Playing in the Swamp

Proverbially, that is.

Last week before we left on vacation, I started paper piecing (ick!) the 16 outer setting squares.  These have 15 pieces each.  I had cut them out before we left from a dozen or so of the greens I have, plus a few blades of deep teal just for variety.  I was really shocked that they took me about 7 hours to sew.  I made a few mistakes, but mostly they were sew iron, repeat.  They need the quarter-circles still, but that's where I had to stop and regroup with the entire design in order to determine which fabric looked the best there.  I layed out the entire broken star...

In my original design, I had the quarter-circles in a deep rose/pink.  It brought a lot of contrast to the design, which it needs since it has so much blue and green.  Unfortunately, it just seemed out of place.  I will have water lilies in pale pink appliqued on top of this quarter-circle (see right part of upper pic), and pale pink flowers on deep pink background was getting circus-like, and not pond-like.  I tried out a couple shades of greens and aqua, but nothing seems as right as a deep marbled blue.  I'll just hope that the water lilies and the bright pink bias piping around the quarter-circle will provide the contrast needed. 

I'm also playing with what color to narrowly outline the inner star.  All the blues and greens seem to disappear.  I'm leaning towards the deep brick red.  It will be a subtle and thin outline, but just enough to set the center star off from where the green leaves of the first round of setting squares begin.

I also played (top pic) with the orientation of the outer 24 diamonds.  Did you catch that??...On one side, the purples point outwards, and on the right side the purple points inward.  The left side gives much better definition.

This top will probably not be too much fun to put together, given the very many number of Y-seams - and a total of 56 pieces to all make lay square and flat.  Sounds daunting!

Friday Fun

Or something like that, maybe. Hard to believe that tomorrow is October. Three more months of 2011. Doesn't seem possible. This is just about the best sight I can imagine right about now...I know, "what is it?", you are wondering. It's the END. The BOTTOM. Finito! Well, not quite finito, but at least finito is in sight! I'm aiming for early next week to have this off. Not done, but off.
Here's another peek-aroo...nice texture. An absolute ton of grueling, closely-stitched ruler work, but it is pleasing me thus far.

As usual, I am dittling with EQ designs. I do several a week, ditch many for one reason or another. I guess I just have an itch to start a new project. My Dresden plate quilt, which is all hand appliqued, is requiring a little bit of re-stitching (aka I F-ed something up and need to fix it). I want to keep working on this, but re-work can be so harmful to my productivity. Anyhow, 2 years ago I received a FQ bundle of 24 hand-dyes, and have used much of the blues and purples and greens, and have been seeking a project for the red, yellow and oranges. The problem, my brain does not really think in these colors, so invariably if I start out designing for them, they end up being just highlight colors. This design is intriguing because it is 36 of the exact same 8-pointed star blocks, just in different colors. Kind of reminds me of a southwest sunset.

Of course, I managed to sneek in the green. And the same design, without the sashings. Rather a different look. I just dont like the way all the seams will be thick where the blocks come together. Keep designing...

If I hadn't been so doggone busy this week with one thing and another, I probably would have done a dedicated post because I encountered someone's post that was essentially a hot-headed rant that was all but screaming the reasons NOT to have a longarm quilter if you are a domestic machine quilter. The person who I will not name is a very skilled domestic quilter, and in her defense, she was trying to justify her position for how she quilts and why she doesn't need to have a longarm, but damn, it bugs me when non-LA-ers try to tell the world that they know about longarm quilting when they clearly have no experience! Yes, they are large. Yes, they are expensive -- over $10k before you buy any templates and gizmos. Yes, they are heavy, but for Pete's sake, if your's is good, you are not pushing 40lb around because the dang thing is on wheels. That quilt you are tugging into the neck of the domestic machine is heavy too - I know this because I have actually domestic machine quilted too. A properly balanced table and carriage allows very smooth movement of the beasty machine. And again, yes, it is an adjustment learning to quilt with a LA over a domestic. It is so freaking difficult that it took me an entire month before I dared to take a customer's quilt. That was 2 years ago, and close to 2000 hours of quilting later. I do quilt for ME, and I quilt for others. It's the funnest and most creative job I have ever had. I have regretted spending that much on a car, but not on that sewing machine. And if I want, I start quilting at the center, or the top left, or the bottom right -- there is no rule. Now all you domestic quilters just keep doing what you are doing because your work is lovely, rewarding, and perfectly complete the way it is. You are a quilter just as much as I am. I just needed to get my "Why the LA is a great thing" rant off of my chest. It's been itching at me all week. If you want an LA, get one because you won't regret the decision. Achieving proper tension was 500 times easier on the LA than on the domestic.

Have yourself a nice weekend~

Progress on Carpenter Star

I have been puttering away at this quilt for the last 7 days, 2-3 hours a day. More customer quilts have come in this week, making me stress over how slow the progress is. At this point, I have to just stop fixating on the minute details and small fillers, and get the silly thing stabilized enough that it can come off the frame in 1 week or less. That should be doable since I am nearly sitting on the middle right now.
I had fun with the tan filler (above), although this is the last quilt I will make where I mix a solid fabric with other prints. The weaves are different and I am not thrilled how the dense quilting looks on the tan. It will be just fine when done. This is just a case of "ole picky me". The butterflies, which were nearly an afterthought on the quilt, are quickly becoming my favorite part!

Each of the diamonds of the wheel are densely quilted with different patterns. My hope is that it will appear as bands of texture going around the carmenter star when it is done. I'm using a wool batt over 80/20 so this (with all the piecing seams) is a thick quilt. Will be super heavy if mailed anywhere! So far, threads are Bottomline in bobbin and Invisifil on the top. Because the fabrics have so much pattern, it is hard to see the stitching. I so hope that the texture and time-consuming patterning does in fact show in the end. This seems to be a constant worry. What else am I to do, though, unless I want a bold or thick contrasting color thread?? Still going on faith at this point that my plans will work out.

I haven't settled on what will go in the tan (above the yellow applique) below, but it's stable for the time being. I do like the filled radial stripes, and I know that they will have a great look.
Here's the long awaited center (...long awaited for me, anyways, because it marks where the first half ends and the next half starts!). With a light held at angle, the quilting is visible. I have feathered along the outline of a star, and then done 1/8" radial lines to help mash down the fabric to enhance the feathers. The thread is a sage green, and it unfortunately matches way too well, almost to the point of disappearing... It is nice to be freehand quilting, rather than using the templates (which can be rather slow).

But, again, I ask, what should I have done differently? I'm not about to quilt in pink just to see it!

The grand reveal on this quilt should be interesting. I'm going half-blind trying to see the stitching for the printed fabric :-)

Got Butterflies?

I have been finishing up a quilt this week that I just LOVE. But this quilt has just been screaming for a little something to break up a large-ish area of blah tan fabric. ...As an aside, I chose to make this quilt exclusively from my stash fabrics, so the background may not be entirely what I'd have chosen had I wanted to spend $$. Now these tan areas didn't need anything large, just some kind of "distraction" to help the eyes to wander. So, I found the perfect solution in Butterflies. They are about 1-1/2 inches large, and have been slightly colored with permanent pens to be less blue. I know, I know, you are thinking that I am a master butterfly appliquer, but you couldn't be further from the truth!
Several years ago, I bought this great piece of fabric in a clearance bin for $5. I have always loved the green tones and patterning, so I looked beyond the butterflies, fully expecting to probably cut around them whenever it was finally used. Guess the laugh's on me. I chose 2 of the larger butterflies, and carefully appliqued them onto the quilt. Two for each corner. I have done basic embroidery for the butterfly bodies and will add antennae with dark thread while quilting.

I think that this is ready to be quilted. I have to go underneath and cut away some of the backing fabric & bulk that are under the appliques, but the hard work is finished. Phew!...I even got out my wool scraps this morning and hand stitched enough together for a batting (yes, my thriftyness has no bounds). I have designed the quilting more or less, and it's full bore ahead. As for the butterflies, I love them. They are delicately flying around, and help to reinforce the garden look of the quilt.

Pondering, Thinking, Dreaming, Designing

and a little sewing.

It's a fact: I have gotten little to nothing done quilt-wise since my boys got out of school 3-1/2 weeks ago. They are trouble times two together, and I find I am all too often breaking up arguments or plans of mischief. One of them has no judgement whatsoever and is just not to be trusted if not watched. I am slow to get my momentum quilting full-force again after doing very little for 2 months because of the mirage of contractors in and out of my workspaces. My house addition is 98% done, and I so need the distraction of work to keep me sane. First: Inspiration and Momentum, then quilting.

I have been hand appliqueing most evenings when not holding a paint brush or glass of wine. I have gotten 2 of the 4 corners of leaves & flowers stitched down. Hard to believe there are still 14 flowers and 48 leaves remaining. It will probably done at the end of the summer at the soonest. I love the addition of the border. It is all very busy, but that is kind of my style.
Though there are weeks of hand stitching still to go, the quilting is imminent. It is never too soon to plan for how it might be quilted. I think I may have most of the threads I want to use, but I'm sort of a thread junkie like some girls are shoe junkies. What's a few hundred cones amongst friends? Here is my initial plan, very much incomplete still, but nevertheless, started. I want the quilting to be outside the box. It will not necessarily follow the piecing, for that would be boring since the quilt is mostly 30-90 diamonds. I will (hold your breath) use a contrasting color in some places...I get so fearful of thread showing that I usually choose very much matching top threads. There's just no way I will change thread colors 25 times throughout the star. No way.

And if that is not enough...I am pondering about another quilt I want to make. OK, it's a shade beyond wanting, since I made one of the plates today. Remember this post?... Good thing I really had my heart set on doing something else because for some reason, EQ7 had to be rebooted and now claims that the file cannot be opened. Well, it can be opened, but all of those quilt designs are poof! Sigh... I am making this probably for my bed eventually. It's a twist on the untraditionally traditional design in that I have a ton of modern-ish green prints to use. The plates are stitched on machine and then will be likely hand appliqued to the background.

OK, now time to decompress and look towards the impending bedtime of my kids. It's been A Day. My usually reasonable 9-year old was a monster today, draining me of all reasonable energy. And there is an apple pie in the oven -- my new oven, in my new kitchen. Yes, the kitchen is DONE. It has countertops and running water now too. Thank goodness. Or should I say finally. Finally! Renovations are not for the weak at heart :-))

Onward to the Applique

Here she is, at a mere 1280 pieces (plus outer border) and only 67" square (well, mostly!). And best of all, I have not purchased a stitch of fabric for this quilt. I got really tempted to get something for the narrow border, but held off. I have some applique being designed for the outer border. The prep-time of starching and pressing all of that is innundating. I never thought that this quilt would be pieced as fast as it was. I fully expected that this quilt would be ready for quilting first. But it, too, is awaiting applique, and monopoly thread to sew on the applique, and for an unknown reason, Superior is not able to keep this item in stock. I hope to find a substitute later this week. These lone star or carpenter star quilts are challenging to make, even for the most patient of piecers. The number of Y-seams is higher than I can count. I'm not real high on that patience scale, nor am I all that eager to pin every single unit that I stitch. And I do mean EVERY one. These pieced diamond units are somewhat strip-pieced (or I'd definitely be certifiably nuts), but because the units are on bias, if you don't pin the heck out of this, no seams match up. On the areas that are more "colorwashed", that is no biggie, but where dark green meets ivory, it doesn't look so hot. At a close look, you can see areas that don't align exactly, but what the Hell. Take off your glasses, have a glass of wine (yaddy-yadda) and it looks pretty good. Pretty I think. Best of all, it may hang (if not too large) in my new dining room, and look just smashing when this is on the table (which I made last year sometime). I guess you can tell what colors I am drawn towards :-)

I'm off to MQX tomorrow for the week. I'm taking classes with some of the great longarmers, hoping to bring home some good tips, ideas, and of course purchaseable goodies! There will be plenty of pictures to show as well.

Mother Nature is the April Fool

It was getting pretty exciting watching the back deck being taken down 3 days ago. Our long awaited addition was set to break ground next week. And then Mother Nature delivered this, on a fairly appropriate day: April Fool's Day. Funny, old Lady. Funny. She must know how much I hate winter, and that my tulips had broken through the ground last week. Or that my kid got a skateboard for his birthday that he really wants to use! It's not that I don't embrace the seasons, I just have a very strong preference to summer (and a long one too). I am taking an online Whole Cloth class at MQResource. We've had 2 of our 5 lessons. I am also doing both Trapunto and Whole Cloth classes at MQX in 2 weeks, but this is low cost, and where it is online, I can do the lessons when they are convenient. The last 2 weeks have been about sketching. We are learning how to sketch out feathers for one-eighth of the quilt. Then we get to mirror them and see what the quilt would look like. This was my 1st try (all fillers are omitted).

It looks neat enough, but when I mirrored it, I did not like the middle section. So...I modified that and tried again. This is only 1/4 of the quilt, but I really like where it is going so far.

I am also playing with some heavily pieced diamonds. I thought it was simple until I tried laying out the diamonds 2 different ways, and was no longer sure which way I liked best! I still lack a little bit of the applique on three of the squares, but you get the idea. The original plan was to have the aqua at the points (like the left side), but I'm not entirely sure.

I have pieced half of the inner star together, and am on hold until the rest of the applique is completed. There are also 4 outer diamond blocks that come nowhere close enough to the pattern size so I have to modify them before piecing, or else it may not lay anywhere close to square and flat. The Y-seams in and of themselves are not hard or intimidating until there are 32 of them on the quilt, and I refuse to do them with catywonky pieces! Simpler to fix 'em now than to curse all those unmentionables later.Oh, did I mention that this quilt is being made all from fabric I currently have on hand. I have vowed not to purchase anything but backing for it. I have used a 1yard piece of striated McKenna Ryan fabric in green in about 4 different places (see the border on the block above) - It goes from very light yellowy green to a deep forest green, all in a matter of 42"! I only wish I had bought 3 more yards :-)

Carpenter Stars

I need another project like I need a hole in my head. I have yet to put together my beachy blocks into a background. I still need to piece the parts together for a commission quilt that the client is finally getting around to paying for. And, I need to make binding & piping for my floor quilt. What can I say?...I work better under pressure. And if that is not enough, I just got a call from the school nurse informing me that my 8 yr old chipped a permanent tooth in gym. And we are departing for CT in 2 days. Great. Dumb tooth. Dumb kid. Dumb frisbee. Need I belch out more for you to grasp my frustration. Last thing I want is for my kid to look like a redneck any longer than he has to. Even if he thinks that it would be amusing (and I am sure he would).

So I have opted not to put another quilt on the frame this week since I am leaving Friday at lunch time. So I spent more time today putzing with these strip sets and resulting diamond blocks. I sense that they will drive me berserk when I get around to doing all the y-seams to put them together, but what the heck. I rarely take the easy road.
The only groundrule I have imposed on myself on this project is that I will not buy fabric for anything but the backing. So, all of these have come from my stashes of goodness. The colors coordinate wonderfuly with my decor, so I suspect that this will hang in my new dining room next summer.

Now, the offending kid just got home. Gotta go inspect the tooth.