Mini Quilt Swap

I am participating in a mini (not minature) quilt swap with some of the quilters on the APQS forums.  I just received my quilt today.

I really like it!  The quilting is awesome, beautiful feathers, some leaves and some fillers.  I like the color and design.  It was made for me by Monika.  This is a link to her blog:  http://www.quiltloversnews.blogspot.com/

It is so fun to receive a quilt made for me!  I hope the person I am making a mini quilt for likes hers at least half as much. 

practicing

I purchased my longarm quilting machine August 2009.  This year I upgraded to the APQS Bliss system which makes it glide smoother.  I also got a new hopping foot.  The hopping foot that came on my 2003 Millenium was very thin and not suitable for ruler work. 

Having the longarm is a wonderful tool, but there is, at least for me, a big learning curve.  August -  December 2009 I quilted 18 quilts.  Many of those quilts were small donation quilts that others had pieced.  This year I have only quilted 4 quilts, so I want to get back working on quilting to improve my skills.

A couple weeks ago, I decided I needed to learn a new free hand design.  I reviewed all my longarm dvds and decided to practice Nicole Webb's bottoms up hearts.  I have a couple dvds of hers, but I also saw this posted on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JzHGWwZ2bg

My first attempts looked more like droopy, sad hearts.  I have learned from many other quilters, that it is important to draw on paper to practice.  I practiced on a piece of muslin also.

I have also loaded a practice quilt, so below is my 5th quilt for this year.  I am doing the bottoms up hearts in the blue border, but they don't show up in the pictures.  I am getting better.

It is a simple 9 patch.  It will be a donation quilt.  The feathered square wreath is a Patsy Thompson stencil. http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/   I just freehanded the swirl in the center.

Overestimating

I always overestimate how much I am going to accomplish.  This morning as I sewed new leaders for the longarm, my DSM ate at the fabric.  I thought I got the snarl cleaned out but had to open up and clean under the throat plate 3 times before everything went smoothly again.  I was trying to install my new leader grips today.  http://www.leadergrips.com/  I think I am going to like them, but after I sewed the new leaders with a casing for the dowels, I realized the dowels I ordered were too long.  I went to the store to get a small saw....found a bookstore...went out to lunch...returned a couple phone calls....well the day is shot.  At least I have tomorrow off work :)

Saturday I was at a quilt shop for a class.  At the beginning of summer Quilt Among Friends offered a summer pass for $40 and then you could take any class in June, July, August.  I overestimated how many classes I could take....  I got a message Friday that I was signed up for a class on Saturday...well I had to scramble to get fabrics.  I bought some and used some from stash.  It was a paper piecing class...good fun and I learned some things that made it go easier.  I am definitely glad I have the button on my sewing machine that will cut the top and bobbin thread.  I don't need another UFO, but I have always liked these twist type patterns.

I think the blue side could transition better in the lights.  While I was looking at what fabrics to bring, I found some blue and green solid that will work well in the t-shirt quilt...the braids I am making for accents between the shirts need more colors so that is a positive outcome from starting another project.

some progress on t-shirt quilt

Everything is just laying on the background in this photo.  Nothing sewn in yet.  I have made a few braid segments with 2 inch squares of t-shirt material and 2 by 4 inch pieces of background.  I think these will help to get the quilt up to full size.  I also found some additional small parts of the t-shirts I can use.  I don't know yet if I will just use the braids, or add something more. 

I am also working on a mini quilt for a swap, but can't reveal any details as it is a surprise.

T-Shirt Quilt

On my wall I have fabric and t-shirts.  I am making a t-shirt quilt for a friend.  It has been on my mind for awhile.  We went shopping for fabric and she picked out this as background, and this red for a small accent border

There are 7 t-shirts. 

The other two shirts have a white background.

The challenge?  She wants a full size quilt.  These t-shirts are size small.  They were all selected with a places theme, so these are the only shirts she wants in her quilt.  Though I like the background, I am concerned about wide expanses of background with 7 shirts floating on top.  I have looked at additional fabric, but I haven't bought anything.  My friend lives across the country from me and I could send her pictures and get approval.

I think I will make some rows of squares on point or flying geese ... something to connect the t-shirts.

I am pondering using some of the extra t-shirt material (backed with fusible interfacing) to make these connecting rows.   I think that would spread the t-shirt fabric throughout the top and I wouldn't be adding fabrics that she hadn't selected.

I have these on my wall so I can contemplate the quilt.  I am binding my scrap quilt and hopefully as I work on that I will get inspired on the design for this quilt.  Hopefully, I will have pictures of my progress this weekend

Wednesday Work in Progress

I am quilting a scrap quilt with baptist fans.  Lynn Roddy Brown spoke at our guild last year and inspired some of the members to form a block swap group.  We swapped 4 inch four patches, and 4 inch half square triangles in May and June.  There are a wide variety of fabrics in this quilt.  When I first looked at all my blocks together it looked very orange/brown.  I added more blocks with primary colors to balance it out, and chose the blue border to counter the many orange segments.

while I was sewing the blocks together, I kept thinking I would quilt it with the purple thread...today I switched to the gray, which isn't as blue as it looks in the picture.

The top went together really quickly with the 4 patches and HSTs already made.

Room to Crow

There has been an interesting discussion on the Stashbuster Yahoo Group on entering quilts in shows.  Some people have had a negative experience and that is unfortunate.  Some people don't want to have their quilts judged, but others liked seeing their quilts displayed.  Some ignore the judges comments or take them with a grain of salt.  I entered one of my quilts in my guild's show last spring.  Overall it was a positive experience, except next time I will have the quilt finished before I commit to entering!

I belong to a small bee called “Room to Grow” and we entered a group quilt into the Quilt Chairman’s Challenge. The challenge was to use 30’s fabrics. No one in the group cared for pastel 30’s, but Mary Beth went shopping and found some reds, blacks, and yellows we could work with.

Because the applique team added purple and green to the rooster we shopped for more fabric and added green and purple 30's.  The rooster is a pattern, but the rest we worked our way through.  It was a challenge to get the quilt big enough and deal with the rectangular rooster as we added borders.

picture shows Kimberly's excellent hand stitching

The quilt is fairly straight.  I just pinned it quickly to the wall to snap some pictures.

The judges comments were on a preprinted sheet with ratings of Excellent, Satisfactory, and Needs Improvement.  We received mostly excellents with two satisfactories  - border (straight) and corners and edge treatment (miters not stitched closed). 

Judge wrote "Excellent choice of fabrics for rooster (maybe she doesn't like 30's either?)  Good job on piecing.  Long seam lines should be perfectly straight".

Dana helped me quilt it and was instrumental in getting the sun rays in the center.  There are some wrinkles in the picture of the center that are from having the quilt folded.  I probably should have blocked the quilt and taken more care with the stitch in the ditch.  I feel like it was a positive experience and I have learned from it.