Quilt Reflections by QuiltMommy

Progress Report

Well no pictures yet. We are scheduled to move in two days. The packers are coming tomorrow to pack all our junk. So I haven't had time to post pictures of my diamonds. (although the camera is now charged.) I'm lucky to have an operable network. That transition went very smoothly. So far I've finished 12 hand pieced diamonds. I am really loving hand piecing. I can sew a very complex block and come out with perfectly matched intersections and points. Hand work doesn't stress me out as much as the machine does. Linda Franz does a good job teaching hand piecing but I think I'd rather learn to do it the way Jenny Beyer describes in her book. I have been reading through her hand piecing book. Some day I hope to provide a more thorough review of Linda Franz's book Quilted Diamonds 2. It comes with a DVD and CDROM so that you can load diamond blocks into EQ5. EQ5 project files make it real easy to print templates. Linda draws all of her sewing lines and Jenny doesn't, that is why I prefer Jenny's method. I recently saw a DVD for Jenny Beyer's book in a catalog somewhere. I also saw a plastic (and hence cheaper) Thimble Lady Thimble in the same catalog. I'll post a URL or catalog name when I find it during the unpacking. :) Well off to bed and reading some of my new quilt magazines. Hope you all are having a good week.

Updates on ongoing projects

Looks like my recent postings cleared up a few technical difficulties my site was having. All of a sudden I'm receiving comments from 2 months ago. :) I appreciate everyone's concern and interest. This post is in response to Sarah's question about the bunny quilt. No real progress on that quilt. I've pin basted the "Wanna" on to the border but was getting really frustrated with the bias stripping. I had put a seam in it that was making everything bulky and making raw edges show at times. So it's still at "Ya". I have ripped out the seam and need to re-iron the strip and hopefully it will be easier to work with, albeit a bit thicker in width. The Poker Roadtrip flannel quilt is still waiting to be cut, but I finished ironing all of the fabric. (Yippee) Virginia Reel with a Twist is still waiting for the borders to be put on. The first block of the Quilt Story BOM that I started is still unfinished. I wasn't really happy with the way some of the applique was puckering and got discouraged with it. I haven't let myself read the rest of the story that comes with the blocks until I finish each block. So hopefully I'll return to that one soon too. :) However, I wasn't about to let that stop me from starting yet another quilt. (Any excuse to buy more fabric. :) ) I've started a diamond quilt for M-'s sister, A-. I've managed to finish piecing 5 diamonds so far. It's hand pieced and I'm pretty pleased with how its turning out. I must admit I haven't ironed any of the diamonds or compared them to the finished template yet. So they could be off in size due to inaccuracies in the seams. But I wont let that burst my bubble. :) The camera is out of juice right now and I have to go dig out its cord sometime this week. Maybe I can get pictures of the diamonds and other things up this weekend. Until then here is a picture of M- from last month when he was opening one of his Christmas presents a few days too early. (The little stinker.) This is just before his daddy buzzed him and gave him a crew cut. He looks like he's ready for the military now. :(

Eight pointed stars?

Anyone have any good resources for learning how to construct/piece eight pointed star blocks? One of the blocks I'm fascinated with right now is the Dove in the Window which looks like an eigh pointed star layout. I've never done an eight pointed star and am not quie sure what the best breakdown of the pieces are. Any help and advice would be appreciated.

I'm Back I think ...

It's hard to believe it has been over 3 months since my last post. I started a post in November but I tried to catch everyone up on what I was doing and never finished the post. So I'll try to make this entry short and sweet and provide pictures later. It's been one thing after another the last few months. First, I found out I'm pregnant again. Yippee! New sister for M-. She's pretty much sapped my energy so I haven't been doing much on the sewing front till recently. (Hence no entries.) Then I seemed to be suffering allergy and sinus infection or cold one after another for the past 3 months too. October was M-'s first birthday. So I spent weeks trying to make a Noah's ark cake. It came out very successfully but only because my husband did most of the work. He was a trooper. We made it out of rolled fondant and he pretty much covered the ark and made over half the animals. October was also "fabric bowl" month. Mom Darby talked me into buying the fabric bowl books and I started to experiment with those too. (Just another excuse to buy more fabric :>). November was busy with preparing for Christmas and December was more Christmas activities. At the last minute I decided to make a wall hanging quilt for my Mom's Christmas present. I forgot to take pictures. It turned out pretty well. I got really creative with the borders and made a scrappy border. The machine quilting is getting a little better. This month I've convinced myself to start hand piecing a quilt for the new baby. I'm using the diamonds in Franz's book. I've completed four and I have a goal of one a day. At this rate the top should be pieced with in two months. One of the main motivations for hand piecing is the complexity of the blocks and I just can't seem to find time to sit down at the sewing machine. This will be more portable. We also bought a new house in December and are in the process of transitioning from the old to the new. SO lots of things going on. (And lots of sitting and waiting for contractors and deliveries.) Well that's the quick summary for now. I'll try to add pictures and more details in the weeks to come. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and the new year is looking good for you.

More Reading! And Benartex

I just received two new magazines in the mail today and one this weekend! Oh boy! I can't wait to dig and read them but I haven't got the time to read the magazines and books I have already! (Sigh) There really just isn't enough time and energy in a single day. The cover for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine looks fabulous. I hadn't subscribed to this magazine until very recently because the cover quilts always looked to complicated for me. But then I got EQ and nothing is stopping me now. :> I also got Love of Quilting in today. It looks like this issue will be featuring log cabin quilts. My sister-in-law will probably want to borrow this one. She has a log cabin on her "to do" list. I noticed the Benartex ad on the back of Love of Quilting. I'd seen the "Mr. B's Preview Pack Club" somewhere earlier and was intrigued by the offer. "For only $18 a year ... You will receive our Fat Quarterly newsletter four times a year. Each newsletter comes with a preview pack of 25-50 four inch swatches of a new collection." Oh Boy more fabric! And I fell in love with their Luminosity line in Hancock of Paducah's catalog. I suspect it's to late to get that one in the swatches. But 4 inch scraps would work for our Cathedral window quilt if nothing else. So here I am off to sign up for more reading material! (and fabric, don't forget the fabric!) You can get a copy of the sign up sheet at their website if you're interested as well. Their home page is fabulous looking right now ... It's featuring the Luminosity line of material. :> Here's the link for Benartex.

Well off to sign up and read and maybe watch a little TV. (Bad news, there was no mention of sewing in that list. Sigh, some day I'll get back to making progress on my projects. :>)

The secret is out

So much for keeping a secret. I had to tell Hal about his quilt this weekend. I've been working on the design in EQ today. I haven't bothered with scanning in the fabric. I just wanted to get a general idea of what sizes to make the components. I knew I wanted to make it fast to piece and to use the "Card trick" block. So I decided to use the prairie braid as a background and to feature four card trick blocks as a center. I want to randomly place the fabric in the braids but was to lazy to do it in EQ so the color picture is a bit weird. (It looks really good in miniature form :> ) I did a grey scale picture to help abstract the color placement somewhat. So that I could see what the general design would look like.

As for the status on my other projects:
I still haven't gotten to "Wanna" on the "Wanna buy a Bunny" border. I'm hoping to work some more on my Mystery BOM. I have gotten more of the journal pieced. And Mom D and I are steadily plodding away at the cathedral window quilt. I'll try to get some pictures posted this week to show you how much we've gotten done.

Thanks for everyone answering my fabric questions I appreciate you taking the time to inform me. :>

Happy Quilting!

Fabric Questions

M- and I had a very frustrating lunchtime. He was very tired and very hungry and nothing could make him happy. He cried and cried at me. I tried not to let it faze me but it still was making my blood pressure rise. After lunch we piled in the car and headed to Ben Franklin Arts and Crafts. I wanted to pick up a few scrapbooking things for tonight and see if they had any flannels. I came to the conclusion last night that I needed a few tans for the "Secret Project". I was preparing myself for dealing with a screaming infant while going through the store but he surprised me by putting on his best behavior and even smiled at the lady at the fabric counter. Will wonders never cease! :> We then piled back into the car to head to my Grandmother's house for "Great-Grandma Day". While driving over I started to relieve my frustration by blogging in my head ...It is an addiction. :>

So here is what I was thinking about:
Why do some fabrics need to have a stabilizer used when you are dealing with fabrics of different weights in a pieced quilt? What happens if you don't stabilize the lighter fabrics?
Why do "they" recommend that you use a stabilizer when working with men's silk ties? The fabric feels somewhat substantial; more so than some silks I've felt. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet or not but a couple of weeks ago I got my Grandfather to give me some of his old ties. He's famous for his tie and bowtie collection. I thought it would be neat to make several quilts for my mother, aunts, and myself out of his ties. I think they will have to be bowtie quilts. :> And I may piece them by hand. I also collected some of Mom's old debate and forensic sweatshirts a couple of months ago with the idea of making them into a sweatshirt quilt for her. I know people make t-shirt quilts ... So sweatshirts shouldn't be too far off. I'll need to research that too. All of a sudden I find myself wanting to branch out into other fabric types, not just quilting cottons. I think part of this curiosity and new spirit of adventure comes from the fact that I just bought a store bought quilted throw for our new couch. It is made of a variety of fabrics like chenille, tapestry, and silk. I love rich and soft fabrics so now I'm wondering how difficult it would be to make quilts out of other fabrics besides quilters cotton.

Arlee, after seeing your beautiful cape I'm hoping you can answer some of my questions for me.

Shhh! It's a secret (Hal don 't read any further)

I went to JoAnn's to buy some fusible batting. I figured I'd try it out on the "Wanna Buy a Bunny" Quilt and another panel wall quilt project I bought a month or so ago. I want to see if it makes machine quilting any easier and how it was to needle. Not only did I get batting but I walked out with the makings for a flannel poker quilt! It's a secret for now. I'm hoping Hal wont find out ... Assuming I can keep my enthusiasm under control. :> He might notice the lack of progress on other quilts but I think I can get this quilt done while he is at work and he'll never be the wiser. (Assuming I don't just spill the beans.) After picking up the batting I decided to roam the store since a sale was going on. I thought to myself "If I find any Met's or Poker fabrics I might get some of that." The reasoning being that if I get something I know my husband loves and that will obviously go in a quilt for him, he wont mind me buying more fabric. ;> Well I found poker fabric but it was flannel. So that meant I had to go find more flannel since I don't have any in my stash. Here it is. I'm very excited about this "secret" project. It may be a Christmas present. I'm thinking I'll work on designing a quilt using the Card trick block in EQ tonight. :> I also need to go find that Simply Quilts episode on working with flannels. (The only thing I remember is that I need to prewash to shrink the fabrics and to use 1/2 inch seam allowance. Anybody worked with flannel? Have any suggestions? What should the back be? Flannel or regular cotton?) I'm toying with the idea of tying the quilt since I'm not sure about machine quilting flannel. I thought I might look for poker related buttons to tie it. Only problem there is I'll probably have to sew them on by hand since I don't know how to sew buttons on with a machine and they could be a choking hazard for M-. My mind is going a mile a minute with this project!

Here's my accomplice in all the secrecy, M-. . He sure did charm all the ladies at JoAnn's. :>

On a different note, I heard some one mention that they used fleece on the back of their quilts when they machine quilted. Have you ever done this? I keep thinking on this and wondering what benefits fleece would be? I'm going to have to investigate that some more too. Well off to find out about using flannel to piece a quilt!

Here's a link to the Simply Quilts episode on working with flannel aired by HGTV.

So many goals, So little time!

Here another week has almost gone by and I've barely gotten any sewing done! I blame my lack of progress on my most recent goal of walking 12,000 steps a day. Have you noticed the recent promotion for Special K? Where they offer to send you a pedometer after you send them in 3 UPC's? Well it convinced me to buy a pedometer. After reading the literature for my pedometer I decided to set the goal of 12,000 steps a day because that should help me lose weight. I managed to work up to my goal within 4 days. I was surprised at how few steps I took in a day. I was sure I took something close to the recommended 10,000 steps ... But it was more like 500 steps a day. Working out on the elliptical for 30 min only got me about 1,000 steps. I've figured out that 12,000 steps is equivalent to 5 miles and it takes me about 2 1/2 hours to get that many in. So I've been spending a LOT of time walking the last week. Which meant that was time not spent sewing or blogging. :/ I've also been working on my scrapbooks. I'm trying to finish up our wedding album since it's been on the to do list for 5 years. It's almost done. It should be done within the week. Then I can go back to my quilt scrapbooks. :> I finally found time tonight to get my "Forest in the Fall" block done for my yahoo group. Here's what I came up with. I also went ahead and did the "ya" for my "Wanna buy a Bunny" quilt's border. (sigh) I almost didn't finish it because I wasn't pleased with the rough edges peaking out from behind some of the ends and stop/start points. Plus I managed to catch the background fabric behind the "a" when I started that and had to rip out all those tiny stitches. Let's hope "Wanna" wont take so long for me to get to, I want to get this border on! :> Here's my finished "ya". And here is me working on it.

Our new couch that we ordered arrived today. It's a bit more formal looking than I ever thought we would buy. But I liked the fabric, it had a nice soft hand. And it seemed neutral. The ottoman matches the doors to the sunroom. (Where I sew.) We didn't plan that. :> I think I need to get to work on designing a quilt to go with it to help protect it from the dogs. I trained them to get on the furniture with me when I had old, used, and abused furniture. It will take some new training to keep them off. :/ So what quilt pattern do you think I should use for the "Couch Quilt"? :>

Summary of Last Week

Sorry I haven't been posting much recently. Hal had to point out that it's been "forever" since my last post. My only excuse is that I've been making very slow progress that didn't seem worthy of blogging, and that I have been exhausted. :>

So here is a summary of what I have been doing the last week. I've been working on putting the bias strip writing onto the border of "Wanna Buy A Bunny" quilt. Here's a picture of the quilt with its first inner border on it. I still have another border to put on to it and then the scallop edge. But first I need to applique "Ya Wanna Buy a Bunny?" to the top of the outer border. So far I only have "Ya" and that is just basted. (sheepish grin) After making the bias strips I decided to consult my notes from my machine applique class to see what Sue Nickels recommended for stems. Turns out I didn't need to sew the edges together, just to press both sides under. (Sigh) Life would have been so much easier if I had reread the instructions first. Now my strips are rather bulky and wont lay flat well. But I'm not about to go buy more fabric or to rip out all those stitches. The letters will have to be "dimensional". :>

I also started my Block of the Month story quilt, "Charlie Kissed Me". This is a way cool quilt. I love the fabrics and the story is intriguing so far. (See Mystery Quilt Charlie Kissed Me) I thought I'd be clever and paper piece the background so it would be exactly like the pattern. As I layed the fabrics out I talked myself into flipping the pattern thinking I needed to do the mirror image thing. When I finished piecing and cutting I opened it up and realized that I had the mirror image of what I wanted and that the fabric was not square. So I had to creatively "crazy piece" the fabric till I got something that would match the pattern better. (sigh) So much for being clever. Here's a picture of the block ready to travel. I traced the pattern onto some interfacing and then basted an edge of the interfacing to the block. That way I can use it for positioning and it folds much nicer than freezer paper. I learned this trick from my sister-in-law. The second picture shows you what I've done so far. So far I've got the tiny edge of the book and I'm about to put in the pages. I managed to get this little bit done while M- napped on Sat. (It was a struggle to get him to take that little bit of a nap!) You can also see some of my crazy piecing in the second picture.

I also started my block for the "Fall in the Forest" quilt. (See Getting into trouble) I don't have pictures of that because I've only got the background cut for that one. I received the Fabric medleys from Keepsake Quilting mentioned in that entry. So I've been washing those. :> I also did an "emergency" run to my LQS to get some fallish fabrics for my block background since none of my fabrics seemed to suit. :> I went looking for two fat quarters but came back with four because I couldn't make up my mind. :>

Had Grandma day today and we worked on the Cathedral Window quilt again ..Oh that reminds me that a part of my week has been spent emailing Amanda Daly about her lovely quilts in Issue 74 of Quilts Down Under. She is the designer of the two Cathedral Window quilts. The one that made the cover received so much notice that the pattern may be published in the January issue. The article featuring Amanda in Quilts Down Under was very flattering and made her sound like a woman after my own heart. I enjoyed reading it and then talking to her through email. (Issue 74, Quilts Down Under, p.56-66) Her quilts are very vibrant too.

As we worked on our Cathedral Window quilt we watched several Simply Quilts episodes and I read parts of Jinny Beyer's book on hand piecing,, to Mom Darby. I just love that book. It is full of good advice and how to's but it also has wonderful side notes from historical publications on sewing. It is neat to read snippets from the 1800's and 1930's publications. The more I read the more I am impressed with the book, and I'm only in chapter 4!

Mom D showed me a picture of a tumbling block quilt and told me that was the next quilt she would like to make. She only wanted to piece the top and wanted to know if I would like to have it. Of course! :> That was why we were watching Simply Quilts episodes. I was trying to find the one that featured tumbling blocks. ("Quilts that Fool the Eye") But I had to show her the episodes on the Jane Stickle quilt,Dear Jane: the Two Hundred Twenty-five Patterns from the 1863 Jane A. Stickle Quilt, and the Quilted Diamonds by Linda Franz.

Well all in all it was a pretty good week. Lots of baby steps but they add up and I'm satisfied with my progress. :>

So what have you all been up to?