Using Those Pre-cuts

I have looked at those precut layer cakes, Jellyrolls and charm packs for a long time. I love the variety you get in each one. But I always wondered what to do with them!

Then I found Jenny Doan and the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Her wonderful and inspiring tutorials opened a world of possibilities.

In January my guild tries to use either a local speaker or those of us in the guild volunteer to do some demos. This year we decided to take a look at using these precut fabrics.

Three of us did demos using jelly rolls, layer cakes and the triangular turnovers.

I demo'd the layer cakes and here's a sample of some of the blocks

These blocks are 25 inches square and work up very quickly. The link for the video tutorial for this particular quilt can be found here.

The guild loved the demo and I will finish the quilt as a wedding present for a friend's son who just got engaged. I'll post the picture when it's done.

Happy quilting

Mary

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My "One Handed" Quilt

The day after Hurricane Sandy I had hand surgery. It's called CMC Arthroplasty. Those of you with very painful arthritic thumbs may have heard about it. Like many of us, I thought, "I'll do so much while I'm recovering". Ha Ha! My right hand was in a full surgical cast and wrapped up to my mid-arm. And I had a debilitating cold (that later turned into walking pneumonia). But after about 5 days, and the pain was manageable, there were only so many books I could read and walks I could take. I needed to SEW!!!! I only had 9 days off from work, so I knew I needed to do something before work "re-consumed" me.

We all have that feeling I know, but I couldn't use a rotary cutter, I could sort of finagle scissors with my left hand, what to do?

I had a jelly roll that had been floating around my studio at the beach house for a while. Well a "1600 quilt" wouldn't be too hard. And it wasn't! (Good link for 1600 or jelly roll quilt instructions).

TaDa! The quilt I made mostly with one hand. This will go to a work colleague who is adopting two children from Eastern Europe. Very expensive proposition, and her family is having a fund raiser. They can raffle it or keep it.

Just doing simple grid quilting on it and I will try to use my "binding attachment by machine" tool. Still cannot do hand work but it's getting better.

Happy quilting!

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More Texture Magic Projects

Well it's been a while since I posted, but I have been busy. Back in mid-October I started reping Texture Magic in Massachusetts. Since then I have been working hard to make my samples of the patterns made for TM to show at shops and demos.

The patterns are designed by Annie Unrein and they all work up really well. There are now 14 patterns that are available. I am hoping to get them in all the quilt and fabric stores in MA, but if you can't get them in your LQS, then check both Annie's web site or the Superior Threads web site.
If you live in MA and see this just contact me directly by posting a comment.

Here are the projects
Bubbly Music Babies - this is a baby quilt pattern, (Bubbly Babies) but I used "adult" fabrics. Both of my children played in the orchestra in high school (cello & viola) so I had lots of music fabric and I wanted to make a black and white quilt. I have not quilted this intentionally, so I can show the texturized pieces from the back and how they are pieced into a quilt. They are the black pieces in the center.





On The Town - is a great bag to make - I used rows of one of the decorative stitches on my machine to make the texturized center - I was very pleased with the effect. Also I tried Fast2Fuse in the body of the bag and Craftfuse in the pockets. The Fast2fuse was hard to turn right side out after putting the lining and the outside of the bag together, but it makes the bag stand up very well.





Serenity- The flap on this bag has wool batting in between the TM and the fabric. Then I outlined each leaf with a 35wt varigated thread I had in my thread stash. It was a lot of work, but worth it. I used magnetic snaps and put feet on the bottom as well. These are little features that are not in the pattern, that make the bag very finished.






Texture Magic Tote- A potential customer was not sure that TM would work for her customers - they support the more folk art, "no brights" quilters and crafters. She supplied me with the fabric for this bag - it is the small bag in the pattern - the pattern comes with two sizes.
It came out really well. The black fabric on the base has a very very dark gray pattern in it. To texturize, I went around some patterns free motion and then did a 1" grid with a serpentine stitch for the rest. The effect was great.



I am off to try some applique as I have two demos this weekend.

Quilts Actually Do Get Finished

I am famous for starting, but not finishing not only quilt projects, but most craft projects. Love to start, but there is always something new and fun to try--- So the old project goes in the dark recesses of my work room closet and the new one gets to be played with for a while. I do not do this in my work life, just my creative life!

BUT - I am trying to change that. As I move through this unemployed state, I am going to finish my UFO's interspersed with job hunting. Doesn't mean I won't start a few new things, but the UFOs are going to go away. In the last 6 weeks or so I have finished one longer term project, one old kit, and one totally new project. Earlier on, I showed the Turning 20 quilts I made for my DS and DD. DD's is FINISHED and on the bed in her dorm (as of today - went back to school today boo hoo!!). It was a BEAR to quilt. The quilt is 80X90 (approximately) and is flannel on both sides. But I did learn a lot about machine quilting a large quilt and I will use on finishing the one for DS - also a Turning 20 type same size, flannel on both sides.

Learnings from Quilting a Large Flannel Quilt on a Home Machine -

1. Make sure you have a lot of space to spread the quilt out to support it while you are working on it. I moved from my small table in my work room to the dining room table upstairs to support the quilt and lessen the drag.
   
2. Decorative Stitches as Quilting - I experimented using the decorative stitches on my machine in some of the blocks. The designs are made to stitch out with no drag on the fabric going through the feed. That is almost impossible with a quilt of this size and weight. The opposite issue occurred when I tried to support the quilt and help the feed process, - it "over- fed" the pattern. It was a very fine line between a drag on the pattern and an over feed. So about 30% of the time I got it right, the rest have some "unique" distortions to the pattern.
3. I would use the decorative stitches on a small quilt in the future, but not a big heavy one
4. Machine Embroidery Quilting - I used the quilting patterns I have in my machine embroidery - I have the Designer Gallery Ineractives for my Babylock Ellageo
   This came out fairly well. I did not stabilize the quilt sandwich and I got some stretching and didn't match the side patterns exactly, but I loved the finished borders. See a close up below.
5. I LOVE the label. I just use my MSWord program, bring in a border clip art pattern, and go to town. No fancy label program. Print it on fabric and off we go!! I put a picture of DD and me from my sister's wedding on the label. Perfect.

Here are the picutures of the finished quilt, some quilting detail and the label.

My Other Two Projects - A old colleague and his wife just had their first child - a baby girl, Lucy, born in June. I picked up two charm packs of Moda Water Garden series and the coordinating yellow fabric for the backing. Did a simple random layout of the charms, and VOILA! a cute baby quilt. I used a double needle with a wavy stitch (built into my machine) and it came out wonderfully. Took a while to get the tension just right so the back had a good zig zag, but I was very pleased in the end. Washed it and shipped it off on Saturday to my friends in Chicago! I hope the baby loves it to pieces!
The final project was a table topper and place mat kit I purchased at least a year ago either at the Lowell (MA) Quilt Festival or the Gathering (Nashua NH). Can't remember. I was going to give them as a gift for a friend, but decided they wouldn't go with anything my friend had in her house. The whole thing went together really easily as everything was PRE CUT!! Loved it.
The manufacturer is
Great Pond Quilts LLC, Campton NH (email louise@greatpondquilts.com, pohne 603-536-0094 http://www.greatpondquilts.com/)
My DMIL saw these the other day and loved them - I know what she is getting for Christmas - she is 83 and doesn't want many things, but has a circular table in her dining room.I am going to try to add to this blog about twice a week.
We'll see how that goes!

Peace
Mary

Turing Twenty Quilts and the TQS BOM

Well, finally had some time to work on quilts. My ankle has been up and down. If I don't keep it elevated most of the time, by the evening, my foot is rigid and very swollen. So today, no work, a little quilting and got caught up with the pictures to go with everything.

I now have the tops done for my son and my daughters's Turning Twenty quilts. Just have to get going on DHs. I loved making these quilts they work up so quickly. The wonderful longarmer I am going to use, will also piece the backing. I cannot work with large expanses of fabric yet, so this is a service she offers along with her quilting. I can't wait. I will try to go to the guild meeting next week and take both quilts to her.
Here are the pictures - the purple one is for my daughter, the one with the green border is for my son. Both are flannel quilts.















The TQS BOM - I am working on TQS 2009 BOM - it is a beautiful pieced quilt. My focus fabric is an Asian fabric I had in my stash. I am trying to use mostly stash fabrics, as the quilt can be very scrappy. I did order some fabric from an online fabric store that offered a lot of Asian Fabrics and was pleased with the what I received, I was concerned about the color matching what you see on line. I will select the fabrics for each month as I go along, using as much of my stash as I can.
The directions provided by Sue Garman are OUTSTANDING! I hadn't done paper piecing in a while and did the test piece. It was a little house block. It was a very worth while activity, I needed to re-learn how to use my add an eighth and the add a quarter ruler - very useful tools for paper piecing. The photo below is the little house, and then below that are the fabrics I will use in the Feathered Star block in the center of the quilt.















I will post the star when it is done.

Turning Twenty Quit # 1- Steven's quilt

Earlier this fall I intended to make a quilt for my husband, son and daughter for Christmas. I even knew I would have them machine quilted by a wonderful longarm quilter who belongs to both of my guilds. I looked through the pattern books an pamphlets I had and came across a set of Turning Twenty (by Tricia Cribbs) patterns. This was perfect. Twenty fat quarters, plus the border. The blocks are 16 inches square, the component pieces are large - the cutting is very efficient.
My son Steven, had given me most the fat quarters for his quilt last (2007) Christmas. I started there and then got more flannels for my daughter and husband's quilts when I visited my son at school. There is a great LQS in North Adams, MA called Tala's that specializes in flannels and my son goes to school in North Adams.
Making great progress. My son's top was done, my daughter Colleen's top was cut out and all the sub units pieced, and some of the main units pieces, and BAM - DEC 3 - broken ankle, surgery etc..
So Steven got his top for Christmas, that is shown above. Colleen got the blocks and DH got a promise!!
I now have my new Janome 760 on the same floor with me while I recuperate. DD's quilt will get pieced over this weekend. I will need help laying it out - I can't get down on the floor and these quilts are very large.
I haven't quite figured out how I will do the cutting for DH quilt - I can't stay upright for long - my leg and foot swell too much. But every day is better.
I do have the backing for the quilts too. I chose flannel for the backs, because I was concerned about differential shrinkage if I used plain cotton on the back and flannel on the front.

I hope to get these off the to long arm quilter in the next two weeks - she has a fast turn around time and the I will do the binding.

My "Ugly" Quilt With a Heart

I belong to two quilt guilds. They are both great groups of creative women. I was invited to join the second guild by my best quilting buddy Lynne in the fall of 2007. She was going to be Vice President of the "second" guild in the 2007 - 2008 year and said it would be fun. Lynne has also been the president of my "first" guild in the 2006-2007 year. The outgoing president of the guild alway puts out a challenge at the end of her tenure. The challenge can be anything and the finished project is due at the January meeting of the next year (in this case January 2008). Lynne hated ugly fabric. So she chose what she considered the most ugly fabric she could find, and challenged us to use it in a small ( 20 X 20 inch) quilt incorporating the fabric. She gave everyone who wanted to participate a fat quarter to use in the quilt.
For quilters this is a great exercise. We can get complacent in our favorite colors, or designs. In the finished quilt pictured the "ugly" or challenge fabric is the red/orange print in the center and on the border.
I set about over the summer and early fall of 2007, using my EQ5 to come up with a design. Also I would only use fabrics in my stash. I also wanted to use a heavy thread for quilting and use the bobbin technique. I accomplished all those things.
'Round about October 2007, Lynne had a bad respiratory cold she couldn't shake. By November she was in the hospital. In the end she had Stage 4 Lung cancer. They had treated her for asthma for about 9 months, then bronchitis then pneumonia. It makes me so angry that this was missed for so long. But I took the out put from my EQ5 to her hospital room. Hung it up with all the other wonderful posters, and cards that people had sent to her. She was buried on the day of the guild meeting to show the President's challenge. I didn't finish the quilt for that meeting - but I did finish it.
Lynne always encouraged me to think outside the box, she was an artist, I am the in the box engineer - where everything has to be "matchy -matchy" This quilt has a prime position in my studio to remind me of Lynne and to keep stretching my creative side.