quick curve ruler – No Idle hands here

The Splendid Sampler VII

We have reached the halfway point! Block 50 was just released!I am thankful it was a pieced block. I have been doing the applique and embroidery, but I’m just happy that the midway point was something I love.Speaking of applique, a pin cushion. This time, I used monofilament and a very small zigzag stitch on the machine. I even made the pin heads using a heart pattern on my sewing machine.More piecing, I love these colors! Need to use this kind of combination more.Embroidery/applique, I changed this block out, I called it: oops the spools fell over. The original had the spools in a row with more embroidery – too fussy for me, so I simplified. Screenshot 2016-07-20 08.42.34 This one really tickled many people’s fancy. I have never gotten this many likes on the Facebook page, usually, I’m at around 50-90. There was a block with a squirrel, blech, so I went to my Sizzix dies and simply made this fox. Nothing original about him, but I’ve used him often and prefer him to the squirrel.The past week or two have been a lot of appliques, this was supposed to be neater, but all those fiddley pieces, I just threw it together as is. Not a favorite, but will probably find it’s way into the final quilt.Now you can laugh at me. This was a simple foundation pieced block. It just looked so plain! (says the person who complains about the over designed blocks). It also looked like an old-fashioned crazy quilt. So I didn’t use interesting fabrics, like lace, or velvet, but I did add the embroidery. See, even I can embellish!I think the instructions called for machine or fancy hand applique, I decided to try my hand at needle turn, something I clearly need more experience doing. A Hawaiian Style quilt is in my future plans. P1150906 Big new! I ordered and received a portable design wall from Massdrop. It is portable, but it’s not something I will be taking down daily. It is also, large, 72″ x 72″, no room for it in my very messy studio, so it is upstairs in the spare bedroom, I figure this will give me more exercise going up and down the stairs.

There really is a difference when the blocks are placed on a wall and not on the floor. This is only half the block and it’s already quite large, I will be using some kind of sashing, that decision will be made at the end. P1150904 It also gives me a chance to see what fabrics I want to repeat and what color schemes work well. P1150905 The purple embroidered block will probably have to go. This was my own creation, probably instead of a bunny. It is simply too dark and reads as a solid from just a few feet away. I never said I was a great designer, I can make mistakes too.

Onward to the second half! At this point, I think this will be big enough to my bed. Can you believe, with all the quilts I’ve made, I don’t have one of my own quilts on my bed.

Leah

Quilt and Dress being shown at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting

I sort of cringe when I see myself in these photos. I figure, if I’m sharing all this on the blog, I better get over my self-consciousness!

Leah

Urban Nine Patch – finished

I sat down, quilted, binded and put on the label. Oh and of course took pictures.Here it is in all it’s glory. This picture was taken before I washed the quilt. Yes nice crisp lines. Here is a close up, you can’t really see the quilting on the prints, except for the straight lines in the large grey areas. Yay for a walking foot and a machine that cuts the thread itself. I’m talking about my Juki.The back is made up of the leftover fabrics from the piecing. So once again, quilting is not obvious.You get the idea of what the quilting looks like. Initially this quilt was meant for me. I had made the blue/grey quilt for Joel so this was going to be my, cuddle up quilt. I was posting pictures along the way on FB and before I knew it, a good friend claimed it. It is her colors! She wants this quilt and is willing to exchange a piece of art for it.

I don’t sell my quilts. I have given baby quilts as gifts but this is a full size quilt and the time and effort put in are much more than a baby quilt. An exchange, now there is an idea, I said yes.

If this were a wall hanging, there would be no need to wash it. Since it will be used as a quilt should be – I washed it. I don’t want the new owner to have any surprises if down the road she decides to wash it herself.Here it is washed. What’s the difference you ask?The top is unwashed, the bottom, after washing. Now you can really see the difference. I didn’t prewash the fabric, I used 100% cotton batting. Then threw it in the washing machine and dryer and this is the result. The quilt shrunk a little but it is also much softer and cozier. You can see the quilting in action, how it makes everything much more three dimensional.A quilt isn’t really finished until there is a label. It’s the artist signature, name and date.This is why I still need the Babylock machine. It does basic embroidery, which is a nice easy way to make a label.

Next week I will show this off to my Quilt Guild and then it’s going across the country to Connecticut to my friend Lynne. When I get the artwork from her, I’m sure I’ll post about that as well.

Leah

Urban nine patch Quilt

When I start a large project, like a quilt, I like to work through and finish it. I’ll have knitting on the side and maybe some easy dresses for the granddaughter. Not so with this project. There have been serious interruptions.This is the urban nine patch block, designed by Jenny Pedigo, using her wonderful quick curve ruler. The sewing and quilting worlds are full of gadgets, gizmos and tools of the trade. Sure, I’ve bought some that really weren’t worth it, but others like this ruler are wonderful.Jenny is so busy designing patterns to go with this ruler, I haven’t even tried to create my own yet.My colors tend to be brighter, more jewel tone. I had bought a few of these fabrics with my friend Becky in Orange County. I was looking for something different. This is what we in the quilting world call low volume. With a punch of color in the reds and green.

On Flicker there was a quilt along group. Although they finished their quilts long ago, it gave me some good ideas about the layout. I love the blocks on point rather than on edge. I love how when put together this way, bright bold green circles emerge.I had a few fabrics at home to add to the mix but that was it. I didn’t want to run out and buy a lot more. Sometimes being forced to use fewer fabrics makes the quilt much more interesting and less scrappy looking. Actually I did have to buy more of the background fabric, luckily I got the end of the bolt at Sew Modern and yes I bought one more of the peach colored fabrics as well.

Now for the border, I guess you can’t take the scrappy out of the quilter after all.The three fabrics that didn’t go into the border are the background, the inner squares and the dark green. There was some creative engineering to get the corners to fit. But hey, it’s fabric and it’s a quilt, so I made it work.

I finished the top a few months ago, other projects and a not very helpful sewing machine got in the way. I’ve finished a baby quilt and the Chuppah as well as sewing clothes and other items. So it is high time that I start working again on this quilt.

Leah