Quilting Progress - Slow but Steady...

Stardate 2016.159.01

Gosh, things have been busy lately.  Between trying to plant the garden, hail storms, rainy weekend weather, and other general life challenges, I haven’t been doing as much quilting as I would like.  Things slowed down (somewhat) over the Memorial Day weekend and so I was able to spend some time sandwiching a quilt and now I’ve begun the quilting process. 

All pinned together and ready to get quilted.  Yep, I use straight pins to hold the quilt together and no spray basting.  In fact, I don't baste at all.  Never have liked it and just didn't get used to it...

I like the actual quilting – it’s fun, albeit challenging at times to try to figure out what you want to do, get the machine tension correct, and keep your free motion in good motion so stitches are similar in size.  A lot to juggle, but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? 

Here’s the progress so far on the quilt my sister and I are working on for our niece.  My sister left the quilting part up to me (no pressure there!), so here’s where I’m taking it so far. 

Let me just say, white stitching on white fabric is hard to photograph in artificial lighting.  The lighting doesn’t really do the stitching justice, but you can at least get the idea. 

As I remembered a conversation my sister and I had about what would happen if our niece decided to take the quilt with her as she went off to college, and so I decided I would personalize the quilt in a subtle, but hopefully effective way.

Can you see her name in the quilting?  I had fun designing and quilting this.  May be hard to see, but it's a pale green thread. The other thread, for the rest of the quilting, is white.

I had seen this type of quilting done as I cruised other blogs – Devoted Quilter (Leanne) calls the type of quilting “flow quilting” and I’ve also heard of it referred to as “graffiti quilting”.  I saw another blog which talked about quilting around words to get the words to stand out in a quilt.  I’d swear it was Studio Dragonfly, but my brain escapes me now.  At any rate, I put those two pieces of the puzzle together and quilted our niece’s name in the quilt using a light green colored thread.  Then, I finished out that row of quilting with white graffiti or flow quilting, in part because I felt then the Dresden plates would carry their own weight and the quilting would secure all of the open-pressed seams – make that area stronger.

So, now, I’m working my way through other parts of the quilt, and I’ve learned a few things so far:

1. ·       Straight lines are just tricky on a sit-down machine, but with continued work on mastering that skill, the lines will get better.
2. ·         Graffiti or flow quilting is fun!  It’s very free-form and who cares if you change things up – that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
3. ·         With straight lines, slow and steady wins the race.  If you go too fast, you can get off track real fast and spend more time ripping out stitching than actually sewing.  Keep calm and stitch on. 

     And, just for fun, here's another quilt I've started on (ha!  started a good year ago) ...but more on that next time.  Have fun in your quilting adventures! 

Linking up with Let's Bee Social! @ Sew Fresh Quilts...

May the Force of Creativity be with You!

Stardate 2016.125.1

(Couldn’t help but acknowledge “May the 4^th Be With You day, and all those Star Wars fans!)

Collaboration.  That’s what a lot of us quilters like to do.  We get inspired by the works of others and we gain creative momentum by working with others.  As my sister decided quilting was a hobby that she would enjoy, and as she fancies the more contemporary/modern quilting genres, and as I tend to lean towards a bit more traditional quilting, we thought we’d have some fun and make a quilt for our niece who will be graduating in 2017. 

We started out with each of us picking two or three blocks which we thought might work well together.  Because we are all from Colorado, we decided a pieced Columbine flower block (one of Ruth B. McDowell’s blocks) was a natural fit in a quilt that would be useful, but also memorable for our niece.  For anyone who doesn't know, the Columbine is our State Flower, so we thought it'd help remind her of Colorado, no matter where she went.

One of the blocks which would make it to the final quilt...

 We started off thinking we’d combine the Columbines into a field of Columbines and use pinwheel blocks to blend out the background.  Then, I think, my sister and I both decided getting that quilt pieced together might take longer than we had.  Keep in mind, we started planning the quilt project in 2014 sometime....  So, we’ve been on a long road to what we finally got.  After our revelation, my sister made a mock-up of a quilt that kept some of the Columbines, but introduced some different elements, and she laid them out in a “row” format.   

 

One of our mock-up designs...

Another mock-up. This is the one we chose, which is laid out in a row format

The quilt became more contemporary/modern, and yet maintained the elements we thought were important. 

 

We both agreed that a purple and green theme, coupled with yellow, would be an impactful color choice and would make the quilt zing.  We think we achieved that zing - and somehow managed (not on purpose) to pick her school colors.  That's just a bonus...

I think the quilt reminds me of what folks are now dubbing a “row quilt”, where the rows of the quilt are one block or one theme and then enough rows are added to make the quilt as large as needed. 

A shot of the actual quilt...only a few of the rows...

 The weekend before my sister moves to Texas (yes, this is a bit of a bummer), we got together and pieced like mad to get the rows set together and to basically get the quilt top finished before she moved (she didn’t want to have to pack it…which I understand!).  Now, the quilt awaits FMQ by me…no pressure!! 

Here's the actual quilt top...ready for quilting.

 I’ll keep posting progress as my blog will be a main spot where she’ll be able to see the progress on the finishing of the quilt.  I’ve found some light lime green thread and think I’ll quilt mainly with that…we’ll see.  Sometimes, I change my mind as I go (who doesn’t??)…

Now, we’ll look for ways to collaborate over long distance as we are pretty happy with the results, and have another niece graduating in a few years, and it’s never too early to start stirring up ideas. Doing this project together has sure been fun, so we look forward to future collaborations... 
Linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts - Let's Bee Social...