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Archive for the category “Daily”

15 Jun 2012

The Scissor Effect

Nostalgia has me in its grip this week apparently. I found myself talking about some of the things my wife and I have discovered as beginning quilters. I started talking about the scissors we use most. I thought it was hilarious that after spending our time, energy and money on selecting these large and really nice scissors, (one of them bought by my wife is purple even on the cutting surface) that aren’t even the one’s we use the most. I’m not opposed to spending money on useful items but we both try to stay away from frivolity in our purchases (most of the time!!). Although we’ve used everything we purchased, when we were thinking about it, the scissors we use most are the little 4 ½” detail Singer scissors. I think they cost $5.95 Of course out of all the things we do while quilting, the cutting, sewing, measuring, ironing, and washing this is one of the key instruments that when I can’t find it, can really be a bummer. We actually have two of them and they are exactly the same… well last month our daughter visited and left them too close to the iron which partially melted one of them. Even with two around, there are times when we sit down to sew and go to clip off the thread that they aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Sometimes Kay is the culprit and sometimes it’s me, but at that moment we just want those lightweight little gems. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll use the “bulkier”, more expensive ones when push comes to shove, but the little scissors are definitely in the “can’t live without” category. What is the implement of destruction can’t you live without?

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14 Jun 2012

A Million Questions

There are a million questions I had when I started quilting.  Some of the information needed was readily available, other info… not so much.  I still do not consider myself anything beyond a beginning quilter and find a VERY happy place there.  I’m still in the honeymoon stage of being delighted and frustrated over the simplest things at times.

While I was working on a quilt top two nights ago, my wife walked in on me staring at the two halves of my quilt top.  She asked what was wrong when she saw me staring.  The quilt top was one that you have to assemble diagonally and I was trying to figure out which side needed the piece of fabric that I had left.  Unlike some projects, having a piece left over when you know you’ve cut the exact number does NOT work in quilting.

This brought me to realize how many question I still have and how many I have had that I was lucky enough to find or be given answers.  Some of the questions I was faced with involved personal choice:

What scissors should I use?

How large of a cutting mat do I need

Which fabric brand do I buy?

Where is the best place to buy this stuff?

This evolved into more questions:

When using a rotary cutter should I try to stay straight, or cut at a slight angle?

Should I pre-wash my fabric?

How do I get the points to look good in this pattern?

No matter where I looked people seemed to avoid answering questions where personal preference was concerned.  My take on it is that if someone has asked, give them your personal opinion but do not be broken-hearted if they end up going a different way.  I had just wanted a place to start from.

I’m sure at any stage we all have questions that need answers.  Some of these answers we get from a book or a magazine, some we seek from our fellow quilters/mentors, others we plunge into headfirst and after our 20th redo, find the answer ourselves.  Wherever your answers come from, just remember that all of us at one time or another has had the same questions.  Don’t be afraid to ask the questions… and support those that are new and try to help with the answers.

If you are looking for answers, post comments, go to quilt shows, read magazines, examine other quilts, get involved in a quilt swap.  There are so many outlets for you to find out those burning questions.  Until next time, keep quilting…

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13 Jun 2012
9 Comments

Do You Wash?

How many quilt shows have you been to? Have you ever noticed whether or not the quilts in the show have had the fabrics pre-washed? I have been fascinated by this question lately and finally took the plunge for the first time pre-washing my fabric. It was very intense ironing out the fabric afterwards, but it softened up so very nicely.  My only issue with this was that I could never seem to get the wrinkles out of the fabric no matter how much I ironed!!  I’ll wait to see what it looks like after quilting though.

Part of the five quilts in nine days that I mentioned in a previous post had three of the same patterns, but with different materials. So on the first quilt I prewashed all fabrics and the second quilt I didn’t. I’m not going to make a final determination until after they’re both bound and washed again. My first impression however, it’s impressive how soft and manageable the pre-washed fabric was. The unwashed fabric was stiff and hard to manage.  It would slip and slide while I was working with it, which is good and bad.  It seemed to slip a little more while on the sewing machine as well, where the pre-washed didn’t.

As I was sewing the pieces together, they just seemed to fit better. When piecing the non-washed fabric, I felt like a wrangler on a ranch trying to herd the fabric to its proper position. It may have been perception and not fact, but I could have sworn the pre-washed fabric wanted to go together correctly!

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11 Jun 2012

Five quilts in nine days… well almost

It was ridiculous of me to think I could have finished everything, I mean five quilts in nine days?  I was on a mission to be sure and ready to take up the challenge.  To be fair, two of the quilts (Arbor Lane and the School House) were in their final stages of completion and since have been taken to my long arm quilter along with one of the Sage Garden Patch quilts I made here.  So, in a way  that doesn’t make it sound like I’m cheating, I finished off the assembly of two quilt tops, put two entirely new quilts together and have one nearly across the finish line.

“I kept complaining that although I have made a few quilts, I really hadn’t kept any for myself.”  

Just in case you were wondering and hadn’t read any of my previous posts, I have been suffering from separation anxiety regarding the quilts I’ve made. It might have something to do with the fact that every time one of the children stops in for a visit, I end up one quilt lighter . Three out of seven children have a quilt made by me or by my wife and me. We’ve come to the conclusion that we should just make one for each and call it done. This means of course, we still have four other quilts to make and give away which is tough to do when you want to stock pile quilts for your own personal use and enjoyment. Trying to complete five quilts in so short amount of time isn’t anything that I’ve done before.  I have to say that nine days ago when I started this I wouldn’t have believed I would have accomplished this much.

My vacation is over and I am back to work again. I will most likely finish the fifth and final quilt tonight as I have already started to sew the strips together.  To be honest, three of the quilts are of the same pattern, with only varied fabric selections to make them look different.  I chose to make a few for its beautiful, yet simplistic style and each quilt only calls for three colors. Having  never assembled a quilt the way this one goes together, I also wanted ample practice getting those points together with minimal space between or losing them to the border.  All three turned out far better than my expectations!!

So, what are you making?  What goals have you set for yourself this summer?

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10 Jun 2012

Museums and a Quit Show

Yesterday was a very wonderful and very long day.  We planned a trip to a museum and a quilt show in two different cities in the same day.  Crazy right?  I had found out that the Fort Worth Kimbell Museum was displaying paintings from the Clark collection of Impressionist painters and Kay had learned that there was to be a Quilt show from an acquaintance of hers.  We said, hey why not try to do both.

Not knowing that the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth didn’t open until noon, we arrived at 11AM.  The museum was featuring the Clark collection of the Impressionists, something I’d always wanted to see in person.  Rather than wait, we headed over to the Museum of Modern Art just across the street.  Though I do not always appreciate “Modern Art” I wanted to see what they were showing and had an hour to spare.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a new artist displayed that I’d never heard of.  Ged Quinn’s paintings combine landscapes with fragments of history and mythology.  They’re slightly disturbing, but also very seductive in their composition.  After seeing the collection there at the Modern we were starting to get hungry.

The modern museum has a cafe as well and as it was very convenient, we decided to try out the food there.  Kay ordered a Moroccan salad while I tried to destroy a Kobe beef hamburger.  Both were really good, but that may just have been because we were starving!

After that we went back to the Kimbell Museum to view the Clark collection.  It was really impressive and I highly suggest visiting at least once.  The seventy-three paintings in the exhibition include twenty-one by Renoir, along with four by Edgar Degas, two by Edouard Manet, six by Claude Monet, two by Berthe Morisot, seven by Camille Pissarro, and four by Alfred Sisley.

We were a little tired at that point but we wanted to still make it out to the Irving Texas Quilt Guild’s quilt show “Splish Splash”.  I really didn’t know how small or large this show would be and it was already getting on to 4pm.  We were met at the front by smiling faces and warm invitations.  I have been recently looking for another wonderful long-arm quilter to work with that is closer to me and asked the ladies at the front if they knew of any.

I was immediately escorted to three of them that were still at the show.  I then received a personal tour of the show by two of the quilters as they talked about the quilts they had quilted for the show and their love of the craft.  All in all, this was the best show I’d ever had the pleasure of going to.  I may not have won any of the door prizes that they called out, but feel that I had the best door prize ever.

My thanks to the special people from the Irving quilt guild that showed me around their wonderful show and showed real enthusiasm for the works of art they helped create.

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08 Jun 2012
1 Comment

Sage Garden Patch Quilt or Two day quilt

As a teaser for the book, I’m posting some pictures of a quilt from a book Quilting a Patchwork Garden that I did a review of.  I completed this quilt in two days, although it could have been done in one day.  I changed up the borders from what the book called for because I wanted it to be a little larger and liked the added flair as well.

Outside block

The block above is as hard as this quilt will throw at you.  It is important however that you pin all the panels when sewing them together!!  When I was telling my wife about this quilt and sending pictures to her as it was coming together

She thought it was really nice and had a clean look to it.  In my earlier post of the review for this book I mentioned that it had a garden theme, and as the first quilt you come to in the book the Sage Garden patch quilt didn’t disappoint.

And this is the point when I decided to change-up the borders and add my own bit of flair.

And not satisfied with just a white border on the outside, I added a green square to all four corners.

In closing I’ll say that it was a blast to put this together.  The funnest part was when my wife came home to see this sitting on the couch and said “WOW!  We need to go to the fabric store so I make this quilt this weekend.”  The pictures that I took do not do this quilt justice.  If you’re looking for a beautiful quilt to make for a loved one or friend that won’t take forever, then this pattern is for you.

For the serious quilting I will mention two facts that we had discussed while I was making this.  This can easily be pieced together in one day.  Kay had asked me if I was working on it all in one sitting for both days and I have to confess that I goofed off for a large portion of  both days, rather than keeping at it.  Second, there is some minor changes in a couple of the measurements that I would suggest.

It is already at the long arm quilter (trying someone new) and I’ll post another picture after its bound, but before it goes off to its lucky new owner.

Contact me if you are making this and would like to hear about the changes I would suggest.  Until next time…  quilt on!!

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06 Jun 2012
5 Comments

Joann Fabric’s Persian Plum Block 3

I’ve just completed block 3 from Joann’s Persian Plum which is called the “Quartered Star”.  This was a little more difficult than the previous two, made more so by the fact that I put three pieced together that didn’t belong.  Isn’t seam ripping fun???

The block is beautiful when finished and I’m very excited to put all of these together to see what the whole quilt will look like.  Here are some pictures of the block going together.

Here is the finished block

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05 Jun 2012

Flannel

The first quits I ever made were flannel quilts.  Probably because the first quilt I ever remember having was one from my Aunt Clara and it was a patchwork flannel.  There wasn’t anything fancy about it, the pattern was blocks arranged haphazardly on the quilt top.  The underside was made from one piece of fabric with warm autumn colors throughout.  I don’t recall now if there was the possibility of batting between the top and bottom, but it already felt heavy enough.

I remember the weight of the quilt anchoring me down on those cold winter nights and in the spring when the rain would come and we’d tunnel into our quilt every time the lightning lit up the night sky.  When it got real bad we’d be called into the front room with our quilts in tow for a cup of hot chocolate to calm our nerves.

When my wife and I were discussing which quilts we were going to be keeping and which ones to send off to family members we realized something…  We currently have a springtime quilt and Kay is finishing a Summer one.  I’ve just completed an Autumn quilt which just leaves a Winter quilt to complete the set.  Much to my wife’s chagrin, I suggested that since I was the one to make it, that I would make our Winter’s quilt out of flannel.  She complains if the weight of our covers isn’t enough and I figured that having a flannel top and bottom with a warm and natural cotton batting in the middle would do the trick.  She was a little put off by this because it would be the only flannel quilt in the set.  I’m also worried that my long-arm quilt person will freak out with the thickness she’ll have to quilt through.

I’d love to hear you opinion on flannel quilts… where do you stand?

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04 Jun 2012
2 Comments

Finished with the Appliqué

Ready for the quilterI was under the impression that I would have finished with the appliqué on the Arbor Lane BOTM quilt and moved on to the double quilt I’m making.  Alas, I spent the entire weekend finishing up with the center block and the four side panels.  Then I spent most of today sewing the rest together instead of posting.  The good news is the quilt top has been assembled and I went out this weekend for Joann Fabrics sale and bought the backing for it.  Now it will be sent off to Candy who performs miracles with her long-arm machine.

Today, I get to start the double quilt.  No, there isn’t such a thing in reality, I just call it a double quilt because I’ll be making two quilts with minor variations for two different people.

Finally I’m able to show the quilt top for the Arbor Lane.  A skeptical decision regarding the backing fabric turned out to be a fantastic decision.  I really love how this quilt turned out.  I will be taking it and the schoolhouse quilt for some long arm quilting and I’ll post the pics after it’s finished.

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02 Jun 2012

My Struggle with Appliques

Applique sewn on with Husqvarna Viking Sapphire

Eating carrots as a child was always a chore at the dinner table. My parents knew they were good for me and would not injure me as I thought they would. Likewise, although quilts can contain any number of different techniques from paper piecing to string art, one of the most popular remains that of the applique.

I set my sights a couple of times on trying this out and it has been a disaster, my technique is horrid. I am okay (read not thrilled) with mistakes in the quilts that I make. But there comes a point in time where giving up on a technique seems really compelling. Luckily for me, unluckily for my wife, I’m stubborn. I will ruin 20 pieces just to become adequate at its creation.

Why would my wife become unlucky?  Because I will plead and beg her to stop her projects to work with me on mine, asking her questions nonstop, and criticizing our work until I’m satisfied with the result. She is a real trooper but has politely suggested that I join a quilting guild so I can learn more.

My confession… is that everything I do has been self-taught through trial and error, although at times (many times) I have come across wonderful people who’ve shared their videos of how to’s on the web. (Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!) I know I should be trying to work with more experienced quilters, but it’s difficult while working a full-time job. That doesn’t even mention that I’m a guy and a lot of experienced quilters in my area are women… married women whose husbands probably wouldn’t understand why their wives were spending time quilting with another man!!

Kay and I do go to quilting events when they’re in town and plan on going to the quilt show in Houston this October. that is normally where I am able to connect with other quilters and ask the questions that are giving me fits.

Until then, I would love comments from anyone out there on the best way to do appliques on quilts. I’ve seen them with a satin stitch, a zig-zag, and have seen them done by hand.  But would love to know what your favorite way is…

Until then thank you for all your support and keep sending the comments!

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