[Arcadian Meadow] Finished

I am glad to finally call this quilt finished. When you consider that I started cutting the fabric for it a year ago and it is a gift for my brother (and now sister-in-law) who got married in January, it’s about time!

We are in Florida visiting family so I was able to hand deliver the quilt to my brother and sister-in-law as well as take pictures of it in my folks’ backyard garden.

For this quilt, I used the pattern that Moda released with Tula Pink’s Nest collection. The pattern calls for pre-cuts (layer cake + jelly roll) and I had only a layer cake + FQs. I had to modify the pattern slightly to make it work with FQs instead of a jelly roll. And I upped the total number of blocks from 16 to 24.

Combing Arcadia and Modern Meadow prints was a happy accident after the two collections were placed next to each other on my sewing table last summer. I discovered that most of the Sunny Day palette of Modern Meadow works with Arcadia. I did not include the Modern Meadow prints with a lot of aqua (“pond”) because it is brighter than the Arcadia aqua. And the other colors – orange, ochre/yellow, taupe/brown, white/ivory – aren’t an exact match but are close enough that I felt comfortable using them together.

I had to piece large cuts of the Arcadia prints for the backing. When I showed my husband what yardage of Arcadia is going for on etsy, he thought I was nuts to use it for the backing. But I bought the fabric awhile ago with the intention of using it as a backing, so that’s what it became.

I once again pieced my label into the back and am still happy with the results.

And I used the Modern Meadow Herringbone print in timber for the binding.

Before sitting down to free motion quilt, the first thing I did was modify my darning/free motion foot. Doing so makes such a huge difference in my ability to FMQ. I have better visibility, more control and I am not distracted by a jumping foot. Why didn’t I do it sooner?!

For the quilting, I am continuing to push myself, albeit slowly, to expand beyond stippling. I am most comfortable with all-over stitch designs; am not comfortable travel stitching yet; and for this quilt I wanted the stitching to resemble plants/nature in some way to mimic the motifs in the fabric. Given all of that, I felt a little limited by what I could tackle.

I searched through Leah Day‘s archive of free motion quilting stitches and thought I might attempt the “Wandering Clover” design. After trying it out on a test quilt sandwich, I simplified the design even more into a two-leaf clover, instead of three.

The quilting design is a little more dense than I intended. I went through nearly 8 bobbins of a 50wt Aurifill thread (which is a thinner thread)! The thinner thread practically disappears in the quilt but leaves a nice texture. I do like the result and am excited to tackle a harder FMQ design next.

I used Soy Soft by Luna (Moda) batting for the second time and am much happier with the results this go-around. I did not experience any bearding and pilling like I did the first time (the bearding and pilling might have been a result of me washing, and not drying, the quilt several times trying to get rid of chalk lines. Maybe I agitated it too much??). Soy Soft is a 50/50 organic soy cotton blend, is naturally anti-bacterial, has a really nice drape and is also lighter than the cotton batt I normally use (Warm & Natural). I would definitely use it again.

And now, some other notes and lessons learned from this quilt…

• I broke more needles than I would care to admit while quilting (AKA watch out for safety pins!).
• I learned to always check my tension before sewing (apparently my girls like to play with the tension dial which meant I had to unpick stitches twice).
• Layer cakes are not accurately cut by the manufacturer.
• I prefer designing and drafting my own patterns as opposed to following someone else’s pattern.
• Better ergonomics + large even surface area around my sewing machine + modified darning foot = a much more successful and pleasant FMQing experience

Oh, and you would think that my WIP count would have gone down by finishing this quilt, right? It turns out it didn’t. I somehow managed to start yet another project as I was trying to complete this one, so my WIP count remains at 11.

Ode to Denyse

Just like every other modern quilter, one of my favorite fabric designers is Denyse Schmidt, the modern quilting maven.

Katie Jump Rope Collection. Image source: DSquilts website

I first started quilting about the time when Katie Jump Rope, Denyse’s second fabric collection, was fairly easy to find (sans a couple prints). KJR might be my favorite fabric collection of all time. In my opinion, KJR is practically perfect. It is classic; colorful but not too bright; and it can look masculine or feminine, depending on which prints you use. And the prints mix and match easily with other fabrics. I guess Flea Market Fancy fits that criteria too, huh?

My love for Denyse’s fabric didn’t stop with KJR and I have since collected all or some of the prints in all of her other collections.

Denyse’s fabric plays so nicely together and I have known for a long time that I wanted to make a quilt showcasing just that. I had not been able to settle on a design, but I finally figured out the design this week while reading through the archives of the Molly Flanders blog.

Mary (aka Molly Flanders) posted an example of a flowering snowball quilt/quilt block and it hit me – this is it! I left a comment for Mary about it and then we emailed back and forth. Mary kindly offered to send me templates for the block and I also played in Illustrator trying to figure out how the quilt and colors could come together.

Despite really needing to work on other projects (projects that I need to finish THIS month), I just could not get this quilt out of my mind. I figured out how to make templates using an extra plastic divider I had on hand (a first for me) and I quickly started tracing and cutting fabric.

I pulled out my Curve Master foot and tried it for the first time by piecing together parts to a couple of blocks to make sure I really could do full-on curved piecing. Once I figured out I could, every single bit of DS fabric I have came out so I could see how it would all coordinate together.

With the way that I am utilizing the block design, I will have to know exactly where each block goes in relation to what is around it before piecing the blocks. The “blocks” shown above have not been pieced yet (save two partial curves); they are just on the design wall so I could see how the individual circles look.

I love how a secondary pattern of lighter circles show up in the design because of fabric placement and value differences in the fabrics.

The plan is to use a creamy white to the insides of the secondary circles (where the design wall white is showing). I had wanted to use a darker neutral but then I don’t know if the circles would pop like I want with a darker neutral.

It felt really good to finally cut into fabric I have been coveting and hoarding for a couple of years. In doing so, I discovered that I really like the basecloth for Hope Valley. And, while I have always been in the minority in the modern quilting world for liking Greenfield Hill, I like GFH even more now after getting to play with it. It might be too traditional for some modern quilters, but I think it is quite divine in a refined but bold way. You can see in these photos that it very easily coordinates with the other collections.

To note: this is not the final layout; I still have more fabrics to add. I am waiting on a package from Australia to arrive as it contains the ten Australia-exclusive DS Quilts Picnic & Fairground prints.

ETA: All missing prints found. Thank you everyone for helping me out! I am missing a few Flea Market Fancy prints that I would LOVE to add to this quilt. I do not need big pieces – a 5″ charm is perfect. I would like to buy/swap for these missing prints, if anyone out there has them and wants to take pity on me help me out.

I know I will wait until at least the end of summer before I work to piece the top because Denyse has another DS Quilts line, called Sugar Creek, being released at JoAnn stores in late summer. After that, I will have to decide if I want to wait until FMF is re-released early next year before I complete the quilt.

I anticipate this being another throw-sized quilt and it stay with us. I think I will call it Ode to Denyse.

[Sugar-free] Finished!

This quilt is a study in freehand cutting (not using the straight edge of the ruler to make cuts) and improv piecing; and it was born out of a need to calm my fears and a want for a stack of pretty quilts in our home.

I realized not long ago that our household lacks quilts. How did that happen? I see stacks of quilts piled high on Flickr and on quilt blogs. And I feel like I am missing out. I want a stack! Most of the quilts I have made have gone to others. So I am now on a mission to make some quilts for us to use, wherever and whenever.

But a big reason that this quilt came to be is a bit of a convoluted story.

I was asked to demonstrate a block at the last DMQG meeting. I decided to demo a technique that is new-to-me: cutting and piecing gentle curves without pins. I pulled out my stack of Hey Sugar (by Cosmo Cricket for Andover) prints + Kona solids (that I had planned to use for one of my bees) to make a couple of sample blocks incorporating freehand cutting, gentle curves and improv piecing (did you catch all of that?!).

The first couple example blocks I made, I loved. But as I continued the process, I started to doubt my vision. After getting a few more blocks made, I placed them side-by-side and they just looked messy; kind of like I did not know what I was doing.

Following the meeting and over the next few days, I quickly worked on more blocks, hoping that the more blocks I saw together, the more they would make sense as a whole.  I made three to four blocks at a time, utilizing chain piecing as much as I could. Since there were only 24 (12″) blocks to make, the top came together seemingly quickly.  I put all other projects on hold — projects with deadlines — to work on this impromptu quilt-for-no-reason.

In the back of my mind, I kept telling myself, it will look good in the end, it will look good in the end…

Even though I tend to avoid quilt designs that involve a lot of precise piecing and matching points (like here), my block corners do a pretty good job of matching up in this top, enough though it is not crucial to the design (hello, run-on sentence!). So, apparently my piecing skills are improving in all of the sewing I have done lately. Maybe that is a sign that I should try some designs that incorporate more intricate piecing??

And now, the back… the back began as an exercise in thrift. I started putting the back together using the leftover Hey Sugar pieces. Once I was about halfway done with the back, I hated how it looked. It was too patchworky. Too many pieces. Too busy. In thinking about the time and heart I put into the top, I felt like the hobo-style back would ruin the entire quilt. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the look of the pieced backs I see out there. Somehow though, when my backs incorporate too many prints, they look amateurish.

So despite trying to resist the urge to buy more fabric, I decided that it would be more than worth it to fork over a few bucks to get a Kona solid to use on most of the back (Aloe, I believe?). A large area of solid + a little print + a little piecing = a much happier me.

For the quilting, I did horizontal organic “straight” lines that were irregularly spaced. The wavy lines mimic the feel of the improv piecing in the blocks. And for the binding, I loved that I was able to use the print with the diagonal stripes, so my binding only looks like it was cut on the bias. And I used a new-to-me method to join my binding that Juanita (of Settler’s Peace and fellow DMQG’er) posted about.

I have not washed this quilt yet only because I fear that those chunks of red may bleed over all of that ivory. I did not prewash any of the fabrics and I will soon find out if that was a mistake or not. I have a box of Colorcatchers ready for the inaugural laundering. Here’s to hoping that I have a smile on my face as I pull it out of the washer!

[Squares in Squares] Finished

I finished this quilt just in time for the wedding shower that it is being gifted at tonight. And… with the finish of this quilt, it confirms to me that I need to rethink how I create/design/plan the quilts I make.

Before listing my lessons learned, first the details of the quilt.

I took inspiration for the quilt design from the grid fabric used in the backing. I only had a yard of the grid fabric and hoped to find more so I could use it for the entire backing, but I had no luck finding more (Three quilting/flickr friends and my husband looked in four states and 12 different Jo-Ann stores for it. The fabric was bought about a year ago and has since been discontinued, or so we learned at the last Jo-Ann store that was checked).

I took these pictures this morning and my quilt-holder-upper had already gone to work, thus the dragging-on-the-ground quilt pictures.

I couldn’t make up my mind on how to build my blocks, but with the help of flickr friends, I decided that alternating how the floral and brown fabric framed the internal square would work the best.

Each block on the front measures ~12″ square and the sashing is 3″ (both finished measurements).  It measures about 48″ x 78″ (pre-washing; I’m too lazy to measure again). For the length of the quilt, I think it should have been a little wider.

I miscalculated how many block centers I would need for the front, so I used the extra centers on the back. I like how the back turned out. I wish it was more off-center, but mostly-center can work too.

I did straight line quilting with a khaki-ish thread so as to work with both the off-white sashing and mostly dark brown backing. I quilted about a quarter inch from the each edge of the sashing and also quilted inside each of the block centers.

And now, lessons learned and observations…

• The contrast between the “snow” sashing and the “chocolate” brown in the blocks and binding is really outside of my comfort zone. Not sure that I like how it works here.
• I think this quilt would have looked better sans sashing. However, I used just about all of the floral fabric that I had, so I couldn’t make any more of these blocks for the front. If I coulda, I woulda.
• I am not yet ready to tackle large swaths of solid fabric for a backing especially when using a contrasting thread for the quilting. Solids hide nothing. My current skill set needs pattern in the backing fabric to camouflage any issues that may arise. Also, I’m usually too lazy to bury my quilting threads and just snip them after pulling through to the back and tying them off. The clipped threads are very noticeable on this quilt and I think it looks sloppy. Whoops.
• My straight-line quilt is not straight in the least. Even more sloppy looking.
• I think I’ve tried straight-line quilting enough to make me realize that I much prefer free motion quilting (I’m still in meandering/stipple land; one day soon I’ll venture out into other designs). I enjoy the FMQ process more and also prefer how a FMQ’d washed quilt looks.
• I keep making quilts using my not-favorite fabric. Not that I don’t like the fabric, but I don’t love it. I think that’s part of the reason why I’m feeling so meh with my quilting results lately. I need to start using fabric that I love. How else am I going to make a quilt that I love?
• I need to make sure I buy enough fabric to make the quilt I want to make. Going on fruitless searches for a discontinued fabric is not generally how I like to spend my time. This idea really sank in when I thought about the number of fabric collections/groupings that I have in my stash. I hope to turn most of those FQ bundles, precuts and other groupings into quilts one day. What happens when “one day” is three years from now and I can no longer find any yardage of Wonderland? Since I don’t want to go the route of a mostly solid back, I imagine that I would be an unhappy camper at that point. So, what have I been doing this last week? I’ve been buying yardage of prints from the older-ish collections that I have and plan to turn into quilts. Think Wonderland, Deer Valley, Oz, Plume, 1974, Hope Valley, Hunky Dory, FreshCut, Red Letter Day. Yummy mail days, for sure.
• I don’t really mind basting my quilts (I pin baste with masking tape on our tiled master bathroom floor). I read/hear how most people hate this step. I almost enjoy it; almost. I find it a challenge trying to get the backing, batting and top nice and flat and straight. Binding is the step I enjoy the least.

Ok, I think that’s it for this one. I’m glad this quilt is going off to live with a soon-to-be married couple. Hopefully they’ll do some cuddling under it soon!

[Sunny Shoo-Fly] Finished!

I started Chelsea’s preschool nap quilt back in April, thinking I would finish something early for a change. Yeah, that didn’t happen. After starting it, I got interested in other things and it got put on the backburner. And there is nothing like a fast approaching deadline — the start of school — to get me back on track.

The making of the quilt…

I had a couple of yards of a Lila Tueller Soiree print and wanted to use it to back this quilt. That print then determined the color palette for the front. I incorporated the Soiree print into the front by using fussy-cut squares for the middle of the shoo-fly blocks. I accidentally miscut the Soiree yardage when fussy cutting and ended up being short one fussy-cut flower to complete the front blocks. In order to get one more fussy-cut flower, I would have lost 8 inches of my backing fabric.  Instead of doing that, I introduced another Lila Tueller print, this one from the Santorini line.

I used one of the flowers from the Santorini print to fill in my missing fussy-cut shoo-fly center and then also added that print to the back as well. I did not buy the two Lila fabrics to go together, but they do. I kinda like the Santorini print better (the top one) and wish I had used it through out. Once I came to that conclusion, I was too far in my process to go back and redo it (and I was running out of time).

I was inspired to make this quilt after seeing Malka’s (stitchindye) oversized shoo-fly quilts. I liked the oversized blocks and I liked that the corner (background) fabrics of her quilts did not all match. I tried to convey some of the same feeling by using two different yellow prints for the corners of my shoo-fly blocks.

I learned a nice lesson while piecing this quilt — always trim your blocks the same. Not thinking, I squared up one or two of the blocks a little too much and it really threw this quilt off when I was piecing it. Very few of the points match up. I just remind myself that it is for preschool and then the worry of matching points goes away.

For the quilting, I just outlined the inside of the shoo-fly blocks and then outlined the center square of each block. I started to do small meandering stitching in all of the yellow areas, but that looked out of place, so I picked it out.

For the back, I separated the two Lila prints with a pieced strip using leftovers from the front fabrics. I did not initially plan to have the brown solid fabric on the back, but after piecing the strip in, I decided that the brown needed to be there to break up all of the pattern.

I tried something new for my quilt label. My machine has decorative stitches that look like letters (not to be confused with embroidery, because these are definitely not embroidered letters). I have two options with the letter stitching — regular letters and “cursive” letters. I used the cursive lettering here and the spacing is a little off. I cannot adjust it any way from what I can tell. Not the best, but usable still.

I did the label lettering on a piece of the yellow fabric and then attached it to the back on top of another yellow print to help it blend into the back somewhat (in the photo above, I had fused the label to the back, but had not hand sewn it down yet. If I had known that I was doing minimal quilting, I would have pieced the label into the strip on the back, instead of attaching it on top of it. Oh, well. Another lesson learned.

All in all, I am happy with the way the quilt came out. And Chelsea likes it too, and that is what is important.

[scrappy strings] FINALLY finished

a wonky scrappy string quilt + my little helper

SIZE: lap size; I need to measure it.
FABRIC: random fabric from my stash that I wanted to use up
DESIGN: wonky string quilt
QUILTING: free motion in a meandering design in the brown fabric areas
BINDING: brown polka dot + pieced in scraps; machine sewn to front and back
INSPIRED BY: Ashley’s (filminthefridge) colorful *Kaleidoscope* string quilt (tutorial here) + wanting to bust through a good chunk of my stash
FOR: Christmas gift for family

After tackling the sink full of dishes and even some of the laundry, I decided I could squeeze in just a little more quilting before JMW and Mal return tomorrow. But before I started yet another project (what I really wanted to do), I realized it was high time to work on the string quilt that has been begging to be finished.

The quilt was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year but with my quilting hiatus, that obviously didn’t happen. (Hey, now I can give it as a Christmas gift this year! I’ve never been this prepared for Christmas. It isn’t even June yet!). I think this quilt sat incomplete for so long because I wasn’t happy with my binding method. Now that I’ve straightened that out, I was ready to sit and bind this lap quilt.

Strangely enough, I started and completed this quilt a year ago, exactly to the day. Isn’t that crazy? Here’s a time line of this quilt…

• May 15, 2009: started blocks
• May 17, 2009: completed top
• January 2010: pieced back, basted, quilted
• May 15, 2010: bound quilt = completed quilt

This is one of those quilts that you need to *admire* from afar. Up close, it is not pretty (I was reminded of this today when I was taking the pictures). The individual blocks are not attractive. And the fabrics do not go together. But for whatever reason, looking at the quilt from a distance, it just works. You can read about my thought process and why and how this quilt came together here and here.

I wasn’t sure how to quilt this quilt and in the end, I decided to do free motion quilting in the brown areas (the brown diagonal lines and the brown pieces in the middle of the diamonds). This gave the quilt a lot of open un-quilted areas that are surprisingly soft after washing. You can kinda see the pattern this quilting created on the back of  quilt (below).

The back… I don’t even know what to say about it. It is obviously pieced together using many leftover bits and pieces from making the quilt, plus a bonus leftover scrap strip from the back of my numbers quilt. It is so ugly — up close and from afar! I thought all of the scraps would look better together but they don’t and there isn’t much I can do about it now! Oh, and I did not do a good job basting the quilt because there are a couple of places where the fabric is messed up (kinda folded?) from where I didn’t have my sandwich pulled tight enough. Now that the quilt is washed, those problem areas aren’t as noticeable (thank goodness!).

I used a brown polka dot for the binding and pieced in little scraps.

I will say that I don’t know if I will make a string quilt again. Piecing together blocks that sit on the bias is not the easiest thing to do. I got a lot of pulling, stretching and irregularity of the blocks and fabric. There ended up being a little more wonkiness than I intended but at least that unintended wonkiness gets hidden in the quilt design.

It feels good to finally get this quilt done. And now that leaves me with just two WIPs which is really quite remarkable for me (I’m more apt to start many projects than I am to finish a project). I am really trying to be good and not have too many WIPs going on at once and so far I feel like I am succeeding with that goal.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Other posts about this quilt here and here.

All photos of this quilt here.