Quilting

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Already behind

January 17, 2010 in Piecing, Quilting | 2 comments

How is it that I already feel “behind” for the year and it’s not even the end of January?

It feels like I’m really struggling to find time for sewing right now.  As it is, my time is limited to when my kids are asleep, which basically means from about 1-3pm and after 8pm.  Trouble is, I need to do other things during that time, too.  Exercise, laundry, dinner prep… blah blah blah.  Plus, we took a last-minute trip to Florida to visit my husband’s ailing grandmother, so that threw me off, as well.

It could also be the fact that one of my closest friends and my younger brother are due to become first-time parents any second now, and I did not get a start on either quilt before the holidays.  Progress is being made, though.  My friend has the slightly earlier due date, so I worked on hers first.  It’s now just waiting for binding (which has been ordered) and the arrival of one awesome little girl (so I can put her name on the label, of course!).

Baby quilt in progress

My nephew-to-be is due February 6, and I finally got all of the fabric cut last night.  Now to assemble the blocks and get it all together. It’s a bit of organized chaos that I’m hoping will come together well.

Fabric cut for nephew's quilt

In the meantime, I signed up for the eighth go-around of the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr.  I arguably should have said no, but it’s just entirely too much fun to miss out on.  My partner for this round has a rather different style than I do, so I’m trying to come up with an idea that she’ll like, but that I’ll also like making and be proud of.  We’ll see…

When it comes right down to it, I feel like I have more ideas and things I want to make than I really have time to do.  Not a terrible problem to have, as it sure beats plodding through something you don’t feel inspired to do.  It’s just that it gives me that slightly panicked feeling all the time, because it never seems like enough time.  Ah well.

So, how is your new year shaping up?  Feeling fresh and renewed, or already dragging?

Square it up

November 24, 2009 in Piecing, Quilting | 11 comments

I’m working on what may very well be my final finished quilt for the year.  It’s another custom order for a friend of mine to give as a baby gift, and I decided to try out the double-hourglass tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew.  It has been, indeed, quite easy and I strongly recommend giving it a try.

The only thing is that some of the cutting and trimming is a little tedious.  My blocks ended up about 6¼”, so I trimmed them all down to 6″.  I’ve never really done much squaring up like that, mostly because I’m lazy and it’s boring.  But, man, I really think it made all the difference in how the points are lining up (reasonably well) and how the top came together (very nice and flat).  Lesson learned: suck it up, trim blocks, and you’ll thank yourself.

Double hourglass sneak peak

I’ve also been pressing the seams open, which totally goes counter to what I was taught, but I really think is the right choice when there are all of these crazy angles coming together.  On the plus side, even the back looks kind of pretty.

Double hourglass sneak peak

Now, though, I’m stuck.  How on earth to quilt this thing?  It’s small, only about 30×36.  I’m nervous to stipple it, because of the bulky seams at the corners of the blocks, but I’m not sure I want to do straight lines, either.  So, if you had a quilt of double-hourglass blocks, how would you quilt it?

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If MacGyver was a quilter

November 4, 2009 in Quilting | 10 comments

I’ve been having a really bothersome issue with my free-motion quilting foot, that has caused no end of frustration.  It looks all innocent, right?

Free-Motion Foot Fix

Except, when it presses down mid-stitch, it has a seriously problematic way of getting stuck in the down position.  It should spring right back up.  But, behold, it does not. BOO.

Free-Motion Foot Fix

The result is many, many skipped stitches.  I’m not talking one here or there.  I’m talking every 10-30 seconds, a bunch of skipped stitches in a row.  There was much slamming of chairs and swearing when I quilted my last project.  A lot of storming out of the room.  Not cool.  And, believe me, I tried a bunch of things.  A little vaseline to get it to move was no help, as the problem seems to be physical/mechanical, not an issue of lubrication.  Lint was cleared out, new needles were installed, etc.  Everything was in working order except for the stupid foot.

And then I saw a post of Amanda Jean’s, in which she solved a free-motion problem she was having, with the help/inspiration of this super-awesome free-motion quilting blog. Aha!  Not exactly the same problem I’m having, but similar.  There must be a way…

Today, I felt determined to get a move on quilting my sister-in-law’s quilt, as I had actually gotten around to basting it last night.  What I needed was a way for it not to press all the way down…

Enter, the twist tie.

Free-Motion Foot Fix

BRILLIANT!  Twist it around, snip off the excess, et voilá: just enough to keep it from pressing all the way down to the point at which it was sticking.

Free-Motion Foot Fix

Beautiful! It springs right back up!  Huzzah!  I am now a quarter of the way done with my sister-in-law’s quilt, and I must say, it goes a hell of a lot faster when you don’t have to stop every 30 seconds to swear at your sewing machine.

Free-Motion Foot Fix

Okay, I realize that if MacGyver was actually a quilter, he would have probably hand-quilted the entire thing with the twist-tie and the lint from inside my sewing machine.  But still, I’m pretty proud of my handy solution…

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Two new loves

September 21, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects, Quilting | 9 comments

I mentioned last week that I would have another finished quilt to show off with nearly identical fabrics. Two different people asked me to make baby boy quilts in blues and browns, and I’m all about efficiency, right? This second one was a custom order from my husband’s aunt, who I knew we’d be seeing in Florida this weekend, so it was the perfect time to finish it.

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Front

I think I liked the no-triangle zig-zag pattern even better the second time around. For some reason, it didn’t feel like it took as long as the first time, and I would definitely make it again at some point. I did make it a hair smaller, starting with 2.75″ strips instead of 3″, only because it made fitting the backing and binding a little easier (the last time, I just barely had enough with a crib-sized batting). The finished size pre-washing was about 42×52″. The solid blue on the front is Kona Cotton in either Sky or Cloud (again, not that I would be smart enough to write such things down).  The solid brown on the back is Kona Cotton in Espresso (that one I’m pretty sure of) with a strip of little squares of the prints from the front..

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Back

I fell in love with two new things in the making of this quilt.  The first is basting spray.  Thank you so much to the people who suggested it when I was having such trouble with my walking foot.  It was nothing short of awesome. The process wasn’t too hard, and I added a few pins just for my own peace of mind.  There was dramatically less distorting. Arguably this was a more forgiving style of straight-line quilting, in that there were no crossed/overlapping lines, I still think it was a major improvement and will definitely use it again. And I was really happy with the way the blue quilting lines showed up on the dark brown backing.

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Binding

The second new love was one of necessity. As I was packing everything up to take to Florida to finish, I could not for the life of me find brown thread. As anyone with toddlers can attest, things tend to go missing. So I grabbed some cream-colored thread and threw it in the bag, and figured it was time to make the switch to ladder stitch for my binding. Holy crap. I was doing little tiny stitches before that were hard to see, but I was a little worried at how well they’d hold things down, and they were still, technically, visible.  This thing is no-joke invisible! I mean you have to really look closely and start pulling at things to see the stitches.  And I didn’t find that it took all that much longer than what I was doing before, so another win.

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Folded

Sewing has to go on the back burner this week as I need to use the precious naptime to frantically price and tag three huge bins full of clothes and other stuff for my Moms of Twins Club’s semi-annual tag sale.  But as soon as I finish, I’ll jump right back in!

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Wrestling the straight and narrow

September 1, 2009 in Quilting | 5 comments

I’ve got a stack of quilt sandwiches I’m working through at the moment.

To-be quilted stack

They’re all straight-line quilting. And at least two more coming down the line are, too.  So, naturally, I continue to have major issues with my walking foot.  ARGH!

I’ve ironed and re-ironed to make sure the seams and sashing are as smooth and flat as possible. I’ve tried not making the backing quite so taut when I tape it down before basting, wondering if it’s the tension difference between that and the top that is the problem (my issues are all on the quilt top, not on the back). I’ve smoothed and smoothed and smoothed that quilt top as best as I can over the batting. I’ve used more safety pins.  I’ve tried to keep it taut and help it through the machine.

And still, still I have distorting and puckering.  It’s making me bonkers!

Any suggestions out there? Is it something as fundamental as not putting my tops together properly? Could there be something actually wrong with my walking foot?  I can’t be the only one who has run into this problem, but has anyone had any luck actually fixing it?

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Seven more days

July 21, 2009 in Piecing, Quilt-Along, Quilting | 6 comments

I have about seven more sewing days before I leave, so let’s check in on my self-imposed quilting marathon!

The big pink and brown ragged square quilt for Mary is now basted and I’ve started the wrestling match that is quilting it. Squares with a walking foot on a twin-sized quilt with my machine? Let’s just say I’m making liberal use of the “reverse” button so I don’t have to cram quite as much of it in there.  But, slowly, I’m making good progress. Barring any unforseen derailment, it should be quilted and almost-bound in plenty of time to come with me to Chicago.

Quilting in progress

Yes, Mary, I’m taking it with me. Maybe I’ll even ship it straight to you from there! Hope you like the block preview. :-)

Pink/Brown Ragged Square blocks

I also have the fabric cut for two more ragged-square quilts, a request from Marie N for her boy/girl twins.  They’re small, so I’ve got a shot at making them before I leave, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Red Ragged Square Cuts

After this, I think I’m going to have to take a break from this pattern.  It’s awfully cute and kids like the raw edges, but I’m ready to do something different.

Blue Ragged Square Cuts

Other than that, I just need to make sure I pack enough needles, the right color thread, and supplies to make a few labels so that I can be well and truly done with these by the time I get back home!

Neptune squares cut for zig-zag

Oh. Ahem. That.  Well, it was raining this afternoon. I may have put on a movie for the kids and sat with them while I cut my squares for the ORBCo zig-zag quilt-along.  Heh.  I’ll likely get several weeks behind on this one, what with leaving town and all, but it’s started.  I’m committed.  Or, you know, maybe I should be committed. Whatever.

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Pucker Up

July 13, 2009 in Piecing, Quilting | 4 comments

I’m in the midst of quilting the nine-patch quilt, and I’m doing it just like in the inspiration photo: a rough quarter inch on either side of EVERY block.  I like the way it looks and I think it’s really appropriate to the design, but good lord is it slow, tedious, and mind-numbing.

And it has given me plenty of time to ponder what went wrong.

Quilting distortion

I’m having a LOT of puckering and distortion with this quilt, and while I’d like to claim to have a malfuctioning walking foot, I don’t think that’s the case. No, I think there are several things that I could have done better.

  1. Sloppy Sashing.  I think I was somewhat careless in the way I put together the quilt top with the sashing. I think I could have been a lot more careful and done a LOT more pressing.  Instead, I think I was left with a not-that-flat quilt top and some bunching and excess fabric especially with the sashing.  I was piecing something new the other day and already tried to be more conscientious (and not in such a hurry) with pressing before and after adding long strips of sashing.
  2. Hasty Basting. I probably could have made the backing a bit more taut when I taped it to the floor.  I definitely could have been more careful in smoothing out the quilt top.  And I could have used a lot more pins.  I was in such a hurry, I wasn’t yet done quilting the ORBCo quilt when I basted this one, so I didn’t have as many pins at my disposal as I could have if I’d waited.

Quilting distortion

It’s not tragic, it’s not completely ruined. I still rather like the quilt as a whole, even if it’s a bit, well, sloppy.  Clearly, my rush to get things done is catching up with me on this one.  Duly noted, there are consequences for trying to get things done too fast.

Now, how many things am I trying to get done in the next two weeks?  Ha!

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Loopy

July 6, 2009 in Quilt-Along, Quilting | 10 comments

It is done!  The loopy quilting on the ORBCo quilt is done!  I may have risked life and limb (or, you know, naptime) to finish it this afternoon, but I made it. And the kids stayed asleep.  Whew!

Quilting Done

Honestly, I think it felt somehow easier than a “normal” stipple.  Maybe it was the ease with which I could go back and fill in spots, or the lack of fear of crossing over.  And thanks to all of your suggestions, I am SO happy I went with a pink thread.  It’s the “petal pink” from Connecting Threads and I was very happy with it.  Yes, I had to have a lint intervention once or twice, but going that crazy with a free motion foot, I’d hardly expect anything else.  And the quilting itself has made it so crinkly… I’m fascinated to see how this all comes out in the wash!

Quilting Done

I used the majority of a 1200-yard spool, but not so much that I worried I’d run out.  I’d estimate it was about 10-12 bobbins.  It probably took me around 6 hours total, over the course of four days.  I worked on it in 30-90 minute blocks of time, since it pretty much always has to be done while the kids are asleep.

As with many things that we fear, the hardest part is just getting started.  Once I was in there, it went fine, and I just wanted to get it DONE!  I’m super happy with how it turned out, and though there was some serious wrestling, an extra needle, a few spots of messy knots on the back, and other… ahem… things that give it some handmade charm… I’m really proud of it.

Now, all that remains is binding!  Dare I take this behemoth with me to Florida this weekend?

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No More Stalling

July 4, 2009 in Quilt-Along, Quilting | 6 comments

Though I have made strides in recent months, the actual act of quilting is nearly always the most daunting part of the whole thing for me. I’m never sure exactly what to do when it comes to design, for one thing. I’ve always been terrible at drawing, and quilting (especially free-motion) is a lot like drawing to me. Plus, even with confidence in ability, there are so many darn choices! Zig zags here, swirls there. In-the-ditch, crossed lines, meandering… it’s just so overwhelming.

Add in the gargantuan size (well, at least, the largest quilt I’ve ever made) of the ORBCo quilt, and I’ve been putting it off. Even more so once I had my thread mishap. Not only was I waiting for the thread to arrive, but I also got into completing my nine-patch quilt. In fact, even though my new thread arrived today, I was all geared up to baste my nine-patch quilt sandwich. Except… oh yeah… I used pretty much ALL of my safety pins on the other one. Doh!

No more pins

Alright. No more excuses. I’ve got a backlog of projects waiting to be started and another quilt in need of the pins.  Last night, I finally sat down and started quilting this big honkin’ thing.  And you know what?  Not too shabby!  On the recommendation of someone in the Flickr group, I sort of mentally divided the quilt into quadrants to have a way to keep track of where I am, and to bite off a manageable chunk.  It took about an hour and a half and three bobbins, but I have finished the first quadrant and am really quite pleased with it!

DSC_0508

The husband took the kids for the morning and gave me a bit of a free pass for a few hours (sigh, the bliss), so I’m right back at it.  Mark my words, I am not taking the free-motion foot off of my machine until this thing is DONE!

Besides.  There are nine-patches waiting impatiently in the wings.

DSC_0512

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Stymied

June 27, 2009 in Quilting | 5 comments

Finally got up the nerve to start quilting the ORBCo monstrosity. Thanks to all for the suggestions. I found the most gorgeous hand-dyed variegated thread at my local quilt shop. The orange/pink/purple combo just worked so well, I was thrilled to find it. Bought the last two spools they had. After a couple of practice ideas on a spare bit of fabric, I decided to go for a loopy stipple a la Brenis.

And then… I kept skipping stitches and breaking thread. Cleaned out the bobbin case (holy lint balls, batman), adjusted tension, et cetera, et cetera. Thread kept breaking. My suspicion: thread is too thick. It’s a 35 weight, instead of the usual 50. Sure enough, I put in some 50 to test my theory, and no breakage issues. Damnit. That thread was so darn pretty.

variegated thread

The thinner thread I experimented with was the slate gray I was originally considering. And, in fact, I hate it. I don’t like how dark it is against the otherwise cheerful quilt top, even if it does blend perfectly with the backing.

On recommendation from crazy mom quilts and some folks in the ORBCo quilt-along Flickr group, I went online and ordered a bunch of big honkin’ spools from Connecting Threads. (I may have also ordered some of their fabric, but we’re not going to discuss that right now…)

In the meantime… I’m just waiting. Can’t move forward on the stippling until the thread arrives. Can’t work on the ragged square quilt that’s next on my list, because I’m waiting for thread for that one, too. Better start cutting white sashing for the nine-patch quilt!

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