Modern Medallion, finished

It's finished!!! I missed August by just two days, but I put the last stitch into the dogwood border of this quilt THREE YEARS after I finished the top. Yikes, that's a long time. I started this as part of an online class ('Handstitched' from Stitched in Color) in June 2012 and finished the top by the end of August. It sat for a time until December when it was basted, and then hung around for hand quilting until last February when I was in Sacramento. I stuck to my resolution to take my time and work on the quilting when I felt like I'd enjoy it instead of feeling like I had to get it done. After all, this one's for us.

All of these fabrics were pulled from my fledgling fabric stash, and include some non conventional bits and bobs: corduroy, toile, lightweight canvas, linen, even an old shirt. I like the texture from all the different fabrics and they turned out just fine when I washed the quilt (after an unfortunate run-in with Newton mid-quilting). 

For the back, I used a single piece of linen print I got at IKEA. It's busy enough that I wasn't concerned about my quilting stitches being perfect on the back -- wise for a first attempt, methinks. 

I'm tickled with how the dogwood quilting in the border turned out. The colors stand out nicely against the blue linen and the puckers from the stitching add more texture. This part was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Similarly to the rest of the quilting, I didn't use a hoop. I felt like I could get into a pretty good groove and had better luck loading the stitches evenly without one.

There's a bit of straight line quilting in the other parts of the quilt -- though I left these Storm at Sea blocks in the corners alone. I fussy cut a few of the fabrics for these and I didn't want to quilt through the little vignettes. 

These little appliquéd dogwood blossoms are one of my favorite parts. 

The blossoms are second to this amazing embroidery setting off the center medallion. That was super fun to do and I love the design. 

In the sprit of hand stitching I even hand stitched down the binding on the back! That's a departure from my usual zig-zag sewn on bindings, but it seemed appropriate here. I used the same blue linen as I used in the main border round. It was a pain to put on but should be pretty sturdy.  

All in all, it is really fun to look back on this quilt and see all the lessons I learned along the way. I'm really happy with how it turned out -- unabashedly bright! I also think this design strikes a chord with my tastes: modern but with a nod to the traditional. One important takeaway is that even if it takes three and a half years, that's a-ok! What's the rush, anyway? Creativity takes time and I'm sure rushing the process would have ended up with something I was less than happy with. As it stands I think I'll be changing my duvet soon so we can spread this out on the bed and enjoy!

hand quilting

I'm back to working on my medallion quilt! It has been snoozing in my ottoman waiting for me to find some good colors of perle cotton to use in the border. It was surprisingly difficult to find brick and mortar stores that carry very many colors of #8. I can find the basics - white, cream, navy, and black - but not much else. I know they exist though! I have the aqua to prove it. I may have to break down and buy a color card so I can just order what I want online. I'm happy I did it for the solid fabrics, so I bet I'll be happy if I do it for the thread.

In the end, I got some #5 to use. I've used it for embroidery in felt before but wasn't sure how easy it would be to quilt with the thicker thread. Dave helped me pick out these fantastic variegated skeins and it got me excited to get back to this project. The man certainly has an eye for color. 

Turns out it works beautifully! If you use a big enough needle, that is. I was sure I needed to bypass the traditional between (I doubt the thread would even go through the eye) but after one evening of using a slightly bigger needle and having a hard time pulling stitches through the quilt sandwich I went even bigger. The needle I ended up using (on the right) looks like overkill, but it isn't. It's much nicer to use the larger diameter because it paves the way for the bulky thread to breeze on through. My second evening of quilting was much more pleasant.

I've finished the straight lines and am partway through the dogwood blossoms. It sure zips on by when you don't have to keep tying off! The middle took me so long because there were so many patchwork squares and short spans of quilting. It should even out, fewer stitches more tying off/more stitches less tying off, but somehow for me the long stretches of stitches kept me more engaged and allowed me to get into a groove. I am positive this will be done before the end of the month, and I'm very excited for that.

so this happened

This folks, is a bound Modern Medallion quilt. It's been sitting around waiting to be trimmed and bound so I can start the final round of hand quilting. Apparently the small sewing project on Tuesday night got me rummaging around in my sewing stuff enough to want to work on some more. 

I had intended all along to make a scrappy binding. Part of the reason this took me so long to do was that I wasn't in love with that idea. With the last round of fabrics I thought the quilt all of a sudden got "too orange" and the thought of adding even more warm colors in the binding wasn't doing it for me. I settled on the solid blue linen and made about 7 yards of 2.5" binding. After ironing it in half, I sewed it on the front with about a 3/8" allowance, give or take. 

Instead of folding over and zig-zag stitching it down on the machine like I usually do, I sat down on the couch, kitty at my feet, and hand sewed the binding to the back using a quilter's between and hand quilting thread just like Dave's mom taught me. It took the better part of two evenings to do but I'm glad I did. As Dave pointed out, it goes along with the hand quilting nicely.

I want to finish this soon so we can use it on our bed come spring. I just need to get some suitable colors of pearl cotton thread to tackle that last border. Woo! The end is in sight.

chugging along

Sat down tonight to work on this 'little project' for a bit. I finished the hand quilting in the entire pieced section! All that I have left to do is quilt the border o' blue, which requires my marking pen and more hard flat space than I have here in the Sac studio to mark out. Before I do that, though I want to trim and bind the whole thing so I don't end up with weird puckers at the back if my edges flap around a bit. I'll have to cut strips for binding down in Palo Alto since all my fabric from this resides down there in the office. I should also take the quilt down to trim it. Sounds like I have plans for the 4th!

I'll need to bring it back up to sew on the binding since my machine is up here - the traveling quilt! It's worth it for this one, it's been a while coming. Logistics aside, this is sooo close to being done. I hope the dogwood quilting in the borders goes quickly. 

evening wear

Last night I looked down at my feet to see this: 

Yep, I'm at it again. True to prediction, now that I've started working on the hand quilting again, I've been thinking about when I get to work away at it next. That's a good sign. I put in an hour and a half or so and got a lot of progress made. My hands are letting me know, too. Those quilting betweens are tiny and hard to grip! Between knitting, quilting, and typing my poor metacarpals are getting quite the action lately. 

You can't tell, but the center panels are almost done. All that is left is 22 little squares to outline in the patchwork, not that I'm counting. When those are done it's on to the task of marking and quilting the moat of blue. That should actually go pretty fast because there won't be so many stops and starts, just those required to start another long piece of thread. But I'm sure that actually getting the marking done is going to be another activation barrier….

I'm reasonably sure I'm deviating from the class instructions on this, but that's ok. I'm just sort of quilting as I see fit. I especially like my choice to go with an off-axis 'x' in this corner patch here. Additionally I don't think I'm going to quilt in that Storm At Sea patchwork to the upper left. I just can't see anything that won't take away from the little vignettes I've incorporated from the toile I used. Vivre la difference!

Slowly, slowly catch the monkey

Dad used to say that all the time. It's just one of those weird things I remember from growing up, for no particular reason. Really it's just to say 'be patient and take it slow' which I have to keep telling myself about this quilt.

I brought this quilt up to Sacramento thinking I'd spend hours stitching away on it in the evenings and have it done by January. Ha. I hadn't touched it until last week when, sensing the stress of an upcoming deadline, Karen invited me over for soup and quilting one night. She worked on piecing a baby quilt, I gratefully nestled onto her couch and got some momentum going on this.

I started this quilt quite some time ago, and worked my way through the top in the summer of 2012, eventually basting it that December. Fast forward a year and a bit, and here we are. A lot has happened in life since then, but alas not much hand quilting. I've considered many times just machine quilting the rest of it, but that seems an awful lot like giving up, and I'm not sure I'd be as proud of it as I hope to be when I finish the last hand stitched dash. I just needed to get jump started again, because now my fingers are itching to get back to it -- a good sign. 

I'm going for subtle stitching, trying to use the colors I have to blend as much as possible. It's a pretty busy piece as it is, and I like the texture of the hand quilting, but I'm not sure I want a bunch of stitches asking for attention especially since, ahem, they aren't all even. "Organic-looking" right? I'm debating what I'm going to do for the dogwood shapes in that big sky blue border -- I will likely use one of my brighter colors, gold or coral, to make them stand out. I could also see using the cream, though. No worries I've got a lot of little squares to outline before I get to that point. 

Despite my lack of progress and apparent lack of enthusiasm during the last year of this quilt's hibernation, it is pretty special to me; it was my first big project where I used so many different techniques in one piece, the first where I challenged myself to use only the fabrics in my cabinet (hence the odd assortment of colors and textures), and it is certainly the first piece I am hand quilting. I am glad I'm happy to be working on it again instead of irritated and overwhelmed with it. I shall keep in mind the monkey and how I must move to catch it. Hopefully that will inspire me to patience and remind me it's ok to take it slow!

Quilts quilts quilts!

I have two large quilts going right now, and they are both in the quilting stage. I'd like to get at least one done before acquiring another big work-in-progress. Here is a quick peek:

I've worked a little bit on my Modern Medallion quilt and have finished the center and one side of the patchwork tile and on-point square borders. Three more of those to go, and I will get to have fun filling in the vast blue borders. After a little bit of thought and considering the colors of perle cotton I have, I decided to go subtle with the quilting. I'm using either a pretty blue-green or an off-white depending what I'm stitching on. I'm wondering if it's all going to be worth it because it blends in so well, but for sure the stitches add a certain texture wherever they're sprinkled.

Unfortunately I have a limit to how long I can stitch on this one because my hands start to hurt. Bummer. It's looking good though! Just taking for-ev-er. I told Dave this might be my only hand quilted project ever. That's probably an exaggeration but it is certainly how I was feeling mid-stitching. I'll be really excited to see this finished, though. It will feel good to know I stuck it out.

We are so stoked to get our picnic quilt all finished up that it's totally motivating me through what is usually the "let it sit for a while" stage. Last week I finished the top, and Monday night I basted it on the card table. After a little bit of inner debate, I'm using leftovers from a swirly green Ikea duvet cover for the back. I sandwiched it with some Fairfield Nature-Fil bamboo blend batting in the oh-so-convenient 60 x 60 size. So far this is the only brand I've come across in stores near me that is a large square, a shape I apparently really like for quilts.... this will be my fourth in this size. Buying a larger piece and cutting it down is fine since I get big ol' scraps to play with later, but I really like being able to use these straight out of the bag. 

I used a pretty robin egg blue thread and my longest straight stitch to edge all the sashing which doubles as a nice quick way to fix everything in place. (The pins could probably come out at this point.) I started out doing some loopy FMQ in the orange hourglass blocks, but did not like how it looked at all. I'm not sure if it was the quilting itself or the blue thread standing out too much, but I disliked it enough that I had the patience to sit and pick out all the stitches. There is a large activation barrier for me to get out the seam ripper, so that's saying something. I think I will do the quilting in the blocks in white, but still not too sure I want to go the loopy route. Or maybe I'll just leave it as it is? It's in "time out" on the couch for right now. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Basted!

Oh my gosh, I basted my quilt from this summer -- finally! The top has been hanging up in my sewing room since late August. I originally thought I would have to piece a back, but I ended up settling on a print that was wide enough to use on its own. I just caught a wild hare the other night and really wanted to get the hand quilting on this started, so I spent the evening basting. Dave has been asking when this will be done, so he was pretty jazzed when he came home and saw me working on this. 

As it turns out, the card table is actually a great surface to baste on, much preferable to the floor. I had always thought I needed to spread out on the floor to do this, but gravity and the smooth table surface actually really helped the whole process. No puckers, no sore knees, and a nicely basted quilt in the end. No more floor basting for this girl!

I started a little bit of the hand quilting. I'm going to take my time with it and have fun. Jack is very excited about the prospect of me under a quilt on the couch in the evenings, so I have to keep stopping him from climbing on it. I'd like to try to keep it kitty hair free at least until I've finished it! Then he can sit on it and me all he wants. 

Linking up at Freshly Pieced

Well this just clinches it...

I love it.

It wasn't until I put on the linen border and the final round of scrappy strips that the whole thing really came together, but now I absolutely love everything about this quilt top. It was one of those magical moments where my eye finally went "ooh! look it's all working together!" and my heart filled with pride (and a little bit of relief, if we're being totally honest with each other).

There were times I wasn't too sure, like when I stacked together the fabrics from my stash and thought the colors were nice together but maybe a little uninspired. Or when I put the patchwork on and went 'ack! might be too bold!' And let's not forget all the hemming and hawing that went into the fabric choices for the on-point squares and the worry that maybe there was too much orange - then again maybe not enough. On second thought, let's.

Let's just focus on how this serendipitous stack of fabrics pulled from the cabinet with stubbornness ("I will NOT buy new fabric for this project!") became something totally unexpected and wonderful.

I need to think up an appropriate name for it, but I have plenty of time. I have other projects to move on to that have deadlines, but between them I will be putting together a back and then ambitiously *hand quilting* it. Wish me luck!

Perfection in posies

After returning from our vacation, most of August has been an insane whirlwind for me in terms of work commitments so the sewing time has been at a premium. Isn't that always the way?

I was so happy this past weekend to get a chance to sit down and MAKE. I turned my nose up at my Modern Medallion quilt in a bid for something fresh and new to start and finish in time for my Mom's birthday (which was Monday). My summer so far has been mostly devoted to projects from handstitched class, so I picked one of the projects I missed out on during the weeks I was on vacation - the Meadow Pillow. This was my absolute favorite project from this class, hands down. I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's renditions coming through the flickr group, and was very excited to start my own. (fair warning -- lots of pictures ahead!)

For as long as I can remember, my Mom's favorite color has been purple. I had collected a lot of purple fabrics years ago in preparation to make a quilt from the cover of a magazine Dave's mom got me. That hasn't happened, I've been a couple fabrics short. It's really hard to find just the right shade of purple! So instead I decided to cut into some of those lovely (stashed!) fabrics, add some complementary yellow, and make a fabulous pillow instead.

This project was really fun for me because it combined all different types of applique techniques. I learned a lot in the process, and no step in particular was really all that time consuming. Just the type of project I was craving. Even the binding didn't take all that long!

I normally hate this part. Pinning and binding ... ugh. 

Here is the pillow cover is all finished up! I just love that I had all these fabrics waiting around for me to see them in a new way. The yellow and gray print and the yellow binding were fabrics I had bought for another project, but changed my mind about. I'm so happy I had these hanging around, they really worked perfectly.

There are three different handstitching techniques used here: blind stitch, running stitch, and stem stich. 

The back of the pillow cover is an envelope closure, and I made it out of this lovely flannel print. I think this will make it a cozy alternative to snoozing on the front side. 

I was thinking of purchasing a pillow form and modifying the pattern to fit it, as at least one other person in the class did, but I found a big 32 oz bag of fiberfil in the closet and decided I had enough large cuts of fabric worthy of a pillow form to just make my own like Rachel suggested in the pattern. 

Here is the finished pillow in all it's glory. I love it. Love love love love love. It's the perfect gift to give my mom precisely because I enjoyed making it so much and am so perfectly pleased with the finished product. Happy birthday Mom!!

Hexie Tree

After I finished the front of my hexie tree tote bag from class it hung around in my sewing room for a week or so. I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it, but it was a great temporary decoration. 

This past weekend I sat down and finished the bag construction which I must say was a breeze. This will be a great go-to pattern for all types of designs. I chose to keep it simple and use a brown solid for the inside and the same green canvas pieced together for the back. Since the canvas is heavier than a quilting cotton, I decided not to go for the fusible fleece interfacing. The bag is fluid, but still has some nice structure. 

For the strap I found a striped twill-ish fabric in my scrap bag. This fabric was from napkins I bought years ago and made into pillow covers for my living room back when we had mostly green and blue going on. The colors are a perfect match to all these hexagons and a great complement to the tree design with all the brown and green. Yeah for finding the perfect use for those odd strips of fabric!

This was a really fun project that I will probably do some more -- I can imagine changing up the design on the front using different kinds of EPP shapes or even some applique now that I have a nice, simple pattern for a tote.

Weathering the Storm at Sea

Round 3 of the quilt is finished! Four Storm at Sea blocks and 120 2-inch squares later this quilt is really starting to take shape. I have two different versions of the corner blocks, two of each. These were challenging for me, hence the post name. I do feel a bit like I've weathered a storm and have come out on the other side having learned a lot. My seam ripper and I are friends, and I now know how to paper piece using my machine. (I have a couple of paper pieced blocks I can't wait to tackle now!)

I fussy cut a few of the pieces in each block; the toile diamonds have vignettes of people, the yellow Hope Valley print leaves were perfect for the smallest square, and my two orange prints have great little sunbursts in them. The more I practice the better I'll get at getting fussy cuts all lined up, but I think for my first stab at foundation paper piecing this isn't bad. The second block with all the blues is my favorite because I love the combination of the pezzy blue, linen, and that orange print in the large square. I'll have to save this idea for another quilt maybe? (I should probably stock up on the pezzy print while I can!)

This round also had four panels of patchwork solids. The fabrics I included in the patchwork are not all cotton, which adds a nice bit of texture; the black and gray are corduroy, the beige and blue are linen, and the olive-y green is twill. Yay for stash/scrap busting.

At first I was a little concerned that the patchwork was too bold and was outcompeting both the Storm at Sea blocks and the center. One great thing about taking this handstitched class is the group of people I've connected with. My classmates (and instructor!) have been fantastic with their comments on every project but most especially this one. Their objective eyes have been invaluable in helping me see that this is working just fine. You know if you stare at something too long everything starts looking wrong? Yeah. Walking away for a few days did great wonders.

I am just loving how this is turning out. I will be behind on this the next two weeks because I'm away from my sewing machine and much of the next round is machine sewn, but I'm sure my enthusiasm will help me catch up in no time when I get back.

Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution brought many great inventions to automate tasks otherwise done by hand, but none more enchanting and useful than the sewing machine. Ok I might be exaggerating a bit, but I love my Singer.

The past couple weeks I have been working on the next round of my handstitched class quilt which includes a round of patchwork anchored at the corners by Storm at Sea blocks. The technique of the week is english paper piecing. I had my first taste of EPP earlier this year in the form of a single star blossom block I made just to see what it was like. I enjoyed it, and was happy to get a chance to revisit the technique as part of this quilt.

This time around, it proved a little bit more challenging for me, partly because there are smaller pieces, but mostly because of the extreme acute angles on the small pieces. The toughest part I think are those eight green triangles surrounding the diamonds. I had a hard time being happy with the way my seam allowances were laying/being stretched as I basted. This may have had something to do with my fabric choices -- they aren't all quilting cottons. 

I managed this first part of the block just fine, enjoyed it even. The next three parts were not quite as enjoyable, but I finished it. I did realize however that in order to finish the other three blocks and the rest of this part of the quilt in the time I had available before the next set of lessons I was going to have to pick up the pace. My sewing time these few weeks hasn't been that abundant, so I decided to teach myself how to foundation paper piece. 

Foundation paper piecing uses a machine rather than hand sewing, and rather than wrapping fabric around the individual paper pieces, fabric is sewn directly to the larger intact pattern. I ended up using this tutorial to get the general idea of how it all works, then just diving in! Thankfully these are actually pretty simple blocks to piece this way; not even a y-seam in sight. There are a few geometrical acrobatics that gave me problems when trying to do those long triangles on the diamonds, but I just made friends with my seam ripper and persevered until I figured it out. 

I will still enjoy EPP when I have larger pieces to work with, but for anything with small bits or small angles, I think we'll go one letter farther down the alphabet and use FPP. 

Tree hugging

This week's topic in handstitched class is English paper piecing. I had my first adventure with this technique earlier this year with a single star blossom quilt block inspired by a project on Rachel's blog. How nice is it that it's all circled around and I'm now taking a class with her? 

The project I chose to do in addition to the next round on my class quilt is a tote bag. There isn't a whole lot of EPP in this, but it makes up for that in awesomeness. Thursday night it was 'guys night' at our place, so I got to hole up in the sewing room and enjoy some undisturbed time to myself while listening to the comments of four grown men playing a video game. It was hilarious, and relaxing (and also not super well lit). 

I picked out fabrics, traced, basted, and pressed -- quite a lot for one evening!

I also got the tree trunk and branches stitched, the paper piecing done, and my canopy layout all planned. I took this photo so I remember where everything goes. And if that wasn't enough, I got about two thirds of the hexagons sewn down. Go me! I'm hoping to work on the quilt some this weekend, so this might sit for a few days while I ponder lining fabric and a layout for the back of the bag.