Going into summer

I've been absent from blog land the last couple of weeks. I've been otherwise occupied with end of year school field trips (3 all-day ones in in a little more than a week), puttering in the garden before the heavy heat sets in, stacks of Girl Scout paperwork, my mom's visit...

There has a been a tiny bit of quilting happening. I dragged mom to the local quilt shop and while it seems I won't turn her into a quilter, she had no trouble browsing fabric. She chose a lovely fat quarter bundle which I am turning into a set of placemats and table runner.

The placemats in the picture don't actually have any sewn seams yet, but I was playing with colour layout so I went ahead and took pictures. There will be a wider border in a darker print all around the runner, with matching strips on each side of each placemat. The pattern for the table runner is "Shades of the Season" by Gayle Camargo, free on the Robert Kaufman Fabrics website.

Machine quilting - yikes!

I have been playing with my new sewing machine and confirmed that free-motion quilting does indeed require skill. Sometime this week or next I have to go buy some inexpensive yardage to make stacks of small quilt sandwiches to practice, practice and practice again. Supposedly 10 minutes a day will lead to improvement. Of course the snippet I read that in said nothing about how many days of 10 minutes a day are required... Well, I knew there would be a learning curve and I haven't become too discouraged yet, but I'm not going to be free motioning on anything I care about, like an actual pieced top, anytime soon.

I have done a bit of straight line quilting with the walking foot though.

I'm not 100% happy with the result but it's a start. I think I might quilt it differently if I had it to do over, but I'm not so unhappy with it that I care to rip out all the stitching. Call me lazy :) I just have to adjust my mind's eye to the look of machine quilting. It really does give a different look than hand quilting so I have to plan it differently.

My swap block quilt is now a pile of blocks waiting for sashing. Last night was supposed to be the night it all came together. I pinned position labels to all the blocks in case they fell out of order, cut a few more sashing strips and sat down to sew. I'd sewn several seams by the time I realized I hadn't set the machine properly to sew a 1/4 inch seam. Ooops. I decided to set those aside to rip later, adjusted the machine, and sewed a few more seams. Then I realized I'd run out of bobbin thread 3 blocks earlier.

At that point I looked at the clock and decided perhaps it was just a little too late for me to think clearly, so I turned off the machine and went browsing the Blogger's Quilt Festival instead. I should have gone to bed, but all those quilts were just waiting to be viewed! I only made a tiny dent in the long list of links.

For a change of pace, tonight I'm turning off the technology. I'm going to hand quilt on my daughter's hearts quilt or my husband's astro quilt. I haven't decided which yet. His simple one is 3/4 done, so I would inch closer to a finish. Hers, with the more elaborate quilting, is only 1/4 done, so I need to make more progress...

It's that time again: Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting the third Blogger's Quilt Festival. Instead of just looking this time around I've decided to join in. Some of you have already seen my entry. I asked my kids which quilt I should blog about and they both picked this one. You just can't argue when two kids agree on something right away :)

This quilt started out as a throw. It sat unquilted for a year and every now and then my son would check back about who it was for. He was very clear about not wanting this one to leave the house. In the spring of 2009 I realized his bed quilt was getting worn and I decided his favourite quilt top might be expanded to a twin size. A few extra borders later I started hand quilting it and it finally made it onto his bed in October or November 2009.

I learned 3 things while making this quilt.
First - don't take shortcuts when bias edges are involved. I thought I would cheat and sew the sashing strips on without measuring them, then cut the extra off the ends. Oops. The sides of the braids are all bias edge and they just stretched, so my quilt developed a very pronounced curve. I had to rip all the those seams, measure the sashing as I should have done in the first place, then sew then back on. Lesson learned!
Second - I hate having to pull thread through wax or some other conditioner to make it stronger for hand quilting. I'd always used hand quilting thread before, but this time wanted to try a variegated thread in the braid so it would blend more. It turned out just like I wanted it to, but I'm not sure I'll do it again.


Third - Traditions are easy to start. Back when I made my son's first quilt I messed up the first block and didn't have enough fabric to redo it, so I made one plainer block and embellished it by quilting his name onto it. Then it was expected that I would quilt my daughter's name into her quilt somewhere. When I started quilting this one my son's first question was "Where are you going to quilt my name on this one?" It's in there. This picture doesn't show it, but each letter of his name is in one of the coloured squares in the small innermost border. I'm now quilting a new quilt for my daughter and guess what she wanted to know?
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's quilts. I'm off to browse the festival now!