A Well-Pressed Quilt

Is a beautiful thing...

 Look closer...

 Yes, indeed, this is the inside of the quilt/backside of the quilt top.

 I'm thinking of using this for the border.

And that's today's progress in a nutshell.

Arg. *Sigh*

I must tell you how great it feels to finally finish this quilt. wow. I drafted/drew the pattern at the first Hartland Quilt Retreat, which was in October of 2007. (btw, as I looked up the link, I see that the Lone Star quilt in the picture on the left is mine.) I sewed the Log Cabin blocks and cut the stencil for the border in November of that same year, at the Valley Oak Quilt Guild retreat.

I had a problem with stenciling the border, in that the fabric I chose - which is perfect in every way but the most important - was a medium value. This meant that no matter what I did to try to make the lettering stand out, nothing worked. I had committed to using Fabrico ink markers for the lettering, and even after 4 layers of ink, it wasn't distinct enough.

I attempted to lighten the fabric behind some of the lettering with paint. I ruined one border completely, and had no more of this fabric. By now it was out of date and out of stock everywhere. I finally found a replacement border piece in my stash, that I had discarded earlier as "ruined". At this point, it was "good enough" to finish the quilt. I went over the four layers of stenciled green ink with a layer of black, and a fifth layer of green. whew! I can finally read the lettering. Finally, finally.

The border hang up hung me up for over a year. I don't even remember when I finally basted it and began the quilting.

Because it is hand-quilted, it was my travel project. This quilt has accompanied me to many places, including Colorado (twice) and New Mexico. And multiple quilt retreats.

I couldn't decide how to quilt the border, so I set it aside. again. Last fall I finally realized that I had to just quilt it. And so I did. Then I didn't like the flatness of the quilt, although it was perfectly and completely flat. I added the dimensional heads to the coxcomb. And added dimension to the border. See the wobble I introduced to the quilt? Can you hear me groan? This is the left side:

Here is the right. For some reason the top and bottom remained flat and straight.

Last night, I spent all of NCIS, LA spritzing and pinning the two borders into submission. Please quilt, please submit!!! I dampened the interior of the quilt and absolutely soaked the recalcitrant borders.

This is the left border this morning. It's not quite dry.

This is the right border this morning. It's not dry either.

Compared to the before, those two borders are looking pretty good. If you're wondering how I did this, here is a close up. The pins are nickel-plated applique/sequin pins, that do not rust.

People ask me, "How long does it take to make a quilt?" How about "forever"? It depends on the method used, and whether or not the method is working well.

So. Will this or won't this become a traveling show quilt? Good question. I guess the proof will be in the judges' remarks come April. I have entered it into Best of the Valley, and am considering submitting it to the Denver National Quilt Festival.

After all these years, it would be sad to just put it in the pile on my shelf, doncha think?

Such a saga.

And now, I'm back to work on the show. 'Til next time...

October Step

I spent Saturday quilting my October Step. By the end of the day, all I had left was the outer border. Since I've been in a feathery mood, it seemed right to add more. I did so on Monday. I proclaimed the Step "finished!" and then actually looked at it. oh my. It waves like a flag in the wind.

Just in case you can't see the ripples full on, how about an edge shot?

See them now?

I have some dense quilting in the foreground of the interior picture, which "sucks up" the fabric. It needs equally dense quilting around the border, to "suck up" the excess in a similar manner. sigh. I didn't want to quilt any more. But I did.

I've gone back and added itty bitty teensy weensy microscopic stippling on both sides of the feather. It helped a lot, although I'm not sure this photo shows how much difference it made. (Maybe you can click on it then zoom in?)

The (hopefully) finally step to making this quilt lie flat was to cut off the excess and then block the border. Since the interior is fine the way it is, I didn't mess with it at all. The last thing I want is for it to shrink. But the border is another matter. Because I have 100% cotton batting, I EXPECT it to shrink, at least enough to make the quilt look flat.

Here it is, pinned and drying.

And here it is once again from the edge. It looks promising, does it not?


I'm hoping to get the binding attached so that I will have handwork on Thursday, when my Itty Bitty friends congregate. It's been weeks (months?) since I've met with them, so I really do need to make an effort.

But for now? I have another quilt-for-hire in my future on this rainy day...

How I Wash a Large Quilt

I am often asked how I wash a quilt. I wash small quilts using much the same method, but whereas I block small quilts, I don't block large ones. I just try to shape them, and let them be.

The first step is to fill the tub. Usually I use Orvus, which is not only a "quilt soap," but it began as a horse soap. We used to use it on our lambs in 4-H. It is very mild, yet took the lanolin right out of their wool.

I throw a few ColorCatchers sheets into the water, in case some of the dye decides to become an issue.

I washed this particular quilt with Oxyclean. My husband tends to wrap this quilt around his neck, without protecting it with the sheet. His side of the quilt has a yellow strip along the top - he perspires while he sleeps, and there's not much I can do about it other than beg him to "protect the quilt with the sheet, pretty please, with sugar on top..." So far that hasn't worked.

Anyhoo, first I soak the quilt in the tub, and agitate it by hand. This time I let it soak for an hour, while I ran errands around town.

I rinse it the same way, until the water runs clear. It takes about three rinses.

In the backyard, I place two 4' x 8' pieces of foam sheathing on tables, to hold the quilt.

I cover them with sheets, then lay out the quilt. As soon as the quilt is laid out, the breezes pick up and cover the quilt with debris. It happens every time, so it must be part of the process.

I remove as much debris as possible, then cover the quilt with more sheets to prevent fading. Of course the breeze dies down once the quilt is covered, and no more debris falls.

As the quilt is drying, I come out and check it every few hours. I will take everything off the foam sheathing and replace the bottom sheets with dry sheets. I'll shake the quilt out, reshape it, and re-cover it, again using dry sheets.

When the temperatures are over 100, quilts will dry in a couple of hours, if that. But when it's cooler, say in the low 90's, it takes all day. I washed this quilt after 12 noon, and had to leave it outside overnight because it was too damp to bring inside. The overnight dew made it wetter, but the next day was warmer/hotter, and the quilt was completely dry by 10am.

And that's how I do it. It's not the only way to wash a quilt, but it's the best one I've found.

Basket Making

Blogger! Why are you doing this? Why did you flip my busiest pictures? sigh. Folks, please bear with me. Maybe, in another lifetime, I will figure out how to prevent this from happening. Or maybe fix it/undo it once it does. sigh. oh, the frustration!

So.

Yesterday, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Then I remembered that my sister is having a birthday next week, and her gift is not complete. I had one last thing in mind, before packing up her birthday box and sending it on its way.

Everybody loves baskets, right? Right! I know I do. And we're supposed to give people things that we'd love to receive, right? Right! And she's always been a fan of things homemade...

So. There you go. Time to make a basket. This is what I started with.

Oh wait. There was something else, besides the strips. You also need cotton cording.

You wrap the fabric strips around the cording and begin to sew.

You sew until you are done. That's it. Easy as pie. Easier than pie crust! :)

Here's another view...ooohhh

And another...aaaahhhhh

Can you tell I'm procrastinating? I have another room to clean, and I've run out of excuses to delay any further. Guests will be here this evening, and I need a place to put them.

Have a great weekend!!!

All Better

Here it is: The culprit

Blogger doesn't like it either, judging by the tipping of my photo.

Yesterday I was incredibly frustrated, when I discovered that my new secret special project refused to square. I trimmed this edge and that edge, and nothing matched.

I laid awake last night, trying to problem solve. The only thing I came up with was that I needed to remove the two borders I'd added. harumpf.

This morning I spent about 5 hours at the computer. Three of those hours involved updating a mailing list. I am now in the "E's." It's better than still being in the "A's."

While I was typing, my brain must have been spinning, because by the time I could no longer type, I had a solution for my quilt.

Rather than slash this or that, I unsewed a single seam. Then, using Sharon Schamber's piecelique gluing method, I glued the two pieces back together. Once it dried, I sewed the seam and cut out the offending excess fabric.

Can you believe such a tiny amount of fabric could cause so much angst? I expected it to be at least 2" wide!

The other thing that was bothering me was the quilt's shaved dimensions. That's why I'd tried adding borders.

I took the borders off and removed the bottom piece. I cut a new one, adding another 1.5" Now it will meet the 40" x 40" (or larger) size requirement that I was looking for. yay!!!

So now I'm back to where I was on Saturday. I'm thrilled with my new piece, but not only that, it's SQUARE. Now I can baste and quilt it, without hesitation. woohoo! Goals are good!!!

Keeping Busy

Wow. When I tell you that when I got back from Asilomar I hit the ground running, I'm not joking. I have been ridiculously busy. Hopefully everything that needs to get done is getting done. No guarantees on that, though, because I've barely had time to catch my breath. Sorry about the lack of posting...when there's too much to be done, something's gotta give. And without pictures, who wants to read my whine?

We had a quilt show meeting on Monday, it was the last one before the show. Yikes. That means it's going to be here faster than I realize!

On Tuesday, we painted the old signs with white. Tomorrow we break out the red spray paint.


I've had some quilts for hire waiting for my attention. I told their owners they couldn't be in a hurry. I've finally finished one of them. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Another baby made her way into the world, so I needed to make some labels. I also wanted to label the quilts that just got back from M-AQF. I love setting the machine to stitch, while I work on the other one.


Here's a close-up of the machine in action.


And here are the labels, waiting for me to sew them on this evening.

Finally, I saw the strangest thing today. At first I thought it was some sort of mating dance, but after watching for a while, I changed my mind. These butterflies were doing battle. Only one still had his wings intact, the other two were being shredded. They were flying lower and lower to the ground, exhausting themselves.

This first is a picture of two of them. Click to make it bigger.


Here is the one with the worst wings, trying desperately to escape the other two.


They were doing crazy maneuvers, it looked choreographed.


Here you can see another attack.


And here they are again.

I was glad the kitties were in the house, because they certainly would have found these fellows to be great fun. They wouldn't have eaten them, but they definitely would have done them in!

And that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed it!

A Quillow?

A quillow? What, may you ask, is a quillow?

I was introduced to the term in the 80's, when I first joined the quilt guild. Some of the ladies were making them. They were dual-purpose projects, they were quilts masquerading as pillows.

I didn't see the point in making them. It took me so long to make a quilt - after all, everything I did was handquilted - why would I want it folded up and hidden away in a pillow? No, my quilts were quilts, and that's all there was to it. End of topic.

Fast forward to December 2008.

I was on my way to the Mennonite Quilt Center for their end of the year clearance sale. I asked the boys, "Do you need anything from the Quilt Center?" Daniel perked up. "Yes! I need a quillow!"

"You what?"

"I need a quillow. I'd like to have a quilt that doesn't have special significance, that I can toss on the couch and not worry about getting dirty."

Say the word and it's done.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't done, but the seed was planted. Tomorrow young Daniel turns 22. Happy Birthday, Daniel, I made you a quillow! (He called this afternoon to let me know that he'd already opened his gifts. He's going to be busy all day tomorrow, so he decided to get a jump on it.)

This is the top of the quillow. It looks like any ordinary quilt, doesn't it?

Here it is from another angle. It still looks like a quilt.

Here is the back. Can you see the pocket? It's camoflagued.

Here it is again. Or maybe that's a picture of the binding. I made pretty, variegated binding from multiple fabrics of the quilt.

Trust me, there is a pocket. When you turn it inside out, and fold the quilt correctly, presto, change-o, you get a pillow. See how it's tucked so neatly inside the pocket?


Here it is, ready to toss on the couch, ready and waiting for someone who needs a quilt.


Happy Birthday, Daniel!! I hope you enjoy it!!!

P.S. I don't know if you noticed, but I machine quilted this pretty heavily. I expect it to be abused. It will live in an apartment with 4 boys in the 18-22 age range. He can wash it and dry it in the machine, and hopefully it will maintain its shape with a minimum of shrinkage. ( I did prewash the fabrics.)

I think that's about it. Now, I'd better get back to quilt show business.

Oh wait! I should show you pictures of the birthday boy. Since he's a faraway kid, I don't have any 22nd birthday pictures, but I do have a few digital images from the past few years.

Here he is in high school, on senior class color day.


Here he is on his 18th birthday :


Here he is on his 20th birthday:


(You're looking at snowboarding accessories.)

And here he is...I'm not sure when this was taken. It was taken some time during the past year.

Happy Birthday, Dando!!! I love you! Mom

The Missing Step

I didn't just whip these together. I'd already pieced the cards, I only had to select backings and finish them off. Here are the steps. I apologize for some of the blurry photographs. The camera just did NOT feel like focusing. And when it's not in the mood, there's not much I can do about it.

When I skipped out on you, I had the top trimmed and "square." The backing has been cut 5/8" larger all around. You are at the ironing board.

I fold the first side over the front and press, making the crease to the edge nice and crisp.

I fold the corner up 45 degrees, leaving a small space between the edge of the batting and the fold. I think my pressing instructions were pretty clear, I just wanted to share this nice crisp photo. (I'm not sure how I got it!)


When I begin sewing, I turn under the raw edge, leaving about a 1/4" "binding." I begin in the middle of a side, at least a few inches from the first corner.

As I approach the corner, I turn up the backing, along the crease.

Here is a second, better picture of approaching the corner.

Then I turn under the turnunder, and prepare to sew my way to the corner.

It's a tricky thing, and my finger is too fat to accomplish a smooth turn.

If you pull out the stiletto, the turn is much more manageable.

Here I've completed the first turn and am zooming along a straightaway.

I slow down as I approach the next corner.

I turn up the corner along the crease.

I check my angle, and turn under the raw edge.

I've already used the stiletto to turn the corner, making sure that I've picked up the next edge, and away I go, headed to the next corner.

Here I am, after rounding the last corner. As you can see, I've turned under the remaining raw edge and am headed back to where my stitching began.


Here is the finished card. Once I'd bound it, I decided that it needed to be quilted around the verse. Again, I've added my signature and the date in the lower left triangle. And now, it's ready to go.

I got the idea for these cards from a postcard my friend Sharon made for me. She makes her cards a bit stiffer, so they can go through the mail without an envelope. (I put mine in transparent envelopes.) As you can see, she's added lots of beadwork. She handed this to me in person, it did NOT go through the mail! (I apologize for the fuzzy photo. I blame the camera.)

Here are my final cards, all spruced up and ready to go.

Thanks for checking in, and I hope that you have fun creating a quilted card or two of your own!