A crafty day...

I have been doing sewing stuff since 7:00 this morning.  I woke up and picked out fabric for applique (I need a better selection- I have NO "mottled" colors...I had to use solids) and traced out the shapes, cut them out, ironed the steam a seam on, and assembled the applique.

Then, I painted my first quilt, as part of Annette Kennedy's Craftsy class.  It looks pretty amazing in the photo I took (on facebook for a sneak peak) and from far away- you just have to promise not to get too close...  I will post it here once I quilt it, but the paint needs 24 hours to dry completely.

Then, I was going to quilt a snowflake (I picked a new design to try), but remembered I promised my nephew I would make him a "Rosin Bag" to play with.  Well- I've never seen one of these, so I googled, and almost all of them are labeled (pitchers get easily confused?) and have serged edges.  So out came the embroidery machine and the serger...  I stuffed it with felt.  I thought that would give it a little more weight than cotton, but I didn't want to pay to mail a bean bag to Texas!  I think it looks pretty cute.

Since I was making stuff to send to Courtney, I used some of the Riley Blake fabric I got in a grab bag to make her 3 more snack bags for the twins.  I use these now for lunch and really like them- as long as they don't sit too close to a freezer meal or cold coke. Once they get wet, they are useless.  Turns out my serger tension was a little messed up, so on a the lining and one or two of the bags you can see the threads, but I fixed it on most of them.   If you can count, you'll see there are 6 in the picture.  Three are for a friend I told I would make some for -in March?-  sorry!  But I made them!  And with adorable number fabric too.

Sorry the photo is so bad- I took it on my phone.  Kevin usually does my blog photography, but he was gone, and I am impatient.

Snowflake Quilt: Blocks 4 and 5

I'm making a bit more progress on my snowflake quilt.  I've run into a problem: there just aren't 12+ quilting designs that I've mastered...  I want this to be a sampler quilt, but I also don't want it to be a beginner one.  So once I did the scallops, the spirals, and the checkboard, I was kind of stuck.  I planned on stippling the large center block, so I can't use that.  So it sat for awhile, and I worked on my Dresden plate quilt.

Well, I made some progress.  First- I bought two more sheets of felt and did the applique of the snowflake on the two squares I ran out for.  Then, I tried to figure out what to do about the center snowflake- it's huge, and I was going to have to join felt (would look bad) or use a different material.  After a few small scale tests, I decided to use fleece.  I got it appliqued and after 3 days of cutting and many blisters all cut out.  Now I'm just worried because there is a lot of excess fluff.  If me and the lint roller don't work really hard, it will show under the organza, still I think it will look better than joining felt.  Maybe I should have used batting, but I thought that would look too different from felt.

So, I was back to needing to quilt- but I still don't have mastery of new designs.  I've been sketching a lot of McTavishing, but I'm not good enough at it to want it on this quilt.  I've been drawing echo-arches, paisley, etc.  And I suck.

I am taking a class at the Des Moines quilt show with Diane Gaudynski so I researched her.  She has a design called "Diane-shiko" that I love.  Without reading the instructions on how to do it (I found them after I figured it out), I started sketching it.  Unlike Leah Day's designs, these require marking a grid on the quilt.  So I started on paper and marked a grid.  Then I circumscribed a circle along each- way too much travel stitching.  So I thought that must not be how she does it.  So then I drew the arcs inside the squares- less traveling, but still some.  Then, I figured out I got it- I drew half circles up a line, and then back down it.  YES! The drawing was perfect. So I quilted it.  No, the quilting was not- I got build up whenever I had to change direction at the vertex of the square.  Plus, the 3/4" grid I marked was too large scale for this quilt.  So I ripped it out.

And then, I figured it out- squiggle lines!  Rather than reversing direction at each vertex, cross to the other side of the line and make that arc, cross back and forth down the length of the line.  At the end of the piece- come back down the line making the other circle.  It worked perfectly.  Once you have all the vertical done, do the horizontal.  And this makes the overlapping circles, with no circles to do at all.

Here is mine:

It isn't perfect but I really like it.  If you do a marked design, you have to mark well.  I marked very poorly.  First, the 3/4" lines were done well, but the Frixion pen was very hard on the surface of the quilt, and stretched the organza, making it dificult to stay straight.  Then I eyeballed a line between them to make it 3/8" scale- and that was my downfall.  Don't eyeball things.

I'm happy to report the lines ironed out with no issue at all. 


So the second Diane Gaudynski design is apple core- a common quilting pieced design. 

This is a building block for the previous one- I squiggled up the lines, but didn't squiggle back down to form circles.  It is important on apple core to pay attention to if the block is an "in" or an "out" on the horizontal, and do the opposite on the vertical.  This one had a grid marked at 1/4" scale.  I used a Frixion highlighter and was much more accurate with my marking- the soft tip of the highlighter didn't stretch the fabric.  However, it left prominent white lines when the color was ironed out.  Except only prominent if you get really close to the fabric and look for them.  You can't see them at all at a distance, and even up close you have to look- so I'm going to just cross my fingers and hope they wash out when I wash the entire quilt, but all is well if they don't.

So now I have 7 more small blocks, plus the large block to go.  Uh-oh.  I don't know what 7 other designs I have enough mastery of to use!

New Wallet...

I fell in love with this pattern the first time I saw it on http://stitchesandseams.blogspot.com/.  I purchased it for $10 from http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadeByMotherOfMarine.  I consider this to be very expensive for a pattern, and I do not usually spend that amount of money.  

The pattern is EXTREMELY well written.  The steps are very clear and mostly well illustrated (a few steps require you to read to understand the illustrations).  The cutting diagrams are clear, however, I chose to not use them.  You use almost all of the 3 fat quarters if you make the optional insert, but not so much that you really need to follow the layouts exactly.

 I had put off making it for awhile because it looked difficult.  Here is my take on that: it would be very difficult to make it really well.  But it is not at all difficult to make “okay”.  A beginner could do it, though there is one seam that has a very big hump in it, so a beginner machine might not like it (I’m still in awe of how my new machine doesn’t even give this a second thought.)  It also took way less time than I thought it would.  Half of an afternoon, less if you don’t make stupid mistakes like I did.  (The materials list literally says “seam ripper- don’t kid yourself”.   She was right, I definitely needed it.)

 

The pattern is not completely foolproof.  I’m not sure how I did it, but I managed to put the vinyl pocket on the wrong side.  I guess I did the self-binding (a great feature) wrong.    I also loved the idea of the paper piece to guide you sewing the corners, however, I wasn’t able to follow my sewn-on guidelines very well. 

Dislikes: 

-It is probably my sewing, and not the pattern, but I feel like it has a “crafty” feel. It doesn’t look store bought. The fact that the inner fabric shows a little when it is closed contributes to this.  Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job pressing before doing the final top-stitching?

-The zipper pocket is unfinished.  I think this is necessary, because otherwise you can’t turn the wallet through it, but I would have liked a bag made of fashion fabric to hold the coins.  I don’t like that I can see the interfacing.

-There was one confusing instruction:  for the optional insert, it says to interface and topstitch the pocket fabric as you did before, but the pockets were never interfaced before.  Turns out, I cut a piece wrong (forgot to go on the fold) and don't have enough for the insert anyway, so it is moot.

I'm very happy with my wallet.  It fits everything I need, and has room for plenty more.  Plus the magnet clasp is something I haven't used before, and makes it seem more finished than just velcro would.  I also really like the zipper on the outside of the wallet.  The tabs on the sides makes for a very professional finish on that part.

AND while I probably didn't need to, I got to use a TON of feet for this project.

I used my zipper foot, my edgestitch foot, my applique foot (to trace the curves), my regular foot, my quarter inch foot, and my jeans foot (to sew through ALL the layers, and topstitch them).  Feet are fun.

Three down...

I am sitting here early morning waiting to go to learn to row- a new adventure for me.  I am constantly seeking some form of exercise I can be good at.  Kevin has his doubts this one will be it, but I'm going to give it a try.

I'd like to post my progress on my Snowflake quilt.  The first two squares were completed last week..  Both of them bearded, with the batting coming through the back.  It isn't visible to the naked eye, but I had Kevin take a very magnified picture of it.  You can definetly feel it. I blame the needle because the third one I did yesterday didn't have any problem at all.  These squares take 6-10 hours each to do!  The three of them took an entire 1,000 m spool of thread.

My first one: Scallops.  (My small quilt group asked me if this was a stitch on my machine! These ladies are amazing at quilting, so that was a huge compliment.

My second one: Swirls.  (I LOVE this one.  I played with different size swirls and this is really the first filler I've done in such a large space that doesn't have a preplanned placement -like how the scallops always go in the next spot- it was a challenge.)

See how the batting pokes through? It is more of an annoyance than a problem.

My third one: Basketweave.  (I set this up with a walking foot, to make the grid.  Then I freehanded the in between lines.  It was important to me that the numbers weren't all the same.  I wanted it to vary a bit.)

The quilt has 12 small squares like these and then a center square that is the size of 4 little squares.  I still haven't figured out how to do that, since my felt comes in paper size sheets- I wonder if I can just join the felt with invisible thread?  I might do a practice piece to try.  

You should be able to click on any of the pictures to see it larger.

Winter Wonderland progress report

I recently got it in my head that I really wanted to learn to do shadow trapunto.  There is a book I want to buy from a blogger I read, but Leah Day also offers a pattern for a "reverse" shadow trapunto technique.  Since I am pretty much a disciple of Leah Day's, I purchased her pattern.  Her blog has been so amazing in teaching me to quilt (and really, more teaching me to be fearless about quilting) that I feel like I should try to buy her things when I can, because she is a professional quilter, and she has to make a living somehow!  I really appreciate all that she offers for free.

This snowflake features pebbling.  This is the only one I did where the center and the outer parts have the same filler, but I really liked how the circles filled the space.  Maybe I should have done spirals on the outside, just to follow the trend of two fillers, but I really love how this one looks.

The shadow trapunto technique is actually REALLY simple.  Honestly- you pretty much just applique the shapes down, except you don't cut them out first, so it is like applique in the hoop, without the hoop.  I'm still not sure why it is necessary to use water soluble thread, as a matching thread would be hidden under the organza.

This snowflake has pebbling in the center, and loopy line in the rest of the spaces.

Anyhow- last week I got the snowflakes (except the center one, and the two I ran out of felt for) all sewn down and cut out  (I started with the paper traced method outlined before, but gave up - because I not only had to go over a different design to perforate each one, it just took forever.  Since these squares were thin, and not yet a quilt sandwich, I ended up tracing the designs with chalk on the square.  I should have done that the first time).  I also got the sandwiches layered, and began outlining the snowflakes- this was the tricky part.  I needed to be close enough to the felt to trap it, but far enough away not to sew over it, exactly by the edge.  I had varying degrees of success. 

Once that was done, I started the fillers.  I quilted a few minutes almost everyday this week (literally a few minutes- I am so tired after work...) and then I had a half day Friday and got them all done. The insides of all the snowflakes are finished.  Then, today, I started the hard part: quilting the gigantic space on the outsides.  I'll post that picture tomorrow, because I actually got one square done. 

This is the loopy line filler.

This post also goes along with the "loopy line" technique that is the current quilt-a-long topic on Leah's blog.  I have used loopy line before (on my math quilt), so I thought this would be a great time to challenge myself to use it on a micro-scale.  It went okay.  It is hard to keep the stitches consistent, but also small enough that the tops of the loops aren't too jagged.  I did like that the line part of the filler allowed me to back out of tight spots easily.  I will likely use this filler to do the outside of another snowflake, although maybe at a slightly looser scale.  It is the tightest of the inner fillers I did.

This is pebbling.

The other one I was especially proud of and had Kevin take pictures of was my pebbling.  I put this on my colorful quilt, and didn't really enjoy doing it.  I think using the Isacord (rather than the connecting threads cotton, which is thicker) made it more enjoyable.  It didn't take as long as I remembered (still time consuming) and I think my circles are more even.   Of course, in macro, they don't look too even at all

I can't wait to make more progress on this quilt!  I have to start school again next week, so that is a pretty huge bummer to my quilting time.  Just two classes left though, and I am a free woman!

A little bit of quilting...

Today I am spending quite a bit of time quilting scallops on my snowflake quilt.


But I thought I would share a square from one of my latest charity quilts, because I tried something new: a marked pattern. I learned a lot from this. The method of marking, that many call easy, is NOT easy- at least if you don't use the proper tools.

I traced the pattern from a book onto paper (regular paper, I didn't have tracing paper) and then used a non-threaded sewing needle in the machine to perforate the paper. Then, I sewed the design over it, and ripped out the paper. In some places, the paper ripped off easily, in others, it would get stuck under the thread and I'd spend a TON of time picking paper out. I won't be using this again. Maybe tracing paper makes it easier, but it is not my method of choice.

Because those took SO long to do (though admittedly, they look really pretty), every other block in the quilt I put a freehand spiral, an easy fall back.

Anyhow- I watched a video the other day that talked about a great marking method if you can't use a lightbox to trace, so I will try it next time. Basically, you trace your design with a sharpie on a piece of tool. And then use chalk or a marking pen over the tool to transfer the design onto the quilt. That sounds like a winner. I like these quilted motifs, and hope to use more of them.


I quilt at least a charity quilt each month, often up to 4. I just don't post about them much because I usually stipple. But they are also where I experiment One I did machine embroidery quilting to try it out- the quilt looked amazing, but the designs are too expensive, and the hooping takes forever, so I probably won't do that again.

Still, it is really nice the guild has an on-going supply of practice quilts for me!

I signed up for a free motion quilting class with Diane Gaudynski at the Des Moines AQS show- sadly, it isn't until October. I wish I could have taken a second class, but I also want to drive out a second day to see the show. I am doing "perfect FMQ", but she has a class specifically on feathers I wish I could take. She is offering five different intermediate level quilting classes- all except the one I'm taking on a very specific shape: bananas, circles, echo quilting, feathers, and then the more general class. Having never taken a class before I thought general was the way to go, even though I really need feather help! Her feathers are brilliant, but I'm probably going to just buy her book afterwards. (Actually the class I was most interested was about circles, but it was only a half day class, and taking a second half day class- probably another of hers, was too expensive...)

Now, however, I need to figure out a shopping strategy for the show. I know I am going to be exposed to SO much stuff I've never seen.

Not going so well...

So it turns out I am REALLY bad at buying supplies for quilting.  I bought white fabric for my Dresden plate quilt, and ran out.  I placed a Fabric.com order for more (haven't yet checked to see if I have enough.  Also- really really worried about color bleeding on this quilt.  I wish I had prewashed, or used a non-white background. Oops.)

When I placed the order, I got fabric to use for the Winter Wonderland Quilt (a Leah Day pattern).  I had already purchased the top fabric, so I got felt and organza.

Well would you believe it- I ran out of felt, organza, and the pink topping fabric!  I couldn't believe it.  I have enough batting and backing fabric though  :)

I'm really shocked I ran out of my pink topping fabric because I followed the yardage required- maybe too much shrank?  I was off by almost 16 inches though.  The felt was completely my mistake. I ordered 10 instead of 12. (I'm not sure what I will do about the center, because the felt I'm using comes in paper size sheets.  Maybe I will use batting for that one?  Or piece felt together?  I wonder if the organza would hide the stitching.)  The organza, I got extra wide so I ordered less than she called for (since the width was double) but I estimated wrong.  I can do math. I should have...  

This quilt is a technique called "reverse shadow trapunto", which sounds really intimidating, but really the step where you put the felt/batting on the fabric is just applique!  So I sewed snowflakes with water soluble thread and have them all cut out. I have them all layered with the organza in place, and am ready to quilt. 

Here is a really bad picture showing what one block looks like.  I have 10 of 12 small blocks done.  I'm saving the large middle block for the end.

UGH! This is the scary part.  As much as I think I'm pretty good at microstippling, I don't want a totally stippled quilt- so I need to get good at at least 13 different microfillers.  EEK!

A bundle of fabric.

I needed to place an order from Fabric.com for some Kona Cotton to do my Dresden Plate quilt.  Since I was shopping anyway, I threw in a 3-pound bundle.  I really like what I got!  With the florals I plan to do a charity quilt to give to guild.  The baby fabric might do the same, but I really like them, so maybe someone else will have a baby I need to make a gift for!

This is all REALLY nice fabric.  Like $10/$12 per yard at a quilt shop (cheaper on fabric.com, and I'm sure it all came from the sale pile, but I still feel like I got a good deal.) Most of the fabrics coordinate with each other, coming from the same line.  The only weird thing, except the polka dot, every fabric has a 5" square taken out of the corner.  I guess they were cutting swatches.

From the top, brand and size of cut
Riley Blake - 37"
Robert Kaufman (Dr. Suess) - 17"
Riley Blake- 42"
Riley Blake- 35"
Riley Blake- 37"
FreeSpirit (Noah's Ark) - 35" (you can't see it but the argyle has flamingos on it. So random!)
Windham Fabrics (Daughter's of the American Revolution) - 44"
Windham Fabrics (Mr. K's Calico) - 39"
Windham Fabrics (Mr. K's Calico) - 43"



So pretty much everything is about a yard (one half-yard cut).  Nothing is scraps.  Good, useable fabric!

In other quilting news today I started the snowflake shadow trapunto quilt.  This quilt will be a huge test of my quilting skills- as it needs lots of small scale fillers, and my patience.  Today I only did a few squares of the applique (sewing the felt snowflake onto the backing fabric) and it took FOREVER.  I'm going to try a different method tomorrow.   I'm worried my organza is too shiny, so who knows what it will turn out looking like.

Another quilt...

This is one of the quickest large quilts I've done.  I started it after I finished the other blue/green quilt, so it has all been in the last few months.  My Mom asked for two twin quilts for her blue room, so this is the second.  It very well may be my favorite quilt i've ever made.  I don't want to give it up!

The pattern said it was twin size (this was a Connecting Threads kit), but it came out HUGE.  I cut out a row and a column, and it is still larger than twin batting.  (Also- a row and a column were A LOT of work. Grr.) I wish I had realized that before I pieced the back, as I would have set them into the back.  This is the first quilt I've done in awhile that has a solid back (except the label, unlike baby quilts, I've been labeling these.)

See, boring, non-pieced back

I originally started quiting a motif in each square, but ripping the paper off (that the design was traced on) was very time consuming and the designs didn't show very well.  If I am going to that much effort, I want them to show.  So I ripped out all the ones I had done, and just meandered.  That way the quilting on this matches the quilting on the first quilt.

Hopefully this is "blue" enough for my Mom, and she doesn't mind that it doesn't match the other perfectly.  Then again, if she doesn't like it- I want it back!  I really don't want to part with this one!

Since we aren't going back to Texas anytime soon, I need to find a box to mail it in.

All the obligation quilts are done, so now it is time to get into projects for me.  I am working on a Dresden plate that will end up queen size.  I think I will have to do quilt as you go, because I have no room to baste a queen size quilt.  I also got a shadow trapunto pattern from Leah Day, so I am going to work on that.  It is snowflakes, so I have until Christmas to get it done!  It is quilt as you go, so that could be practice for the Dresden.  I have all the plates made, and most appliqued onto the blocks (I ran out of fabric and have more on order), so I hope to put pictures of them up soon.

Dress for Josefina

(Modeled by Jess)

So I recently decided I needed to downsize my American Girl collection.  I have 11 dolls, and no room.  However, deciding which doll to get rid of was a nighmare.  I finally decided on Josefina- I got her at the end of high school (I think? Maybe even in college...) and we never really 'bonded'.  Even some of the newer dolls have 'stories' or 'play' to them that is more than her.  So I decided she would go first, and then I'd figure out who goes next.

However, I couldn't just give her to goodwill or put her up on Ebay. I decided to send her to my Uncle.  He has 6 children, including 4 girls.  I think a free American Girl doll will be much appreciated in that household, and he is so amazing, fostering, and then adopting 2 of the girls.  I packed Josefina and realized she only had 2 outfits.  So I gathered some homemade clothes to send too, and saw that I had cut out the pieces for this cute denim dress while I lived in Ohio (6 years ago...) but never sewed it together.  Since I left the hems as raw edges (with a line of stay stitching), it was quick and easy. 

The dress was too plain without decoration, so I added daisies to the neck and hem, and then when I tried it on Jess, it was way too short, so I added the eyelet lace.

Although the sewing is a bit 'eh', I think the dress is very cute.  I tried to put in an invisible zipper, but I mut have done it wrong.  It is fairly visible...

Photos are courtesy of Kevin, with no guidance from me.  I was out running errands, but he is wonderful, as he took great ones and even posed his model!  (I used to take pictures of my dolls in scenes, so he must have remembered that.)