Patriots & Petticoats is going Home

Before I show you the most amazingly beautiful quilt I finished this week, let me share some other rather surprising news. Somebody apparently nominated me for Best Longarm Quilter over on SewCalGal's 2012 Golden Quilter Awards. I am amongst a strong field of talented quilters. From now until the end of March, the above link will take you to where you can vote for best fabric store, best teacher, best longarmer, etc. If you want to make me smile (and I know you do!), put a vote in for me (Margaret). Many of you probably only know me from what I show here for quilting, but I assure you, I am just one of those not yet know :-)

And now to Lynette's Patriots and Petticoats.

Stats...98" square. It has wool batting, and is stitched with 3 colors of Superior's Omni thread. This is their newest thread, and is a 40wt polyester. It has a dull appearance, like a cotton, and seemed appropriate for a quilt that would have been quilted with cotton thread 170 years ago. My hallway prohibits me from showing the entire quilt, but one of my previous posts gives a link to the entire quilt. This is a nice layout for this style of "scrap" quilt, as all 1840 reproduction quilts are. Some designs just don't leave much room for quilting or show cohesion between the many pieced blocks.

I chose to break up the center background slightly with an outlined square on point, with feathers inside of the band. The inner section is straight cross-hatched. It seems really simple, but it is so classic to this period, and lets the focus be on the center medallion.
The medallion is where I may have deviated from pure Civil War tradition a little. I kept plenty of feathers, but added a few swirls here and there (to fill those pesky points), and created tulips from the tulip piecings. Hopefully I will be forgiven for not quilting purely to the 1840 period. Another thing I did that is a little out of character for me, is the feathers are stitched in contrasting thread (sage on the cranberry). It limits the thread changes, and allows them to show creatively. I like it.
The borders have single scallops, piano keys and a feather filling. Simple (well, comparatively!) and effective. The ribbon border is accentuated with straight lines and feather back-filling.
The logs were only supposed to be outlined, but I made a couple wrong turns on the first set, and ended up cross-hatching all of them in the end. It looks just fine; no regrets. Everywhere else has lovely curving feathers and curved-crosshatching. Yum.
It's amazing how much better the quilting shows on this quilt than it did on the previous repro quilt I did - mostly because the color is so much lighter. Each of 16 pieced blocks were stitched with a feathered wreath. I did not want to do each differently. I don't think that is as effective (or representative of CW quilts). When I saw the back, I knew that this was the right choice.
One last look at the front...
The backing is pretty. I like when backs show the lovely texture. Those feathered wreaths just rotate so serenely!
And the scalloped border is so pretty from the back.
I've got several simpler (mostly E2E) quilts to fill my time for the next 3 weeks. I am so psyched about getting out of here to go to MQX - Will April 10th just get here??!

Another Gorgeous Day

It is a freakish "spring" here in the northeast. Some years, it seems as though spring has not come until late May or early June. This year, we have had more days that have hit 50F in February and March. It is already 60F today. I'm not sure I can quilt this afternoon with temps like this. Because I am nearly finished with this quilt...maybe another 3-4 hours of finish-up work, I envisioned not having more sneak peeks until it came off the frame. But I am dallying today, so here's a looksee of the center, albeit the red part is not completed.

Ok, and another look at the quilting on the body of the quilt. There's no shortage of cross-hatching and feathers.
I got a special delivery a while ago... Ever wonder what $500 in thread looks like??...
Here it is! Last May I won $1000 in thread from Wonderfil at MQS. I had never used their thread before then, and had only heard of Invisifil, a 100wt very fine thread. I have used that thread a good bit, but only dabbled with their others. Last week I decided to cash in on the last $500 of that gift certificate. I got 15 cones of their Machine Quilter thread (40wt poly), 5 cones of a 50wt cotton that I will likely sell since I don't use cotton hardly ever, 4 cones of a nice metallic, and a few of this and that. The thread is rather pricey compared to Glide, YLI Professional, and most of Superior's (at wholesale prices) - it comes from Canada. I plan to try out the 40wt poly on my next quilt.
And here is a little sampling of another quilt coming up for next year... I am making another broken/carpenter's star. It is all in water colors. The appliqued butterflies are perhaps a tad dramatic, if not unexpected, but they will be that pop of color that will be needed. I am currently designing the setting squares for the next round - there are 16 of them! I have fabrics for the diamonds, but who the heck knows when I will have time to get them pieced (summer???).

Patriots & Petticoats

The work rarely stops here! I am onto my next quilt...it's a 98" 1840's reproduction quilt called Patriots & Petticoats. This is actually the whole quilt if you want to see it. It has nice light fabrics, and a good bit of open area for a longarmer to play in. I started it 3 days ago, and am about 1/3 done, if my hourly estimates are correct. I am within sight of the center, but probably another 3-4 before I am truly half-way.

I just love the border fabric. After seeing it, I thought about some swirling leaves, following the design of the print. The client had really liked an initial suggestion of swags and piano keys, so I opted to go with this. I stuck feathers in the smallest space under the first swag. I may go back and do parallel lines on either side of each piano key to jazz up the outer border a bit as well. I'll do this all at the end so there's not so much stop and go. As you may be able to detect below, there are corners of curved cross-hatching, meandering feathers, and then, more feathers. Yum!
It's hard to see the madness to my method in only a 20" segment, but I am breaking up the background fabric to partition a feathered diamond in the quilt's center. There is a lot of feathering on this one. Even the 20 all different pieced blocks got feathered wreaths. It just seemed more cohesive than all the stencil ideas I was testing.
The very center background is very appropriately, straight cross-hatched on a 1" grid. It may seem a little bland right now, but I think it will be quite cohesive when the entire quilt is visible. I have contemplated adding cc's to the hatching, but I think that will be overkill. Better to change my mind later, than to pick it out for 4 hours now!
The ribbon border is delightful. It is simple, elegant and quite consistent with 1840. Visual straight lines at 1/2" spacing and feathers. The narrow borders are not yet ditched, nor are the logs. Patience...in due time. Tomorrow I will be most likely conquering the center medallion. I'm on the fence about what to do with the ivory background on it. The quilter in me wants to McTavish or pebble it, but the 1840's ladies would never approve of such a frivolous waste of thread. I must keep thinking. Somehow a straight cross-grid just seems too mundane!

Civil War Chronicles Quilt

I just finished the Civil War Chronicles Quilt (designed by Homestead Hearth) this past weekend. It is completely huge - around 112" square or so (see quilt here), and is made with marcus fabrics. I can't begin to take a picture of the entire quilt so you'll have to look at it in the link. I'm by no means a huge fan of the reproduction fabrics from any era, but these were particularly difficult to quilt on because they are very heavily patterned. I wondered when the quilt was done if my intended quilting scheme would actually show! Here's the quilt on my raised queen bed, nearly draping all the way to the floor (over my 100" square quilt!).The center of the quilt...Lots of ditch quilting, curved cross hatching, cc, and feathers where I hoped that they might show. Under the right lighting, they do.
I really think that this design is disjointed, discombobulated and ill-conceived. It uses fabrics for a few blocks and then never uses them again on the entire quilt. There are probably 25 different fabrics. There are several different block designs - some 6 patch, some 4-patch, etc. That made designing a continuous design challenging. After some thought and many hours of quilting, I still wonder if an edge-to-edge may have been a better route. Hate when those moments of uncertainty come after 2 weeks of non-stop quilting (and the client really did want a "custom"). These gripes, mind you, are directed back at the designer of this top and not the piecer. She did a nice job with such a large quilt at keeping most points and creating a flat and easily quiltable top. She's probably really looking forward to 440" of binding...teehee

There are 16 of these small-ish (~6-8") blocks around the outer flanks of the quilt, eight of each block. I was happy to discover that despite the blocks being different, it was rather simple to devise a reasonably simple stitch pattern that was the same and worked for both block designs.
This quilt has a nice Hobbs wool batting so over quilting was not desired. Besides, I wanted to keep it somewhat "period", and avoid things like pebbles and meander stippling, etc.

The monstrous borders are what is shown below. I like the feathered triangles, and think that they work well. Any areas that had minimal piecing had quilting more tailored to show, such as feathering.

The four corners of the quilt are comprised each of 4-13.5" (yea, my eyes rolled also) blocks. As I said earlier, each of these has a different construction geometry. To keep the cost more manageable, we opted to do a E2E filler in these 16 corner blocks. I think this was a good decision. I wanted to do Baptist fans really bad, but I do these with templates and they just do not fall into E2E pricing. Instead, I subdivided each block into quadrants and did free feathers down the diagonals.

This shows more evidently on the back. It creates a nice texture, and is not out of context with the genre of the quilt.

For those curious, I used Superior's So Fine thread on the top and Bottomline on the bottom...4300 yards to be exact.

I am onto another reproduction quilt; started it today. It is Patriots in Petticoats. It's a very lovely design and I am having fun with this quilt already. It's a little brighter than this one in this post, and has more open fabric where I can quilt. Posts later this week...

Treading Water

We are getting our 2nd snow day (that results in a school cancellation...we've had a few more snowy days than that, but not many) of the season. Kids are home, as predicted. You all know my thoughts on kids home, so I won't digress too much there. I have been treading water sort of this week. I quilted on the monster quilt (see previous posts) until Monday morning, when I ran out of the prewound bobbins. I was anticipating this...the order I placed last week did not arrive until yesterday at 5pm. Sigh... Though I'd like to have been finishing the 115" CW quilt, the extra 2 days did allow me to putter with a few other things. I have given my left wrist a nice rest and today I realized for the first time that it was not bothering me. Thank Goodness. Aleve and a wrist brace to the rescue.
I got the binding on my MQX Neutral Fusion quilt this week. I also got this very bright quilt marked up for quilting, or I should say I started the markings. On Wednesday, I marked all 4 of these gray corners with this pretty cool braid stencil that I made myself back when I hand quilted. The green marking pencil marks are there, but appear a bit faint. But then yesterday, I decided that the braid was far too traditional looking for this quilt, and erased all the marks and did this...

It has a more art nouveau look, which is where I am going, and is much more how I envisioned it to look. I am now fine-tuning what is going in those star points, and contemplating thread color(s), as I will likely purchase some Glide at MQX for the quilt. With all these colors, I really don't know what color to stitch, but I do know I don't want to change the thread 12 different times! If you have a moment...have a look at the outer border of the quilt...it requires opening the link to see the entire top. I need suggestions on what to do with the quilting for the outer border. I am stumped!

Working on a Monster

I am 16 hours into longarm quilting this quilt. The pattern says it is 108" square, but it actually measures about 113"x115"! It's amazing how being off on that 1/4" seam allowance can result in a huge amount if the quilt is large! I have the quilt's center within sight, but it is beginning to feel like I will never finish this one. I hit this point with all quilts, but this one is hard because it does have SO many hours left.
The client is having it custom quilted. She's a hand quilter, but felt that the size of this quilt was more than she wanted to tackle. If there is one type of fabric I prefer to avoid as a machine quilter, it is any type of reproduction. They are SO busy. The quilting is hard to see and so is the pattern. I am sure I will feel better when it is off and I can see the patterns, but at this point, I wonder if an all-over of Baptist fans wouldn't have made more sense!!

I'll have more to show by the weekend. Kids are now back in school after a most annoying week of not doing much (that is if you don't count them being home this Friday afternoon!). I should run out of my bobbins today, and am not expected to have more before Wednesday afternoon. A 2 day break will be nice. Maybe I will play on a quilt of my own!

In the Press

Have you received your Machine Quilting Unlimited?... I got an early edition mailed to me which arrived yesterday. There's a great article, more than 6 pages in fact, on water quilts. My Sea Glass quilt made it into the article! It has a lovely selection of widely diverse quilts for which water of some form has been the inspiration. Sea Glass is one of my more favorite and special quilts made to date. It is painfully simple in design, constructed of just 48 kaleidoscope blocks (albeit with a good bit of applique added). But it's my first quilt of axisymmetric borders, and non-traditional design. My 7 year old middle child, Bryce, loves it. It will forever remind me of his discovery last summer of sea glass. It may have really been a broken beer bottle, but the joy of hunting for it on the beach together made it sea glass.

Botanical Beatles

yup, Beatles. Not Beetles, like the bug that would be near flowers.

The musical variety.

I received what is probably the most unusual quilting request. Initially I really was not sure it could be done cohesively, but give the client what they ask for if you can! She's making a quilt for a friend of her daughter, and she likes botanical things and she loves the Beatles.

The quilt is just about 83" square, and has a snuggly flannel backing (which is fantastic for showing off the quilting!). I have a layer of Hobbs 80/20 batting and stitched with one of my favorite threads for E2E jobs, Superior's Omni thread.
The quilt is from very lively fabrics. Looks to me to be a pattern made from precuts. It's cool how it creates the white squares on point. I knew that all the detailed requests in the world would never really show up on the heavy prints, so I had to use the ivory fabrics for the things I wanted to show.

I quilted it with a whimsical freehand that I do often with swirls and echoed feathers. When I reached the white squares, I stitched these leafy/flower shapes. They could be quilted continuously, enabling continuous stitching. This was a fairly time-consuming design to stitch out, but at least the stops and stops were limitted mostly to the edges and when I ran out of bobbin.

The ivory border is where it all got a little uncertain. Before I loaded the quilt, I marked out several Beatle's lyrics and song titles along the border with a water soluable pen. I thought I may have to turn the quilt to enable quilting the top, but it turned out I could follow the script upside down and backwards just fine! There are phrases like "All you need is love", "Hey Jude", and "We all live in a yellow submarine", to name a few, all around the border of the quilt. It's personalized to the recipient's taste.

The soft green back shows the texture nicely. Swirly, leafy and fun.

Playing, Designing, Dreaming

I use Photoshop to help design the quilting for some of my quilts. I can sketch on th Bamboo tablet and audition a multitude of options. I am not sure whether I will use any of these, but parts of each design are being considered. I have 4 of these corners...
The outermost border with the appliqued ribbons is proving challenging to design for. I don't want to go with my usual fall back of parallel lines, but who knows. Maybe feathers & fillers or...

...maybe feathers and lines and fillers. So many choices. I don't really like any right now. Disregard my squiggly braid in the dark gray. It is freehanded, and looks horrible. I have a stencil should I go this route.

...And the center (below), is actually on point, so I have done a lot of twisting my head sideways to study the attributes of this concept. Uncomfortable?...maybe. But it's still better than unstitching something I don't like :-)

Friday is for Finishes

With one large-ish quilt on the frame right now, I am gearing up for the 2 very large customs coming up next. I think I will get one loaded next week while all the crazies are home on school vacation, but most of the week will be devoted to allowing my left wrist to heal before I embark on an excess of rulerwork. I got a couple finishes this week - enough to satisfactorily prove that my machine is functioning just pefectly. I wondered after having many issues on the thicker miniature quilt. I am overjoyed not to have an equipment problem. Learnings are tucked into my hat for another day.

This is a small wall-hanging that the owner only wanted an edge-to-edge on. It is stitched with a plum Glide thread. The colors are perfect for me, and the ombre fabric is very interesting.
It's another gorgeously warm day in the not-so-frigid northeast today. Who'd have thought that the average February temperture would hover near 30F! It is usual to have a week of sub-zero, but not this year. I think we have had under 24" of total snowfall, all winter. My hyacinths are already poking through!!

Have a good weekend~

Applique Project(s)

It is no secret that I do a lot of hand applique. You have seen some of the quilts I have appliqued over the recent years. (or you can look here, here and here). It started as I needed something to do while my students were taking exams. And then I got so I liked doing it in the evenings because I don't want to leave my husband on the couch alone and go to the basement to sew (where all my machines are set up). Without something to sew on at night after the kids are in bed, I will just fall asleep in my chair. And that is pittiful. This is my latest and probably wildest creation. I have had these boldly colored hand-dyes for a couple years. My husband bought me a stack of 24 FQ for my birthday a few bdays back. I used all the purple and aqua ones on one of the quilts shows in the above links, and needed to find something for the red, yellow and orange ones. As you can see, I have used a good bit of purple as well. I guess it is just in my blood. All of the tans are really scrappy (as in there are 5 or 6 different shades actually used)...they were left over from my Sea Glass quilt.
I have finished stitching the border "ribbons" and am now making all the necessary adjustments to them as I miter all the corners and attach the border triangles to the body of the quilt. I have a number of tiny circles to still add after that is done. My hope is to get this done and into the quilting queue so it can be finished by the mid-Summer, but I'm not sure that's in the cards. Quilting at Casa Quilts of Love is fairly busy right now, and this is a large quilt not to be rushed.

In the couple days of downtime lately, I started another broken star, this time out of batiks. I really love the way the first one I did came out, and thought it was perfectly suited for a watery look. The setting squares are paper pieced, which you should know by now I loathe paper piecing. It's a pain, and is slow, and oh, so messy. But, nevertheless, this is how these "reed"like blocks are done. Two down, another 6 needing the 3 parts assembled. You should know to expect from me that there will be hand applique on these squares...something to jazz these up a bit, and give this smewhat traditional type star a personal and unique twist.

As one that does a considerable amount of applique, I must make sure you are aware of a wonderful pair of scissors. These are serrated-edge scissors, that were developed by Karen Kay Buckley. I learned of these 18 months ago when I tookher hand-applique class, but being cheap, I didn't buy them then. I actually go them for Christmas from my mom this year. I have the larger size, and they are a perfect size for hand cutting fabrics. They grip the fabric and give you a perfect cut. Trust me, these are a great thing to have if you applique. Not sure how I made it without them this long.

Please, Oh please...send me some easier quilts!

My back aches. My left hand is throbbing from the excess of ruler work. My neck needs a brace (and about 18 uninterrupted hours in bed-ha!). You get the picture. I am 14 hours into the 2nd Stars for a New Day miniature in 2 weeks. The end is joyfully in sight, which is good. The deadline for entering this into MQX is looming at 5 days away, and the client really wants/needs to have it done. Her's just happened to be the 2nd one I quilted by the random nature of it being on the bottom on the hanger. I don't want her to miss her MQX experience and debut because I was having technical glitches.
By technical, I mean for some reason, this is the quilt that just about would not allow me to quilt it. I did the 1st of these rather seam-heavy, double-batted quilts without so much as a broken thread. It was completely smooth sailing. Then, between the two mini-monsters, I stitched a lap quilt (albeit a pantograph), and had no issues with th stitching. It looks great. Then as soon as I started this quilt, it was as though the voodoo curse of the quilt was in place. The thread broke about 15 times in my first hour of stitching. This is immensely annoying to have to pick out the stitches in order to knot and burry every break! I got to practice all kinds of vulgarities and obscenities though while the kids were at school. Fun being able to vent one's frustration without having to softly mutter nice things in a growly voice. I asked plenty of great quilters for advice on this problem, but all indicators were that it had come out of timing. I couldn't sew right to left OR bottom to top, whatsoever. Freaky. But, off on another quilt sandwich, it sewed like a dream in any direction. More Freaky.

OK, so it is something about this particular quilt that is causing the problems. Maybe the thickness is slightly different/more than the 1st quilt. Or maybe the white-on-white fabric is part of it (more problems on this). Either way, I have to do customs, and I have 2 king sized ones next in line. My guess is it is a combination of thickness and thickness. The quilting on the center of the feathered star broke 4 times. There is a LOT of bulk here.

You can see from the pictures that I am getting it quited. I have slowed my stitching down to a practical crawl speed to avoid the breaks. It's annoying...there are times on straight sections that you just want to zoom. I have not done those 3-hour stars (between the feathers),and I am really dreading them. I must formulate a good plan for how to do them without to much screaming. You may also notice that I have stitched the sections of this quilt differently than the first quilt. It's not been easy, because I like certain motifs. I have not been able to do the cross-hatching whatsoever on this quilt, which frustrates me. It is so lovely and versatile. Hopefully it will be equally as impressive as the other quilt. Nobody wants to think that they got the less desireable quilt. And hopefully I meet the Tuesday deadline!

Oh gosh golly... I just spoke with the owner of the quilt. She's so sweet to call, but she was concerned that the quilt is getting my body & may sanity. I feel bad...The quilt is coming along lovely, rest assured. And I will make it through the process fine as well. I'd rather have a challenging day quilting a custom any day of the week than be stuck with only an endless pile of pantographs! I just don't want to do another miniature for a while :-) I love your quilt; your technique is amazing. Thanks for bringing the quilt, and thanks for caring.

Ignoring the boundaries of decent journalism

This is page 1 of the April 2012 American Patchwork & Quilting. One of my most fabulous clients allerted me to this article over the weekend. This article is about her daughter, also a client of mine, and the 13 quilts she made in the 18 months leading up to her wedding. The quilts were part of her modern-day dowry, and they were beautifully displayed at her wedding reception. Maybe some of you caught this story as it unfolded several months ago. It is posted here.
So upon hearing of her story going in a magazine, I went right out on Satuday and found the magazine. The photos they showed are lovely. In fact, I quilted each of these shown in the magazine, and another seven of the thirteen. Want to see?...Ok, maybe not, but they are here anyways, and here, and here, and here, and here and here, and here, and here, and let's not forget the show quilt that earned a 3rd place. There are a few that obviously never made it into blog posts, but I have pictures of them on my computer. Just humor me, I need a little vent.

It has always been my understanding that journalists should be held to the utmost in standards. They shouln't be allowed to report half the story, because the readers might actually believe only the half they are saying. This lovely article makes absolutely NO mention to the person that actually made these lovely tops into quilts. Imagine my anger and horror. I am a professional that relies on referral of clients by what is published, or shown at quilt shows, or word of mouth. Quilt shows are not allowed to not make mention of the quilter. Otherwise they may as well be called Flimsy shows. I doubt that would catch on. I hate stirring up hornet nests, but I just had to send a message to the editor this morning. They manage to publish the quilter's name with every quilt pattern & photo that they include in their magazines. So why not here? If there was not a dedicated quilter behind the scenes, it may well have only been 12 quilts. One of these was quilted a week before the wedding, just hours before I left on vacation. I could have very easily said no, but I happily did not.

So, fellow quilters out there, let's unite. Tell the publications that this crap is unacceptable. I'm not looking for my 12 seconds in the limelight, just the appropriate credit for what has been done. The story is all her's. I just want small text beside the photo indicating that I quilted them. Simple.

Finished Stars for a New Day #1

Yup, you read that right. #1. There's a number two coming up in a few days. I'm allowing my very sore left hand to rest in a wrist brace until at least Wednesday before I tackle the next one. Remember, this quilt is in miniature -- only 44" or so square, so accuracy is a must. I outline quilted nearly every shape - all in fact except the row of stars on point...what the client refers to as her "3-hour stars". There was just no way they were getting completely outlined. Let's be real-
I spent 17 hours quilting this mini-beast, after one of the borders was removed and flipped on account of it being accidentally inverted. Not bad on my 15 hour estimate I'd say, considering this is my first miniature. I love how it turned out. The texture is just delicious. It has a QD wool batt over Hobbs 80/20. As an aside, I dislike the QD wool as compared to the Hobbs Tuscany. It seems tougher, rougher. In the end, I'm not sure the difference is discernable though. Top threads are all coordinating Superior So Fine, with Bottomline bobbins. I'm not really sure if these are actually CW repros or not, but the fabrics just did not scream out for bolder colors or shiny threads. JMHO there.

The outer border is a departure for me. It's almost got an Aztek feel, but these axisymmetrical stars stumped my sense of design. I didn't want to just micro stipple around them. This next picture is about my favorite. The long sweeping feathers flank the more simply quilted 3-hour stars. Thise are about the best back-tracking feathers I think I have sewn. It's just a nice juxtaposition of simple straight cross-hatching with the graceful curves of the feathers. That is what quilt design is all about. Variety, simplicity, repetition. Move the eyes constantly, but allow them to settle for a second or two, here and there.

I still cannot believe that this feathered star is only 7" square. And it is totally outline stitched. Those little triangles are tinier than my fingernails. I actually had to rip out one corner of the curved cross-hatching because it had the wrong number of curves. Kinda maddening.

The front is subtle with matching threads for the most part. It's all about the immaculate piecing. The quilting is not for show, but rather to add a dimension. But from the back...

Here, it is all about the stitching designs. And it is fun. It moves, and is playful. It's all I hoped it would be.

Let's hope that number 2 goes faster, and with as few issues as this one had. I plan to use some different motifs so that these 2 friends have similar yet not identical miniature quilts.

Now, off to think about a couple simpler quilts before I dive into this insanity for 5 days.