Snarky Embroidery

If you are like me, you do a search for "mean cross stitch" or "foul language embroidery" when you want a quick giggle. Warning, most of what you find won't be safe for work, or children, or sensitive souls. I am not a child, nor sensitive, though I can be childish at times.

A friend of mine recently turned 49 and isn't exactly excited about the prospect. When I tried to wish her a happy birthday, she said "meh" with a shrug. I said "all your dreams are dead" and she cackled. I felt compelled to mark the occasion appropriately by creating something no one else would ever give to her.

I started with these awesome letters from Urban Threads Embroidery called Inked Alphabet. They have so many awesome designs and I love when I can make one of them really shine. I pulled the letters to join with a font within my embroidery design software. I thought this was a good match. I picked really subdued colors for this. I want the work to draw the eye, not the colors. I set the machine to stitching and worked on other things while it churned away embroidering mean words and breaking the thread.

Once it was stitched out, I drew some lines as guides and got quilting. The spiderweb-like effect wasn't really planned. I did want rays shooting out from the D in dreams and I managed that. Overall I'm pleased with the quilting. The quilting was hand guided on my long arm quilting machine frame. The finished size is 10" high by 12" wide.

Not everyone will really get my dark humor; I get that. Someday, you will look back on your life, and I truly hope you look back on the many wonderful things you've done. When I turn 50 I'm going to accept that all my dreams are dead.

Sunday Swap: Winter Winds

I belong to the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.  This month we had an opportunity to make mug rugs that have a winter theme.  I stumbled around until it occurred to me that I have the perfect pattern.

This is the Mini Hex N More from Jaybird Quilts.  I've played with the Sidekick and the Super Sidekick but this is the first project with the Mini Hex N More.  I decided that the Mini Northern Lights would be great when done in some of my leftover neutrals from the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt.

I cut down a few strips of the the last of the neutrals and got to work.  I picked three that read a little darker than others and laid out the rows.  My design board got another workout with this project.

Sewing these together was very straightforward.  I only had to rip out on row.  I think my seam allowance was off just a tiny bit.  I worked it out before I got any more rows stitched.

I had planned on this one being a little wider than it was long.  It ended up finishing around 9" by 9" though.  I see a crooked seam, but it is too late to do anything about it now.

After quilting I trimmed it up and prepared for the binding.

The quilting on this one was done free-motion on my Pfaff.  The stitching was done with Superior So Fine!

I decided that a 2" binding would give me a nice narrow binding.  Bed-size quilts usually get a 2.5" double-fold binding.  Smaller quilts call for smaller binding.

I didn't get a fancy label on this one.  Just the name, date and my name on the back in Micron Pigma Pen.  I really like how this one turned out.  I should have made two.  This one would look great on my cubicle wall.

What did I get at the swap?  I'm glad you asked!  I received this darling little mug rug from Ruthie.  The darling little birds sit on the branches.  I love this!  It will find a place on my cubicle wall.  Somewhere it can spend quality time with my growing collection of tiny quilts.  Thanks, Ruthie!

Modern Quilting for The Bitchy Stitcher

WARNING:  If you think quilting isn't funny, or are easily offended by (im)mature language, I recommend you stop reading now.  You've been warned.

Back in April of this year, The Bitchy Stitcher wrote a fun post that tickled my funny bone.  I set out to make some of her amazing modern quilts.  In miniature.  I also found a short thread (that I can't find now) over on the Quilting Board where there was some butt-hurt that lasted about three posts until someone pointed out that her new book, Modern Quilting:  F*ck Yeah!, was a joke.  The original post was posted on April 1st, after all.

First I picked out my solids, because everyone knows that modern quilting demands solids.  Lots and lots of solids.  These are all Kona Cottons from Robert Kaufman that I had in my stash.  I have so many of these because they are quilting staples.  I also have batting by the roll and thread in colors the rainbow never heard of.  Don't judge.

I was going to use Kona white (there are actually several shades of white/neutral in this line) for the backing and the background for some of these.  I ended up changing my mind on the backing fabric since I decided to print the label directly on the backing fabric.  I used the prepared fabric you can get at quilt shops for printing with your inkjet printer at home.  I've had these fabric sheets for a long time and decided that I should use them.  It is only a matter of time before the sticky backing either doesn't come off or falls off before I can print on it.

To get the shapes for the front of the quilts, I went with English paper piecing.  I have an unnatural (and disturbing) urge to do this sort of sewing.  It goes against everything I am when it comes to quilting.  I am a machine sewer.  I am a machine quilter.  I finish binding by machine.  But... English paper piecing is a topic for another blog post.

I attached the shapes to my white background fabric.  Sometimes, my hand work is better than others.  The hexie was fine.  That quadrilateral challenged my sewing ability and my inner calm.  I decided to just let that one ride.  Life is too short to rip.

The quilting is where I really let this project take off.  First was Far From the Madding Crowd.  I sort of let the walking foot do the work.  This is another thing you see a great deal of in modern quilting; long parallel lines that use some of the piecing as a base and just take off across the surface of the quilt.

Here we have Dream Your Explosion Tiffany.  I used one of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine to balance the feather I put in the white background.  That feather isn't perfect, but I love it anyway.  Sometimes the feather, an heirloom quilting motif, is stitched into the negative space of modern quilts because, well, feathers are awesome.

Finally, we have Meadowlarking.  I love the quilting on this one.  Each of those little clams challenged my free-motion quilting abilities.  Overall I like this one the most.  The quilting is perfect!

I trimmed and added the binding to each tiny quilt to contrast the quilt and really help the design stand out.  Nah, I just sort of followed the book on this one.  I still love the effect.  Megan picked great colors.

Each back was printed with the label prior to quilting.  This is a great way to label your mug rugs.  I should use some freezer paper to do this sort of thing with other mug rugs.  Sometimes I'm such a genius!  (One millisecond is all it takes.)  I suppose if I do that I should also share a tutorial.

 Far From the Madding Crowd

 Dream Your Explosion Tiffany

Meadowlarking

These quilts were a blast to make.  After they were done, I bundled them up and sent them to The Bitchy Stitcher.  I can only hope I did her patterns and designs justice.

As I mentioned before, The Bitchy Stitcher is collecting quilt blocks to create the Laughter Quilt.  This is a great way to share something that makes you laugh with the quilting world.  Seriously, lend a hand.  Remember, if you can't laugh, you'll cry.  There is no crying in quilting, especially modern quilting.

Spring Swap

I participated in the Springtime Mug Rug swap hosted by Michele at the Quilter's Gallery.  These are the two mug rugs I made for myself. 

Here are some pictures of the front and back of both mug rugs.

In hindsight, I can see that the label works so much better with a dark color thread on these batiks.  I still love the batiks for this project.  Bright colors are just so much fun!  I fussy-cut some of pieces to make the fabrics work for me.  I love these flowers.

Both patterns were designed by The Patchsmith.  You can find her patterns on Craftsy in her store.  They are reasonably priced, so click through and check them out.  The butterfly trail was free-motion stitched before I layered the top with the batting and backing.

The appliques were stitched down by machine with Masterpiece from Superior Threads before I layered the top over the batting and backing.  

While Masterpiece is not intended for quilting, I did quilt with it in this case.  Since I did all the quilting free-motion on my sewing machine, I could stitch slowly and get good-looking stitches without thread breaking.  I don't think I could get this good a stitch with the long arm with this thread.  I would have used So Fine! #50 for long arm quilting with this level of detail.

The binding was attached by machine on the top and hand-stitched to the back.  I don't usually use a narrow binding, but these mug rugs finish at 5.5" by 9" and I thought a binding cut at 2.5" would be entirely too wide.  This binding was cut at 2" and finished just a hair over 1/4" on the front and right at 3/8" on the back. I could have cut the binding at 1.75" and gotten a great result on the front and back.

The Sneaky Finish

When adding the binding to really small quilts, like mug rugs, I have a heck of a time joining the ends of the binding.  To overcome this, I use a technique I saw someone else use.  While I wouldn't use this on a quilt for a child, or any quilt that will get a bunch of dragging around use, it does work great for mug rugs.  A review of my post about machine-finished binding might help with some of this.

Here are two mug rugs.  My free-motion quilting on my sewing machine still needs some work.  It's funny to me, since I can reliably do both of these designs on the long-arm without a hitch.  Step one, trim the edges since we'll be attaching the binding from the back.  This technique will work from either the front or the back, I just did it from the back so I could finish the binding by machine.

First, cut the end of the binding at 45 degrees.  Notice I've already pressed my binding so I can tell the right-side from the wrong-side.  This is important.  If you cut the beginning of the binding the wrong way it just won't look like what I'm doing in the tutorial.  Nor will it attach so the longest side is down, against the quilt.

Press down 1/4" along this trimmed end, fold the binding wrong-sides together and press.

Pin the binding along the longest edge of the tiny quilt.  Make sure you leave enough room from the end of this tail to the edge of the mug rug or this won't work.  

Start stitching about 1" from the next corner, forming your mitered corners as usual.

Stitch all the way around until you reach the last corner.  I find it helpful to move the pinned tail out of my way when making the miter for this last corner.

With the needle down, make sure the leading edge of the binding doesn't have slack in it.  Just pull the pin and reposition so it lies smoothly across the unfinished edge.  Place the tailing end of the binding towards this diagonal press and trim it so it is about 1/4" - 1/2" longer than the opening of the leading edge.  

Tuck this tail into the leading edge of the binding, keeping it smooth to avoid wrinkles in your binding.  Continue until you have reached your starting stitches.  Isn't that great?  You didn't have to wrestle with the ends to join them!  Or, break thread to attach the binding.

Here is what it looks like once you're stitched it all down.  Trim your corners, press the binding out, or prepare with your preferred method to pull the binding to the other side.  

I machine-finished this binding.  I started somewhere around the middle of the bottom edge of the mug rug.  This way I could get to that join as quickly as possible.  Not because I thought it might go somewhere, but so I could take a picture of it.

Here is the finished join after the binding is sewn down.  Like I said, this isn't the perfect thing for all quilts.  If you don't like it being open like that, you can get in there with your needle and thread and finish it up.  For coasters, place-mats or mug rugs, I love this method.  No fiddling with getting the ends lined up, no wrestling with the quilt, which is just annoying to me with a small quilt.  

If you want to see a way to join those ends of binding together, check out my friend's blog, Hairdresser by day, Quilter by Night!  Great tutorial on getting the ends to line up beautifully!