Stitch Up

Happy Halloween!

If you're reading from the east coast of the US, I hope you and yours are safe and sound.

As I've said in the last few posts, it's getting cold out there.  A benefit of hand-quilting is that my legs stay toasty while I'm working.

But let's get to the photos.  (Apologies for quality, I'm using a different camera and we are still negotiating our relationship.)

It took hours to mark up the big swaths of colour.  Lots of measuring.  Ugh.  I didn't use anything fancy for the marking, just a ruler and pencil.  The marks may turn out to be permanent but let's hope not.

Once the marking was done, it was time to half-sandwich.  I mentioned last week that the back and front are getting different treatments.  There may be a better way to achieve this effect but I am doing it by only creating one side of the sandwich at a time.

As I didn't start with a final measurement for this quilt, it turned out to be an abnormal size, so I had to order too much wadding and cut it down.

I attempted to fold the wadding in half and make it nice and fluffy, but there just wasn't enough.  So one layer it is.  Our new house is twice the size of our flat former flat but I still had to roll up the carpet.  Some things never change.

Pinning took ages.  After reading a quilting memoir, I made sure to order a gross of pins.  I used half.

Nothing left to do but start stitching 

I had purchased an embroidery hoop long ago for just this purpose.  I didn't use it.  I found it just got in the way.

I'm using embroidery floss here and just a regular needle with a larger eye.  I broke too threaders in the course of three hours of quilting. I kept using them but they are just little twisted bits of wire at this point.  To be honest  threading the needle took longer than stitching a row.

It's just a basic running stitch, nothing fancy.

It definitely creates more interest on the back panel.  I'm not having any great epiphanies, but it's satisfying.

It feels like stitching a sweatshirt and it can get a bit clunky trying to stitch near the center, a lot of fabric to gather up in one hand.  An embroidery hoop probably would help there but I seem to be doing okay without it and I think constantly readjusting the hoop would get old, fast.

Pinwheels for Market

Hello again!  Here in D.C. we're awaiting hurricane (tropical storm?  Thunderstorm?) Sandy, which is either really over-hyped or scarily end-of-days.  I guess we'll see!  Either way, I'm stacking up some handwork to have in case we lose power.  As I told Nicholas, I want something to do that won't make me want to blow my brains out.  (Such a dainty lady, I am.  I just like modern conveniences!)

Anyway, I can finally show you the final project I made for Cloud9 Fabrics!  To display their upcoming line "In the Forest," Michelle and Gina asked me to make a simple 30"x40" quilt for the booth.  Michelle designed it with half-square triangles creating pinwheels.  I've had my eye on this line since they announced it, and I loved working with it!

Here are some pictures.  I hope to see it in some of the coverage of Market this weekend!

Helping me pin

Ready to sandwich

I finally got to put those new basting pins to good use.  I used a ton of them because I'm definitely not even an intermediate quilter.  Unfortunately, because the fabric was strike-offs, it wasn't self-healing like most quilting cottons.  I was worried about the pin marks!

Cloud9 asked for simple quilting, so I quilted a line 1/4" away from either side of each line, creating intersections at corners.  I still don't have a walking foot--I've priced them, but they're still a little out of reach--so the pins really helped keep everything straight!

Squaring up...with Puddin'

 Okay, so here's where you get bored.  There was really good light the morning I shipped it out, so I took a lot of pictures.  The funny thing is, at first glance of the fabrics, I thought, what sunny, summery colors!  Now that they've been on the ground with leaves, I'm thinking this line works well with fall too!

I really loved helping out Cloud9 this fall.  I hope they keep me in mind for spring!

In other news, I took a short trip this week, so my sewing time was cut short.  However, I did piece a mini quilt as a present for my mom.  I plan on hand-quilting this--Ariel, are you ready?

Again, I used the Modern Maples pattern from Pretty in Patchwork Holidays.  I can't recommend that book enough.  I chose some fall colors from my stash, but I'm undecided on how to back it.  Any ideas?

Close-ups of the fabrics:

Anna Maria Horner, "Fine Feathered" in Pomegranate, from Field Study

Denyse Schmidt, "Voltage Dot" in Black, from Chicopee

Denyse Schmidt, "Posie" in Gray, from Flea Market Fancy

Lizzy House, "Pearl Bracelet" in Chocolate, from Guising

What were you sewing this weekend?  Should I be more afraid of this storm?  At least it isn't hot this time around, so heat-induced mania will not be a problem if the power goes out.  Don't tell me you don't get cranky when it's hot!

Friday Round-up

Each Friday, one of us does a little round-up of stuff that has stuck in the brain this week.  Kind of like an ear-wig, but with stuff.  Ear-wigs are okay, too.  It's not always sewing related.


When I lived in the US, this was my favourite time of year.  It's not quite the same over here.  The seasons still change, but it is a lot darker and wetter.  Halloween isn't a big deal here.  I have yet to find a proper pumpkin patch and the amount of trick-or-treaters knocking on my door in the last six years doesn't hold a candle to the first half hour of trick-or-treat night back home.  It goes without saying that Thanksgiving is a non-entity.

This Friday I'm concentrating on Halloween...

Pumpkin whoopie pie

Let's start with some treats.  The Hummingbird Bakery is an American bakery in London.  I have their cookbook Cake Days and it's filled with everyday treats as well as seasonal specialties 
Last year I made the pumpkin cheesecake for our Halloween cocktail party.  There were no leftovers.

photo found here

With the current blogger trend of taking feet photos, I thought this particular quilt pattern appropriate.  It's also available as elf feet for Christmas.

photo by 42 quilts

I kind of love this block.  The 'flying geese' pattern is quite a popular and striking visual.  This is the first time I have seen it purposefully made wonky.  I love it.  The geese aren't always perfect so why should the block.  The tutorial is here.  The colours are autumnal and the geese are in the sky, the perfect block for the season.


Have a great weekend.

By Hand

Soundtrack/Inspiration: The Waltons 


It's been awhile since I had some inspiration and guidance on this quilt.  I have to admit once I started on the back it became very mechanical and lost some of its magic.  However, I needed that kind of experience as well.  It can't always be all nostalgia and life lessons.

Since we moved I have struggled with getting into a new routine in this house.  Cooking, cleaning, writing, sewing, etc. got a bit jumbled up and I have to admit I haven't done much of any.  But I did happen upon repeats of The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie.  And now I'm hooked.  The other day they were quilting on The Waltons.  It was a 'quilting' which turns out to be the mountain version of a sweet sixteen.  All the ladies of the mountain contributed squares to Mary Ellen's quilt and they all gathered to bring it together and tell stories of their own quiltings.  Of course Mary Ellen was against the whole thing.  Part of the significance of the quilt was that she was now 'marriageable' and she was having none of that.  She was going to be a nurse (have a career) and never get married.  I can understand that feeling.  In fact I'm sure I had that same feeling at least a few times myself.

But the sentiment that won out was the passing of tradition through generations and doing with it what you will when it comes to your turn. I think I always had it in my head that I would hand-quilt this piece.  My first (and only) memory of quilting with my Gramma Rosa is hand quilting with her on her PVC quilting frame in front of the TV.  She was probably in the middle of her annual Godfather marathon, but she had a soft spot for The Waltons so there's a good chance it was going in the background at some point. Hand quilting seems appropriate for this particular quilt, and, unlike Emily, machine quilting scares me and I don't think I am up to it just yet.

As I'm not crazy about the colours and block sizes of the back I decided to create a little visual interest back there before attaching it to the front.  I'm hand quilting a few sections of the back and then I'll sandwich it all together and try to tie a few yarn bows through the front.  Just to make it a little harder on myself, I am attempting to make each side independent, so the quilting of the back isn't visible from the front and the ties aren't visible from the back.

First things first, the quilting of the back.  Unlike the rest of the quilt, I had to do a bit f pre-planning at this stage.  I wanted the quilting to be graphic to compliment the block pattern already in place (I use pattern lightly).  To start, I made a sketch of the back blocks and drew in patterns where I wanted quilting...

my very *detailed and to scale* sketch
(ignore the spot, camera is on its way to the cleaners)

As you can see (sort of), I'm not quilting the entire back, just the big swaths of colour.

a reminder of the actual blocking, in case the sketch is too abstract

At this point I have the quilting patterns marked out on the big blocks (which took days and required me to do basic arithmetic and measuring. YUCK!) and am ready to attach the batting so I can get started with the actual hand quilting.


Am I crazy?

Progress and Planning

Hi!  Can you believe it--the second week in a row I don't have a finished quilt top to show!  I've been kind of slacking on my personal projects because I've had other projects in my queue, and they've been top priority.  If that sounds super vague, it's because it is, and I can't really show off anything until next week.

After running errands today, I finished sewing the strips for my picnic quilt, which, by the way, is going to be way bigger than I expected!  I should have a new rule that, if it doesn't fit on the dining room floor, I can't make it.  (That would never stop me.)

Once all the strips were sewn and pressed (which is boring but necessary) I laid them out to get a feel for how the quilt should be pieced.  I didn't want too much repetition and I wanted a good representation of all prints and colors in each corner of the quilt--no clumping!  Even if this quilt won't be top banana I don't want it looking like I didn't care.

Here are some progress shots:

I left spaces between strips where I thought I needed more variety.

Oy--this is everything once it was said and done!  Also once the cats had run through it a few times.  Because there wasn't enough room, I stacked the strips when I had decided where they should be placed.  When everything was finalized, I made one large stack and rolled everything up together.

It's almost the end of the year, and I'm starting to contemplate how I'd like my final projects to go.  Of course everything could change--we're really hoping to move, but even if we don't, traveling for the holidays could take huge chunks out of my sewing time--but at this time, here's a quick list of my goals:

• Quilt Modern Maples quilt and this picnic quilt
• Make a gingham quilt based on all the ones floating around the internet
• Design/complete a triangle quilt (using solids?)
• Hand quilt something small

Did you see that last one?  Yeah.  Scary.  I've been intrigued with hand quilting lately and would love to do it on my Modern Maples, outlining the leaves in pearl cotton.  But I don't want to commit to something that large when I really don't know how to do it.  Of course, that hasn't stopped me in the past, but hand quilting seems so big and scary, much more so than piecing a quilt or machine quilting it.  I've thought about making a Modern Maples mini quilt (maybe for my mom as a gift) and practicing my hand quilting on that.  What do you think?

Here are some hand-quilting examples that kill me:

source

source

Aaaand there are about a million others but the one picture I want to show is unattainable.  Seriously, how did this disappear?  If I can find it, I'll update!

What'd you make over the weekend?

Friday Round-Up

This week took forever.  Don't you agree?

Well, Puddin' does.  He's pooped!

Here's what I distracted myself with this week:

• Elizabeth Hartman is such an inspiration!  This week she shared her tutorial for a barn bats quilt.  Her fall colors make me want to make one immediately!
• Hello, dream sewing room.  When do we get to meet?
• Someone tweeted about the Ink Nest and now I'm obsessed.  Hand-drawn clip art in a variety of themes--of course I love it!
• I'm dying over this QuiltCon bundle from Fat Quarter Shop.  Why did I put myself on a fabric diet?!
• Speaking of fabric diets, I want to try out some Moda mini charms for this date night quilt.  Such a lovely design--I'm already pairing fabrics in my head!

What's been on your mind lately?  Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Two halves make a whole...

Apologies for the delay.  I was in bed sick for the last two days courtesy of the nasty London Underground cold going around.  Ah, the joys of public transport.

Fall is well and truly underway here in London so it seems a fitting time to add the stuffing to my quilt.  After the distress of last week, I bit the bullet and ordered some wadding online.  I was tempted to head into an actual shop and have a little feel of all my options, squeeze the cotton, maybe wrap myself in a bolt of polyester to check snuggability, etc. but then the fear set in.  My complete and utter lack of knowledge on the subject in a shop full of women nattering on about loft, drape, and scrim was a recipe for my walking out with way too much or none at all or ending my quilting adventure forever because I lost the will to care.

So I went for the gloriously anonymous online quilt shop with no questions asked.  Of course there were a million options there as well so I used my father's method and sorted by price.  This brought me to the man-made section, which normally I would avoid, but this section included 'recycled' wadding.  Sticking with the spirit of re-purposing materials, I went with wadding made out of 13 plastic bottles.  My guilt over not recycling that evening's dinner's plastic waste assuaged, I waited patiently for my parcel to arrive on my doorstep.

The next step is figuring out how I actually want to quilt this bad boy.  I have mixed feelings on the actual quilting, as I mentioned before, because the piece is two sided.  Apparently this is not a common practice, or at least not to the extent to which I made this two sides different.  My complete lack of research strikes again.  Or maybe it's my knee-jerk tendency to go against the grain.  Whatever the reason, it leaves me with a quandary.  How to quilt this sucker?

In case you need a reminder, here are the two sides...

You'll notice that while both are divided into three sections, there is no correspondence between the sections.  The two sides stand fairly independently of each other.  I'm not crazy about the colour combination of the back piece or it's vast stretches of jersey.

I had a thought of tying the two sides together.  Inserting little yarn knots or bows at corresponding junctures.  However, the painstaking time this will take to try and figure out if there are any corresponding junctions and where they might be is too much to contemplate and I'm not sure it would end of as aesthetically pleasing as I hope.

Then there is the possibility of stippling which is apparently quite common with tshirt quilts and makes a kind of squiggly pattern over the entire thing regardless of shirt design or junctures.  This treatment is a little too freewheeling for me so I don't think I will be going there either.

So where am I going?  I think I have hit upon something in-between the two ideas.  I'm not really sure it is going to work but like the rest of the quilt, I'm going to give it a go and see what happens.

Tune in next week for an update.  I'll either be immensely proud of my idea or cursing my improvisational tendency.


Where would you go next?