Virtual Quilts

I can spend lots of time making virtual quilts. Electric Quilt software is a fun tool for narrowing down my decisions. Here are just 3 of many quilt plans I came up with recently.

 

 

 
 I am trying to come up with a plan to use a few of my orange fabrics. I have a few in batik besides these.

 And I wouldn't necessarily use blue with the orange. It just offers good contrast on my computer screen. The plans above aren't final either. The ultimate size would be based on how much I like how it is going. Unless I decide to keep it small for a sample for my lectures. These are all Thirtysomething designs, so that's probably a better plan.
 I have been doing some real quilting too. Both in the studio on an old top and the sewing room. I have a few more Flying Geese units left to make for the Birds-in-the-Air ARE Flying Geese quilt.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a quilt.

My Birds-in-the-Air quilt is moving right along. I finally decided what I wanted to do with it. One of my thoughts was this arrangement, but I thought the variety of colors I used made it look too busy.

 I will use the plan I showed in my last post, but I'm going to arrange the colors randomly.  I organized the pieces I made and took notes on what else I have to cut and sew. Motivated by my new big mattress, I decided to make it bigger after all. The additional pieces I need to cut will be in brighter colors.
 

It seems my quilts suffer from being from the midwest where the colors are often dark. Or so I am told.  It doesn't help that my nearest quilt shop handles country/primitive styles. I like it all, but often find that I prefer the darker colors, and I definitely like high contrast. My printout from EQ6 shows a navy blue border, but I haven't made a decision yet. You'll probably help me make that choice. TIA

It's not a Bedspread

I  was saving this picture for when I didn't have any of my own quilting to show.  Dotty Huckaby made this using the pattern "Bosom Buddies" from my book Save the Scraps. She has made several quilts from that book. I like to hear that and I like to see that! It sure is neat to see how she limited herself to just a few fabrics instead of scraps. I sometimes like a design enough to want to make it several different ways. Makes it nice for lectures and workshops to show the possibilities. Thanks Dotty. It turned out great.

I am a little frustrated today because I ordered a new mattress. They sure do make them thick now.  I can't say I wasn't warned, but WOW. The new thickness will make some of my favorite quilts too small  - to use as a bedspread. And I have to emphasize that because everytime our church group makes a raffle quilt, there is at least one that whines that we are not making the quilt big enough for a bedspread. SO??????????

So just scanning my scrapbook where I have noted the sizes of each quilt, I see that I have plenty that will be big enough to cover the top mattress (including the sides), and some that will cover both mattresses. I know I don't want to make the others bigger, but that reminds me of bedspreads we had when we were kids. Back then a bedspread covered the pillow, included extra for a pillow tuck and reached to the floor all around the 3 sides. The only part that was quilted on our bedspreads back then was the area on the top of the mattress and pillow. The "drop" on the sides were just matching fabric that was gathered. Interesting how styles change. Anybody want to change some back with me???

Flying Geese ARE Birds in the Air

We had snow Tuesday so quilting at church was cancelled. I spent the day straightening up in my sewing room and the studio downstairs. Then I cut triangles for the 4" half-square triangle units for the Birds-in-the-Air quilt. I sewed them together and started playing with them again. First I came up with this.

The bigger it is the less I like it. Maybe I will use the leftovers in a border. I planned to put a Flying Geese border on this one.  Lisa came over and suggested I arrange them in groups of color, so we played with that. I am not convinced I like that. Lisa loved it, Mark thought there was too much purple and I didn't like the red just in one corner. Sure glad I don't have to please anyone but myself, still I like to hear their opinion. It bothers me more when they don't say anything.

I'm a little tired of it now so will go downstairs to quilt.

four-patches found a home

I played around with the four-patches I made and decided to put them in the corners of scrappy stars.

Then I tried this arrangement too.

Let's see, what else can I come up with. Oops, I can see I will need to be careful that I turn the four-patches the same way in each block.

I don't keep quarter-square triangles precut and waiting from scraps, so I had to cut those. I am making 12" blocks, so using 3 1/2" strips and the companion angle I cut 4 triangles for each star. Anytime I use the companion angle, I always cut a half-square triangle from the end of the strip first, otherwise that scrap is wasted. Here I am using the Omnigrid 96L ruler (The Easy Angle ruler works the same). I will finish the strip cutting half-square triangles too. If the scrap isn't big enough, then I will cut a smaller triangle or square. Those get filed  for a future project.

I'll get these large flying geese units sewn up quickly. I want to get back to the Birds in the Air blocks.

binding by machine

The adrenaline from quilting with Judy carried through to quilting Thursday when Margie came to quilt. The fresh snowfall kept Shaggy home. It felt good to get back on track after the holidays. The snow is sure pretty, and I am glad I didn't have to drive anywhere.

I got the friendship stars together. I remember thinking the last time I worked on it that it wasn't very colorful. It is hard to believe that this border changed it so much. It sure reads "red" now. I don't know that I am thrilled with it, but when I was playing in EQ with the block I had a hard time deciding on a setting.  Then when I went back to those files while getting ready to finish it at Judy's, this arrangement struck me the most so I went with it without much more thought.  I'm just loving the colors.

In my last post I left to do Lisa's binding. That night I applied it  in 2 1/2 hours - start to finish.  I always finish my bindings by machine, front and back. Sewing the back down by machine always leaves questions, so here are some photos.

After sewing it all around and joining the ends, and starting at any corner turn the binding to the back, lapping the folded edge over the seam. Pin or hold in place as you place it under the presser foot and lower the needle into the ditch. This step is only accomplished easily with an open toe foot. Double click photo for closeup.  The bobbin thread should match the binding. The top thread can either be the clear nylon stuff (if the binding and border are two different colors) or match the binding and border (if they are the same color).      Stitch 2-4 inches in the ditch.

Every several inches, turn the quilt back to check that the binding is folded past the seam before proceeding to stitch it in place. 

I cut binding strips 2 1/4" wide, seam them together with a diagonal seam and attach to the quilt top with 1/4" seam. I trim the batting even with the binding, and the binding laps over the back seam about 1/8". If you prefer a wider batting, then the batting needs to be trimmed further from the edge of the quilt to fill the binding.

To finish each corner of binding, I backstitch before reaching the corner, then when I get to the end of the seam, I pivot and stitch the miter with a backstitch too. Maybe you can see the threads ending at the very tip of the corner.






And did I mention the 4 patches I was making for??? It seems sometimes I just gotta sew pieces together if for no other reason than they belong together. Busy week next week. It is Dot's 91st birthday and she has a Dr appt., there is a meeting with the church ladies and at Benny's and with our tax man. And I have to catch up with my bookkeeping. That will leave little time for quilting.

The short list

Back to the retreat Friday with Judy.  I did 3 of these blocks for "Ladies in Waiting".  I will work on them when I am quilting with my friends.  Won't take much thinking. I think there are at least 24 blocks planned with a pieced border.

















On my flannel wall are the rest of the blocks I cut and sewed at Judy's. It doesn't look like much now, because they are stacked in order to sew. If you recall, the friendship star blocks I made a while back, what you see here is the border.







I was telling Judy the other day how I am lucky that I can do whatever I want whenever I want where my quilting is concerned. After looking around the sewing room tonight, I think I have to take that back. I don't think overwhelmed is the word, but sometimes it sure does feel like I have an awful lot that I want to do. I need to prioritize my projects. That's not usually a problem for me.  Take a look at the other piles I have around the room.

This 1930's quilt has been waiting for the border for just a few weeks. That's when I changed my mind about how to assemble and border the blocks, but now I have to locate the muslin that I used in the blocks to make the border. Also not usually a problem.

The binding for Lisa's quilt is half pressed.  I haven't gotten back to it because the table that will support the weight of it had a Christmas tree on it. Put that away this afternoon, so now I can bind. I have 3 others waiting for binding.  Oh yes, a basket of socks is always waiting to get sorted.

These are my newest red fabrics that I washed and ironed tonight. Some of them I have had almost a year and they waited in a special laundry basket in my closet.







This last pile (that I am showing) is actually 2 different piles. One for an applique quilt that has been waiting for at least 6 months. Yes on the floor in the corner behind my cutting table. The other pile is some fabric that I want to move into the cabinet cause I want to rearrange some of my fabric for easier access to the batiks. I wanted to wash the reds first. Sure hope that doesn't sit for another month.

Sew, you say. Yeah, I should. Binding for Lisa first.   I mean NOW, I have 3 hours till bedtime.
 Wish me luck and good luck to you.

1 day quilting retreat

As I said in my last post, I'd post this picture of the quilt top I finished right after Christmas. I am not overly fond of floral prints and wasn't keen on this as I finished the blocks. When I pulled them out last week and put them together I felt better about them. Then my Lisa saw it and was practically drooling over it. Kinda unusual for her. Funny after all this time, you'd think I'd know my own daughter's taste.

Earlier this week I had the lecture to give in Lodi. I was pleased with the response to my Thirtysomething quilts.  And then there was a club meeting at BF. I took my hand quilted sampler for Show and tell. Sue came for a good long visit the next night. In between I got caught up a little on stuff around here that  I neglected last month when Mark was home from work. And then yesterday I had to get stuff together for a mini retreat.


That was today when I retreated to Judy's for a much needed respite from everyday life. I haven't done any piecing lately  and when I suggested to Judy that we get together, she asked if I'd come her way to spend the day. It's always exciting to spend the day with her because I have such a good time chatting and am so inspired and learn stuff too. She's the longarm quilter I used most till I got my machine.  I sure hope she feels I entertained her enough to do it again. I know she liked that she was able to finish quilting this Irish Chain while I was there. I'd love to give credit to the designer and piecer too, but I don't have that info.

A sewing marathon like today always gets my gears wound up. Even though I put several kits together so I could grab and go, I still take some time to look at them first to make sure I will know what I am doing beforehand so that I don't have to do too much thinking while I am sewing with others. Glad that all worked out. Stuff got done that I'll show later. Judy doesn't have the same kind of flannel wall for taking pictures and apparently I should leave the camera home in the future.  Thanks Judy. I had a great time.

Year end finishes

 Happy New Year everyone. I hope you had as good a weekend as I have. Mine was real quilty. It is not uncommon for me to finish a quilt on New Year's weekend. And this weekend I have several finishes to report.

This first one has been waiting the longest. The blocks were just orphans I made in my stash.  A few of them date back over 25 years. Then about 5 years ago, I put them together.  I liked how it turned out so much that I decided to hand quilt it using a wool batting. I quilted about half the blocks and removed it from the frame and put it away for a while.  Then I brought it out about 1 1/2 yrs ago and finished the blocks.  Then it sat for almost another year untouched because I couldn't decide how to quilt the border.  Then I decided I'd rather use it this winter than let it haunt me another year so I let Lenni finish it. The quilting was all simple straight lines so I didn't want anything elaborate for the border quilting. This is how I finally quilted the border. See? That was early yesterday.

In the afternoon I loaded this quilt top for my daughter. She had recently complained that the quilt she is using is to small for 2 people. So I chose this quilt from my stash of tops and she chose simple meandering loops. What a great kid. Fast and easy.  I didn't want to invest much time in custom quilting this top.

Thank goodness I took the picture. Otherwise, I don't know when I would have noticed that I sewed the star together wrong.  And I remembered to fix it before quilting it. Yeah.

There was another top I finished I will show next time. Otherwise, there weren't many  finishes for the year. Usually there are more, but it was a tough year again. And now my time is divided between the quilting  with Lenni and piecing with Bernie (my Bernina) and...
Well, once again, Happy New Year and thanks for visiting.

It's Later

Being later means it's quilting time!  In between preparations for Christmas, I was able to find some time to do some quilting. So now this top I made almost 20 years ago is finally quilted and waiting for a binding.

It wasn't a very quilty Christmas for me otherwise. Not complaining as I have just about all a gal could want in the world of quilting. One quilty thing I was excited about this week though was how I reorganized my quilts in storage. When I saw Joy a few weeks ago, we traded my quilting services for a quiltrack/ladder. So I put it up in the warehouse and hung just the quilts I use on it. This might simplify things a bit for me.

Even better, after that, I cleaned out the closet and made room to hang some quilts from skirt/pant hangers. I saw this on Judy Martin's website years ago. Lord, why I didn't try this sooner I will never understand, but I love it. Hanging the quilts like this will make it easier to access them and without the weight of them being piled on top of one another the creases won't be so sharp and maybe permanent. I am sure it would still be a good idea to refold in the opposite direction every year or so.  I had Mark move the pole up so I can hang  up to 72" long quilts. The longer ones would have to be on a pole up at the ceiling or folded and clamped at opposite ends. Either way, I ran out of room in the closet.  I will have to put Mark to work on that. 

 Have you noticed that my quilts are mostly folded wrong side out. I do that so they don't fade or pick up stains otherwise. I also keep a dust cloth on the piles cause I don't know when the cat may go up there and sleep or ... (ewww) and I also keep the blinds drawn in that room.

Birds in the Air

 I played with my Birds in the Air blocks yesterday. I usually find this sort of activity very soothing but lately these puzzles have left me feeling frustrated that I had another decision to make. In other words, I've made over 100 of these little blocks, I need to decide what to do with them next. Here are a few of my options.

 My first thought was to arrange them as shown to the left.Then I tried a few more arrangements. The only decision I made was to make some large half-square triangle units to play with them.   And then again, maybe I can use all these ideas in one quilt.

I decided I didn't need the stress right now and put them away and got ready for the meeting with the church ladies today. I just took in the two quilts I quilted and the two blocks I made for Mary and Rita for the block exchange.There was little other show and tell and all we did was put together kits for the next raffle quilt.

When I got home, I peeled off 30 quilts  that were spread out on the twin bed upstairs and folded them with 3 folds each. My sister helped me put them on the bed a year and a half ago and I found it wasn't a good way for me to keep them.  It was very difficult to pull one out to use when  there were not only those quilts on the bed, but also a big pile of smaller quilts folded on top of them. I also reorganized the remaining quilts and tops. It was getting a little out of hand up there. I was looking for a few in particular. The wool quilt to finish, a top to quilt for my daughter, and another two to put on my bed. I like to swap those out every few months.

I will be back up there in a day or two because I have some tops down here that I want to move upstairs and already I need to get ready for a lecture on Jan 2nd!

Quilting through the holidays

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday season.  I don't have projects to finish for Christmas. But I have got one or two I want to start. Those gifts are for recipients that may read this, so I will share later.

These two quilts went to the women's shelter a few weeks ago with the others from church. I love the nine-patch.

Here is another one of two that I quilted for the shelter. I did freehand feathers over the whole thing.  I see you have to pay attention to quilting the same size and space across the whole thing if you don't use a panto.  It was fun.

Last night I visited a friend I see maybe twice a year. She had "stuff" for me. I was expecting her orphan blocks and sure enough she had a nice pile of blocks we can use. But besides this she had two small boxes of fabric from a friend's mother's estate for our comfort quilts. I took it home to sort. No wonder she didn't keep it for herself. There wasn't much good in it. The pile I pitched was mostly small, old, wrinkled poly blend scraps. A small pile went to the garage for the rag bag. Another small pile I will pass on to one of the church ladies to decide if she wants to cut it into pieces we could use.  There was barely a straight edge in all the scraps. I am not so sure she was really a quilter. Maybe she did applique or other sewing. The good pile was has half yard and one yard pieces. I'm glad there wasn't more. We have so much fabric that is not getting used fast enough.
There was also a black quilt batt in her pile of stuff for me. Little did she know that it was wool. Which reminds me I have a wool quilt I started eons ago that I want to finish soon so we can use it this winter. I guess I should go upstairs and wade through the quilts to find it. I hope I will be able to report on that by the end of the year.  I didn't have too many finishes this year. It would be nice to add it to the list.

Sorting Scraps again

Last week I delivered 3 loads of quilts that the church ladies made this year. 24 baby quilts to the hospital,  22 kid quilts to the County Holiday Care program and 18 even bigger quilts to the Women's Shelter. I took a few pictures to share over my next few posts. Here's some.

 
I was anxious to get them out of the house.  I am still in clearing out and organizing mode after emptying mom's apartment. So this weekend I tackled my basket of scraps on my cutting table, and rather than just sorting them and filing them away, I cut the short ends of strips into squares and triangles. My supply of those was getting low. I also spent some time deciding what to do with them all. So I hope to make a sample block or two of those and share those with you in the next week or two. Some of what I cut was for my on-going  Birds-in-th-Air quilt like the purple block on the right. I have over 100 now, so I think I will start playing with those and decide what I will do with them next.

Sashed the quilt with stars

It sure felt good to do some sewing again. This is the pile of blocks that the quilting ladies from church made for me. I had no idea how I was going to arrange them, or even what fabrics I would use with the blocks.

 Rummaging around in my stash I found the itty-bitty gold flowers that worked great for sashing.  I considered a few other arrangements, but I didn't have enough yardage for those options. Not sure what I wanted to border it with, I took a few selections to a church meeting and let the ladies decide. They chose this red paisley.  I have had both the little gold flowers and the red paisley in the drawer for YEARS. I NEVER thought I would use them together.

The ladies liked this block so much that another gal decided to use it for her block exchange. She wants her blocks in white and pastel/30's prints. These are the two I did for her.

And believe it or not, they liked it so much that they decided that we should use the same block for our next church raffle quilt. So you will be seeing more of that block later, though in different settings.

Christmas will be here in less than a month, so I better get hopping. Not much for shopping anymore, but I will decorate a bit. I want to get that out of the way before next week, cause then I will need to focus again as mom's personal representative of her will. I sure hope I will find some time for quilting.  I pulled out a pile of quilt tops I want to work on next. This week I hope to prep backs and plan the quilting for them so I don't have to think  so hard in Dec, I can just quilt. Think it will work??? Sure, it's sorta like putting my own kits together.

I just need to make good notes and drawings. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Mine was. Sew long,

Then in September

As usual there were lectures and workshops on my agenda this fall. I spent one day with members of the Oshkosh guild. I arrived the evening before and then met my hostess for breakfast. There were over 20 ladies in class and they were really spread out.  I was relieved when they found a microphone for my use during the workshop because I was developing a good case of laryngitis.

 One of the members brought this quilt of my design to the meeting. I love it when they do that. Actually another gal also brought a quilt from the same pattern. Somehow I forgot to get a picture and I was even holding the camera!

Also as usual, I was teaching a Thirtysomething workshop. And I believe it was the same gal mentioned above that found this free pattern with the Thirtysomething technique on my website. What a surprise when instead of making the blocks as suggested, she produced these 9 different blocks from the same elements. I love it when that happens! Do you ever play with the pieces for a block to see what other designs you can come up with?

Playing Catch Up

Things have quieted down and I've been able to quilt again. I'll show that later. First I'll show you what I put together back in August. I think I didn't show it sooner cause I was considering putting another border on it.  I tend to border everything. But  I guess I decided to call it done when I picked it up the other day and looked at it.  I put the center together earlier this year from some old stash. Playing in Electric Quilt I came up with the pieced border.  I like it, but it is darker than I'd prefer. Looks masculine to me. I have no use for it so I will stick it on my pile of quilts that are finished cause the top is done.  Maybe in 20 years I will add more borders to make it a more useable size.

While I was waiting for my Edgerider Wheels to show up I quilted a few blocks to have samples of different batts that were quilted.  I figured I ought to as long as I knew which battings they were. It was fun, so I think I want to put one of my samplers on the machine next.

 The wheels arrived and we installed them the day before mom went to the hospital. I didn't get a chance to really try them until this week.They needed some adjusting and I think it could still be tweaked further. Not sure yet.

My sisters were a big help in cleaning out mom's apartment. We had a great time going through stuff and I was very happy that practically everything was divided  unanimously.  I found homes for most of her stuff and only threw away the real junk. Dealing with the will and probate is a long process, but not difficult, so things are pretty much at a new normal. It is November so that means Mark only works part time till the end of the year. I will sew as much as I can to maintain my sanity.

Cancellation notice

I regret having to announce that I have had to cancel my lecture at the Genoa City Library on Monday night. I am unable to speak. Literally. If you are in the area, please spread the word. Thank you for your understanding and thank you to all that sent condolences at the loss of my mother. It's been such a comfort to read your kind words.

Time Out

Just a quick note to mention that I haven't been posting - or quilting cause I had to take care of mom. As expected, she wasn't good all summer. Last week she went into the hospital. 8 days later to the nursing home. 3 days later I am planning her funeral. I don't imagine it is easy for anyone.
Occasionally, I remind myself anything I am going through is temporary.
And there is time for quilting later.
Till then,

Milwaukee Show

I hope all is back to normal soon for those that have suffered the ravages of hurricane Irene.

Who are these for?

I saw Jim from Quilter's Rule and Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show a few weeks ago and he asked me to quilt this for Quilts of Valor.  So I quilted it with loops and stars.  QOV presents U.S. veterans with a quilt as a special thank you for serving.

Lucrecia and I went to a quilting meeting at Benny's and then she stopped here and picked up some orphan blocks to make a quilt for church.  That inspired me to play with these blocks.  This is as far as I got and I had to take them off my flannel wall.  I don't remember why.  I didn't really like them together so maybe that was why. Maybe this is a good start after all.

Dealing with my people continues to be a challenge. I don't know what they'd do without me. I am not one to act like the world would end if it weren't for me. It's  just occasionally I'd like it to stop spinning so I can get off. Things have settled down now, so I am looking forward to getting some more quilting time in. My new wheels are due to arrive this week!