Snapshot of a quilt top, or, a personal rain dance

I’m making this quilt for a very special couple, one of whom just may be reading this. (This is a test, only a test… Comment if you’re there!) I couldn’t wait to share it, but it will be a wedding gift for her so I hope she’ll still act surprised and happy to receive it when it’s all done. Right now it’s a fresh, 31-square-inch quilt top hanging on my door, which I seem to use as a lightbox. I call this “Woven Together” and I used some really pretty, rich batik charm squares and a straightforward, modern pattern from Gail Abeloe of Back Porch Fabrics, my favorite place in Pacific Grove (well, that and Lovers’ Point – where the view of Monterey Bay just can’t be topped).

This palate makes me think of rain pouring over the “golden” hills of Northern California–rain we desperately need. I just heard that San Jose has had only a quarter of its expected rain by this time in the season. Perhaps this can serve as my personal rain dance.

My Geese Can Fly

I made more than 80 flying geese units for this quilt, a wall hanging size piece. At least I proved that I could! The soft floral fabrics came from a Moda charm set. They are delightful and make me think of having high tea on a flower-filled patio on a warm summer’s day.

I liked the technique, which came from Carrie Nelson’s Schnibbles book – you just cut squares, layer them, sew and cut. No cutting of triangles needed. It seemed quite accurate.

October and November slipped away from me in a flurry of birthdays and holidays. And now it’s December. Perhaps I’ll get back to this project in January, after the hustle of the holidays and the deadlines of work ease up a bit!

Also on the horizon: another charm square project, using batiks; some pouches; and, eventually, trying crazy quilting. (Because yes, I am crazy!)

QuiltArt …at Pacific International Quilt Festival

This past weekend I visited “PIQF” – Pacific International Quilt Festival, held in Santa Clara, CA, each October. This was the festival’s 20th anniversary and it’s definitely going strong. I captured a ton of images of outstanding quilts. They were inspiring, yet also really intimidating. It is hard to believe that people can craft such perfect pieces.

This quilt won “best in show” – I think. There were so many people standing in front of it, it was a little hard to tell what was going on. It’s “America, Let it Shine,” by Sherry Reynolds of Wyoming.

Here is a close up… She used over 4,800 crystals on this quilt!

Here is another amazing creation:

I think this was my favorite quilt of the whole festival. It’s called “Inner City Kids,” by Arleen Kukua of Richmond, CA. Here is a closeup:

Stunning. Here are more examples of the fantastic artistry on display…

Soon, I’ll share the results of the longarm quilting for my two other recent projects. More to come!

QuiltLove

I am thrilled to report that my daughter LOVES her birthday quilt! It was the first gift she opened on her birthday (probably because of the oversized box!) and she immediately curled up on the couch with her warm, soft present. It’s now on her bed and looks darn cute. Hooray!

I’m also pleased to tell you that the quilting work done by Julie, the professional longarm quilter, is beautiful. Her daisies are poised inside the “windows” of this non-traditional attic windows quilt, and they also run up and down the borders. Around the rest of the quilt she filled in with playful loops. The rose-pink thread turned out well. There is a lot of contrast in these colors, so any thread choice would stand out in some spots, and fade away in others.

Here are a few closeups of some of the quilting:

It is amazing to see the perfect thread tension and even stitching that a pro can produce. As to the question of whether it appears “less handmade,” I would say that because all of the stitching is done using hand movements (not computerized sewing patterns) by Julie, each part of the stitching design is a little different, a little unique. So for me, it still has that “made by hand” quality of artistic choices and imperfections. (For example: most daisies have 6 petals, but some have 5 and some 7, some petals are bigger and some smaller, some slant to one side, etc.)

I simply wouldn’t have the patience or skill to hand-quilt a quilt this size (small twin or large lap size), and with a larger project, quilting the layers by machine on my own home sewing machine is just not that fun and not very easy to control. So for a special project that’s worth extra love, attention, and very even stitching, I think that having an experienced longarm quilter’s help can really come in handy.

Here’s the other thing: having Julie quilt this allowed me to finish the project on schedule. My advice is to budget for this kind of help if you think you’ll need it to finish a project; how many unquilted tops do many quilters have lying around?

On the other hand, if you have time, patience, and tools to do it yourself, you will save money, and the project will remain uniquely and entirely yours. There is satisfaction in having stitched every stitch yourself, even if you struggle with it at times.

Here’s another thought: get a semi-industrial straight-stitch machine like this Juki and THEN finish your quilts at top speed! If I ever have time to get deeper into the quilting side of things, I’m putting that at the top of my list…

 

 

 

 

 

Fingers crossed!

I have been busy finishing 3 quilt tops, but I haven’t posted about how they have turned out yet because I’m now in suspense: for the first time, I decided to ask a local longarm quilter to quilt my tops! I am waiting for them to be returned next week. Fingers crossed I will love them (and I hope their recipients will, too!).

The quilter, Julie, and I spent some time trying to decide the right free-motion designs to use for each of my projects. She used a white board to draw illustrations of how it could look. Then we chose threads from her stash of cones.

I will be sure to report back on how they emerge from her capable hands. I know she does good work because a colleague of mine showed me a quilt that Julie worked on with an all-over cabbage leaf design. The stitching from a longarm machine operated by a pro is so far from what I can do on my little home sewing machine, so I am expecting really great results.

What I especially appreciate is that Julie does not use computer-programmed designs, which have become popular for all-over quilting, but rather guides the machine with her own experienced hands. It has a more handmade look and feel that way, I think.

And one more thing: I was saved from the wretched, time-consuming act of basting these three quilts with pins or with spray. Julie will stretch them out on her quilting frame and I’m not worried about any puckers or bumps. Hooray!

A Fun Way to End Summer – With a Bright Quilt

I started piecing this quilt in July, using a Connecting Threads fabric kit and a pattern called “Nieces and Nephews.” The fabric is a line named Around Town, so I’ve decided to dub this “Fun Town.” Do not taunt the happy fun town…

I love the colors here – the bright hues of a fresh fruit salad. It’s a cute and easy design, perfect for some breezy late-summer sewing. All I have to do now is add two slim borders to this top, and then figure out how to quilt it. This will be a birthday gift for my younger daughter, who has coveted it all along!

Here’s a closeup:

Punch up summer

Today, I’d like to share the work of a guest quilter, Anne T. She’s a coworker and friend, someone I’ve long looked upon as a crafting expert. Anne has taught knitting classes, and she’s showed me a number of tricks. This summer, she’s gotten into some really fresh, fun quilting, and she showed me this quilt top, which she made from a pattern called Spiked Punch. Isn’t it fun?

The photo isn’t super crisp because I took it with my phone, but you get the idea. Anne started off with a class at Back Porch Fabrics, a terrific quilt shop in the coastal town of Pacific Grove, CA. (I just wish I had more time to spend there–both in the town and the shop!) She used strips of fabric, many by textile artist Kaffe Fassett, alongside denim-colored blue strips. She explained that for each colorful strip, she sewed a tube with it and a blue strip, and then cut it at a random spot. The different breaking points in these strips adds movement to the design.

Anne said that the fun (and time-consuming) part was laying out where all those colorful rectangles should go to make a path that your eyes can’t help but follow around the quilt. When she had the strip sets, she laid it all out on her bed and sewed it up in a day! Anne bordered it with a multicolored stripe.

I really like the modern look of this quilt, and my kids enjoyed the pictures so it could be a great project for a toddler or child’s quilt, or for a funky friend.

If this looks good to you, you might want to check out the pattern – I noticed it’s for sale online at Hancock’s and other places. Perfect for all those adorable jelly rolls of bright fabric, with a neutral background. Thanks, Anne!

1930s Blocks on the Wall… And Geese that Really Fly

I’m suffering from a summer cold. It just seems unnatural to have so many aches and a stuffed-up head on a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

(I remember one summer when I was studying in Paris, lying in the bed on a hot July day in my “cell” –it was in a former convent on the Left Bank–with the world’s worst sneezing and runny nose. I wondered, “Why do I have to be felled by this blasted cold when I have all of Paris at my doorstep–and it’s not even raining?” Luckily I got over it and thoroughly explored the city, but Paris’ ozone levels were so high in the 1990s that I regularly felt like I was hit by the flu when I spent time there.)

Anyway, before the sniffles made me so very tired, I made some progress on a few of my in-progress projects, the number of which seems to keep multiplying. I am starting to wonder if I have quilting attention deficit disorder. But I know I am not alone: many of my crafting friends work this way, with a range of projects in tandem.

Here’s an update on my 1930s-reproduction orange, yellow and green quilt blocks, the really simple ones that I decided to do scrappy-style and build into a bigger quilt. I’ve made a fair few now. Here is how a sampling of them look on my makeshift design wall (a poster-sized picture frame covered with batting):

I’m waiting for inspiration to strike to make more and figure out what size this quilt will be.

I’ve also made quite a few blocks for my “Nieces and Nephews” bright quilt. It really is a cheerful, fun project that I told you a bit about last time. More on that soon.

And last but not least, I’ve embarked on my second “Schnibbles” quilt. I really loved doing Reveille, by quilt designer Carrie Nelson, and I acquired her Schnibbles book to do more. She takes 5-inch square charm packs and turns them into delightful confections. This one will use Moda’s “Oasis” squares, which are chintzy flowers of aqua, rose, beige, etc., and turn them into a whole flock of flying geese. Each one measures 2 by 3.5 inches.

I think I like the method that Nelson spells out for making these geese better than some I’ve tried before. It involves a big square and four small squares, sewn up like magic and cut apart. Voila, you get four flying geese! I’m sure that Ms. Nelson would like you to purchase her book, and I really recommend it, but to give you a little preview, here is the page I am referring to:

I’m taking the time to mark the backs of the small squares with one of those special rulers that gives you a quarter-inch seam allowance on each side of a dividing line. I think it will give me more accuracy. The proof will be in the quilted pudding, I guess.

Mid-Summer Mom & Daughter Crafting

Sorry for the month-long break in blogging! I was traveling on the East Coast, and then returned to a giant to-do list that is just now being whittled down to a manageable size. Sadly, my crafting was largely on hiatus as well. But I’m back!

First, I’d like to show off a few things my 5-year-old daughter made in her summer camp, during the week that the group focused on art and famous artists. I loved how her teacher exposed the kids to “real” art and then had them produce their own creative work. Here’s a sampling of it:

She painted with watercolors, and then used black ink to outline. Brilliant! I find there’s something very Picasso-esque about this one, don’t you? All the shapes are actually recognizable, which is a huge leap forward in her art ability!

Here are some sculptural objects she made. She’s very taken with the word “Imagination” and included it in both sculptures’ names:

Unlike the milk-carton-and-tin-foil objects she’s made in other camps, I actually WANT to save these:) I hope to find some wall space for her painting soon.

I’m also working on some summer sewing now. I have several unfinished objects, yet (for some reason) I have started another that I am excited about: I’m make a quilt kit from Connecting Threads, using their very bright, modern “city” fabrics, “Around Town.” (It’s their “Nieces and Nephews” kit, which I think is sold-out as a kit, but still available as a pattern.) Here are the very first blocks.

I can tell this one will be fun to make and cute to look at — so, more on this very soon!

Schnibbles Quilt Done, Up on Wall!

I finished my first Schnibbles quilt, and I really love how it turned out! I call this 1930s-fabric mini-quilt “All Roads Lead to Home.” (Note: clever quilt designer Carrie Nelson’s Schnibbles patterns are made from pre-cut fabrics–in this case, charm squares.) I blogged about it a few weeks ago, when I was layering it up. Now I have quilted it with very large meandering, using variegated pastel thread. I put together a “scrappy” binding to add to the multi-color fun. I think this is truly a case where the less the fabrics match, the better. All these colors smashed together creates a very cheerful feeling. This quilt is hanging in my daughters’ room now. Here are some close-ups:

And just to show how much I’m loving this nine-patch style, I’ve decided to create dozens of them from a lovely jelly roll that a friend gave me last year, from Moda’s Whimsy collection. More to come on that one!

A little teaser: I think I will mingle the nine-patches with snowball blocks made from word-heavy fabric, creating an old-fashioned, simple quilt to showcase these cute prints — and to let my kids practice their reading. I picture this as a giant, cozy lap quilt…but if I have enough patience, maybe it could even fit a bed.