The Quilt is Finished!

The Quilt is Finished!

Yay, I finished it!!  My first large quilt.  I began it in January and finished yesterday.

This is the queen-sized quilt that I have written about ‘here‘, ‘here‘, ‘here‘ and ‘here‘.  In a nutshell this quilt was my starter quilt.  I wanted to learn how to make a quilt start to finish.  This quilt was designed by Kim McLean and is called Flower Pots.  I took a class where we followed the pattern, learned to appliqué, and got to use all the things I had learned from Sue Spargo – layering, using different fabrics such as wool and velvet and then perle cotton and other threads and a multitude of stitches to enhance the shapes.  I hand stitched all the appliqué and machine stitched the panels together with the sashing and border.  I then used a wool batting and learned how to free motion quilt.  I used a red batik for the binding, cut on the bias and hand stitched the back.  Finally I made and applied a quilted label.

This first picture is of the lower center panel where I decided to try an emerging pattern of double leaf free motion quilting shape.  I used a slightly darker grey thread.

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Center Star Panel

For the upper center panel I wanted to try my hand at McTavishing, which is named after a woman who created a specific way to free motion quilt.  After a few times, I went off and did my own thing, echoing, but also playing with flame shapes.

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Top Center Panel

On this long side panel I decided that the paisley fabric was so cool I would just use it as a quilting guideline.  I really loved how this turned out, though it’s hard to really see, I did add a close up below.

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Side Panel

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Detail of the free motion quilting on the side panel

This is the bottom panel and I included pebbles, echoing and swirls, which I did again on the top panel.

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Bottom Panel

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More of the center panel

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Merlin naps as I work

Merlin was constantly coming over to nap or pretend to nap while secretly inspecting my work.  He loved snuggling up amongst the folds as I worked, making for some interesting adjustments on my part as I hated to disturb him!

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The border

The entire border I did in a pebble stitch, which I love.  It’s so reminiscent of shapes I used for my jewelry collection, The Lotus Collection.  And now that I think of it, the swirls in the bottom and top panels remind me of my Samadhi Collection.

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Hand Sewing the binding

Finally I had to learn how to make and add a binding.  After a number of different ideas regarding what fabric to use, I decided, with my FH’s (fabulous husband’s) help, to go with a red batik.  Batik tends to be pretty densely woven, and as the binding can get more wear and tear than the rest of the quilt, I thought it was a good choice, plus, I love the red.  I cut it on the bias, mitered the corners, and hand stitched the back.

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For my beautiful mom ~ Merry Christmas

And then I had to learn how to make a label for my quilt.  There are wonderful ideas on Pinterest.  Are you on Pinterest?  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pinterest.  I made a label using word documents and then used a freezer paper and cut a piece of fabric that I adhered the freezer paper to and copied the printed label onto the fabric, lightening the tone so it was just readable, but wouldn’t show too much.  I then removed the freezer paper, sandwiched the printed material with a cotton batting and muslin and then used red wool thread and stitched the text.  I added the little wool red heart and cut out another smaller heart in the same fabric as the binding because I figured I can’t add enough hearts to a quilt made specifically for my mom.

So Mom, if you’re reading this, the cats out of the bag.  Merry Christmas!!  This quilt was made for you. I thought of you the entire time I was making it.  I hope it will keep you wonderfully warm during those cold winter months and I’m told wool batting breathes and should be perfect for the summer months as well.  I love you.

What’s next?  A twin-sized quilt that I will design, stitch and quilt!!  I’ve got my sketch book and am playing with some ideas…  I’ll keep you posted!  Heh-heh, a little pun to end this post.

 

The Quilt is Finished!

The Finished Quilted Pillow

In my last post I was busy learning how to free motion quilt and began practicing on a sandwich made for just this purpose, practice.  I wrote about all of this ‘here‘ so I won’t go into all of that again.

But now you have to see the finished product!

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The Quilted Pillow!

And it’s only fair to show you the back, because I agonized over the material.  I asked for lots of people’s opinions and then the quilter, teacher, fabric enthusiast, Diane Rode Schneck, whom many of you in the quilting world may know, pulled out this fabric and said, “I like this one.”  And that was it.  She was right.  It was perfect!

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The back

This pillow is BIG, measuring 30″ square and it will go with the quilt top I have not yet begun quilting as my machine is STILL not repaired.  In the meantime I have a work space to reorganize.

Happy creating!

The Quilt is Finished!

Adventures in Free Motion Quilting

“What’s all the stitching in the background?” I typed to the artist, quilter and stitcher, Sue Spargo while taking her terrific class, Embroidering Texture and Dimension By Hand, on Craftsy.  I didn’t know the world I was about to be transported to with that simple question.  More ‘here‘ on Sue’s class.

A quick back track, seriously, it will be quick.  This is a quilt I made when I was 15 years old for my home economics class in high school, which also included sex education and fire prevention, presumably all things that happen in the home, though not necessarily at the same time…

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My First Quilt Ever When I Was Fifteen

In a previous post I wrote that I knew nothing about quilts and quilting and now this photo will show me as an unreliable narrator, but in my defense, when I found Sue Spargo’s class and saw her beautiful art, this project, made more than forty years ago, did NOT leap to mind.  As you can see I got a little tired of all those circle blocks and decided to alternate with a plain white block and then in the middle just added huge rectangular pieces of dark blue (a polyester satin-like fabric, if I’m not mistaken, it was the 70’s after all) and some cotton paisley fabric top and bottom, because it was all becoming so endless and tedious.  By the time I was finished with the various blocks I tied each corner with a little knot and called it a day. I think I used a polyester filling, not sure I knew the word “batting.”  I do not remember particularly loving the process and I think this project may have been the reason I didn’t think much more about quilting for the next forty years!

Okay, so that was brief-ish, right?

I blogged about my first large quilting project ‘here‘ so I won’t go into all of that again, but now I’m at the quilting stage of the quilt.  Quilting the quilt is a whole other beast indeed.  There are some who like hand quilting and then there are those who like machine quilting and then there are those like me, who think both are amazing and want to do it ALL.  Which led me to Free Motion Quilting.  This is where you put the feed dogs down on your machine and guide the fabric to obtain beautiful fluid looking stitches that add a whole other layer to your quilt.  But since I knew very little about FMQ I decided I needed to take another class.  Christina Cameli teaches one on Craftsy called Free Motion Quilting Essentials that I love, as it’s perfect for the beginner (me) and plus, she’s lovely.

I had a quilt sandwich that I’d prepped for another class and began practicing.  After a few days I decided to leap in and began quilting the first block I made (and then didn’t like the background fabric and so remade for my queen-sized Flower Pots quilt designed by Kim McLean).  I designed a border to match Kim’s queen-sized border and now have a top perfect for a 30″ square pillow, which will go nicely with the queen-sized quilt.

Free motion quilting

Free Motion Quilting

I started with the center and did swirls and whirls, but ran into problems with my stitch regulator, which broke (it’s still not fixed) but I barreled ahead without it, rationalizing that people make beautiful quilts without stitch regulators all the time.  This idea, people-have-been-doing-it-this-way-for-centuries, was also how I rationalized giving birth to both my children without drugs, cutting my own hair, as well as my children’s when they were small (my son may still have some trauma from that.)  Then I did the sashing and each 2-inch square was a chance to practice something different, with a different colored thread and finally I began stitching the outer border in a pebble motif, which I love, love, love!

Now here’s the thing…  I know people who never pull out stitches, but I’m not one of them.  I can.  I’ve done it.  It makes me very, very uncomfortable.  Kind of like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard.  So after I finished the outer border, which I really like, I decided the center swirls and whirls had to go.  And besides, the stitches were uneven, its all about practice and the process, which I’m thoroughly enjoying…  So yeah, I pulled the whole thing out.  Yup.  Five hours.  That’s how long it took.  This is what television is for, I’ve decided.  My husband watches a couple of movies and I sit beside him allowing my obsessiveness to flow.

Pulling out swirls

Free of Swirls

Now back to quilting.  Oh, but what fun, and it’s only just beginning!

 

The Quilt is Finished!

Quilts!

Remember those “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” books?

This is my version of that…

If you show a girl a quilt, she’s going to wonder how it’s made.  When she wonders how it’s made, she’s going to take a Block of the Month class to see how  it’s done.  Once she’s signed up for the class, she’s going to begin making a quilt herself.

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Center Block from the Flower Pots Quilt Designed By Kim McLean

When she starts to make a quilt herself, she’s going to think about how she can make it uniquely hers.

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Detail of one of the Center Blocks

When she begins to make it uniquely hers, she’s going to incorporate all the stitches she learned in the Craftsy class given by Sue Spargo that she wrote about a few weeks ago on the post, Change.

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Detail from Flower Pots side panel

Once she begins adding all those stitches she learned…

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Almost finished Flower Pots Quilt!

she’s going to want to start designing her own blocks…

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Rhino Block designed and stitched by Ariane Zurcher

…which will lead her to a two-week Artist’s workshop retreat.

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The artist’s retreat will be life transforming and will give her all kinds of ideas for new pieces that she wants to design and create…

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Manhole Cover at Onondaga Community College

While she marvels at all the things she’s seeing and learning she will be reminded of other things she’s already working on…

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Detail from Flower Pot Quilt Border

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One of those things will be manhole covers!  Who doesn’t love manhole covers and if you love manhole covers, wouldn’t a quilt inspired by them be even more fabulous?!

So it’s probably best to give a girl her first quilt while she’s still very young so she has plenty of time to learn and do all of this!

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Merlin overseeing the work.

Coming next week: pots!   Not flower pots as in the quilt, but real pots, thrown pots, hand painted pots… gotta love pots!