Christmas Cars

This Christmas-themed panel caught my eye. I liked the atypical christmas colors –  yellow, gray, and black with red instead of the classical red and green mix. The twist on the recently popular theme of a red pickup truck carrying a Christmas tree appealed, too. 

I also had a mug and tray pair I'd bought at HomeGoods and a pillow from Crate&Barrel I picked up at the end of last season, both with vehicles. This year I added a black and white Merry Christmas sign from a local shop. I had all the accessories. Now I just needed to make the quilt.

I knew I wanted to make the panel go farther than its WOF by 24", so I needed to intersperse other blocks between each car. Yet I did not want the interspersed blocks to become the attention grabbers and distract from the featured cars with Christmas trees. I was inspired by a sample quilt I saw at a Brentwood show in August of 2017 (my post dated 8/21/17) that used quarter square triangle blocks in monotone shades of blue alternated with creature images.

I took a photo of one taxi block and went to my "design program", aka Microsoft PowerPoint, and alternated repeats of the featured panel with quarter square triangle blocks. I had to play with the color arrangement to get the secondary pattern of diamonds I so liked in my inspiration sample.

Then – imitation being the highest form of flattery, right? – I auditioned shades of gray for those quarter square triangle blocks just as my inspiration had used shades of blue. The grays I'd bought were shown in my post for October 2nd at the September Pleasanton Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival. Those grays were b-o-r-i-n-g... big yawn! But I did like, and decided to incorporate, a deep gray solid with a secondary weave of goldish thread throughout that gave it a nice sheen. Instead of two other shades of gray I chose a yellow and a red that went well with the vehicles. Merry Go Round in yellow is a Sandy Klop design for American Jane Patterns. Between the Lines in red is from RJR studios.

I noted that each car “square” was not quite square, measuring wider than tall by ⅜". The dimensions of each car block, with its grey frame and raw edges as cut apart, were  8¼" wide by 7⅞"tall. Making hourglass blocks would offer a slight challenge. The hourglass block, once the diagonal seams were sewn, would need to be the exact same size as the slightly rectangular raw edged car blocks.

I remember seeing somewhere that the cutting size for a square intended to become a half square triangle or quarter square triangle needed to add ⅜" for the seam allowance in each diagonal cut, assuming a 45° angle. With two diagonal cuts I needed to add ⅜" + ⅜" for a total of ¾" in both dimensions. I cut a sample block with dimensions of my car block but added ¾" in height and ¾" in width. For my trial run with scrap fabric, I cut two pieces of fabric 9" wide x 8⅝" tall. The trial block finished 8⅛" wide by 7⅞"tall. It was a bit narrow in width so I tweaked the width by ⅛" and tried again. A 9⅛" wide by 8⅝" tall cut dimensions made a second sample that perfectly matched the dimensions of the raw car block at 8¼" wide by 7⅞"tall. This means the two seams intersecting in the center are not at right angles to each other... just off enough to require vigilance to sew the correct triangles together. The triangles are not identically sized as they would be in a perfect square; sides and top/bottom triangles are different and I had to keep track of which was which when sewing those bias seams.

In my case, the yellow triangles were always side triangles and red triangles were mainly top/bottom triangles except for along the side edges. Gray could be either so I had to be super careful and label them religiously. Since the red was striped, that was a helpful clue. My caution paid off because my seams met at the points and I love those secondary charcoal diamonds that resulted from my planning. But my 5-block-wide by 5-block-tall top, once the vertical and horizontal ¼" seams were sewn, would measured 39¼" wide by 37⅜" which was smaller than desired. At this point I have no clear picture what the end goal is, only that I thought bigger would be more useful. Extended the charcoal diamonds out into a vertical edge border would be a nice finishing touch. Adding red triangles to protrude into top and bottom borders would add completeness, also. To keep my quilt in portrait format, I would also needed to add an additional header and footer to offset the greater width.

I remember taking a class in seminole patchwork and thought the diamond pattern it created would echo the secondary diamond pattern of the quilt top thus far. I had to scratch my head a bit, but I did figure out how to get the red stripes to continue to be vertical and not at a slant. I would put this diamond chain insert only at the top, striving for artsy, and deviating a bit from up/down symmetry. Plus I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for the charcoal gray. Look closely and you will see that some of these small squares are themselves pieced. Fortunately it is camouflaged by the grain of the interwoven gold threads.

I extended the triangles of the red stripe over the two top car block into the charcoal gray header and footer, and added red triangles along the vertical edges.

So here is where I am now. The quilt top measures 47" wide by 62" tall. I think I want to frame it with some perimeter sashing but am currently undecided. Making a quilt from a kit goes so much quicker. I don't have to pause to think, nor stop to take time to make decisions. This quilt will not be completed in time for Christmas 2019 but it will be worked on during this Christmas season. That is  maybe an even better yuletide treat.

Classic Cars - a Photo Finish

This week I warmed up my FMQ skills with my Classic Cars strip quilt. First, I did simple stitch in the ditch around each square. I used the straight edge of the Handi Versa Tool to help me stay on the seam lines for the stitch-in-the-ditch work.  My practice with that specialty ruler on my December Day Tree Table Topper (my January 13th post) helped me stay consistent and straight. Then, in the light colored squares of the checkerboard I added four arcs. I left the darker squares without the arcs so they would puff up and be more prominent. Plus, I will admit, I was a bit afraid that crooked arcs in a contrasting color thread would show up too much and detract from these squares. I did the arcs free hand and I did get progressively better as I did more of the red-gridded white squares. The quilt had eight checkerboard rows of ten squares each, so after forty white squares, or 160 arcs, I learned not be so locally focused and mesmerized watching the needle penetrate at each stitch. Rather I adapted to setting my sights over a wider area as I completed each arc and visualize how I wanted it to look. They came out much smoother this way without little zigs and zags. They also approached having a more common size.

For the feature fabric of the strip quilt, I chose not to quilt over the cars or their titles. My stippling and meandering is not very good so far, but I still wanted to depress the area among the cars so they would stand out. I went with a predominantly horizontal meander pattern much like the ripples in calm pond water. I was trying to imitate how in all the fancy car commercial, the pavement beneath is often wet so it is shiny and shows off the car. Also, with this pattern, I had only one direction to deal with in avoiding getting trapped, and so it was a bit easier for me to execute than a true meander. It also kept the stitch density low so the quilt will drape more in use and be softer. Here is a section quilted. I used black thread on black. The quilting is subtle but I know it is there. I only crossed the silver lettering twice and I may go back and pick out those stitching lines if my eye keeps finding those little glitches.

Slowly but surely I am getting better on my HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen. I had not fully appreciated the field of view advantage a longarm has over a domestic. The hopper foot is a much smaller obstruction around the needle and moves so quickly it is like it is not there. It is the same phenomenon as looking through the pickets of a fence as you speed by in a car and they seem to disappear. Plus with the higher and wider throat space, I am able to scan the bigger picture as I sew. I am becoming  more appreciative of the creative freedom my HQSS gives me and less intimidated now that I am actually using it.

Next up was my binding selection. I considered black as shown on the left in the next photo. It was too graphically distracting and too somber. Both options reminded me of black arm bands – too funereal and mourning. I wanted the quilt to be more light-hearted.

So I tried the orange/red/blue route as shown to the right in the next photo and I could truly see any one of the three as a viable option. The colors were all very complementary. In the end, even though the binding is a narrow border, I went to the least graphic and least distracting so focus would be on the cars. I chose the red-orange on the bottom. I like the way the white on red-orange picked up the plane and suitcase travel icons of the inserted bands bordering the car print.

Classic Cars had its beginning in my post of August 3, 2013. I added a label with the quilt's name and a label showing my initials and its completion year as 2015. I'd embroidered them on grosgrain ribbon with my Pfaff and placed them diagonally in the two lower corners of the quilt back. That is why each end is trimmed at a 45° angle.

Here is the pieced back. The labels are at the two lower corners with their edges tucked under the binding. I put them on before folding over and hand-stitching the binding in place

And finally, after two years in the making – or rather two years in the stalling, car pun intended –  is the photo finish of the completed 40" by 57" Classic Cars quilt. I took this photo upstairs, near the door of my sewing room, under our hall skylight. I am glad I had a sunny day to try this indoor location and it seems to have worked lighting wise. Also I did not have to contend with the wind. Maybe this quilt has in its future a picture with a background of lush greenery once our northern California drought abates. Better yet, I hope someday it will have a photo of a Bouncing Baby Boy on it.

Sandwich Making & Some Nibbles

SANDWICH MAKING:
This week I intended to make quilt sandwiches.

Today I seamed the backing for Simple Gifts. The backing fabric was originally purchased to be two lengths running sideways across the quilt back. I just noticed the backing fabric has a direction. Since I want the written lyrics to the Christmas carols to read horizontally, seaming the backing became a bit more complicated.

I did not have enough length of fabric to run twice the height of the quilt. I needed to finesse this backing to have one lengthwise section with a second horizontally seamed lengthwise section joined next to it. I also want the print to match along the seam lines. Alas, the sandwich process on Simple Gifts has been slowed down by ... the need to think! Here is my PowerPoint diagram to help me figure out how to do this. I was hopeful that I could match the one long vertical and one short horizontal seam if I was careful where I cut the pieces. The pattern has an approximate 12" vertical repeat.

After several hours of measuring many, many, more times than twice, and finally cutting only once, I convinced myself that it was not possible to match all the seams to my desired level of accuracy. I did eventually come up with a pieced backing I am content with.

One part of the pieced section needed to come from near the left selvage and the other part from near the right selvage. What I had not recognized was that the fabric had been printed with a bit of upward drift to the design so it was not possible to match that horizontal seam along its whole length unless I cut the fabric at an angle, sort of on a slope. Then I would be totally out of luck for the vertical seam. Here is my compromise seamed backing. Overall the spacing and flow of the dominant red reindeer appear uninterrupted.

The horizontal seam is pretty good at the corner near the vertical seam. It diverges from a good match toward the outer edge. I have cut the batting and need to put them all together. I am resolved to be wiser in the future in my choice of backing fabrics. This was a real time sink for not much gain. I did not accomplish the sandwiching today but I am in a good position to do it tomorrow or the next day.

While I was at the sandwich stage of Simple Gifts I intended to resurrect my Classic Cars top and make the backing, batting, and top quilt sandwich for it at the same time. I'd started Classic Cars a couple of years ago from these fabrics and a black background fireman novelty print.

The top has been sitting around with its already pieced backing since my post on it August 3, 2013. Re-reading that post reminded me I also had plans for a matching pillowcase. Maybe I will do that tonight so I feel I have some accomplishments. The upstairs hallway outside my sewing room, both sides of it, attests to the fact that I am in quilt sandwich mode but do not have much to show for it.

SOME NIBBLES:
Earlier this week I nibbled away on some smaller sewing exercises.

I played a bit more using striped fabric and a flying geese components assembly technique from my Lynn Wilder Patchwork Math Workshop. I thought long and hard and now understand just how to orient the fabric to make sets of four geese at once and have stripes go the way I want them to. I captured my conclusions in PowerPoint again. Hmmm, seems like I played on my computer this week as much as in my sewing room.

Here are those four-component sets of flying geese arranged as stars. I got the striping as I intended and not just by luck! I can now make an all one direction striped star (left), a radial striped star (middle), and a perimeter striped star (right), at will by orienting the corner squares appropriately. Of course, I could do this by making one flying goose at a time instead of the speed method of making four at once... but that's no fun!

I hemmed a dress I wore to a Great Gatsby themed dinner dance on Friday night. I procrastinated until two hours before leaving to do this – guess I did not learn much from my May 20, 2013 post on how not to hem a dress. This long black dress had two layers to hem, an outer shear slippery one with glitter and an inner knit slippery one. I least I did not make a scarf as well, this time. I wore a fluffy feather boa instead.

This week I also added my son's name to his pants to identify them. I love this feature on my Pfaff. The only trick is to remember to use the foot with the central raised channel so the letters can pass through unconstrained as they are embroidered. I put his name on the front pocket, the rear pocket and the bottom of one pant leg.

The last time I posted my projects list was January 7, 2015.  Here are my stats since then. I figure giving my stats once a week is too often to show progress. After a minimal progress week though, I needed to see that I was getting somewhere.

Completed projects since January 7, 2015:

1. December Table Topper (January 13, 2015 post)
2. Blogged about Patchwork Math Workshop (February 6, 2015 post)
3. Blogged about and put away purchases from San Mateo show (February 21, 2015 post)
4. Name on Alex's pants (February 25, 2015 post)
5. Hemmed black dress (February 25, 2014 post)

Ongoing projects:

1. Simple Gifts quilt - pieced backing, ready to sandwich
2. Making patchwork math components from Moda's Jovial fabric, designer BasicGrey
3. Classic Cars strip quilt (August 3, 2013 post) - resurrected to sandwich, quilt, and bind
4. Overlapping square wall hanging - paired with thread, awaiting FMQ
5. Mask quilt (October 19, 2011 post) - packed away... again ... may abandon

New projects since January 7, 2015:

1. Simple Gifts quilt started
2. Patchwork Math Workshop (1/31/15)
3. Name on Alex's pants (2/15/15)
4. Attended San Mateo Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival (2/19/15)
5. Hemmed black dress (2/20/15)

I am hooking up to today's Freshly Pieced post for WIP Wednesday.

Classic Cars Assembly Line

I completed piecing the front of the cars quilt I started earlier this week and here it is with edges all trimmed even.  I get a kick out of seeing that fire chief, hands on hips, in the top section and that little fireman running with the hose in the bottom section. It reminds me of the Find Waldo pictures. The dimensions are tweaked a bit to best show off the classic car and transportation symbol fabrics, but basically the quilt is from the Check Me Out pattern by It's So Emma. I'm naming this quilt Classic Cars.

I pieced some large remainder strips of the car, transportation, and grid fabrics for the back. It is evening time here when I took the picture so a bit of sunlight in filtering into the room through the trees. The lighting is far from optimal but you get the idea.

I kept a 10" length of the car fabric instead of using it up on the back with the chance of using it on the border of a matching pillowcase. I also trimmed off and kept a couple strips of the transportation fabric to perhaps use as an accent strip in a pillowcase.  I wish I'd had more of the grid to use as a pillow case but I did not.  The body of the pillowcase may just need to be white or a color close to one of the check sections on the front of the quilt.

This is now going into my TBFMQ pile (to be free motion quilted). The FMQ at the checks will just be stitch-in-the-ditch. To keep it simple, I will outline the cars or meander among them in that wide section. Because I am not going to get carried away with the FMQ, it may go quickly, so I think I will put it at the top of the pile. At this point I plan to bind Classic Cars in this orangish red toned mini-print. Stay tuned.

If anyone is interested here are the fabrics I used as printed on their selvages.  They may still be around on eBay. I find it fun to look up information from the selvages of the fabric. Since I am not a graphic designer or art school major at all, this is an intriguing way to learn who thinks up the ideas for the fabrics I love. It also helps me keep an eye out for other fabrics by that designer. It is, in a way, like remembering the author of a book and using that info to choose your future selections.

Johnny Yanok has done work for Disney and Fisher Price. Per his website he "draws everything from adorable teddy bears to snot-filled zombies." Google his images. They are really cute. Jackie Shapiro has done work for Mattel for their Barbie line. No wonder I find these fabrics fun to play with!