintage 30's triangle quilt. I'm making it for her birthday/mother's day. I can't wait to get moving on the quilt, but she is driving me nuts by not making up her mind on the solid for the patterned fabric to be against. She can't decide between bleached or natural muslin. So now I have a ton of fabric for me to assign to projects, though I really need to finish up some of UFOs. I have reached the double digits, at least for most of them the top is finished, its simply a matter of quilting or finding a backing for them.

Seam Allowance

I finally figured out why I have been having such a hard time getting my seams to align. I thought my presser foot was a 1/4" from the needle and apparently it is closer to 3/8" just enough to royally mess up something with a lot of seams. Now that I know, I can either start sewing the 1/4" seam or adjust my cut pieces to allow the 3/8" seam. Currently, I am leaning more towards just adjusting the cuts, as I have a hard time sewing a consistent seam without something to align the edge of my fabric.

Free motion quilting

I finished the quilting on my first free motion quilt. I continue to see all my mistakes, though I will admit that it looks awfully good when viewed with some distance. I enjoyed the meandering stipple, even if overall quite a few of my curves wound up with points and angles. Overall, it really turned out well. Yay! So all it needs is a border and I will have finished my first quilt for myself.

Unfortunately, I have made a habit of only finishing the quilts that I give away as gifts. I am working on this by starting to build up my trousseau. I can only hope that my relationship with my boyfriend leads to its need. Anyway, I really enjoyed the freedom of free motion quilting though I think I would like a little guidance since I am just starting out. So next time I may choose to draw some basic quilting lines/motifs before I start.

I even did a pieced back. I am so excited. Its a perfect little lap quilt. All it needs is the border now for me to finish it. Though again my apparently bad sense of taste/style has reared its ugly head again so I need to pick up some white to finish the binding. Well, the white didn't work with the quilt, so I wound up finding a kona cotton red in a darker shade than the predominant red for the quilt. I can't wait until it is done. It's sitting in my room with the binding pinned on, ready to go as soon as my machine stops acting up. What a pain.

Back up

Man, all I can say is back up your work. My computer hard crashed with my travel drive in it, now my travel drive isn't being read when plugged in. I had all my quilts on here. If I can't recover the data, I will have lost something like 180 different designs. I am so furious at myself. I was clearing off the extra stuff off my comp and had already deleted them off my comp. I even took tiffs of all my designs so that I could remake the designs if I lost the actually files. The worst part is this is not the first time I have lost designs due to my bad back up habits. I seriously am so sick of my computer eating my work that it is not funny.

W's Wedding Ring Rough Draft Block

I decided that to make quilt work as a queen/king, I have to increase the size of the blocks to 15" finished. This allows the design integrity to be maintained. I didn't like how it turned out when modeling it at actually size versus just the design presented.

I am excited about this quilt. I think I will do a lot with the quilting on this, to truely personallize their quilt. I know its kind of hard, but I think I would like to quilt in their names, date, location, and blessings/prayers for the start of a new life. I am thinking of using the motif's from their invites or save the date cards for the quilt label. G. is a graphic designer and is creating their wedding identity which is extremely cool, so I want to make sure that I acknowledge both of them in their wedding quilt. I don't want it only to be for W.

The only bummer is that the local quilt store (LQS) had a great sale last week where you could pick 15-20% of a group of fabrics, and W couldn't make it down to choose fabrics. Well I may wind up having to order the fabrics online - to let her choose without me having to be there.

I am excited but also a little hesitant, I make quilt tops quickly but am still a rather new quilter, especially on a machine. Thus I have only finished three quilts. None of which have been the size of this quilt.

I have another one that is basted and am hand quilting it, and another top with everything ready for me to make the sandwich I just have been focused on other projects.

Quilting on a quilt along

I am quilting along with Oh, Franson to make her very cool mod sampler. I wanted to make a rainbow quilt, but wound up working with my fabric stash to make a red and orange quilt. I have finally finished all the blocks and was ready to sash, when my mother decided to interject. Apparently my sense of style is quite questionable and the fabric I chose for the sashing is not right. Okay, so after that wonderfully affirming discussion I have agreed to wait until I find something that works a little better or am sufficiently far from home that she can't throw a fit.

Latin Quilts

I was thinking today about quilting histories and the ties they provide to your family and culture. Further, I was looking at quilting books online, and dreaming. I have quite an impressive Amazon wish list. When it struck me, that the quilt subculture of Latin America, and specifically that of Latinos in the the US is not addressed. I think it would be extremely interesting to examine quilting motifs, color palates, patterns and themes within these quilts. More so, it would be fascinating to chart the interplay between the differing Hispanic/Latin cultures when illuminating these quilt cultures. I would love to really examine what is being said about each culture and history.

I guess it just really struck me as I was thinking about my family and quilting. Like, I shared I learned how to quilt from my mother in girl scouts, but there was not reinforcement of this quilting. Resulting in me being a periodic quilter until college. I was comparing, in my thoughts, my quilting experience with that of a close friend of mine, H. H is a serious quilter who grew up quilting with her mother, and grandmother. They are extremely involved in guild and local quilting groups through their church. I was just thinking about how that history has to translate to quilting choices in color, pattern, theme or quilting motifs.

It got me thinking about what was available for me to reflect my family and history in my quilting. As I know that my mother's family quilted as she shared stories about her Grandmother quilting and has one of her quilts. I also have some of my Grandma's quilting books and design sheets from when she quilted on my dad's. My dad comes from prairie farm stock, so you know they quilted. While, my mom's family quilted, my mother was sent away to school in the city when she was quite young (her family lived in the interior - extremely rural) so she never quite gained that sense of quilt culture and history through osmosis while making quilts.

I guess it really is that I am craving that sense of connection with my background and history that is resulting in these questions. I would like to see some of the history of Latin American quilting and where it stands today. I think it would be extremely interesting to see what is happening in the more urban environments that Latinos are living in today, how they affect the quilting to see if we can see the influences of urban architecture, life, and especially graffiti would be fascinating. I really would love to see what some graffiti artists could do when quilting.

Oh well, these are just my thoughts and well I think it would be cool to see.

Dog Toys - Braided rope pull

I liked this simple homemade dog toy, a braided rope pull.

I wonder into the local fabric store and buy some remnant fabric - usually flannel, I like the way it feels. Take it home and cut/rip into 1"-2" strips, what ever I feel like and works with the fabric, making sure that the strips are in multiples of three.

I take three strips, placed on top of each other and sew across the top, making sure that the seam is very sturdy by going across multiple times. If you are in a hurry or just don't want to get the sewing machine out, you can alternatively make a strong knot across the top of all three strips.

Then I start braiding, when it gets too long to hold comfortably, I tie the already braided pieces around the table leg or a chain back something sturdy that I can pull against. Well, or ask my crafting partner to hold it taught for me.

When I near the end of the fabric strips, there are several ways to join: you can miter the edges like you would for binding; you can knot the edges of the strips together; sew the edges together; or cut a slit in each of the strips and pull the second strip through the first - see V & Co 's Braided Rag Rug tutorial at Moda Bake shop.

However, you choose to join the strips, the braid is worked on until you achieve the length you want or think is most managable to play with your do. Then knot the end of the braid and sew across the remaining strip. Add knots along the length of the braid, where ever you want. These knots provide holds for your dog to chew/pull from.

Beware though, if your dog really likes this toy, then be cautious when making it as otherwise he/she may help themselves to the toy while you are still working on it.

Enjoy!

My quilting start

I first learned how to quilt at 8 from my mom. She taught me and the other three girls who were in my local girl scout troop. Mom taught us how to pick fabrics, cut and arrange them to make a small quilt just under a yard square. It was a simple rail fence quilt, but I learned. I remember deciding to make mine a theme quilt. The entire thing was made from strawberry fabrics.

I have tried at other times in my life to pick up quilting again, but it was not until college when I met H. (she is from a very traditional family and grew up quilting) that I started up quilting again. I had always been interested in quilting, but it really was not until I allowed myself to use the sewing machine to work on quilts that I started getting anything done.

Quilts have always been a part of our family, but my mother is a die hard quilt snob, who believes that everything needs to be done by hand, 100% cotton and that perfectionist style just does not work for how I quilt.

I remember when I was really little, watching my mother finishing up my sister's Christmas quilt. I still am slightly grumpy that I never got a quilt made for me. My mother likes to say that she has always known what she wants to make for me, but she doesn't know how to make it. She wanted to make me a rainbow grandmother's fan quilt, but she didn't know how to make curves. Honestly, I resent this a little bit because it would not have been hard to take a class or make an effort to make it for me. Though, I do understand, it still stinks.

I have been making quilts as gifts for awhile now, and am focusing on making some for myself now. I have several tops that I need to finish up but will do so eventually. In response to my never getting a quilt from mom I made myself a Christmas strippie. I still don't know how I want to finish it which is why it is still just a top. I struggle on this one. Sometimes, I think that I would like to do the back like graffiti in embroidery with clear thread on the top. However, I just don't know. I want it to be a comfortable quilt so maybe not. Perhaps instead I will make a graffiti quilt and work on that idea later.

I have quite a few quilt tops that I pieced from old t-shirts. I cut out the logos and fronts that I wanted to save for a t-shirt quilt and cut the rest up into blocks. I arranged these blocks into designs and sewed them into larger blocks of nine. I started quilting one of these t-shirt block quilts in grad school. I found a nice fleece and used it for backing without batting. Originally, I wanted to use a really thick batting and either tie or sew the quilt to make it a comforter. However, I was talked out of it by my mom and sister and have instead arrived at a summer weight quilt that has been quilted in the ditch. I really need to finish the quilting.

I stopped quilting it, due to my nickel allergy. I lost the platinum needles I took to school with me and picked up a normal needle but had to stop quilting when my allergy got too bad. I really hoped to have it done, but wound up having to spend time on my knitting (another craft I learned in girl scouts only to pick up again in college) instead.

I think the biggest factor in my quilting interest is that I figured out how to design quilts on the computer. I spend a lot of time designing quilts and layouts on the computer and then later on making my favorite designs.

I use a mac and Appleworks to design all of my quilts. I used Appleworks because it had a graph background, making it easy to draft blocks. Plus, I really appreciate the ability to manipulate the size while maintaining the look of the block. Though I have learned the hard way that I need to back up everything. I lost something like 30 original designs for quilts when my hard drive crashed. I was devastated, the designs hurt, but loosing my photographs was terrible. I lost some of the only photos I had of college friends and loosing my cell phone at the same time really stank. I not only lost photos, but my records, and the ability to get in touch with them. Seriously, if you keep anything digital, back it up!

I have only ever quilted on my own, and I think it would be really cool to get involved in a guild or quilting group. However, I am currently trying to relocate and don't really want to commit to something local, when hopefully I will get a job and move soon.

W.'s Wedding Quilt

Here is the one she picked.

W's Wedding Ring

I am waiting on her to finalize her color scheme, and pick the gray and pink that she wants. I am waiting on her input, because if it is not exactly what she wants the quilt will wind up being shoved into a cupboard and never used. I would really like to get moving on this so that I can get started on the quilting. Quilting tends to be the where I wind up spending the most time when making a quilt.

My mom, who taught me how to quilt, is kind of a quilt snob and makes me feel incrediblely guilty if I am not using the nicest and most natural (i.e. 100% cotton) materials that I can. More so, she is incredibly snobbish about hand quilting. I personally enjoy the fact that I can get a large quilt done quickly with a machine. Yet, for my sister's wedding quilt, I want the best that I can do and the hours and hours of hand quilting will be many prayers over the new start to her life and for both of them.

Right now, I am thinking about using an all over stipple to quilt, but that is just an idea. I may prefer something that helps keep the strong geometric feel of the quilt.