Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Quilt Reveal: Tile Quilt


I was thinking about what to gift my sister for her birthday when I remembered that I had gifted her the tile quilt top last year, but hadn't finished it!  Oops, time for some emergency quilting!

I had been thinking about quilting in the ditch to make the squares look more like tiles, but thought that slightly beside the ditch would be better to look like the grout. I had originally thought to stitch on both sides of the seams, but these squares are fairly small, and there are a lot of them. I'm not really sure that they would be necessary since the seam itself is one side of the grout and the quilting could be the other side. I used a slightly darker thread so the grout lines would show.

Another option, which I obviously discarded is to quilt motifs on the quilt, to take full advantage of the fact that it is a quilt and not tiles.  I really couldn't think of a motif or set of motifs to add.

I had a dream that I quilted all sorts of motifs on the quilt, like graffiti. I pictured some graffiti on an American flag that I must have seen in the 80s or thereabouts  I had already started quilting and there is  no way I could think of enough motifs to add to do that, but this dream did really help me relax in quilting this. "She's just lucky I'm not graffiting all over the quilt."


 The quilting is about an eighth of an inch away from the seam, which is not a normal width in quilting.  Every time my mind wandered to thinking about something else, like "is the path clear?", "do I need to remove more safety pins?", "is the quilt flat on the table and not dragging?", I would subconsciously switch to either quilting in the ditch or a quarter of an inch away, and I would have to veer back to the right space, sometimes over-correcting and needing yet another adjustment.  I think I did this often enough to make it look like the variation was normal and expected.  This picture above this paragraph has the truest colors, and you can see the tile-like design in the cream fabric.


The party was at my house so I was busy cleaning and working, and the party was in the evening, so I  didn't get a good picture of the whole thing, but this gives you a general idea.

Islamic Tile Quilt made by Shasta Matova
Apparently I didn't get a good picture of the quilt top either, but here is a picture I showed last time of the whole quilt top.

This quilt was a joy to quilt.  Part of it was my relaxed mood I mentioned above.  But part of it was also the batting. I used a new batting from Joanns that I got on sale this year or last. I usually use Warm and Natural. I think this one was called Soft and Bright or something like that. It is super soft and seems to have less scrim than Warm and Natural. Without actually looking at the labels, I would imagine that this batting would be really good for people who like a lot of quilting in their quilts and yet still want a soft look.  Another part of it was the new Sew Steady table I got shortly after starting quilting on this quilt. I'll review that after I've played with it some more.

While I was binding this quilt, I watched YouTube videos on junk journals, bullet journals and scrapbooks.  I thought about new quilt ideas.  But I've had so much fun quilting this quilt and the last one, that it might be time to quilt something else!

Linked to:
Let's Bee Social

Sunday, October 29, 2017

September Favorite Pictures

Here are my favorite pictures for the month of September.  I've shown you several in my newsy posts, but here are the ones you haven't seen.


I made several trips to a cemetery this month.


One of the only plants that came up from my big batch of expired seeds I threw in this bed. This was after a rain. If you look carefully, you can see the water droplets.


The end of summer means a lot of the flowers are gone. I like the spikes this one left.


But there is still beauty left in what remains.


 This flower has had a life well lived.


The space by the sewing macine is Zeus's nap spot, not a design floor. Any fabric on the floor becomes his bedding. The bag on the top right has fabric for new curtains for the bedrooms.


This one was also taken at the cemetery. By the time I looked up and decided to take a picture of the plane, it was right above me.

I was planning on showing you my September favorite pictures earlier this month, but didn't get around to it. I figure better now than never. Let's see how long it takes to show you the October pictures.

Monday, October 9, 2017

Generations of Red and White Quilts

While I was sewing the binding of the Red Snowflake quilt I showed you last week, I watched some You Tube videos of Mill House Creeks.  She was talking about Generation Scrap Quilts.  The concept is to take the leftover fabric of a quilt you made (first generation), and use it to make another quilt (second generation). She even made a third generation quilt.



Being interested in genealogy, I liked the idea of a generation quilt, although I'm not sure I agree with the rule of not adding additional fabric. After all, the next generation gets married, so there is fresh fabric in the mix.  This was my idea all along with this fabric, and I had already planned other quilts with the leftover fabric.


The first generation was the Red Snowflake I showed you last week.  I didn't realize there was the red row that had all the same fabrics (more red than white), but I am going to leave it that way.  Picture a dark ribbon over a present filled with little presents.

This is a second generation quilt which uses the same background and the same bandana fabric as the Red Snowflake.  There are two other reds that join the mix.

I decided I had made enough presents and decided to use these leftover blocks for a different quilt.  That probably makes these blocks a third generation.


I took the leftover scraps and glued them down in this fashion.  I'm not sure it looks like a tree. Maybe if I take the branch on the right off, it will look less like a flower.  Will see if I can add it to the trunk to make it look more like a trunk. Is this the fourth generation, since the third generation blocks aren't done? I did finally throw away the rest of the scraps, so there is not likely to be a fifth generation.

Edited to add:  Oh wait, I forgot about some other scraps, so yes there will be a fifth generation. Most definitely.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Genealogy Fun: My Obituary

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings posts a challenge every Saturday. It is a prompt to write about something genealogy related. I usually ignore these challenges, since this blog is more about quilting and not about genealogy.  But this week, his challenge was to use a newspaper clipping generator and write an article.  I thought it would be fun to make up a tongue-in-cheek obituary.


Friday, October 6, 2017

Red Snowflake - Seven Day Mystery Quilt Reveal


As a part of Finish Fest, I have finished the Seven Day Mystery Quilt, which currently has the creative name Red Snowflake.

I enjoyed every part of making this quilt, even parts that might have been frustrating in the past.  The fabric selection was quick and easy - pick a fabric and a background.  Making the blocks was enjoyable.  Maximum of four easy blocks, with easy directions.  Putting them together was easy and fun, solving a mystery made it more interesting.  The straight line quilting with all its turns was still fun, because I was highlighting the snowflake and looking forward to the free  motion afterwards.  The free motion quilting also moved along easily. I used a generic darning foot and it worked wonderfully. I think I will be using more generic feet with this machine.  The brand name ones are crazy expensive.

Thank you Rose of Threadbare Creations, for this great mystery and pattern.

Presenting it is the hardest part. Besides the fact that it is dark and rainy outside, Blogger didn't want to accept my photos.



Future historians aren't going to know how to take this quilt. Of course they will be looking over and analyzing my work. Some of them will say, "no Shasta didn't make this; she tends to add things to simple modern quilts to make them less modern." Others will say, "yes she did make it.  See this lump? This was made before she learned how to make proper bindings."




This quilt is versatile. It fits right at home with my other modern quilts.


It fits with the Christmas quilts. 


And it fits with the red and white quilts.  I remember saying of my last small quilt finish that it was the biggest small quilt I had made. I don't remember which one that was so I can't compare, but I think this one is bigger. It crowds out the other quilts so there is no danger of it having a permanent place on the bulletin board.

I looked it up. It was the Irish chain.  I'm sure it would look good with that too!


It looks good with the Valentine's Day quilt.

Linked to:

 Scraphappy Saturday. Even though it is red and white, it looks pink from a distance, and has a pink backing.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Finish Fest


It's October already, and the goal for this week is to finish things.  Look at the to-do list on the calendar and put a check mark besides as many things as possible.  I must resist the temptation to add new things to the list as I check off old ones.

Wash dishes, check.
Replace burnt out light bulbs, check.

I have to admit I added those two things just so I could check them off!

I am not going to bore you with the household items on the list, but the list does include sandwiching some quilts, quilting some quilts, and binding some quilts.  Yes, each of these steps is listed for each of the quilts, so I can get lots of checkmarks! Just sandwiching quilts will be a big accomplishment in getting them ready for the next phase, and will result in less work for me to do in the future.


The sandwiching of the seven day mystery quilt is done, and quilting has commenced.  I have finished the walking foot portion - outlining all of the points, and will do some free motion work in the background areas. This is similar to what Anne Ida did. It would  have been easier to do everything by free motion, but I still get nervous with starting free motion quilting, so having a small area to do that way makes me feel better. The pink backing fabric was a leftover when I used it as a backing fabric for another quilt, and was just the right size for this quilt.



Waiting in the wings are the present boxes (front) and the Adinkra (back) quilts.  I have made enough blocks for the present boxes to make a quilt, and am deciding whether to make more blocks for a bigger quilt. I'm not sure that more will make it any better. I have leftover starters which might wind up being a separate, possibly simpler, red and white quilt.

Linked to:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. I don't have a design wall, but my current quilt doesn't need one, being under the needle.