Therapy Quilting

Last fall, I was feeling down and short on cash and decided to self medicate with crafting.  It almost always works for whatever ails me.  I had wanted to try wonky stars and threw the wonky log cabins in to mix it up.
I already had the bird fabric from IKEA and left over batting from Rachel's quilt.  The rest of these beauties came form Rachel's scrap bag.  She's made so many beautiful things for her Etsy shop, there was lots to choose from.

Front

Back

There was plenty of information on line to guide me through the star construction.  In September, I went to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting and Ale had a lesson in quilting with perle cotton.  Very timely.  I've done a lot of quilting, but only with regular quilting thread.  This gave me another new thing
to try.

Most of the stars.  Apparently, I can't push the save button when I'm editing the photos.

All 5 stars.  There, it's in there now.

The log cabins, with little birdies peeking out.

The binding was all pieced from the same fabrics.  I accidently made too much and used the extra to make the back more interesting.  It's about 48 inches square.  If I was to do it over, I'd use a solid for the background.  The black and white had too much pattern to give the blocks enough contrast.

I have no use for this quilt, but enjoyed the process and it really did work to lift my spirits.  I spent a total of $3 on it for the perle cotton with my coupon.

My biggest lesson learned, was that I am not a wonky quilter.  This was way out of my comfort zone.  I like having things line up.

What have you done to work through the blues?

Weigh in Wednesday

I haven't been good at all about my diet and exercise.  I only have to crawl, scratch and claw my way back onto the wagon one more time than I blithely leap off.  Is that so hard to do?  I haven't gained any of the 8 pounds back, just haven't lost any of the other 72.  I'm not putting up a picture this week, but I'm going back to the gym today after work and logging back into Weight Watchers.

Camille got her learners permit this last week.  We went driving in a parking lot that day and then around a neighborhood, for a total of 45 minutes.  It made her tired.  :)  She's such a big girl.  I'm beginning to be able to picture her as an adult.

On another front, I've made good progress on my quilting.

Scrappy Circle and Gray

Did I really need a new project to play with?  No.

I was home by myself the other night and had the freezer paper left over from dinner.  I've wanted to try paper piecing, so I drew a couple circles and dug through the scrap bag.  What fun!  These circles are the dinner plate and small bowl from my everyday dishes.  I traced around them onto a 16 inch square.  The next day, I stopped at the fabric store on my way home from work and got two half yards of gray.  They're a little wonky, my seam allowance around the arcs was probably a scunch too big.  Generous 1/4 instead of actual 1/4, like the gray.
Now, I will have to decide if I want to sew more and turn it into a quilt.  Eight more blocks would make a nice size throw or baby blanket.  Four of them could be reverse pieced.  I found the center circle I pieced, didn't go with the arcs at all.  They just blended together.  That's when I chose a solid for the background.
This was really inspired by the Single Girl Quilt.  I like the look, but think I'd rather piece the arcs this way.

Binding the quilt

Now that I've completed all the basic outline stitching, it's time to draw the scalloped edge on it and sew on the binding.  I've probably devised the most complicated method, ever know to man, for getting the scallops right.  I'm sure there's a better way, but this is the way I'm going to do it.

I drew a large circle that's centered 12" away from the center square, every 12 inches along the edge and overlaps every 12" along a line that's 18" from the square.  I know, I can't follow me either.  Luckily, I drew it all on paper.  I knew those drafting classes, for an engineering degree I never completed, would someday come in handy.
I want to sew the binding on, but not cut the excess off, yet.  I think it will stabilize the edge and make it easier to put in the hoop to quilt all the way to the edge.  After the binding's on, I think there's enough quilting completed to take the basting threads out.  I get a finger caught on one at least once every time I turn the hoop around.
I made a lot of binding and can barely stand the wait to see it at the edge.

It wasn't as hard to draw the scallop as I feared it would be.  Sewing the binding on was as easy as following my pencil line.  When it's time to cut off the excess and hand sew the binding to the other side, it will be the perfect last step.

Now, I'm considering putting one line of echo quilting around the vines and flowers before I begin the more decorative quilting.  I want feathered fans in the big triangles, a couple spiderwebs, some butterflies, maybe a bird or two, decorate the grandmothers fans and flowers in the white space of the fans.

Finally Quilting!

I have been working so hard to finish this quilt.  I know I'll never undertake something this ambitious again.  I will make other quilts, I've just learned some lessons on this one.

The top finished, a backing pieced, batting purchased and a space cleared, (almost) big enough to lay them all out.

I pinned all the layers right to the carpet.  They could have been a little straighter, a second person would have been nice, to pull the layers tight.  I was trying to get a bunch of it done early in the morning, before little girls got up and wanted to walk all over it.

It didn't make much difference, I thought it'd take a couple of hours.  I started at 8:30 in the morning and didn't get done with the basting until 2:30 in the afternoon.  Wow, everything always takes much longer to do than I think it will in my head.

I started with outline quilting around all the basic shapes, bows, sashes, fans and now I'm 1/3 of the way done with the flowers and vines.

I'm giving myself plenty of time to design the more creative quilting.  When it's done, it'll be quilted on most every square inch.  How many square inches are in an 8 foot square?  Too many, I think.

I also made 6 more chocolate wool bunnies.  Here are 2 of them.  Time to get them listed, before the holiday gets too close.

My diet and exercise have fallen by the wayside.  I really am tired of the extra weight, just lazy.  I keep thinking, today's the day and then I don't follow through.  Maybe tomorrow's the day!

Rachel's Quilt- Pieced Back

When I measured the quilt top to buy fabric for the back, I was surprised that it was 8 feet square.  What the heck?!!!  I must have known this at some point, but like I said, this was started so many years ago.  With fabric 44" wide, 2 lengths would still be at least 9-10" too narrow.  I could get 3 more yards of white or take a different approach on the flip side.  The front is as old fashioned as can be, intended to resemble quilts from the 30's or 40's.  I decided to run 2 strips of pinwheels on the back, using all the left over fabrics.  The elaborate quilting will be most of the design on this side.

Some pinwheels started

More pinwheels with the rest pinned and marked for sewing.

Close ups of the strips.  Some had to be pieced to make enough pinwheels.

Old fashioned fabrics, semi-modern quilt?  Works for me.  Now I need to find a space big enough to lay it all out for basting   This is my biggest area and it had to be all gathered up at the edges to take the picture.

Weigh in Wednesday

217 pounds.  5 pounds lost in 3 weeks.  Not great, but 5 more than in that many months.  I'm sure there's a direct relationship to how many times I went to the gym. *cringe*  I'm not really comfortable going yet.  If I went more often that would change, I know.  I have stuck to my diet, however, that's probably the only reason for any loss, at all.

This is the last large flower, cut, glued and basted in place.  I'll sew it tonight and then I have 19 (20, poo, I miscounted) to go!  I'll sew the smallest flowers next.  There are very few of them.  The middle-sized flowers are the easiest, I'll save them for last, like dessert!

More Flowers Done

I've been working away on Rachel's quilt this week.  21 flowers to go!  That's out of the original 80.  I got close enough to the end to just work on the largest, most time consuming, flowers.  There are 3 sizes and it's nice to see the hardest ones coming to a finish.

If I ever make another large applique quilt, it'll probably be a traditional Hawaiian design.  Two colors, maybe aqua and white, with one continuous line of hand-sewing.  Not 330 individual pieces in the large flowers, alone!  Boy, I wish I hadn't thought that out.

I can hardly wait to get the flowers done. There will be so many hours of quilting to finish this, but that will be a nice change.  A quilt this intricate will have a lot of stitching.
Sadly, I already know which quilt top I'll begin piecing as soon as I begin quilting this one.  I've had a kit called "delectable mountain" picked out for child number 2 since shortly after starting this one.  It won't need nearly the hours to complete it.  It originally called for white fabric to complete it and I had always thought I'd replace the black print with a green and use black fabric for the main color.  Now, I see so many quilts using gray and love the look.  A light gray would be perfect for the completion.
Back to these flowers, I feel so much accomplishment and not a little excited to see it taking shape.

Rachel's Quilt

Long ago, I started a quilt for my oldest daughter.  We designed a beautiful quilt with old-fashioned colors, part of it pieced and a lot of floral applique using the pattern on the left.  It moved along very well, there was steady progress, the piecing was all done and I moved on to the applique.
All the biggest parts of the sewing were getting done, the ribbons, fan, vines and leaves.  I finished one flower, out of 80, and it hit me......... what was I thinking?  This one flower had fourteen separate pieces of fabric.  How was I ever going to finish it?
I decided to take a break and put it away for awhile.  Awhile, became fourteen, fifteen years.
This last fall, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get it back out.  I'd taken it out many times over the years to admire it, this time I needed to sew!

Close up of the center flower

Before Christmas sewing took my time, I managed to get quite a lot done.  I now have thirty-two flowers left to sew!  Don't even get me started on how much hand-quilting this is going to need.

Some flowers waiting to be sewn

The full quilt

Top Right

Bottom right

Top left

Bottom left

Close up ribbons and flowers

Close up ribbon and flowers