Raven and Pumpkin Placemats

I made four more Halloween themed placemats this week from a print panel of four placemats in a pattern called Raven's Claw by designer Andra Tachiera for Northcott.  I had bought a panel of four of these last fall and wrote up their completion in my post for 10/23/19.  I lamented to my daughter that I wished I'd bought another panel to have at least six. She encouraged me to Google it, and I was able to find another panel to buy and bring me up to eight.

I used flannel rather than batting in between the front and backing. I learned from my 7/12/18 post about patriotic placemats that batting was too lumpy bumpy. Layering the flannel, then the backing right side up, and last the placemat print right side down, worked out well. I did not intend to bind these so the difference in bulk between the placemat center and edges was acceptable.

Instead of the binding I sewed with the placemat facing up all around ⅛" out from the edge of the bordering black line, instead of ¼" in from the edge, leaving an opening for turning. stitching relative to the printed line rather than the edge gave me a crisp black line around the perimeter once I turned the placemat right sides out and pressed.

I was able to use the same peach colored thread for top stitching as I had for the previous four. It still went better than orange or black, even though I did have to vary the backing a bit. I only had one yard each of those pearl bead prints but at least the tonality was a good blend. I have four placemats of each backing.

I have not done any free motion quilting on these placemats. Perhaps I will simply outline the pumpkins or the two ravens. But, once I start, where do I stop? Maybe only the two ravens in black... Or maybe also the two central pumpkins in orange... Since I seem incapable of deciding how much or what color thread, I have allowed indecision to dictate that I do nothing. My set of eight will be put into use this year in their free-from-stitching configuration and then stored  away until next Halloween 2021. Fortunately they store away flat. 

Had I given in to my fondness for pumpkins painted in scrolls, harlequin, or polka dots, I would be trying to cram three dimensional odd-shaped white-elephant type decorations into already overloaded plastic bins in the attic, instead of laying these placemats in a drawer in the dining room hutch. Well I did buy these two chunky flat compromises in Halloween 2019. I could not resist.

Third Saturday of October 2020

For "Hang Your Quilt Day" this month, the theme was Halloween. I chose to display four smaller quilts yesterday. I have made no large quilts for this one-day holiday.

The pumpkin wall hanging on the left measures 31" x 39". My 10/31/2017 post describes its completion and quilting. My post for 1/25/2012 tells of the finishing and binding of the Jack O' Lantern wall hanging on the right. Made from Jason Yenter's In the Beginning Fabrics, the quilt measures 39" square .

The Jack O' Lantern quilt on the left was a scaled down version of a quilt pattern that originally included a witch, black cats, and bats. I learned a lot about color contrast when those black figures did not show up against the deep blue midnight sky. My post for 2/2/13 has more details. Change of plans; I left out all  those dark spooky critters and rearranged the locations of the bright orange pumpkins. The quilt now measures 21" wide by 30" tall. More information about my haunted houses on the left is in my post for 10/20/17. It measures 27½" wide by 16" tall.

Beginning April 2020, my quilt guild members began a tradition of hanging quilts in the front of their homes on the third Saturday of the month as a source of enjoyment for the community and as a thank you for the essential workers during the pandemic. My initial post about this practice is dated 4/22/20.

Masquerade Quilt Is Complete

Technically, Masquerade was complete after the label and binding were attached (previous post 10/14/20); but after nine years in the making, and nine posts throughout the process, the quilt deserved a tenth post dedicated to its completion. The king size quilt also needed a hanging sleeve in order to be photographed. It is the largest quilt I have ever made. I am proud I made it totally on my own – no sub-contracting for the quilting. At 88" x 92" it is too big for even my 6'4" husband to hold up for me, and so here is Masquerade, displayed on a rack, indoors, with additional lighting from a high intensity lamp.

We initially tried for the natural lighting of outdoor photographs but the wind was battling us. I had to time a shot when the quilt was vertical and not moving and orient myself relative to the quilt so that at least one view was looking straight on. Harder yet, my husband is concentrating in this photo on keeping the entire contraption from blowing over; 56 square feet makes quite a sail. Gale force winds are not required to topple over the frame, only a persistent breeze. Angling to optimize the sun for lighting often works at cross purposes to choosing a direction that minimizes the forces of the wind. Advertising banners often have holes or slits in them to allow the wind to pass though. Obviously I was not about to do that to Masquerade.

I have a greater admiration for photographers. I will spare showing you images from my many failed attempts due to 1) legs of the stand blocking the quilt, 2) the camera tilted too much to level the photo afterward by cropping, 3) parts of fingers over the lens, 4) blurred image because of  the quilt moving, 5) blurred image because of me moving. But, I did get one almost straight-on outdoor photo during a lull in the breeze while no cloud was passing over and obscuring the sun. The Seuss striped binding was an experiment for me and I like the results. It brings spots of brightness to the edges of the quilt both in this outdoor photo of the front and the following indoor photo of the back. I do love the backing fabric, also. Its history, having been designed by a blind artist, is told in my post for 9/16/20 and in my post for 8/21/17 when I bought it.

Indoor photography is easier, if I could manage the distance. Off to the far right, out of view of the shot, are the stairs. I crouched on them to be at the right height and far enough away to get a meager selection of straight-on photos. There is however, a traffic-blocking feature between rooms. That inconvenience may be offset by the "privacy screen" feature created next to the kitchen eating area.

 

I am pleased, and proud, and relieved to have finally, finally, completed Masquerade. Begun for my daughter's wedding in 2011, I told myself if I did not complete this quilt while confined indoors during the pandemic, I never would. The quilt's design has changed from the original expectation, but so have the times. Several quilters in my guild are noting pandemic on their labels but I do not want a strong reminder of this period in time. I am waiting for this social distancing to pass, sooner rather than later, I hope. I think the name Masquerade contains the concept of mask. This double entendre can be a subtle history marker while placing all those masks in a party and upbeat light.

Nine years may sound like a long time but, as I look back on it, it was really two months of concentrated effort after a "gap of giving up" that was just shy of nine years. My husband claims I would be remiss if I did not admit that during those two active months, the quilt was affectionately referred to as "the quilt from hell". (Or perhaps sometimes, not so affectionately, as seen in my 9/25/20 post about skinning a quilt.) Not willing to allow another "gap of giving up" to occur, I doggedly pushed ahead to completion. 

Below are links to the nine previous posts in chronological order by their publication date. They document the fabric acquisition, fussy cutting of the hexagons, piecing, arranging, re-designing, more solids cutting, supplemental piecing, re-arranging, sandwiching, FMQing, un-FMQing, more FMQing, labeling, binding, and photographing. My daughter may like to someday read a blow by blow description of this quilt in the making. She was always so encouraging to me during our phone calls these last few months since its resurrection. She patiently fielded my creeping progress reports in which I kept saying "I'm still trying to figure out ___", "almost there...", or "in the home stretch now...", among other "the check is in the mail type" platitudes.  Masquerade, the admittedly sometimes "quilt from hell" has, upon completion, officially become the "quilt from my heart". I fervently hope she and her family will use it and enjoy it for many years to come. 

10/19/2011   mask-quilt.html

08/10/2020   hexagon-heaven-or-hell.html

08/18/2020   harried-hexagon-happenings.html

08/27/2020   hexagon-columns-completed.html

09/06/2020   hexagon-top-assembly-completed.html

09/16/2020   hexagon-top-prepped-for-fmq.html

09/25/2020   fmqing-triangles-on-masquerade-quilt.html

10/12/2020   completing-fmq-on-masquerade.html

10/14/2020   masquerade-labels-and-binding.html

Masquerade Labels and Binding

The free motion quilting on a quilt, especially one as large as this king size one, is always the hardest and most time-consuming part for me. FMQ was the topic of my posts for  9/25/20, FMQing triangles and  10/12/20, FMQing inserts and hex centers. Finishing details like machine embroidering the labels and attaching the binding do take an effort but a much more manageable one than free motion quilting  – most of the time. I wanted blue grosgrain ribbon for the labels on Masquerade, but, as luck would have it, I did not have any. Normally I would just dash into my local craft store and have them measure out ½ or ¾ yard for me. But, during this pandemic, I am not leaving my home for anything non-essential; plus, the store I would use does not regulate its customer traffic safely enough for my satisfaction at this contagious time. Fortunately, there is almost always the option of purchasing online, partnered with mail delivery or curbside pickup. So to cut two labels, each about 10" long, I needed to ordered an entire roll of blue grosgrain ribbon – 25 yards of it! It was $10 for the whole roll so the price was not that bad. Maybe I can ribbon weave some pillow covers with the non-trivial length of leftovers. But then I would need a second color - no? This thought process reminds me of the book If You Give a Mouse a  Cookie.

Having some extra was good. It was not until the fifth attempt was I successful in embroidering the quilt name and date. My first attempt was progressing great but the thread broke before the file "0" of "2020". When I tried just adding another digit I goofed, and the letter "M" from the beginning of the word appeared instead. On try #2 the thread broke after 7 letters of the 15 character phrase; on try #3, the thread broke almost immediately. I rethreaded my machine top thread, removed the bobbin and cleaned and oiled the area before reinserting the bobbin. Perhaps the eye of the needle was too small or had a burr? I changed from an 80/12 to a 90/14 machine needle. On try #4 the entire phrase came out fine – almost. It appeared to me the second character, the "A", was slightly squashed so it read as MISQUERADE. Perhaps I was constraining the free flow of the ribbon somehow. Since I tend to be fussy, I decided to try one more time. Lo and behold, attempt #5 was a winner! MASQUERADE_2020. I was able to embroider my name exactly as I had wanted it on the first try, the bottom most label in the following photo. Whew! I had visions of using up the bulk of that 25 yards.

For the quilt binding I wanted to do the flanged binding, first because I like the crisp look and second because I did not want to hand stitch (88 + 92 + 88 + 92) = 360 inches along the perimeter. There is a full tutorial on this binding technique at Susie's Magic Binding. I've used it previously on my Fun Guys quilt (6/17/15 post), my E_I_E_I_O quilt (12/9/15 post), and my Whirligiggles quilt (3/23/20 post). For a ⅜" wide binding with an ⅛" flange I cut a white strip 1⅝" and a striped strip 1⅜" wide then sewed them along their length with a ¼" seam. I chose the black and white stripe as the main binding fabric as a graphic accent.  To me black and white fits in with a masked ball.

I made sure to stagger the bias seams of the two fabrics when I joined them, eventually...

... nearing the end. Finally!

Pressing along the 10 yard length of the binding took three passes of the iron: once to set the seam, once again to press it open, and a third time to fold it in half revealing the ⅛ flange.

At the tapered end of the ironing board, the length of binding kept slipping off to the front or back. The pressing process went much more smoothly merely by placing a square board with a straight edge over the pointy end of the board. Then the binding was able to hang straight down from each end of the ironing board.

I used Clover Wonder Clips® to hold the folded over binding and checked periodically for a uniform ⅜" width with a hemming gage.

Using a stitch-in-the-ditch foot, I sewed within that white flange all around the quilt. The bunched up quilt made quite a pile on the surface of my sewing cabinet.

Along the edges with the inserted isosceles triangles, here is the way the binding looked. The white thread is neatly camouflaged within the white flange. The parallel quilting lines in the triangular inserts were spaced apart a similar amount to the stripes on the binding. For the binding around the four quilt corners, I navigated two 120° angles at each of the four corner hexagons. 

I put the labels on the back in the lower two corners, angled to parallel one edge of the corner hexagon. The two corners are folded in to meet each other in the next photo.

It is about time to reveal the completed quilt, right? As soon as I put on the hanging sleeve I will be able to display it all at once, take some pictures, and publish my final post on Masquerade. I am so looking forward to completing this one!

Completing FMQ on Masquerade

After completing the FMQ in the jewel toned equilateral triangles in my 9/25/20 post, I still had to secure the hexagons in some way. I decided on an asterisk in the center of each. Originally I was going to make that asterisk in the same color thread as the triangles surrounding the hexagon. Feeling lazy, I was reluctant to keep changing thread. Sometimes my tension balance gets a bit off and needs to be readjusted for a different thread, even if it is the same brand. Perhaps the amount of dye for a certain color makes a difference...? Besides the tension tweaking, I would also need to figure out what to do for those hexagons in the transition columns that had two colors of triangles surrounding them. Laziness won out, and I decided not to change thread colors and to do all centers in the same color orange as along the edges. I liked the results. When they do show, the orange asterisks seem to echo the orange plus sign sparkles in the black background. What was initiated as laziness, worked out better. Not being able to find those four asterisks in the next photo is a good indicator that I achieved my desired effect. They are sufficiently hidden that they do not detract from the symmetry of the hexagons yet they hold the layers of fabric and batting together.

 

Since I dragged from center to center, rather than traveling, I had to cut all those connecting strings – front and back. I snipped and kept filling a handy cup I trailed along. Then I repeated the whole process on the back. It was not difficult, but methodically going over ~8100 square inches of the king size quilt – twice – was time consuming.

The final FMQ to be completed was on the isosceles triangle edge inserts. The stitching lines would be parallel and have graduated height like a zig-zag piano keyboard border.  I suppose they could have been orange like the center of the hexagons and the equilateral triangles they bordered, but I rejected that option early on, preferring a color similar to a black and white binding. I had planned striped binding; this verticality would echo the stripes. I needed to decide if  the lines should be black or white. To avoid the prison look of black bars over the faces I chose to use white thread. As a bonus, the white flashes in the background are picked up by white thread. So that the tallest line would fall at the highest point of the triangle in each edge insert, I started in the center and worked my way left; then I traveled along the edge back to the center and continued to the right.

 

 

The white thread still looks fine over masks that are not white and I think it will look even better when the binding is in place.

   

Going back to my Pfaff domestic I sew ¼" from the edges, negotiating that 60° angle on each of the four corners. I am in the home stretch now. I need to make and attach the labels and make and attach the binding. I am off to do that now instead of blogging.