Today's Work
| I'm going to post some pictures of whatever I'm working on each day. This doesn't exactly show how to make a quilt top, but it will show a quilt top being "born." Hopefully, it will be a little like a quilting blog. I think the most important thing to know about how to make a quilt, is that there are as many right ways to make a quilt as there are people who are happy with the quilt they've made. I'll just do one page and then delete from the bottom as the page fills so you may not see each quilt top's complete process. I do jump around a lot!! If you click on these pictures, you can get a real close-up shot, where you can see mistakes, dust and all kinds of fun things! |
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| ************************************************************************************************************************************************************* When I set up my website in August 2006, I committed to putting new Quilt Tops on the New Tops Page on the first of each month and I've been able to do that every month. Lately, I've taken some pre-orders from the Today's Work page before the tops were completed, but I'm not going to do that anymore .... I want to stick to my original commitment of new tops being sold only on the New Tops page. The Today's Work page is intended as a way to share my process of completing a Quilt Top with anyone interested. Tops from here may or may not be on the website on the first of the next month, but they will be on the site on the first of some month. Sales will be on a "First Come, First Serve" basis after the Quilt Tops are put on the New Tops page on the first of the month. If you'd like me to send you an Email reminder on the first of each month, when the new tops are put on the website, just send me an E Mail and I'll put your name on my Mailing List. EMail Me *************************************************************************************************************************************************************** |
Deciding on the next stacks.....
| I decided to go with the blues, since I'd just worked with orange/yellows. I'm hoping that this super-dull green background fabric will make the stars shine enough that I can set them with no sashing and get the nice secondary pattern that the Lemoyne stars form. The focus fabric has kind of a Native American flair and I think the Lemoyne secondary pattern does as well. |
Thursday, December 29, 2011
| Love these blocks! Still can't see if the secondary design will show enough. Doesn't really matter because I can sash them or let them "float" on the dark background. |
| Stars are finished! Now, to decide on the setting.... |
Friday, December 30, 2011
| I wanted a little bit of piecing that looked kind of Native American in the borders. I think this will work and on the sides I'll use two diamonds in the middle to make the design a bit longer. |
| The border inserts are finished and I can start sewing this together :) |
December 31, 2011
| "Moonlit Stag" is all done and I'm really happy with the way it turned out :) Binding will be in the focus fabric, cut on the bias. |
| I feel like working with scrappy strips, so I'm going to try a diagonal 49-patch in these scrappy but controlled hot colors. |
Monday, January 2, 2012
| I'm going to have a great day today working with these vibrant colors :) Yesterday, I was doing paperwork all day and I really missed my colors! |
| Going to be a bright one! I know I've made several of these, but they're so much fun to make and they do always turn out differently, so, I'm going to keep making them :) I really like picking out the fabrics to use. |
| It's coming along :) I've been trying out different settings as I've been making the blocks. I may stay with this one. I'd need to move blocks around to, hopefully, disguise the line down the center of the quilt top a little more. However, even if I can't do that, I like this setting. |
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
| Blocks are finished and I've done a bit of rearranging to blend the diagonals a little, so, time to sew it together. The fabrics that show up as white, aren't. They're either a pale yellow or lavender with a little white print on them, but this angle makes them look white. They'll show better in the upright picture. |
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
| There's only one place in town for me to check for my machine belt, so until they open, I decided to do some cutting. I'm going to make another scrappy trip, like Hot Stuff, the one I'm working on now, but in pink and white. Each block will have one white, so I need six scrappy pinks for each block, a total of 144 pinks. I only had about 72 strips that were long enough, so I'm cutting pinks. I just pulled some of the smaller pieces from my stash and will cut those for this top and the remainder of the piece will be cut for my other scrap sizes. The one piece to the right is obviously from a dressmaker :) A lot of my stash is gifted scraps from lots of people and I always get a kick out of these pieces from people who were making clothes because they're so different looking than most quilter's scrap pieces. See how chatty I am....that's because I don't have a working sewing machine!!! |
| I'm a sad, sad, little piecer:( Look at my broken sewing machine belt! So, the search for a new belt begins. |
Thursday, January 5, 2012
| "Hot Stuff" is all done! My machine has a new belt and is working again, after only two trips to the Quilt Shop to get belts to try out and then repositioning my motor, the belt fits :) I'm happy again! |
| The pinks begin! I think one of the really nice things about this hobby for me, is the changing of colors from one quilt top to the next :) |
Friday, January 6, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
| Since each square in these quilt tops finishes at an inch and a half, there are a lot of seams to match! However, I really like the results well enough to do the matching :) |
| Right now, the name of this one is, "Cotton Candy", however, I may change to this stylized heart setting and call it, "We Two." Who knows what layout I'll end up with! |
Sunday, January 8, 2012
| All sewn together and ready for me to work on the right hand border :) |
Monday, January 9, 2012
| I decided on this row of scrappy little hearts for the right border. I think I'll add two more and then border the strip on both sides, so the hearts will float. |
| When sewing on borders, I usually work with the border on the top, but, when there are this many seams that go in different directions (because the blocks are going in different directions) it's really nice to have the body of the quilt on top, so I can watch those seams. |
| "We Two" is finished! If the hearts in the body of the quilt weren't seen right away, I think the border hearts make the ones in the body more obvious. |
| I have a lot of one inch strips - let me say that again, I have a lot of one inch strips! I think anything made with one inch strips is labor intensive, but I really like the way they look, so I cut them :) I sorted some strips into color groups last night and I've been fooling around with some, combined with 1.5 inch strips to see what to make. I think it will be the elongated Court House Steps blocks. I hope I can keep them straight enough to look good! |
| Amazing what a difference in the look that little half inch square makes! I also didn't add the last white step on the top and bottom. I want to see what it looks like when I get the next row finished, so I can see if I want the colors to run into one another or to be separated by the white. I like the design on the top, which no connector, but I think I'll save it for another time and go with the connector this time. |
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
| I love the look of a rainbow quilt, but I also love the fact that I get all excited each time I get to go to a new color! |
| For me, the really nice part of working with scraps sorted into monochromatic groups is that it gives me a chance to enjoy all of the many shades, tints and hues of each color :) |
Wednesday, January 11,2012
| You sure don't zip along with the one inch strips, but, they aren't nearly as wiggly as I thought they might be :) |
Thursday, January 12, 2012
| All sewn together and I'm thinking I'll use a narrow white border. When I pulled out the three boxes of one inch strips, I have to say, they were a bit frightening! However, I sorted two of the boxes into color groups and then it was much easier to think of what I could do with them. |
| "Rainbow Rhombus" is all done and I really love it! Now, I'm glad I have all of those one inch strips :) |
| I want to try something else with the courthouse blocks, but don't know if this will be enough of the one inch strips, or how the design will look. I'll just start and see how it goes :) |
Friday, January 13, 2012
| OK, I think this will work well enough. Hopefully, as I get more blocks finished, it will give the impression of the orange and turquoise being intertwined. I can see already that I'll need to be cutting more orange and turquoise in the one inch strips, which is why the scraps never go away. A good thing, in my opinion :) |
| I am going to need more orange and turquoise, lots more! So, I pulled my two inch strips and I'll cut a few of those in half, then I'll attack the bag of turquoise still left from the years when I didn't cut my scraps into precuts. I'll work on that bag until I scream, cry or go a bit insane and then I'll go to the small pieces from stash. Once I've pulled one of those and ironed it, I'll cut the whole piece into different size strips and just file them in the precuts. There, more info than anyone wanted :) |
| Well, not intertwined, but I do think it looks a little twisty :) |
| Blocks are done and I think I'm done with the one inch strips for a while! I didn't want the half motif design on the edges on this one, so I pieced the second half of the blocks with the background fabrics. I want to do some piecing in the border and the half motifs would have been a bit much. |
Saturday, February 14, 2012
| Lots of one inch strips left for the next time I'm feeling a really high level of patience :) |
| Looks almost like the last picture, but now, it's sewn together. I'm going to try a jazzy border :) |
Sunday, February 15, 2012
| This is a border from the book, "Pieced Borders", by Judy Martin and Marsha McCloskey, a favorite book of mine. I find if I make the corner sections and the triangle shaped piece first, it gives me a nice (although false) sense of security. Even though there will be an inner border of the orange, I still find this border a bit nerve racking, right up until you find out of it's going to fit well at the corners. So, as I near that section, I kinda chant, "Please fit, please fit" and I'm sure that helps :) |
| With a pieced, on-point border, where I'm cornering with the design, I generally figure it out using math and then lay it out to determine the size of my inner border. When the border units aren't the same as the body units, as with this quilt top, sometimes the top/bottom and sides inner borders won't be the same size. In this case, it looks like they'll be pretty close. |
Monday, February 16, 2012
| I have to say, if I were a tiara-wearing kind of gal, and, if I had a tiara, I'd wear it right now :) The corners worked really well! On to the next problem....I put the orange half square triangles on with the bias along the long side because I think that makes it a lot easier to ease in a seam on a pieced border. Sadly, I also put the turquoise triangles on in the same way and they're along the border edge. However, since they're only two and seven-eights, I think it will be fine. |
| "Courthouse Twist" is all finished! No problem at all with the bias blue triangles :) |
| I've been doing scrappy all month, so I think I may change to something stacked with this vibrant peacock print. |
Tuesday, February 17, 2012
Fun octagons!
| I hesitate to show this at this point, before seams are taken, because it's a bit wild and about to become even more so! However, I think the brights are going to work, once the seams are taken. This is the same octagon layout as another one I did recently, so I know I like the layout and I'm anxious to see it done in these fabrics. |
| Woo-Hoo! The lime green makes the vivid orange seem sedate :) |
| Blocks are sewn into rows and the sashing is also. I'll sew the sashing to the rows where I can and then work on the setting triangles. Hard to get good color on my "floor" pictures, but it will show when I hang the quilt top. The electric blue background eats up a lot of the intensity of the accent colors, so I'm glad I went really bright. |
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
| I really enjoy this part of the piecing process where all of the blocks are sewn in rows and the setting triangles are made, so it's just a matter of putting things together. When I get a few rows sewn together, I can see how it's going to look! |
| When getting ready to apply the border, I trim the edges of the quilt top. I use some point in the piecing to determine the trimming. In this case I used the tips of the magenta inserts in the setting triangles and am trimming to 3/8 inch. I always try to trim at least a bit over a quarter inch. I like a safety net! I also like the look of the quilt top "floating", which, in this case it would do anyway, since the border and the setting triangles match. |
Thursday, January 19, 2012
| "Peacock Exuberance" is all done :) I've so enjoyed working with these colors! |
| All of those flowers made me think of drifts of flowers in a meadow, so I'm going to try using just HSTs with different numbers of them in the florals. We'll see..... |
Lots of flowers....thinking.....
| My meadow is beginning to bloom! This is fun and so much easier than actually planting the flowers :) I'm naming this one "Melody of the Meadowlands." |
| This is great fun, making all of these HSTs with the florals. Of course, the wailing and gnashing of the teeth will occur when I have to sew all of these together :) |
| Ready to sew them together! I've so enjoyed choosing the florals and working with the layout to, hopefully, get sort of a drifting look with some pools of color, as in a field of wildflowers. |
Friday, January 20, 2012
| I had been a bit concerned that it might be difficult to get the seams pressed nice and flat on this, but it's going together really well. Probably because these half square triangles set in at 3.5 inches, which is a bit larger than my normal. |
| All sewn together :) I really like this as it is, but I'm going to border it. Hopefully, I'll like it even better with the border! |
Saturday, January 21, 2012
| "Melody of the Meadowlands" is all done and the binding will be in the green dotted fabric. I was going to do another border, after the green, in mixed floral squares that would finish at 3.5 inches. However, I laid some out and it really took away from the flow of the HSTs. I figured it was time to stop :) |
| I'm going to start some kaleidoscope blocks in white and scrappy yellows. After I get some made, I'll see if I want to add more color. |
| Good old kaleidoscope blocks. I don't think I've ever met a kaleidoscope I didn't like :) This one's named "Mornin' Sunshine." |
| Just making blocks and I'll arrange them after I have them all. It's beginning to get that kaleidoscope look that I love :) |
Sunday, January 22, 2012
| On the outside edges of all of the blocks that will be next to the border, I'm using the fabric that I'll use for the border to corner the blocks. I think this brings the border and the body of the quilt top together a bit and also gives a nice scalloped edge where the blocks end. |
| Blocks are finished :) I'll probably do some rearranging and then I get to sew them together and see those neat kaleidoscope circles form! |
Monday, January 23, 2012
| All done :) "Mornin' Sunshine" is how I often greeted my kids in the morning, so I really like that name for this happy quilt top! |
| I received my new/old machine yesterday! It's a Singer 15-91, which is a gear driven machine. The shipping weight on this critter was 38 pounds and it felt like even more as I muscled it into the cabinet. It sews very nicely and I think will take care of my sewing needs, plus I may be able to train it to do the heavier housework :) I thought the courthouse steps with the skinny strips would be a good way to get used to the new machine. |
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
| These elongated court house steps look so different when set on their side. |
| Making these is so relaxing and I get to visit cut strips from a number of years! I'm calling this one "Scrap Strata." |
| Always nice to start to get some rows together - looks so much more tidy! I don't know what it is about sewing together tiny scraps of fabric that is so satisfying, but I find it so. I'm not even a child of the Great Depression, but, my husband was, so maybe he influenced me. My mother-in-law, who was born in 1889, kept a small glass jar filled with pieces of string all neatly wound around her pinky finger into tiny circles. The label on the jar said "Pieces of String Too Short to Use." Always made me smile :) |
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
| "Scrap Strata" is all done! I love my new/old machine and I couldn't stop sewing :) |
| I really love the rich color of the brown fabric and I feel like making some HSTs. So, I'm just going to start with some batiks and see where it goes :) |
Thursday, January 26, 2012
What fun!
| I'm naming this one "Sun Dappled Glen." If you squint your eyes and let your imagination take over...... |
| Strange picture of the colors, but anyway, ready to sew it together tomorrow :) |
| Beginning to come together! |
Friday, January 27, 2012
| "Sun Dappled Glen" is all done :) For me, the batiks just never disappoint with their wonderful colors! |
Saturday, January 28, 2012
| I feel like working with reds and pinks....must be the Valentine's Day influence :) I'll begin with the pure colors and then, if it looks dull, I'll add some of the fabrics in darker shades or those with touches of other colors. |
| I'm going to make Tumbling Blocks with this nice, easy method. You just sew your triangle and diamond together and make a half hexagon shape. Then you can sew the rows together vertically just as you would for a One Block Wonder quilt. This method does leave a seam through the middle of the top on the tumbling block, so it's probably a good idea to have the top fabric in something that won't show the seam so much, but I really wanted the white dotted fabric, so seam it is. The main difference in this method and the setting in method for me is that, I wouldn't be making these today if I were setting in the seams :) |
| It always amazes me how dimensional the Tumbling Blocks design looks :) |
| Time to choose a fabric for the setting pieces and the border :) |
Sunday, January 29, 2012
| This is the way I put this one together. I'm using the same fabric in the setting pieces as in the border, so the blocks will kind of float. |
| The Tumbling Blocks look so different depending on your placement of the values. I'm using the light on the top in this quilt top, but I like the darks on top as well....just different. |
Monday, January 30, 2012
| "Sweet Illusions" is all done! I'm thinking there will be another Tumbling Blocks quilt top in my near future :) |
| I think it's exciting when a group of scrap shapes accumulates to the point where you can actually do something with them. These are 3.5 inch triangles from several years. There are a lot of blacks, making me wonder why. Maybe it was just a bad math day and I cut way too many for a quilt top I was making :) |
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
| I feel safe in saying that this is scrappy! We'll see how it looks with more rows. |
| Just sewing rows for a while and then I'll pair them up and sew them in twos. I do want some of the triangles to meet and form diamonds :) |
| I sewed the rows together in twos and then made my side pieces so I could get that large zig zag down each side. Now, to sew the double rows together :) These have really gone together much easier than I expected them to! I really think that was because there was a lot of bias, which made it easier to ease the triangles to where I wanted them to go. |
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
| All done! I made the border nice and wide because I want to do a scrappy binding. I added a bit of whimsy in the top border and named this one, "Two Tardy Triangles." I do have fun in the sewing room! |
| I think I'll stack this pretty yellow floral :) |
Thursday, February 2, 2012
| I had planned to use the white dotted fabric on the left, but when I made the block, the white really took over! So, I changed to the white with a little yellow rose bud in it and I like that much better. It doesn't show as much in the picture as it does in person, but sometimes the white with the painted dots almost glows and it was too much for this pale yellow focus fabric. |
| This stacked block is just really fun to make! I'm naming this one "Think Spring." |
| This is all of the blocks I can make because I want to save enough of the focus fabric for a wide border. So, on to some sashing. |
Friday, February 3, 2012
| "Think Spring" is all done! I added the sashing that finishes at 3/4 of an inch and the tiny green cornerstones. I'm always amazed at the difference it makes when you use HSTs as the cornerstones on the inner border - just kind of softens the look. |
Saturday, February 4, 2012
| I think this fabric is going to make some interesting stacked stars. |
| This fabric is going to make some nice graphic designs :) I could have gone with a less risky fabric for both the green (like a sage green) and the tan, but I think I'm going to like these bold fabrics. I want the stars to almost disappear into the tan sections, leaving just a hint of design, which I think they will do. |
| When I'm depending heavily on a secondary design, it's always nice to get enough blocks made so I can see if the design looks in real life like it did in my head! I'm happy with this one :) |
Sunday, February 5, 2012
| There's the top half and now I'll just do the same thing down to the bottom, working backwards on the colors. |
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
| Blocks are all done! Now, I'll just rearrange them a bit and then, I can sew them together :) |
| I didn't feel like sewing together the blocks for Stars Over the Plains, but I did feel like scrappy Log Cabins....so, scrappy Log Cabins it is :) |
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
| I'm going to keep these log cabins small, to set in at five inches, mostly because the small precut pieces always accumulate quicker than the larger ones. I think I'll use this setting, but I'm not sure yet. |
| I always like making these, I think because I get to see so many fabrics! I'm making this block with one extra light log so there is a space between the dark squares on point. Since there's so much light, I'm trying to get enough mediums in there to give a little interest. |
| As always with the Log Cabins, there are so many layout possibilities that it's fun to play with the blocks. These smaller blocks are especially versatile! |
Thursday, February 9, 2012
| The off-center spiral is neat, but I've got more blocks to make, so I can keep thinking :) |
| I'm going to use this mixed layout on this one. Anxious to sew these together and see how the design looks :) |
Saturday, February 11, 2012
| "Ripples" is finished! Log Cabins just never seem to disappoint me :) |
| Just have to see these fabrics in a Kaleidoscope design! |
| These are forming some nice kaleidoscope circles. I changed the pink fabric that I had in the first picture for this darker shade. I love that first fabric, but it had more of a frosty look than I wanted in this. |
Sunday, February 12, 2012
| Anyone who has looked at my website knows how much I like the Kaleidoscope block! I've made it in different sizes and in a number of different ways. This is my current favorite size and method. Starting at the upper left, I use a 4.5 inch strip of stacked fabric. In this case four stacks. One can use whatever ruler they have that gives a 45 degree angle. This size will give an unset kaleidoscope block of 7.75 inches. After I've cut the triangles, I sew them together four groups of two for each block. I press to one side. Then sew those units together. The two seams nest and if you put them under the presser foot and begin the seam, you can then hold the bottoms together and, since you're sewing on a bias edge, the two pieces will come together nicely. Then I press those to one side. Sewing the center seam is the same as the quarter seam, if you line up the beginning, then line up the center and hold it with your finger, the seams will come together because of the bias. Press that seam open. The corners are a three inch square cut on the diagonal. Sew them on, either to the floral or the solid side and press toward the corners. Love this block! So many ways to make it and so many different looks you can get by changing your fabric placement. |
Monday, February 13, 2012
| Growing - one more row to make. On the blocks that have the stacked focus fabric corners, I'm trying to keep the design, while not matching, at least in keeping with the design in the triangles of that block. |
Tuesday, February 14, 2012