Stringing Along: Quilting

Last week I posted about this string quilt. I finished the assembly and added a border. Why did I add a border? I think a border, while not always necessary for the design, is important for stabilizing the center of the quilt. All of these string blocks and the on-point setting made it pretty obvious to me that I would need to stabilize the quilt before loading onto the frame.

My favorite place to pick up wide backing fabric is Spring Water Designs. Every time I to they have something that just works with my quilt top. This backing was no exception. I embroidered the label directly onto the backing fabric before loading onto the quilting frame.

Not surprisingly, I found that this quilt was a little oversized but still fit onto my frame. I did buy batting for this project because I didn't want to have to piece batting. I generally buy batting by the roll so my limit (without piecing batting) is 90". This quilt is almost exactly 90" wide so that wasn't going to work.

I went nuts with the quilting. I quilted feathers, I echoed the feathers. I quilted swirls and echoed those. This quilt is full of several different quilting motifs and I love the overall effect.

I love playing with different designs. This is the back of the quilt so you can really see the quilting detail. I really need to make a quilt with some negative space and do some free-form quilting. quilting it over busy piecing doesn't give it a chance to shine.

Here it is all quilted. I still need to add the binding and get some good photographs of this one.

For those three people who follow my blog, I apologize for being late with the third post the week. I always mean to blog regularly but this week got sort of busy with after work social events, almost no craft time, and even less opportunity to sit down in front of my computer and write a post. I'll try to do better next week.

Do you make scrappy quilts? What about string quilts that use up those skinny leftovers?

Stringing Along

I have been making string blocks for a long time. Long enough that it is time to make something. If you want to learn more about string blocks, and how I made these blocks using my vintage treadle sewing machine, check out this post from over a year ago. I joined the blocks using a more modern machine but that had more to do with the time I had and the fact that I had house guests than anything else.

I piece my string blocks on a thin paper foundation like Bonnie Hunter suggests in her free tutorial. I used Electric Quilt 7 to make sure I had enough blocks and got piecing.

This quilt will be about a queen size at about 89" by 97" or so. That depends on the final border but that is the plan. It is bright and scrappy and absolutely awesome.

If you want to see the story behind my vintage sewing machine (nearly 100 years old and still sews a pretty stitch) my adventure began in this post from 2014. Old sewing machines are amazing creations that will outlive me just like mine lived longer than my gran.

2015 Mystery Quilt: playing catch-up

With the beginning of the 2016 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt En Provence I decided I should finish up last year's quilt.

Way back in January I shared with you my progress on the 2015 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt Allietare (available now as a digital download). I pulled it out, created a label, pressed the top, loaded it all up and got quilting.

I decided to go with an all-over quilting motif from Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters: Choose & Use Quilting Designs on Modern Quilts. This one is called "flower power" and I love it. So easy to stitch, creates great texture, and makes for a great all-over design. I find I return to my quilting books again and again when trying to decide on a quilting motif.

It took two days and more than eight bobbins but it is quilted. I quilted it with So Fine! #50 from Superior Threads. It makes for great texture without overpowering the piecing.

I had the binding made from leftover strips in the bin with the quilt. I went ahead and finished it by machine for a quick finish. It took me years to get over machine-finished binding but now I use it more often than I use hand-finished binding. If you want to see how I attach and finish my machine finished binding you should check out my tutorial in the sidebar.

The fall light was horrible and I will try to take a better photo another day. Here is the finished quilt. I attached a temporary hanging sleeve and it didn't do the quilt any favors. Still a very flat-hanging quilt, though. Maybe this one needs to go to a show. I think I have enough of the backing fabric leftover to make a matching hanging sleeve.

The close-up was better. The piecing speaks for this quilt.

Now I can work on other projects knowing this one is finished.

Day 6 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

Quilting for Guild

As you may know, I'm a member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.

Recently I was asked to participate in a guild quilt for our out-going president. I said I would do it and I'm so glad to share it with you. The blocks were made by the many members of the guild and assembled by the most amazingly generous Janet, our new president.

This quilt is a wonderful collection of different improvisational blocks that come together is such a great way. I loaded it onto the frame and hoped it would speak to me a little. Sometimes I know exactly what to quilt. Other times I have to wait to see what I can come up with.

I finally decided to use an all-over wave but include triangles that appeared randomly and were more densely quilted.

The triangles were stitched with rulers and then filled in free-hand.

I like the overall affect and I'm glad I decided to mix an organic fill with very structured pieing and ruler-work.

The back of this quilt is pretty awesome, too. I handed the quilt back to Janet and it was handed over to Amy for the binding and during the Sunday meeting it was given to Deb, our past president.

I'm really glad I got to be a part of this project.

Stringing Along

I regularly add narrow strips of fabric to my bin of strings. Saving those slivers of fabric for a rainy day. I discovered that there was a small flaw with this plan. The bin does not hold infinite amounts of strings. I decided it was time to start stitching.

I trimmed pages from an old phone book to use as a foundation for assembling my blocks. This is a method I learned from Bonnie Hunter. Her blog Quiltville has loads of great stuff including the directions for string piecing blocks using foundation papers called Basket-Weave Strings. She also has a section about getting started with string piecing.

I decided it was time to really sit down and use my Singer red eye (model 66) in treadle cabinet and make something. You can read the four-post series I wrote about this wonderful machine. Start at the beginning and see some of what I've done to take this machine from a display piece to a working machine. This seemed the perfect project. That 1/4" seam allowance isn't all that important when piecing strings. This machine sews such a pretty straight stitch, and quietly, too.

I stitched and stitched.

Then I pressed and stitched some more. I used Electric Quilt 7 to figure out how many of these blocks I would need. It helpfully supplied the answer: 200! Because I don't make many small quilts.

I stitched and stitched. On January 9th I reached that goal with this stack of blocks. Next will be trimming them, removing the paper backing, and sewing them into rows. I did manage to knock down that strings bin, though.

How small is too small a piece of fabric to keep? I found some very narrow strips in my bin and I'm not likely to keep pieces that small (think around 1" wide) any more. What is your limit?

Recently Kelly Ann asked her readers if they used these leftovers. If you are a scrappy person, please go leave her a comment and let her know.

I recently discovered some amazingly colored cotton yarns through The Knot Theorist. You should check out the fun color combinations created by Susan of Jazz Handz Fusion Fiber.

Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2015: Allietare! The Reveal

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called Allietare! I participated last year with her Grand Illusion and really enjoyed the process. Last week I shared my progress on clues #1 and #2, clue #3, clue #4 and Clue #5.

Here are the two blocks that will make up this quilt.

First I started working on the main block. These turned out great.

Then I got to work on the alternate blocks. I'm still working on the block construction and I'm pretty sure it will be a while before I get to putting the rows together.

Are you participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt this year?

Linking up with Quiltville.

The 2015 Year in Review

I wish I had a wonderful post all prepared for the first day of the year. Something that would sum up all the things I did and learned. Maybe 2016 will the be the year that gets that treatment. Because I certainly didn't plan well enough to give a good summary of 2015.

Let's get the most important part out of the way. How many spools of thread did I manage to empty during 2015? In 2014 I worked through 21 spools or cones of thread. I have been buying thread by the cone, so I don't foresee this trend continuing into the future. It just takes so long to empty a cone of the 2000 to 6000 yards one can hold. 8 cones, 6 spools and 9 pre-wound bobbins of thread emptied in 2015. Total: 14 spools/cones.

Big events:

• I had a big promotion at work and a new job
• We moved to a new town so I could have a better commute (from the old house the new job was 1.5 hours of drive-time)

We bought a new house, because we don't do things by halves, this is my new fabric storage

• I went from a tiny sewing studio to one big enough for my long-arm frame at 10 feet
• Total blog posts for 2015: 133

• I set a goal of quilting four charity quilts a month during 2015. The final count was 50 quilts.

• Sew My Stash 2015 Projects - I did manage to make several projects from my stash. One of the biggest things I did was go through and make stacks and stacks of totes using the free pattern available from The Green Bag Lady. If you live in a state where plastic bags are on the decline or even no long available, this is the perfect alternative and it uses about 1/2 yard of fabric per bag. Not into sewing? Don't worry, The Green Bag Lady has you covered with monthly give-aways when you comment on her blog.

I also made more than a couple scrappy quilts that did use up some of that stash. This quilt I pieced the backing from leftovers I had on-hand. You know your stash is out-of-hand when you can make an entire quilt from fabrics on-hand.

Even the binding came from the leftover binding bin.

My How to Make a Scoodie tutorial received five more comments in 2015 and is up to 330 page views. I'm so glad people are still using the tutorial and I love hearing about your projects.

I tried to pick a favorite quilt from 2015 and just couldn't do it. Here are my favorite quilts from 2015. There were more finishes, but these are my favorites. I didn't buy any additional fabric to finish this quilt, not even backing.

• All You Need is Love
• Grand Illusion
• Mania
• Bazaar Delight
• Scrap Vortex
• Big Ass Heart
• Slayer
• Scrappy Bee

Do you have a favorite quilt of the year?

Goals for 2016:

• quilt 4 charity quilts a month
• finish at least 6 unfinished objects during the year (I think I'll capture this in another post)
• continue to work through my fabric collection with more projects aimed at Sew My Stash 2016
• start the new year on a fabric diet and try to stick to it
• spend some time working with InkScape and 5D Embroidery to create digitized embroidery designs
• continue to blog at least three times a week (but I'm not going to get spun up if I don't meet this one). I'm taking to heart some things Christa of Christa Quilts said on her blog in December. 
• add to this list when I find something that needs to be added, new goals are important
• work with curved piecing

I also want to share this great post from Mandalei Quilts from Sew Mama Sew. I often read comments from quilters on quilting groups that they don't know what is a fair price for a long arm quilter. If you don't know much about having your quilt quilted by a professional long arm quilter I recommend you take a read and learn about this part of quilting. I don't think everyone should become a long arm quilter but I do believe you should arm yourself with as much information as you can before you take your hard work in to be quilted.

What are your goals for the new year?

Stitching Up a Super Tote

I've never quite figured out how to install a long zipper in the top of a tote bag. I decided it was time to figure it out and Noodle-head was having a sale on patterns. I picked up two patterns. The first was the Caravan Tote & Pouch and the second was the Super Tote.

I picked up this fun fabric from Spool sometime last year, or maybe the year before... That isn't important for this post. I knew exactly who I would be making for if not the specific project when I bought it. Now that I had the fabric and the pattern I was ready to get to work.

This bag has many parts and almost all of them are interfaced. Since I made this bag completely from quilting cottons I interfaced some of the lining pieces as well to give it more structure.

I found the pattern very easy to follow with detailed instructions. I did make a practice bag before I cut into this fabric. Because I had a very limited amount of the fabric, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was cutting before I started. It also helped me decide where I needed to add more interfacing. I often will make a practice item of a pattern. This is true of bags and sometimes clothing. I want to make sure I will succeed.

I changed the way I attached the zipper to fit more with my own work-flow and to ensure accuracy because I always have a little difficulty with zippers. I've just learned how to do it more accurately with how I work. I also modified the zipper tabs because I used a wider zipper. I love the double-pull zipper for large projects! Zipper available from ZipIt on Etsy. I really like the strap construction method and I know it would be easy to modify to create a piping look with a small modification.

I did a little detail stitching. These little details really make a difference in the final project.

This was a great project and the resulting bag was a resounding success! I gifted the bag on the 25th.

I've been listening to past episodes from the Crafty Planner and Modern Sewciety.

Do you make a practice project before getting to the project?

Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2015: Allietare! Clue #5

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called Allietare! I participated last year with her Grand Illusion and really enjoyed the process. Last week I shared my progress on clues #1 and #2, clue #3 and clue #4.

This week was super quick and easy. Just piece together units made in clue #1 and clue #2. I'm pretty sure this is a quilt I would never attempt if I knew from the beginning how many pieces would be included. I do like the surprise, though.

What am I listening to this week? I've been trying to catch up with episodes of Escape Pod, Pseudo Pod and Pod Castle. I don't know where I would be without the Escape Artists crew to listen to while I work. If you like fantasy, horror or speculative fiction I suggest you check them out. I keep links to them in the sidebar so you don't have to search the blog to find links like this.

Are you participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt this year?

Linking up with Quiltville.

In the Mail Monday: Con Man!

In the spring of 2015 I came across an IndieGoGO campaign that captured my attention. I jumped on the campaign with little abandon. The campaign become a wonderful thing that exploded past their initial request to the tune of millions.

Con Man is now available on Vimeo in demand. If you are a Firefly fan and want to see Alan Tudyk make fun of himself and the convention circuit I recommend you check it out.

My extras arrived in the mail and I was so excited I let out a squeal! I am creating quite a collection of Firefly themed t-shirts and this one is close enough to join the collection. They are also going to release Spectrum in comic form!

Have you found any great projects on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo that you just had to become a part of?