Piece and Press

Free Bee February 2012

2012-02-29T15:26:00.001-08:00

Free Bee February 2012 a photo by Dan @ Piece and Press on Flickr.

I finished my February quilt block for the Free Bee just under the wire. Lynne organized the bee on Flickr last year and this is our second round. Each month one of us sets a theme based on an improvisational process or technique.

For her month, Marianne asked us to interpret urban industrial landscapes in fabric form, and suggested Elizabeth Barton as inspiration.

I started with a photo of a Tokyo train station by Kirk Pedersen, from his book Urban Asia. I was attracted to the gritty colors in contrast the the saturated brights. The strong lines of the ductwork on the left side gave the composition a sense of movement.

As is usually the case when I get home from my Modern Quilt Guild meetings, I was wound up and ready to sew. After sketching a quick overlay to loosely plan my color blocking, I started cutting, piecing and trimming strips of fabric.

I stopped for the night when I realized I had painted myself into a y-seam corner (two corners, actually). Improvised y-seams were going to require a little less feeling and a little more thinking than I could muster in the middle of the night. I tackled it this morning, and the block miraculously lies flat.

New York Beauty

2012-02-26T11:43:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago Thomas Knauer sent me fat quarters of his upcoming Flock collection with Andover. The cloth has the same wonderful feel and similar "faded brights" color palette featured in last year's Pear Tree collection. I decided to take it for a spin on my first foundation paper piecing project.

I drew up templates for a 12" New York Beauty block. I think NYBs usually have more points, but I wanted to give the prints room to shine. The finished radius is 11".

I was surprised how tricky the foundation piecing turned out to be. For my first block, I had a lot of trouble placing the fabric so that it covered the space it was supposed to cover, and also aligning the directional prints for consistent orientation (especially the wedges of soaring birds). Every new piece was a new puzzle. I unpicked and restitched a lot of seams, several times for many of them. The template paper was in tatters by the time I finished.

The next three blocks I made at the same time, which was actually much easier. I only had to solve the placement puzzle for each piece on block one (for example, the leftmost blue wedge), then I could copy for blocks two and three. Then I moved on to the the next piece for each block. I spent my morning train commute on Friday tearing off the foundation paper.

I trimmed one of my seams at a wonky angle, so it's awfully scant at one end (near 11 on the ruler). I didn't realize it until after I attached the center 1/4 circle. It would be a big headache to unpick and replace the two over-trimmed pieces. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping a combination of Fray Check, fusible fleece, and quilting will keep that seam together.

I finished the four 12" blocks (plus a little extra to finish the edges) with the pink pinwheel print from Thomas's Pear Tree line. I love how well they work together. I hope to finish this 24" pillow sometime this week.

Bare Bones

2012-02-22T17:28:00.000-08:00

I cut squares for this queen-sized quilt over Christmas vacation. Once I started sewing the top came together very quickly. Those 5" squares are so much easier to sew than the improve curves for Savannah Kiss.

Last November, Jan DiCintio at Daisy Janie sent the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild bolts of prints from the organic Shades of Grey line and challenged us to come up with cool stuff. I love the print designs. They're so mod and organic (in every sense). I supplemented with roughly equal grey yardage from my stash, plus a bunch of red prints and solids.

The design has a red pop in the middle that dissolves into light greys, then darker greys. But don't get to attached to all that red -- I'll be slicing it to ribbons as soon as I finish a lone star patchwork for reverse applique. This is my next stencil quilt, and it's not going to be quite as cuddly as the giraffes.

I won't have the stencil done for presentation at our Tuesday meeting, but I'm looking forward to showing this work in progress.

100 Days of Quilts

2012-02-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

Check out the Modern Quilt Guild blog for a chat about the Ripple quilt.

Behind the giraffes

2012-02-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, I took my turn minding the gallery for the EBMQG Stitch Modern Quilt Show. It was so fun to talk to the visitors who came through. Almost all were quilters, one couple from as far away as Boston. I'm sure they flew into town just for our show.

I took advantage of a lull between visitors to turn Savannah Kiss around and photograph the back. I had finished the quilt minutes before our hanging meeting on Tuesday, and hadn't gotten any photos.

The back is pieced from green and brown cotton solids, Kaufman Carolina Chambray in gold (a cross weave with yellow threads in one direction and brown in the other), and a 24" circle pieced from scraps from the quilt top.

The animals show on the back through their heavy outlines and contrasting quilting style.

The noses touch in the green circle.

And the brown quilting thread stands beautifully against the gold and green.

The opening reception for the show is tonight, 6:30-8:30 at the Piedmont Center for the Arts. I'm bringing gingerbread and a bottle of wine. You don't want to miss it!

Savannah Kiss

2012-01-31T23:35:00.000-08:00

I finished the giraffe quilt just in time for the Stitch Modern quilt show organized by the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild. I've posted about piecing and assembling this quilt here and here.

The quilt was inspired by Carol Walker photograph of a mother giraffe craning down to nuzzle her newborn calf.

I ended up quilting quite densely in the green areas. When I planned this project I envisioned larger pieces in the green area, and less quilting. But I decided on finer detail as the progress progressed. And I have to say that made the project progress more slowly. Wow, the quilting took a long time.

I love the way the quilting styles in the positive and negative space are similar and distinct.

I'm satisfied with the organic line quilting in the leafy background, even though it took days and days.

At the EBMQG we're such a rag-tag disorganized Berkeley bunch. I have to admit I'm a bit surprised we pulled this together. Just about all the credit goes to Birgit Hottenrott, who suggested the idea, secured the venue, and took care of a million details, plus all the things that never crossed my mind. Kim Anderson made a wonderful logo and postcard announcement, and our fearless leader Stacey kept us all on track. And thanks to the EBMQG crew for letting me hang my quilts, even if the aren't exactly capital-M modern.

There are scads of great quilts to see, including a glorious Project Modern challenge winner by Alison Schmidt (not pictured).

My Orange Lizard is also hanging.

Won't you come take a look?

Stitch Modern: The East Bay Modern Quilt Guild Quilt Show

2012-01-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Open to the public February 1- 12, 2012, on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays from 12 noon – 3pm with a special opening reception on Saturday, February 4, from 6:30-8:30 pm, at the Piedmont Center for the Art s , 801 Magnolia Avenue, Piedmont, CA.

Come see some great quilts made by local Modern Quilt Guild Members. My Orange Lizard will be hanging, and I might even sneak in a few giraffes, time and space permitting.

Let there be giraffes

2012-01-17T23:48:00.000-08:00

I finished the patchwork for the reverse applique of my new stencil quilt yesterday. It's mostly half square triangle units, a bit less than 2.75" finished size.

I find it easier to line up the reverse appplique with the quilt top if I square it off, rather than try to trace the shape of the pattern. Here I've used a yellow and brown print (on the left side and a few other places) that I'm unlikely to use anytime soon. The print is in a bunch of the triangles, too. It's lovely, but this is clearly the project it's meant for.

I spray basted the applique patchwork to the top, then the two layers to the batting.

And finally the back.

I transferred my design to the quilt top using Saral transfer paper, then sewed around the edge of the design several times using my free motion quilting presser foot. And finally it was time to start cutting away the green background to reveal the giraffes.

First the mother.

And then the baby.

It won't be done until it's quilted, bound and washed. The green raw edges will fray and pull back a bit more in the washer. I can't wait to see it!

Coming together

2012-01-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

I made some more progress on my new quilt project yesterday.

I pieced 88 half-square triangle four patches, giving me a 65" x 47" field of random yellows and browns. That's half of what I need for the reverse applique. The yellow and brown will peek out through the field of green. A lot of the triangles will remain hidden behind the green. It's always so exciting for me to see what bits show through. I'm sure there's some way I could plan exactly how the triangles filled the stencil, but I'm certain I'm not interested.

I also pieced the back in large horizontal stripes of dark green and Kaufman Carolina Chambray in gold. Near the center I inset a 24" scrappy circle, built from trimmings from the quilt top background.

I love the mustardy gold chambray (a crossweave of yellow and brown) next to all the shades of green.

I won't be able to work on this again for a couple days as the weekend will be quite busy. Hope you're having as much fun as we are!

Field of green

2012-01-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much for all the warm birthday wishes two weeks ago. I was truly moved by so many comments and I hope to reply to them soon.

I finished piecing the background for a new stencil quilt today. I pieced with improvisational curves by laying swaths of green fabric atop one another, cutting long wavy lines through the whole stack, then sewing different fabrics together along matching edges. Then re-stack and repeat. Slivers of orange and blue pop through here and there to keep it lively.

It will be my largest quilt using this reverse-applique technique, probably 72"x92" before washing. I've been missing my Green Stag quilt something fierce, so this will be another big animal.

The image set into the lush green background will be made of these half square triangles. My fingers are crossed that there will be sufficient contrast in color and geometry to make the animal stand out. If not, I'll insist I was trying to capture natural camouflage, or something like that.

Another year

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's my birthday, and I thought I'd take a look ar some of the things I finished this year. Funny, some of these projects seem so long ago.

Salvaged Pillows

2011-12-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

All six of the denim pillows are finished. I'm calling them the Salvaged series, as all the denim and lining are upcycled from worn and washed clothing and linens.

Two of the designs are more swirly.

Salvaged:Filament Denim Pillow

Salvaged:Coastline Denim Pillow

And the other four are more symmetrical.

Salvaged:Aperture Denim Pillow

Salvaged:Jigsaw Denim Pillow

Salvaged:Asterisk Denim Pillow

Salvaged:Compass Denim Pillow

Originally I had planned to finish the edges with doublefold chambray binding, like the first asterisk pillow. But I opted for a simpler turned edge with topstitching. A few got a double row of topstitching, but there are as many as 10 layers of denim (including the seam allowance) at some points, and that proved beyond the capabilities of my sturdy little machine.

Each pillow has a concealed brass zipper on the back with a brass chain pull and rivets for reinforcement at the zipper ends. The lining is yarn-dyed cotton sheeting.

All six pillows are available in my Etsy shop. Just in time for last minute holiday shopping!

Aurifil winners

2011-12-07T11:55:00.001-08:00

I've drawn the five lucky Aurifil thread pack winners. Thanks for all your lovely comments and enthusiasm.

And the winners are:

Aurifil thread review & giveaway

2011-12-02T09:16:00.001-08:00

A little while ago Aurifil sent me a few spools of thread to try out in various weights and colors. Aurifil cotton thread comes in several weights, including 50wt recommended for piecing, slightly heavier 40wt for quilting, and 12wt for redwork and serging.

This week I've been burning through a spool of 28wt cotton (blue 2725) on two projects. I used it to quilt the Naptime baby blanket. I love how the quilting pops, not only from the design but from the heavy shiny thread.

I've found the thread to be a pleasure to work with. I often have trouble maintaining tension balance on my old machine when I use heavy threads. But I've had no problem with the Aurifil. I've noticed that the thread generates very little lint in my machine, relative to other threads I've used. Perhaps that's helping with the tension.

The strong and substantial 28wt thread has also been perfect for piecing my denim blocks. It's not easy for the machine to push through four layers of denim. It can't be easy on the thread either. The 28wt Aurifil has been great.

Now for the fun part. Aurifil has provided five sampler packs with various thread weights to share with my readers.

To win an Aurifil thread pack, leave a comment telling me what thread weight you want to try first. I'll pick names Wednesday, December 7.

Update: Each five-pack contains a variety of weights and colors. The spool color is top secret code for the thread weight and material. Don't tell anyone!

More denim blocks

2011-12-01T14:36:00.001-08:00

I've had a raft of hexagon-centered circle blocks floating around in my head since I hand-pieced a fussier version for Lynne's Hexalong this summer.

Now I've made patterns for six blocks. One of them (the lower left) found a home in the Pear Blossom quilt. Another (in the center) has already finished off a pillow. All of the fabrics are reclaimed from worn jeans.

Here are the pieces for five of them. It's a lot of work pushing the rotary cutter through all that denim!

Denim patchwork pillow

2011-11-24T13:55:00.001-08:00

I'm working on a series of cushion covers pieced from recycled denim jeans. Each cushion is a variation on the six-petaled flower medallion I designed for the Pear Blossom quilt.

The cushion is 20" square.

I topstitched in heavy cotton jeans thread.

My favorite bits are the enclosure details on the back. More jeans top stitching, and reinforcing rivets on both edges of the zipper opening.

The zipper is No. 5 (standard jeans size) antique brass with a chain pull. I considered going with a jeans locking pull for the zipper but I decided the locking would be annoying.

The cushion is lined with upcycled yarn-dyed cotton sheeting and bound with cotton chambray

I love the denim patina on the back.

These are the six designs I'm working on. The finished pillow is ready to ship in my Etsy shop, and the other designs are available for make-to-order.

(Un) baby blanket

2011-11-21T12:12:00.001-08:00

Architectural baby blanket a photo by Dan @ Piece and Press on Flickr.

I'm working on a baby quilt, but I'm not sure it looks like a baby blanket.

I started with Thomas's Naptime Pillow pattern. When I was small I built mazes out of wooden blocks, then legos, and I wanted to capture that spirit in the quilting.

The quilting follows the zig zag of the pieced prints, then echoes or responds to the previous quilting line with each new run. To keep the lines straight I marked a 3" reference grid and diagonals with my hera marker, then improvised as I quilted.

The fabrics are Thomas Knauer Pear Tree, AMH Loulouthi, Ty Pennington Impressions, and Kona white, copen, and bone.

Generation Q

2011-10-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

The folks at Generation Q magazine have been very kind to me over the past couple days. First they selected the Green Stag as one of their favorites from the Pacific International Quilt Festival.

And yesterday they named my Ripple Quilt their quilt of the week.

Generation Q sprang up a few months ago following the closure of Quilter's Home magazine. Several of the magazine's editorial staffers started the web magazine. I've especially enjoyed their profiles of creative people driving the modern quilting movement. Check it out!

Pear blossom finished

2011-10-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Pear Blossom blanket is quilted, bound, washed and done.

The washed size is 66" square. The fabrics are Pear Tree by Thomas Knauer for Andover (all 21 prints), Kona Bone and Flamingo. I shared some piecing and process photos a few weeks ago.

I assembled this as a quilt-as-you-go project following Marianne's tutorials at The Quilting Edge for joining the blocks with the center sashing and adding borders with the outer sashing and cream border. The instructions were easy to follow and worked quite well. I diverged at the very end of the instructions for joining the blocks, hand stitching the double-fold top sashing with an invisible ladder stitch instead of top stitching. I didn't like the way that top stitch was going to look with the quilting I had planned.

Originally, I had envisioned the outer pink sashing as a thicker border, but when I attached the 6" Flamingo frame it was clearly too much. I trimmed it down to 3" to match the inner sashing. I had joked about hating borders, except for my current project, which has two. I don't think I can call that sashing a border any more, so I'm back to just one.

I quilted the medallions and sashing with the walking foot. The outer cream border is quilted with the same daisy chain I used around the medallions, only with pink thread instead of natural.

Each of the four medallions uses one of the fabric collection's large-scale prints in all three colorways. I don't usually work with a lot of big prints, but I had a great time with these. I think the strong color hierarchy in each print made it easier to wrap my head around it.

The label is hand stitched on the back border.

Oops, another pillow

2011-10-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

I mucked up one of the four quilt-as-you-go blocks for my Pear Blossom quilt. When it came time to join the blocks, I trimmed one too small. Rather than pare down all the others, I remade the pinwheel block.

But I still had a beautiful quilted medallion block. Just a bit too small for my quilt.

So I trimmed the block a little more, whipped up a creamy zippered pillow back, and finished the pillow with binding scraps from Pear Blossom and Pink Hero.

Bonus pillow!

The pillow finishes at 18" square from my original design and pattern. The fabric is Pear Tree by Thomas Knauer for Andover.

Squiggle pillow

2011-10-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Just finished binding this enormous 24" pillow inspired by Rashida Coleman-Hale's Squiggle print.

I love her design and wanted to see how the intersecting waves would look in patchwork.

For ease in patterning I made four squiggle columns, planning to trim square after piecing. I used six pattern pieces. The patchwork is completely pieced, with no appliqué.

The rows came together very easily. It was trickier attaching the individual rows to each other. The constant curve meant lots of pins and slow, careful seaming. But I'm very happy with my pattern. All the points match and the curves lie flat.

I quilted a quarter inch off the horizontal and vertical seams, trimmed to 24" square, backed in Kona coal with a zipper (thanks again Erin!), and bound with grey linen. I had to throw some linen in there somewhere.

Ripple quilt

2011-10-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm finally ready to stamp the Ripple quilt "finished."

It began in the spring when Robert Kaufman Fabrics distributed solids charm packs to the quilt guild and challenged us to make quilts using only solids. About the same time Accuquilt sent a fabric cutter to try out. As it turns out, working together solids from all (dusty) shades of the rainbow, and block-based quilt design are both outside my comfort zone, so I decided to wrap it up into one challenge.

I cut a quarter circle and a corner from each charm (5") square, then an equal number from various off-white solids. I wrote a tutorial for assembling the drunkard's path blocks in Die Cut Drunk and described how I arranged the blocks in Drunken Progress.

The quilting uses several different colors, with all of the concentric circles around any drop in the same color. The colors are light blue, light ochre, moss green, deep red, and white.

The drops overlap in different amounts. Some drops have more rings than others. Some of the quilted drops are set completely in the white background, with no drunkard's path blocks.

I quilted the circles using the walking foot. I hadn't really thought through the amount of turning required to quilt all these circles on my little machine. In the future I wouldn't try this on anything as big as this 61" x 69" quilt.

The back is Kona Snow with a stripe of natural Kaufman Chambray and a pieced circle.

the label is embroidered at the center on one of the quilting drops. I'm so happy with how the quilting turned out, both front and back.

UPDATE: If you're interested in making a drunkard's path quilt, Kate and Kristie are hosting a quilt along over at Needle and Spatula and OCD.

Labels

2011-10-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

I've undertaken a project to get labels on all my quilts. I've been putting it off because I hadn't settled on a labeling strategy. I have no interest in using a permanent marker on my quilts -- it just wouldn't feel right to me. I've seen a few stamping solutions that seem elegant and workable, and I may end up going that way one day.

But for now I've decided to bite the bullet and embroider the labels. I've been very satisfied with the several embroidered labels I've made before. I'm sending the Green Stag quilt to hang at the Pacific International Quilt Festival later this month, so I figured it was high time to get on top of the label backlog. Now it just needs a sleeve and it will be ready to go.

Next up was the geometric Green Windows baby quilt I mad in the spring.

Then the Shazam lightening zig-zag quilt that's finally ready to send off to the BASICS quilt gather.

Next my Modern Quilt Guild Habitat challenge entry, now titled In One Way.

And Finally a little Halloween quilt I made in my stencil quilt class. Can you tell it's spooky?

But wait ,there's more. I realize I haven't done a proper post on my finished Ripple quilt. I promise I'll get to that soon. For now here's a shot of the label I stitched into the backing just before I quilted this corner of the blanket. Then I centered one of the drops around the label.

As for the sewn-on labels, you might have guessed that I love that blanket stitch around the edges. I wish I had figured out how to get a clean stitch at the corners of the rectangles before the very last stinking corner. You can see how the part of the stitch that's supposed to sit along the side of the label pulls up over the edges at many or the corners.

The solution I came up with was to have a small diagonal stitch in the corner (so if the blanket stitches are 1/8", the diagonal stitch comes into the label only 1/16"), turn the corner, then take a small backstitch in the backing material, catching only 2 or 3 threads. Now proceed along the new side. I'm sure many of you more experienced stitchers have already solved this problem, perhaps in more elegant ways.

Watch out for Lauren

2011-10-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

And yes, I'm addressing her small children. Check out the amazing work she did in my stencil quilt class. Hardcore!

Desert outing

2011-09-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

Malcolm, Hamish & I were lucky enough to spend a few days in the Utah canyon lands last week. H was there on business, and the kid and I tagged along. We stayed at a small hotel close to the Glen Canyon Dam, and a stone's throw from the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Staircase National Monument.

The single story buildings were modern and spare, with tall, thick concrete walls enclosing guest rooms, defining paths and courtyards, and protecting from the desert sun. In a cooler climate the walls would have been oppressive, but here they were comforting and protective.

The architects did a wonderful job of framing views -- sometimes slivers between walls, and sometimes framed panoramas. For the record, I love a framed view. The aesthetic of a glass house is very appealing, but I don't really want to live inside it. Buildings need windows in solid walls just like magazines need editors. Too much view is simply overwhelming.

Here are some photos of our memorable outing.

Stencil quilt class

2011-09-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

I had such a great time teaching my first quilting class the past two Sundays at New Pieces. All eight students made whole-cloth quilts using the stencil designs I brought into class. I wrote about my ginkgo leaf class sample a couple months ago.

I brought in five designs: the ginkgo leaf, a rose, a butterfly, a dragonfly, and a tarantula. I chose the tarantula for a spooky Halloween project. We spent the first two hour session talking about color and contrast, fabric selection, transferring designs to fabric, and then beginning to sew. (Susi blogged about the first session at Just Crafty Enough.) We all worked together to solve some unforeseen challenges transferring the designs to fabric. We all agreed that next time I should plan more time for this step.

Jane picked the most beautiful fabrics for her ginkgo quilt.

The second session we finished sewing the designs, cutting the stencil away, and basting the quilt sandwiches. Everyone was well on their way to completing the project. I can't wait to see the finished quilts.

Jaime used a dark background for her rose.

The photo is a little dark, but Nancy's dragonfly is going to be amazing! Can't wait to see Susi's and Jane's ginkgos, Jaime's and Angela's Roses, Nancy's dragonfly, Amanda's and Claudia's butterflies, and Lauren's rock 'n roll tarantula.

I've created a Flickr group for students and blog readers to post photos of work from class or Piece and press tutorials. I'd love to see your stuff there! http://www.flickr.com/groups/pieceandpress

And finially, I've scheduled a repeat class Sunday December 4 & 11 at New Pieces. I believe four of the eight slots are already taken, so sign up soon if you'd like to take the class!

Pear blossoms

2011-09-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Thomas Knauer sent me a little bit of his upcoming fabric line for Andover, Pear Tree, to see what I would make with it.

I've been working with a bunch of medallion designs, and I thought all the curvy egg shapes in Pear Tree would really shine with some curved piecing.

This is also my first attempt at quilt as you go (QAYG), where you quilt your blocks and then join them later. Granted I haven't joined any blocks yet, but still I'm wondering why I haven't done this before. You have so much more control working with small pieces. For the echo quilting in the medallion, I turned the block round and round. It was such a breeze compared to the circle quilting on the Ripple quilt.

I'm making four medallions, each set it Kona Bone, with window pane sashing to match the prints. I'm leaning toward a dusty pink for the sashing, but I might go blue or green.

The second medallion is pieced (I actually did the pink one first), and ready for the QAYG treatment. There are some piecing photos after the fold.

Miscellany

2011-09-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Bumble Beans Basics Miscellany challenge blocks are due tomorrow, so I thought I'd go ahead and post my entry. Twelve challengers were given 8 letter sized cuts of Julia Rothman's Miscellany collection from Cloud 9 Fabrics to design and create a unique block.

After seeing Beth's posts about her card trick blocks, I've decided to call my design "coin trick." My design features 4 overlapping circles instead of squares.

Between my practice block (with fishbones) and my entry block (with candy trees), I used all 8 Miscellany prints.

I pieced the blocks on the machine in four sections. Each section had a circle and two of the border strips to make a complete edge. I pieced the sections in pairs, then combined the two halves to finish the block. All the seams are curved, but there are no y-seams. The photo above shows the final seam pinned and ready to sew.

I think these two blocks would work great together in a larger quilt. I wanted to use all the prints in the challenge block, but the circles would pop more if the borders were a light solid or a small dot.

I played around with some mock-ups this morning.

Without sashing I like how the edge pieces come together in the block corners to form crosses.

With the addition of gray sashing the blocks appear to have more depth.

But I think this block really shines on point. The tension between the diagonal force of the sashing and the vertical repeat of the coins creates a sense of movement and energy.

King me

2011-09-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

The Checkers quilt is done, and I'm surprised how much I love it. If only I could figure out how to photograph large quilts (twin size, this time). Sure, ironing would go a long way.

But still, this photo is with 6'-4" me, standing on a curb, tippy-toes. And the binding is still dragging. My binding does not drag!

The background fabrics are Kona Snow and Kaufman Carolina Chambray in natural. The squares are Merimekko print solids.

I've posted about the quilting before. I could not be happier with how it turned out. Such rich texture and the hand-feel is fantastic.

Here's the checkerboard.

The back has a strip of pumpkin pie. The background is Kaufman chambray, the light orange is a Kaufman solid, and the dark a Merimekko print.

Oy, I should have ironed.

I'm so happy with the texture and color in the detail shots -- I was worried the iron would ruin it. I love these detail shots in evening light, but the whole-quilt shots are garbage. And I don't have a studio bed to take pictures on.

What is your photography strategy?

Crisis averted

2011-09-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

I finished up the ripple quilt the weekend before last. I had marked the circles for quilting using a compass and a soft graphite pencil. As I went along most of the marks came out (or smudged evenly), so I wasn't too worried about washing out the last bits after binding the quilt. But just to be sure I applied some diluted Tide detergent to the most obvious marks, then headed off to the laundromat to wash this and the two other quilts I finished in August (!) in a large front-load machine.

Well, I got distracted and ran an errand or two before the laundromat, letting the detergent sit on the fabric for a little over an hour. Didn't seem like a big deal. The blankets came out of the washer looking fine, with no trace of pencil. But when it came out of the dryer there were big discolored bloches -- like dingy age stains -- everywhere I had applied detergent. Ack! And a subsequent rewashing and air drying did nothing to get rid of the stains. Ack!

After a lot of interweb consulting and Twitter hand-holding, I've managed to make things right. I didn't try all the suggestions (I would have if I had to!), but the thing that worked was distilled white vinegar. I threw the blanket in the tub, doused the whole thing with a gallon of vinegar, and let it sit for an hour. Then I filled the tub with cold water, agitated a bit, and let it sit for another hour. Finally, I drained the tub, sent the quilt through another wash cycle, and voilà, the stains are gone.

Here's a photo of the damp quilt hanging to dry. The view is from the back. The khaki strip with the orange and white circle are on the back (the side facing us) and the front, visible through the backing and batting, is an arrangement of drunkard's path blocks pieced from a Kaufman Kona charm pack and various off-white solids. Hope to have more photos of the quilt in more presentable condition soon!

Cloud 9

2011-08-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Cloud 9 Fabrics sent me 8 quarter-quarters (9x11") from Julia Rothman's Miscellany collection to design a block for Victoria and Pat's BASICS challenge. 12 quilters are designing Miscellany blocks for a charity quilt for the BASICS quilt gather.

The fabric arrived yesterday and I have just a few days to design and piece my block. Julia is going to pick her favorite block. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

I'm also working on a bed-size quilt for the quilt gather, but it won't be anywhere near done this week.

Desperate Housewife's Block: Lazy Susan

2011-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Jane at Want It, Need It Quilt! asked me to contribute a block for her Desperate Housewife Sampler Quilt-along. After wrestling briefly with the "housewife" thing, I took out my curlers and started working on a design. I'm calling it the Lazy Susan. The block finishes at 8" square.

If you've been following Jane's quilt along, I know Jane's Phillips Screwdriver block only whetted your appetite for pieced curves. So lets get started!

Binding

2011-08-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

I wrapped up the loopy square quilting on the checker's quilt yesterday. It had been several weeks since I last worked on this one, and I had a bit of a block getting started again. I knew it would require several hours of heads down concentration and effort. But once I got started it went well. It wasn't less work than I expected, but keeping going was easier than getting started.

Today I'm finishing the binding and catching up on True Blood. I'm always amazed how dramatically a quilt changes when the binding goes on. So satisfying.

There and back again

2011-08-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Malcolm and I just spent 12 days in New York with Hamish. I'm terrible at taking pictures when travelling, but I did manage to get some nice shots at the Dia: Beacon museum in the Hudson Valley. Funny it's the one place where all photography of any kind is expressly prohibited. Oh well. The museum is in an old factory building in rural New York, a two-hour train ride from Manhattan, repurposed several years ago as a showcase for large-scale modern art. And it's really wonderful.

I took Malcolm to Dia: Beacon eight years ago, when he was 18 monts old. This time, I challenged Malcolm to guess which was his favorite installation on his first visit. Turns out, I think it was his favorite thing this time, too. It's giant room with four of Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipses -- massive bent steel plates, each with a surprise interior environment. One with an offset interior entrance, one spiral, etc.

When he was a baby, he immediately and joyously began running circles around and inside the ellipses. He did exactly the same thing on our recent visit. I truly felt out of time for an instant.

Here are my two guys inside one of the Serra elipses. The light in the room is amazing.

We returned to our friend Amanda's cottage in Beacon for a glass of wine and some Bananagrams.

Sydney and Totoro had a hangout sesh. Then we hopped on the train back to Manhattan.

Another great highlight of the trip was the Quilter's Take Manhattan event organized by the Alliance for American Quilts. I sadly missed the well-received Friday night modern-quilting roundtable at Vicoria Finday Wolfe's studio, but I had a great time at the other events. There were three talks Saturday afternoon: first Marianne Fons spoke on "Why We Quilt," then daughter Mary Fons riffed on reaching a new generation of quilters, and finally Mark Lipinski interviewed designer Jay McCarroll for AAQ's flagship Save our Stories archive of interviews with quilters. I don't think Jay would call himself a quilter, though he designs fabric for quilters and the patchwork aesthetic is one of his design signatures.

The evening cocktail party at City Quilter was also fun. It was great to meet so many interesting people, including Jay, Victoria, Luke Haynes, Mark, and Meg Cox. I have to say I was a bit quilter-starstruck. And Victoria has some photographic proof that I was actually there.

I also managed to get some sewing done on the trip. In the spirit of Lynne's Hexalong at Lily's Quilts, I pieced this 16" hexagonal medallion. It was my first go at hand-sewn paper-pieced curves, and I think it went well. I had to unpick and resew more than one seam (a lot more), but I love the results. In any future project I would definitely try to avoid so many sharp, sharp points. One easy way to do this would be to erase the inner and outer hexagonal borders and combine a few pieces.

The next step is to piece the circular medallion into a solid background, then perhaps finish as a cushion, but I didn't have the fabric or tools to make that happen while travelling.

On the flight home I made a dent in my ongoing red and blue hexie project, though I'm in mostly red territory at the moment.

Finally, an update on my tomato project. I wasn't sure if my tomatoes would survive my absence, because I had forgotten to arrange watering while we were travelling. I left some slow-drip plastic bags filled with water in the pots in a desperate attempt to keep them alive, but I was not confident.

Thankfully the plants are still alive. Not especially happy or pretty, but covered with fruit, and the leaves revived almost as soon as I gave them a little water. September is usually the hottest and sunniest month here in the Bay Area so I'm hoping for a bumper crop.

Hexalong

2011-08-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

I've joined Lynne's summer Hexalong over at Lily's Quilts. I'm working on a paper-pieced medallion with lots of curved seams. The central hexagon is finished, and now I'll build off the edges. At this point the edges are 4".

Lynne has posted a bunch of tutorials, and there's lots of hexie action in the Lily's Quilts flickr pool. Check it out!

Habitat J quilt

2011-08-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

At the June meeting of the East Bay Modern Quilt guild we received fabric for a new quilt challenge. Free Spirit generously gave us each several fat quarters from the Earth colorway of Jay McCarroll's Habitat fabric line. The only rule was that we could add our own solid fabrics, but non-Habitat prints were verboten.

On his blog the other day Jay encouraged craven flattery (not his term), so I took that and ran with it. The result is my J quilt.

I was struck by two things in the fabric line. First, there is a crazy mix of colors. I latched onto the contrast between the pastels and more saturated colors, evident especially in the floral dot. Secondly I was surprised by how the most angular print in the collection seemed the most organic, reminding me most vividly of living plants, palm fronds and leaf veins.

I chose my solid colors from the floral dot print. The pastel background colors became the stripes of the J. I cut solids matching the saturated dots into fractured blocks with the Habitat prints.

The quilt is pieced in three sections: the two improvised block sections and the precise stripes. Measuring, cutting and pinning those curves was nerve wracking, but it all came out right.

I quilted with a few straight lines in royal and white on the J, then a loopy triangle meander for the rest of the quilt. I like the loopy triangles with the fractured patchwork, and especially that angular print.

I pieced the back from various solid scraps, and the tiny bit of extra fractured patchwork from the top. If you squint you can see another J. The binding is more scrappy solids. The quilt is 60" x 74" unwashed.

Update:
The Habitat J quilt was featured on Modern Day Quilts. Thanks Heather!

Update 2: This baby finally got a name: "In One Way"

Gallery show

2011-07-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

The Orange Lizard quilt will be hanging at the Redscout gallery in San Francisco starting next Thursday! The theme of the show is "An Unexpected Leap." I can't wait to check out the work of the other artists, but first I'd better get busy sewing a sleeve on that monster.

SFO -> JFK

2011-07-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

SFO -> JFK
119 one-inch hexies basted
JFK -> SFO
70 one-inch hexies basted, plus some piecing. For some reason I'm never as efficient on the flight home.

The wrenches continue to be the most controversial fabric in this project. But I love them, so there.

A new stencil quilt -- and a new class!

2011-07-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching a Stencil Quilts class at Berkeley's New Pieces in September. Enrollment opened today, and it's filling up surprisingly quickly. This is the sample I made for the class -- it's hanging in the store now!

The class is on two Sundays, September 18 and 25, 12-2pm. I'd love to see you there!

The fabric is an Indian wood-block cotton front with a reverse-applique Joel Dewberry print. There's a splotch in the woodblock repeat -- you can see it twice about a foot in from the left. I considered positioning the stencil to hide the splotch for a moment. Then I completely changed my mind and decided to feature it.

I'll teach my technique using whole-cloth fabrics. I love the patchwork in my other stencil quilts, but I want to focus on the stencil technique in class.

I'll be teaching the technique I've developed for all my stencil quilts.

Green Stag

Orange Lizzard

Harvey Milk

Paper-pieced star

2011-07-20T10:21:00.001-07:00

Paper-pieced star a photo by Dan @ Piece and Press on Flickr.

I just finished this star block. The central medallion is English-paper-pieced, and the circle is machine pieced. The unfinished size is 12 1/2".

For this project I used freezer paper templates and starched and pressed the seam allowances. Without basting thread, the freezer paper came loose if I didn't starch.

One other note: I used a ladder stitch instead of a whipstitch for the seams. I'm very happy with the result, but it was slow going and I think I'll be back to whipstitch on my next paper-piecing project.

Update:
Here'm my template if you want to give it a go:

Update 2:

For a paper-piecing primer, you can't do better than the tutorials and videos(!) Lynne is posting for the Lily's Quilts Hex-a-long.

Burning bobbins

2011-07-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

I started quilting the Checkers quilt yesterday. I'm doing a square-ish loop pattern with a bit of a retro 50's feel. I've been meaning to do something like this since I saw Meagan's quilt last year. More recently, my friend Stacey at Peppermint Pinwheels rocked a right-angle meander on her split-log cabin.

This is probably the densest quilting I've done, and boy does it use up a lot of thread. I've lost count of how many bobbins I've emptied, and I'm only about one-third done with the twin-sized blanket.

And now, back to the machine for more quilting on this foggy Saturday morning.

Dialing up the FMQ

2011-07-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Finishing up a whole-cloth stencil quilt, I've decided to push myself on free-motion quilting.

The stencil is a ginkgo twig, very similar to the design on the back of my marquee quilt. The back fabric is a Michael Miller green and yellow print.

If ginkgo leaves grew on vines (which they don't), they'd look exactly like this. I swear.

The top fabric is an Indian woodblock print. I'm binding the quilt now -- more photos when it comes out of the dryer.

Concentric circles

2011-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've made a good start quilting the Ripple quilt. Following the advice of Karen -- a woman who knows her way around a circle -- and Lucia, I'm quilting concentric circles centered on the drunkard's path formations.

Here's a view of the back. To get a sense of scale, the orange and white circle is 7" across, and the khaki strip is 11" wide. The front is such a mess of markings and loose thread ends that I'm not ready to show it yet! I'm using four colors of thread -- dark gold, deep red, moss green and light blue -- with each set of circles using only one of the colors.

Checkers

2011-07-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

This started out as a back for the ripples quilt (the drunkard's path/solids challenge), then I decided it needed to be it's own quilt. Now I have to come up with two backs.

Solids challenge quilt top

2011-07-03T20:29:00.001-07:00

solids challenge quilt top a photo by Dan @ Piece and Press on Flickr.

Lo, these many months later, I have finished a quilt top for the Modern Quilt Guild solids challenge.

Kauffman gave us each a charm pack of solids (dusty palette for my East SF Bay group). I cut up a bunch of quarter circle units and arranged them in color groups.

Now I'm wondering how to quilt the thing. I've posted the photo in the flickr "How should I quilt this" group (great idea, Christina!).

The shapes remind me of drops hitting a pond, so my first thought is Katie's raindrop pattern.

Go! Baby Winner

2011-06-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the Go!Baby giveaway. I read every post, and I loved seeing the huge variety of projects everyone is working on. We're a busy bunch. And it was great hearing from so many new people -- I hope I can keep you interested!

Now to the big news...

Random.org fed me winning number 119. And the lucky winner is Ellen, who wrote:

Right now, I'm working on a firework quilt for my daughter's first Fourth of July!! :) Thanks for the giveaway!!! :)

Congratulations Ellen! Have a great Fourth of July with your baby girl!

Drunken progress

2011-06-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not going to win any prizes for precision on this project, but I've finished sewing up my drunkard's path units from the the Kaufman Kona charm pack.

Upon measuring, I found some of the pieces to be short along the square (no seam) sides. This happened because the fabric slipped or stretched during cutting. Accuquilt recommends you alight the long grain of the fabric with the die because that is the least stretchy. I wasn't careful about figuring out the grain directions of the solid charm squares -- what a pain, right? --but it seems I should have. Anyway, there is going to be a fair amount of "easing" to line up the units.

I tried several layout options, and wasn't pleased with any symmetrical tile patterns. The colors don't have a lot of umph, and it just came off a bit sleepy. I ended up separating the units into colored centers and neutral centers, then each of those into 8 piles by hue. Finally, I paired hues to make 8 block groups. For the neutral centers the groups are:

blue and gold
green and brown
olive and tan
red and purple

Then I arranged the units around a central circle, filling with additional Kona snow as necessary.

Some of the blocks don't have a solid circle in the middle.

And some are larger than 4x4. But now I've run out of snow, so this will have to wait for a few days.

If you haven't signed up yet, my Go!Baby giveaway is still open. Hurry for your chance to win a fabric cutter and 3 dies!

Accuquilt Go! Baby Giveaway

2011-06-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

The lovely people at Accuquilt have given me the go-ahead to announce my Go! Baby giveaway! This is a sponsored giveaway for a Go! Baby fabric cutter and 3 cutting dies of your choice.

You have four chances to win (Leave a comment for each entry):

1. Tell me what you're working on.
2. Follow me on Blogger or in your reader.
3. Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter
4. Tweet the giveaway (include @dsrouse and a link to this post). Cut and paste if you're lazy:

There's an Accuquilt GO!Baby fabric cutter #giveaway at @dsrouse: http://pieceandpress.blogspot.com

Leave one (and only one!) comment for each entry.

A valid email address is required to win. I'm pretty resourceful, but if your comments arrive with a no-reply email address, and I can't find your blog in your Blogger profile, and you're not my BFF, you can't win!

Giveaway closes Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 10pm PST. Winner announced Monday, June 27. Good luck!

Die cut drunk

2011-06-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

The nice folks at Accuquilt sent me a Go! Baby fabric cutter to try out, and promised a second Go! Baby to give away to one of my lovely readers. I started this blog just shy of a year ago, and this generous offering from Accuquilt marks both my first blog swag and my first giveaway.

Anyway, my Go cutter arrived a week ago along with three dies: hexagons, triangles and drunkard's path. I chose those dies because they seemed to give the most advantage over rotary cutting with rulers and templates. For strips an squares I feel the bulk of the effort comes in folding and truing the fabric. But angles and curves are much more difficult than running a rotary blade along a ruler. I'm going to tell you about my experience with the drunkard's path cutter.

Over at Spincushion

2011-06-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Leigh Ann at Spincushion has paired my Mod Wheels Baby Quilt with a vintage mod record cover. What a blast to see it in my reader this morning.

I started following her blog a couple weeks ago. She takes fabric prints, finished quilts and other textiles and matches them with images from other design disciplines. It is really delightful, and you should check it out.

Just a little late for Harvey Milk Day

2011-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

I finished my first portrait quilt this weekend. In celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, it's a portrait of Harvey Milk. I'm not much for big street festivals, as large crowds tend to make me anxious, but I can quilt!

I used a Denyse Schmidt small red check print on the back...

with five Marianne stripes across the width.

The design is based on the famous photograph by Daniel Nicoletta of Harvey Milk standing in front of his Castro Street photo shop. Dan graciously allowed me to use his image for my piece.

Harvey Milk. Photo by permission of Daniel Nicoletta

When I contacted Dan he told me that Elva Smith, the mother Scott Smith (played by James Franco in the film), was a dear friend and avid quilter until her death about a year ago. It was another reminder of progress and continuity. There is a famous refrain among quilters that nothing is ever new in quilting -- in the long history of the art, someone has done it before. While I strive in my work to be inventive and original, I am mindful of the work and creativity of those who came before me. Similarly, this time of year I remember the gay rights pioneers who came before, who fought, sacrificed and sometimes died to make the world a better place for all of us.

Ready to sandwich a new stencil quilt

2011-06-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

My next stencil quilt will have a pink, orange and gold applique. The patchwork is triangle-ish, and the stencil will be big.

It was another cut, sew, recut and repeat process, with the final two cuts in 4 inch strips and points aligned. It lends a hint of order to the chaos. The strips of solid orange and pink will not be visible in the finished quilt. (Well, maybe the tiniest corner... we'll see.)

And here's the background for the stencil: the red bricks I posted the other day. Seeing the two pieces together you may have noted that I'm not going for subtlety here.

I'm going to try something different this time. For the other three I completed the reverse applique of the stencil before sandwiching the quilt. This time I'm going to do the quilting and applique at the same time, then cut out the background pieces around the stencil. I'll let you know how it goes.

I love the energy of the shattered triangles and the richness of the reds. I may have to come back and make each pattern into its own quilt after I'm done cutting this one up!

Fruit on the vine

2011-06-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is completely off topic -- no quilts!

I spotted the first tomatoes on one of my tomato plants this evening.

I'm trying a new growing method this year. Last year I planted tomatoes in the only patch of dirt available to me, but there wasn't enough sun. In much of the San Francisco Bay Area, summer is foggy and cool and autumn is sunny and hot. So when the sun was high in July, theoretically able to reach marginal garden areas, Oakland tomato vines still shivered and waited for warmer days. By the time it warmed up in September (in truth even autumn wasn't very warm), there wasn't enough sun in the garden. So, a disappointing tomato crop last year.

But I'm trying a new strategy this year.

I'm growing tomatoes upside down on my south facing balcony. I rooted two plants in 5-gallon buckets hung from the rafters. The buckets have small holes cut in the bottom, with a few extra drain holes drilled around the bottom edge. The plants have grown vigorously since I transplanted the small starts a month ago into organic potting mix.

This spot is under an eave, so it will get less than ideal sun for the next month or so. But by the time it warms up around here the sun will be lower and the plants will get sun better than half the day, just in time to ripen up all that green fruit.

Bricks

2011-06-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Too literal? I guess we'll find out.

WIP Wednesday

2011-06-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

If you've been following the blog you may be getting the sense that I've never met a pieced circle I didn't like. Lately I've been working on a new design, piecing lots of patchwork circles into a solid grid.

I've sewn 18 yellow circles into squares of kona ash. The yellow circles are 11" finished diameter.

Now I'm trimming the gray squares...

into 15.5" circles.

And placing the circles at the intersections of a solid background grid.

I measure a 14.5" circle on the backround.

And cut around the template.

Then I pin the yellow piece into the background. I mark 8 compass points in the seam allowance on both pieces, pin at the 8 points, pin to secure the sashing seams in the background, and then pin 2 more times between each of the 8 compass points. I think that's 32 pins.

The hilarious and fearless Lynne at Lily's Quilts recently wrote a great tutorial for piecing circles. It's very close to the method I had been using, but she convinced me to use more pins. You can believe me when I say I hate pinning, but it's worth it.

Sew and press the seams to the inside to form a 15" finished circle. (this photo is a different block, because I don't have it in me to sew another circle right now!)

This 74"x74" quilt top has 12 full circles and 12 half-circles along the edges. I've completed 1 full circle and 3 halves. Although I am getting better at it, it does take a lot of time and concentration.

Two little quilts

2011-05-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

I finished two little quilts this week. They are simple geometric designs.

The first has two yellow patchwork circles, sashed in bright blue on an improvised patchwork background of green prints and solids.

I quilted with diagonal lines that follow the on-point grid of the yellow circles.

I love how the chevron pattern shines on the white back. The quilt is bound in the same bright blue and measures 41"x44".

I used the rest of my green patchwork and blue sashing for a second modern geometric baby quilt. The quilting is white and follows the grid established by the sashing.

I have to say working with all this kona white was a little bit intimidating. I don't know if it's actually less forgiving than an off-white or print, but the it sure felt that way. Maybe I'll get used to it if I keep at it. The good news for me is that my next project has lots of white, too!

Another bright geometric back and blue binding finish the blanket.
Both blankets are now available in my shop.

Update: The Mod Wheels baby quilt was featured on Modern Day Quilts

Hexagon WIP

2011-05-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've made quite a bit of progress on my hexagon quilt lately.

It languished in a corner for several months, but recently I've spent a fair amount of time on airplanes, and hand-piecing hexagons is a great way to pass the hours. This is not without its hazards, as my fingers tend to be pretty sore by the end of a six-hour flight. On one trip I wore my right elbow raw on the armrest from the repetitive stitching motion. I didn't even realize it until I stood up to get off the plane.

The design has expanded a bit since my original sketch and may yet grow more. I'm currently working left to right. All of the large four-inch hexagons are done (with some machine piecing) and I have mostly small one-inch red ones to add to the right side.

My favorite detail so far is the way the small shapes meet the big shapes with half hexagons.

My beautiful mother

2011-05-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day I made an infinity scarf with Anna Maria Horner voile and Kaufman chambray. I used the free Bon Bon Atelier pattern because the closing instructions were the most elegant of the options I found. I meant to take pictures of Mom wearing the scarf but, as usual, I forgot. So Dad took some pics of Mom wearing the scarf -- in three coordinating outfits!

I love you, Mom!

Hero's nemesis; or, the orange lizard

2011-05-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

If a had to choose a favorite among my three stencil quilts, it would be this one. I love everything about it, starting with orange and blue (the colors of the California poppies and blue lupine blooming all over the hills right now.) The background is a disappearing nine-patch of royal blue and deep turquoise prints and solids. The stencil is a grid of half-square triangles in orange shot cotton and prints.

I'm also pleased with the sense of menace and movement created by the dinosaur entering the frame from the side.

The back is also pieced in orange and blue collected from trimmings and extras from the front. Once again, The quilting along the stencil outlines has a surprising impact on the back.
The stencil design was inspired by a piece of clip art I saw on SLOG (the blog of Seattle's Stranger newsweekly). My favorite things on SLOG are the Savage Love letter of the day and Mary Traverse's regular Dinosaur News updates, in addition to lots of other delightful nuggets. Mary was kind enough to send me the full image of the articulated skeleton. Thanks Mary! And thank goodness the Stranger has its priorities straight and put her on the dinosaur beat.
I quilted the blanket with concentric zig-zags emanating from the T. rex's gaping maw. It was as close as I could get to a menacing roar without spelling it out.

My nine-year-old wants a dinosaur quilt, but he insists on a red one. So the orange lizard is now available on Etsy.

Pink Hero

2011-05-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

The Pink Hero Quilt is finally done.

I feel like I've been talking about this forever, and thinking about it even longer. Of the three stencil quilts I've finished so far, this is the hardest to let go of. I think that's why I put off finishing it until I finished the others.

I used almost all the same background fabrics for Hero and the stag. Hero, of course, gets a more traditional pinwheel block.

The reverse of the quilt is a crinkly soft off-white solid fabric (Kauffman Kona Crush) with a pink circle pieced from the trimmings of the unicorn applique. The outline of the applique forms a subtle shadow on the back.

The quilt is now available in my Etsy shop.

Milestones

2011-05-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

It's turning out to be a big week. Two big things have happened: I've finished three new quilts, and I've decided to set up shop on Etsy. More on Etsy later, but first I want to show my first stencil quilt.

I'm calling it the green stag quilt.

The quilt features a green deer reverse appliqué on an undulating neutral background. It's one in a series of “stencil quilts” that I have designed and created (I'll have pics of Hero and his nemesis soon!). I posted about my technique recently. It involves creating two patchwork quilt tops, sewing the layers together along the lines of a stencil, then cutting out the top layer to reveal the stencil beneath. The raw edge of the appliqué frays, softening the edge of the image and creating a weathered effect.

I was inspired by an antique quilt whose well worn top began to disintegrate, revealing and even older and more worn quilt inside that had been used as batting.

The green stag is a patchwork of squares and rectangles in the disappearing nine-patch pattern, while the background is a series of improvisationally pieced curves intended to create a sense of rolling landscape.

The reverse of this quilt is made with a soft chambray fabric with a meticulously pieced green circle and ivory sashing. You may recognize the green circle from the missing patch in Sharon & Bill's baby quilt.

The quilting highlights the shape of the appliqué and echoes the undulating curves of the background patchwork. On the solid quilt back, the subtle shape of the deer makes a surprising counterpoint to the bold green circle.

I've listed the Green Stag quilt for sale on Etsy, along with my Seeing Water quilt. I'll be listing two additional stencil quilts later this week.
I'm planning on sprucing up my storefront soon, but I'm at something of a loss. What do your favorite Etsy stores look like? What makes them your favorite?

A baby quilt

2011-04-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

I had decided that I didn't have time to make a baby quilt in time for Bill & Sharon's baby shower. I already had a large stack of works-in-progress, and the thought of starting something new was a bit overwhelming.

But then I needed a green patchwork circle for another quilt back. My plan was to sew strips together, slice the new piece, rearrange, sew & repeat to get the desired block effect, then trim into a circle. And it occurred to me that if I was going to make a 15" block and discard the trimmings after cutting the circle, I might as well make a four-foot rectangle and use the extra for the baby quilt. Easy, right?
Well, I guess it did end up taking some extra time, but it definitely made it easier to fit in my brain. And the blanket turned out great. I especially love how the quilting arcs meet in the pieced orange and blue window.

I finished the binding with the machine, and it went much more smoothly than my last try. I managed to attach the label at the very last minute, just in time for the shower. The party was lovely, the expectant parents delightful, and we can't wait to meet the new baby.

Seeing water

2011-04-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

I made this quilt for the second Project Modern quilting challenge organized by the Modern Quilt Guild and judged by the talented and inspiring Malka Dubrawsky. The theme was "Monochrome," and the constraints were left largely to the interpretation of individual designers. The guild just announce the winners.

I was inspired by water. I love how the color changes depending on time of day, angle of the sun, weather, and the surrounding environment. The play between transparency and reflection can be mesmerizing. The color ranges from white to black, green to blue. I love how, at any given moment, the same tiny patch of water can shimmer with the brightest reflection of the sun, glow with the pure blue of the water and the sky, and capture the deepest shadow on the dark side of a ripple.

I explored two water motifs in the layout: wave and bubble. The monochrome palette ranges from light to middle blue, with some wiggle into green-blue and grey-blue typical of the ocean in my area. Early in the design process I settled on using mostly prints because they better capture the ever-changing nature of the surface of water. I organized fabrics into five groups by value, lightest to darkest, then created the half-square-triangle zig-zag wave pattern using the darkest four groups.

The bubbles are drawn from the lightest four value groups and constructed in a contrasting square pattern. I considered several layouts with the circles placed randomly in various sizes, but in the end preferred the abstract column. I pieced the bubbles into the wave background, and the resulting circular half-square-triangle scraps found a home on the back of the quilt in a single vertical chain sashed in sky blue on a solid turquoise background.

In the quilting I played with the direction and reflection of light. The quilting lines echo the triangle seams in one direction over the entire quilt, with perpendicular quilting intersecting and reflecting at the large bubbles. The finished quilt measures 64" x 73".

Hero emerges

2011-04-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

I've made up another new name. I'm calling this series of quilts I'm working on stencil quilts. My process involves drawing a stencil shape (think of spray painting a shape through a paper cutout), layering two contrasting quilt tops together, sewing the the layers together along the stencil outlines, then cutting the top layer to reveal the bottom layer within the stencil, with a raw-edged applique finish.

I used this technique before on my Marquis quilt back using white and natural muslin. Now I'm doing it on a larger scale using pieced foreground and background layers. To sew the layers together I draw the design on thin tracing paper (available on rolls at art supply stores), then baste the layers together. From the bottom layer:

Neutral/background layer, right side down
Contrast/stencil layer, right side down
Tracing paper

Here I've also inserted a layer of muslin between the neutral and pink layers because the pink was showing through the top. It's hard to see in the photo, but even with a generous margin of pink all around the drawing (or so I thought), the lines just barely fit in a couple places -- notably the tail and front hoof. I pin-basted the layers together, then free-motion stitched around the drawing.

Next I peeled off the paper (still more peeling to do) and trimmed around the outer stitches.

I sewed the layers upside down for two reasons. First, it's much easier to align the tracing-paper drawing with the pink fabric when they are directly next to each other. For that matter, it was also easier to align the seams on the neutral and pink layers -- though the scale and geometry of the two piecing patters is completely different, they both have strong horizontal elements and I didn't want the triangle rows askew. Second, no matter how hard I try to peel every last bit of paper, some tiny bits inevitably get caught in the stencil seams. I've gone back and forth on how diligent I have to be on paper removal, but it's nice to know I don't have to worry about the tiniest scraps.

And now for the scary part: flipping it over and cutting through the top layer (see first picture above)! I left about and eighth of an inch raw edge around the seams. When washed the edge with fray and curl back to reveal more pink beneath, especially in the narrow strips along the tail, mane and horn.

When it comes time to quilt the finished blanket I'll start by free-motion quilting along the stencil lines again, this time through the batting and backing as well. Then maybe concentric echo lines around the whole beast for an effect like this, though not so closely spaced.

Two backs

2011-04-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend I finished two quilt backs. I find piecing backs to be very liberating. I usually approach quilt tops by planning every detail first, even before I think of specific fabrics. It's on the backs that I start sewing with only a broad idea of the finished project and see where my hands take me. Although both of these tops finished with a precise look and geometry, I planned only one step at a time. For both I started by piecing scraps from the respective quilt tops, cutting and recutting as I pieced, then forming the whole around those upcycled blocks. The first is for Hero, the unicorn.

I patched together triangle trimmings from the quilt top and pieced them into a single 12-inch circle.

The back is Kaufman Kona Crush in Ivory. It has a wonderful crinkled texture that feels and looks great. It doesn't seem like it's very widely carried, but my local quilt shop sells it in several colors. I had better luck working with the Crush fabric when I pinned liberally. The crinkled texture results in easy stretching, especially working with these long blocks of it. (I really don't like pinning, but I find I hate ripping seams even more.) The sashing is Kona solid Ivory, and continues the tone-on-tone theme from the quilt top.

The other back is for Hero's arch enemy. I know we're not supposed to keep secrets here, but I've been working on Hero and his nemesis at the same time. I think maybe there was just so much yin in all those magical cream pinwheels and pink unicorns that I needed to stir up some yang to keep the project going. The bad boy is orange in a field of blue, and I'll have photos soon. Anyway, the quilt back uses trimmings and scraps from the quilt top as well.

Although it ended up being quite a bit more involved than I originally bargained for, I'm happy with the result. Here the solids are Kona Royal and Orange, and Kaufman Carolina Chambray in Pacific

The unicorn's progress

2011-04-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

It doesn't seem like much of a unicorn yet.

But you will just have to trust me that there is tremendous unicorn potential.

Oh, and I have started calling him "Hero."

Secret project, and more

2011-03-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've finished my entry for the Project Modern monochrome challenge, save a few stitches along the binding and maybe a label. I'll have pictures for you in a couple weeks.

Next up: unicorns, beasts & botanicals.

13 pink prints x 50 triangles per print = 650 pieces of unicorn

When I showed Hamish my sketches for several quilt designs he noted that my unicorn was 'going non-ironic.' I'm still trying to wrap my head around how a pink pieced unicorn quilt made by a 42-year-old man can escape irony. But maybe he has a point.

My day job

2011-03-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

... has nothing to do with quilting.

In my day job I design gardens. One garden I did a lot of work on a couple years ago -- from initial concept to design details and planting -- is featured in the April edition of Sunset magazine, including my hand-drawn plan rendering. I'm really proud of this garden and it's great to see the photo published. It's a tiny garden in an upscale San Francisco neighborhood. Pacific Heights is a cool and foggy space, so it was important that the landscape could be enjoyed when viewing from the three floors of the house above, as much as from within the garden itself.

The diagonal geometry and strip paving create a sense of depth in the small space, and the architectural plantings reinforce the clean modern feeling of the garden. The design and plantings were all completely new, except for the little saucer magnolia trees in the corners and the diagonal staircase coming off the small terrace above. I worked closely with Vera Gates, one of the owners of Arterra Landscape Architects.

Shopping

2011-03-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made a quick trip to NYC to visit Hamish. I'm so bad at taking pictures, but here's Malcolm's photo essay from Purl Soho. Did I even know he had the camera?

And the portrait of the artist:

He loved the three modern mini pillows.

Warm enough

2011-03-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

The circle quilt, I'm happy to say, is done! The finished size is 92"x 92". I'll be carrying it to Hamish in New York at the end of the week.

I quilted from both sides. I started on the medallion side with a navy blue echo stitching parallel to the sashing seams.

Then I flipped it over and used the rays as my guide for some free motion meandering. I was aiming for about 3" stitch spacing with natural thread.

The starburst is intentionally a bit off center, highlighted by the navy echo quilting.

The wide quilting distance and the high loft batting (a layer of cotton/poly plus a layer of wool) make this blanket feel like I comforter. I slept under it the other night, and I can certify that it's at least as warm as my two Warm&Natural-batted quilts (one of which has a double layer of cotton flannel for backing).

I love that this quilt feels like it has two fronts. I refuse to call the starburst side the back -- it took me so darn long to piece!

And the medallion side benefits greatly from the quilting in the blue patches. It's amazing what a little thread and pucker can do for a solid field of fabric.

AIDS walk auction project

2011-03-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

Today I'm sending off two red cross blocks to Jenny at Cut.Sew.Iron.Repeat. She's making an auction quilt using donated blocks for the Fort Wayne AIDS Walk to benefit AIDS Task Force of Notheast Indiana. I've done the San Francisco AIDS Walk to benefit the Stop AIDS Project, and the San Francisco Marathon to benefit the SF AIDS Foundation. All three of these events fund local organizations that provide essential services to HIV-positive and at-risk populations.

Here are my two blocks. I remember seeing Jenny's inspiration -- a quilt by Lucia at Lulubloom -- last summer, and loving how it all came together. As of yesterday Jenny was still accepting blocks for her project. And I'm sure the three organizations listed above will be happy to accept your cash donation any time!

Featured on Quiltstory

2011-03-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

Wow! I'm honored to have my hexagon wedding quilt featured on Quilt Story. Thanks Heather + Megan!

Woodblock quilt progress

2011-03-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

I've made some progress on Hamish's wood block quilt. It's been slow going because I spent most of the weekend curl-up-in-bed sick and my strength isn't back yet. But now I'm moving again, so without further ado here are the areas of progress:

First, I finished the starburst patchwork on the back by adding a fourth ring (the largest pieced circle ever) and four more arcs to fill in the corners of the square.

For batting, I decided to use the Quilter's Dream Wool and the Hobbs 80/20. I also bought the Hobbs Thermore synthetic batting, but I just didn't like the way it felt for this quilt, especially with the wool.

Next, I started quilting. Boy is this a tough one to quilt. In the best circumstances it's tricky to quilt a queen-sized blanket on my little machine. But the high-loft wool plus another batting layer creates some substantial bulk. It's hard just to move the thing around, especially rolled up under the machine arm. And it's hard to machine-quilt high-loft blankets without getting fabric puckers on the backing. You can see the sloppy remains of many ripped quilting lines along the edge of the blanket in the picture above.

Finally, needing a break from the quilting wrestling match, I made the binding tape. I had purchased a different print for the binding, but it just wasn't right. I thought it would go with the woodblock prints in color and style, but in the end it failed on both accounts. So I went with the darkest blue print that forms the heart of the medallion on the front of the quilt. It's going to look great.

Another ring

2011-02-21T13:12:00.000-08:00

I finished the third ring of the wood-block starburst quilt yesterday after dropping Hamish at the airport. It was good to have something to focus on.

The circle now measures 78" in diameter. I'm working on another ring now, then I'll fill in some corners before cropping to 92" square. I had been thinking that the rings would be centered but now I'm leaning toward setting them off center a little bit. This is partly because I think it will give the piece a greater sense of movement, but largely because it will be difficult to line up the circles on the front and back (still not sure which is which) when I go to quilt it. The other side, you may remember, has a central 36" log cabin medallion.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my batting for warmth question. It seems that there is a lot of enthusiasm for wool, with some outlying recommendations for silk and yak. I look forward to trying silk on a project that doesn't require ease of laundering. For example, Hobbs recommends that their Tuscany Silk batting be hand washed in tepid water then laid flat to dry, and even then will likely shrink 5%. I have not found a wool/silk blend. As for yak hair, please feel free to send me some and I'll give it a try!

Almost warm enough

2011-02-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the bad news is that Hamish's job is taking him to New York for six months. The good news is he'll have a new apartment to fill up with quilts. I'm using some block-printed cottons he brought back from India last year, as well as a couple solids. The two sides of the quilt are currently fighting for dominance. One side will have a sort of improvised starburst pattern, with concentric rings of curving rays.

The central pinwheel is 18" across and the surrounding circles will be 15" wide. Each succeeding ring will have more of the off-white solid (kona snow), until the edges are almost all white. The light was terrible today but I wanted to get some photos up while I was still in the middle of it.

The other side is already complete, with a central 36" log cabin medallion (the strips are 4 1/2" wide), tan sashing and a gray-blue background. The two sides are very different in style and technique, though both feature pieced circles. I agree with Hamish that the quilting will be very important to creating interest on the more traditional side.

Hamish has requested a super warm quilt ("so warm that you'll think it's too hot"), so I've been trying to come up with my batting strategy. I've found positive testimonials about a two-layer batting using Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly blend and Quilters Dream Wool battings. But even that may not be enough and I'm considering using a layer of Hobbs Thermore batting along with one or both of the others.

I've had surprisingly bad advice on the topic of warmth from several local shops, with one person assuring me that cotton is the warmest batting, and another insisting that close quilting is the key to warmth (for the record, I don't subscribe to either opinion). But mostly I feel like the question isn't interesting to most quilters. Please let me know if you've had any luck quilting a warmer blanket.

Inspiration: Yoko Saito

2011-02-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

Yoko Saito is a Japanese quilter and teacher. I came across one of her books, Patchwork Lesson, several weeks ago at the bookstore in San Francisco's Japan Town and was immediately taken with the rich textiles and beautiful monochrome compositions in her taupe/brown palette.

The projects in the book are pieced and quilted by hand. Although the text is entirely in Japanese, her process is painstakingly captured in detailed and easy to follow photos.

I love her precise concentric circle quilting over simple geometric patterns.

The book also features a few eye opening improvisational projects.

Finished table runner

2011-02-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

I finished this table runner as a commission, to be given as a housewarming gift to a couple with a taste for contemporary art and furniture. Though I can't say I'm crazy about the gray on my lighter table, I think it will be stunning on their long black dining table!

The asymmetrical design has one large inset circle of red patchwork in the exact center of the piece, with smaller inset circles on one side and just the simple gray patchwork on the other.

I'm so glad I simplified the quilting around the circles.

The scrappy back has a single column of red rectangles. A double row of red hand stitches runs horizontally and vertically.

I'm also making a dozen napkins to go with the runner.

Update: This runner was featured on Modern Day Quilts on 2/15/2011

Ready for my close up

2011-01-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to announce my first celebrity quilter interview. Yes, I did mean to link to gameinformer.com.

Big thanks to Annette Gonzalez and Andrew Reiner at Game Informer. Annette's regular The[Crafty]Gamer series is a great source of fun and nerdy inspiration. Check it out.

Mistakes

2011-01-28T10:02:00.000-08:00

We discussed our quilting mistakes at the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild meeting the other night. I brought a project runner I'm currently finishing. The runner is about 12"x 76" and features 5 inset patchwork circles. I love the project but I wasn't happy with the quilting. Each inset was surrounded by three concentric circles of stitches about 1/8"apart. The first circle is a top stitch to secure the gray front to the red inset. The second and third circles quilt the top, batting and back.

It bothered me for two reasons. First, the close lines of quilting are distracting in contrast to the sparse quilting grid on the rest of the piece. Second, the closeness of the lines highlights any irregularities or inconsistent spacing. And there is plenty of that!

I decided to rip out the two quilting circles, but then realized I only had to remove the inner circle, making the job much easier.

It's already much better, but after the washer erases the trace of needle holes I am going to love this. I did end up with a lot of loose threads to tie off. I've become a bit of a stickler for clean thread ends. It's always best to secure thread ends in the binding, but sometimes your bobbin runs out of thread in the middle of the quilt, or you make mistakes.

I used to backstitch or reduce stitch length to secure the ends, but that always looks messy to me and I know the threads will eventually work themselves free. It was an epiphany when I realized I could pull the top thread to the back, tie a secure knot with the bobbin thread and pull the loose ends and the knot into the batting. Seems obvious, but it was just an article of faith that the top thread stayed on top, and the bobbin thread stayed on the bottom.

In case it isn't obvious, here's what the knot looks like on the back of my runner.

Thuy's birthday

2011-01-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

I sewed a pillow for my friend Thuy for her birthday. It's not quite her birthday yet, but today was the best chance for my son to giver her the birthday present. She loves red, and I've been feeling renewed interest in the porthole technique. The pillow is 16x16 (maybe a bit smaller--the pillow form fits in very snugly). with a foliage print base and a circle patchwork of reds in floral, solid and geometric patterns.

I used Erin's (House on Hill Road) zipper technique for the third time (hurray!) and her piping technique for the second time (still struggling).

The finished size of the red squares is 1 1/2", and the porthole diameter is about 10". I love the square patchwork circumscribed by the foreground porthole. More portholes to come in the near future.

The shirting quilt

2011-01-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

In honor of Peter's men's shirt sew-along, here are some photos of the recently finished shirting quilt. It's a basic nine patch pattern with ivory flannel sashing between the blocks. There are 12 shirting fabrics in brown and blue. Most were upcycled from men's shirts and a few fabrics came from Happy Stop in Oakland, where the hit-or-miss inventory is $2 per yard.

I wanted something quick, warm and comfortable, but it turns out that nothing queen-sized is ever quick. The warm and comfortable bits came out as planned.

It's backed with a double layer of flannel. The quilting is a wide-spaced plaid in tan and navy.

I posted the hand embroidered label before, back when I had just started to finish the binding by hand. After letting it languish for a few weeks I decided to machine-stitch the binding, which ended up being something of a disaster. My plan was to stitch in the ditch on the front of the binding (that is, run the thread along the edge of the binding so that it is almost invisible), catching the edge of the plaid fabric on the back. Perhaps because of the fluffy double layer of flannel backing, I had the hardest time catching the binding on the back and had to sew over most of the edge two and three times. The short cut turned out to be a lot more work than I had bargained for. Thankfully this quilt was never about precision and detail.

Needle Case

2011-01-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

I finished this project from Malka Dubrawsky's new book, Fresh Quilting. It's a needle case with a quilted patchwork cover and linen pockets inside to sort and hold knitting needles. The book has some lovely ideas and helpful techniques (machine piecing hexagons!), and I was happy to see some crafty projects in the mix.

The patchwork is made up of linen and cotton scraps from recent projects. I followed Malka's lead and quilted with close parallel lines in red thread. The case rolls and fastens with two button loops.

The project in the book features rubber ink stamps for the pocket labels. I decided to go with some hand stitching.

And a monogram on the outside.

Marquee quilt: the prequel

2011-01-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a quilt I finished last year but haven't, until last week's jaunt to the snow, managed to photograph well enough.

I mentioned in my first marquee project post that I was making two quilts with the same marquee borders. The gaming quilt, the subject of this post, was finished first and lives in Hamish's living room. It measures about four feet by six feet, and is based on the funquilts marquee pattern

Its notable features include a foot pouch and an applique inspired by the Street Fighter II video game. The intended use is prevention of hypothermia while lost on a video-game bender.

I'm really pleased with the almost-solid red background fabric against the blue and brown strips. And I'm still crazy about the pieced bias binding.

It's me, Mario

2011-01-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I've just spent a week in the mountains with my extended family, and we all had a wonderful holiday. I brought a couple quilts that I've had a hard time photographing in the hope that a snow scene would be more flattering. I show them soon, but for now here is a final handmade Christmas gift.

It's the finished Mario pillow I made for my nephew. Mario is much less obvious than he would be had I used solids, but I like the way he disappears when you get too close. I quilted straight lines on both sides of each seam.

I assembled the top by chain-piecing progressively larger patches of the pillow top.

Next time I do a project like this I'll probably be a bit more careful with consistent color value in the various color blocks. Or maybe not!

The stars and the planets

2010-12-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

The second linen table runner is quilted and bound. Thanks so much to everyone who offered advice on how to quilt it! I went for a swirly effect in the background, as I suggested in the last post, then a loose echo stitch around the stars, connecting the stars in a wavy flow, and finally a meander through the stars, with the quilting for the star flow a slightly darker tan color.

I love the stars, but I'm also very fond of the back where it's all about the quilting.

It came out of the dryer beautifully.

And to stick with the astrological theme I'm pleased with the fresh-from-the-dryer pucker of the planets table runner, too.

Table runners

2010-12-20T12:23:00.000-08:00

My latest focus in the handmade holiday madness is a pair of linen table runners. The first is about 12" x 36", inspired by a project in Yoko Saito's "Patchwork Lesson." I came upon the book at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco's Japantown. While the book is in Japanese and most of the projects are handbags (not at the top of my interests), the fabrics and quilting are wonderful. I think I'll buy it next time I'm in the neighborhood.

The inspiration project is a handbag with a row of wonky applique circles featuring the same cross effect. The circles are cropped on the cover of the book, though the actual project is more striking.

I sewed the contrasting strips into the circle fabric, then pieced the circles into the continuous background linen using the six-minute circle technique. The circles went well, though I would recommend leaving at least a 3/4" seam allowance on the background fabric, and I never quite achieved the advertised time of six minutes.

I finished with straight line machine quilting that echoes and extends the the circle strips, then finally some hand stitched circles.

The second table runner is a wave of wonky stars, again all linen, that I'll trim down to a finished size of 15" x 72". I'm having a hard time figuring out how to quilt this one. I'm considering some free-motion swirls for a "The Starry Night" effect.

How would you quilt it?

Scrappy scottie

2010-12-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Another handmade holiday gift, this one for Malcolm to give to Hamish. Starting with a Denyse Shmidt pattern, I went back to the last extra fabric panel from my marquee projects. The squares are cut from bias strips, then pieced at alternating angles. Alert readers may remember that Hamish has been the recipient of two projects using these same fabric panels (the gaming quilt and the consolation quilt), so Scrappy should feel right at home.

Hexy update

2010-12-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

The one-inch hexy count has reached 820. I've started hand stitching the pieces together into larger hexagon blocks. Over the holidays I hope to start working in some four-inch hexies over the holidays.

Wedding quilt

2010-12-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

We just gave this quilt to some good friends for their wedding. The pattern is 'Sexy Hexy' available for free from Amy Butler. It was a lot of fun to make and I enjoyed working with the bold bright prints. It was also my first experience working with glue stick - the center hexagons are stabilized with freezer paper, the seam allowances glue sticked to the back of the paper, and then top stitched to the already assembled outer rings of the hexagon. It made the tricky business of matching the corners very easy.

The biggest challenge on this project was completely self imposed. I fussy cut all the hexagon sides (except the columbine and lindy leaf, if memory serves) for maximum kaleidoscope effect. That's a lot of fussing! But I'm glad I did it.

The pieced back is a calmer palette of two blue fabrics.

I ran with the floral theme for the quilting. It's a free motion loopy daisy pattern (photo by Stacey Sharman).

The quilt is finished with a hand-embroidered label attached to the corner binding on the back of the blanket (photo by Stacey Sharman).

Fabrics:
Lindy Leaf, Pocketbook and Welcome Road by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit
Sunflower, Flower Fields and Columbine by Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit
Bubble Burst by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit
Lotus Pond by Amy Butler for Free Spirit
Sophie's Garden by Erin McMorris for Free Spirit
Posh Petals by Khristian Howell for Anthology Fabrics
Mod Trees by Giancini Atelier for Anthology Fabrics

Next on the gift list

2010-12-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Please tell me you see Mario when you squint.

Christmas list

2010-12-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've checked the first item off my Christmas list. I used an Amy Butler pattern to sew these two kitten pillows for my niece. The larger one is the pattern size;the smaller is three-quarters size, though the face isn't reduced quite as much. I decided the two looked better together if the faces are closer to the same size. That's the way it is in real life, right? The proportion of a baby's/kitten's head to her body is larger than the same proportion for an adult.

The fabric is from the Clothworks Woodland Friends collection, with contrasting color on the back of each pillow. The faces are felt with a satin stitched edge.

The biggest challenge was stuffing the ears and feet without overstuffing. I popped a couple seams in the process and ended up whip-stitching on the outside to repair. I've decided to follow Cyn's lead and value the scars.

The back is finished with a bit of hand embroidery to personalize the gift.

Something different

2010-11-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a peek at another project I'm finishing up. In the past I've worked with finer, more tonal prints, so using large-scale, mostly floral fabrics was intimidating and exciting. The color palette also stretched my comfort zone. I'll have more photos soon.

Name and date

2010-11-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

I've resolved to be better about labeling my quilts. For the shirting quilt, I embroidered a tag and sewed it into the corner binding. The embroidery itself goes faster than I expected, especially considering all the time that goes into piecing and quilting a blanket. Now I have to finish hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.

What's your favorite way to label your projects?

Shirting quilt

2010-11-17T08:29:00.000-08:00

I'm finishing up two quilts, and they coud hardly be more different. One is bright, colorful, flowery and feminine, and the other is simple, muted and masculine. I'll have more about the first quilt soon. The second quilt top is getting layered with backing and batting today. It's a nine-patch pattern made from recycled shirts. The sashing between the blocks and the backing are cream-colored flannel sheeting. This blanket is definitely all about comfort.

I think this one will get straight-line quilting with alternating colors for a plaid effect.

It's been a while

2010-10-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

I put down my sewing projects for a while, but lately I've been busy again. I have several quilts in progress that I'll be posting about. Today I offer the hexy count update: 617

I think it's time to start sewing them together.

When I started quilting...

2010-08-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

I swore I would never do this:

Obviously something has changed. My first 125 one-inch hexies are basted and ready for piecing.

Porthole pillows

2010-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about these pillows I made to go with my marquee quilt. I used many of the same fabrics I used in the quilt. The neutral solid is a double layer of the same unbleached kona muslin I used to back the quilt.

I wanted to contrast the square geometry of the marquee quilt with some bold circles. The reverse-applique technique is inspired by Lu Summers's porthole quilt. The finished seam of the foreground fabric against the backing applique creates a striking sense of depth. I obviously took my quilting in a different direction than Lu.

The pillow binding matches the binding on the marquee quilt.

This project started with a doodle on deceptively rare and precious note paper.

I like the way the straight-line quilting meets the echo quilting around the circles. I think it evokes a bit of science fiction, or maybe crop circles.

It's curtains

2010-08-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the curtains I made for Matt and Jason. They make quite a statement! There are eight panels of a twill print from Amy Butler's Nigella collection, each fully lined. I mentioned before that Matt bought 20 yards of the stuff 2 years ago.

Matt had finished 8 panels of the white lining with loops and hung them in his living room. Unfortunately I had to rip out all the seams because the existing finishing on the linings didn't work with my plan for the curtains. It was a bit intimidating chopping into all that fabric with very little to spare. And I learned that needles dull quickly sewing through layers and layers of twill.

Flip the switch

2010-08-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Marquee quilt is done. I posted about construction of this Modern Quilt Workshop pattern the other day. I feel like I've been working on this forever, setting it aside again and again to work on more pressing projects.

The sun decided to cooperate today.

I wish the ginkgo applique were a little larger. It looks a little lonely on this queen size quit.

Here the applique is backlit with beautiful sunshine.

And here are a few detail shots of the fabric and the pieced binding.

Stack and whack

2010-08-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

I took my first stab at stack and whack today. That's when you stack several layers of fabric, being careful to align the print in each layer, then cut identical shapes through all the layers. You can get surprising pinwheel effects by arranging the identical pieces into a block. Even non-floral prints can begin to look like flowers.

I used six layers of fabric and cut equilateral triangles (60 degree angles) about 4 inches per side, then arranged the pieces in hexagon blocks. Four pairs of hexagons in the above picture have almost identical prints, but the triangles are rotated to create different effects.

Not sure what I'm going to do with them. I think I'll sew the hexagons and wait for inspiration -- maybe something like this blanket by Kristin La Flamme. I like the strip of hexagons surrounded by solids, and the fabric is great. I'm less enthusiastic about stack-and-whack blocks cut from purely floral prints. The results can be beautiful, but the effect is usually just too floral for me. It's floral raised to the second power.

My fabric is from a curtain project for my friends Matt and Jason using a print from Amy Butler's Nigella collection. Matt bought 20 yards two years ago to sew curtains for their living room. Well, there hadn't been much progress so he asked me to help him out. Now the eight curtain panels are almost done and there are a lot of scraps -- hello hexagons! The triangles are carved out of long 4" selvage strips left when I cut the curtain panels from the center of the fabric.