Showing posts with label Edward's quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edward's quilt. Show all posts

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Pets on Proust

Pets on Quilts on Proust

Over at Lily Pad Quilting it's time for the annual Pets on Quilts party. In the "cats on quilts" category, this is one of my quilts, "Black and White and Read all Over," with my sister's well-read cats, Olive and Wilma. And a little Marcel Proust for good measure!












Wilma


"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes."





Olive

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."




The link up is in preview mode now. Click here to view all the other entries. Then come back on August 21 to vote for your favourite!

Many thanks to my sister for rising to the occasion and working for two days to get these two "spontaneous and natural" photos!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Finally Finished!

Black, White and Read All Over, 64" x 64"
Edward's quilt is finally finished! Started in November 2010, the flimsy was finished and the quilt was basted in 2012. I started the quilting on my old machine, which had to be taken for repair and cleaning twice during the process. And it still wasn't until I got my new machine this spring that I managed to finish the quilting.

It is straight line quilted:


I like quilting double lines like this, because it fools the eye into thinking the lines are straighter than they are!

In the close up you can see that all the fabrics have some kind of kanji script, either real or imaginary. So theoretically, you could "read" the quilt. Hence the title:


You can see the label was optimistically stitched in 2012, lol! The design is from Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles Times Two book. She sews the label to the back before it is quilted, which I tried here as well. I worried about it catching during the machine quilting, but it didn't. With all the problems I did have on this quilt, the label wasn't one of them.

The backing is a new flannel sheet that I got on sale. It really was too heavy for my old machine, but the new machine handled it fine. I like the masculine Buffalo check!

So, Edward's quilt is my second finished flimsy, and my second finished quilt. While we were out taking photos, I took a better picture of Nine Patch Jubilee as well. That was my third finished flimsy, and first finished quilt:


Where is flimsy number one, you ask? LOL. Packed away. Maybe I will get it out some day, maybe not.

Anyway, it feels great to finally have this one done. I even have a 3" scar on my forearm from one of the basting pins that came open when I started the quilting in 2012! But it's fading...

Best of all, now I have room for a new project in my sewing area! Home Sweet Home will get the nod, I think.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

New Machine!!

I've had my eye on this sewing machine since another Ontario quilter whose work I admire recommended it to me. A couple weeks ago I finally had the chance to drive up to That Sewing Place in Newmarket and give it a good trial. Needless to say, it came home with me after that! Isn't it beautiful?


You can see that my sewing table had a previous incarnation as a paint studio. But never mind, the machine is the Brother 1500S, which is a single stitch, high speed sewing machine. It has everything I want, including a needle down function and lots of workspace, and nothing I don't want, like a bunch of fancy stitches I'll never use. My old Janome still works well for those times I'll need the zig zag stitch. Although I am starting to think that will not be too often!

I was very lucky that the owner of the store, Jaret, who is an expert on this machine, was there to give me a complete lesson. Once I got home I was able to get it all threaded and set up without even cracking open the manual. It also comes with an extension table and a knee lift, which are not shown in the photo.

LOL!

So far I've used it to piece the flannel parts of my snowmen blocks, I've done a little free motion quilting on the Homegrown placemats, and I've done some straight line quilting with the walking foot on Edward's quilt. It is really nice. When you get the free motion up to speed, the fabric positively glides under the needle. And the humongous walking foot is making easy work of Edward's wretched quilt. Plus, the machine will hold a full sized thread cone, which I really love.

So, no more excuses! I have a back log of projects that need quilting. Some are so old and long forgotten that I thought I'd post some photos with my to do list:

Homegrown kitchen set -- a little more FMQ in the centres and these will be ready for binding.
Edward's quilt -- long, long, long overdue, the straight line quilting on this quilt has been an ongoing nightmare. I used a new flannel sheet for the backing and the fluff goes everywhere, and it just keeps getting hung up for no apparent reason on my old machine. But the new machine copes beautifully!
It's Warm Inside -- I have some FMQ and an experimental quilting in sections technique to try on this one.
Hen Party -- I almost sent this out for quilting, but I had my own ideas that I wanted to try too. Now I can!
Highlands Houses -- my latest idea is to quilt this all over in a small clamshell pattern. I hope I can pull it off. :)
Spring Planting (aka the yoyo quilt) -- I think I finally have a way to quilt this monster. The yoyos make it very fat!

Since my WIP list has grown again, it seems appropriate to link up to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network. Here's to a decent list of finishes in 2014!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Finished Flimsy

At my guild Rouge Valley they call unquilted tops "floppies" or "flimsies."  Do they do that where you live?  I had never heard it before.  I think flimsy is a pretty cute word, so I am adopting it.  It's much more fun than "top."

So the flimsy for Edward's quilt is finally finished!  Here it is:


This is not the first flimsy I've finished.  The last one was in the late 90s, and by the time it was done it was such a disaster that I couldn't bring myself to spend any more time or money on it.  The fabrics are pretty, but the blocks were all different sizes, and I had to adjust the width of the sashings just to get it all together.  And then I ran out of sashing fabric...  It was intended to be a scrap quilt, but it was just TOO scrappy by the end.  I still have it though, so you may see it some day.  I am keeping it for free motion quilting practice.

Edward's quilt has been a totally different story.  I did not measure the whole quilt until I had the white inner border on.  At first I thought I was a couple of inches off!  But then I realized that my math was faulty, not my sewing, and in fact it was almost exactly 52.5 inches.  At most an eighth inch too big.  That was very gratifying!  It made my day.  I really feel now like I have got the hang of this.

The one piece of advice that has made all the difference to me was something Alex Anderson said in an early episode of The Quilt Show.  She recommended that we practice our 1/4 inch seams until they are perfect.  Cut, sew, press and measure until the finished piece measures exactly what it is supposed to.  This was a surprising process for me, but it only took about an hour and a few squares of ugly fabric to get it right.  And boy has it paid off!  Thank you Alex!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Schnibbles Times Two

I have been thinking that I may make Fridays "Book Review Day."  I can think of quite a few books I'd like to review, so we'll see how it goes.

Today I am featuring Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles Times Two, quilts from 5" or 10" squares (Martingale & Company, 2010). 



This is the first Schnibbles book, and I gather it has been so popular that she has done another.  The premise is that the quilts can be made entirely from 5" and 10" precut squares, such as the Moda layer cakes.  Sometimes yardage of the background fabric is also needed, as well as binding and backing.

Each of the twelve designs is done twice, in two sizes, one for 5" squares and one for 10" squares.  This also gives you two colourways of each quilt for inspiration.  The small quilts are about 30" square, and the large ones are over 60" square.  I am just realizing that almost all the quilts ARE square.  I tend to prefer square quilts, so that may be part of the appeal for me.

But there are many things I like about this book.  The designs are simple and graphic, for the most part, and easy enough for a confident beginner.  The rotary cutting and quick-piecing instructions are excellent, and the quilts will go together quickly.  Special care is taken with ironing the seam allowances so that everything fits together perfectly.

The quilt I am making for Edward (I just have the last border left now) is based on the McGuffey pattern from this book:


I did not use precut squares for Edward's quilt, and the great thing about this book is that you don't have to.  You can certainly use yardage or fabric from your stash instead.  They are great patterns for scraps.

I am giving serious thought to making this quilt as well:


These are like half snowball blocks.  The quick piecing instructions for this quilt are very clever, so I am keen to try it.  I can see kind of a leaf pattern in there, and I think if I play it up with green fabrics and leafy quilting, it would make a great summer quilt for our living room.

So, I highly recommend this book!  5 out of 5 stars.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Another Change of Plans

Yesterday I was sitting and looking at Edward's quilt, which I had laid out with its border options, and thinking about my plans for quilting it.  I've gone through several different plans over the year that it's been a UFO.  Most of them involved some basic free-motion quilting.  Recently though, I decided to back it with a flannel sheet so it would be warmer and hopefully more practical in their cold basement where they watch tv.

The flannel sheet, though, will make the quilt sandwich much bulkier, and I doubted my ability to free motion quilt it in my old machine with it's 7" throat.  I decided to use the walking foot instead and quilt it in diamonds, which is a slightly industrial look that I quite like.  Looking at the top, I felt pretty confident about fitting it in my machine.

But then I started to think about Sedona Star, which is projected to be 88" square.  I really want some fairly elaborate machine quilting on it, I think it just calls for beautiful swirls and feathers.  I was prepared to do the practice needed to bring my skills up to par, but looking at my machine today I think I will be expecting too much.  A small quilt, sure, but not 88".

So, I have folded and decided to send it out for quilting when it's done.  There is a really good long arm quilter whose work I've seen in shows west of the city.  I will have to look into how much it might cost for her to really take her time and do a nice job.

This also means that putting myself in knots about doing the applique by hand is no longer necessary.  I guess I will be reconsidering my approach this weekend!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Auditioning Borders for Edward's Quilt

Two days ago I realized that I really, really want to finish something before I start Sedona Star.  I think I have enough balls in the air!  Edward's quilt was the closest to completion, so I've been making a big push on it. 

The last time I had it out I was really stressed with it.  The seams wouldn't line up, and I had to unpick a couple of times, which I hate.  I literally had to shake off the tension every time I sewed a seam.  It was nuts.

Since then though, I've been working on my nine patches, which have been going together so well, and they must have totally shifted my vibe.  When I went back to Edward's quilt the problems had vanished.  A friend of mine always says "a rising tide raises all boats."  I think those nine patches have been worth gold to me!

So today I finished joining the centre blocks and started to think about the border.  I'd already decided not to use my inspiration fabric because the wine-coloured circles will clash too much.  I decided to use this batik with the large white kanji instead:


When I first laid it out it was so busy that it made me a little nauseous!  It looks better with the red binding fabric over the edge, but I think it is still too much.  Fortunately, I found a yard of this quieter fabric in my box too:


I think that will be much better.  I also fiddled around with the red cornerstones.  There are four different reds in the quilt, and I thought about putting one in each corner.  But I definitely want to bind it in the red you see here, and I thought the red fabrics might clash more when they are right beside each other rather than scattered around the quilt.  I did think that putting just this one fabric in all four corners would be nice:


This fabric has the characters for "peace" and "good fortune" and similar good wishes, which I thought would be a nice sentiment.  I am still on the fence, because the two reds are a little off, although they are closer than they look in the photo once again.  I do kind of think that the second option, where the corners and the binding all match, might be too perfect, if you know what I mean.  We will see how it goes tomorrow.  My plan is to have the top finished before I start my Sabbath at 6 pm!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Edward's quilt



Here is my progress so far on Edward's quilt.  Edward is my brother-in-law, and this quilt started as sort of a "thought challenge."  Edward is a very urban guy, not at all country, and not a big fan of a lot of colour either.  So all the usual men's quilts that you see, with moose or fish or tractors, would not at all be appropriate.  He is a snowboarder, but I knew that wouldn't be right for their uptown house either.  I wondered if it would even be possible to design a quilt he would like.

I decided on a black, white and taupe colour scheme, and started to search my go-to website, eQuilter.  When I found this fabric, I started to have the germ of the idea:



The Asian warriors were sufficiently "manly" without being kitschy.  Edward and my sister met in a Tae Kwon Do class, so that was appropriate too.  This fabric will be the border, although I am now a little worried that the wine coloured circles will clash with the brighter Chinese red of the other fabrics.  So many of the co-ordinates that I found had kanji or other Asian scripts on them, that I decided to use only them for the rest of the quilt.  I am always a little concerned about using script that I cannot read - if you read Hanzi Smatter you know what I mean - but I hoped that quilt fabric would be pretty safe.

The design has also gone through some variations.  The original plan was Sawtooth Stars (which seem to be my favourite block), but then I saw this design in Carrie L. Nelson's Schnibbles book, and knew it would be perfect.  I had to buy more fabric, of course!

Sadly, this quilt has been a UFO for about a year, but I am really hoping to get it done before work gets intense on Sedona Star.  Did you all see this Zits cartoon this week?  It hit close to home!
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