Dot Applique Technique/ Work in Progress

You know how I was saying that failure was having a domino effect earlier this week? Actually I just told you about it this week, but it was kind of a 2 week situation. I pushed through and got a few things done, like them or not, and right in the middle of Thacia's birthday party I got an idea for this new baby quilt. The party was well in hand so I took time out to sketch before I lost it. 

Where is the strangest place you ever had to stop and draw? 

This is a strip-pieced idea with polka dots. The circles are 2" diameter, which would be pretty tough to piece, so I am using an applique method for nice neat dot. I have been waiting since I was about 9 to use this technique. I saw someone in a park doing a really 90's schoolhouse quilt with apples and plaid- you know the type! I asked her what she was doing, and this is it! Logged it away for just such a time several decades later. 

Use a compass to mark circles onto thick brown paper (hey, thanks Trader Joes!) Cut the paper circle templates out, and baste squares of fabric onto the paper with the raw edges pulled to the back as in top photo. Trim the excess fabric leaving 1/4" seam allowance. Hand stitch onto your squares as below. I used an invisible hemming technique, but something decorative like a blanket stitch or fern stitch could be very valid traditional options as well.  

Pull out the basting thread and clip a little hole in the center of the back of the square to pop the paper out. Presto! 

Obviously the technique wouldn't do for applique onto, say, unlined clothing, but this works great for pieced items. 

I am almost finished with all the dots, and ready to start piecing, but I have a few other projects I am working on in tandem I am excited about too. Can't wait to show you!

Value Quilt

The  Value Quilt is finished!
Thanksgiving Day is a great time to do hand work if you don't have to be in the kitchen– which, thanks to my super family, I didn't this year. The food sure tasted better because I didn't have to cook it!

The night I put the new quilt on my daughter's bed my youngest was keenly jealous. She wanted a quilt too. I tucked her very happily into the crib quilt she usually ignores. I have to admit I was feeling gratified by all the appreciation for my work.

Then of course big sister decided she didn't actually want to sleep with her new quilt on her bed. She wads it up and throws it to the floor in the night.
These pictures are a grand fiction.

Little sister followed suit, of course, when I tried to tuck her in the next night. How could I even think of tucking her in with a quilt? Silly me.
I am hoping they like things I make for them by the time they are 40. That seems doable.

When did you start appreciating handmade things? I remember staring by the hours at the patterns in afghans and quilts made for me by the time I was 5 or so. I hope this will be a comfort and fascination to my daughter like those blankets were for me as a kid. Maybe next year, right?  

Experimenting with Free Motion Quilting

Lately the tail is wagging the dog a little as far as the blog is concerned. I enjoy posting tutorials and printables: things that other people can share and replicate. At the same time, when I am focused on those things it is hard to enjoy big, complicated, or un-photogenic projects. I am still doing some, but they just stress me out and receive low priority treatment!

So let me tell you about this project. It is neither complex nor ugly, but it is big. What possessed me that last year right in the middle of packing boxes I started sewing a quilt top? It was very simple and it only took me a few days to make the twin size top. It is made with this tutorial called Value Quilts  because you sort everything into lights and darks. You step away and it magically turns the clashy fabrics into something greater than the sum of the parts. I heard about the concept from Wise Craft.  It showed up last November in this picture as a curtain cum stained glass window in our empty apartment, but other than that it's been shuffled around from town to town and room to room waiting for me to quilt it.
I have done free motion stitching before, but with lines to guide me.

Here I am allowing the prints to tell me what they want to be. There are quite a few solids. I don't have a modern quilt stash, I have just received other people's old stashes and make what I can of them. So with the solids I just have some fun and see what happens.

I am about half way done. I really enjoy the childishness of these needle drawings which are clumsy and naive in a way I really can't be with a pen and paper anymore. I am allowing myself to get really caught up in the tiny detail because I feel like it is helping me fine tune my skills a little bit.

When I zone out and don't plan too hard, a quilting style of my own feels like it is starting to try to emerge. The square above feels like a good example of that.
I look forward to getting it done, but I am also enjoying the process.

November in Pictures

In Progress...

 
It is time for a very quick works in progress report! A sudden dip in temperature this weekend lit the fire under me (or should I say iced me?) and reminded me of all the cold weather items I want and need to be making for my family! I have been remiss, but it is hard to remember how cold cold is when it is in the 90s. For one thing, my husband hasn't got a scarf since he lost the one he stole from me back in college. That is changing now.  

Next there is this coat I have been needle felting and embroidering on. I found it new at Goodwill with a few other wool jackets, and I thought I'd embroider them and resell them. But when Daniel realized they fit like gloves, he wants me to keep them. This happens to us all the time. What do you think? 

 
 Lastly, here is my progress on Thacia's quilt design. Given that I have only made 2 quilts so far, and they have been crib sized, obviously I am a great expert on quilting. That's why I decided to do make a Hawaiian quilt of my own design, that will actually be asymmetrical and very curvy. I have never hand appliqued anything this big, but I am pretty darn sure thistles are not the ideal image for a project like this. 

You have seen other steps of this project here, here, and here as I have screwed up my courage to do this crazy project I've never seen anything like, in a technique I have never used, to make an item I have never made before, all before my child freezes to death. Wish me luck!

Put a Bird On It

We just got home from a fun week in Indiana with Daniel's parents, and I spent yesterday rushing around doing all the things that make me want to go on vacation in the first place, and the very same things that make me not want to leave home ever again! The laundry, cleaning out the refrigerator, dentists appointments... 

Today we are switching gears, and I am working on the applique quilt I have been alternately dreaming of and dreading for Thacia. This is a drawing for it, and I adore it. Perceptions are so deeply influenced by ideals, and not just in sketch! When I am drawing I definitely exaggerate curves. This goldfinch is probably not flight worthy as drawn, but I think I'll leave it. 

The Big Finish

I am procrastinating from waxing my dreads (which no one but my husband really notices whether I've done or not) to proudly show you the baby quilt I finished yesterday! It kind of crocked in the wash, i.e. color rubbed off from one fabric to another, but that doesn't entirely surprise me because I did use quite a few vintage fabrics. I figure it adds character.

I ended up using a black and white polka dot binding because the black helps intensify the rainbow colors in the sashing.

The green and yellow calico will make a perfect field for animals to romp on later. At least that's what I would have used it for as a kid! 

I hope you are having a carefree summer, my friends!

Cartwheeling Geese + Rainbow Stripes = Love

Okay now I am ready to show you the quilt top! Whatever precision I achieved on the squares themselves has been blown to pieces on the sashing, but I am not going to apologize for this not being a blue-ribbon worthy quilt top. What it lacks in technique it makes up in heart and pure joy. I will treasure the memories of Thacia sitting in my lap picking the colored strips at her whim while I sewed them together.
  

I love the unpremeditated nature of the color combinations. I just tore strips from every solid colored cotton fabric I had, ironed out the kinks, cut them into roughly the same length and just let Thacia hand them to me at random.

These are some of my favorites!

At the joins I mitered the strips. I really like how the squares look wonky even though they really aren’t. Sorry the photos are kind of blurry. I had to wait until a little someone was in bed before I had time to get the pictures!

How To: Make Your Own Felt Advent Calendar

The rush of awesome Christmas projects that flood the craft blogs in December is agony to a procrastinator such as myself. Who has time to make treasures between making treats and presents and trying to make or keep traditions? No, if anything Christmasy is to be done in my house, it had best start now! Which is why I was thrilled to receive this beautiful advent calendar from my very talented sister this Christmas. It only needed to be quilted and bound, and it took me 5 months to  get around to it  do it! I asked Anna to answer a few questions for us:

Q: Could you please tell us a little about your style?

A: "My style... I love small prints. I love needlepoint pillows. I love embroidered things... Pretty much if you find it at an estate sale for a woman in her 80's, I will like it. All of my friends refer to me as "an old soul," not because we believe in reincarnation, but more because I would fit in a lot better if I had been born at the beginning of the 20th century than at the end. I am currently obsessed with grey and white, as far my decorating goes, inspired by a fabulous shower curtain from Target."

Q: Where did you get the idea for this advent calendar? And where did you get the silhouettes from?

A: "I got the idea from a fabulous website that I discovered one day while browsing the web for free knitting patterns. I LOVE this industrious wife and mother's innovation and style. Totally me. Anyway, she had instructions for a similar calendar, and it made so much sense to me to make a reusable advent calendar, rather than the kind you throw away once the windows are all open! Her calendar can be found here. I am obsessed with felt, (Tacky Felt Projects, I call them...) and so this was right up my ally. I decided to take a different twist on it though, and instead of making the them snowing presents, I made it the best present of all... my precious Savior. I cannot draw for anything in the world, unless I have something to go off of, so I had to steal someone else's art."

Lydia's Note: Because she drew it, not printed it, it was not actually stealing. However, I searched for "free nativity scene silhouette" and came up with lots of copyright free options you could re-size and print for patterns.

Q: I love your choice of colors here, as always! But what made you think "Christmas! I think I'll use pastels!"?

A: "I'd love to say it was my idea, but it was pastels in the photo. But that is something that I loved about the photo. And of course, traditional doesn't quite come natural to me. My colors do vary from the photo... But I guess I was going for the rising dawn look? I don't know. Just took some felt and went with it!"

Q: How did you put it together? (Materials, adhesives, did you have patterns for everything or just eyeball some of it?)

A: "I just looked at the photo and freehanded the characters onto a legal pad, cut out the paper pieces and pinned them onto black felt, then cut out the felt. I'm quite sure there must have been an easier way, but the long way is therapeutic. That's what I like to tell myself. Everything came from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, as (regrettably) we do not have better stores in Odessa! The felt is from Michael's. The background is just muslin from Hobby Lobby. I used textile glue (which was kind of difficult to use, because it doesn't spread well and is a pain to squeeze out of the bottle...) to affix the felt to the muslin. If I were ever to do something like this again, I'd explore different options. If can sew, maybe that would be a good option, but I personally didn't want the stitches to show... I was going more for the flannel-graph look! The beads came from Michael's. Just seed beads and nylon bead thread. The stars each have a snap on the back to attach with each day of December leading up to Christmas. I put beads on the stars to distract from the ugly stitching for the snaps, (and because color in unexpected places is always fabulous!)"

Lydia's Note: Other options for the felt might be hot glue or a fusible web like Wonder Under or Heat n' Bond.

General Instructions to make your own calendar follow after the jump:

Lattice Baby Quilt

I saw something like this here, and I didn't really know how they did it. I'd never done a quilt before, but I just dove in and worked it out on graph paper.

I might do it differently now, as strip piecing, but live and learn. I like how it turned out. It reflects T's personality well because she is very linear, but also zany.

The theme for her room is kind of sock animals, so I chose red, brown and oatmeal for the colors.

For the reverse side I bought a print and then realized I'd been cheap and not gotten enough, so I divided it into quarters and put white sashing between them. Mission accomplished.

Cartwheeling Geese Quilt

When I saw this quilt block tutorial at The Sometimes Crafter I knew someday I would make it even though I am not much of a quilter. As you may know, my first quilt from start to finish was Thacia's baby quilt. Make me post a picture of it tomorrow! I can't believe I've never showed you the finished thing! Actually, that posting date was only 2 days before I went into labor. Maybe I can believe it.

I love this block because it's insanely happy. What could be more joyful than geese flying in circles? Don't answer that. 

I do wish I had such fun vintagey fabrics as the example, but I am making do with only scraps, and that's a rule. If I am too cheap to throw stuff away, then I am not allowed to bellyache when I use it!

Anyway, the completely logical thing to do as a beginning quilter is to jump right into paper piecing, right? Christina actually made it super easy. 

There was some debate as to whether it is best to use regular printer paper, special paper piecing paper, or tracing paper. I used printer paper, but rather than perforating by stitching through it without thread, I just used my tracing wheel and ruler on it– here's the key: On the ironing board. The teeth of the tracing wheel bite deeper over a padded surface. Even Thacia can and does tear off the pieces cleanly.

I need your opinion: Is this gender neutral? There's pink in it. This child's heartbeat is much slower than Thacia's, so it could be a boy! It's a baby quilt so no one is taking this to college, but... what do you think?

Front or Back?

Why did no one ever tell me how addictive the precision of quilting is? I have done so much sewing that it is hard to believe I've never tried a quilt! I have done a lot of piecing, but it is usually curved. The sameness of geometric patchwork is mesmerizing.

This is my baby quilt top. The nursery is projected to have a sock monkey theme... sort of. I wanted to choose a simple looking geometric pattern you can get lost looking at. Of course it is not as simple as it looks. Figures, right?
In eternity I will make millions of iterations of the same design to see how they look. The star/polka-dot print is slightly directional, and I started out making sure it all went the same way, but I gave up when I decided no one would notice.

Do you like the front or back better? I think I like the woven textural quality of the back, though you can't use a quilt that is backward...

Two days until the due date! The countdown is on.

My Grandmother's Quilt

Although I have never been close to the grandmother who made this quilt, it was the one I took to college, and the one on my bed now. 

Her handwork has always felt like the calm and love she has never been able to express relationally to me. I think of her hand sewing this in big stitches, laughing with her sisters, all the way happy and at ease for a moment. 

Some of the pieces have torn or fallen out, and I have replaced them with my own scraps. 

From my grandmother's quilts I have learned not to be so precious about what the fiber content is, or even at times, the grain line. 

To create from the heart. 

There is a place for fastidious care, and a place for just going at it with reckless abandon, and for me this quilt typifies that joy.