WIP: Listening to My Quilt

I got off to a good start this weekend by finishing the Bunny Book in time for Easter.  You can see some of my tips for assembling it on my last post. I mailed it off to my granddaughter Monday.  Happy Easter, everyone!

I am going to resist the urge to start anything new and focus on practicing my FMQ again.  I will start with my Jack O' Lantern Trio but first have to decide what pattern to quilt. 

I just ordered a really neat book called Listen to Your Quilt and I am excited to apply what I have learned thus far. I was reading it this week – and I mean reading, not just browsing through the pictures. It is a written in a friendly tone and gave me a much better perspective about the whole arena of quilting after I've layered top, batting, and backing. You know the old saying: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. This book is more than a collection of patterns and the sequence for producing them. It is inspiration on how to pick patterns for your quilts.

The first time I sent out a quilt top to be quilted I felt guilty. After all, shouldn't I be doing the finishing myself since it was my creation?  But I was afraid to ruin the top with my inexperience. I have such a mismatch between my experience piecing and my experience quilting.  Didn't well known quilt makers and quilt designers also send out their creations to be quilted? And as for doing the quilting myself on a king size quilt... I certainly did not want to spend the money or sacrifice the required space for a long arm of my own.  So, I squelched my guilt. 

This first top I sent out to be quilted was stitched in an allover quilting pattern on a long arm. Here it is, my Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas quilt. It was on display at the county a few years go. In retrospect, a more block specific quilting pattern would been better. It would have enhanced the piecing that I was so proud of. But block specific quilting would also have been a LOT more work and much more expensive.

So I again wanted my future tops to be quilted more in keeping with the printed fabric and piecing design.  Even if I were willing to pay the long arm quilter more money for her time to do this for me, I would have to know in advance what I wanted (which I wouldn't). So I started to learn and practice Free Motion Quilting. I struggled with it, sent out a few quilts to be FMQ'd by someone else, and did a few on my own. I took two classes, one very free form and one more formal and heirloom-ish. The desire to get better at my own custom quilting was strengthened when a smattering of my initial guilt was resurrected. One instructor, when referring to an allover quilting pattern with a long arm machine, made the comment "It's just like a mattress pad". 

I divulge all this because I have come to realize there is no right answer and this book Listen to Your Quilt reinforces that fact.  It made me feel better about how I chose to quilt or have my tops quilted. Some quilts, depending on their intended use and design, may be better long arm quilted with an allover pattern. Others may be better if they are free motion quilted, outline quilted, or heirloom quilted very densely.  This book not only gives perspective but also provides assistance in choosing which method would best enhance the quilt. Although there are many, many examples of quilting patterns for inspiration near the end of the book, the main focus of Listen to Your Quilt is to help identify the path forward after those dreaded words at the end of many patterns, "Quilt as desired."

Therefore, after my Jack O'Lantern Trio top I will work on my Chicken quilt top. 

Jack O'Lantern Trio is a modification of an old project and I am willing to sacrifice it if the quilting goes radically wrong. The Chicken top was to be deployed with a home decor I no longer have. If I mess them up, it is not just cause for weeping and gnashing of teeth. They are both relatively small wall hangings (less than a fabric width wide) and they both have a sort of built in grid to help me develop a uniform sizing to my bubble, loops, pebbles, swirls, or whatever else I attempt.  Both have triangles to be creative with.  My WIP is to gain confidence in FMQ when I want to do it and lose that guilt when I don't!

I also plan to also seek out large pattern prints to work on outlining skills. I just bought this and think it would be a beautiful way to practice.

That's it for this week. Here are my stats.

Completed projects:

1. Completed and mailed the bunny cloth book
2. Bought printer ink so I can now print my paper pieced BOM pattern

Ongoing projects:  

1. Color Play of the Day - now with long arm quilter, thread/pattern decided
2. Sunny Spring Frost - now with long arm quilter, thread/pattern decided
3. Jack O' Lantern Trio - awaiting FMQ
4. Chicken quilt - awaiting FMQ
5. Overlapping square wall hanging - awaiting FMQ
6. Grinch quilt - on design wall for assembly and creative sashing solution
7. Mask quilt - hidden away in a container awaiting inspiration for arranging hexagons
8. Scarecrow - just add his doo-dads and be done with him!
9. Paper pieced block of the month - downloaded and ready to print

New projects:  

1. None

Stats since last WIP 3/20/13:

     Completed  projects - 1  (counting buying ink is reall too generous)

     New projects - 0

     Currently in progress - 9 - yikes!

Now I am off to check out what the rest of you have been up to at:

Cloth Bunny Book for Easter

Cloth books are an easy, fun, quick gift to make. Lately, with the birth of my granddaughter, I have been keeping an eye out for them. At a quilting and craft expo, I bought a couple that were based on Beatrix Potter's books so I thought the bunny one would make an appropriate Easter present. The copyright on the selvage says 2009 so I guess it's been around for a while.

Cloth books are also a great use of those odd shaped scraps of batting leftovers. The books are usually printed such that a pair of double pages reaches across the fabric width so 22" of batting is the longest dimension you need. Page height is around 11". There are generally 10 pages plus front and back covers so the rough amount of leftover batting you'll need is 3 pieces roughly 22" x 11" or 12". The instructions are printed right on the panel but here are few quick tips I learned.

I do cut on the dotted lines of the panel to separate the pages, but I leave the final trim to do all at once when the the opposing panels are stacked in layers with whatever batting I plan to use. After separating the pages by cutting on the dotted lines, I stretch them on the bias to make them square relative to the printing, not necessarily the straight of grain. Panels, I've found, are rarely printed on grain and I have to suspend my quilting fanaticism for right angles somewhat. I line up the pages that are supposed to be back to back, right sides together, (double and triple check that these are the correct double page pairings) and hold them up to a light source to align the borders. Every book I have seen thus far has had an edging stripe around the pages and that is what I aim to line up.

I pin at the four corners, and four edge middles and then lay this pair of right side together pages on my scrap of batting. I then rotary cut a set distance from this border through all three layers – batting and two cloth pages of book. Even though it is the wrong side of the fabric this line border shows through. I pin all three layers only in one pace in the center. They really stick to each other and need nothing more. Plus, pinning through the batting at the edges where I plan to sew make too many lumps. Here you see my pinning pattern. No, this is not yet another example of my poor photography skills; you are looking at the wrong side of the page fabric.

I started sewing at the bottom edge of a page, a couple inches off from center, back tack, then up a side edge, across the top edge, down the other side edge and back across the bottom edge stopping just short a couple inches from the center again and back tack. This 4" opening is big enough so that when I turn the assembly right side out, I can fit my hand inside with a point turning tool and run it along the seam lines.

This is the kind of turning tool I like because it feels so smooth in my hand.

This is a small detail that you may choose to ignore but when I put the right side out page assembly on my ironing board I have a preferred orientation. I put down against the board the page that had the batting closest to it before turning. Then, as I press around the seamed edges I am easing out the seam on only the double cloth thickness page and not the lump of the folded over batting in the seam allowance. I flip it over and do the opposite in the opening area, since I need the folded over batting more visible to massage and press it under around the opening to be closed. I press the centers of the pages last easing the wrinkles toward the edges. I then top stitch around the outer edges of this double page (four pages actually) unit, starting at the beginning of the opening and ending at the end of the opening so the opening gets stitched over twice.

Now it is time to order and stack the pages to sew down the spine of the book. The cover of the book is generally just a bit bigger so you want to center the inner pages within the covers both vertically along the spine horizontally as the book is read. Horizontally is no problem but I have found that once I align vertically even if I pin it ( which is hard to do through six layers of fabric and three layers of batting) the book shifts as I sew down the spine.

  

Yes, I have a walking foot, even-feed feature on my Pfaff which normally does a great job, but that is a lot of fluff you are asking your pressure foot to plow through and I do not think it lifts high enough to allow the layers to slide freely underneath. I tried assisting by pulling gently through the back, which helped slightly, but not to my satisfaction. This time I found a solution. I aligned the pages, but did not pin. I started my first pass sewing at the CENTER of the spine down to the lower edge,  Then I turned 180° stitched the whole distance up the spine (as seen in photo), then turn 180° again and stitch the remaining half distance down the spine. The spine still gets double stitched, but I secured it just where I wanted it at the start.

This worked like a charm with just one problem. I was so intent on solving my alignment issue that I forgot to double check the stacking order of my pages. Here is my whoops. I do not want Autumn to think that 6 comes after 3! Plus the story does not make sense! I should have been clued in by the color difference in the pages, too.

Oh well. I got to use my seam ripper. Which leads to another bit of advice.  A teacher in a quilt class I took reminded us that even this tool wears out.  Treat yourself to a new seam ripper periodically. They are inexpensive and are often included in your local chain stores notions sales. They, too, get dull like your rotary blades and scissors, but we often forget to replace them. It is penance enough to have to rip out a seam, but a sharp tool make it so much easier. I wish I had followed this advice. The up side is that the pages were separated with no fabric tears, even though double stitched, and the second try on my alignment technique worked just as well as the first.

Here is the correct sequence as you page through the book.

I just love the soft colors and the gentle illustrations. Here is the finished product along  with Peter Rabbit himself to hug while being read to.

Of course Autumn may just prefer to enjoy her book by stuffing it in her mouth like she did her turtle burp cloth. (Turtle burp cloth back story is in my March 13th post.) 

Hmmm. Maybe I did not need to correct the page order on the book after all...

WIP: Not All Quilting Progress is Sewing

What can I report on this week? Not much in terms of stitchery, but I have made progress. I finished ordering an online book that is a print-out of my blog posts bound as a book.  I should get it in about two weeks or so. The site is called SharedBook and I will report back how pleased I am with the results when I see the book. I also downloaded my March block from the And Sew On... site.  I have to buy new ink cartridges for my printer before I can print out the block pattern to paper piece. After my daughter's visit I also ordered her a FMQ book from Amazon called Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting: 50+ Visual Tutorials to Get You Started. She looked at my copy while here and really liked it, so check it out at this Amazon link. There are a lot of neat patterns with instruction on how to reproduce them yourself. In fact it has already been delivered and she is holding it in her hot little hands, salivating over when baby girl Autumn will give her the opportunity to try it out.

Also, this week I took two of my quilts to my local long arm quilter. I am excited to post pix of these when I get them back. The first one is my 50" x 60" Color Play of the Day which will be quilted in a simple allover fairly open stipple pattern with a variegated colored thread. I looked over a binder full of patterns and decided there was so much going on color-wise and graphic-wise that a simple (perhaps even boring?) quilting pattern was the way to go. I have shown only 9 of the 30 blocks here.

The second quilt was my 72" x 72" jewel toned Sunny Spring Frost quilt from the Linda Ballard pattern Earth, Wind and Fire. It is made up of sixteen 18" squares and I chose to have that quilted in a per block pattern rather than all over.  The pattern is an array of four butterflies with small daisies reaching in to each block corner. I have no pix of the pattern yet but I have shown 4 of the 16 blocks before being quilted. I chose a thread that was variegated in the yellow only family since it complements the yellow diagonal squares.  Though not quite visible in the photo the squares are from many different yellow fabrics.

Other than that, I have been perusing kits I still have and deciding if I want to start something new or continue pushing forward on works in progress.  Currently I have three small wall hangings awaiting FMQ by me – one with a trio of Jack O' Lanterns, one with about eight chicken blocks (from my I_am_really_into_barnyard_type_country era, and one with iris, blossom, and pumpkin (translation: purple, red, and gold) overlapping squares. 

I still have two large-ish quilts, my wonky Grinch and my hexagon multi-colored masks, to finish designing and assemble.

 

I'd rather start something new so maybe I will just sew those cloth Puddle Duck  and Bunny cloth books for Easter while I make up my mind about something more ambitious.

    

That's it for this week. Here are my stats.

Completed projects:

1. Ordering my blog book
2. Gifting my daughter the FMQ book

Ongoing projects:  

1. Color Play of the Day - now with long arm quilter, thread/pattern decided
2. Sunny Spring Frost - now with long arm quilter, thread/pattern decided
3. Halloween pumpkin wall hanging - awaiting FMQ
4. Chicken quilt - awaiting FMQ
5. Overlapping square wall hanging - awaiting FMQ
6. Grinch quilt - on design wall for assembly and creative sashing solution
7. Mask quilt - hidden away in a container awaiting inspiration for arranging hexagons
8. Scarecrow - just add his doo-dads and be done with him!

New projects:  

1. Cloth books for Easter - barely begun.
2. Paper pieced block of the month - downloaded but not yet printed

Stats since last WIP 3/13/13:

     Completed  projects - 2  (I count generously to boost my spirits!)

     New projects - 2 

     Currently in progress - 8- yikes!

Now I am off to check out what the rest of you have been up to at:

WIP: Spring is Here but Autumn is Gone

In my last post I was fussing over my granddaughter and children's visit.  I had a wonderful extended weekend and here is what all the fuss was about. The weather was gorgeous and here we all are in a backyard photo – from left to right: my husband, my younger son, me, Autumn, my daughter, her husband, my daughter-in-law, and my older son.

And here is my younger son meeting his niece for the first time with Autumn's proud daddy watching on. (Notice she is wearing the sweater I crocheted and blogged about in an earlier post (Aug 1, 2012).

Before my older son and his wife arrived from Southern California for the weekend, my daughter and I took Autumn to a session of Kindermusik (even this young she absolutely loved the singing and activities) and visited two quilt stores. Autumn charmed all the ladies in the shop with that ear-to-ear baby grin of hers and did her own bit of fabric selection as well. I seem to have a thing for burp cloths and The Cotton Patch has a great selection of flannels. I asked my daughter if she need any more burp cloths and she said she was well stocked. I spotted a bright turtle print flannel however that was so cheerful I just had a buy a 1/2 yard for some baby out there.  Autumn kept staring at it and reaching for it. Once the 1/2 yard piece was cut she promptly stuffed it in her mouth. "Ha!" the sales clerk laughed, "She sure is marking it as her own". I think the fabric gene must run in the family.  My daughter quilts and my mom was an extra-ordinarily talented seamstress, knitter, crocheter.  Of  course, before Autumn left, I made up two burp cloths for her with the turtle flannel and she sure hung on to them. Even though she is barely five months only she knew what she liked and clutched one tight in her little hands. Another fabric-aholic has been born!

Before the visit, I had wanted to make up some 27" square floor pillows for lounging in the living room. The fabric is an embroidered denim that I've had for quite a while.

The fabric was taking up space, the pillow forms were taking up more space, so voila, space taken up is now useful. I did need to buy zippers but I was able to finish the pillows before they arrived and here they are. They got used, too.

I also finished the flannel cover for the changing table pad.  The pad did not arrive until the night before my granddaughter so there was some quick stitching in the late night to complete it in time.

While company was here I snuck in a bit of sewing. I made up two more burp cloths to gift to a friend of my son and daughter-in-law. I could not pass up the doggie print since the mom-to-be is a vet.  I sent them back south with my daughter-in-law who is hosting the baby shower.

The balmy weather from the weekend held up after they left so I took photos of the finished Doll Quilt. The weather was quite breezy. Those are my husband's fingers you see at the top of the quit and his legs spread wide at the bottom so the quilt stayed somewhat vertical for the photo.  The dolls' aprons are still fluttering in the breeze.

Here is a closeup of the back stitching.  You can just make out the outline of the dolls and you can see the loops and hearts quilting pattern.  The backing fabric was made by seaming together several strips of a border print fabric.

That's it for this week. Here are my stats.

Completed projects:  

1. Doll quilt
2. Two floor pillows
3. Four burp cloths
4. Cover for changing table pad
5. Cooking - spiral ham, prime rib, spaghetti with sausages, sloppy joe, pancakes, fluffy egg casserole - whew!

Ongoing projects:  

1. Color Play of the Day - awaiting long arm quilting
2. Sunny Spring Frost - awaiting long arm quilting
3. Halloween pumpkin wall hanging - awaiting FMQ
4. Grinch quilt - on design wall for assembly and creative sashing solution
5. Scarecrow - on this list as a filler task

New projects:  

1. Cloth books for Easter - barely begun.
2. Paper pieced block of the month- not even downloaded yet

Stats since last WIP post 2/27/13:

     Completed  projects - 7 + cooking

     New projects - 2 

     Currently in progress - 5

Now I am off to check out what the rest of you have been up to at: