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!

Quilter's Block?

No pun intended...

I believe I have a severe case of quilter's block, I just can't seem to find inspiration to quilt the butterfly garden or what to quilt it with. 

I've tried applique idea's and it all just look terribly busy, I've thought about just doing something basic and it feels too bland, I've thought of doing a specific type of quilting using stencils to create a scene and that seems like a good idea but I am still stuck! 

This poor quilt has been hanging downstairs for two weeks and I've stared at it and stared at it. Look to other's and pictures for inspiration and I've just drawn a total blank. Yep I am having a good old whining pity party to top it off lol. I want this done! I also feel like I am running out of time because I don't want to leave it too much longer.

Good news is I am nearly finished quilting my friend's quilt for her and it's looking great! I did indeed spend time pulling up stitches to remove the large puckers on the back, I ended up not spending just a couple of hours pulling it all but 7 or 8 hours since I was unhappy with the way the threads had looked once the puckers were cleared, I knew I could do a better job and thought why not just do it again? I had already pulled most of it, might as well do it all over correctly this time. 

I am very glad I did take the time to clean it up and get rid of what I considered a mess the bottom and top look so much better now, smoother and cleaner, I think Grandma will be happy with it.

I also spoke with my friend and asked if she would mind if I pulled her hand quilting she had done in the center embroidery panels, I was not feeling that the stitches she had done were going to be strong enough to hold once I had quilted the rest of the quilt, they were indeed basting stitches, done cross stitch style with a single thread. I knew once I had the outer edges quilted tightly the center was going to end up with a lot more weight than it would if it was quilted tightly too. I didn't want the center to fluff and puff or flop and flip at all, it would ruin all the work she had put in and I had put in, and would Grandma like it? Probably not. I am glad she agreed to allow me to quilt the inside by machine, the picture doesn't show the stamped pattern very well but it worked wonderfully under the machine, super easy to quilt just time consuming since I didn't want to make any really noticeable errors.  

The center area has me a bit stumped, the stamped pattern goes around these areas which has left a bit of a droopy area in the underneath, I've considered ditch stitching and discarded that idea since I figured if I missed and made a boo boo it was going to be a hell of a mess trying to fix it. I think my only option other than suggesting my friend quilt it by hand (My hand sewing blows the big chicken... it's horrible) is to do a yarn tie which actually might be just the thing. It looks right when I visualize it in my minds eye, in a light yellow or light golden yellow yarn, now I just have to learn how to tie :D!

Soon I will have pictures of my latest pattern in the works, I've got half of it put together at the guild and I am very excited to see it come out just as I had pictured. Only two things have slowed my progress, one is constantly forgetting my pattern book! The second is I had to learn how to make a diamond patch square, thank the Lord for youtube! I ran across a couple of wonderful video bloggers Crafty Gemini and the Missouri Quilt Co. Both of them had the exact instructions I needed to make the block. 

This is the video I used to get an idea of the block I was making. The center square is all I used and built it up into a 10" square (Unfinished is 10 1/2", I usually speak in the finished square sizing whether it's finished or not ;D)

My favorite video so far is actually done by Jenny Doan of the Missouri Quilt Co.:

I just love the quilt in the background, in the video she has a red, white and blue one that works even better than the lighter green, pink and blue in the background.  I will be making this quilt for my eldest daughter, I have just the perfect fabrics for it too. I can't wait!

Passion, in Creation!

 The blind leading the blind!

No I did not do this handy work, even though I wish I did. A friend of mine has made this for her Grandmother and has requested my help in getting it put together into a quilt. 

What an adventure that has been! A novice quilter helping a non-quilter figure out how to quilt.. definitely  'the blind leading the blind'!

I did have the presence of mind to do a simple nine patch pattern for my friend, I showed her how to square off and cut her fabric which ended up a little wonky (just a little :D), then I showed her how to lay out her pattern and do a quarter inch seam and how to press the seams open, you know all the basics.  While we were doing all this I realized that the measurements I had made are going to be totally off since her blocks weren't square and we had to square them up, losing length and width, turned out we were quite a few inches off on either side length wise, width wise everything was fine as far as matching up seams and so forth, I still have no clue how I managed that! 

Anyway we ended up adding a 3 block strip to each side which made things a lot more even and doable but... it turned out I ended up redoing all the seams and that strip of green you see? It's polyester. /headdesk.  

I tried to convince my friend that we could hit my stash, I had some wonderful dark jade green cotton flat sheets that I picked up at a yard sale that would work wonderfully with the colours in the patches but she was adamant that this is the colour of green that she wanted and why undo all of that work we had already done?  

Yes I ran through all the problems with the polyester type fabric and it didn't seem to phase her so, doing my best I helped her fix it.  Once we had all the top pieces together It did look lovely, I haven't had a chance to take a full top picture since it's currently sitting under my machine being quilted. 

Of course I am quilting the polyester first as it will be and is the hardest part to quilt, poly and mostly polyester blends are not fun to try and quilt on a machine as I am discovering, I had to play with tension and my speed and motions as I went since I didn't have any fabric remnants that were even remotely similar to practice on. 

The silver lining in this dark cloud is the backing.  A wonderfully crisp and heavy cotton that is a dream to use while FMQ'ing, I have got to find some of it to use for quilting, turns out it was part of a bed sheet or tablecloth ( I can't remember which). I guess it's time to hit more yard sales!

You can see the pattern I am using to quilt with, basically a loopy line mixed with flower buds and leaves similar to what I was quilting Boxcar Suzie with but more fluid and graceful. It really helped to have all that practice under my belt with the first FMQ quilt, I am so much more confident going into this one. 

Of course not all is going as smoothly as I had planned, Murphy's Law dictated that as soon as I got the hang of quilting with the polyester and had done the majority of the sashing, I was going to discover a 6 inch long pucker in the back that I missed even though I check regularly, that I could leave alone and just quilt over the part that is still noticeable and yet... there is that voice inside my head going, yes it's going to take a whole lot of time and yes you are going to have to spend at least and hour more likely 2 ripping out the stitches but are you really happy sending that off when you know it's not right?  

I quickly discovered why I got the pucker, and I laughed so hard my husband came down to see what was wrong, turned out my non quilting friend didn't pin through all 3 layers! I of course double checked my pinning, didn't think to check hers and blithely started FMQ'ing without a clue. 

It is for a Grandma so all this strife will be worth the effort in the end and I am definitely learning some quick lessons!

Passion, in Creation!

A early finish... or was it a late one?!

Hurrah! Hurrah! It is finally done! I can now put Boxcar Suzie on the charity shelf and move on to other projects, frankly I am overjoyed to see the last of her. I've been looking at it too long and thinking about it too much. 

My feelings about this quilt have definitely done a 180 degree flip and I think that's interesting. I don't know if anyone else has had that happen with a particularly long project it seems there is this point where your excitement falls flat and you are just ready to be finished.

Contrary to what I may have implied I am still very proud of this quilt, it is not a bad job for only a second piece and it definitely was a labor of love. I did have one of my guild ladies ask me why I didn't set it aside to work on something else for awhile until I regained my excitement about it, at the moment of that question I was unable to give an answer. After thinking about it for a few hours I realized that it is simply in my nature to not leave any project unfinished and I also have the feeling that if I had left it, it may not have gotten finished because I would have probably ended up resenting the quilt for not finishing itself and making me feel guilty lol. 

I also am getting the feeling I won't have very many UFO's in my stash, no matter how terrible I think they might be, I really didn't think I could be that meticulous and methodical. Seriously, I ended up staying up until 3am to finish the binding because I had started it earlier that evening. Perhaps it's just obsessive insanity that overcomes quilters? 

I am particularly proud of how the back worked out with the graded thread colors, I was very worried that it would look horrible once I added the dark pink thread. The picture shows just how nicely it graded, I hope anyone else reading this gets inspired to try grading thread colors it really can look lovely.

Front View

The sea oat flower pattern at the center really does pull it all together and helps make the box pattern on the back really stand out.

Back view

The binding ended up being from a completely different fabric altogether, talk about frustration when you sew together all your remnants after measuring and being certain that you had the right amount and coming up this ----> ............ <------ short. /headdesk. 

Then when I went to the guild to use the table so I could square it up and looking for something that might work instead, I nearly ran across another disaster!  I had a couple of ladies help me pick out something that would work relatively well and they even measured the quilt, worked out the math for me told me exactly how many strips I would need, basically everything but the cutting hah! 

I did however listen to that little rebellious voice inside my head telling me that I need to cut an extra strip, even though I was assured that I didn't need to multiple times, had I not I would have been 80 inches short, as it was I ended up trimming off only 16 inches. I have learned to listen to that little voice ;)

All is well that ends well so they say!

Passion in Creation!

Another day.... Another excuse to quilt!

I have just discovered there is a good side to heat waves, it gave me the perfect excuse to totally ignore my housework and errands and hibernate in the basement to work on Boxcar Suzie for the last 2 days....

She is almost done! Hurrah! My first foray into free motion quilting has been a real eye opening experience, for the first few weeks I kept making excuses so I could go quilt and feeling guilt because I was doing something I loved. Yeah.. guilt.  

When I finally realized I was sneaking around the house making excuses like an addict would and acting like I was going to be in some serious trouble if I got caught, I kind of cottoned on to the idea that there is a problem with this situation. I spent 2 full days trying to figure out the cause of the guilt, it wasn't like I was ignoring my family, chores or other appointments in favor of sitting down at my sewing machine, (admittedly there was the occasional wistful thought in that direction), nor was I feeding my love of fabric and thread on the sly either.  So I just did not get why I was feeling like that and then it hit me, I have not given myself permission too! Sounds stupid doesn't it?  It's true though, I've been a Mom and a Wife for a decade and I haven't had much time to be just me, it wasn't until 6 months ago I had the epiphany that I could be myself again and everyone who didn't like it could sod right off. 

It's hard to make that transition from dedicated Mom and Wife who is the epitome of Responsibility, Action, Care and Organization to just being Me (or You..). You really do have to tell yourself that the house is not going to collapse, the kids are not going to end up in hospital and your Husband can find his own socks for once as well as make supper (and no he won't blow up the kitchen, I promise.) and you can be you for you for a couple of hours. 

Then you have to learn how to allow yourself to have fun and be fun again, this of course will age your children by 10 years when they finally discover you are a person as well as Mom,  and you are FUN! 

Today I did just that, it was over 30 degrees celcius, the kitchen faces south so it gets ALL the sun during the day and I was not going to wear myself out in the heat just to wash dishes and scrub floors so I took a day off! The kids are out at camp, dear husband was working and I had the whole house to myself for once and I did nothing! Well not nothing, I did say I would volunteer at the food bank, so I was there most of the morning... anyway that's beside the point. Once I got home, I ate a lunch that I like, read a book, sat outside in the shade and then spent the remainder of the afternoon doing what I love to do and that was quilt. I was cool, comfortable and relaxed... definitely a banner day.

Passion in Creation.