Just needs the binding

Kyoto Gardens is quilted! We’ve been eating out on the deck quite a bit this week as I had the sewing machine set up on the kitchen table to quilt. Happily the weather cooperated so I didn’t have to put everything away at every meal and lose too much momentum.  I was determined to get this done finally!

I’ll be adding a scrappy blue binding to finish it but since it is a bit warm still to want a quilt sitting in my lap as I stitch the binding to the back, I’m not feeling a great sense of urgency.  In another month or so it will cool down enough in he evenings and I’ll get to it then.

I’m pleased with how the quilting turned out.  I spent a lot of time pondering how to quilt this, thinking it really needed some free motion quilting, then feeling a little disappointed when I conceded I wouldn’t manage that to my satisfaction.  I finally gave myself a good talking to and decided to “think outside the ditch”.  Even though I was quilting with the walking foot didn’t mean I was limited to stitching in the ditch. 

At first I thought it would be much too awkward to wrestle the bulk of the quilt through the throat of the machine to pivot every time I reached a point.  I was right.  However, I figured out I could just end the stitching line and move along to another line heading in more or less the same direction so I didn’t have to pivot.  Then I stitched the next set of lines in another direction and so on until I had all the star points quilted without too much pivoting.

I didn’t cut my thread between lines so I didn’t have to stop and pull up the bottom thread every time I started and stopped.  I just switched to a really small stitch at the beginning and end of each segment then pulled the unbroken thread along to the next start point.  I just had to go snip the little thread “bridges” after I finished.

On the edges I was able to pivot at the tip of the triangles and still keep the bulk of the quilt out of the throat.  I originally planned just one echo for the triangles, but it didn’t look quite right so I took a deep breath and added another. It came out like I had wanted in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

Rounding the corner in the inner border had me stumped for a bit.  The sides and the bottom/top borders are not the same width.  I lost count of how many awful ideas I drew before I came up with the very simple idea of extending that blue border  around the corner.  I think that worked quite well.  I’ll have to file that away for future use.

 

 

 

 

 

Last night’s challenge was to figure out how many lines to quilt behind the blue squares and what to quilt in the squares.  I had though more lines but that was a bit overpowering.  I like this better.  It looks like the squares are mounted on a double rail.

In the squares I had thought of concentric squares but in the end opted for these diamonds that let me sew long continuous lines (with small pivots) instead of having to start and stop so much.  I chose them for the practicality but in the end I think they suit the quilt better than my first idea would have.

For anyone coming in late on this quilt project, the pattern is Kyoto Gardens from “Stellar Quilts” by Judy Martin.  I adapted the borders to better suit my style.  I think I’m going to name my version “Clear Skies”. I’ll let that sit for a while and see if it sticks.

Writing patterns

Over the last couple of weeks I took a detour from sewing to write up a pattern for Jelly Bean Stars.  After much proofreading (thank you to my hubby for spotting the diagrams I had drawn backwards!) it is now available to purchase as a file download in my Craftsy shop. Payhip shop (updated Jan 12, 2015)

This is the sixth pattern I have written and yet again, the part that took me the longest was determining fabric requirements and deciding how to give instructions for cutting. I looked at other patterns for inspiration and tried to determine what I liked or didn’t like, or would like to see done differently.  I like the format I came up with but I’d like to pick your brains about what you like in a pattern, if I may.

First question: How do you feel about charts or tables?  My science background likes them.  Everything is neatly and concisely organized.  For example, for this block I like the table below.  For a block where I have to sub-cut units after the first cut, I might have two more columns, one to say how to sub-cut and one to list the total number of final units.

Patch	Size to cut	Number to cut
A – Yellow background	4 1/2” square	4
B – Yellow background	4 7/8” square	2
C – Light blue corner	4 7/8” square	2
D – Blue star point	2 1/2” square	8
E – Blue star center	4 1/2” square	1

Second question: Do you like knowing what each piece will be used for?  When I’m changing the colors in a quilt, I like an easy way to keep track of what’s what and not have to find that particular size patch in the piecing instructions to determine what it is so I can use the right color for my new color scheme.

Third question:  Just how much detail do I need to give?  Can I assume that if I say to cut 8 - 2 1/2” squares, you’ll know to cut a 2 1/2” strip, then cut 2 1/2” squares from that?  Or do I need to specify to cut the strip to that width first, then sub-cut squares, and so on?  Is that considered basic quilting knowledge?  In some cases I do find a cutting diagram useful, for example when I’m trying to squeeze a set number of various sized patches from a fat quarter and only one way will yield everything I need.

Last question:  How precise do you want fabric requirements to be?  I understand that fabric is not cheap and you might not want too much extra (or maybe you do so you can build up the stash!).  On the other hand if I find that exactly 9 inches of fabric is technically just wide enough, I tend to add 1/8 yard to that.  What if the 9 inches (a 1/4 yard cut) shrinks a bit, or isn’t quite straight?  Then that 1/4 yard isn’t quite enough anymore.  So how close do you think is too close?  Do you like a little fudge room (no more than 1/8 yard) in the recommended fabric requirements?  Rounding to the next 1/8 yard? More?  Less?

I’d appreciate any feed back you care to give me!

Now I will work on moving a few UFOs along instead of getting sidetracked by that star block I just drew as an example…though I think it could be made into a simple, easy baby quilt…though I don’t currently know anyone who needs one…but it would be sweet and simple…  And this is how the UFO’s start piling up!

Regaining momentum

Just before we left on vacation, I was making good progress quilting the blue Kyoto Gardens.  We had a lovely vacation in Ottawa (Canada’s capital) enjoying the sights, letting the kids soak in Canadian history, and reconnecting with some family and friends.  I had a wonderful trip but by the time I came back I had lost all my quilting momentum.

Most of last week was spent feeling I should be finishing up Kyoto Gardens but not actually doing so.  I didn’t work on anything else either, since I should have been working on Kyoto Gardens.  On Friday I realized I had a gift to make so started in on a table runner, and that was OK, because it has a deadline so I could neglect the other.  I regained a bit of momentum and finished the top last night.

It’s a repeat of one I designed a couple of years ago in orange/red/yellow to use up extra flying geese units. This weekend’s version is in colours that will go with the recipients’ home décor, but I think this design would work in pretty much any colour scheme.  I may need to try this I Christmas fabrics… but first I need to get the brown and blue one quilted and sent off to its new home.