May your points always meet
May your thread never break
May your borders behave
And may inspiration never desert you
(Borders still pending on two of these tops…)
Showing posts with label Whimsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whimsy. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2012
A New Year’s Wish for Quilters
(Borders still pending on two of these tops…)
Just under the wire
Ta da! Just under the wire as a 2011 finished quilt top, with 20 minutes to spare:
I`m not sure how long ago I started this one, but it was back in APQ blog days, so at least 2 years ago. I think it was closer to 3 years. It has gone in and out of the UFO bin several times, but this week I decided it needed to be done and here it is, after wrestling the borders into submission. The quilt really doesn’t bow in the middle the way the picture makes it seems. I`m not sure why all my quilt pictures do that… Anyway, Whimsy (pattern by Darlene Zimmerman) now moves to the finished flimsy pile to await quilting. It’s next in line for hand quilting after I finish quilting the leaf quilt.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Battles with borders
I happily went off to piece the flying geese and was astonished and delighted at how quickly the center of the geese quilt came together.
However, the lovely dark blue fabric with maple leaves and provincial flowers that I had planned to use as a border, while still absolutely lovely, just doesn't work as a border. It worked beautifully as a filler in the body of the quilt, and will make a lovely backing, but it will not be a border. So now what? I don't have nearly enough of the greens and reds to piece into borders either. I fear this one is heading to the UFO bin as well for the time being.
I have a few placemats and runners to finish, so I'll work on those and hope I come out of those projects inspired to push ahead with these three!
How well do you get along with borders?
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Stitching again
I’ve finally sat down at the sewing machine again after what feels like forever and it feels wonderful!
First up were a few flying geese. Last spring and early summer I made this table set for mom. As I worked on it I realized my flying geese were not consistent enough for me to enjoy making this quilt I planned out. I really want to make this so I’ve been trying out different methods to see which gives me the most consistent units.
Thank you Love for the tip about Eleanor Burns’ flying geese ruler and technique. I always hesitate to buy specialty rulers, but I went out and got this one this week and I did in fact sew and trim nice, consistent units with the points right where they should be. There is a bit of fabric waste, but I think that tradeoff will be worth it.
With that settled, I’m clearing the decks, so to speak, to clear the way for total obsession with the flying geese quilt. I have a few projects that stalled at my less favourite stages of quilt making. I decided to move them past the hump before I start the new project.
I finally basted and started hand quilting my leaf quilt. The top has only been waiting a year for its turn! The basting and deciding how to quilt it were where this one stalled. I have decided to quilt overlapping sets of concentric circles all over. I’ll have a picture once there is enough there for you to see what I mean. So far I have 8 of the 42 blocks quilted.
Next I cut fabric for the borders on Whimsy. That top was slow coming together and it is time for it to be finished. Yesterday and today I started sewing triangle squares for the pieced borders. I’ll need 100.
Some of the ones I’ve finished are sewn together into strips.
I hadn’t planned to add another border after the saw tooth one, but now that I have this up on the design wall I think the saw teeth look puny and busy by themselves at the edge of the quilt. I think I’ll add that outer border to tame things a bit. I think I accidentally bought more of that green border fabric than I needed for just the inner border, so that should work out well in the end.
Next week I have lots of painting to do – we’ll see how much quilting I manage to squeeze into the evenings. Did I mention that after the flying geese quilt, I have another quilt plan drawn up and waiting? So many quilts, so little time…
First up were a few flying geese. Last spring and early summer I made this table set for mom. As I worked on it I realized my flying geese were not consistent enough for me to enjoy making this quilt I planned out. I really want to make this so I’ve been trying out different methods to see which gives me the most consistent units. Thank you Love for the tip about Eleanor Burns’ flying geese ruler and technique. I always hesitate to buy specialty rulers, but I went out and got this one this week and I did in fact sew and trim nice, consistent units with the points right where they should be. There is a bit of fabric waste, but I think that tradeoff will be worth it.
With that settled, I’m clearing the decks, so to speak, to clear the way for total obsession with the flying geese quilt. I have a few projects that stalled at my less favourite stages of quilt making. I decided to move them past the hump before I start the new project.
I finally basted and started hand quilting my leaf quilt. The top has only been waiting a year for its turn! The basting and deciding how to quilt it were where this one stalled. I have decided to quilt overlapping sets of concentric circles all over. I’ll have a picture once there is enough there for you to see what I mean. So far I have 8 of the 42 blocks quilted.Next I cut fabric for the borders on Whimsy. That top was slow coming together and it is time for it to be finished. Yesterday and today I started sewing triangle squares for the pieced borders. I’ll need 100.
Some of the ones I’ve finished are sewn together into strips.
I hadn’t planned to add another border after the saw tooth one, but now that I have this up on the design wall I think the saw teeth look puny and busy by themselves at the edge of the quilt. I think I’ll add that outer border to tame things a bit. I think I accidentally bought more of that green border fabric than I needed for just the inner border, so that should work out well in the end.Next week I have lots of painting to do – we’ll see how much quilting I manage to squeeze into the evenings. Did I mention that after the flying geese quilt, I have another quilt plan drawn up and waiting? So many quilts, so little time…
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tackling UFO#6
On Monday evening I decided to take another look at UFO#6, the one I wasn’t sure I even wanted to finish anymore. Here’s where I left it last May, the last time I pulled it out.
I started this at least two years ago, possibly three, with fabric I received for my birthday. It wasn’t fabric I would have chosen myself, but I stretched a little and decided to make a smaller version of “Whimsy” by Darlene Zimmerman from her book “Granny Quilts”. Hers was made with scrappy 1930s reproductions.
My first pinwheel came out perfectly so I was encouraged to go ahead and cut up the rest of the fabric. Since the first one came out so well I figured I had the hang of it and merrily chain piecing units for the remaining 11 and for the sashing units as well. When I got tired of that I took the units that were finished and started putting them together and discovered that my seam allowances were not as consistent as I had thought. With this pattern it mattered. Pinwheel blocks were a smidge too small to fit with the sashing, or points got cut off or wouldn’t meet neatly where they should. I bundled everything into a box and left it.
Last May, with my new sewing machine and a lovely 1/4 seam guide I took it out again. I was able to fix some problems but thought I would have to rip a lot of seams to fix the rest. A lot of those seams were on the bias and I feared I would distort the edges while I ripped,so I decided against it and just bundled the whole thing up again.
When I pulled it out again this past Monday I decided the flaws weren’t as bad as I had thought after all. I must have been in a very grumpy, critical mood last May!
By the time I quit for the night on Monday I had pieced all the cornerstone pinwheels and sewn all the green triangle units for the sashing.
Tuesday afternoon I matched points and pinned and pinned and pinned some more to sew pairs of triangle units together point-to-point. Those points were a thing of beauty!
After the kids went to bed Tuesday evening I sewed units into rows. So far so good, all points behaving. When I sewed the rows together those earlier not-quite-right seam allowances made themselves known again. I had to do some tugging in places and easing in others, and fudge seam allowances in the new seams to get all the sashing units to line up properly with the big pinwheels. Sigh. In some places I can’t quite see why things weren’t fitting.
There are rippling seams in places where two units were just not quite the same size and more rippling where I had tension issues with my old sewing machine. There are points that don’t quite meet where they should or aren’t pointy. No amount of fiddling would make the points in this picture behave without making the quilt crooked in other more obvious ways.
However, the center of the quilt is finished. It isn’t going to a quilt show, so who is going to be looking for the faults besides me? I’ve decided to relax a bit and just enjoy the whole without focusing on the little things (That said it isn’t going to be gifted where I had thought to give it!)
Standing back from it, I think it looks really cool. It still needs borders, but here it is so far.
I started this at least two years ago, possibly three, with fabric I received for my birthday. It wasn’t fabric I would have chosen myself, but I stretched a little and decided to make a smaller version of “Whimsy” by Darlene Zimmerman from her book “Granny Quilts”. Hers was made with scrappy 1930s reproductions.
My first pinwheel came out perfectly so I was encouraged to go ahead and cut up the rest of the fabric. Since the first one came out so well I figured I had the hang of it and merrily chain piecing units for the remaining 11 and for the sashing units as well. When I got tired of that I took the units that were finished and started putting them together and discovered that my seam allowances were not as consistent as I had thought. With this pattern it mattered. Pinwheel blocks were a smidge too small to fit with the sashing, or points got cut off or wouldn’t meet neatly where they should. I bundled everything into a box and left it.
Last May, with my new sewing machine and a lovely 1/4 seam guide I took it out again. I was able to fix some problems but thought I would have to rip a lot of seams to fix the rest. A lot of those seams were on the bias and I feared I would distort the edges while I ripped,so I decided against it and just bundled the whole thing up again.
When I pulled it out again this past Monday I decided the flaws weren’t as bad as I had thought after all. I must have been in a very grumpy, critical mood last May!
By the time I quit for the night on Monday I had pieced all the cornerstone pinwheels and sewn all the green triangle units for the sashing.
Tuesday afternoon I matched points and pinned and pinned and pinned some more to sew pairs of triangle units together point-to-point. Those points were a thing of beauty!
After the kids went to bed Tuesday evening I sewed units into rows. So far so good, all points behaving. When I sewed the rows together those earlier not-quite-right seam allowances made themselves known again. I had to do some tugging in places and easing in others, and fudge seam allowances in the new seams to get all the sashing units to line up properly with the big pinwheels. Sigh. In some places I can’t quite see why things weren’t fitting.
There are rippling seams in places where two units were just not quite the same size and more rippling where I had tension issues with my old sewing machine. There are points that don’t quite meet where they should or aren’t pointy. No amount of fiddling would make the points in this picture behave without making the quilt crooked in other more obvious ways.However, the center of the quilt is finished. It isn’t going to a quilt show, so who is going to be looking for the faults besides me? I’ve decided to relax a bit and just enjoy the whole without focusing on the little things (That said it isn’t going to be gifted where I had thought to give it!)
Standing back from it, I think it looks really cool. It still needs borders, but here it is so far.
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