My least favorite part of making a quilt is getting the backing ready. I don't often use the large 108" wide fabric sold for quilt backings. I bought some for the Awash in a Sea of Blue quilt, but then also bought a panel to fit into the backing.
If you've ever worked with one of these panels you know they aren't square (all corners are 90 degrees) and the sides aren't straight. Look at the right edge of the panel above, you can see how much it bows out.The Patchery Menagerie
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Sunday, March 24, 2024
Let It Rip!
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Backing and Binding for Awash in a Sea of Blue
The backing and binding fabrics for the blue Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, Awash in a Sea of Blue, have arrived.
This will be the majority of the backing. I had placed this in my shopping cart, and then went hunting for the binding.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
What I Did Last Night
Look, I know it isn't very exciting, but last night I wound 25 bobbins* with my favorite light gray thread. It's Presencia 60w, and I order it in large spools.
I know it isn't particularly exciting, but, hey, that's what I did last night.
That and set up my Elsa machine back in the studio. It had been taking a vacation while I sewed up the Awash in a Sea of Blue quilt. The backing fabric is being shipped and I should have it to work on this weekend.
*Yes, I know this is 23 bobbins. One is in the machine and the other is still in the bobbin winding gizmo. And yes, I know I can buy pre-wound bobbins, but that just doesn't seem right to me.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Awash In a Sea of Blue
I chose a group of middle-range blues to use as an outer border on the blue quilt. I cut the strips more or less about 20" long, but arranged them in a very specific sequence. I wanted them to flow into one another all around the quilt.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
It's a Flimsy!
Each evening I have been assembling a row of blocks. By Friday night I had sewn them all but one.Then I finished the last row, and sewed the rows together.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
One Two Three Four...
My stack looks like this. Next I pin the two pieces together, keeping the sequence the same. Then I sew them, stack them, and then press them in that same sequence. Then I square them up,and pin them together (same sequence), being careful not to flip the blocks over.
Monday, March 11, 2024
Blue Arrowheads
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Stacking Them Up
I moved some of the lighter blue triangles around. Now they are clustered on the lower left and upper right. I want them to move into each other. I want this thing to remind you of water.I'm also cutting some side triangles for this. I haven't quite worked out how I want those to look yet, but I'm getting there.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Arrowheads
I've had a lot of fun making blue scrap slab triangles. Here you can see some of the different fabrics.I am always amazed at how many layout variations there are in the Scrap Slab Triangle Quilts. I am going to arrange these blue triangles in up and down vertical rows, almost like arrowheads.
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Scrap Slabs in Blue
Before I decided to sort all my scrap fabric, I was sewing my leftover bits of blue fabrics into slabs.
I'd had an idea in my head, but I set the blue slabs aside while I cleaned and organized my scraps.When I got to a Gee-I-Am-Not-Sure about the light slabs I took out the blue ones and started cutting triangles. I know just how I want to put these together.
So for the last couple of days I have been sewing slabs and cutting triangles. I have 110. I need 120. So I am focusing on this one.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Let It Go!
Sometimes you're so busy you forget to really look at the things right in front of you. This is "Life is Tweet," my attempt at a row quilt I made almost ten years ago. It lives in my master bathroom and I walk past it several times a day. I sometimes forget it's there. What a shame!
It has my fun liberated birds (tutorial here), my butterflies, (tutorial here), and my asterisk flowers (tutorial here), and some wonky hearts.
I meant to have all the elements lined up in a row, but the birds refused to cooperate. The hearts seemed to bounce around with love and excitement, and just couldn't be contained. The butterflies wanted to fly (duh), and the asterisks simply lifted up into the air above.
Well.
What was I to do? I let them, because sometimes that's the way an idea works. You have a plan and what happens on the design wall changes and you have to change with it. Had I made the quilt I had originally intended to make, this quilt would have been boring and stuffy.
The quilt is enhanced with Chris Ballard's spectacular free motion hand guided quilting. It's a smallish quilt, 38" x 45". Just goes to show you can get a lot of bang for your buck out of 29 blocks.
I tell my students all the time that at some point the quilt they are making is going to start making demands. "What the quilt wants," I tell them, "the quilt should get."
I have a lot of non-quilt related stuff going on and since I haven't been in the studio for a few days, I thought you'd enjoy this little blast from the past.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Red
Here is the Red block. I knew I didn't want it to be too dark, so all the fabrics are red on white.These are the nine blocks. I am happy where this is going.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Teal & Orange
Here is the Teal block.And here is the Orange one. I really had to search through my stash and bins to find light orange fabrics, or fabrics that would "read" as light orange.
Friday, February 23, 2024
Pink
Here's the light pink block.
I'm not generally a pastel fan but these blocks are so pretty. When I envisioned making a quilt of mostly light fabrics, I'm not quite sure I had something like this in mind.
Here are all the blocks together. Clearly the bright colored block doesn't fit, but neither does the black and white one or the white one with the dots. And nothing has been trimmed down to a particular size.