The Salt Creek Quilters Guild - Quilt Show

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend my first ever quilt show! A friend from my guild had posted about this show in a nearby town, on a whim I decided to go. The show was pretty cool, although a whole lot more traditional than I'm used to! I can respect the talent though! 

One thing that I was surprised by was that their Mini-quilt section could have just been re-named "art quilts" since only one or two of them were pieced. I was a bit disappointed by this since that's the most inspiring area for me. 

Paper pieced mini quilt by Kathy Elwood

They did have vendors - and yes I bought a couple FQ's... how could I not? And they had some demos. One of which really inspired me. It was a demo on "no-tear paper piecing" by Kathy Elwood. Now I've seen tutorials for this method before, and it was really nothing very new to me... but I walked up to the table there and she was working with 2 1/2" squares -- that gets me! All her samples were miniature quilts (the real thing, to scale!) Tiny tiny piecing!! So of course I stuck around to watch her demo and ask some questions. the most mind blowing thing? she uses a large basting stitch to secure the paper to the fabric!

Kathy demonstrating this method... note the amazing tiny quilts all around her!

I do notice that this method of paper piecing isn't nearly as "perfect" as the other way, but heck, it gets me out of picking out those tiny pieces of paper afterward! The blocks she was doing were built out from the center, but I wanted to try it with my fling geese arcs -- since I see quite a few of them in my near future, and this would save me from having to trace my patterns a million times! 

Hand drawn flying geese pattern (transferred to template plastic!) and rows of geese!

Here's a link to a similar method... although she presses hers to the freezer paper so they stick there (I didn't want to go to my ironing board every time when finger pressing is all that's necessary... and I think the basting stitches hold better. 

Here's how it worked. I used a large basting stitch (a 3 on my Juki) to secure the first geese triangle to the paper then used the no-tear method to sew the two outer triangles on. After adding the next flying geese unit, I finger pressed it and then basted that one down. I basted each center geese piece so that the curves didn't shift. they turned out pretty great and I was able to re-use the paper 3 times (simply pull the top string of each of your basting stitches to remove). I'm pretty sure I can get another couple times out of my paper since I traced it out onto freezer paper (it lasts a bit longer than regular paper). 

Close-up of the basting stitches

I want to give a shout out to Kathy -- Thanks for sharing this tip!!! Sewing these flying geese curves is so much easier now that I don't have to re-trace the pattern every time!

PS - I also pre-cut my pieces for this project instead of doing them one by one like I do many paper piecing patterns, this shortened the sewing time by a lot!! 

From the back. 

Worrying...

I have a question for those of you who do flickr swaps.

Do you worry? 

Finished DQS quilt top.

I'm usually not a worrier. I stalk my partner's photostream and blog until I have a list of ideas and then run with it from there. I occasionally worry and mostly about color or fabric likes. I don't have a big fabric stash and sometimes don't have the ability to drop everything and buy more fabric. 

But this time I'm worrying - my Doll Quilt Swap quilt is spectacular (if I may say so), but what if it just isn't my partner's style. It's not entirely her colors but the fabrics were begging to go together. 

Drafted by hand flying geese.

It's technically the hardest/most complex piece I've ever worked on (and that says something I think). Between the miniature NY Beauty block, plus the tiny plus blocks, then the giant set of 48 flying geese in a circle - that I drafted by hand.... and learned a new way to paper piece. I think I've executed it very well so far... and I do still have to quilt it and finalize the "framework" (hehe... how else would I expect for a circular quilt to be hung on the wall?) oh yeah, and it will finish as a circular quilt. 

So I'm worrying. Will my partner like it as much as I do? I couldn't bear if she didn't like it. Sometimes it's ok for a swap partner to not absolutely be head over heals over something... but this one, they've got to love it. What if she doesn't? 

Optional hexies - I haven't decided yet.

I've never felt such angst over sending a quilt to a swap partner... eek! 

Here's hoping she loves it!

(linked up for Fabric Tuesday)

Hexies...

I think it's safe to say that I've revisited them. If you've been following my ramblings for years then you may remember this. The post where I swore off hexies (at least ones made by me). Well, my mind has been changed. I went on vacation and needed a fun little project to add a bit of color to my days (and the 14 hour drive there and back). I expected to make a half dozen or so... but that ended up being 30! I used every bit of fabric that I'd brought with me. 

And then today I decided to make some more... this time to be added to my {modern} Robin piece. I whipped together another 13 while watching Beauty and the Beast this afternoon. 

If you're wondering where I got my papers? I'm too cheap to buy the packaged ones... so I printed mine out here. I printed mine at 1" and black ink. That one inch is the measurement of each side. I just printed the sheet and cut them out. Using just plain computer paper they've held up pretty well - I've used each paper about half a dozen times. 

Hmm... who knew that I'd eventually come around to liking hexies!

Linked up for Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory.

I must be growing...

I remember a time where all my sewing projects looked the same - not the same - but the same because my fabric choices were so predictable. I have never been a "use only this line of fabric" kind of quilter, but I've come a long way since the early days of playing it safe.

Last night I was working on adding a border to Emily's {Modern} Robin block. She had generously sent a wide variety of fabrics (mostly solids) that were impeccably matched and chosen with the skill of an art student graduate (which she is). Now I have never taken color theory or anything of the sort... I go with my heart and that's where I am in color design.

So as I was saying, I was adding a border to her block and I'm proud to say that I didn't take the predictable route of adding a grey border around my added pieced border... instead I used this pinkish - Kona Mellon that she'd sent with the block. My point is, I spent half the time worrying if it was going to look ok, and if it would be "Emily" enough (her Emily, not me Emily lol). With the morning came clarity that I do indeed like the melon borders. (I'll still wait Emily's reply though - it may not be her liking).

Now looking at my design board, I'm seeing how I've grown. No more singular color palate for every project! On that wall alone I have:

Emily's {modern} Robin (light blue, salmon, purples, and oranges),

My Pillow Talk Swap piece (scrappy blue, white, light green, and grey),

My swoon quilt for Linda (pinks and purples with a shot of orange backed in white),

My tiny scrappy project (bright bold red, blue, green, yellow, orange - everything bold minus pink and purple),

And a random Harry Potter block (yellow and dark grey).

On second thought, maybe I just have a lot of WIP's laying around! lol.

Which are you?

When sign ups go live for the Doll Quilt Swap on flickr (and other swaps) the discussion always comes up about what level of a quilter you are. It's so hard to determine and I'm sure so many people have different ideas about what makes you a beginner, intermediate, or expert. My flickr friend Shayla came up with this explanation. It gives me a lot to think about. I like to think of myself as being somewhere between intermediate and advanced, but according to this breakdown I'm closer to the advanced to expert category. I wonder how my quilts would be judged at juried show. I have been thinking about this a bit more since I'm somewhat interested in submitting my work to a local show or two this summer. We'll see, but without further rambling, here is Shayla's breakdown of quilting levels. 

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A beginner is someone who ranges between the just learning to sew squares together all the way to accurate points meeting, not chopping off corners, and can handle things like log cabins, churn dash, square-in-square, maybe even some basic applique. They probably would only do basic quilting if any. They need instructions and patterns for most projects. The top level of beginner can complete a quilt with pieced/appliqued blocks which they will probably send to a quilter but may do something like stitch-in-the-ditch or echo quilting. I expect to see mistakes in a beginners work, but by the time they get to the top, those mistakes should be minimal and only occasional.

An intermediate level would be someone who can handle at least basic paper piecing, more detailed applique, curves, probably some y-seams, and can make a completed quilt for sure with better quilting details--probably at least in the process of learning free motion. Their work should be consistently accurate and clean (no sewn puckers, straight seams, accurate cutting) not sloppy. They could enter their work at the county level and win ribbons. There is a HUGE range to intermediate which really depends on how the individual pushes themselves. They also will often design or adjust patterns to fit what they want. This is usually the level where quilters begin to break away from solid borders into multiples and pieced borders. Top of this level usually starts publishing patterns that become very popular because the instructions are precise and understandable and the designs have lots of appeal.

My idea of an advanced quilter would be someone who has basically mastered a majority of the quilting techniques (various applique methods, piecing, paper piecing, free motion and regular quilting, etc.) and consistently turns out superior work (not perfect, superior). They may or may not have also mastered things like thread painting, fabric painting and other artsy type techniques depending on their particular style and interest. They almost always design their own patterns. I would expect to see their work in state level, possibly national, competitions, even if they don't choose to actually enter such things. Now days, most can do some pretty good free motion although this wouldn't (in my mind) be a requirement because some quilters prefer to send quilts to someone who has really put the time into learning the fancy quilting or can handle the larger quilt sizes and so may or may not have mastered this. This is especially true when it comes to competition quilts. I would think in the mid to top range of advanced the quilter would be able to handle a scalloped or shaped edge without blinking an eye. This is the level that one should be to write a really good quilt book (not saying an intermediate wouldn't, but these are the better ones generally). 

Experts or Masters are people who have mastered all the things like piecing, paper piecing and applique. By this point all their work is self designed and near perfect. By this point they've usually found a particular format and style that suits them and have really started exploring what they can do with this area. They often add lots of details to their work, complicated piecing, hand or machine stitching and thread painting, etc. They have the "rules" down pat and can now break them with superb results. I would see their work at international level competitions. These are the ones who make quilts that just blow your mind (think Tokyo International Great Quilt Show stuff). Even at this level, many choose to team up with an expert quilter who will custom quilt their very complicated designs--I do know of some who quilt their own quilts though.

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What do you think? I love the breakdown of all the categories. I feel like there is so much room for all of us to grow - to constantly be learning new things. A while ago there was a whole trend of talking about the "dumbing down of quilting" but I think we're doing the opposite here, making everything accessible and encouraging each other in learning new things. Let's keep growing!

Swoon - to be quilted!

Here it is... hopefully by the time this is posted I'll at least have it all basted! 

Last night I pieced the back together, which puts me a bit closer to quilting. I need to work on a label. I'm thinking a tiny star and some free-motion stitched names. :)

Now that the blocks are all sashed and completed... here's a glimpse at why I'm so crazy. All that extra work! For each of the flying geese units I sewed 1/2" from the normal sewing line to form an extra two HST's for each geese unit. I couldn't bear to throw away all those bits. Now I have a whole pile of HST's that will measure 2 1/4" finished. Who knows what I'll use them for... but they're not wasted!

**Edit**
The quilting is finished! I can't believe how huge of a difference it made using a better machine!!! 2 needles, 6 bobbins, and 2.5 hours later and the quilt was finished! I can't believe it! No major puckers (which is abnormal for me, I typically have at least one annoying pucker). Beautiful. I may need a name for this Juki machine! Pictures of it all quilted up will come soon. :)

A quilt for my mommy!

Remember the list of my quilting goals for 2011? I'm well on my way to checking off one more item!

One of my goals was to make a quilt for my mom or my mother-in-law. I had the color scheme in my head for some time... and had been gathering a few prints here and there all year. A couple weeks ago Connecting Threads had many of their solids marked at just $3 a yard. Even when I'm broke I can't pass that up! I bought about $20 worth of mostly half yard cuts of all their blues that were on sale - plus a couple yards each of their two greys (which are very comparable to Kona Ash and Medium Grey). With that and a quarter yard of Kona Curry thrown in the mix I had a decent stack to get moving.

The pattern/sketch has been done for weeks, but with the table covers for my aunt looming over my head I couldn't get started. Since I finished those covers I got busy cutting and sewing!! I've got most of the quilt top finished! I followed this tutorial for the herring bone blocks. I used varying sizes of strips from 1" -2.5" the majority were about 2" - as a result I needed to add many more strips than were used in the tutorial. It also made trimming them down a bit of a hassle - so I made a template and drew some reference lines for the proper angle. It's pretty random that about a week ago I stopped into the Tuesday Morning (it's next to work) and happened upon a package of template plastic for just about a dollar. I'd never used it before and it made it much easier!

yes, I had to tape two pieces of template plastic together since they were too short.

Today I finished trimming all the herring bone segments and free motion quilted the label. I think it's pretty good don't you? My best FMQ'd words yet! It'll be blanket stitched to the back of the quilt when it's all finished.

Here's the pinterest board of my inspiration.

***

In other news I finished week two of the Couch 2 5K program today! I am really enjoying it! So far my lungs have managed it great too - no asthma attacks!

Some actual sewing pics!

Last night while I should have been sleeping, I sewed. I had an idea for my partner for the Pillow Talk Swap 5. The idea was to use lots of texture. I pulled out a pair of corduroy's that were saved to be cut up... some essex linen, some linen from a swap partner in India (cool right?), some DS Joann's dots, and a tie that I bought in Rome while studying there. It's scary to think of cutting into all these special fabrics but It'll work out (I hope). 

 

Here's my first attempt. I'm not sure that I like it so much. Mostly since I think something needs to be tiny. lol. I'm trying to stretch myself here... and didn't allow myself to fall back on that tiny border I always use. We'll see. I think I'll carry on with this idea and see how it finishes out. 

I also started up another idea with the same fabrics. This time it's a zig-zag without triangles. But as late as it was I didn't cut all the pieces so I'll have to go back and do that later so that the zig-zags match up by color. 

Either way I am thinking some dense straight line quilting to add more texture. We'll see. My hope is to get the "top" of the pillow made and quilted tomorrow. Or maybe I'll be working on those three mug rugs for our guild swap? :) hehe. I can't help myself.

Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Scarf Dying

Today was our monthly meeting with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. We had a guest speaker Sara Hochhauser, who taught us how to dye silk scarves using a special kind of dye that sets instantly (and doesn't dye your skin!).

the dye concentrate

I watched as the first set of people worked on their scarves... unsure of what I might like to try to do. My dilemma was that I knew I'd never wear the scarf. And I wanted to try something different and that I might use for another project. So I went with making pleats to dye stripes... then re-folding and adding another color over it. My thoughts are that I might be able to cut this scarf up and use it in a quilt of sorts. I've never sewn with silk so that may or may not work... but at least it's something usable. I really love love love how it turned out! 

By the way, everyone's scarves turned out great!!! I loved the variety and creativity! I took a lot of pictures so feel free to head on over to my flickr page to see more action shots! Also check out the CMQG flickr as I'm sure others will be adding their pics too! 

 

This was a really fun project. Thanks to our program committee and to Sara for teaching us!!

My finished scarf!

Most of us with our finished scarves!!!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story!

Skirts!!!!

Who can resist a sweet little curly haired girl in a ruffly skirt? Not me.

This is about as good as it gets when trying to photograph an almost 3 yr old.

I've been thinking for a while that I need to be taking advantage of the fact that Allie wants nothing else but to wear/use/carry around everything that I sew. Some day she won't want me to make her clothes... but that time is not now!

I've been lusting after a lot of cute little skirts (pinterest board here with examples). Although I've already made one of these Market Skirts (tutorial from Dana at Made... I blogged mine here and here) I was still a little intimidated. Here's the thing. I sorta went with a cross between this (simple skirt, also from Dana at Made) and this (Hickety Pickety Handmade). Truthfully my hybrid is just the market skirt minus the contrasting top band, and minus the extra ruffle in the hem.

Doing yoga? I think that's what she was trying.

I used two fat quarters to make the first one... yep a skirt out of two FQ's! I got the FQ's from a CMQG friend Emily (thanks Emily)! It came together really nicely... although I regret not doing french seams on it. I did zig-zag finish the edges... but I don't think it'll be enough to make it really look nice.

Coloring on the floor with Mamaw Linda.

For the second skirt (yeah I couldn't resist) I used some floral fabric that I bought on a whim last year -- knowing I wanted to make a skirt or dress for Allie with it... I even had the foresight to buy some brown to match it! This one I did a bit like the pillowcase tutorial from Film In the Fridge. Funny how I made a skirt based on a pillow tutorial? Well it left me with no raw edges at all! I love it! And thinking about those pillowcases I think ric-rac would be really cute peeking out of that bottom hem of the skirt!

We'll see if I can get some pictures of the kid in the skirts tomorrow... she's definitely wearing the one to church... I found a (clean) purple shirt that matches it pretty well too. :)

Can I join the party late? These skirts were made the evening of the 14th. :)

Kids Clothes Week Challenge