Circle Group

My mother had been dropping not so subtle hints that she wanted a quilt. “So what are you going to do with all of these quilts?” and “Are you ever going to give these quilts away?” That sort of thing.

So I decided to make her a quilt this past Christmas. Up until now, I’ve been hesitant to let them leave the house because of the little imperfections they have. They don’t really bother me because I understand that they are part of the process of learning the techniques. Most non-quilters probably wouldn’t even notice them, and I do have them on display in my house. But I think if you are going to give someone a gift, it should be good quality. I finally feel that my work is in a place where there aren’t going to be big holes or loose stitches or cut off blocks.

I used the Eclipse pattern by Joyce Robinson. I decided sometime around September or October to make the quilt, so I needed to start right away and didn’t have time to come up with an original pattern. I also needed something that was going to use fabric I already had in my stash and that I could assemble fairly quickly. This pattern fit the bill and had the added bonus of feeding my growing obsession with circles.

I have to say that this is probably the best quilt I’ve ever made. Not in terms of how it looks, but technically. The seams all lined up, it was perfectly flat, it is as square as I’ve ever gotten anything. It made me ridiculously happy when all of the blocks fit together the way they were supposed to. I ended up liking the quilt so much, I was actually a little sad to see it go.

It is a throw sized quilt. The circles are needle turn appliqué. It is machine and hand quilted and beaded. In the original pattern, the circles are attached by quilting them down. But raw edge appliqué makes me edgy and I didn’t want to do the amount of machine quilting that would have required to attach them securely. Also, I just really like doing needle turn appliqué. My mother once had a consulting business called the Circle Group and that’s where the name comes from.

So here are the three things I learned. First, when you machine assemble blocks, you can press the seams open. The blocks will line up better and the quilt will lie flatter. I think you only have to press the seams to one side when you hand piece. Second, circles are awesome, especially when you have an EZ Cut Circle ruler. And third, trust your vision and just keep going. It will turn out better than you hoped.

One Thing Leads to Another

My quilting olympics is going very well. Of course, I don't have funky, totally unfair tie-breaking rules to deal with. If two people get the same score they should share the medal or do a tie-breaking back flip or something.

Anyway, I've managed to do some needleturn every night since the olympics started. And I'm getting better at those outside points. I think I've figured out a way to turn the corner that works for me, and they aren't coming out lumpy or weird anymore. It has also given me a chance to experiment with different threads for applique. I'm loving the silk. I like it so much, I want to try quilting with silk thread. And I just happen to have some old silk remnants that would be perfect for such an experiment. I will never have to worry about running out of things to do as long as one project leads to another.

On an unrelated note, why oh why did the current issue of Craft magazine have to be about weaving? This is the kind of temptation I don't need. Now, when no one is looking, I sneak peaks at looms online. Somebody stop me. I actually had a loom when I was kid. My grandparents gave me a plastic table top loom and I would make squares of fabric. It was fun. I never turned them into anything. But when you are a kid people let you just make stuff without it having to be anything. Maybe that's what grabbed my attention. It takes me back to when process was more important than outcome. I wonder if my mom still has that loom?

She Sticks the Landing

I decided to join Quilting Olympics. I know I have other things I should be doing. But I really wanted to do some applique. So I whipped up some 4 patch blocks at world record pace, and cut some squares to applique to the blocks. I'm doing needle turn applique to attach the squares. By the time I'm done, I will have perfected outside points which is the goal of this exercise.

Go team needle-turn.

5 Days of Solitude (Almost)

The vacation is coming along nicely, thank you very much. Apart from the telemarketers and the ants that are trying to eat our relatively new air conditioner, it has been ideal. I even gave up worrying about the germs that were threatening to put the whole household out of commission.

I spent the last few days working on a city scape. It's like a landscape but for city girls. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now - but who has the time? So it was like my own self-directed art quilt camp. And I have been learning a lot.

All of the piecing, fusing and zig-zag stitching is done. And I'm pretty happy with the outcome so far. Naturally there are flaws, but they have taught me valuable lessons, so I choose to look at them as learning opportunities. I'm moving on to the quilting next. Hopefully the ants won't carry us away in the night.

Is It Procrastinating if It's Fun?

I really should have worked on my UFO's today. I've finished the quilting on the coffee quilt. It only needs a bit more work to be done. And the blue quilt is up on the design wall. I sewed some of the blocks backwards, so I need to unsew them and put them together correctly. I should have done either one of these things today. But a box of hand dyed fabric was calling to me. It was saying, "Come play with us."

So I cut some squares, and rough cut some circles and sewed them to the squares.

Then I decided to see what would happen if cut them, shuffled them and sewed the back together.

Then I cut them again, shuffled them again, and sewed them back together.

It's fun to play.

New Year's Resolution Quilts 3

I finished the third New Year's Resolution quilt. This one is called, "Buy A New Broom". In my family it is bad luck to bring a broom from your old house to your new house. You should buy a new broom or, better yet, someone should give you a new broom. This is because you don't want to bring the dirt from the old house into the new house. I think this is my favorite family superstition. Something about acknowledging the transition from the old to the new, and the idea that you can leave the "old dirt" behind you and start fresh.

Anyway, the background is machine pieced and the broom is needle turn applique. Most of the quilting was done by machine. The detail on the broom was done by hand. And of course, the beads were applied by hand. The edges are finished by hand with a blanket stitch. I really like the red thread and purple beads against the greens and browns. That red thread on the broom was vexing. I think the overall angle of the broom may be off, which is why the thread never looked quite right no matter how I angled it. After the third attempt I decided to just call it quirky and move on. This quilt is 100% from my stash.

As I was working on this quilt, I got to thinking about how we really are in a partnership with our materials. We will only gain so much control over them, no matter how much we practice. Sometimes it is not worth fighting. Sometimes if we step back and let the materials do what they want, we will be pleased with the results. Keeping this in mind, we should look for the same qualities in our materials that we look for in good partners. Things like quality, flexibility, and endurance. How about sparkle and wit? It helps if you share the same sensibilities. But it also helps if they challenge you to look at things in a new way.

On to number four. It is waiting to be quilted but I don't have the right thread. Number five is also challenging me because it needs to incorporate text. Stay tuned.

New Year's Resolution Quilts 1 & 2

I finished two bad luck quilts. The first one is called "If You Hand Someone Scissors, You Will Argue With Them Later". In my family, if someone needs a pair of scissors, you lay them on the table for them to pick up. It is bad luck to hand someone a pair of scissors. The background is foundation pieced. The scissors are needle turn applique. It is machine quilted. That bead in the middle of the scissors is actually a brad from the scrap book section. I punched a hole in the quilt and placed an eyelet there for the brad. This quilt is 100% from my stash. The big lesson I learned here is once you trim a quilt, you can't untrim it.

The second quilt is called, "Don't Spill the Salt". I think most people know that it is bad luck to spill salt. The background is hand pieced and the salt shaker is needle turn applique. The quilt is machine and hand quilted. And it is hand beaded. The big lesson I learned here is that you don't have to take things so literally. Actually, I think I may have known that. But I was reminded of that lesson in the quest for beads that look like salt. I had white beads that were too clear, or too big, or the wrong shape. I couldn't get them to work. I tried the pink beads just to see if they were the size I wanted, and really liked the effect. So I used them. There was no reason to use white beads. The only thing I bought for this quilt was the black thread for the salt shaker. The embroidery is too tiny for you to see how bad I am at french knots. I really like the back of this one. It has that whole "book of shadows" effect I was going for. Maybe I've seen one too many episodes of "Charmed".


On baby blanket front, I have 8 panels down and one to go. The only panel left is the center popcorn stitch panel. Yippee.

It's January 20th Already!!!

I haven't been doing much quilting because I've been working on the baby blanket. I have sort of a deadline now, and for some reason, January is slipping away quickly. Holy smokes, it's already the 20th! I have two panels done and I'm working on the third. It has 9 panels all together. This one is referred to as the bobble panel.

I don't find it as interesting to work as popcorn stitches or cables, so I'm anxious to get it done so I can move on to the more fun panels. Are you wondering why I'm crocheting a baby blanket instead of quilting one? I've been crocheting since I was about 8 or 9 years old. I've given away almost everything I've crocheted. I do have a few crochet pieces that I've kept, but that is just a big, flat way for me to store yarn. I often pull these pieces apart and make them into something else if I find an interesting pattern or stitch I want to try. When I was laid off a few years ago, I spent a lot of time unraveling and crocheting blankets in between looking for a job. Lynn Krawczyk recently posted a list of 10 reason why it is good to crochet when you have a head cold and I realized that a lot of those are the same reasons I crocheted when I was unemployed. Being laid off is a lot like being sick except you can't spend the day hopped up on cold medicine. What was the question again? Oh yeah, I crochet baby blankets as gifts because I've been making them a lot longer than I've been quilting. It's kind of my thing now. If Martha Stewart showed up at your dinner party with a liter of Coke, you'd be like, "What's up with that?" It's the same thing with me and crocheted baby blankets. And it's fast and fun. Not a lot of people crochet, so it also makes a unique gift.

I did get a little bit of sewing done this week. I did some needle turn applique on one of my bad luck quilts. Can you tell which superstition this one will be about?

I love needle turn applique. It makes me feel like anything is possible.

I'm Off To A Slow Start

I got some needle turn applique done today. That's about it quilt wise for the week. You would think that during a week where no one worked I would have gotten more done. But no, life kept me away from my sewing. It was somewhat distracting because all week I felt like I wanted to be in my studio but couldn't get in there. I don't want to be distracted from life by my creative drive. I value my work and my family. I don't want it to seem like I would rather be quilting when I need to be focused on them. I used to make a habit of working in my sketch book on days I couldn't get to sewing. I think I need to go back to that practice to keep everything in balance.

I also need to make my studio more kid friendly so my son can hang out in there while I'm working. Right now, it's not safe in there for my husband let alone my kid. He likes being in there, but I'm always worried he's going to step on a pin or pull the iron down on his head (my son, not my husband - although those are risks for him too). So I guess I'll add, "clean and baby proof the studio" to the list of things to do. That's something that would make all of us happy.