Quilting

Catchup

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It’s days since I posted anything but I’ve been chugging along as always.

Danish Paper Stars

Danish Paper Stars – it’s become a seasonal tradition to make stars to share with neighbours and friends. I’ve made a total of close to 60 this year. I started with about 45 – which I distributed the other evening (one star per apartment). When I got home I realized I didn’t have enough left for friends so last evening I made another 15! That’s it for stars this year. It takes me about 8 minutes to make a star. [The website I found a couple of years ago describing how to make the stars is still functioning so click here if you want to try your hand at making a few!] [If that link doesn’t work try here.]

The Quilt Top – it’s been a chore but I finally managed to piece the panel together. I rummaged through my stash looking for fabrics to border it with. I came up with something.

Quilt Panel
With Border Fabrics

The challenge with the burgundy “cork” fabric is that it’s directional so I’ll have to consider how to use it on all four sides – it will require some piecing, I think. Deciding to include a thin strip of the backing fabric ties the whole thing together. It don’t see any appliqué that will enhance this panel which is already way too busy!

Can’t say I’m ecstatic about this creative effort – the background fabric [Free Spirit: Tim Holtz, Eclectic Elements, Abandoned, Rusted Patina PWTH126] turned out to be much busier than I anticipated. I loved the colour combinations, but cutting it up just accentuated the “busy-ness” and adding the solids as I did made the whole panel out of control. That’s the challenge of improvising – it doesn’t always work out as you’ve imagined it.

The Rusted Patina fabric should have been used as very large pieces which is what I’m going to do on the back. I managed to purchase enough from a number of online sources to do that. I want to see what making a small strip through the dominant backing fabric will do. In any case I want to use up what I have. I don’t intend doing anything more with it. Lesson learned!

I just keep carrying on.

If you have time I recommend Barb Emodi’s recent Substack piece: Comes With The Territory.

So, This Was My Idea

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Remember when I started this quilt I had a wonderful bright fabric with yellows/oranges/ turqoises/blues. Because the solids weren’t quite light/bright enough, I added a couple more to liven the array.

The Original Fabrics
With Some Lights Added

I had an idea in my head based on a quilt I’d seen on Pinterest

Another HST Idea

to use the print as my background, the solids as accents, with the solid triangles formed from three strips.

This afternoon I finally got back to sewing on this quilt (I’ve been avoiding it for over a month). It didn’t take long to sew the strips for the “solid” triangles, pair each strip with a strip of background print fabric, cut the HST.

56 HST with Solids

Each strip pair gave me four blocks – I just needed to lay them out interspersing them with background blocks.

Tentative Layout 9×12 Layout

I find it very interesting that when I look at the pieces on my floor the yellows/oranges stand out, but the photo brings out the turquoises/blues! The pale yellow solid elements brighten the ensemble. The pale blues are lost among the music elements of the background. The orange solids, the burgundy stripes connect with the background print (on the floor – not so much in the photo), and the navy doesn’t do much of anything. I’m not sure I see much point in playing around with the layout – I don’t think it will make much difference to this rather drab quilt top.

My challenge now is to come up with some way to make this layout interesting. Would a solid sashing in one of the lighter yellows accomplish that? Use the background fabric for a border? What about circle appliqués (of different sizes) cut from the solids placed in some kind of cascade?

Whatever I do, it will have to involve the solids because that background fabric, which I thought would be striking is so busy when cut up, that it overpowers everything else!

Got any suggestions? I sure don’t know where to go from here.

Since I began working on the project, I’ve had a hunch I wasn’t going to be happy with the outcome. My fallback position was to assemble the array, make it into a quilt (with batting and a backing), then use it to make a jacket! Looking at the potential panel, however, I don’t think the jacket would be outstanding, either.

I hate it when the work goes sideways as it has here.

An Idea…

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Fabric with Fat Quarter Solids – Colour
In Black/White to Show Values

I was looking at the print fabric and the solid fat quarters and thinking I didn’t have “light” in my collection. So I eliminated the colour to see what my tonal contrasts looked like – not too bad, but I could use a bit more light in my colour assortment.

Also, I want to showcase the print even though, in a sense, it’s the background. I found an idea on Pinterest I thought might accomplish that for me:

You have to stretch your imagination to visualize the white above as my print fabric, and the print triangles as my solids. Even further, I’m thinking I will break up the triangle with strips from at least two different solids and include a narrow strip of the background fabric as well.

Just playing around with scrap fabric I start to get a sense of what this idea might yield:

Playing Around

Now imagine that bullrush print as my bright yellow/orange/turquoise/green fabric, those triangle elements as the bright solids above and you get a glimmer of where I think I’m heading. I have more bullrush fabric and a couple of different brown/taupe solids to add to the above – tomorrow I’ll do those and include them to the array.

There is actually a pattern for this quilt online: Lagoon Quilt Tutorial but I’m not planning on following it. The block size in the pattern is 4 1/2″ – I want to end up with 5″ or 6″ blocks (not sure which yet). My final quilt size will be more rectangular then the Baby or Lap quilts for which Erika @ KitchenTableQuilting gives dimensions. Her triangles are “solid”, mine will be striped. Lots of differences. What I’m taking from the quilt photo is the inclusion of squares from the background fabric – in my case, the foreground fabric! What I didn’t want was to bury that very interesting print amidst the solids – this way I can showcase it.

One thing stopping me from proceeding at the moment is that I don’t have enough of the print fabric. I’ve ordered some (because my local shop has none left), and I’m waiting for it to arrive! (I’m also in hold mode because my right wrist has decided to be painful – arthritis that will take a bit of time to settle down – cutting with a rotary cutter is almost impossible and I tried but can’t cut with my left hand). As soon as the fabric arrives (and my wrist settles down), I’ll get to work on this quilt.

Finished This Morning

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Qu8ilt Top
Quilt Back

I chose to complete this quilt with a facing/hidden binding (mitred corners) and did the hand stitched blind hem on the quilt back this morning.

The quilting took just three days – that’s because I elected to quilt the top in 4-block squares. That meant each row had to have a half design (because the top was constructed with 9 columns). I decided to stagger the quilting blocks so the half block elements alternated from one side to the other – half using the right side of the design, the other half using the left. Nobody but me will ever notice. All anyone looking at the quilt will see is the fact that it is quilted! I chose thread to match the background fabric on top; the bottom thread matches the blue/grey background fabric – same weight Wonderfil variegated, just a different colour. I embroidered the standard label I always use in a dark navy blue – I usually mute it to blend in but decided this time to make it stand out!

[BTW, no dragonflies, no embroidery – in the end I decided to let the circles be the focus of the work. In the photo you can see the colour and density change from bottom to top of the quilt – which was intentional.] I pieced the quilt back from scraps left over from the quilt top.

I was showing this quilt (top finished but not quilted) one evening last week to two friends when I realized if I build my next quilt using some version of half-square triangles, that would allow me to pull four-five quilts from my collection to go with it – my Parrsboro showing coming summer could become a collection of quilts created from half-square triangles! Each quilt would be seen differently because the HST theme would provide a new context. So now to think about block sizes and ways of combining the main fabric with the solids so the solids don’t take over the quilt – I want to showcase the print!

The print is Eclectic Elements – Abandoned (Rusted Patina) by Tim Holtz for Free Spirit. What grabbed me about the fabric was the rich colour pallet in yellow/oranges and turquoise/greens. When I pulled the solid fat quarters from a nearby box (conveniently at hand on the table in the shop) and laid them on the print the whole came alive. I figure there has to be a way to use the solids so they create a background and the print becomes the dominant feature (rather than the other way around – which is what I fear may happen)! My idea is this: start by cutting 4 1/2″ strips from the print, then cut 2 1/2″ strips from the matching solids, sew them together in pairs, then create a tube from the print strip and the two solids strips, from which I can then cut half-square triangles! I may want to subdivide the solids even further before I pair them with the print – to break up the concentration of solid colour….

I need to play with this idea using scraps to see what actually happens!

Appliqué Edge Stitching – Done

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Quilt Top
Detail 2
Detail 2

It took two days, but I did get all 87 circles edge-stitched. What with changing thread colour, selecting and modifying different stitches the process was tedious. The large circles are relatively easy because I can keep the raw edge aligned with the centre mark on the open-toe foot I prefer to use; but the smaller the circle, the harder it is to keep the stitching precisely on the edge. On the whole I did a reasonable job although I did unpick the stitching on two of the circles – in the first instance I didn’t like the stitch I had chosen, in the second I wasn’t as accurate as I wanted to be; both undoing operations took considerable time.

Now my challenge is to decide whether to add some embroidery or not:

With 260×260 embroidery hoop as guide

The largest embroidery I can do easily would be using the 260×260 hoop – to go larger would involve the Grand Dream hoop (360×350) which I have to rotate in order to embroider a complete design (always a risky move because the two halves don’t always align precisely).

Here’s the problem – so I embroider a design partly over one or more circles using a placement like I’ve shown – not too dense a design so that it overtakes what I’ve done so far. I think I’d even add the batting at this point to give the embroidery some substance. However, I still need to embroider the whole quilt surface, including over the top of any embroidery and that, I know would make the whole effort muddy. I could add small clusters of dragonflies in a few strategic spots:

They’re not too dense, and might add an interesting bit of detail, although I’m not sure they’d show up against the darker print fabrics!

I’m probably better off leaving the top as it is, setting up the quilt sandwich and just quilting the whole thing!

At the moment the top is sitting on my cutting table while I ponder what to do now.

Yesterday, to do something productive while thinking about where to go next with the quilt, I took three pair of corduroy pants I made at least 10 years ago (which I’d put at the back of my closet last winter because they were too small at the waist and I was too lazy to do anything with them), and added long elastic gussets to each side.

The gussets had to be deep and wide enough to allow the fly front zipper to close. I serged the edges of the 6″ elastic inserts, then overlock-stitched the raw corduroy edges to the elastic using one of the overlock stitches on my embroidery machine. The whole process – removing the elastic I’d previously inserted into just the waistband, extending the cut 2″ below the front pocket opening, serging the elastic inserts, and stitching them in place – took about 20 minutes for each pair of pants. I’m wearing one of them today!

The idea comes from Kathy Ruddy who describes how to create elastic inserts in new pants. I’ve provided Kathy’s instructions previously: https://jmncreativeendeavours.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/elastic-inserts.pdf – it’s not all that difficult to do as a modification on already made pants (whether I’ve made them myself, or bought them and adjusted them to fit).

What amazes me is that my pants continue to fit everywhere except at the waist and belly. As my large “tummy” gets larger, I need to extend the top 6″ or so of my pants but the rest continues to fit reasonably well. It might be useful to revisit that original pattern (if I can figure out which version it might be – I usually date each modification) and try it out again using a “full tummy adjustment“. Let you know how that goes!

Meanwhile it’s back to working on the quilt.

Circles – A Tentative Layout

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Lots Of Circles

I spent much of the morning cutting out circles – 5″, 4″, 3.5″, 3″, 2.5″, 2″ & 1.5″. They still have the fusible web paper on the back, nothing here is permanent yet.

I’ve tried creating a gradient from dark on the bottom right to light on the top left – that seems to be working quite well. I’ve also made the layout denser toward the bottom, less dense toward the top. I’m more or less happy with how this has laid out – next step will be to pin each circle in position.

This is only part of the design – my intention is to do 3-5 largish circular embroideries in strategic spots. I also spent time this morning going through my large collection of embroidery designs selecting circular/floral embroideries that might enhance the quilt further.

Flower
Starburst
Sunflower
Freeform Flower
Starburst 2

These are but a few of the embroideries I have in the folder – I think I’m actually leaning toward the “Freeform Flower” – I have five different versions of that one which may make the final project feel more “modern”. If I go that route, I will have to edit the embroideries for size and likely add a third outline stitching in another colour.

I’m giving myself a day to walk around the circle placement before I fuse them in place and then I will tackle the embroidery challenge.

Quilt Top – Assembled

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108 Blocks Assembled

I just finished sewing all 108 blocks together – they need a bit more pressing but I’m now ready to move on to the next step – adding contrasting circles and embroidery to make this a double layer quilt. Later this afternoon, I’ll add fusible web to the back of my pile of blue fabric scraps and begin cutting out circles in many different sizes to fuse to the top.

I’ve already spend a couple of hours looking through my embroidery design collection for circular shaped embroideries – I’ve put several in a folder so I can locate them later. They’ll all need modifying for size and included elements. It takes a lot of time!

The assembly of the quilt top went reasonably quickly – I didn’t pin each row to the growing top – I find my nestings aren’t as accurate if I do; I start at one end, match up the first nesting, hold it firmly against my machine bed with my right index finger as I stitch toward my finger/the join. I take a stitch or two past the join then align the next nesting, holding it firmly with my index finger as I stitch my 1/4″ seam toward that nesting point. I do that with each segment. When I flip and press that row open my joins/nestings are almost all dead on.

There are some small inaccuracies – the original cutting of the blocks may be a smidgeon inaccurate, the HST diagonals may be a very tiny bit off the corner, my seams may be a thread width from exactly 1/4″ in spots, etc. All those very small variations add up – that’s quilting for you! But if you look closely, my joins are pretty close and when when I’ve added the circles/embroidery and quilt the whole project, nobody but me is going to notice the “background” seam joins.

Thursday, I taught a “bargello” class – about using strips sewn together, the panel then cut in strips of different widths, these new strips are sewn together to create a “wave” – this involves lots of nesting of seams.

2 Bargello Blocks

The two blocks came from one of the two sets of WOF strips I created for a demonstration piece. I’m not going to make the second two blocks – I don’t need another table runner I’m not going to use. I could give it away, but this two block piece will go into my “demonstration” projects box along with the remaining set of strips which I can use on another occasion when I’m teaching “bargello” again.

Both women in the class were nervous about sewing nested seams – there’s lots of practice in this project and in fact they’re easy to do – also without pinning. The joins are actually more accurate, I find, if I just align each new nesting as I go along, one at a time. The whole block assembles surprisingly quickly.

I could have joined the two blocks end-to-end, with the yellow centre blocks pointing in the same direction; I could have aligned them side by side with the yellow centres both pointing toward the opposite side. I chose to alternate them – to make my join I added two narrow strips to each block to bring the yellow back to the edge on each side. I probably should have made the join using the widest strip on each block but one of my wide strips wasn’t cut accurately – I only had one I could use – so I cut it in half!

This is, after all, a demonstration piece.

Appliqué Circles?

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I dug out my stash of circles with fusible web and selected the blue and grey in whatever size I had and dropped them over the blocks. This tells me several things

  • I want a few circles larger than the largest I have here
  • I want to graduate my distribution from bottom right (darkest) to upper left (less dense and lightest)
  • I want greater density and more sizes of circles in the lower right
  • I will edge stitch the circles – what I don’t know yet is whether I also want to include some embroidery along with the appliqué – I think it may be a good idea – not much, but circles of some sort embroidered with blue threads
  • I’m trying to focus on something happening in the foreground rather than on the background quilt design

It’s time to start assembling the quilt top!

Makin’ Progress

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I spent the weekend working on the latest quilt top – 108 6″ blocks (9 x 12) – 12 unpieced squares, 96 half-square triangles. Earlier in the week I cut the fabric into strips, then into squares, matching 48 squares with 48 background pieces, marked the diagonal. That’s where I stopped on Tuesday. Yesterday and today I sewed 1/4″ each side of the diagonal line, cut along the diagonal, pressed and trimmed the HST blocks.

The 8th Iteration of this Layout!

I’ve opted for maximum symmetry in this layout – at the same time doing my best to distribute the star centres as well as making sure all six fabrics are represented in the assembled on-point blocks with a decent distribution of fabrics on the periphery! That’s meant a lot of moving individual and sets of HST multiple times. (I just noticed in the photo that the direction of the background print isn’t consistent! You won’t see it but I can. I’ll have to try swapping blocks within each set to correct that!)

This is the layout at the moment. I realize nobody but me is going to notice the “clashes/repititions” that stand out for me. Besides, once I have the top stitched together, I’m thinking about appliqué of some sort in various dark purple/blue small prints (that will draw attention away from the overall fabric distribution beneath). I have no idea whether that should be circles of various sizes, or small diamonds (some of which might overlap), triangles? I’ve pulled several scraps

from various boxes and laid them out together. Until I assemble the top I won’t know what might work and what won’t. I have still more boxes to rummage through – I’ll do that tomorrow.

I’m finally moving on a quilt again. I’ll have time tomorrow and Wednesday afternoon to chain piece blocks together but before I do that I do want to check the layout at least one more time!

———-

I just took a careful look at the background triangles. I knew the background fabric had a directionality to it but I wasn’t aware of how it was going to play out.

The right leaning diagonals have the subtle background stripe horizontal; the left leaning diagonals have the background strip vertical. I looked carefully – they’re all like that. The background pattern is so subtle nobody’s going to notice it but me! Can’t change any of them! Interesting outcome. Completely unanticipated.

A New Quilt

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Haven’t worked on a quilt in months but I’m feeling pressure to get one going – I’ll want to show in Parrsboro again next summer and I will need at least six new quilts for that (plus a bunch of smaller creations!).

It’s not that I have no fabric! I have more fabric than I will ever use but when I visited Heidi Wulfraat’s Woolworks last Thursday, I couldn’t resist picking up some Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.

Eight Yummy Large-Scale Prints!

When I came home I dug into my KFC collection and came up with several more pieces

Next I looked in the Grunge Box – lots there

TOO MANY CHOICES! I was trying to figure out how to use all of these fabrics in a single quilt top. I considered diamonds, triangles, appliquéd circles, freeform appliqué. I slept on it but woke with no idea what to do with all this fabric. I looked through my Pinterest idea collection: Modern quilts, Quilts, Diamond quilts – over the years I’ve saved lots of pictures. Nothing called out. I then looked through photos of quilts I’ve made in the past. In order to start something I decided to revisit a quilt I made in April 2014:

This quilt was based on an idea I’d found on Pinterest, Yusef’s Quilt: Ribbon Star – it seems this 9-patch block (a traditional block) is called “Ribbon Quilt Block”. The intention of this 9-patch is to use a background fabric that creates “ribbon” sections that connect colourful 4-point stars.

My next challenge was to come up with a background fabric – I chose a “cork” textured print in a pale grey to complement and contrast with the reds/pinks of the large scale prints. 

6 1/2″ Blocks
Background/Print Ready To Sew on Diagonal

I’ve got all the prep work done. To make a 9 x 12 quilt I need 108 6″ squares – 12 are 6″ large scale prints (I’m using 2 of each print fabric), 96 are HST (half square triangles) constructed by pairing a 6 1/2″ backing square with a 6 1/2″ large print square, sewing 1/4″ beside the marked diagonal on each side, then cutting on the diagonal and trimming – creating two 6″ HST blocks. 

That’s where I am today. I’ll pick this up tomorrow and start sewing the HST. I’ll chain piece each stack; it won’t take long.