Sunday, March 24, 2024

Let It Rip!

 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 first thing I had to do was figure out where the panel would fit in the backing piece, and what size pieces of the background did I need to cut.


Then I had to figure out how to cut the pieces out of the big piece of fabric I had. You would think that a piece of fabric 81" wide by 108" long would be plenty big, but remember this quilt is 66" x 78" and needs an additional 6" all around, so that grows to 78" x 90" Sure that looks big, but I'd need two pieces about 30" x 90" and two more about 24 to 28" by about 36-40". That was going to be a bit fussy.

So the first thing I did was to surround the panel with strips of dark blue fabric. This allowed me to straighten the edges and make it "square." Now that I didn't have to worry about how to adjust the backing, I could move forward.

An aside: If you have ever bought fabric from the Portsmouth Fabric Company, you know they TEAR the fabric, not cut it. This is a shock when you first see (and hear) it, but if you need a 90" long piece of fabric on the straight of the grain 28" wide, it's actually easier to tear than to cut. (Do YOU have a table 90" long?) So the straight edge you see in the photo above was achieved that way. I notched one edge of the fabric and let it rip.


I sewed the chunks to the top and bottom first, then added the long side strips.

TA-DA!

That's done!

One other thing: I did not expect to wake up yesterday to four inches of snow on the ground. On the first day of Spring.









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.


This swirly blue will be the binding fabric. I was ironing it (because you know EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF FABRIC that comes into my house gets a trip through the washer and dryer before I bring it into the studio) and I figured, might as well cut the strips for the binding at the same time. 

I didn't really NEED anything else, but I decided to browse through the online shop. 


I found this lovely panel, and knew I would put it on the back of the quilt. I have hung it up on the design wall on top of the quilt itself, just so you can see how well the two look together. I will surround this panel with the blue fabric in the first photo in this post.

That's my task for tomorrow.


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.


I joined the strips at a 45 degree angle (because I think that looks more interesting) and then start at one corner, sew to the end, square off the edge, turn the corner and keep going.

This is a big chunk of the quilt, so you can see the different fabrics and values of blue in the quilt.

Here is the finished flimsy.

Cherie's comment yesterday pretty much named the quilt - Awash In a Sea of Blue.

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.

Here is the flimsy in a crumpled shot. Julie likes these.

I added a narrow border of some of the light fabrics. My plan is to have a slightly wider border of the medium blues. 

I've already ordered fabric for the backing and binding.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

One Two Three Four...

 


Sewing the blocks together is a kind of a precise thing. I start at the right side of the quilt, and then place the right side triangle over the blue one, and then set it down. Then I move to the next block, and do the same thing. All the way to the end of the row.

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.

Then I press them, seams open.

After I have two rows done, I sew them together. Then on to the next two rows. Then I sewed the two two row pieces together into a four row segment. The photo above shows two four row segments sewn together, (at the bottom). I'm working my way through this each evening.

Complicated quilts can be really cool, but there's something lovely and hypnotizing about one block repeated over and over.

In this particular layout, it's very important the blocks line up at the corners so the points match and the blue and white shapes are crisp and distinct.



Monday, March 11, 2024

Blue Arrowheads

I arranged the blue triangles the way I wanted, then added the light side triangles. They are pretty quiet, I know. This quilt has a home already and it is being designed for the future owner - who is a really low-key person.

I've started sewing the blocks together.

I've sewn the bottom four rows of blocks together. It looks a bit weird because there are nine blocks in each of the rows above, but the quilt the quilt really has ten blocks across, so I have been adding a block at the right side of each row.

This particular layout along with the low key light areas, has a very regular, repetitive design which is somewhat soothing. As usual, it looks better when it is sewn up!



This is a scrap slab triangle quilt. You can get the tutorial here at my Etsy shop. It's a great way to use up scraps,


 

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.


This is a Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, and you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.


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.

As I did in Black Abacus, I plan to arrange the light side triangles so they sort of blend together. 

Now, before you get worked up about the arrangement of the triangles, bear in mind this is the first go round. Before I can really arrange the blues so the values do something interesting I have to get them up on the design wall first, so that's all I've done. 

I already know I'm going to like this one.




This will be a Scrap Slab Triangle Quilt. You can see more of these quilts here. You can get my tutorial for these quilts here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.




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.

This is going to be another version of a Scrap Slab Triangle quilt. You can get the tutorial at my Etsy shop.



 

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. 


Back in the office, I figured out what was wrong. This bookcase was blocking access to the right side of the closet. If I moved it, I'd have access and the room wouldn't be so crowded. But if that went away, I needed to figure out where to put the stuff that lived in the bookcase, and I had to figure out where to move the bookcase TO. (By the way, I originally put the bookcase there so the Roomba wouldn't get tangled in all the wires and cables from the computer and other stuff on the desk.) 

Once I had that worked out...

Getting the bookcase out of there was definitely the right move. The room makes a lot more sense, and it's easy to move around.

I put the bookcase in my bedroom.

FINALLY I get to get rid of the stupid table that was in my bedroom before. It was left there by the previous owner. While it looks like it might be useful, one of the legs was broken, so it wasn't stable.





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.


Here they all are together, in no particular order. As you can see they are all different sizes. At some point I will need to trim them down, but not yet.

I have removed the bright one because it overpowered the others, and also the dotted one, which didn't hold its own among these.  I have fabrics set aside for a red one, and that's up next.

I'll have to go through my stash to see if there are any colors I have missed. I might be able to do a light brown (or beige?) one, and maybe a gray one, but I don't know yet. Maybe I can make a white with colors if I don't use fabrics that are as bold as the original one.

At any rate, if I need to make another yellow or green or blue or pink block, I'll do it. I don't need this quilt to have only one block of each color.

I do like the irregular shapes of these too. We'll see what happens. It's so nice not to have to fuss.


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.

I kinda like these as big rectangles. We'll see. Regular readers know I like to see what happens on the design wall and go from there. I'm just going to keep going and see where this takes me.