A Quilt Obsession

Monkeys!

2010-04-02T16:49:00.005-05:00

I'm a professional quilter! Kinda!

A friend of mine asked me if she could commission me to make a baby quilt for her friend. She would pay for the fabric and my time, and I would happily make a quilt.

About monkeys! This is the sweetest thing I've ever made. Take a look.

A rarity for me, I actually followed a pattern to make this. Kinda. The original pattern, found in this book, created by this designer, was too adorable to pass up. However, after consultation with my client (!!), it was decided that not all the squares needed to be monkeys. And, during the course of our ramblings at the fabric store, we decided it was best if all the sashing were the same fabric. So, tweaks were made.

Instead of nine monkeys on the quilt, there would be five squares of monkeys and four nine-patch squares. After a comment from my friend about wishing there were letters, in addition to the numbers from the pattern, quilted into the finished product, I decided the squares of the pieced blocks would make perfect places for the letters of the alphabet.

Also, I added a number and a banana applique in a fit of last-minute inspiration. (Read: Oh crap, I have to cover this up somehow without taking the whole quilt apart!) I think they bring an extra something to the quilt, don't you?

Finally, I'd like to leave you with this series, photographed when the monkeys were still under construction. This illustrates how the difference between us and ninjas truly isn't that great.

Monkey:

Ninjamonkey!

Back...for now

2010-03-04T21:35:00.004-06:00

**squeak squeak...

Get out the oil can, because my blogging mind is rusty. It's been so long, dear internet, with your cool anonymity and small sense of accomplishment. I've taken you for granted. Left you hanging, bereft of any stories I could give.

I blame facebook. And a promotion at work. And NaNoWriMo.

Life just gets in the way, sometimes. Sometimes i wonder, a lot lately, to tell the truth, if I don't try to spread myself too thing. Not that I have a lot of commitments to honor, but that I have a lot of passions in my life to pursue. I've begun to think that I'm spending a little bit of time here and there on a lot of them, but perhaps not mastering any. I feel guilty for taking time away from writing for quilting, but if I leave off quilting too much, I find my mind wandering back to it, unbidden. Too bad there are things like a job and a husband keeping me busy with the rest of my time, or I could devote myself to these other passions more completely.

Alas, I've grown quite accustomed to having an income. And I've grown pretty accustomed to have a husband in my life to distract me. I've tried meting out my time to all of these parts of my life in small portions, but I'm not a small portions kind of gal. I tend to take on most things in giant gulps, rather than small dainty sips. I delve in, immersing myself in something until I come up for a little bit of air. Maybe for now, instead of trying to aportion a part of my day or week to all of these things, I need to tackle them one at a time. So, for now, at least, I'm thinking of pursuing a NaNoWriMo mentality for all. This month, quilting. Next month, writing. Rinse repeat.

Before we delve into the caverns of what is being done now, I'd like to show off what I finished last year. Behold, the Lily Quilt. I shipped it off at the end of last year for a competition, one that I should be hearing back on any day now. The competition was based around a challenge fabric, and was meant to follow the them of memories. For me, the lily and its strong scent bring back memories of the first flowers my husband ever gave me when we were dating--stargazer lilies. These weren't your standard flowers. He had heard me talking about how much I loved them, and picked them out for just that purpose. When we were married, almost two years ago now, it had to be lilies that I carried in my bouquet.

The real challenge with this quilt wasn't putting into practice a newly acquired applique technique; it was using embroidery to the greatest effect in the center of the flowers and along the petals. In the process, I found the quilt top bunching underneath the weight of so many stitches, despite the stabilizer I used. The challenge came in quilting out the puckers and folds created in the process. In tend, I'm fairly pleased with the result!

Experiments

2009-08-12T10:08:00.002-05:00

The background is finished on the Lily Quilt, as is the fusing of the stabilizer and machine applique. Now all that stands between me and quilting bliss is the embroidery of those details that will make these lilies look like, well, lilies.

Before I went at the quilt with thread and a dream, I decided to do a test run to make sure I know that I'm achieving the results I want with my embroidery technique, and also that the stabilizer I'm using will be stable enough to keep the fabric from puckering. Out came the ugly fabric I know will never be used for any other purpose. Out came the scrap batting and stabilizer.

So it began. I did find a certain amount of fabric puckering did occur under the weight of all those stitches. What to do? I couldn't put too much more stabilizer under there, or I would find it hard to quilt later on. Maybe, just maybe, it would sort itself out when I quilted around it. I gave it a try.

Presto! It DID work itself out in the quilting. I did find that there were directions that the stitches could go in to ease the puckers out. But I feel I can go into the embroidery of the real deal without too much fear.

Here I go!

Lilies, Revised

2009-08-10T09:31:00.003-05:00

Last week, I put together the background and lilies for the big Lily Quilt. But, I wasn't happy with how the background was working with the lilies. So, off to the quilt shop (Darn!) I went to find some fabrics better suited for the background of the quilt. This past weekend I futzed around with the gorgeous batiks I found and the background to get a more pleasing look. I think I finally struck the balance I was looking for.

Originally, I was trying too hard to match the colors that I found in the background of the original photo. To fix the design of the quilt, I had to put away the photo and focus only on design, not making the quilt look like the photo. What? Me? Growing? Nah.

I also added an internal border to the quilt, which immediately added depth. By having the petals of the lilies overlap this border, it looks like they're popping right out of the quilt. Presto!

I've ironed on a stabilizer and done the machine stitching around the edges of the applique pieces. There are still miles to go before I sandwich this puppy together with some batting and call it a quilt. I need to do the embroidery around the edges of the petals, as well as where they intersect in the center to create some stamens and pollen.

But it's starting to take shape...

Lilies Tryout

2009-07-29T15:54:00.003-05:00

Every art quilter I've talked to heavily emphasizes how instrumental a design wall is to their process. The idea is that you need to be able to see your design up on a wall, take a step back, and look at it from a distance to truly view it as a whole, as a piece.

Once again, my limited space handicaps my design capabilities. There is neither wall space nor floor space to install a design wall. Here is my evolutionary adaptation to this difficulty: As part of the design process, I will photograph progress and put it up on my computer. That way, I can let it sink in over time, and the problem areas should begin to stick out at me.

Here's my first picture of progress on the Lilies quilt. Keep in mind that I will add details to the lilies, including some embroidery to show the pollen tube and stamen, as well as to distinguish the petals from one another.

The real question is, what do you think of the background? Anything jumping out at you? Do these pieces work together, or do any of them need to be changed?

Lillies!

2009-07-15T13:52:00.003-05:00

Last post, I wrote of a line drawing I had created to use as a pattern. I've posted the drawing here. So far, I have created the flower applique, and am in the process of figuring out the background.

The original photo I'm using for inspiration has some dirt and some leaves, so I'm thinking I'll use some browns and greens to piece together the background. In my mind they'll be curvy pieces, which means I'll be learning a new technique: piecing curvy lines! More on this later!

Quilter's ADHD

2009-07-14T16:24:00.003-05:00

I will try to keep my self-chastising to a minimum.

It has been too long since I have written here. Bad Megan!

There.

I’ve been suffering from a case of Quilter’s ADHD. I have grand designs and plans for half a dozen or more quilts. But, when it comes to carrying these out to completion, I find my mind wandering in its enthusiasm. All those little details that would enable me to carry out my design hound me with the possibilities. Self-doubt plagues me, and I hesitate.

For example. I picked up a quilt I began last year with the intent of entering it in the Quilters Treasure challenge. Last year, I changed course and submitted the Illuminated Grove quilt instead. This year, I picked it up with the intent of finishing it, now that I have some embroidery knowledge in hand. Still, I’m stuck on how best to represent the irises. I have some instruction on how to create them in the background and middle ground. But, there are some honkin irises that I want to put in the foreground and have yet to figure out the best way to do so.

In the meantime, I’ve been contemplating this year’s competition with Quilters Treasure, especially since I have the fabric for the challenge. I found a picture that inspired me greatly last week, and have since created a line drawing to make into a pattern. Last Friday, I found a blueprint shop nearby that was able to enlarge this drawing into a 30”X36” pattern. I feel like a whole new world has opened up for me, beyond the capabilities of the local Office Max.

Flying high off the ease with which I created this pattern, I cast aside last year’s quilt in favor of starting on this new quilt. Now, however, I have reached a snag with this quilt, and my mind is beginning to wander again.

Last week I found myself ordering a pattern for a whole other quilt online. Because I need to add more work to the queue! This isn’t just another project, either. Completing the project will involve learning a new quilting process all together.

I need a quilter’s intervention.

I need to focus on one project, weather the ups and downs, and finish it before moving on to the next. Otherwise, I will continue accumulating unfinished projects, which is something I have managed to avoid until now. So, for now, my goal is to finish the quilt for this year’s challenge competition. Then I can circle back and work on the one I began last year.

Future Quilts?

2009-06-08T18:00:00.002-05:00

I've been carrying my digital camera with me on my walks to the train station in the morning, and just about everywhere else. When you keep your eyes open, inspiration is everywhere. Like these locus trees on my morning walk. They're beautiful in their wildness. They don't follow the rules. Their branches grow here, there, wherever they please.

I love the moss and tiny branches sprouting out of the larger tree. This green is wild, beautiful green next to the luscious brown of the trunk. I can see this making a beautiful quilt.

Purple Coneflower

2009-06-07T09:40:00.005-05:00

I'm still catching up on unfinished quilts. This is one I picked up last weekend and finished during the week. The top was created during the International Quilt Festival in a class by Wendy Butler Burns on machine applique. I had already finished the top and fused it to Decor Bond, which is a stabilizer. The stabilizer is needed to keep the fabric from puckering up when you machine stitch over the seams. Last weekend, I did this machine stitching and discovered it's not as easy as I thought it would be to keep a steady line with a free-motion zig zag stitch. But, I soldiered on.

In retrospect, I think this quilt would have benefited from a border or two. However, I had a few roadblocks on that front. I didn't feel I had just the right fabric, for one. Mainly, though, adding a border would mean patching in more Decor Bond, and this was a process I had not done before. To put the binding on without a border, I didn't need to add any more of the stabilizer; so I took the easy way out. In the end, it's still pretty, and that's all I need.

There's something nice about knowing that the piece you're working on is not for anyone in particular, is not for a competition, and therefore will not be judged. This quilt was something that I could learn on, and something that I wanted to finish to please myself. I took this opportunity to experiment with some variegated silk threads I bought at the festival. They were even more luscious and beautiful than I thought they would be! Many of the threads turned out to be thicker than I anticipated, but the thicker thread creates a beauty of its own. I'm very happy with the way this quilt turned out!

Embroidered Landscape!

2009-06-06T15:54:00.004-05:00

Now that I have the baby quilts behind me for now (Stop procreating, people!), it's time to turn my attention to finishing some quilts that have been waiting patiently in line.

I turned to this task last weekend and realized that I have no fewer than half a dozen quilts in some stage of construction. They all need some love, and I'm tending to them each in turn.

Last weekend I paid some attention to this piece that I started at the International Quilt festival in April of this year. It was pretty well done. I just needed to trim it square, put a backing on it, stitch around the edges, and frame it. Done, done, done, and done!

The trees, leaves, grass, and flowers were all created using either a zig zag or straight stitch. You lower the feed dogs on the machine, put the pedal to the metal, and GO! The process is so liberating; it feels like you can do no wrong. You're not coloring inside the lines, you're making the lines. It's beautiful and freeing. Now I'm looking at thread in a whole other light; not as an accent to the picture, but as a means to create the picture. I think a new addiction has been born!

Moving On

2009-05-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

Here I am again--on the flip side of a project, with no deadlines in sight.

Almost.

In the mail this weekend, I received my prize booty from the Quilters Treasure challenge. It was some cotton batting and a yard of the challenge fabric for this year. The theme for the contest is "What Memories are Made Of."

Now I'm wracking my brain to think of what kind of quilt I could make out of these ingredients. Dangit! Their marketing schemes have worked on me!

I smell trouble...

Lucy Jane's Quilt, Finished and Delivered

2009-05-27T16:27:00.010-05:00

Another quilt down!

There's something about each quilt that touches me, and makes me feel like it's a little bit the best I've done so far.

Of course, with Lucy Jane's quilt, the first thing that I fell in love with was the monkeys.

But, there's more than just monkeys at play here. I used a thicker quilting thread than I ever had: size 20 cotton. It was trickier to work with, of course. It wanted to fray in my machine and around the needle, and it didn't work nicely with the bobbin thread I was using, which was considerably thinner. I really learned how to use my tension dial to my advantage, and worked the thread.

I gave the quilt away on Saturday, and got the chance to visit it in its new home on Sunday. Lucy's parents had washed the quilt, making it soft and supple. It was the first time that I really saw a quilt in context, and felt it as a blanket. It was beautiful. The monkeys are home.

Monkey Business!

2009-05-10T09:59:00.004-05:00

Normally, the backing of a quilt isn't that special. In the case of a quilt that is forever etched in my memory, the quilt backing turned out to be important only in that it foiled my quilting attempts. And, in the case of my niece's purple quilt, it was a beautiful piece of fabric that I wish I could use again and again.

Come to think of it, the quilt back can be special. Now, in the case of Charles's cousin's baby quilt (for Lucy Jane), I've fallen in love with the whimsy of the fabric. It's monkeys! Girl Monkeys! Aren't they adorable, floating around there with flowers in their hair, and against a purple background to boot! This is girlie in only the best sense of the word. I'm excited to give this quilt.

I'm also very pleased with how the yellow border works with the purple monkey fabric. The two fabrics complement each other so well, I'm a little frightened that I actually planned it this way.

Here are the monkeys, only closer up.

Quilting Studios, Quilting Corners

2009-04-29T09:47:00.007-05:00

A Case of Studio Envy

In my email inbox this morning, I found something from Quilting Arts, pushing their Summer Studios issue. Has it been a year already since I was last taunted with everyone else's abundance of space, reminded of my own inadequacy?

It's not that I begrudge everyone their space. Okay, it is exactly that. I can't help feeling flush with the green of envy when I see pictures of studios, with shelves and shelves of fabric stretching from floor to ceiling. Or the tables devoted to nothing but the sewing machine, or separate tables for nothing but cutting or ironing. It gives me pangs when I see a design wall. That's an entire wall, devoted to nothing but a large piece of felt or batting. I've never known such riches.

My husband and I live in a two-bedroom condo in the city. I don't have a studio, or even a room devoted to my quilting. I have a corner. The corner of our living room is where my quilt love is allowed to flourish. A whole corner. And I have a table that folds up or out from Ikea that serves as my sewing/cutting table and design wall. And also a dining table.

A weekend or two ago, I had the time and inclination to do something about my fabric storage issues. So I set out to reorganize my quilting corner. I reasoned that, if I only had the proper tools of organization, if I just shuffled my materials around a little more, I would have plenty of room for what I have, and room to grow on.

In the end, I made a better space for myself. I took down a shelf that previously held our DVDs and repurposed it for thread and fabric. I pulled an old set of shelves out of retirement for my quilting books, batting, scraps, and miscellaneous project bins. And, I reorganized the drawers inside my cabinet. So, I have a system of organizing fabric that makes sense by size. All in all, I think it looks better and more organized. Is it like the gorgeous studios that line the pages of Quilting Arts? No. But in the end, it's not too shabby.

Lucy Jane's Quilt

2009-04-26T19:32:00.003-05:00

...and so it begins.

I've played with Electronic Quilt, and come up with the final design of the quilt for Charles's cousin's new baby. Here it is, according to the software. I scanned in the fabrics to my computer (love this feature!), so it's a fairly good representation of what the finished product will look like.

So, tonight I will begin the long and tedious task of ironing these fabrics so that the real fun can begin!

Virtual Quilt Festival

2009-04-22T13:57:00.005-05:00

The task is: find your favorite quilt and post it on the Virtual Quilt Festival, on Park City Girl's blog. Click on this blog title to go see what all the fun is about.

The Wendy Quilt made it to the top of my list, simply because it's pretty, and it launched my quilting skills in so many directions. For the full story of the quilt, click here. Looking back a couple years later, I think this quilt gave me some confidence in my free-motion quilting ability that opened many, many doors. Now that's the part of the quilting process I look forward to most, regardless of the quilt. Working on the quilt also let me flex other creative muscles, and had me addicted to sun-printing. All of this discounts what could be the quilt's most significant attribute: it's purple.

Enjoy, and check out other groovy quilt blogs at the Virtual Quilt Festival.

Quilting Festival

2009-04-19T19:23:00.005-05:00

The International Quilt Festival in Chicago is over, and I'm recuperating. So is my wallet.

I was able to take quite a few classes this time around, and took away quite a bit. The first class was a day-long class from Wendy Butler Berns on a machine applique technique. To get our feet wet, we worked with one of her patterns: Captivating Coneflower.

The fabrics were our own that we brought in and arranged to finish out the design of the piece. I was surprised at how easy this technique really was. I have been living and working in fear of the dreaded applique, but in the end, this isn't that much harder than fusible applique. One of the things that I really liked about it was that there was no flipping of the design; we worked the entire time from the front of the fabric and the design. Edges were turned under, toward the back. This made it pretty easy to see how all the pieces fit together.

I was happy that I finished enough of the design to be able to transport it safely. All that is left to do on the quilt top is to add a dragonfly in the sky above the flower. This will be done with fusible, simply because the details are a little bit finer, making the process of turning seams under bulky and difficult. Then I can run a zig-zag stitch around the edges of each piece, and then it's ready to go.

One of the other classes I took was exceedingly fun. Bonnie Langenfeld taught a class on Saturday on creating a landscape with thread painting. It felt like there was no doing wrong with the stitching; it was so relaxed. It was very freeing, and already I'm addicted to the process and buying more luscious threads. A fiend has been created!

I actually finished the piece in class, too! This was a first for me, and many of my classmates.

Free-Motion Quilting...Loops?

2009-04-06T12:27:00.004-05:00

While I was working on the last quilt, I ran into problems with these loops showing up on the back side of the quilt. It seemed if I kept my stitches neat and smallish, the effect would be minimized, but I grew frustrated with their presence, and my inability to eliminate them. What to do?

Last Thursday night, I was flipping through a book by Katie Pasquini Masopust and found a side-bar note about the subject. She suggests threading the needle with the presser foot in the up position, otherwise you'll find these loops on the underside of your quilt. In all the possible things I could think of that I might be doing wrong, this did not occur to me. And to think, I found this solution very much on accident.

So, I have hope that the problem will be resolved with the next quilt.

Baby Quilt Finished, Hurray!

2009-04-03T15:27:00.012-05:00

Here it is, in all its glory: the baby quilt that was completed and given away last weekend. I really love how this turned out. The fabrics are all delicious and work perfectly together. And it looks exactly as Electronic Quilt said it would. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on which design I should use.

I was a little sad to see this quilt go!

I used strip-piecing to piece the top of the quilt. This means I sewed two long strips of fabric together, then cut perpendicular to the seam, creating smaller strips of two squares that were sewn together. Two sets of these strips were sewn together to create a 4-patch.

I've included some close-up pictures of the quilt so you can see the free-motion quilting lines. You can also see the fun navy fabric with the wacky flowers and random eyeballs. (Or olives? You decide.)

And here's the payoff at the end: the patch that says "I made this!" Also, check out the flowers on the back side of the quilt!

Contest Winner!

2009-03-15T20:49:00.003-05:00

My quilt, Illuminated Grove, won a prize in the Quilters Treasure Fabric Challenge. As a result, the quilt will be touring with the company and the other prize winners of the competition. It will be on display for all to see. Eventually, I think it will be on the Quilters Treasure Web site.

I am definitely jazzed about all this. I cannot believe I won something with my first contest entry! A lot of times, it seems so easy to doubt yourself, to wonder if you really are good at what you do. When something like this happens, it validates the hard work and taking myself seriously. I will be flying off of this for a while yet.

Electric Quilt, Decisions

2009-02-19T21:26:00.006-06:00

Playing With Design

Thanks to the wonders of EQ software, I have scanned the fabrics for the baby quilt into the computer and uploaded them to the design software.

Bammo! I'm on my way. Now, if I could only choose between the thirty-five permutations of the same design. I think I have it narrowed down to one of two designs:

Help!!! I gravitate toward one, because of my own prejudices toward color. But that doesn't mean it's baby-appropriate. Keep in mind, though, that I'm making a larger quilt so it can stay with the kid longer than just being a baby. I'm so torn!

Tell me what you think!

Focus

2009-02-18T17:10:00.002-06:00

Here it is: My Achilles Heel.

My eyes are too big for my stomach. Literally and figuratively. For now, let's focus on the figurative.

Outside of my day job, I am a writer. I am a quilter. And I am beginning to see myself as an artist. Right now, all of these are dreams competing for my attention. Since I do have the aforementioned day job, which in a good week takes up 40-50 hours of my time, it doesn't seem like I have enough hours in the day for all my dreams.

So one of them has to take a backseat.

Unfortunately, I think that has to be the quilting.

The dream on the writing front is to revise my novel, get it published, and somehow magically become a full-time writer. My reasoning goes that this is a shorter, more certain road, than making a living off my quilting. But, when the day does come that I set my own schedule, am my own boss, I should have more flexibility for working my quilting into my life in a big way.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to stop cold turkey. I'm not even planning to stop, period. I just think that I need to downgrade the quilting to hobby for now, with fewer competition goals, less time set aside for quilting. Rather than spend time on the quilting every day, I am going to start spending time on the writing every day, setting the quilting aside for weekend fun.

In the meantime, I'm setting the artichoke quilt aside for now. Almost. I'm going to try to get to a good stopping place this weekend, then set it aside. I will then turn my attention to the baby quilt, due to a shower at the end of March.

Ladies and Gentlemen...an Artichoke?

2009-01-31T23:33:00.004-06:00

During the design class I took at the Quilting Expo in November, I had occasion to observe another person's source of inspiration, or one of them. The teacher had a file of pictures she had clipped from magazines that she thought might make a good design, either for the subject of a quilt or the design of quilting lines. Since then, I have started my own picture file, for those occasions when I find myself in need of some inspiration.

A new quilting challenge had me going back to this file to find inspiration for a quilt of fruit, veggies, or flowers. I pulled a few pictures of flowers, one or two of some fruit, and this one of an artichoke. I started to play with the picture of the artichoke, tracing its lines and daydreaming about fabric. In so doing, I found myself entranced. At the beginning of this process, I doubted I would find a fruit or vegetable to inspire a quilt. Maybe, maybe, I could find some flowers that wouldn't be trite. But now, here I was, falling in love with the artichoke.

Over the last couple weeks, I've scanned it in, converted it to black and white, and made a template of it. All along the way, the artichoke kept getting prettier and prettier. Let's hope the same can be said of the quilt.

It's a Tough Job...

2009-01-31T22:54:00.008-06:00

...but somebody's gotta do it!

Today I went through the agonizing process of going to a quilting store and choosing fabric for some upcoming projects. (Check the store out at www.quiltology.com.) This brutal process involves passing through rows of quilting fabric, looking for fabrics to catch my eye, auditioning them against one another to see if they fit. I have to pull the fabric off the shelf, touch it, look at the pretty colors...

It's agony, but I am willing to suffer for my art.

What projects looming on the horizon inspired such a visit? Well, there's the artichoke quilt that I'm doing for a competition (more on that later), and also the quilt for a dear friend's baby shower. She's due at the end of April with a baby girl, and the shower is at the end of March. So, not a ton of time to finish said quilt, but enough. Enough.

In the end, I decided on some fabrics for the baby quilt to complement the decor of the baby's room now, but have enough variety in the color scheme to accomodate any change in decor. Hopefully this quilt will be something the kid has for a long time.

These fabrics seems whimsical, but not childish. Exactly what I was looking for. I've scanned them in and started playing with them in my EQ software. So far, I'm loving just about every configuration of them. More play...more hard decisions.

'Tis the life of a quilt addict.

New Projects Abound

2009-01-29T17:17:00.006-06:00

Since finishing the Illuminated Grove quilt, I found myself a little out of sorts with the quilting projects. There were no particular projects looming on the horizon. Sure, I had vague notions of finishing another quilt I started in classes in November, or the original quilt I started for the competition. But, there was no real impetus.

Have I mentioned that I work better under a deadline?

So it was that I found myself, at the beginning of this month, dumping out all my scraps to do . . . SOMETHING . . . with. But what?

First, I found that these scraps would need sorting. Some of them were long and thin, and would be ideal for weaving. Some of them were large enough to be pieced into another quilt someday. Perhaps a crazy quilt? And some, oh some were tiny and gorgeous. They couldn't be salvaged as pieces of anything; there wasn't enough room for even a basic seam allowance. These scraps I decided would be great for some fabric collage.

The problem with this process was that, by the time I made it through the sorting, I was exhausted. My lofty ambitions of finding something to do with all of my scraps were dashed. But, over the course of the next week, I assembled some collage sandwiches. Here's the process:

1. Pull out some water-soluble stabilizer. Place a layer a little bigger than the collage you want to make on the table.

2. Place scrappy bits of fabric on top of stabilizer. These bits can include small pieces of fabric, yarn, thread, etc. I like to collect the tangled mess of unraveled fabric that gets cut off quilt fabric when it comes out of the dryer. I suppose you could throw in the dryer lint, too, if that made you happy. Personally, I don't like the look of it. Anyway, arrange these happy scraps in a way that pleases you. I like to add some Angelina fibers to the top for a shiny look, if it seems appropriate.

3. Unless it's the look you're going for, make sure that you don't see any table showing through the middle of your collage to avoid holes in the collage.

4. Cover with another layer of stabilizer and pin the heck out of the sandwich. (You can see some of the pictures of collage sandwiches I have yet to complete.)

5. Go to your sewing machine and free-motion stitch the heck out of the sandwich. You want to keep the stitching very close together and all over; these stitches are what's going to end up holding the collage together.

6. Once you've finished stitching, go to your sink and rinse out the stabilizer. Lay flat to dry.

These are some of the collages I did finish. In the meantime, projects have arisen. More on that later!

2009-01-17T11:40:00.005-06:00

Kitchen Antics
Starring Charles and Roxy

In case you haven't met my puppy, that's her there, all curled up on her bed. She looks all cute and adorable and calm when she's asleep. This is not a story about her being cute and adorable and sedate. This is a story about how she's psychic.

She has the amazing ability to intuit when you are getting ready to take her out for a walk. Somehow, she knows the difference between when you are putting on pants and shoes to go somewhere, and when you are putting on pants and shoes to take her outside. When the occasion arises that you're taking her outside, she gets all worked up and prancey. This behavior can annoy Charles, as he's trying to move around the condo, putting on the aforementioned shoes or getting a poop bag or putting his coat on. To be fair, the general pranciness of the dog can get in the way of maneuvering around what I shall refer to as the cozy space of our condo. (Read: small.)

A few nights ago, Charles found himself facing a particularly prancey Roxy. She was prancing around in circles around him in the kitchen, as he was making his way to the back door of the condo. So, as is customary in our little family, he talked back to the dog.

"God, you're annoying, Dog! How would you like it if I did the same thing to you?"

And then, (I am not kidding), Charles began to prance in circles around Roxy. Roxy looked up at him with adoration. Well, Roxy always looks at Charles with adoration. But, mixed in with the adoration and love was a sense of bewilderment and happiness. She was thrilled to be getting attention back from him! She DID like it when he did the same thing to her that she did to him.

Perhaps Charles sensed that he wasn't really proving anything to our dog. Perhaps he got tired of running around in circles. Either way, or as I suspect, with a mixture of both, Charles pulled out of his prance-circle and leaned up against the refrigerator. His eyes got all wide and he threw his arms out to the side in a gesture that clearly signified that he was battling a serious case of dizziness. "Woah!" he said.

The man, in an effort to prove a point to the dog, made himself so dizzy he could barely stand.

There was some panting (both his and the dog's). And there was some serious laughter (mine).

The End

Catching Up: Christmas Tongue and Drawings Done

2009-01-16T23:43:00.001-06:00

So, about catching up on my blog...

Here are some items I've been meaning to address.

Charles and the Green Tongue

Sorry ladies, this handsome commodity is taken. And I'm the lucky lady that gets to call him mine! This, my friends, is what you get when you put my husband in the same house with six or more dozen holly cookies.

For those few who may not know what these are, they're kind of like Rice Krispy Treats. Only they're made with Frosted Flakes instead of Rice Krispies. And they're dyed green. And they're dropped on a cookie sheet to create a small ball-like shape. And Red Hots are placed in the middle to look like the holly berries.

Regardless of how they're made, the end result of eating at least one entire batch in one night is a condition I like to call greenicus tongicus. Or verdilingus for our sophisticated friends. Sadly, it's an affliction that is brought on by oneself, and your only recourse is to wait it out.

Pretty Dead Tree

No, that's not a tree that's pretty dead. It IS dead. I just thought it was pretty, too. Maybe someday this will show up in one of my quilts.

This tree lives outside the house (not the one in the picture) where my brother and his family live. We stayed with them on our trip back home for Christmas. It was surprisingly calm, considering the 1-year-old and 3-year-old running around the house at Christmastime. It was a wonderful stay. Our puppy Roxy had so much fun romping around in their ginormous backyard. To be off a leash, and able to run so far at one time really does her good. Ah, how I'm sure she longs for the times when we had a backyard of our very own. Somehow, the courtyard of our condo building now doesn't quite compare.

Drawings Done

The last several weeks of my drawing class were focused on drawing the nude figure, which was a great learning experience. However, it wasn't so great for putting my drawings on the refrigerator or showing off on the Internets. However, there are two that I feel safe sharing. This first one was the result of a flaky model who didn't show for our class session. Instead, our teacher was the model, with clothes on! This was an interesting experience, all the same, because our teacher was pregnant at the time, so it was a change of pace in terms of the figure we were drawing. It brought a whole new dynamic to foreshortening.

Finally, this next drawing is definitely the most modest of the nude figure drawings I did, due to the pose the model chose. So, it's more appropriate for posting. I also love the lines in the figure. I have to say, I think that this is my favorite figure drawing so far. How appropriate that it was done on the last day of class!

Illuminated Grove, Finished

2009-01-16T21:03:00.016-06:00

These are the finished pictures of the Illuminated Grove quilt. They're pretty similar to those I posted before, only now they have the benefit of the quilting lines. This is the big payoff, I think. It's one of the best parts of the whole process. It's as though the work that you put into piecing the top together all pays off at this stage. Lowering those feed dogs and watching the lines appear under your needle is what keeps me going through the end of a project.

I really had fun with the thread in this project. I bought a ton of it to use, which kind of defeated the purpose of using scraps up in this quilt. As did the other yards of fabric I bought to complement my scraps in this quilt. Ha! But, the threads will come in handy on other projects, I'm sure. And what fun it was to use them to pop with all the different and luscious colors of this quilt.

At the bottom of this post is a picture of the whole quilt. Those legs at the bottom are not the quilt's primary mode of transportation; they belong to my niece. She was doing the honors of holding the quilt up to be photographed.

...And She Lay There, Like a Slug

2009-01-16T20:10:00.009-06:00

...Night after night, transfixed by the shimmering, blinking light from the television.

I've been spending way too much time in front of the television. Thing is, I can feel my will to do anything being sucked out through my eyeballs, as I stare at this strange machine that somehow has power over me. There is a list of things I should be doing, rather than rotting on my couch in front of this beast. Here's part of it:

- Getting some exercise. Fresh air in these blindingly cold temps is sort of out of the question, but exercise isn't, thanks to those cardio videos I bought recently for just that purpose.
- Compiling the files for the first draft of my novel so I can get it printed. Once it's printed, I can start reading through it and making notes for revision.
- Making my way through my scraps pile of fabric. I pulled it all out and laid it on my crafting table to see what could be made of them. I've started some fabric collage pieces, and have some intentions for weaving long strips together. Now I have it in my mind that I need to deal with these goals before moving on to other quilts.
- Reorganizing my fabric storage system. This seems to be something that always needs attention. But now, as I have embarked on a few projects and a few classes with the intent of using my stash, I have dozens and dozens of fabrics that need to be put away, but haven't been due to this need for a better system of organization.
- Writing to friends who don't live nearby.
- Writing in my journal.
- Reading one of the three books I have started.

These things and more have been thwarted by my love affair with the television. Though, maybe it's more fatal attraction than love affair.

So it is that I have decided to end the cycle. I intend to break free! This weekend, I have vowed to go the entire 2.5 days (to account for Friday night) television free. Except for maybe the afor-mentioned workout video. That's right. I'm taking a stand. It's time. To fight. For my right. To BRAIN CELLS. So, take that pantheon of technology and programming designed to suck me in. Take that nexus of mediocrity and sloth. I don't need you.

You'll see.

Quilt Challenge, Take 2

2008-12-19T16:21:00.019-06:00

So friends, here's the story of "Illuminated Grove." As you know, I was all set to submit a landscape quilt for the quilt challenge. Well, "all set" may just be an exaggeration. I had about 1/3 of the quilt top designed, before going to the quilting festival in November. On the last day, I took a class on design in making a block by looking at a piece of a picture, especially close up. I found this gorgeous picture of trees in a grove, with light streaming in. I fell in love.

So then I started creating 10" X 12" blocks, each one representing a portion of the whole. My vision was that each block would be in a different color, producing a gradation of colors to show how the light progressed from the top left to bottom right. My other thought was that I was going to use all fabrics in my stash, and not go out and buy more.

There were a few adjustments to these goals in the end. One of them being that I ended up sneaking a little bit of an adjacent color into each block, in the hopes that they would show continuity of design. Once I realized that I was having much more fun with this design than the one I was planning to submit to the competition, I decided to finish this as the quilt I would submit to the competition at the end of December. Suddenly this quilt of exploration became something more important. I wasn't just doing it for myself, I was doing it for a purpose.

Of course, this meant buying more fabric.

It also meant creating a second purple block, to incorporate the challenge fabric. Here are the original blocks:

You can see the challenge fabric in the purple block at bottom left; it's the marbled fabric used for the tree trunks. The design process went along happily, and before I knew it, the blocks were done. Then there was the small matter of putting them all together and finding some way to quilt them. I knew that I wanted to keep the blocks separated by some sashing. I tried a few fabrics between the blocks, but only this beautiful black would do. Here's how it looked, as I auditioned the black fabric as the sashing:

Originally, I meant to piece the blocks in with the sashing and borders. But then, as the blocks came together, I realized that the seam allowance would eat key design elements. Thus, I needed to find a way to float them on top of a background fabric long enough for them to be quilted in. I didn't want to add more fusible to the thickness of the blocks, but in the end I would pay for not doing so. Everything else that I tried was only marginally successful at tacking down the blocks to the background fabric long enough to quilt. As with every project, I learned something in the process.

But, in the end, all worked out almost as planned. I'll post soon with pictures of the final piece.

White Christmas

2008-12-19T15:58:00.008-06:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today was the first snow day of the year, in the true sense of the word. A nasty winter storm blew through Chicago last night and into this morning. I got to work from home with Puppy by my side. I took her out this morning for a walk, and these are the pictures I took:

Pictures, Glorious Pictures

2008-12-19T15:15:00.004-06:00

I've been promising pictures for ages now, but been distracted by silly little things like a killer workload and actual work on that quilt deadline (December 31). So, here we go.

This here is a drawing I did a couple months ago in class. We have done all kinds of other things since this drawing, and I've been pleased with many of them. But this drawing is the one that's lived on my fridge.

It was created using charcoal on grey paper, so it was more an exercise in adding dark and light tones to a medium tone, which was the paper.

Now in class we're doing figure drawing. I don't think I'll be posting any of those drawings, though. I feel like I'm learning loads from this class. I'm starting to see what I've learned with this class apply to my quilting. I'm more conscious of shading and more confidant in my ability to just sketch out an idea. Sadly, my last class of the session is this weekend. I'm planning to take a break from classes next term, but will make a concerted effort to continue practicing until the next session of classes comes around.

I won!

2008-11-29T23:43:00.003-06:00

With one day to spare, I won NaNoWriMo!

That's right, friends! That's 52,127 words, and I've sailed past the finish line. The best thing of all was writing that last line, the line that has been in my head for YEARS. I finally got to the end of my story, and I was able to write them.

Check out my nifty winner's badge on the left.

I'll be back this coming week with pictures of quilting progress. In the midst of all of this, the NaNoWriMo-ing, the Thanksgiving with parents hosting duties, I have managed to make some progress on the quilt I started during the festival two weeks ago.

Awesome. In a creative groove, and signing off for now...

Quilter, Reborn

2008-11-17T15:40:00.005-06:00

Recharged and Reaffirmed, the Quilt Obsession Continues

Doubts and dread on the quilting process have plagued me since the great fiasco at the end of last year and beginning of this year. It was such a harrowing few months that my faith and interest and love of quilting was shaken. Then there was our wedding, which provided me with plenty of excuses not to dive back into the fray.

A few months ago, I decided to get my feet wet again with a quilt for a competition that's due in December. I agonized over fabric choices, hitting every quilt store that I came across--in three different states! I got these fabrics home, washed them, ironed them. And then plodded through the actual steps of constructing the quilt design. I just wasn't into it. I was still feeling the scars from my quilting misadventures. The deadline began to loom, and I began to detach myself. It just wasn't exciting.

And then.

And THEN.

Then came the Greater Chicago Quilt Festival, this past weekend.

I spent three days solid in classes for various parts of the process: technique, design, and free-motion quilting work. I came home a little smarter and a lot braver. I'm pumped and ready to go, filled to the brim with ideas for quilts and projects.

The most radical idea that has come to fruition is this: I'm putting aside the landscape quilt for the competition. Instead, I'm going to work the competition fabric into one of the quilts I started in class this weekend. I'm really excited about this design; it's stretching my abilities and my mindset in terms of creating a design. With only a few short (and busy) weeks between now and the quilt deadline, I need the boost that this excitement will provide.

I'll still return to the landscape. But I'll return with a different perspective, and a much healthier attitude.

I'm BACK!

November Again

2008-11-05T12:07:00.003-06:00

It's that time of year, folks. The days are getting shorter, the sun is fleeing in retreat, and the leaves are turning brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. I relish the drive to work, down a tree-lined street filled with these vibrant fall colors. And, now that daylight savings time has come to an end, my trek home is no longer a battle with the sun. (The sun, my friends, always wins. Always.)

November also means two things, if you're a Megan:

1. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an endeavor that I am undertaking once again this year. That's right: 50,000 words, 30 days. I'm also bound and determined to make it to some of the local NaNoWriMo events this year, including parties and gatherings to crank out some of the aforementioned prolific prose.

2. The deadline for my quilt competition draws ever nearer. My quilt has to be in their hot hands no later than Dec 31, which means that I need to be sending it in the beginning of December to ensure victory. With the project only marginally underway, this means that I will be cranking up the production on this quilt through the month of November.

Meanwhile, the drawing class keeps on keeping on, homework and all. Every Sunday I trek over to the art studio and imbibe as much artistic instruction and knowledge as I can. We're starting on figure drawing this week, which is sure to be both difficult and interesting. I feel like I'm gaining a lot from this class, and am looking forward to taking more classes in the future.

So, the tasks before me this November are to write a novel, finish a quilt, keep up with drawing, and did I mention host my parents at our place for Thanksgiving? It's a busy month, but that's what makes it interesting. Looking ahead at the calendar, which already is filled with scribbled obligations and goals, I can't help feeling a sense of excitement and anticipation for the challenges ahead.

Zen and the Art of Ironing

2008-10-10T13:48:00.004-05:00

My least favorite task in any quilt project is ironing. I hate it. I mean, I hate it.

I dream of a day when I have gobs and gobs of money. The first thing I'll do is hire myself a minion--someone to do my ironing for me. And maybe, chop my vegetables when I'm cooking. But that's a different matter. For now, my complaint is with the seemingly inordinate amount of time I am required to sit or stand at the ironing board, passing the iron back and forth before me.

As I write this, I'm reminded of Tillie Olsen's story, all of which takes place in front of an ironing board. A mother contemplates her relationship with her daughter.

There's something about ironing that brings on meditation of some nature or other. Maybe it's the repetitive motion of the iron moving back and forth or the slow, slow, slow progress that's made. Perhaps it has something to do with the painstaking attention to detail the task requires. But rogue thoughts of things that need to be done or what's on television fall way. All that is left is the iron and the fabric.

Back and forth, back and forth the iron goes, smoothing it's way along the fabric that the laundry machine mangled. There is a certain amount of satisfaction that you get from seeing the wrinkles disappear. That's the work of the iron warrior, even though the work does not feel like waging war. It is peaceful, if not boring. But again, the repetitive and simple nature of the task smoothes the way for quiet contemplation, even meditation.

Staring at the fabric in front of me as I vanquish wrinkles from it, I am allowed time to consider its colors, its patterns, its texture. I get closer to it and understand it more than when I played with it in the fabric store. The colors speak to me and I contemplate how their pattern and scale will fit in with the overall design. How will these fabrics fit together? What role will they play?

Maybe, in this way, the act of ironing is more than just a means to an end. Perhaps it's a crucial step in the creative process--this, the least creative act in the process.

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

2008-09-25T10:24:00.008-05:00

The painting class ended, and now I'm taking a longer class in Beginning Drawing. I'm hoping that the skills that I'm learning in the class can transfer to what I'm doing with my quilts. What I want is to feel like I'm not so limited in what I can create. Yes, I love trees. Yes, I love a good landscape. But, I don't know that I want my message to be limited by the things I can draw. So it is that I'm working on still lifes in my drawing class. Here are some of the things I've done so far:

On the first day of class we did some gesture drawings, which means that you work really fast, and use sweeping movements to create a picture of what you're looking at. It's meant to be a warmup for the main drawing, but I find it's a good way for me to get out of my own head and put lines to paper. In the end, it's not as scary as I make it out to be.

Along the same lines, we did some mass drawings, which were similar, but you used the whole piece of charcoal to create areas of shading and fill in between the lines. But, it was still a fast drawing, with not much time for second-guessing, and no time for erasing. I was surprised at how liberated I was by the process.

On the first day we also did some contour line drawings, in which you draw with one continuous line--without picking up your charcoal. It makes for an interesting look. Especially when you're then asked to do it without looking at your paper (blind contour). The first of these pictures was a contour drawing, the second a blind one. Isn't it pretty?

Finally, I'll leave you with some drawings from the second day of class, where we spent an hour (rather than 2-4 minutes) on each drawing. Our focus was different materials: metal, wood, and glass.

Progress, I think

2008-09-25T10:00:00.013-05:00

Last we checked in with our quilting hero, she was traveling the states to different quilt shops in search of the right fabrics for her competition project. First, a little more about the competition.

The parameters for entries were threefold; the quilt has to address the theme of the competition, "What makes life good"; the quilt has to be within a certain size range; the quilt must incorporate a noticeable portion of a certain fabric, the "challenge fabric." I have settled on a landscape, inspired by a photograph I found taken in Alaska in June. It's beautiful, and the colors are luscious. Which is what makes the fabric selection process so important, and so excruciating.

After countless visits to quilt shops, I have come to terms with the fact that I have all the fabric I can buy for this project. That doesn't mean, however, that I have all the fabric I need. So, on Saturday, I set out to create some. I used some of my sun paint, but just didn't create a heliograph pattern with any objects. My first goal was to get the right shade of blue for the sky. I was looking for something so subtle you barely noticed it as blue. Here's what I came up with:

Mission completely accomplished! You don't even know that it's blue, do you? Okay, take a look at the fabric next to some that is still white (white fabric on the right):

Subtlety accomplished! It may be too subtle, but we'll just have to go with that.

Next, I wanted to create the right color of magenta, in all the shades that I would need to portray the flowers in the landscape. It was important to have dark and light values, to create the subtle variations in shading on the petals. Here's how it turned out:

I think I got the color I was looking for spot on. In the end, the variations in shading in the fabric may or may not help me; I may end up going back in and painting on some of the shading onto the bigger petals.

But, I have some of the mixed paint in reserve, so that shouldn't be a problem.

And now I've reached the point in the process where ironing must happen in order to forge ahead. And then, the decisions and creating can really begin! Until then...

The Shopping, errr Creating Process

2008-08-25T09:46:00.002-05:00

Okay kids. The project in the works right now is one that I hope to enter in a competition this year. The deadline is December 31, so I have a few months to make this happen.

The competition is one that involves a theme and a challenge fabric, which means that there is one fabric that I am required to use; I can use any number of other fabrics with it. So, I've chosen a picture for inspiration, and off I've gone!

The more I contemplate this goal, the more I think about how to actually achieve it, the more I realize that I'm embarking on a journey that will, at the very least, expand my comfort zone and push me to another level. My bag of tricks is getting bigger as we speak.

In the meantime, I'm still in the planning stages, where I'm trying to find the pieces of the puzzle that I'll need to bring the picture together. This weekend, I was in Baltimore for a wedding, and took the opportunity to scope out a few quilt shops in Maryland. On this adventure, it struck me how organic and nonlinear the creative process is. All it takes is looking differently at one thing, before doors are opened, and you've changed the scope of your search.

Case in point: I was struggling with how I was going to depict the grass in the foreground of this particular picture. One of the things I love about the scene is that the perspective creates a huge contrast between foreground grass and background grass. This grass in the foreground is long, straight, and very defined. I was finding it impossible to find grass like this anywhere...or even a pattern that would double for it. But then, I looked over at a fabric this weekend with fern leaves and butterflies, and saw it. The pattern I was looking for all along, in leaves, not grass. Now I'm looking all over for fern leaves that are not ridden with butterflies.

It's like that with everything...you never know where you'll end up, but sometimes I think finding your way there is the most fun. And a key component to the creative process.

She's Baaaaaaaack!

2008-07-14T09:04:00.002-05:00

Your favorite burgeoning quilter has returned from the wedding and the honeymoon...both wonderful. I'll be posting pics of the honeymoon on the honeymoon registry blog soon. (When I say soon, I mean within the next two weeks, I'm hoping to do this.) The site address, just in case: www.honeymooninmexico.blogspot.com

I've been having a bit of a hard time getting back in the quilting swing of things, so to jump start my imagination and hopefully take my design/quilting skills to the next level, I've enrolled in a painting class at a local arts center. I had my first class yesterday, and it went pretty well. So far, we haven't made an actual picture...yet. But, we experimented with value, shading, color...the works. And already, my quilting brain is turning around, finding a way to apply what I'm learning in this class to the projects to come.

So, boys and girls, stay tuned. I'm getting back in the saddle, back on track, and back to quilting!

New Projects?

2008-04-21T18:54:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I confess to falling victim to something I would like to term as "Wedding Brain." It seems as though, no matter how small and simple a wedding you want, there are still zillions of tiny details that are involved. The closer we get to the actual day, the more there seems to do. But, through the mires of RSVP cards and ceremony details glimmers a beacon of the quilter within.

I have been half-heartedly playing at the quilting game. I started a v. small wall quilt for a friend of mine who has been jokingly requesting one for a year now. I have yet to put the pieces together and make this a quilt.

Next up is a quilt that I had meant for somebody, but is being instead repurposed for Charles and I. I had already bought all the fabric, so may as well do it. However, the fabric in question is slicky, and shifts very easily. This makes it a nightmare to work with, so I'm taking it slowly. Very slowly.

Finally, I want to use up a lot of the fabric that I have in my stash. I've been trying to think of what sort of quilt I want to work on with this material. Then I was inspired by television. I kid you not.

I was watching this episode of Ace of Cakes, where a girl visited the bakery and helped work on a cake as her wish for the Make a Wish foundation. The whole episode was pretty inspiring in terms of the power art and creativity can have for those who are facing serious illness or obstacles in their life. Then I remembered the Project Linus chapter I had contacted earlier this year.

Project Linus is an organization that gives homemade blankets (quilted, knitted, crocheted, doesn't matter) to children who are in traumatic situations, like in an abuse shelter or a hospital. The idea is that the kids, while stuck in a very sterile environment that isn't homey, get to have something that someone made for them. It's a morale booster, and from what I've read, it makes a big difference in these kids' lives. Check out their website: www.projectlinus.org

So, fast forward to me sitting on my couch, watching Duff Goldman make a difference in this little girl's life through cakes. I became inspired, and now have the seedlings of a design for the next great quilt adventure.

And, don't worry, I have another surprise or two up my sleeve. If only this pesky wedding could take the backseat!

Grandma's Quilt is Done!

2008-03-19T22:34:00.013-05:00

And here are the pics to prove it! Pic #1 is the whole quilt in one shot.

It all started here, with the center panel of the quilt. Look close enough and you'll see a little scene with pagodas and cute little paths and bridges. You can see the quilting stitches in this pic. Since I started quilting with this part of the quilt, the stitching here is at its most dense.

Here's a little bit wider of a view, with the center panel and levels of fabric surrounding it. I'm really happy with the fabrics I found for this quilt. They were so wonderful to work with, and exactly the perfect ones for the quilt giftee.

Speaking of those beautiful fabrics, check out these:

I bought them at a quilt festival in November. I spent quilt a lot of time with these fabrics, even before I started stitching. I tried out the fabrics against each other to figure out what would be the best configuration to piece the quilt top. This quilt was a good lesson in the fact that you can never really buy too much fabric, but you can buy too little. I thought I bought plenty of fabric at the festival, but once I started piecing, it turned out that I still needed more to fill out the design.

Now check out this dragon fabric. It is gorgeous, and I think it was my favorite of the whole quilt. It works so well next to the red and green tree fabric.

The green fabric I used pulled a lot of the fabrics together, and the gold flecks in it were perfect against the bamboo fabric. This pic is a perfect showcase of all that stitching that drove me crazy with this quilt.

Speaking of that bamboo fabric, now we've made it out to the edges of the quilt. I love this bamboo fabric. Also note the binding at the edge of the quilt...it was stitched on by hand; I still have the remnants of calluses to prove it. I love the way these bindings turn out, but they are the one bit of the project that must be finished by hand.

Finally, we're at the end of our quilt story.

And the big moment...

A happy Grandma!

Catching Up

2008-03-12T14:45:00.003-05:00

So, another quilt finished. The quilt for Charles's grandma was completed and handed off last week. It was only a couple months late...

Finishing this quilt brought so many emotions to the surface. Chief among them is relief. I feel as though this project, more than any other in my brief history as a quilter, held me hostage. So much went wrong, I had such a short time-frame, and the knowledge that I had missed the deadline for the first time ever was tough. Even more devastating was the problems I had in actually quilting the piece, the most ambitious quilting job I have tackled yet. I definitely bit off more than I could chew, and was heartbroken when it yielded results I didn't like.

I took a break from the quilt after Christmas, and the break had a mind of itself. Time stretched on, and I was stuck. I wanted to be quilting, but I couldn't move on to another project, and I had to screw up the courage to finish this one. It was the hardest thing I've done as a quilter to dive back in, not once, but twice, into working on this quilt.

In the end, of course, the quilt was beautiful. But, by the time I finished quilting the dang thing, there was little more to feel than relief. And now that it's completely finished and I have no projects on my immediate agenda, I feel free. Free to dream, free to play. And free to know that for now, and for a long time to come, there are no big humongoid quilts to finish.

So, now is the time for rest and for posting photos. I have some pics of the Christmas Inchies I made at the end of the year, and a ton of pics of the Grandma quilt. I will be posting them shortly.

For now, peace.

ARRRRRHGHHHHHH!

2008-01-16T13:10:00.000-06:00

Something that I'm doing is not right.

Something that I'm doing is leading me down a road without an option of reverse. It's screwing up the entire backside of the Grandma quilt, and I feel like there's nothing I can do about it.

Here's what's happening. As I quilt, the backing fabric is bunching up and getting sewn in puckers and grossness. Everything looks great from the front, but the back is worse for the wear. My concern is that it's not going to feel comfy to sleep underneath, and it's going to wash poorly. Really, when I think about it hard enough, the problem is that it's very NOT perfect.

When quilting in general, I think there's a certain amount of imperfection that I have come to accept as part of the craft. If you want something perfect, you would get something from the store. I am making hand-crafted love via cloth, and that means that some things are going to be uneven, and it will never be perfect. But, I also expect everything I do to be pretty. This, what's happening on the back of this quilt, is NOT pretty.

I was having this problem before I stopped working on the quilt, but thought I had localized the damage and could start over. In the end, I would just make the damaged portion of the back the spot where I put the quilt label. But now. But now.

Last night I started quilting on the other side of the quilt, thinking it would be a fresh start. A fresh chance to get it right and keep things straight. NOPE. It started again. More bunching. More creating folds and creases that would carry out and out and out in the quilt. At this point, I'm too far in to start over. There are 1500 yards of thread stitched into this quilt, so it's really irreversible. I have to either accept it or trash the whole thing. And, after the zillions of hours and hundreds upon hundreds of dollars I've invested, trashing it is an unthinkable option.

I just need a quilt fairy to come down and tell me what the hell I'm doing wrong, how to fix it, and what to do now. Does anyone know a quilt fairy?

Realisitc Expectations

2008-01-13T14:48:00.001-06:00

Last we heard from our little quiltress, she was racing to complete two quilts by the end of the week in order to reach her Christmas goal.

She failed.

Here's the story. I got to a point, the day before we left town, when I realized that no matter what I did, I was not going to finish the quilt for Charles's grandma. So, why was I driving myself crazy? Why was I torturing myself over the quilt and going crazy? I had lost out on so much already, was I going to lose out on the Christmas holiday?

So, I stopped work on it and focused on finishing the quilt for Jacquelyn. Which was finished on time and VERY well received. I don't know that I've ever felt happier giving one of my quilts away. I know that it's something she'll have and treasure for a long time. I'm glad I could give it to her.

Unfortuantely, I got so caught up in the moment, and my camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any pics of the finished product. But, being close to the new owner, I'm sure I can get some pics in the next time I see her.

So, what's next? Finish the Grandma quilt. I'm set up to start back up on it as soon as I get the nerve. Which needs to be soon, because otherwise I can see momentum going out the window. After the Grandma quilt, I have two other large quilts I wanted to make. However, I feel that I need a break from the large tradtional quilts and may focus on some smaller art quilts for a while.

The biggest lesson I've learned is to accept my own limitations and take one day at a time. No more panicking about self-inflicted quilt deadlines!

The Race is ON!

2007-12-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

I have my primary machine back, which means I'll be sewing like mad until Christmas. I have four days until we leave for St. Louis, and two quilts to finish!

Can she do it? (You may be asking.)

Only time (and short amounts of it) will tell.

Xanadu

2007-12-18T12:03:00.000-06:00

I want to go to a land where there are no sewing machines, no holiday deadlines, no mondo quilts.

My primary sewing machine jammed up on me. Turns out it was likely my fault, this time. I was using spray adhesive in a project, and it ended up in the guts of my machine. Apparently these kinds of things migrate up the needle, up the shaft, through the machine, until BAMMO! The machine gives up.

Fine. I took it into the dealer, dropped it off, desperately hoping to get it back before Saturday, switched quilts, and started working on the other machine. Then, out of the clear blue, the tension gets all wonky, and I can't fix the stitches. In fact, I spend a good twenty minutes ripping stitches out.

Two machines. Two quilts. And nothing is getting done.

*CRIES*

Quilter's Depression, Part II: The Grandma Quilt

2007-12-03T14:25:00.000-06:00

And they just keep getting worse.

Here's the original plan for the Grandma Quilt (for Charles's Grandma, who likes all things Asian, has a soon-to-be mint-green-themed room, and needs a warm blanket):

Flannel back with brown background, tiny flowers, and mint-green leaves. Wool batting. Both to preserve the requirement of warm.
Front made of Asian-themed cotton fabrics that can easily be washed and not fall apart. I found these fabrics at the Quilt Expo a few weeks ago, and they made me giddy. They still do.

So, this weekend I sat down to the task of designing the quilt top. I laid all the fabrics out and auditioned them against each other. What would be the best way to arrange them? Which fabrics should go next to each other? Which fabrics should NOT go next to each other? How could I make the most use of the fabrics and let their lushness speak for themselves? I came up with a relatively simple design, and couldn't wait until I was able to finish it.

I started piecing the top, and all looked promising.

Until I ran out of fabric. Somehow I made a miscalculation, I cut perpendicular to the selvage when I should have cut the other way. Looking back on it, though, I wonder if even that would have helped to have cut in a different direction. I just seriously miscalculated the amount of fabric I had.

So, I tried to get on the Internet and find the fabric I was needing, and have it sent to me. But, no matter how long I searched, how hard I toiled, the fabric was not to be found on the Internet. Just like the wedding dress I tried on at House of Brides in Schaumburg, it appears that the fabric I have in my possession doesn't exist. Just like I did when I found the dress, I went to the designer's website and tried to find it. No dice.

If it weren't for the fact that I actually have the fabric in my hot little hands, I would think I had merely dreamt it into being. What is this talent I have for finding and falling in love with non-existent designs?

Quilter's Depression

2007-12-03T13:21:00.000-06:00

Things are not going well.

A couple of weekends ago, I set out to quilt together the layers of the Jacquelyn Quilt. I staked out the largest piece of floor space I could in our condo, which was in the kitchen. I spread out the bottom layer of fabric for the quilt. It didn't fit. I did my best to tape it into submission, figuring the rest of the quilt would fit in the space, it was just the extra inches of backing that were being unruly.

So, I centered and smoothed out the batting and the quilt top. In the process, I was just dorky enough to take a picture of the wrong side of the quilt top.

Look at all the pretty seams!

So, the quilt was laid out and prepped for the pinning. Take a moment to let the ridiculousness of what you're seeing sink in.

That's right. This is the largest stretch of open floor in our home,and a full-size quilt does not fit in it!

I spent two plus hours crawling around on the floor, inserting about 150-200 safety pins in the quilt to hold it together. My knees hurt for days. Not just to the touch, but when I put pressure on my legs, a shooting pain would slice through my shins/knees. After all of this, I turned over the quilt to see how I had done. There they were. Big honking wrinkles in the very center of the quilt.

I put the quilt in the corner for a day or so, hoping the wrinkles would go away. They didn't. I cried. Then I took the quilt apart.

The new plan is to set aside a day where we move our couch, our chofa, my sewing table, and the barstool table to create a full floor space for pin-basting the quilt. I'm currently putting this off until the Grandma quilt is ready for the same happy task. Then I can spend one day moving furniture and pin-basting both quilts.

Now all I need are knee pads!

Have you any Wool?

2007-11-16T11:31:00.000-06:00

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Twenty-five yards full.

My mondo bolt of wool batting just arrived, and I am set for the next eight years of quilting. So, for now, I am feeling good about my quilting prospects. Buying batting in these quantities is a pain in the arse, but it will certainly make things easier down the line.

My extremely ambitious goal for this weekend is to finally, FINALLY finish the Jacquelyn quilt, and finally update this site with some new pictures. I also have a trip to the quilt store in Elmhurst penciled in for tomorrow, so if anything, I will have tales of shopping successes to share. Hopefully successes. I'm going to be successful!

Unexpected Progress, Still Slow

2007-11-12T14:22:00.000-06:00

So, NaNoWriMo hasn't taken over my life as I thought it would. I'm still able to have time in the evening, as well as write. And I've still been able to make progress on the quilting front, albeit a tad bit slower than I would really like.

This past weekend was the Greater Chicago Quilt Expo, which was a wonderful excuse to buy fabric and get in the quilting spirit. I bought a sizeable amount of luscious oriental cottons, to be used on a quilt for Charles's Grandma. I have miraculously been able to find fabric that would not only work into the color scheme of her room, but also be an Asian theme (a special interest of hers), AND washable cotton. So, I have found the answer to the fabric puzzle, which is always exciting.

I'm trying to focus on this, and not the growing frustration that has been born from the fact that I have to go to separate places in town in order to get the items I need to quilt. Gone are the days when Jo Ann's was the answer to my problems. And gone are the days when a quilt shop is just a short drive away. So now I'm hitting all kinds of places around town in the search for things like good thread and wool batting. I now have to PLAN AHEAD. I have to coordinate my schedule and my quilt shopping schedule. And then whine about it.

So, Progress Check:

Jacquelyn's quilt is nearing completion. I have to put another border on the quilt top before I layer the three layers together and start to quilt.

I STILL have to sew on the label for Carlee's quilt. I don't know why I've been putting this task off for so long.

Grandma's quilt will be designed, pieced, and quilted before the trip to St. Louis for Christmas. I'm feeling like this is a definite possibility.

The quilt expo really gave me some great inspiration, and I'm hoping to actually get some quilting done for myself/my own experimentation next year. Maybe.

Not an Ending, but a Hiatus

2007-10-31T13:41:00.000-05:00

Alas, here we are. October 31. The Jacquelyn Quilt is not completed, and it will not be completed by the end of October as I had planned. But, perhaps that's okay. I don't know what this month will bring, but there may be some stolen moments for quilting in the midst of the writing. If not, I may be in for a world of pain in December. I have at least two more quilt projects that I'm hoping to squeeze in in December, so I'm desperately hoping that I can find the time in November for tying up loose quilt ends.

The moral of the whole story is that one should not expect any updates from me in the month of November. The quilting Megan is signing off. Here's hoping I will be signing back on in December victorious.

Really Struggling

2007-10-26T15:37:00.000-05:00

I try and try and TRY to be good, but here I am, facing a self-imposed deadline that will not be met.

Let's review. The goal: finish two quilts by the end of October. And here's why: This year I will be participating in the National Novel Writing Month program, which means for the month of November I will be desperately trying to churn out 50,000 words of copy. With Thanksgiving factored in, this works out to between 2,000 and 3,500 words per day. It's a lot. But I'm hoping it's enough to get the writing kick-started to the place it needs to be. But, all of this means that there will be no moments left for crafting. Enter self-imposed deadline to have all things crafting completed by the end of October so I will have them before Christmas.

But problems. Problems.

My Baby Lock is angry at me again. I KNOW that I am doing SOMETHING wrong, but I just can't quite figure out what it is. This is the second time with the mondo problem, and I have to make it to the dealer again. I just want to sit down with someone and have them tell me, "Doing this is BAD. Just don't do it." But until that blessed, blessed day, it's down to my second-in-command, the Husqvarna. Which is turning out to be a piecing powerhouse, I have to say. But, when it comes to the quilting and making of labels, there's nothing like my Baby Lock.

The other variable in this entire equation is the fact that work has completely exploded on me this week, edging out all other non-sedentary activities. Seriously, the whole "eating well, staying active, staying on top of craftland" plan has gone down the tubes this week. It's been about getting home late, crashing early, getting up early and hitting Starbucks, getting to work early, and repeating the whole viscious cycle. I actually had a three-hour block of time to myself last night at home, and spent its entirety vegging out in front of the tube. I would have felt vaguely guilty about the whole thing, were it not for the fact that I have been working my toushie off.

So, the moral of the story is that YES, I could be working on the remainder of the Jacquelyn quilt on the backup machine, but NO I just don't feel up to the task. So, here I am, having to accept the fact that it will just not get done when I thought it would. In sum, to err is human, and to accept your limitations is divine.

Better Late Than Never

2007-10-15T12:42:00.000-05:00

This post is "better late than never," as the purse was actually completed LAST weekend, and not this past weekend. It's just taken me a week to get my act together and write about it and take a picture of it.

The project itself was also a case of the same. I have had all the supplies for it for about a year now. I acquired the velvet at a moving sale for a fiber artist who used to operate out of the building I work in. It's a lush dark blue velvet. I bought the zipper and the cording ages ago with the idea of making a purse in mind. I didn't know that I would be doing just that, but over a year after the fact.

The inspiration for this project: the need to have a book with me wherever I go. There have been several times over the last several months when I've found myself waiting at a restaurant over the weekend, or waiting here or there for something or other to be done. And each of these times I wished I had a book with me to entertain me while I waited. So, I decided to dust off the supplies and make my own purse that would carry a book.

Why make a purse? Why not just buy one? I've tried that. And I've tried that. I find, time and time again, that the strap style does not suit my needs, which is to be able to strap it on over my shoulder and forget about it. I want to be able to keep a purse close to me, but not have to worry about carrying it or putting it down when I want both hands free. It has been ages since a long strap on a purse has been readily available, and I can only long for the days when a longer strap is back in vogue.

Anyway, the construction of this purse went pretty well, for my first venture into accessories. I embroidered the plain velvet, then sewed the zipper on the two sides, and then sewed the sides together. Add in a couple of internal pockets and the hand-sewn strap, and you have yourself a purse! I'm pretty excited about how this turned out, even though the book is a little tight of a fit. I may try this again, with a longer zipper.

Quilter's Wrist

2007-10-09T13:49:00.000-05:00

I have been injured in the line of Quilt duty!

That's right. The repetetive motion of pushing down on a ruler and using the rotary cutter have created a soreness and pain in my left wrist.

This past week I've picked up work on the quilt for Jacquelyn. Sunday night I spent cutting strips and squares, then pinning them togther and marking them for the next stage in the operation: making squares out of two half-square triangles. Last night I took up the task, which involved a lot of sewing, a lot of cutting, and an impossible amount of ironing.

The next interminably long step in this project is to square up these pieces, then cut them into five separate pieces. Dare I go back for more? Can I take more cutting?

The Maze Quilt

2007-09-25T22:37:00.000-05:00

Another One Bites the Dust! This one is the quilt for my impending niece. Carlee Ann is due to be born at the very end of this year. Some would say that it's utterly uncharacteristic of me to be working ahead like this. I would have to agree. But, I have to get these quilts finished while I have the time.

This quilt is certainly the most fun of all my quilts. Note that I'm not saying it was the most fun to do, but that in and of itself, it is a fun piece to look at. And hopefully sleep under. Incidentally, it WAS fun to construct.

As you can see, the maze design worked out. Hurrah for Electric Quilt! I did end up using some commercial fabric, but you can see the red button fabric that I created. And that blue maze fabric with all the circles? That's my creation, too! I used washers and sea salt for that effect. I strip pieced the design, then quilted it in concentric squares.

Here's the fun effect that you CAN'T see through the magic of a digital camera. The thread I used to do all the quilting: GLOW-IN-THE-DARK! This is also the thread I used to finish the edges, and inscribe the label on the back. So, little Carlee with have a surprise when the lights go off!

Setbacks

2007-09-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

Dear friends, I have learned a most valuable lesson. That fuzzy fabric that's oh-so-soft, right next to the polar fleece and flannel? The one that makes your hands rejoice because nothing, nothing has ever felt so soft? The fabric that doesn't SEEM too stretchy when you pull on it in the store? That fabric, no matter what the precautions you take, is impossible to work with. Here's my experience with it:

I picked out a lovely red color of this fabric to use as the border and backing on the Maze Quilt. I love using soft fabrics like this on a baby quilt, but I think I got lucky on the first quilt I did. I found fabric that was amazingly cooperative, and I was still basting with pins, so I didn't run into the same problems. This time around, things were very different.

The red fabric sheds massive quantities of red fuzzies when it's cut, meaning that my furniture, my floors, and the insides of my sewing machine were covered in red fuzz. The edges then curl, making the art of lining up edges almost impossible when adding a border to the quilt top. And forget about ironing the seams. Already, I was having misgivings.

Then I went to make the quilt sandwich, a process that involves layering the backing fabric (enter more red fuzzy fabric), the batting (fusible batting), and the quilt top (the pieced maze). This was the first time I was going to work with fusible batting, but it basically goes like this: apply the steam iron to the top of the quilt to fuse the three layers together. They remain fused together while you quilt, meaning that you can skip the nasty step of pin basting the quilt. It's supposed to be a big time-saver. Supposed to be.

As I was actually quilting, unbeknownst to me, the backing was separating from the batting, and bunching up underneath my stitches. I was more than halfway through quilting the top before I figured this out, though. ARGH! Now, I've had to rip out all of these stitches, find a new backing fabric, buy more batting, and try again.

Just when I think I have my act together and that creating THIS quilt will go smoothly, I encounter another "learning" experience. I can only hope that the more experience I have, the less disastrous these opportunities for learning will be.

The Tara Quilt

2007-09-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

Finally! A quilt is finished! A quilt is finished!

I made this quilt as a birthday present for a friend. (Tara, as I'm sure you could deduce from my oh-so-subtle pattern of naming quilts.) I could have finished it almost two weeks ago, if it weren't for my indecisiveness. I had the design completed and the sandwich quilted and still couldn't decide which way was "up." Was this a vertical composition or horizontal? Which side should be on top? There were, of course, four possibilities, and I couldn't choose. It didn't help that the options I was leaning towards were in direct opposition to the options Charles liked. What to do? The answer: let the future owner decide.

So, I bundled the quilt up and tied it a bow to present it to Tara on the day of celebration. She could then make a definitive ruling on up-edness, and I could bring it back home and add the hanging sleeve, binding, and my signature.

So, for the quilt construction itself. I experimented with fabric collage, which is a technique I have been wanting to try for AGES. Originally, I was going to create my own piece of fabric with this technique, then cut it into smaller circles and use to make an overarching design. I would then create a small quilt from this design and quilt the layers together. From there, I would cut the quilt up into small "inchies," or 1"-1.5" squares. My idea was that these could be hung somewhere together to show the overall design, but be individual units as well.

Clearly, this is not what actually happened. Here's what did: I created the large piece of fabric by collaging together bits of fabric, the strings I've cut off other bits of fabric, pieces of yarn, and angelina fibers. I sandwiched these bits between two layers of Solvy, and went to town stitching them together. This proved much more difficult than I had been led to believe. To start with, the Solvy was thin and didn't lend a ton of support; contents tended to shift during stitching, as the basting spray I used was useless in these circumstances.

Then, the moment of truth. I washed the finished product under some water, and presto! I had this delicious piece of fabric that was purply blue with sparkles. I couldn't imagine cutting this up into smaller bits. I wanted to keep it just like it was! That's when the project changed and I decided to layer it on top of a black background (the perfect color to set off the hues and sparkles in the collage) and quilt it. It would look like a piece of art that had been matted and framed. I was liking this idea more and more.

Again, it was easier said than done. If I would have planned this, I could have created the collage on the background fabric in the first place, rather than having to stich it onto the black fabric and quilt it at the same time. The fringe around the edge of the collage really caused problems all the way throughout the quilting process. It kept getting wrapped around my sewing machine foot, which meant I would have to stop sewing and CUT this beautiful fringe in order to free my machine.

In the end, of course, I am very pleased with how this turned out. I found myself, once again, wishing I could keep it. I'm beginning to wonder if this is the mark of a job well done.

Little by little, bit by bit

2007-09-13T09:51:00.000-05:00

In an article on finding time for your quilting life amidst an already full life, I read a tip on managing one's quilting time. The person writing the article suggested that quilters work on more than one quilt at a time. The idea here is that you have several different tasks, which demand different levels of attention, care, and time. A busy quilter can pick whichever task makes the most sense for the time they have, and in that way make more progress. This makes sense on a logical level. If you set this up right, you end up doing more quilting because you have more things to choose from in terms of immediate tasks at hand. And this means you have the ability to find something that needs to be done that will fit into your current mood/time constraints.

I've been unconsciously trying this out bit by bit this year. Once I had the design and fabric for the Jacquelyn quilt (purple and blue), I've been fiddling with it off an on for about six months. But then, another quilt swoops in and takes a priority as I rush to finish it in time. As I write this, I have three quilts that I am actively working on, another design waiting in the wings, and countless ideas ruminating in my journal and mind.

The good thing about this is that I can recognize a chunk of time during the day when the sun is shining as a time when I really should be doing fabric painting. I can seize the opportunity when, at 9:00 at night I'm free to do a little work for a couple hours. But, as with everything in life, there is another side to the story. While I'm able to work on many things at once, and make slow and steady progress, it's hard to get the same sense of accomplishment, because it seems as though I'm never really finishing anything.

Take this past weekend, for instance. I did some sunprinting so that I have the blue fabric for the baby quilt. I treated some purple fabric for the Jacquelyn quilt so that it would be sparkly like the rest. I ironed all the sunprinted fabric to set in the color and prep it for cutting. And I finished piecing all the blue blocks for the Jacquelyn quilt. (This is the picture you see here, one such block, completed.)

But, at the end of the day, what did I have to show for all of this? I have a pile of blue blocks and a pile of fabric, but nothing more concrete than that. I'm hoping to change that. Mabye by the end of the weekend I'll have something more notable to show for my time.

Progress continues, sort of

2007-09-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

Last weekend marked the last weekend of summer, the last weekend of leaving work early on Fridays, and the last holiday until Thanksgiving. It was a weekend to regroup after the relentless pace of summer weekends. I had an itinerary of crafting planned, as well as some other adventures, and just being a house bum.

It all began with a trip downtown on Friday afternoon. After leaving work at noon (!!), I hopped on the El and toodled down to the loop. I have a book of walking tours downtown, and finally got around to taking one. True to form for me, I left my digital camera at work, so dashed into a CVS to get a disposable camera. I had hoped to be able to post some of the pics I took on the tour here, but since it wasn't my camera, I won't have those pics until I fill the camera and make it to a CVS to get them developed.

In the meantime, the quiet weekend alone quickly evolved into a weekend of catching up with friends. Little time for quilting was left.

But, I DID manage to carve out some time on Monday morning to do some fabric painting for the Maze Quilt. I spent about three hours and painted four pieces of fabric. Two of them were yellow, and I laid straight pins out to create the sunprint pattern. However, the pins were too small, and it didn't create a noticeable pattern. On top of that, the colors bled togeter in an unfortunate way, such that a beautiful color of yellow looks like someone bled on it. I'm thinking that I may have to supplement with a commercial fabric for the yellow portion.

Meanwhile, the red fabric turned out pretty well. I've posted some pics here. I used buttons on the red fabric to create the sunprint. See the entry on The Wendy Quilt if you don't know about sunprinting on fabric. This technique has been a favorite as of late, but I'm not sure that it's good when you're looking for something too specific in terms of print and color.

I also worked on another project, but will hold off on posting anything more on it, as I have yet to finish it. Suffice it to say, I'm excited about it. It was an experiement that turned out infinitely better, and different, than I anticipated. I'm eager to share it with all of you!

Quilts in Da Works

2007-08-30T20:25:00.001-05:00

Okay, it has been a while since I updated the blogeroo. There's a reason for this. Let me rephrase; there are many reasons for this. I think it all really boils down to the fact that I haven't made any progress on quilting in the past several weeks. Life, once given the chance, managed to take over my quilting time. After the mad dash to finish the quilt for my parents, I deliberatly took a week off of quilting. Then, having been resurrected from the dead, my personal life took over.

It all began with the last and final Harry Potter book. I went from being Quilt Obsessed to Harry Potter obsessed. I have not only read the last book, prompting the single most emotional reaction to a book I've ever had, but I have read and watched as many interviews with Rowling as I could get my hands on. I've watched all the movies again, as well as the newest one in Imax (with 3D--I would recommend seeing it this way, if you can).

Then, there was a visit from my niece, who just turned eleven. She stayed with me for almost two weeks, so we did a lot of going to the beach, playing games, and toodling around town. At the end of her visit, my brother, his wife, and their son came up for the Air and Water Show in Chicago. The following weekend was a birthday celebration at our place for My Charles's birthday, in which Megan tried her hand at making fried chicken. It was a marginal success. So, as you can see, for about a month there, I was Super Entertainer Gal. This leaves little room for hauling out sewing supplies and getting my quilt on. And, with little progress on quilties, comes little inspiration for updating the blog.

So, now, here we are. There are two major projects in the works at this point, and little progress has been made. They are both of the piecework variety, which means that once they were designed, the creative work was pretty much over. Now just comes the tedious process of cutting, cutting, cutting and piecing the hell out if it all.

This first image is one that I've designed with EQ6. It will be a quilt for the niece that I have on the way at the end of the year. I designed the quilt with the idea strip-piecing fabric to create these blocks, and arranging the blocks in a fashion to create the overall design. But I have to admit that it was My Charles's idea to make the quilt a maze as well. I'm pretty happy with this design. But, now that I've found out that the new baby will be a girl, I've been toying with the idea of making the blue color purple. But, what if, on the off chance, all of that medical technology fails us and the baby comes out a boy?

In the meantime, I'm planning to paint the fabric for this quilt myself. I'm working with the Setacolor paints to do sun prints with buttons, straight pins, and other fun things that I can drum up. I'll try to post those fabrics here as I finish them. I'm thinking that the piecing will be simple, but the fact that I created the fabric from white cotton will be what makes the quilt special and unique. Oh, and the super soft velvety fabric I've chosen for backing!

And here is the second quilt project I'm working on at the moment. Both this quilt and the baby quilt pretty much need to be completed by the end of October. This purple and blue quilt is the biggest albatross of them all. When I origionally designed this quilt, it was a monochromatic quilt with one color, two values. Then it evolved into the purple/blue monster that it is. Each block of this quilt involves about a dozen precision cuts, and six stages of piecing, as well as ironing, squaring, etc.

Now might be a good time to mention that the quilt involves 104 of these blocks. Yeah. There is a zen element to working like this, with precision and repetition. However, after the fabric starts to blur in my vision and my hands are numb with rotary-cutter-induced carpal tunnel (sp?) syndrome, I find myself longing for the art quilts where just about anything goes.

What I am excited about is experimenting with new quilting designs that I've created using the EQ software. For example, the picture you see here of the purple and blue quilt was designed in EQ6. Once I had the fabrics picked out, I was able to scan them into my computer and apply them to the quilt. The program automatically resizes the print according to its relative size on the quilt as a whole. It's a pretty neat feature, as I can see how the quilt is going to look for the most part, before I even begin cutting fabric. And now, through the magic of the Internet, you can see it too.

I'm pretty psyched about using this software more and more, as well as exploring new tools, like fusible batting. Using this kind of batting involves washing the final quilt before giving it away, but how great is it going to be to just iron the layers together and have them stay the entire time I quilt the layers together? I'm hoping that this works well on a smaller quilt, so I can use it on bigger quilts to come. Keeping the layers together without shifting and bunching was one of the things that I struggled most with when quilting the Roots and Wings quilt.

So, these are the designs in the works. Finally, after a trip back home, a few emotional crises, and more than my fair share of visitors, life seems to be returning to normal. This means that the quilting should pick up, too.

Roots and Wings

2007-07-25T16:06:00.001-05:00

...aka Project from Hell.

It all started many, many moons ago, when I awoke with a vision in my head. It involved the picture of a tree with many leaves. Somehow, these leaves would involve pictures of family members (or possibly these pictures would appear somewhere else). There would be birds or butterflies in the sky, and possibly pictures embedded in the bark of the tree itself. The lines of quilting would include the words "roots and wings." I don't mean to hit you over the head with this message...

The vision of this project came to me before I had any real clue as to how to acheive this goal. Until that point, I had only sewn straight lines. Would I have to learn to (gasp) applique? Would I have to learn to free-motion quilt? What was up with image transfers, anyway? When I saw a class being taught on creating landscape quilts, I jumped at the chance to see what I could do. It was a Snippet Sensations class taught by Walters, and was extremely fun. The class gave me the means I needed to create the tree design, as well as the courage to try free-motion quilting.

In choosing the picture that I would use as a guide, the design ended up changing. I stumbled across a photo of a tree from underneath the branches, with the sun shining through. The composition intrigued me, and I loved the focus on moving upwards and out into the sky. Now, the idea of including pictures in the design itself was unthinkable. Surely, then, I could include pictures in the border. I would quilt family members' handprints around them!

But then, as the design took shape, I knew that I didn't want to interrupt the color of the border around the main design. So, the photo-transferred images went by the wayside pretty quickly. I ended up quilting the handprints in the border, and then quilting heavily around them to make them stand out. Before I assembled the quilt sandwich, though, I machine embroidered the names of all the family members in the border where the corresponding handprints would appear.

The end result is what you see here. I didn't get a chance to get too many photos of the quilt, as I normally would, because my camera ended up running out of battery juice. I'll have get more pictures later that showcase the machine quilting I did, which was more complex than I had previously done.

And now, friends, it's time to rest for a bit before tackling the next quilt on the list.

Project From Hell

2007-07-24T16:47:00.000-05:00

Think of a large snowball being set to roll down a rather large, snowy hill. As it rolls, it gains more and more layers of snow, along with its own momentum. Pretty soon you have a fast-moving giganto ball of snow that could potentially take over the world. This is the nature of the project I am desperately trying to finish in time to take to my parents back home (in St. Louis) over this coming weekend. My plane leaves tomorrow night, so I have only one more night to complete the project and pack for the trip.

The quilt is a wall hanging for my parents. I will make sure to include pics and more details when it's complete, in the event that I don't burn it first. Suffice it to say that the project has multiplied exponentially like the Blob from Outer Space, or whatever the large thing of Jello that grew and grew and grew and took over New York was called. I had originally decided to make the main design twice as large as a recent quilt, which had been created on a fat quarter of white cotton. But, instead of multiplying one dimension by 2, I did both dimensions, ending up with pretty much a yard of fabric. I trimmed this up a bit to keep to a 4 X 6 ratio, but it was essentially four times as big, not two. Thus begins the snowballing.

All the same, the main design was completed fairly quickly, as I had about a week to myself and just about all the supplies at the ready. However, the quilt then languished on hold while I was still in search of family pictures I didn't end up using. I also got caught up in two other quilts (See The Wendy Quilt; it was one of the two.) and life in general.

Then, I picked it back up after I returned from a trip to Florida. Surely it would be downhill from here? All I had to do was slap a border on the sucker, quilt, bind, and add a hanging sleeve. Right.

So, the uphill battle began. I had it in my head that I wanted to quilt handprints of the family in the border, so the border had to be large enough to accomodate the hands. I never knew what freakishly big hands my family had! They're huge!!! So, in order to fit them in, I had to add NINE inches to each side, thereby making the already large wall hanging ginormous in proportions. This, I could tell, was going to be wonderfully fun to quilt. So, I added the borders.

I lost an entire evening of quilt-time to figuring out that one should not put spray adhesive on tracing paper. It does not hold it to the fabric, but does, in fact, hold it to EVERYTHING ELSE. Meanwhile, I was struggling with stiching our names in the border where the handprints were to go, since this stitching needed to happen before the actual quilting.

Next problem: now the quilt top was so large that no amount of fabric that I had could quite cover it. I would have to piece the backing. Thus went another several hours, figuring out how I would do such a thing, what made the most sense, and then executing it properly.

It was then that I discovered that I am not really equipped to handle such large quilts in my small Chicago condo. The table we have was too narrow to handle the entire quilt flat, so I had to baste the quilt in sections, which meant squaring it up and making sure it was even was an almost impossible task. I still don't think I quite got it right.

Once I had the quilt basted, I thought, I was on my way. I just had to roll the quilt, start in the middle, and get going. I had already selected the free-motion design, had my thread, and thought all was right with the world. Somewhere in the process, about a quarter of the way in, I started to have problems with the sewing. The thread kept getting tangled and knotted in the quilt. After several tries at reigning this in, I tried a different thread in the bobbin, thinking that perhaps the invisible nylon thread was the culprit. At first, this seemed to work. Then things just got worse. Finally, I ended up peering into the guts of my machine, armed with the baby screwdriver and the little brush thing. Perhaps, perhaps if I just gave it a good cleaning, it would be fine to continue with?

The cleaning didn't work. Not only didn't it work, but a major screw had jumped ship, diving into the guts of my machine. An hour later, my Charles and I emerged victorious with the screw, but I was no closer to a solution. Now, the thread problem was the least of my worries. Somewhere in there my machine went on strike and refused to pull bobbin thread up from the bottom. There was no chance at even sewing a bit.

The deadline looming less than a week away, I called the nearest Baby Lock dealer. They said I could bring my machine in and they would have it back to me in 7-10 days, or possibly longer, depending on what was wrong with it. Distraught, and not knowing what to do, I ended up following Charles's suggestion to purchase a backup machine, just getting by with the cheapest option I could find. Trouble is, not many machines come with a free-motion foot, which is what I was cheifly concerned about.

So, off to the sewing store I traipsed, hoping to find someone who could find a machine and a presser foot that would suit my immediate needs. Again, not many machines come with the right presser foot. Also, I became reacquainted with just how wonderful my Baby Lock is. Features that I had come to take for granted are by no means standard issue on most of the machines out there. For example, most machines ask you to fend for yourself in terms of threading the needle. And they defintely don't tie off your stitches automatically and cut your thread for you.

In the end, I settled on a Husqvarna that was much more than I really wanted to spend. I justified it in the end by saying, "I'll have a spare now, in case anything goes wrong again."

So, then, the learning curve began on using the new machine, threading the needle, winding a bobbin, and gaining an understanding of its speed and capabilities. This process has caused its share of problems, including knots in thread, jammed needles, and many curse words, some combinations borrowed from Charles's repertoire of words that have been honed over the many hours of online multiplayer video games he has under his belt. Every time I thought I had one variable accounted for, something else would crop up.

And then, there were just the idiodic moments when, for instance, I would sew my quilting gloves to the quilt. All the while, I have been maneuvering the monstrosity that this quilt has become, and wondering where, oh where, it all went so horribly wrong.

Now, here I am, the eve of my departure to St. Louis, with the following to do to finish the quilt:

--finish quilting the border
--square up the quilt
--create and sew on hanging sleeves
--sew binding to front
--hand-stitch binding to back
--hand-stitch hanging sleeves to back

Keep in mind that I am not a fast hand-stitcher.

Something tells me that it's not all going to get done. That tomorrow, over my lunch break at work, I will be hand-stitching my heart out. That I'll be doing it at the airport, on the plane, at my brother's house later that night, and every spare moment up until the last minute.

All I can say is that my mom had better cry when she and Dad open it.

The Wendy Quilt

2007-07-05T21:09:00.001-05:00

Here's what I am calling the Wendy Quilt. I made it for a friend of mine, who, oddly enough, is named Wendy. The size of the quilt is about 2 feet by 4 feet and was created using a sunprinting method. I collected the leaves on a walk around the block of my condo. Three colors of paint contributed to the purply goodness of the quilt: violet, indigo, and magenta. I hand-embroidered the stems radiating out from the large branch of small leaves to the bottom left of the quilt. I used a combination of metallic threads in silver, slate, and smoky purple for the embroidery thread. I couched silver eyelash yarn on as the main branch for the separate stems, as well as the stems of the three oak leaves at the top of the quilt.

Once I was satisfied with the embellishments, I created the quilt sandwich and went to town quilting outlines around the leaves. Pretty soon I discovered the effect of adding in lines to represent the veins of leaves. Once I had outlined the areas I wanted, I went back through and quilted some free-formed leaves and flowers to fill in the blank spots.

At the last minute, I decided the bottom of the quilt needed something, so I created a leaf from Angelina fibers and stiched it directly onto the quilt. It doesn't show up in the pictures very well, but the leaf has folds and crevices in it like a real leaf, and adds a three-dimensional look to the piece.

I opted out of a border for the piece, and decided to let it speak on its own. All that was left was creating the rod pocket and binding the quilt. Lesson learned: having something crafty to do with your hands, like hand-stitch the binding onto a quilt, is a good way to pass the time on an airplane. But, when you don't finish it on the plane, you end up working on it in your hotel room at night.

The end result was a Purple Quilt of Goodness that I almost didn't give away. Which begs the question: Should I be keeping more quilts for myself, or just making quilts that aren't so fun?

Roxywriter's First Post

2007-07-05T12:41:00.000-05:00

"Better late than never," is how the saying goes, and does a fair job of describing my feeble attempts to join the blogosphere. There I was, cruising around on the ether that is the Internet, finding blog after blog and wondering why I couldn't do this. So, here I am. Blogging for the first time.

I know that I am very much a visual learner, and there are many out there who process things in exactly the same way. To this end, I DO plan on adding photos later on. I just returned from a trip to Orlando, and would love to share some of the lamest pictures ever taken on vacation. Also on the coming attractions list: the latest and greatest of my quilt creations. I made this and took it to a friend in Orlando for her birthday. She almost didn't get it, since I really wanted to keep it!

So, if you dropped in on the lamest blog known to mankind, take heart. It will get better. As with just about everything in life, and certainly just like me, it's a work in progress.