UFO Sundays

A new day, A new project... (Or an old one?)

To begin a quick update:

Here is the completed flower that I was quilting on the butterfly quilt, I was surprised with the amount of dimension the echoing added to the flower in total, the centre is done with seed shapes and I decided to add an extra echo in the first set of petals. I think that just really made it pop. 

I also went over the edges of the petals again to really make it stand out. I am very happy with how this turned out.

The backside is the major reason why I wanted a really dark outline, I am using a flannelette back and a really fluffy polyester batting (I am not sure of the loft, I didn't read the package.... I was looking for fluffy feel lol), so those 2 things combined was causing any stitching that was not travel stitched on to get lost, for me that didn't matter for the filler but I really wanted those flowers to stand out both front and back.

So the centre of the quilt is complete, the cucumber vine pattern really worked well around the butterflies, I switched directions a multitude of times and swirled in and around the butterfly wings, some went spiralling down towards the heads and around the antennae, I actually had to force myself to stop a few times I was just having so much fun doing it. 

The hardest part was getting the scale right, I decided to continue drawing the pattern in sections so I could continue to have a proper scale and I was able to still get spontaneous if I needed to fill in small spots that I missed.

Once I had the outline of the butterflies quilted I looked on the back and realized that I had a wonderful outlined shape, my hubby thought I needed to define them more to make it really stand out. I hemmed and I haahed over it, looked at the front, looked at the back and decided that if I did more stitching on the front side it would be overkill and I really liked the negative silhouette aspect.  In case you are wondering the appliques were edged in the orange only on the quilt top, I had kind of an inkling of actually doing the silhouette when I first began but I couldn't figure out how to do the wind pattern in such a large space without overdoing it.

So now we are on to my Achilles heel.. this fabric is being a particularly pain in the rear end, I want to draw the flower in each corner and then draw large vines crawling to the centre in each direction where they will meet. However every type of marking pen, chalk, marking pencil I have used totally disappears in the pattern, on this corner I have used 3 types and the camera can't even pick it up it's so faint. I did a lot of head desking trying to get something to work. 

We went out for supper with one of my favourite people Friday night and I was whining out my heartache over not being able to mark my design, I really do NOT want to wing it, and she suggested that I try washable crayola markers... I have a sneaky suspicion that I will have to use the black one *cringe*, but I do happen to have a scrap piece of this very fabric so I will test.. test and re-test to make sure it will come out after washing. 

I don't have a lot of options in which types of marking pens or pencils I can get, the ones I have seen many quilters using are not available where I live and I don't want to wait 10 days or pay double to get one just to find out it won't work. 

Are you pulling out your hair yet? I am! LOL.

And finally we are on to UFO Sundays!

So the whole idea is to spend Sundays working on unfinished projects (UnFinished Objects) on Sundays and dedicate that particular day in doing so. I don't have any unfinished quilt tops or projects, except the 2 that are currently Works In Progress.  I really hate to start a project and not finish it, so that means I many projects or possible projects not started yet.  I decided to dedicate Sundays to doing those projects, which meant I had to decide exactly what projects I wanted to work on slowly, I have 7 quilts in my mind that I want to do for friends and family and I rejected those immediately, I know once I start those I am going to want to work on them solely until they are complete. I also have a multitude of fabrics that I have yet to determine what exactly I am going to do with them, and those I had to reject as well since I would end up having to buy more fabrics to compliment them, I think that would then classify those as a "new project" :D.

1930's reproduction print charm sqaures

As I searched through my stash (which apparently is really small relatively speaking lol) I remembered that I had gotten a bunch of fabric strips secondhand and I also had 120- 3 1/2" charm squares kicking around:

I have to admit I love reproduction prints, I also love feed sack fabric I have a couple of pieces that I am going to use in a wall hanging for my kitchen.

Anyway back to the project.....

 

I have lots of bundles of these little strips I believe they measure 2" x 3-1/2" and they come in a multitude of prints and solids all sorted and bundled (YAY!) 

I have no idea how many there are but by the looks of things there is plenty to create enough squares for a scrappy patch quilt, now I just have to determine if I want to make patch squares and stitch them together or do a quilt as you go method, I might even do a 9 patch with the charm squares and then do wonky blocks with the strips.... OH the possibilities!

Passion in Creation!

The Pledge

Just had to stop for a minute and make...

The Pledge: I, Chris, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.   I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.  

I ran across this pledge here: http://r0ssie.blogspot.ca/2010/05/process-pledge.html and it made sense to me to make it, isn't it part of the wonder of quilting the whole process? Choosing fabrics, creating a design, the mistakes, the heartaches and triumphs? Why not share those? I will in future make the effort and in this way there is more knowledge sharing.

So to begin, I've been teasing you all with what I am quilting the butterfly quilt with, here's the sketch.

It's not totally to scale by any means, just the idea and a way to practice Leah Day's Cucumber Vines pattern which was exactly what I was looking for to fill this quilt with.

I filled in the body of the butterflies with a grape colour of thread, it looks really nice with the orange stitch, the flash on my camera threw the colour's off a bit so the orange looks brighter than it actually is.

The flower to the right is also in the grape colour, I have a really poofy poly batting which is making the petals really stand out with lots of definition, I have already begun filling them in a bit with some echo stitching, I don't have a pic yet so keep an eye out in my future blogs ;)

I have totally cheated doing the cucumber vines, I wasn't 100 percent comfortable with them even after a bit of practice so I marked out my lines with water soluble marker and it was a good plan, I was able to sketch them directly on the quilt in the exact way I wanted them to flow so not only do I have a beautiful flowing vine, the vines themselves are creating a pattern. Eventually the will be crawling and surrounding the butterflies and I think if I do it right it may end up looking like the wind under their wings and if not.. no big deal!

I feel like I am doing a blog and run since I am usually more languid with my writing but I am in a hurry, I just got back from holidays a couple of days ago and now I am off and running again! I felt it was important to make an update of what I was doing before I got too far with it, I hope you enjoy :)

In honour of the Olympic Spirit..

Marathon Quilting!

It is done! Complete! Yep, I marathoned on this one, 12+ hours to finish the quilting and the binding process all in one day. I needed it out of my workspace, I felt like this project was draining all of my creative thought and energy. Hopefully in the next short while I will have some fresh pictures of the completed quilt, I didn't get a chance to take any since I was up until 2am so I could get it washed and hung (part of the service you know ;D) and then straight to bed without even a thought of taking a picture, or rather there was thought it was just very foggy lol. My friend showed up early this morning to pick it up so I was up early and suffering sleep deprivation, I did get out of my fugue long enough to request that she take pics and email them to me, bonus!  

However there is a silver lining to my dark cloud, for some reason my thought process tends to be more along the creative lines when I am suffering lack of sleep, I have finally had a break through on the butterfly garden and what I am going to quilt it with! So exciting!  I can now lay this project to rest in my mind once I have it all sketched out and just in time too, I have another quilt top that I am building at the Guild for my youngest daughter and by the time I am complete with quilting the butterfly garden, I will have the other quilt sandwiched and ready to go for quilting. 

Not only that, I have all of the fabrics I need to begin my eldest daughter's quilt (Yep 3 girls) and I think I am feeling rushed to complete everything else just so I can get started on that one, I am super excited about the colors I have chosen and the pattern, I showed her the pattern and she fell instantly in love! Happy dance time!

Well I am off and running to go clean the house (bleh :P) 

Passion in Creation!