2013 Week 13 Recap and Stash Report

This week has been kind of a bust as far as sewing is concerned.  For some reason I just could not find much time to get into the sewing room.  I’d like to say that it’s because I’ve been spring cleaning but that’s not the case either.  For one thing Friday is usually a free day that I can spend sewing but Jim was off this week for Good Friday and we went down to Milwaukee.  So here’s a little recap of the week.

Applique Affair-blocks 8 and 9 stitched down.  There are 25 blocks plus 25 border blocks in this quilt so I’m making progress.  It would be nice to finish this before my quilt group’s summer “show.”

Scrappy Stars (from the Bali Breeze pattern)-four more star blocks and six 25 patch blocks completed.  I’m still not sure exactly how big I’m making this but I think a total of 35 blocks so that makes 19 finished.

I cut out and started piecing a quick and easy disappearing 4 patch (or 4 into 9 patch) baby quilt.  All the blocks are sewn and I hope to get them pressed and set together this afternoon.  I started with six fat quarters so it only made 16 blocks.  I’m not a fan of square quilts so I’ll have to figure out something for the top and bottom borders to make it rectangular. 

Bundle of 10 is the only quilt I finished this week.  I like how it turned out using the bright colors.  It was easy to piece so it’s a nice one to make for donation quilts. I think I’ll try to make another one in traditional colors from stash fat quarters and see if I like it as well.

It doesn’t look like next week will be very productive either.  I have to work three days so that SERIOUSLY cuts down on my sewing time!!

The weekly stash report:
Used this week:  9 yards
Used year to date:  99 yards
Purchased this week:  3
Purchased year to date: 21 yards
Net year to date:  78 yards used

Be sure to check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

A trip to the Milwaukee Domes

Jim was off work on Friday and it was supposed to be the nicest day of the three day weekend.  We were trying to decide what to do to take advantage of a sunny day.  There is still too much snow to do much of anything outside.  We’ve been hiking several times over the past few weeks but the snow is getting patchy and slushy and in many places there is more mud than snow.  Jim suggested we drive down to Milwaukee to see the botanical gardens in the Domes.  It was the perfect thing to do.

There are three domes and inside each one is a lovely garden.  The three domes are themed.  One is called the Show Garden which has changing exhibits throughout the year.  The theme now is Blue Bayou and there are New Orleans and jazz motifs throughout the display.  It was just beautiful.  It’s been so long since we’ve seen anything blooming it was almost overwhelming to take in the lush blooms.

There is an interesting historical display in the show garden of a few elements that were salvaged when the previous gardens were razed.  This beautiful wrought iron gate remains.

And this lion’s head planter.

And these wonderful brick tiles that look like quilt blocks!

The second dome is the Desert Garden.  It is filled with rocks, cactus and other desert trees and plants.

The third dome is the Tropical Garden which has lush foliage and many spice and medicinal plants.

One of the more interesting trees is the Kapok tree.  The Great Kapok Tree was one of our kids’ favorite books when they were little.  See the spikes growing out of the trunk?

Here is a black pepper plant.  Who would think this simple looking plant would be one of the world’s most valuable plants?

This was a really enjoyable little road trip.  I had my Kindle so I just sat in one of the gardens and read for awhile. The sunshine was glorious!

Making progress toward spring

If memory serves, today was the nicest day we’ve had here in Northeast Wisconsin since last November.  The temperature was mid 40’s with sunny skies and no wind.  Hopefully we’re heading in the right direction and will finally get rid of the snow and be able to spend some time in the yard (or camping!!).  Here’s what we still have on the ground but it really does melt fast with a few warm, sunny days.



Unfortunately not too much sewing happening the last couple of days.  This morning I got a few blocks pieced on the little Four to Nine Patch (or Disappearing 4 Patch).  Tomorrow should be an open day so maybe I can finish something.

Design Wall Monday-Scrappy Stars

My drawer of 2-1/2” strips is overflowing and I came across a pattern named Breezy Batiks on Moda’s website that uses lots and lots of 2-1/2” squares (pattern is here).  I’m using all scraps for this quilt and making it bigger than the pattern—probably twin size so I can donate it to the emergency shelter. The blocks are easy to make but fairly time consuming since there are a lot of little pieces.  This is my favorite kind of quilt though, with hundreds of different fabrics.  It’s a walk down memory lane with every square I pick up!

Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on at Patchwork Times.

2013 Week 12 Recap and Stash Update

This week I made progress on several projects but only had one finish.  Last Monday I posted the Applique Affair project on Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  This project has been hanging untouched in my sewing room for years.  I’m happy to report that I stitched down blocks 6 and 7 (out of 25) this week.  It really helps to get it out in the open so I can work on it in little bits of time. 

I also sewed borders on two quilts:  Bundle of 10 and More Geese on the Ridge.  I finished piecing the Bonus Triangle top.  All three of these are ready for quilting.  Bundle of 10 is loaded on the frame and I’ll start quilting it later today.  I’m using the same pantograph as I did on the Pineapple Blossom quilt (more panto practice!!). 

I cut out two new projects, Bundle of 12 and a Disappearing Nine Patch baby quilt.  Still in progress this week is Bali Breeze, a pattern from Moda that I’m making from scraps.  I’m hoping to make a few more blocks today and post those blocks tomorrow on Design Wall Monday.

The big finish of the week is Pineapple Blossom.  It is such an easy quilt but it seems like I’ve been working on it forever!  I cut it out on February 22 so it was just over a month.  When I look at the list of projects I’m working on it’s no wonder I really like the way this turned out.  It’s a great pattern and I’m hoping to make another one with 2” strips out of scraps.



Here’s the weekly stash report:
Used this week:  8 yards
Used year to date:  90 yards
Purchased this week:  0
Purchased year to date: 18 yards
Net year to date:  72 yards used

Check out other stash reports at Patchwork Times

Pineapple Blossom Quilted

I loaded the Pineapple Blossom quilt on the frame but couldn’t decide how to quilt it.  Lots of people have made this quilt so I did a Google image search to see if I could get any ideas on how to quilt it. I thought I might try a new freehand technique but it looked like most people quilted an overall meander or a pantograph.   I’m not very good at using pantographs.  I think it is hard to follow the lines with the laser light and my curves aren’t as smooth as they could be.  I’m pretty sure this would improve with practice but I’ll often go months between panto quilts. 

I bit the bullet though and ended up using Deb's Swirls on this quilt.  It’s an easy design but very pretty and I thought the curves would soften the sharp points of the design.  It’s also scary to use light thread on dark fabric because every mistake shows up.  It turned out pretty nice.  Here’s a close up of the quilting.  I’m hoping to get the binding on right away so I can hand stitch it down while watching basketball this weekend.



While quilting this quilt I listened to The Red Thread on my Ipod.  It really helps to have a little distraction so I’m not thinking so hard about staying on the lines of the pantograph.  This book was somewhat predictable and melodramatic but was great for quilting since I could follow the story without having to concentrate too much.  It is a novel that follows several American families as they go through the process to adopt Chinese babies and several Chinese mothers who give up their daughters for American adoption.  Overall it was pretty good--I would give it 4 out of 5 stars!  I really like listening to books while I quilt.  My local library offers them free through Overdrive Media.  It's simple to download them and you can catch up on your "reading" while quilting.

Bonus Triangle Project

In an earlier post I mentioned an idea I had for using the bonus triangles leftover from my Pineapple Blossom quilt.  I had 96 half-square triangles to use and came up with this.



I debated whether or not to add a border of the print fabric on the top and bottom but this was already kind of long and skinny so decided the border made it look too disproportionate.  Anyway, this meets the size requirements for Quilts Beyond Borders and would make a nice donation quilt.

It was very easy to make.  I simply sewed the triangle squares together in a zigzag strip.  To make the piecing easier I sewed the aqua border strips to the print strips before sewing them to the zigzag strips.  The aqua strips were cut 1-1/2” wide and the print was cut 3-1/2” wide.



The half-square triangle blocks were an odd size since they were cut from the corners of the Pineapple Blossom blocks.  It didn’t matter what size they were because they were all the same.  I explained how I cut them here.  I laid all three strips out and they were within 1/8” of being the same length.  Yaay!

I then matched and pinned the cut end of the sashing strips with the zigzag strips



and cut four of them the same length.



It was then a simple matter to sew the sashing strips to the zigzag strips.  After pressing toward the sashing strips I measured the width of the quilt top and cut two more 1-1/2” strips of the aqua to this measurement and sewed them to the top and bottom.

Voila!  This easy project is now in the queue for quilting!

Applique Affair Block 6

On Wednesdays I go to my two volunteer jobs so don’t have a lot of time for sewing.  Yesterday I had even less because it was book club and I had to finish reading the book.  This month’s book was Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth.  This is the book upon which the PBS series Call the Midwife was based. 

It was a great book and an easy read.  It was arranged in stories about people the author knew while she worked as a midwife in London’s East End slums during the 1950’s.  The stories were funny, sad and poignant.  It is amazing how times have changed regarding childbirth.  At that time the midwife delivered most babies at home then made follow-up visits 2-3 times a day for a couple of weeks while the mother stayed in bed “recuperating.”  This book, though, showed how hard most of these mothers’ lives were.  Money was very tight and living conditions were often deplorable but they still welcomed their babies as if they had no worries.  It was inspirational to see the love in these families despite hard times. 

After finishing this book, I’ll be reading the other two in the series, Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse and Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End.  Season 2 of the PBS series starts March 31 so set your DVR’s!

It really helps to have my sewing machine set up in the dining room so I can work if I just have a few minutes to spare.  I managed to finish Block 6 of Applique Affair with odd bits of time yesterday.

The blocks are all fused down and I’m just stitching around them now.  I used to finish these with a blanket stitch in black thread but now I use a little zigzag stitch in colors to match the applique.  The blanket stitch was good for more primitive style applique but I think the zigzag looks better for this more “formal” style blocks.  Block 6 is now finished—only 19 more to go!

Fixing the disaster

When I realized there were two blocks turned in my friend’s quilt as I was sewing on the binding my heart sank.  It was such a hard decision whether to just leave it or try to fix it.  I ended up fixing it.  It wasn’t hard, but was time consuming because I wanted the repair to be as inconspicuous as possible.  Here’s how I did it.
I started by carefully removing the quilting stitches from the two blocks and about 1 inch into the surrounding blocks.  Then I “unsewed” the blocks, turned them the right way and sewed them back together.  Because I didn’t want to remove any more quilting than absolutely necessary, I had to hand stitch a 1/2 inch area that I couldn’t turn.  You can see the stitches in the close-up but they are really almost invisible.



Remove the quilting stitches to the seam (this will make it easier to bury the knot), leaving tails long enough to knot.  Usually I would do this from the back of the quilt, not the front but the back was a solid gray fabric and I knew it would be easier to hide the repair in the print fabric on the front.



After the tails were tied in a knot I used a self-threading needle to bury the threads.  I love these needles for this purpose because they can be threaded with short tails.  You just slip the thread through a slot in the top of the needle.  If you can’t find them locally they are available from Amazon (who knew?) here.



Insert the tip of the needle a stitch length away from the stitching line and bring it up an inch or so away. 



Pull the thread through.



Then clip off the threads.



Re-quilt the area.  When you start, leave the tails on so you can tie them off and bury them like you did when you removed the stitching.



Repeat this process for every start and stop you have to do in the repair.  I had four.  In the end though, you couldn’t even tell on the solid backing fabric.



Like I said, it wasn’t really hard to do, it just took a lot of time.  My friend picked up the quilt on Monday and she was very happy with it.  It did turn out well, especially since she is a beginning quilter.  It is queen size and since my quilt stand broke I had to fold it over this drying rack to photograph it.  This is about 1/4 of the quilt.  You can see that from this though that the turned blocks would have really stood out.  And I really wonder why we didn’t catch it earlier???

Design Wall Monday-Applique Affair

A couple of weeks ago I started linking posts to Design Wall Mondays at Patchwork Times.  It was great motivation to work on those projects.  The first one, Pineapple Blossom is now on the frame for quilting and last week’s More Geese on the Ridge is a completed top that’s next in line for quilting!  So this week, I pulled out a project that’s more than overdue for some attention—Applique Affair, a beautiful quilt designed by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. 

The blocks are raw-edge fusible applique that I started about five years ago.  Most of the center blocks are fused on and about half have been stitched down.  I need to finish those and make the rest of the border blocks.  There’s also a pieced border.  For awhile I had my Bernina set up in the dining room so whenever I had a few minutes I could stop in and stitch a bit on these blocks.  That seemed to work pretty well so I’ll give it a try this week to see if I make any progress.

Tools of the trade-Thread Heaven

I’m still working on hand stitching the binding on my friend’s quilt.  She is planning to pick it up at the shop tomorrow while I’m working so I need to finish it today.  I fixed the turned blocks and re-quilted the area.  It turned out so well I’m writing a tutorial to show how I did it just in case someone else has this problem.  The starts and stops do not show at all on the back—even on solid fabric!!

The binding has been kind of slow going because the thread keeps knotting.  I’m using cotton thread because it’s the best color match.  Sometimes I’ll use spools of poly-cotton blend left over from clothing projects or glazed cotton that I picked up for hand quilting when I thought that was something I wanted to do.  Neither of those tangle or knot nearly as badly as the 100% cotton.  My frustration was so great that I finally went down to my sewing room and searched until I found a container of Thread Heaven.  Oh my, what a difference!
Thread Heaven is a “thread conditioner and protectant” that coats thread so it doesn’t knot, fray or tangle.  The thread just glides through the fabric without a hitch and it's so much faster since I don't have to stop and untangle the thread with each stitch.  I wish I had found it sooner but will now make sure it stays in my hand sewing kit.



Most quilt shops carry Thread Heaven but if you can’t find it locally, Amazon carries it here.  It really does make a difference in how well the thread handles when you’re hand stitching.

More Snow

We woke up this morning to more snow.  I am SO ready for spring.  Even though the meteorologist claims our snow totals are down this March it seems like we have more than usual on the ground for this time of year.  A year ago today it was 70 degrees outside and today we’ll probably top out at 30—bummer!  The sun did come out though so Jim and I made the most of it and went hiking at Bubolz Nature Preserve.  It is really pretty out there and I have to admit it felt good to get some exercise in the fresh air. 

Lots of snow, lots of trees and a clear blue sky!

When we got home I hand stitched the binding on the Courtyard Maze quilt while watching the Wisconsin vs. Indiana basketball game.  A Badger win and a finished quilt—double victory!!

This quilt had been a UFO for several months so it’s nice to finish it.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it.  I don’t really have many Christmas quilts and the fabrics are so pretty I just may keep it.

Quilting Disaster

A couple of months ago a friend of mine from church contacted me and said she would like to make a quilt for her daughter who is getting married this spring. She met me at the shop and we picked out fabric and decided on a modern looking design of simple light and dark half square triangles. She finished piecing the top then called and said she wanted me to take it from there-- finish it and get it back to her by the end of March.  She brought the top in and mentioned she thought a block might be turned.  I checked it over, saw the mistake and fixed it.  My friend, Jacqi, (who owns the great quilt shop Keep Me In Stitches!) quilted it and brought it over yesterday.  This morning I got up early to start the binding.  After the binding was sewn on I noticed two more blocks that were turned.  My heart sank. What a dilemma.  I knew my friend wanted the quilt to be “perfect” for her daughter but it would be very time consuming and tricky to “unquilt” the bad blocks and fix them.  I had another cup of coffee while contemplating what to do, then jumped in with the seam ripper.  It was a big undertaking but I think the piecing repair looks pretty good.  I had to hand stitch about 1/4” on one seam but otherwise it worked out well.  Of course I don’t have the right thread color to re-quilt that section but I’ll run by the shop over the weekend and pick it up.  I’ll post a picture of the repair when it’s complete.  Fortunately the blocks were on the edge so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  If they had been in the center I probably wouldn’t have attempted it.  I’m going to recommend placing the label over the new quilting to hide the stops and starts on the back then I don’t think anyone will ever suspect what happened.  The lesson learned?  Spread the quilt out for inspection and TAKE PICTURES.  It’s always easier to spot mistakes like this in a photograph. 

This was the first time I’ve tried to “fix” a quilt after it was quilted.  Have you ever been in this predicament?  If so, what did you do? 

On the plus side, I think both my friend and her daughter will be very pleased with the quilt.  The fabric she used, Maasai Mara by Dear Stella in the charcoal, gray and yellow colorway is just so pretty and I’m doing bias binding  in the stripe.  Love, love, love striped bindings! 

Design Wall Monday-More Geese on the Ridge

A few posts ago I mentioned that the pattern for the Buffalo Ridge quilt had you make twice as many flying geese units as was really needed.  So I had 144 geese left over from that quilt.  I’m trying to deal with leftovers right away so they don’t get lost in all the sewing room clutter.  I came up with this block to use the geese.  I got 18 blocks from the leftover geese.  That meant I needed an alternate block to make a decent size quilt.



After playing around in EQ7 for awhile I decided this block would work well so I made 17 of them.



All the blocks are made and I have a few on the design “wall”. I’m hoping the secondary pattern will look like light and dark circles.  What do you think?  I hope to find time this week to sew them together and find out! Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on at Patchwork Times