Liar Liar

Okay, I didn't sandwich my Man Quilt. I started to work on it yesterday - after I came home and cleaned necessary areas of the house that were grossly beyond desperate for attention - and then I got out the batting, and the quilt top, and then... oops. The backing is flannel and was still sitting on the shelf in the plastic wrap (I ordered it online from JoAnn Fabrics weeks ago). So, damn me, I still needed to wash it. So, after that disappointing episode I had a wrestling match with Bridgemaxx Internet and lost. It's the worst Internet service I've ever had. The service cuts out all the time, and then comes back, and goes out again. I called to complain about it but Customer Service just thinks it's because a tree is blocking the signal, or maybe it's my neighbor's house. Who knows? I just get cranky when my Internet craps out when I'm trying to upload pics, watch a video about a quilting technique, or just surfing the 'net for fabrics to drool over. Honestly, as of this very second, I don't remember what I did last night, but I stayed up too late doing it.

My top priority today was to wash the flannel backing.

I did that, and while it was washing and drying, I started cutting the fabric for more Maple Leaf blocks. It's actually kind of fun and easy when you go about it with a factory production mentality. I took one color of fabric at a time and methodically cut it down to the three sizes I needed. Then I cut it down further until I had the proper size pieces from each. The finished stack of fabric pieces was set aside, and I began cutting the next. It took all night (maybe 3 hours) but I'm ready to assemble 10 new blocks. I had to at least assemble one of them tonight, so I chose what I thought was a very dark green. I bought it last night when I had the Hancock Fabric binge. In the less than adequate lighting of this room the fabric looks dark gray.

The fabric variety for my Maple Leaf quilt. I may add to this collection but I'm not sure right now. I'm just going to continue making blocks and see what I can get out of this fabric. I'm also thinking about sashing, and of course I want a pretty binding. I found an article about how to make two color binding, so that may be something I experiment with - especially with the Fall colors.

Blocks-to-be. Tomorrow's project after work.

Note: I really have to stop staying up so late on work nights. Drinking Mountain Dew isn't going to be enough to keep me awake if I continue to do this!!

Relay for Life quilt on display

The Relay for Life quilt is finished and on display! Raffle tickets are $2 a piece or 6 for $10 and all money goes to cancer research.

And I got too close to Hancock Fabric tonight when I was doing errands after work, so I had a minor fat quarter binge and purchased the following:

These delightful little fat quarters are my favorite items to purchase at Hancock Fabrics.

 

Project 5 - Maple Leaf quilt

I was restless and unmotivated most of the weekend, but finally this afternoon I started working on a NEW quilting project. Yes, this is Project 5 and it's for me! I purchased the fabric for a Maple Leaf quilt a few weeks ago - mostly $1 scraps from Hancock Fabrics and a variety of calicos from JoAnn Fabrics that were on sale. I love Fall and all the colors associated with the change of season, so I've been anxious to make a Maple Leaf quilt since I began researching patterns and Googling images of quilts others have made. The Maple Leaf pattern I'm using is a 12" block from Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache. I spend a lot of time at this website looking at patterns and dreaming of which ones I'll use next. Most importantly, it's FREE!

The background color is an off white with tiny gold sparkly things that I absolutely love! The maple leaves will be in all colors Fall - red, orange, yellow, brown, and even some green. I have solids and prints and even a few rather exotic fabrics that are shiny and have a sort of Asian theme to them. I like them so much that I made two Maple Leaf blocks today just to see how the fabric looks in the shape of a leaf.



The pieces ready to be sewed together.

Completed blocks. Not sewn together though.

Oh, my, there were mistakes all over the place today when I was working on the Maple Leaves! First, I was using fat quarters so my fabric supply in these colors were limited so I couldn't afford to make mistakes. At least I measured the correct lengths and widths. I just got overzealous and decided to save time and just cut the entire piece of fabric into the correct sizes - forgetting that the same piece of fabric needed to be cut into THREE different sizes. Oops. Fortunately, I had a few fat quarters of the yellow and blue fabric and there were leftovers from the cutting I did with both fabrics so I was able to assemble these blocks. I have enough of the yellow and blue to make a few more blocks. I have to buy more of the orange (if I can find it) if I want to make more blocks.

And I really wasn't impressed with the results from the new method of creating the half squares. You put two fabrics together, right sides facing each other, and the draw a line down the middle to mark the correct square size (the fabric is rectangle). Then you draw a line across each square to divide each one, and you sew on both sides of the lines. The end result is four squares with two different fabrics sewn together. It seems easy enough and I could do it, but when I sewed the pieces together the points just didn't line up right. Next time I'm going to do it the old fashioned, pain-stakingly long way of doing it just to better line up the points. I'm sure it's not the method that's faulty as much as it's my novice and first time trying it.

I also added the remaining borders to the Man Quilt for my brother!

The batting has been on my bed "breathing" all day, so tomorrow after work I get to make my first quilt sandwich! Woohoo!



The full size batting sucking up some air.



I have safety pins since they were on a list of "must haves" for basic quilting supplies according to my Quilting Bible, but the Quilting Ladies both seem to prefer basting instead because it works better when you use a frame to quilt. I think I shall try the pins first because I have them, and if I don't like them I'll baste. I don't have elaborate plans for the quilting so I'm sure it will work out either way.

On a more recent note...

Payday usually means I add to my fabric stash and/or shop for fabric for a new project. This time I bought fabric for future projects - one of which was just added to my quilting To Do List yesterday while I was searching online shops for the tuxedo cat panels I saw in in the Fons & Porter Easy Quilts Summer 2011 magazine. I came across a panel of safari cats (kittens) and thought of my grandpa. He loves the big cats - lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, cheetahs. So I splurged and bought a panel to make a lap quilt for Grandpa. I also found a panel with adult big cats at another shop and ordered it as well.

I haven't ordered from a small online fabric shop before but I have ordered from JoAnn online and have been satisfied with the service (and convenience) of finding and ordering a fabric that is unavailable locally. I don't know how easy it is to find the variety one wants in fabric in a big city, but this small city has its limitations. I tend to find more fabric online that interests me than I find in stores, or the fabric I want simply isn't available at the local store. I was rather restless and bored today so after I went to the library's used book sale and didn't find a single quilting book, I drove to Jerome to check out the fabric at their Wal-Mart since the local one doesn't even have a fabric department. I found the fabrics I'm going to use for Grandpa's quilt and you can't beat Wal-Mart prices. Well, JoAnn is my favorite place to shop because they have frequent sales, but as long as I can find fabric I like for $5 or less I'm happy.

Lately I'm strangely attracted to lime green and orange and rust colors in fabric. I think this is why I have a Maple Leaf quilt (for me!) on the To Do List of quilting projects.

Original Design - Kitty in the Window

I was ambitious and designed this pattern for a cat quilt. I am a cat lady and there will be cat quilts, I assure you. I've seen similar patterns, but this one I drew on graph paper and figured out the measurements. It was fun, and at times frustrating, and even now I know I could improve the pattern, but this was my first attempt at making my own design and creating a block sample.

This block is dedicated to my feline Sir William, who inspired me by sitting in the kitchen window behind the curtain to gaze out into the backyard at squirrels, birds, and leaves blowing in the breeze.

Group Project - Relay for Life Quilt

The Quilting Ladies at work decided to donate time and money to create a quilt to be raffled off to earn money for the 2011 Relay for Life. I volunteered to help, as did Jan, who has less experience quilting than I do. Marcia found a pattern in the McCall's Quick Quilts July 2003 magazine. The quilt is called Guys Weekend [designed by Erin Lawler], and we refer to it as a man-quilt - although in this area there are a lot of people who hunt, fish, and own cabins, so a more accurate description would be something like the Cabin Quilt. Jamie had the floor space to work on this queen size quilt, so Marcia, Jamie, and I met at Jamie's house to cut the fabric.

I assembled four rows at home as "homework."

Due to schedules and time constraints, we decided to tie the quilt, so again we used Jamie's kitchen as our workshop. I felt awkward doing this and had a difficult time with the running stitch through the quilt top, batting, and backing, but once I decided to use the old stab stitch I was okay.

And finally, the binding was added. I went to Jamie's house so she could teach and supervise while I learned the blindstitch. It was fun to learn something new that will in turn help me finish my own projects. I finished one end of the binding and took the quilt home to finish the long side before handing it off to Marcia so she could finish an end and a side. I am particularly interested in the mitered corners for binding. I learned one technique this time and want to learn another technique where you machine stitch the binding to the front of the quilt and then the mitered corner is perfect when you turn the fabric to the back to handstitch. Visual aids are helpful in understanding these things!

The quilt is very fluffy and comfortable. I told Jamie I was going to "test" the quilt overnight to make sure it was worthy of being raffled off. I didn't of course, but I am going to purchase raffle tickets and will hopefully win this wonderful prize!

Project 4 - The Man Quilt

Winter is a slow time at work so the ladies bring in catalogs and magazines to read and share. My favorite are the quilting magazines. I was looking at QUILT Magazine and found a man-quilt called Call of the Wild, by Janet Page Kessler, a designer for Benartex fabrics. The quilt uses the Log Cabin pattern and fussy-cut squares from a panel to create a framed look to the images. I didn't use the same fabrics, just the pattern. The main characters in my quilt are bears. I used fabrics that look like different natural textures - grass, bark - and dark colors that just remind me of my brother. At first I planned to do a fishing quilt but ended up liking the bear fabric. I did, however, find two different fish fabrics that I liked. Only one made it into this quilt.

This was the first time I did fussy-cutting and I am pleased with the result. There were no major errors in measuring and cutting the fabrics, and the quilt went together relatively quickly.

The frame is around each fussy-cut bear.

The biggest dilemma thus far with this quilt was when I thought the Log Cabin measurements were off and the pattern from the magazine was wrong! I was confused and couldn't believe that a magazine would publish faulty instructions. After much time spent on figuring out the "correct" measurements and constructing one "correct" size block, it occurred to me that the "extra" fabric with each measurement was for the seam allowance! Doh! So I have one mini-me block, pictured above, beside the correct size.

Last minute change of heart made me impule buy this fabric for the borders. Again, more of the fishing theme.

This fabric is for the sashing and is probably my favorite fabric in this quilt! I wouldn't have thought it would appeal to me as much as it does, but once I held it up to the other colors it was just so striking.

 

The quilt top with the side borders on. This weekend I want to add the top and bottom borders and then sandwich the materials so I can begin my first attempt at handquilting. I'm excited but nervous about this because I want it to look nice and to be finished in time to mail to my brother for his birthday!

 

Project 3 - Quilt for Mother's Day

I have been disappointed with this quilt since the day I cut the fabric to the wrong size and had to figure out a different pattern to use the fabric I'd "ruined." But, I am trying to make it work. This was the first quilt that I planned from scratch. I went to the fabric store to pick out fabric with purple and pink and white to create a quilt that Mom would love. I was also going to surprise her with the quilt on Mother's Day 2011 - which is still possible if I get motivated. I have seriously issues with procrastination when I'm disappointed in a project. After letting the cut fabric sit for a few weeks I finally went back and started chain-stitching the pieces together to at least have assembled squares to work with so I could experiment and see what I could do with them.

I have two size squares, and somehow I need to use as many of them as possible in this weird quilt I have created. Jamie gave me a table cloth to use as a design wall - the back is fuzzy and the fabric sticks to it - so I took the squares and laid out a pattern on the floor.

I tried to be a little creative with what I consider a screw-up-quilt. You can see the row of light color diamonds at one end, and at the opposite end is a row of pink diamonds. Opposite from each other on another row are two other patterns - one with dark purple as the stand out color and the other is a cat print. I think the center of the quilt looks like something from the Atari game Space Invaders and it is a total coincidence!

I sewed the rows together but stopped before I assembled the main quilt top. I'm going to add a border or two, and probably a pink-and-white striped binding. I also purchased the backing for the quilt at a great sale at JoAnn.

At present this quilt is on the backburner again because I started a fourth project that also have a May deadline - the Man Quilt I'm making for my brother for his birthday.



Project 2 - The Boxed Lap Quilt

I tend to imagine big when I'm learning something new. I get excited about something new and just want to burst onto the scene as an expert and create the most amazing quilts with my limited knowledge! I spend a lot of time researching quiltmaking and techniques online, and once I realized there is an easier method to piece the basic 9 patch block pattern I was using this technique as shown on Missouri Star Quilting Company's YouTube tutorial series, I was discouraged with the tedious way I was working on the Christmas Quilt. So I purchased quilt kits, that include the fabric needed to make the quilt top, and moved on to my second project.

I was nervous about making mistakes when I cut the fabric so I procrastinated for weeks before I had the courage to start this project. Once I cut the fabric, and saw that it was good, I relaxed and began to enjoy the process. I literally smiled with joy when I did something new and the process worked! The first time I sewed three pieces of fabric together, the first time I pressed the seams, the first time I completed a block, where all occasions for me to feel exceptionally proud of my achievement.

I was so afraid to start this project and make a mistake that I began a quilt for my mom in the meantime. I took time to decide on a pattern to use, and then had a great time selecting the fabric and the thread. Unfortunately, I did make the mistake I feared and cut the fabric wrong and once again got very discouraged. However, I did learn a valuable lesson about cutting the correct size as dinstructed. I also used a quicker cutting method and cut multiple layers at once.

The inner triangle was supposed to form within the square. Oops. This project sat on the backburner for months after this mistake.

So I started the lap quilt project and celebrated each little success:

 And eventually I completed my first quilt top!