Quilt Dots Blog Tour

CHECK OUT THE QUILT DOTS PATTERN PARADE BLOG TOUR!

FREE PRIZES BEING GIVEN AWAY EACH DAY!!

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog on the Quilt Dots Pattern Parade Blog Tour!  Quilt Dots is giving away a Rahna Summerlin Collection of Quilt Dots and 5 Bookmarks of Your Choice, value $75.  In addition,  I will be giving away two yards of beautiful Falling Rose fabric from the Sugar Hill line by Tanya Whelan of Free Spirit Fabrics.  If you follow the link to find out more about free prizes, it will tell you how you can win.  Also, if you would like to place an order for a set, go here to place your order. 

Thank you for stopping by and Good Luck!!

Happy Easter & Blog Tour

Happy Easter!  Happy Spring!

May all of you have a wonderful holiday on this Easter Sunday!

Zappy Dots Blog Tour

Thank you, Kim, at Zappy Dots, for including my blog in their Blog Tour this week!!  My blog is scheduled for the tour for tomorrow, Monday the 21st.  Welcome to all of you that are stopping by to check out my quilts!  I appreciate you taking the time to linger and comment!

Here are is a link to see the other blogs on the tour:  http://zappydots.com/quiltdotsblog/category/pattern-parade-blog-tour.  There is one each day this week, so make sure you check it out and see what prizes are being given away!

Quilting Cables

This is going to be a long one, sorry!  But in order to get the point across, this post required lots of pictures and I didn't have anyone nearby to video a tutorial, so sit back and enjoy, if possible!  If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen some pictures of my postage stamp quilt with quilted cables in the borders.  This has raised several questions as to how I do this.  Most people thought this was done with free-motion quilting, but IT IS NOT!  This is all done with a walking foot, it's do-able for the beginner, you can do this on your home sewing machine with the proper accessories, and the results are worth the extra effort.

I strive for a pretty traditional look in my quilts and in my quilting.  I really love the LOOK of hand-quilted quilts, particularly antique Amish quilts.  When I started quilting way back when, I tried hand-quilting ONCE, and that was enough!  But I didn't want to quilt my quilts just any ole way, I wanted them to have a "finished" look, almost like they are antiques themselves.  So I did a lot of straight line quilting, read several machine quilting books that were out at the time, and really studied antique quilts and how they were quilted.

Cables in borders appeared again and again.  After thinking about it, I thought it couldn't be that difficult to do with a walking foot, it's basically a continuous line with gentle curves.  And I still had not jumped into free-motion quilting at this point, I was never happy with my results and was too impatient to practice or sacrifice a quilt top.  But after my first quilt that I quilted cables in the border, I was hooked.  It looked almost hand-quilted and I loved the look.  And best of all, it was easy to do.



So to make this easy to understand, I tried to photograph the process I go through while I quilted Forty-Nine Cents.  I do mark all of my lines I intend to quilt with a water soluble blue marker.  I've been using these markers for over 20 years and never had issues with them not coming out.  I also WASH all of my quilts as soon as they are quilted, so this gives me peace of mind that I know the marker doesn't have enough time to set in the fabric and become permanent.  And I quilt a top as soon as I mark it, I don't let it sit around for weeks or months.

Basting is also critical and I do pin-baste.  Every one has a variation on the technique, but my method is based on Harriet Hargrave's method in her book, Heirloom Machine Quilting.  I use an old folding table, clamp the backing fabric to it first, then lay the batting over it and then the top.  I am very careful to keep everything smooth and pin fairly close together.  When I finish basting, I check my backing for pleats or puckers.  Now is the time to correct them and repin if necessary!  Otherwise they will just get quilted in permanently later.



I mostly do some variation of grid quilting, channel quilting, or other combination of straight lines in the main body of the quilt.  The above pictures show how I package the quilt to feed it into the machine.  The walking foot does most of the work but I do support the front so that it doesn't drag on the needle.  This part is just a matter of sewing along the lines.  I remove the surrounding pins as I go and after each line is sewn.

In this photo above, I am done quilting the lines in the center of the quilt and am ready to start on the borders.  This quilt has an inner border with a smaller, tighter cable, a pieced border with straight line channel quilting, and an outer border with a larger, gently curved cable.  I approach everything from the center, working out to the edge, or from left to right.  For a beginner, until you have done several quilts with cables, I would suggest only doing them on the outer most border at first until you get the hang of it.

Every brand of sewing machine is different, so talk to your dealer about what will work for you regarding a walking foot and a single hole throat plate.  It can be an investment, but if this is something that you think you will do, it's worth the money spent.

I set my ironing board directly to the left of where I am sitting.  At this stage, the quilt isn't packaged like it was when I was sewing the straight lines.  The ironing board helps support the excess to the left and gives me a larger flat surface so the quilt doesn't hang down the front of my counter.

 

The cables on this quilt happen to wrap around the corners.  Sometimes I use cables that run off the edge of the quilt, it just depends.  But in this case, I want to start in a seamline so that my starts and stops are hidden.  Here I am pulling up the bobbin thread to the top of the quilt.

Once I pull both the top and bobbin threads off to the side, I put the needle in the DOWN position right in that seamline.  The needle must stay in the down position throughout because this does require raising and lowering the presser foot.

Since I needed two hands to photograph, I placed my Machingers quilting gloves on the quilt so you can get an idea of where I position my hands.  Please note that BEFORE I start sewing on this line, I removed the first safety pin!  I usually keep pins in until I am actually sewing in the immediate area.

Here is another shot that shows an overall view of where my hands are in relation to the rest of the quilt.  Keep in mind, this is fairly slow sewing, very unlike free-motion.  I am using my hands almost like I would if I was free-motion quilting, palms flat, and guiding the quilt under the needle, following the line.  On a tighter cable such as this one in the innermost border, it required me to raise and lower the presser foot fairly often to get around the curves.  If you have ever machine-appliqued around circles or shapes, it's the same idea.  The larger cables allow for a little more speed, but for me, it's not about how fast I can quilt, it's about the finished look in the end.

The other thing that takes a little time is you will constantly have to arrange, rearrange, and adjust the position of the rest of the body of the quilt, especially when you are sewing a cable that wraps around the four borders.  You are sewing one cable line at a time, all the way around the four sides each time.

Here I have ended the first line of quilting.  I left enough thread to triple knot both pairs, the beginning threads and the ending threads, and then threaded each pair onto a crewel needle, one pair at a time, and buried the threads in between the layers.  I bury the threads at the end of each line of stitching as I progress, it makes it much easier than doing them all at once when you are finished. 

These pictures show how I am progressing to each line, one at a time, working from left to right.

And here I have completed all the quilting!  At this point I am so happy to be done, I can't wait to get it trimmed, squared, and in the wash next. 

After trimming off the excess from the edges of the quilt, I run the edge of the entire quilt through a serger (overlock machine).  You could also do a zigzag or similar stitch.  YES, I do wash my quilt BEFORE I put the binding on.  And of course, I don't want the edges to ravel and fray in the wash.  Plus this gives me a nice flat edge for binding.  The main reason I wash it first before binding is that I want the quilt and batting to shrink and do all its puckering beforehand.  Afterwards, I put on the hanging sleeve, the binding and the label and because I've already washed the quilt, these will remain smooth and flat and do not pucker if I wash the quilt later.  This is critical for quilts that compete in shows.  Judges don't like to see puckered or bumpy bindings!

And here are some shots of the finished quilt. . . 

Below are some pictures of cable stencils and photocopies of stencils I've altered to get a certain size and repeat to fit specific borders.  Depending on the border, sometimes I use a stencil and mark the quilt directly through it and other times I use a photocopy underneath the quilt top and trace it.

 

 And here are a few additional pictures of borders below.  The possibilities are endless!

Well, I hope that will inspire a few of you to try this yourselves.  Just remember, start with something small and simple to get the hang of it.  It's really easy and the effects are pretty impressive.  Feel free to ask me questions, I'm sure I've left out something!  Happy Quilting!!

2/3/2015 UPDATE:  PLEASE SEE MY POST ON HOW I MARK QUILTS FOR MORE INFO ON WATER SOLUBLE PENS AS WELL AS INFO ON STENCILS.  THANK YOU!

3/30/2017 UPDATE:  PLEASE SEE MY POST ON HOW TO FIT CABLES ON A BORDER FOR MORE INFO.

Forty-Nine Cents Postage

Just thought I'd post a quick quilt update to show my progress on my postage stamp quilt top.  I finally got the borders completed since I showed you last time around.  It almost seemed like the pieced border took longer than the center of the quilt!  It must be due to the fact I was really anxious to get this top completed!  This was all pieced one square at a time, a little more time consuming than strip-piecing, but I'm very happy with the result.  (No pattern available.)

There is an outer white border, too, it's a bit hard to see in the photos.  I am still learning when it comes to lighting and photography.  I don't have the proper lights in my studio for taking pictures, so you're seeing varied ranges of grays and yellows when you should be seeing white! 

Next, I plan on marking the quilt and then quilting it very soon.  I will do a lot of cross-hatch quilting and maybe a cable or two in the borders.  My stack of quilt tops is piling up and so it's time to motivate myself to start to tackle some of them and finally get them quilted.

 When I work on a quilt, I play around with titles for it, trying to come up with something a little creative and original that ties to the quilt and also to what might be going on in my life at the time.  I came up with "Forty-Nine Cents" for this quilt, which I think is appropriate since the cost of postage went up while I was making it!

I did have a nice little surprise this week in the mail.  The catalog for the International Quilt Festival in Chicago arrived.  Since I have no plans on going to Chicago this year, I had just tossed the catalog in my pile of junk mail to throw away without ever opening it.

But at the last minute, something told me to open the catalog and when I did, I was so surprised to find my quilt, Fish Scraps, featured inside!  This quilt has gotten some mileage and has done more travelling than I have, it seems.  It is one of two of my quilts that is in the "In the American Tradition" exhibit that is being show at the Quilt Festival shows this year.

And one more bit of good news. . . .my foot has healed and I won't be needing surgery, so I am thrilled about that!  I can now go shoe shopping!  Hooray!

Happy Creating!



One Square at a Time

No, not MIA, but definitely been crazy busy!  This is a quick post on my day off just to show a current work in progress.

                                

I've been a bit obsessed about using up a bin full of 1 1/2" strips I had cut, it seems like there were thousands of them.  You know how they tend to multiply?  Originally they were cut for another quilt, which I showed a peek of back in November, my star quilt that I did.  Even though I used up a lot of strips on that one, there are still way too many left over just to put away and forget about.

So I've been sewing here and there when I am not stuck at work (we own our own business, not always a fun thing!) and it sure seems I have been working way more than sewing!  Anyway, one quilt I've always loved and have never made was a true postage stamp, you know, like the antique ones we all drool over?  Just random little dots of color everywhere, no real planning or thinking, just easy sewing, perfect for letting your mind wander and dream.

So here are the results so far, and no, this is NOT strip-pieced.  This is put together the good ole-fashioned way, one little square at a time.  Not at all as tedious as I anticipated and it goes much faster than I expected.  I made 10 x 10 blocks of one-inch (finished) squares on point, then sewed it all together.  This isn't huge at this point, only about 44" x 58", but I am getting ready to lay out borders for it next.  One border will be pieced with more little squares and the other borders will most likely be solid white.  I like a clean vintage look and I think that is what all this busyness needs.  (No pattern available.)

That is some of the barkcloth I have hanging in my studio in the background, one of my obsessions.  I love that stuff!  But unfortunately prices have gotten so high, I can't justify buying it like I used to, not that I really need another piece!  But it inspires a lot of the colors I use in my quilts and in my house in general, I can't get enough of those pretty vintage colors.

And besides dealing with normal work and life stuff and the challenges they present, I've also been hobbling around on this latest footwear the last several weeks. . . . ignore the dog hair that is attached to it!

Isn't it pretty?  The latest in Spring fashion footwear. . . and no, complaining does not get me sympathy!  So I've been sucking it up.  Apparently I fractured a bone in the ball of my foot, not really sure how, but I am now wearing this for a total of eight weeks and trying not to go the surgery route.  At least it is my left foot and not my right sewing/driving foot, so. . .it could be worse, as they say.

On that note, hope you all have survived this horrible cold and snowy winter so far.  I know it must be pretty awful for some of you.  Stay safe and warm and happy sewing!



World Quilt Show at West Palm Beach, FL

I will wish everyone a Happy January since I guess it's too late to say Happy New Year! 

I have recently taken a few weeks hiatus from most forms of media as much as possible to force myself to focus on being more productive with my spare time.  It's difficult enough to make time to create when we work at regular jobs, not to mention the time that ordinary tasks of day to day life consume.  I think that it is too tempting to get distracted by so many outside influences nowadays. I find myself "innocently" wasting a few minutes here and there checking out social media, a favorite tv show, surfing the web, etc. and suddenly realize these few minutes amount to several hours a week.  I wind up spending the little spare time I do have checking out what "others" are doing or creating, instead of spending my time creating for myself.  So my resolution this year was to really try to focus on doing less "time wasting" and more time being productive, being creative and pursuing my interests and personal goals.  It's not easy.  It's like trying to give up sugar or a favorite food!  You want to taste it all!

 A couple of weekends ago I attended the World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, FL, about three hours south of us.  My quilt above, Color My World, was entered into the competition, which was open to Florida quilters only.  I thought I would show a few of the quilts from the show.  These are in no particular order, just a few quilts I thought were interesting.  And I apologize for poor photo quality, these were taken with my iPhone and the lighting in the convention center was pretty horrible.  But there should be enough here to give you a bit of inspiration.

 "Out of the Loop" by Eyvonne Smith of Jensen Beach, FL.  Won Judge's Choice.

 "Bluebirds" by Laura Ruiz of Malabar, FL.  Won Best Pictorial Quilt.

 "A Taste of Sunshine" by Deb Crine of Marco Island, FL.  Won Best Machine Workmanship.

 "Medallion" by Loretta C. Sylvester of Palm Coast, FL.

The quilts below were part of an exhibit of antique quilt tops that had been quilted recently by various longarm quilters.  Most are from the 1930s, which is one of my favorite periods for antique quilts.  These were some of my favorites for various reasons.  I neglected to get the names of the quilters for these quilts, sorry!

And this quilt below was part of the World Quilt exhibit.  I found it to be very unusual and intriguing.

 "Shattered Face Quilt" by Kathryn Harmer Fox of East London, South Africa was made using a pile of leftover scraps and miscellaneous fibers.  They are embedded on a canvas background with scribble stitch, free-motion embroidery and quilting.  It was really interesting to look at up close.

Hopefully you all are staying warm in whatever part of the country, or world, you live in.  We are having our own share of near freezing temperatures here in central Florida with the low tonight at 33 degrees.  And we are hearing that it's supposed to stay this cold for the next couple of days.  If you ever want to hear people complain about cold weather, this is the place!  Yes, we are spoiled!  I don't mind it for a day here and there but after a couple of days in a row, I am ready for the mild 70s again.  But I'm sure many of you are probably wishing for temperatures in the low 30s, considering so much of the country is below freezing right now.  I guess this is a perfect time to curl up under those warm quilts!  Stay warm everyone!