It's been awhile since I've posted, but finally I have a finished top to show you. Sawtooth stars, lots of them, with simple alternate blocks in a rather odd green that is impossible to render accurately in a photo, sigh.
Amity Quilter
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Scrappy Sawtooth Stars
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Bramble Blooms First Border and other projects
This past weekend I finally bit the bullet and sewed up the first set of borders for my version of Bramble Blooms I.
I decided to go with my original idea and make all four border panels from the same stylized yukata fabric, adding half-circle applique accents in areas of plain background along the inside edges. You might be aware that floral yukata fabrics often reverse direction of the design every so often, which facilitates the creation of kimonos with both front and back being right-side-up without the necessity of cutting and creating shoulder seams. This reversal happened in the top border you see above.
I'm quite happy with the way this border turned out, but am still not totally happy with my center panel. It seems like it needs "something" but I don't know what. Perhaps a bird or a butterfly? Appliqued or embroidered, or quilted? I'm open to any and all suggestions!
Aside from this project, I spent the majority of January cleaning up the "scrap corner" of the sewing room. All the random piles are now neatly housed in smallish bins of several size squares, narrow strips, "wide" strips generally over 2-1/2 inches, long lengths of binding, and a big bin called "chunks." That's pieces larger than 6-1/2 inches but less than a fat quarter. The amazing thing is that I've actually consulted several of those neatly stacked bins when searching for a particular size square, where the piles were totally ignored when they just sat jumbled in the corner.
Remember this quilt top? I've been ever-so-slowly hand quilting it off and on in the evenings.
It should have been done long ago but a piece of rogue batting got used for this one, and it's a bugger to needle. I'm hoping to finish hand quilting the last three panels in the next couple weeks, and then machine quilt all the sashings/borders and be done with it.
The historic panel quilt is partially quilted now, awaiting the day when the table around the Janome is cleared so that project can proceed. The panel itself is now hand quilted, but the borders are being machine quilted. Soon I hope.
Well, this is enough for one post. We're expecting a snowstorm mid-week after several days of mid-50s this past week. A very strange winter for sure.
Til next time, happy quilting!
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Bramble Blooms 1 - next steps
It's a foggy, rainy afternoon and the internet is barely moving along. HughesNet and rainy/snowy weather do NOT get along at all - 'nuf said ...
Anyhow, when I last posted, the center of my Bramble Blooms I was still in process of being stitched down. When Audrey posted her guidance for the first set of borders, I was having a little fun playing with some sawtooth stars meant for a camp donation quilt for the 2024 auction.
Cheerful, yes? Though clearly not what Audrey had in mind. More applique, possibly a coping border and then a wider border with repeated applique was what she suggested. I had been thinking about half circle appliques surrounding the coping border, so I set about looking for some possibilities.
After having used a piece of Japanese yukata fabric for the flower pot in the center, that bin of fabrics was consulted again while completely ignoring my set of fabrics initially chosen for this series. Improv???? I ended up choosing another treasured piece of yukata of which I have 4 yards (yukata fabrics are typically only 14 inches wide, so not as much fabric as you might have thought).
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Bramble Blooms I - some progress to date
While some have already completed their center applique, there always has to be someone bringing up the rear, right? Slow but steady is my mantra for this quilt - any current project for that matter! Improv and applique are so out of my comfort zone, yet this project and following along with Audrey's thought process as she builds her quilts is so inspiring that I couldn't resist joining in.
So, several ideas came to mind for the center applique. First, it was sunflowers. I got as far as sketching out a pattern and inking it onto some mylar template material, then sanity prevailed as I figured out how many individual petals would be needed to complete one flower, much less two or three as I'd planned. Saved for BB-2 or BB-3 perhaps?
Tulips looked easier for this relatively simple center, so I thought. Stems cut and pinned, then narrowed down. First paper tulip tryouts added.
Tried adding fabric - um, no.
Friday, November 24, 2023
Vintage Spin is a November Finish
Earlier this week I finally put the finishing stitches in my version of Kathy Doughty's Vintage Spin (from her book Adding Layers).
I've been waiting for a less dreary rainy day to grab a few photographs, but yesterday finally gave up on that idea and just went for it. Wet grass, winds gusting to near 35 mph and 40 degree temps and all. But this morning it's only 32 degrees, and still mostly cloudy so maybe Thanksgiving was the better day after all.
I hand quilted this one with a light lavender 12 weight Aurifil thread, first outlining each of the black circles and then along the edges of all the light colored wedges. After taking off the hoop the circles puffed out a lot more than they should have, especially on the back, so after putting the binding on I went back and quilted smaller quarter coin size circles in the middle of each black one, effectively turning them into donut holes as you can see from these photos of the back.
The batting is heirloom wool, which I love for hand quilting and for the softness and light weight of the finished quilt. This time I had to piece every square of leftover pieces to have (barely) enough to cover the backing.
Monday, October 30, 2023
Bramble Blooms QAL - Possibilities
Who can resist a quilt-along hosted by and with tutorials from Audrey of Quiltyfolk?! Especially one that promises a work at your own pace, with a variety of techniques and with fabrics already in your stash, those oldies you've been wondering whatever am I going to do with that fabric once loved and purchased but now seriously outdated. I think some of us older well seasoned quilters have grown a bit tired of CW repro quilts and would love to dive into the world of color and improv quilting but lack the courage/knowledge of where to begin.
I'm wondering to myself 'Can I do this?' Well, I'm sure going to try! Here's a link to Audrey's introductory post with our first steps toward Bramble Blooms I.
First, the fabric pull. A couple days ago I pulled a little tote filled with fat quarter +/- fabrics that was easily accessible and dumped them out. I chose that multicolor floral fabric as my focus or starting point and began adding from there.
After a bit the pile had grown to this
I was pretty happy with this little pile, but realize it's heavy on the yellows and greens and a bit light on red/pinks, and have since added a couple more FQ size pieces. I'm sure other bins will be raided as time goes by and I have an idea of where the quilt is heading. I'm planning to do fabric pulls for the next quilts in the series once a suitable container is found to keep them, everything in here is already holding stash or scraps, or fabric pulls of other 'someday' projects.
I stitched the center panel this morning.
We had several glorious days last week, though it has now turned cold, rainy, and gray. We were able to capture a few great photos of the ancient shagbark hickory tree before it lost its leaves. Perhaps that's what contributed to the abundance of yellow/gold fabrics in this first fabric pull!
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
An October Finish Anticipating the Holiday Season
This year's Christmas/holiday quilt is finally finished! I had a chance to take a few outdoor photos on the last warm and sunny day we had last week.
Next up in the hoop is my Vintage Spin top, the first block already quilted. Just a simple outline around the circles and next to the ditch in the light colored wedges. If I can complete one block every 3 days this might just be another finish for the year. Not promising anything at this point, but having fun with it so far.
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Inching toward a Finish
Like the proverbial snail, slowly, ever so slowly, I'm moving toward a true-blue finish! The last of the Christmas quilts I plan to make is finally all hand quilted, trimmed, and awaiting a binding, perhaps as early as week's end. This is the top as it looked in late December last year.
In the latest of several glitches trying to get this one across the finish line - there were two potential red fabrics I had chosen as possible bindings. My most favorite one that I for sure had enough of - just looked like it might be a bleeder, so several weeks ago I washed it in hot water with Synthrapol and predictably it did bleed. After several more wash/rinse efforts, it appeared to have stopped the bleed, so it was dried and ironed. Today, just before cutting into it, something told me to hand wash it once again - yep, a bleeder forever it seems. It probably would be totally fine on a quilt with mostly dark fabrics and no whites, but sadly not for this quilt. Second choice is an oldie Jinny Beyer fabric, probably 20 years old, a tried-and-true one that I love - but - likely not going to be enough to bind the entire quilt. So, tonight a quick perusal of other reds to see if anything else in the stash might work. Probably I'll end up with a pieced binding using two or three fabrics, not going to go out and try to buy anything at this point.
So, an update on the eye issue. Saw a retina specialist a few days ago. Turns out the latest issue which is really messing with my sight is fixable with one laser procedure! In layman's terms it is a "secondary cataract" that developed behind the lens inserted when my cataract surgery was done four years ago. Medical term is posterior capsular opacification. Interestingly, this is a very common occurrence after cataract surgery, showing up in about 50% of patients! Who knew? Fortunately it is very treatable, and the success rate is around 95%. I feel blessed that there is a possibility that my sight may return to what it was early this year. Just super impatient, since the first available opening the specialist has is the last week of November! So, in the meantime, quilting is muddling along with one eye closed most of the time, otherwise I have no clear vision, near or distant. Driving is limited to the country roads near us that are sparsely traveled, no city driving since I can't read the road signs at this point!
Hopefully, I'll be back with a finish soon. Happy stitching!