Out of the Blue

"Out of the blue" is defined in Wikipedia as "an idiom that describes an event that occurs unexpectedly". I'd bought this kit of Kaffe Fasset fabrics to expose myself to combining them in a way that was out side my comfort zone. My post on its assembly and my reluctant, but dogged, forging ahead was posted on April 20th. I am just now getting to FMQing it three and a half months later. The quilting went very well much to my surprise with myself. I have titled the quilt "Out of the Blue" because unexpectedly, I really like how this quilt turned out. It was an experiment and my goal was to learn but not to necessarily like the results. Even my novice attempts at the FMQ worked out well for me. I did not do it alone, I did have lots of guidance along the way.

Initially I tried to pre-plan what I would do in each section of the quilt but fairly quickly abandoned that idea as it got too complicated for me to draw and remember. I did however know I wanted to preserve the medallion aspect of the quilt. I decide to wing it and make it up as I went.

My inspiration of how to quilt to quilt the myriad of triangles was drawn from Angela Walters' Midnight Quilt Show episode titled A Wallflower Quilt Giveaway + Tips for Continuous Curve Quilting. The four arcs within a right triangle (beige in the following photo) were easy enough for me to accomplish and I thought they were very effective in forming a central petal or leaf. I just needed to decide in which triangles to repeat that shape. I let the fabric dictate my choices.

Here is my version, replicated twice, in two khaki right triangles that were right next to each other. I liked how adjacent arcs formed an additional "petal" of sorts

Repeating that pattern four times in the very middle of the quilt resulted in a blossom pattern, not too fancy, but anchoring the center without calling too much attention to itself. I preferred the blue toned fabrics so was content to let the khaki and chintz green take a back seat with those simplistic arc shapes. Here I previewed and practiced my pattern with dry erase marker on plastic sheet protectors.

In her Midnight Quilt Show episode, Angela Walters also advised to shake up those arc shapes a bit. She suggested serpentines but I like spirals instead. So went with curlicues in some of the richer toned floral prints. In the deep purple/ burgundy print I did two spirals, kind of like vine tendrils, and still flanked by two peripheral arcs.

In the aqua larger scale floral print I put only one larger spiral with more revolutions and in keeping with the size of the flowers.

In the geometric pebble print on the corners I reverted to the simple four arc pattern like I did in the khaki. Although it seems to be an obvious choice, I avoided doing pebbles. I am horrible at them and my pebbles look like scribbles instead of a collection of mellow O's. I once spent 16+ hours removing pebbles from the corner stones of a quilt for my son. See my 5/14/2014 post. I am generally bad at any patterns that require a lot of back-tracking so I avoid them.

To remember what went where in the four corners of the quilt, I inserted paper in my practice overlays and posted them on the wall by my machine.

The quilt corners turned out like this.

Notice the parallel straight lines in the speckled fabric and in the plaid/grid fabric. In my choice of quilting motifs, I was also influenced by the Inbox Jaunt blog by Lori Kennedy. Lori Kennedy advised placing straight stitching lines next to curvy ones for contrast. Her post http://theinboxjaunt.com/2013/05/08/a-design-tip-contrast/ shows an example.

I added parallel straight lines to my repertoire. They were a bit time consuming since I put them ¼" apart or a tad closer and my shoulders got a bit sore from the intense repetitive motion. But the effect was worth it and I suspect with FMQ experience also comes relaxation of posture.

Even though I treated most of the triangles individually there was a sequence of triangles in a large scale floral print with big royal blues leaves and vibrant pink Peony-like flowers that formed a band within the central portion of quilt top. See photo near the beginning of this post. It had truly bothered me to cut up that gorgeous fabric so, in the FMQing of this top I wanted to treat the continuous region of those fabric triangles as a unit. I decided to have a quilted feather decorating that band rather than an all over filler. I like feathers that require no back-tracking, and so I refer to the book Hooked on Feathers by Sally Terry. You can see my first foray into feathers in my post for June 13, 2015 my post for June 13, 2015 where I used Sally Terry's feather method on a strip quilt. In the following photo I have her book open to a page to remind me of the feather sequence. The band where I am quilting feathers is under the hopper foot.

To create a curvy spine for my feathers I used a semi-circle ruler, flipping its orientation when negotiating bends and rounding corners.

How did I choose my thread color for the quilt stitching? At first I thought I wanted royal blue, since the quilt is shades of blue and my favorite fabric was the one with the bold pink peonies nestled among the two-tone leaves of royal blue and aqua. I considered matching the backing, which is a rich purple. By the way, I was also happy that I was able to match the seam on the backing so well. Can you find it?

I lay the royal blue and purple thread colors, on the front and also considered a pale celery color that would go well with the khaki. For my previous quilt, Storybook Charm (7/5/2017 post), I used a taupe thread on a white background. The taupe did show up strongly, and my stitching was highly visible, but I thought I would prefer light thread on a dark background this time around and let the prints sing for themselves.

I again was also influenced by Angela Walters' thread selection in the Wallflower Quilt from the Midnight Quilt Show episode I cited earlier. I like that she does do examples of quilting on prints and not on solids only. I considered both of these similar toned thread color options and chose the more green, less blue, option on the left because I thought it blended better with the interspersed khaki tone. My backup if I ran out of thread was to switch to the more blue thread for the outermost rounds of the quilt. In fact, I considered switching thread colors as I moved outward in the medallion-style top, but reasoned that would be a fair amount of trouble for very little gain. Did I really want to have all those partially filled bobbins left?

That reminds me of something else for which I was grateful. I have a sit down Handi Quilter and so I do not load the quilt and proceed from one edge to the opposite edge. I have the freedom to work around the quilt rather than back and forth allowing me to decide concentric band variations as I proceeded toward the outer edges.

On the outer edges I decided to repeat a feather motif as I had done in the peony band. As I was working my way along one edge, I was not pleased with the proportion of my feathers. They were not quite plump enough for my taste and I was not quite sure how to improve them. But I have convinced myself I am not going to get better at my FMQ by spending my time picking out stitches. My new policy, reinforced by many of the FMQ professionals, is to rip out only if absolutely necessary.

Instead I decided to mix it up a bit and do spirals on two of the other edges. I liked the spirals better but actually enjoy the presence of the feathers as well.

Feathers and spirals together break up the monotony of the stitching process as well as providing variety along the edge of resulting product. Purely by chance, I discovered they are quite similar and tend to complement each other.

All that is left to do is to trim the edges, make and stitch on the binding, attach a label, and add a hanging sleeve. Once finished, I will post the photo of the completed quilt in its entirety. For now I will link up with Let's Bee Social #190.

Naming and Feathering

What with finding a name and feathering a nest you'd think I was the one having a baby. Well, I am, sort of. This quilt is for my grandson to be. I pieced it from the Life in the Jungle fabric line by Doohikey Design for Riley Blake Fabrics and this week I began pondering its name and planning its FMQ execution. Here is the main focus fabric with the gray background. The list of objects on the print is quite long. I spy with my little eye: mammals (hippos, hedgehogs, monkeys), birds (toucans, owls, and two other feathered species), amphibians (tree frogs), plant life (leafy trees, lollipop shaped trees, three kinds of toadstools or mushrooms), and shapes (stars and fireworks -like bursts). How does one come up with a name for quilt that has everything?

I let my mind wander on ideas for a name. Oklahoma Quilt Works had assembled the kit and sold it under the title Life in the Jungle Baby Stripper. First, I prefer not to name my quilt after the fabric line and second, this did not have a very jungle feel to it. Tree frogs? Yes. Toucans? Yes. Lollipop shaped trees and hedgehogs? Not so much.

Playing off the animal aspect, I considered but rejected the following names because they left out the trees and mushrooms, which were as prominent in the print as the animals:
Critter Capers, Birds of a Feather, Band of Birds (play on Band of Brothers), or perhaps Furred and Feathered Friends, Fur and Feather Frolic, both of the final two being a bit of alliterative overkill.

Playing off the location aspect, I thought of tropical venues being jungle-like and considered:
 Tropical Turf, Zany Zoo, Critterland,  or even Tiki Room. After all, everyone knows that, "in the Tiki-tiki-tiki-tiki-tiki room, all the birdies sing and the flowers croon..." Jungle Gym was a serious contender, but again, the feature fabric was not that strongly "jungle" to me,

Concentrating on a mood avoids the issue of slighting some plants or animals in the name choice. The print has a very whimsical feel to it. The bright  orange, turquoise, and lime green that are partnered with the grays and browns give off a very happy vibe and suggest a name with happy in it:
Happy Habitat, Happy Homes, Happy Together?

Happy Together immediately made me think of the 1967 song by The Turtles. I am dating myself here. I suspect a fair number of bloggers and younger quilters were not even born then. Here is a YouTube video of the song for the curious among the readers. The graphic black and white checkerboard set design and the leader singer's striped jacket is worth a peek at the video if nothing else.

But did I really want to be reminded of a defunct singing group from decades ago when I thought of this quilt? Not really. But I liked the idea of happy. Synonyms for happy are glad, joyful, cheerful, merry, fun-filled.  Fun! Fun with Friends, maybe even  Fun, Fur, Feather, and Frond for the hyperbole of alliterative overkill and a booby prize for being too long. Once the word "fun" surfaced, though, I remembered an old (and very corny) joke:

Q: Why did the Mushroom get invited to all the parties?

A: 'Cuz he's a fungi!

This quilt has found its name. Fun Guys. With three kinds of toadstools, Fun Guys is a cute play on words and it is easy to say. Ok, maybe some of the critters I am calling "guys" are not male, but this quilt is for a little boy so we can pretend that they are. Even the shapes of the stars and firework-like bursts fit into the name since they tend to represent parties and fun.

With an owl, a toucan and two other birds in the print, I figured this was a good quilt on which to learn to quilt feathers. Plus, now that I had the name settled, I could concentrate on learning a new skill without being distracted. I practice my quilting pattern first with a dry erase marker on sheet protectors. This allows me to doodle at the same size that will go on the quilt, erase with a scrap of batting, and try again as many times as I want. Once I am finished experimenting or practicing, since it is a sheet protector, I can then slide a white sheet of paper inside and hang the design nearby to remind me or photocopy it to keep in a binder. One caution though – I am very careful with dry erase markers around quilts. The marker pigment will not wash out of the fabric so I am sure to label the front of the sheet protector where I have drawn so I do not flip it over and have the markings rub off on the quilt top. For the mildly paranoid quilter, snapping a picture of a section of the quilt top, printing it out and sliding it into the sheet protector involves a few extra steps but can keep those markers away from the quilt during drawing. Quilt shops do sell a clear plastic by the yard that can be placed across the quilt and drawn on, instead of drawing on the sheet protectors. Plastic by the yard requires the same precautions as the sheet protectors when using dry erase markers. Here are my practiced designs, set over the quilt top. I opted for feathers on an undulating spine in the wider bands and little spheres suspended on a string in the narrower strips.

The suspended spheres on a line in the turquoise and orange strips were the first items I did and they were a bit wobbly in places. They were wobbly when I drew them, too! As to forming the feather pattern, I took the design from the book Hooked on Feathers by Sally Terry. I was very pleased and surprised at how well I did on my first attempt. I need lots of practice on uniform stitch size and getting my tension optimally adjusted, but that is outside the scope of this book and true of whatever pattern you pick. I did the camouflaging honeycomb bands first so that by the time I got to the less-forgiving green polka dot bands, I would have improved with a little muscle memory to help me out.

Sally Terry's approach eliminates the need to backtrack along parts of the feather, a hard task to do well for a beginner. When I asked myself, "Why don't my feathers look like the sample?" she'd given concrete tips to help figure out what needed to be done differently to get the effect wanted.  Notice I said effect wanted. There is no right or wrong. Tips address the angle to depart from the spine, the relative height between the inner and outer portion of the feather base, the roundness of the hook itself, etc. I highly recommend this book. It's approach is teaching me how to analyze what makes something look good, a skill artistic people seem to benefit from innately, but can be taught. How does that saying go? "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

In the narrow turquoise and orange strips, I pulled a simple design from Christina Cameli's book, Step-by-step Free-Motion Quilting. I liked that she uses color to show the sequence of creating a pattern. Here is a portion of the page showing the design I picked. It is flattened spheres staggered along a gently undulating line. Since my strip was so narrow I kept the main line fairly straight along the middle but I did not feel obligated to keep it rigidly straight. I also spaced my circles farther apart. I loosely used the black and brown honeycomb pattern to space them quasi-uniformly, chanting "black-up... brown-down... " as I alternated direction. If, when I am finished I can still find the places where I broke my "rule" I may pick them out and reverse them. On the other hand, left in they might make a good challenge for a little boy to hunt for as a game of hide and seek.

When several lines are set side by side I think the overall effect reminds me of pussy willows. Although I only used a single line in Fun Guys, I will keep this in mind for a future quilt.

I like that the majority of the designs in this book are fairly open. Since I prefer quilting that is not too dense, I can still get an openness without having to enlarge a pattern so big it is hard to execute smoothly. Christina Cameli's first book is project-focused, but this one has a wealth of FMQ inspiration to use on quilts or placemats or totes or whatever. This book stands very well on its own without the First Steps book of hers. I am glad I added it to my library

These pink strips of paper are a good indicator of how many good ideas I have marked for future use. The Look inside feature on Amazon gives a very extensive sampling of the designs inside.

Confidence in my FMQ is building slowly and I am having fun with Fun Guys! Now, what to FMQ in the wide-band, focus-fabric sections of Fun Guys'?