April Sewing Space

If you've been following my blog for a few months, you might have realized that a "Sewing Space" post is what comes when I have a few projects on the go but no finishes to show for them yet. This one is no different.

I've made some progress on my Map Quilt. In the last post, I had just pieced together my compass. Since then, I've sewn the compass and a blank legend block into the quilt top. Then I decided I didn't like the spacing, so ripped out and moved the compass.  I stencilled on the writing for the legend and hand embroidered one whole letter. I appliqued on the islands and birds, which I keep thinking of as flying geese. Then I added the borders. The inner one is intended to look like a scale on a map. Unfortunately, my pieced border ended up a bit small and then I was tired measuring and sewing on the outer border and it ended up a bit big. So the quilt doesn't want to lay flat for me. Or be square. So I'm debating how much I have to rip out. Probably both borders, plus re-sew the grey and white strips together to make them the right length. I see a seam ripper in my near future.

In this one, without the overhead lights on, you can really see the texture in the quilting on the island.

Not-so-square corners. But pretty Botanics fabric by Carolyn Friedlander.

I also bought the EQ 7 software, to help me with some pattern writing. I've been playing around and have designed the quilt I sketched out on the plane over March Break. Then I started writing out the pattern for it. Eight pages later (without diagrams or images), I seem to have all the steps and instructions figured out. Which has me wondering, am I including too much information and how long are patterns usually, anyway? It also made me realize how much I've learned about quilting along the way and how much work goes into a pattern. This is all before the quilt is even made.

I usually have a plan when I start, but this is the first time I've actually figured out how to do all of the steps efficiently and in order before I start. It might be kind of nice to follow my own instructions. I'm hoping it turns out as planned, though I'm sure there is more tweaking and revising to come.

I'm still planning to start another Jewel Burst quilt soon, but need to write up a pattern first. I thought it might be a bit more complicated to design digitally, so I started with the easier one. Now I'm starting to get comfortable with the EQ7, I'd like to tackle it soon.

So little time, so many ideas. Happy creating!

Grandma's Jelly Roll Race

Here's a quilt that my Grandma sewed up, using a jelly roll of Zen Chic's Barcelona line. She used one jelly roll plus the borders, so the quilt measures about 70 x 75. It's a wedding gift for one of her nieces - bright and colourful! She worked hard to finish it before flying out for the wedding. She pieced it, then we worked together to baste it so that I could quilt it for her. Then she finished it off with the binding. For the quilting, I went with the same rounded rectangle pattern I used on the baby quilt. I got into a bit of a flow there for a while, I'm making progress on this free-motion quilting thing!

The outer border is one of my favourite fabrics. I've used it before too, in a quilt and a bag.

It has quite the wild orange back :)

All Quilted - The Jewel Burst Quilt

Here it is, my finished Jewel Burst Quilt :)

I'm pretty excited about this one. It's the first quilt that I've done creative quilting on. It's fun to make a quilt all the way through, from choosing fabrics, to designing a pattern, piecing, and then quilting and binding. 

I used spray adhesive to baste it and it held remarkably well considering how much I handled it. The quilting in the centre involved a lot of nearly 180° turns with a lot of bulk. In the beginning I had the quilt rolled, but found it made it more difficult to turn, so I ended up just leaving it flat and bunching it up as I went.  

I know some people are all about improvisation and seeing where the quilting takes you, but I'm more into planning and visualizing. I like to see what it's going to look like ahead of time. Knowing where I'm going helps me get there. I sketched out my designs ahead of time and played with a few options. I got advice at a quilting class too, with a design for the triangle border that didn't involve burying 60 threads ;) I'm glad I asked for help on that one, as I'm thrilled with how that border turned out. 

Here's a better picture of how the colours look in person

I didn't follow my plans exactly, mainly because I forgot a few things, but I still mostly stuck with my plan. The straight line quilting I marked with a Frixion pen and a ruler, then followed the lines, which made it pretty simple.* For the negative space inside the border, I free-motion quilted some sharp scribbles. I practiced with a pencil on paper many times before I started, so that I had a bit of a rhythm before I got to using thread. The design is sort of three Vs, then changing directions with a triangle. In the beginning, it didn't flow with the needle like it did on paper, but in the end, when I stepped back from it, I liked the effect. 

*Sidenote - the Frixion pen doesn't seem to stay erased as much as I would like. It sat in my car overnight and some of the lines came back.

I'm so excited about this quilt. I love how the thread blends in on the front and the way the white thread stands out on the back. I wish I could capture the bright colours on camera better, but I'm grateful for having lots of family nearby with fences and clotheslines ;)

Kona Bay Hibiscus

A pop of purple binding to finish it off!

I previously posted about this quilt here, designed with the help of the Hex n' More ruler, and I'm planning on a pattern for this one - I have the next fabrics picked out already to test the pattern out. Anyone else interested in testing it when it's ready? I also bought EQ7 on the weekend, so once I have some time, I'm think I'm going to have a lot of fun playing! Stay tuned for another quilt post later in the week.

Happy sewing!

I've linked up at My Quilt Infatuation, Free Motion Mavericks and Thankful Thursday

A Quilt for MJ

I completely forgot that I could share this baby quilt with you now! Good friends of mine had a baby girl this week. They knew about the quilt in advance and so I sent it in the mail so it would be ready and waiting for her. I like to give baby gifts in person once the baby's born, so I can get some snuggles in, but sometimes when they live far away, it doesn't happen.

I made the quilt using a couple of V & Co.'s Simply Style charm packs I had on hand, waiting for the right project. This was my first time using pre-cuts and they ended up working perfectly for a simple baby quilt. I used most of two packs, omitting the yellow prints. When I picked up the charm packs, I had also got a metre of the print I ended up using for the backing. I had already cut into it for an infinity scarf, so I had to piece the back. My friend loves apple green (as does the owner of my local quilt shop) so I went for that colour along with some more squares. I realized just how much apple green I have in my stash, too! I'm more of a blue and green kind of girl, though I've grown to appreciate a little pink.

I used a variegated blue and green thread for the quilting and did some simple free-motion quilting. I'm still a little wobbly, but it's getting there. I need more patience - precision over speed. I finished off with some green binding (of course) with a strip of white.

I see all these beautiful finished quilt photos in nature - pinned on rustic barns, hanging over wooden fences, stretched out on frozen lakes. ( I also often question whether or not people ask permission before pinning their quilts on someone's private property). So I had grand ideas when I took the baby quilt snowshoeing down the road with me. I left it in the car and thought I'd photograph it when I came back. Twenty minutes into the walk I found the perfect fence. Not going back now. So I found a tree branch to hang it on, thinking it could look artistic. Instead, it just looks like a quilt on a tree branch. Oh well, you take what you can get.

I hope baby MJ enjoys her new quilt :)

And now that most of this snow has melted, I hope the weather warms up so we can get some buds on these trees.

March Sewing Space

All seems quiet on the blog lately, but behind the scenes I'm being pulled in every direction. Here's what my sewing space looked like in March:

We had a week off here for March Break, so I travelled to Lake Louise for a few days to visit my sister. We skied in the Rockies, hiked Johnston Canyon and walked across the lake, along with sightseeing in Banff and Canmore. By chance, we happened to park across from Canmore's quilt shop. Despite the advertised eight thousand bolts of fabric, and calls of, "We'll see you later, just ship it home," I showed great restraint and only walked out with two metres of fabric. And of course 8 hours on planes, plus graph paper, a pencil and the latest issue of Canadian Geographic equalled a new quilt design. But that one is a secret for now. I've already given too much away.

Late afternoon light, the sun just dipping below the peaks

Early morning stillness

That new quilt design happily coincided with National Quilt Day, celebrated with a sale at my local shop - where I picked out the perfect fabric for it - followed by an afternoon of sewing with some family. Sewing turned into watercolor painting, turned into, it's 7 o'clock already?!, we should probably eat something.

At the sale, I did pick up some more deep and gorgeous Kona Bay Hibiscus, along with my first-ever batik print for the backing. I pulled the others from my stash. The plan is to make another Jewel Burst quilt, likely for a charity raffle. This time I'll use the purple for the background and the greys and whites for the jewel burst and border, opposite to the previous version. I usually use low value colours as background, so this will be a bit different for me.



Also during the March Break, I quilted a throw quilt my Grandma pieced, which had a short deadline and shall be revealed once its recipient has seen it. She's been working so hard on it.

I've been eager to get my hands on the Jewel Burst quilt to start the free-motion quilting around the centre, but sewing time evades me. I want to have enough time to get into a flow and finish in one sitting. Maybe it's different with practice, but at this stage in my free motion quilting I find it hard to quilt with the same consistency when I've stopped and started again. A colleague and I are presenting at a teaching conference this weekend, so my time and energy are reserved for that and hopefully I'll return to my machine next week.

Finally, I joined Bloglovin. I started adding all the blogs I read to my page and realized just how many there are! Then I realized I could sort them into groups, which made them much easier to navigate and look for new posts. So if you use it, click the button on the top right in the sidebar to follow me.

I can't resist posting one more photo of Mt. Fairview, with the boathouse at its feet. I think this is my favourite landscape photo from our trip, shot on our first morning there, when my body woke to another time zone, while the mountains loomed and the world still slept around us. I waited for dawn light and took my tripod and camera out on the lake to play a bit. This one came from my phone.

Compass

There's been a little piecing, a little quilting and a little binding lately. The Honey quilt is bound and finished. The Jewel Burst Quilt is partially quilted - it's been on pause for a bit but I got some new ideas at a class this week and it will hopefully be picked up again next week. I'm loving the quilting so far, though I deviated from my original plan. The quilting blends in nicely on the front and stands out on the back. I'm beginning to see the appeal of a whole-cloth quilt. Here's the back. I'll post about it when I have more progress.

I'm just noticing the faint circle pattern made by the quilting in the jewels

Meanwhile, I've been working on piecing a compass for my map quilt. I used a paper pieced compass pattern from the Farmhouse Window Table Runner pattern, designed by Judy Niemeyer and Judel Niemeyer Buls. This was my first attempt at paper piecing, so after buying the pattern, I was completely confused. I gathered my materials and headed to an open class. Luckily, there happened to be another person working on the same pattern! The first class (3 hours) was spent just cutting. And I didn't even finish. This is the first time I've gone to a sewing class without actually sewing. I learned it's faster if you use batiks or solids, so you can fold and pile them to cut multiple at a time. After that, I wasn't sold on paper piecing. 

The next class I got to sew (finally) and finished two blocks. The first one took a while with a lot of explanations, but the second one took half the time and by the third block, I was starting to envision making my own paper piecing patterns. It was amazing to see how precise the the blocks were, with such little pieces, and all I had to do was sew on a straight line. Even when I strayed slightly from the line, they still turned out nicely. I had cut all of my pieces a little big, which I think helped too. I took my time on these, but did have to rip a few pieces out when I mixed up my yellow fabrics. Luckily I had lots of extra, so it was an easy fix.

Though the pattern I was following had the compass in pieces, spread throughout the table runner, I sewed them together in a square. All sewn together, the block looked too big. I debated whether or not I would use it for the quilt. I had originally intended to use the background colour of the quilt as the background colour for the compass, so that it would blend in and let only the compass stand out. However, I didn't have enough of the fabric. I decided to trim the block down to within about 1/4 inch of the points and try it out again. Once trimmed, I decided to leave it as is. I plan to extend the compass points as straight lines in the quilting, throughout the water. I've seen that design used in old maps and thing it would add some nice detail.

Apparently all I have is blurry iPhone photos of this one.

In the end, I was very happy how it turned out! I think the patterns and grid in the Botanics line work nicely with the map aesthetic. I love everything Carolyn Friedlander has designed. I've already bought the Widescreen grey crosshatch to back my Tornado quilt and two prints from the Doe line to possibly back this one. I'm using the grey crosshatch for my legend and others in the line for the title and borders as well. I've sewn the empty legend block and compass into the quilt, but I'm not entirely happy with the spacing. So I may change it and add some piping while I'm at it. 

It's nice to have paper piecing as another technique to use when designing quilts, which opens up new possibilities. 

For previous posts about my Map Quilt, go here.

Honey Quilt

It’s done! I started this quilt two years ago, hooked on the cover quilt of Elizabeth Hartman’s book, Modern Patchwork. I just couldn’t figure out how it was constructed, so I bought the book to follow the pattern. I think the techniques I learned from it have helped in designing other quilts, especially my current project. As much as I like to figure things out on my own, I think it’s also valuable to be taught a new technique or skill, whether from a class or a pattern. Then, you can change it or incorporate it into your own designs. My mom always says that you should follow the recipe the first time, then you can change it to suit your tastes after that.

There's snow in those clouds

At the time I started, mint was the new colour of the season and I was hooked on it too. I’m glad it wasn’t a passing trend, as it’s going to be going on my bed for this upcoming spring. We may have sprung our clocks ahead last night, but nature hasn’t gotten the memo. I remember spending hours online and in the store looking at colours and fabrics, ending up with fabrics from many different fabric lines and three shops, I think. I wanted primarily mint and grey, with a pop of colour, so I figured out a ratio and ended up with pink and blue and that white crosshatch that looked grey online, but ended up working anyway.  

I didn’t follow the pattern exactly, as I wanted the hexagons to be slightly different, without the triangle slice, and I wanted it to fit my double bed. To save cutting out all those triangles when I was going to have a full hexagon anyway, I was introduced to the Hex n’ More ruler. It was a LOT of cutting, 242 half hexagons. Because I was cutting them separately, I had to attach all of that 1” sashing to the top of each hexagon separately, pressing and trimming to size. Which explains why it took me two years to finish! I lost interest and set it aside. I was working on my Camera Quilt at the time and was more exited about it.

I finally pulled it back out this summer, intent on finishing it before I was allowed to start a new project. I think my other quilts have taught me patience, as it didn’t seem nearly as slow this time around. It did still take me about an hour to put a row together, though. I was originally going to make the giant pieced hexagon for the back, but by the time I was finished piecing the front, I went with a solid back – Kona in Aloe I believe, which Sue happened to have it in at the quilt shop. Then I added myself to the waiting list for long arm quilting.

Jennifer did an amazing job quilting it, with different designs in the hexagons and lines in the sashing. On the back, it looks like one flawless design. 

I had a big piece of the grey Zen Chic fabric but not quite enough, so I pulled out the other greys and the white and had just enough for the binding. I kind of hate hand sewing, as nice as it looks, so I usually machine stich my bindings with a straight stich. I went for a zigzag this time, which mostly worked out for me, though I’d probably make some adjustments if I were using a zigzag again.

no family resemblance at all

Taking pictures proved difficult once again. I had no volunteers to hold the quilt up at home, so I headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s down the road to borrow their clothesline. Only the wind was so strong, it popped all of the clothespins off. So I ended up standing on the playhouse once more, laying the quilt on the snow. Grandma and I realized too late that the snow was higher than our boots! I can’t wait till it warms up, the snow melts and the ice breaks up in the lakes. Until then, my quilt is ready and waiting for spring. 

Linking up here and here.