Inspiration for Sedona Star, Part 1

Valerie Giles, whose Month 1 photo of Sedona Star I featured a couple of weeks ago, has already finished Month 2 as well:

The Red Centre - Month 2

It was not my intention to follow Valerie's quilt every month, but I've been learning more about the story behind her inspiration for her beautiful colour scheme, so I had to post about it again.

I didn't realize that The Red Centre is actually a place - the area in central Australia around Uluru, or Ayer's Rock.  When I asked Valerie about her inspiration, she wrote me this: 

"I guess my inspiration comes from the trip we made in 2010 to Alice Springs and Uluru.  The emotion I felt at seeing the Rock was overwhelming.  The colours change constantly and the textures are so beautiful.  I absolutely love all our indigenous fabrics and at Uluru we got to see the ancient rock paintings, so my aim is to get as much of this into my very first block of the month."

I love that story!  Thank you, Valerie.  And I also love that the colours of central Australia are very similar to the colours around Sedona, Arizona:

courtesy of  www.dailyventure.com

I was so impressed by the synchronicity between Valerie's quilt and Sedona itself, which are also both significant spiritual locations, that I finally contacted Sedona Star designer Sarah Vedeler to find out what her inspiration was.  She sent me a great reply, but you will have to wait until tomorrow to read it!

Sweet Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!  Today is the 50th anniversary of my parents' engagement, so Valentine's Day has always been a big deal in my family.  In honour of the day, here is a redwork project that I have just started work on again.

I bought these at www.redwork.info several years ago now.  I have been to the site more recently, and I am not sure if it is still active, it has not been updated in years - so use with caution!

I have been on again, off again with this project.  Sunday evening I started to think about it again, and I made a new quilt design incorporating just these nine blocks.  My previous plan had been to combine these with some other redwork patterns, but the whole thing was going so slowly, and poorly, that I just abandoned it.

From the front, my first attempt did not look that bad, but it was chaos on the back:

Old block - front

Old block - back

It doesn't look like all the ends on the back matter, until you see the block against a white background:

I did briefly consider lining the blocks with red fabric to hide all the ends!  But that didn't feel right to me, so the project became another UFO.

Now that a few years have passed, I've learned a lot about how to deal with the ends on the back, and suddenly the project seems a lot easier.  I realized that it can be my elusive "tv project."  I am so far behind on Coronation Street!  CBC only keeps the last three weeks online, and I have been missing episodes because I have nothing to do while watching them.   I spent most of yesterday tracing new blocks, and I have 3 left to do today.  I am also stitching the label for Edward's quilt, so there is a lot of outlining in my future.  Which is good, because I think Audrey and Mark's secret is about to become the talk of the neighbourhood!

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!

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.

Juin Sampler - February progress

As you can see, I am really starting to gain some traction with this Juin sampler from Bonheur des Dames.  Last month I was just starting the petit point band with the young people and the cherry trees.  Now they are close to finished.  There is still a lot of picky stuff to do, including the micro backstitching which is done over one thread on the petit point sections.  The next section will be cross stitches again.  The row of poppies is also cross stitch, and I had them done in three or four days, so who knows?  I may be finished soon.

It will be great to finish it, because this UFO is about eight years old.  But now that I've figured out how to handle all the ends on the back of the petit point, it has been a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to the next one!

Alternatives for Sedona Star

I know that I had a string of posts last month with no pictures at all, for which I deeply apologize!  I'll try not to let it happen again!  Given that I still don't have any Sedona Star photos of my own to show, I did get permission from a couple of TQS members to show theirs.

I chose both of these because they are dramatically different from Sarah Vedeler's original design.  First up is Susan McFarland of Oxnard, California.  She has gone completely scrappy!

Scrappy - Susan McFarland

I love scrap quilts, and you can already see that this quilt is going to be amazing.  Just by repeating a few elements, like the red circles and green outer borders of the points, Susan has been able to go completely random with the rest.  I know I would never deliberately choose some of the combinations here, but it all works, and I bet it is a blast to make!

Next I have the work of Valerie Giles of Mt. Barker, South Australia.  She is using her collection of Australian indigenous fabrics, which is certainly an advantage.  But the thing that struck me was her log cabin points:

The Red Centre - Valerie Giles

Valerie is the only one in the Show & Tell so far who has used a traditional light and dark log cabin scheme on the points.  This gives them a more three dimensional, architectural effect, if you will excuse the pun.  What great out-of-the-box thinking!  I have to tell you, I am very sorry that I didn't think of this myself.  I also love the warm colours, so it will be great to see where this quilt goes next.

Big thanks to both Susan and Valerie!  The other reason that I chose to show these quilts here, is because both of them strongly tempted me away from my original plan.  I love those scraps, and those points!  I think that my Month 1 will actually have the distinction of using the fewest number of fabrics.  But for now I will stick with my plan.

In any case, I have decided to abandon the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, and use Kaufman Kona Solids instead.  I was disappointed with the shot cottons, they were not as interesting as I had hoped.  The Kona solids will give me a better range of colours, and they are heavier so I expect they will be easier to use.  So once again I am waiting for fabric to arrive.

My idea with the solids is that they will allow more scope for creative quilting.  How the quilting will be done is still in the air, of course.  I called a local Bernina dealer for a quote on the 820 and 830 today.  Holy crow!!  I had no idea.  Well, I still have year!

Stitching with Metallic Threads

The Lavender & Lace Celtic Spring design that I am currently stitching is positively encrusted with gold metallic thread.  The pattern calls for 4 cards of Rainbow Gallery's Petite Treasure Braid:

I have heard many complaints about how difficult it is to stitch with metallic threads, and I thought I would report on what is working best for me.

The main principle is to reduce the drag on the thread as much as possible.  I'll give you the summary first, and then the details:

1. Stitch the metallics first.
2. Pull the thread straight up and straight down.
3. Keep the tension a little looser.
4. Slow down.
5. Use short lengths of thread.

1.  Wherever possible, stitch the metallic stitches before you stitch any adjacent stitches.  If you have already stitched the surrounding stitches, the fabric will be much tighter and there is a lot more pressure on the metallic thread.  On Celtic Spring I left all the gold crosses on the dress until the end, and it is chewing up the thread.  I'm not sure that I had any other choice, though, so I am just using very short lengths.  On the hems, though, I am doing all the gold first, and it works much better.

2.  If you pull the thread to the side when you stitch, there is more drag on the thread.  Eventually it will fray, but even before that the thread gets flattened, or "ironed out," very quickly.  The Treasure Braid gets its sparkle because it is crinkled, a lot like old Christmas tree tinsel.  This is not a great photo, but it gives you the idea:

As soon as the thread gets flattened it loses its sparkle.  So with that in mind,

3.  Keep the tension loose.  The braid has a tendency to spring up, but pulling it too tight to counter that is a bad idea.

4.  Slow down.  While the crinkles in the braid make it sparkle, they also tend to catch on the fabric.  Slowing down your movements decreases the chance that a strand will snap as it catches.

5.  The universal advice that you hear is to keep the thread lengths short.  I usually use an 18" length of cotton floss when I am cross stitching.  I started with a 14" length of braid, but it had already frayed when there was still 8" on the needle.  When I am able to stitch the gold with no surrounding stitches, I find an 11" length works well.  I am using an 11" x 17" Q-snap frame, so I just measure against that.  For the crosses in the dress where I have already stitched the other stitches, I am using just enough to stitch one cross at a time, which is a little painstaking, but worth it to keep the bright gold sparkle against the dark purple dress.

Another common piece of advice for stitching with metallics is to use a thread conditioner.  Right now I am not, and I am coping pretty well.  I'm not sure what a conditioner would do to the crinkles, so I am not in a rush to try it.

The gold thread looks much better in real life than in any photos I have seen.  Even though it may seem daunting, it is well worth a little extra effort!  For me the best thing is to do a little at a time - two or three lengths of gold, and then back to the cotton floss for a while.