Quilt Reveal: Pajamas Doll Quilt

 

It's time for another Project Quilting reveal! The challenge of this week is Wearables.

Your project must be wearable, or have been made from previously worn items, or have another connection to clothes, shoes and fashion accessories.

I gave myself two choices: 

1. Make a blouse that I have been planning to make for a very long time. I already have the pattern and the fabric chosen.
2. Make a quilt out of all the pajamas I have been saving to make a quilt.

Since I hadn't made a blouse since high school, I didn't think I could handle the pressure of making it in a week, even though the pattern says it is easy to make. I am keeping it downstairs and hope to make it this year.

Making the pajamas quilt will help me reduce clutter in the sewing room since these flannel pajamas take up a more room than flat fabric would. 

I had seen a quilt in a show I watched recently that was a scrap quilt made entirely out of squares but it was set on point, which added a nice interest to the squares. I decided to do that.

So I cut up the pieces and laid out the blocks on the design wall. I am trying to use up all the fabric as I can and make a nice big lap quilt. Even though these girly fabrics would make a good gift for a girl, I don't feel comfortable giving a gift with my used clothes so I will have to use it or maybe I can give it to my dog Zoey.

I recorded videos as I was making this quilt to give instructions on how to make a quilt on point. I need to learn to be better about taking photographs as well as videos.

Cutting pieces out of clothing, even simple squares, takes longer than cutting them from a flat fold of fabric. Some of it is stretchy, and some of it is faded and I had to decide which part of the fabric to use. I soon realized that there was no way I was going to be able to make a big lap quilt, quilted and bound, by the Project Quilting challenge deadline, so I decided to make a small one out of the fabric I saved in case I needed to piece a block.

The smaller quilt also makes it easier to show in a video as I move pieces around for a tutorial. The squares finish at 1".

I pieced the smaller quilt, and then somebody stole an hour from me. Daylight Savings Time.

This meant I had only 15 minutes to finish it, so I quickly trimmed it and the backing, and sewed around the edges. I turned it right side out and didn't really take the time to carefully poke out the corners. I secured the edges and called it done.

The teal fabric in the photo above in the top left corner is the start of the Pinwheel quilt I will show you on March 21.

15 Minutes to Stitch 2024

I have been quilting every day this year.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7 days

15 minute days this year -- 70 out of 70 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with: Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch

Simply Squares

Why are you seeing photos of a quilt that you thought was finished way back in May?  Well, it is a long story.  When I finished the Celebrate quilt, I updated my spreadsheet to mark the finish date, but I also tried to add a column to figure out the average amount of time each quilt takes.  It didn't work out - since there are estimates of dates and ranges in there.  Then, I tried to sort the spreadsheet, but used the wrong range, so the sort was all wrong.  I didn't save the spreadsheet and just quit.  I didn't remember that I hadn't saved the updates.

Anyway, yesterday, I was looking at the spreadsheet to see how I was doing, what I wanted to work on, and I noticed that the Celebrate and Simply Squares quilt did not have finish dates on them.  I looked on the blog for the finish date for Simply Squares, and all I found was a note that I was working on the binding in May.  No quilt reveal!  I know the weather was bad and I wasn't able to get a good picture, but we've had good weather days since then!

I decided to remedy the situation by providing a belated quilt reveal.  I took the quilt along for our daily walk.

Which photo do you like the best? I added a poll in the sidebar for fun.  Please leave a comment to let me know what appealed to you about the photo(s). This will help me take better photos of other quilts.

Miscellaneous

I haven't been able to think of a blog worthy post, but I thought I would stop in to say hi, and keep you up to date on the latest happenings at the High Road.

Zeus and I are getting along great.  He is getting better with his separation anxiety, and is trying to learn things like playing fetch, touching my keys with his nose, and nodding his head.  The playing fetch and nodding his head is just for fun, but I am hoping he will eventually help me find my keys.  He has to earn his keep somehow! He is hogging my quilt in the photo.

I am getting a lot of good advice from the people at work - it is wonderful to work with so many diverse people.  One of them told me that I don't need to get carpet treads for my stairs.  He said that Zeus would learn how to maneuver around various surfaces, and should be all right now.  Which he is.  He also told me I could use a leash that I could tie to a post in the ground.  I think I will eventually get a fence, but the tie-in will be nice until then.  I just need to convince Zeus that being left outside to enjoy the weather is a good thing.

Now I need to learn how to clip his nails.

*************

I received a "save the date" postcard from my daughter's school for her graduation.  I find it hard to believe that she is graduating already.

She is planning on going to graduate school.  For college, she was looking at places as far away as Colorado and New England.  Now, she is reaching even farther to the United Kingdom!  She has also applied to some more local schools (everything else seems local in comparison).

And if those things didn't make me feel old enough, I received a letter from a hospital, that, because I was a mature woman, I could attend a class about menopause.

*************

The snow has melted, and the mud has dried.  The birds are chirping, and more people are out and about.  It is getting colder again though.

I have trimmed the Simply Squares quilt, and it is waiting for binding.  I haven't been able to find a fabric that goes well with it, so I might have to go shopping, but I wanted to look one more time through the stash to see if if the fabric I need isn't hiding somewhere in there.

Quilting Finished!

I am finished with quilting the Simply Squares quilt.  I need to trim and bind it. 

You can thank Zeus for my speedy progress on this quilt.  He leaves me alone to quilt, but when I am sitting on the couch watching tv, or even on the computer, he decides he wants attention.  He is very pushy, putting himself under your hand so you will pet him, or even whining.  He won't just sit next to you; he expects attention the whole time.  Now I have to get him to leave me alone when I am on the computer.  So far, I have been reading blogs, and doing other casual things, so it wasn't a big deal for me to pet him while I was on the computer.  But when I work from home, I am on the computer a lot, and I would prefer to not be interrupted when I am working.

I have been also teaching him the "Go to Bed" command.  I have this big pillow I got for him (the label said "dog bed" and fits perfectly in the crate which we returned). I figured that I could move the pillow to whatever room I wanted him to stay in.  It would be a good command when we needed him out of the way.  We had a couple of training sessions, and he didn't quite understand. He would lie down anywhere on the floor, but we were making progress.

When he was whining yesterday while I was on the computer, I said "go to bed", not really expecting him to do it, because I didn't think he understood the command.  He went straight to the couch, because that is where he sleeps when I am sleeping upstairs. He apparently understands the command, just didn't understand why I was calling the pillow "bed."   When I am downstairs, he generally sleeps in whatever room I am, although he will leave the room if that room isn't comfortable for him. 

I know he has been trained already, but I don't know what vocabulary has been used, so I think I am confusing him by using different words for different things.  Today, I asked him where his toy was, and he got it for me!  He doesn't do it every time, but that might be because he didn't want to play tug of war on a hardwood floor. 

I don't really want to play tug of war with him until he understands the "drop it" command.  I am having a hard time teaching it to him, because when I have the treats out, he drops the toy before I can say drop it.  He still doesn't understand "stand" either, because to him it probably means "come get your treat", and he doesn't understand that it has to do with a body position, even though I am reinforcing "sit" and "down" at the same time as I am teaching him "stand".

Quilting Progress

Michele asked to see the family friendly quilting, and I am happy to oblige.  As you can see, I quilted an S shape on the left side.  Then, I turned the quilt around and finished out the figure 8 as shown on the right side.  Thank you Paula for the advice.  I am now finished with quilting all of the rows. I am now working on the columns.  There are fewer of them, but they are longer. It is turning out quite nicely.  Even though I could picture what I was doing in my mind, it is always a pleasant surprise when it comes out in real life.

The pros of this quilting design is

• that it is easy.  It is a nice step up from straight stitching.  You can probably use a walking foot, depending on how big your block is, and not even need to free motion quilt it. 
• Also, as mentioned before, there are no threads to hide, except for where I ran out of bobbin thread.
• it yields a family friendly design.
• Looks more impressive than straight stitching, but it really isn't any more work, and isn't harder.
• Don't have to draw quilting lines
• can practice getting an even stitch length
• don't need to sew a straight line - stitch in the ditch is harder
• The seams definitely have been quilted into flat submission

The cons is that

• you are sewing only in one direction, which means you have to stop and adjust the sandwich and your hands regularly. Which is a pain if you don't have needle down on your machine
• The stitches are closer where I was sewing slower to end in the needle down position.  Not sure if that means the intersections are sturdier (smaller stitches) or weaker (lots of holes in a small space).
• not drawing quilting lines isn't as neat as drawing them on - if you wanted it neater, you could at least mark where you wanted the stitches to intersect
• free motion quilting can yield uneven stitch length, depending on your expertise

Edited to add: Another con for this method is that since your sewing is directional, you will have times when the entire bulk of the quilt will have to be on the right side of where you are quilting. Of course, you don't have to leave all of it in the throat, you can move as much as you can behind the machine. Since I have a lap quilt, it isn't too bad, but I think a bed quilt would be much harder.

Shame

Paula gave me the idea to quilt figure eights instead of just loops, which I thought was an excellent idea.  I was thinking about not using it though, because I had already quilted several rows of the Simply Squares quilt, and I think consistency will look better than changing plans midway.

Then I was reading a blog where the blogger was tired of making more blocks, and trying to decide whether to stop and make the quilt as it was, or make more blocks to make it larger as she had intended.  My advice to her was to make the blocks, unless that would stop her from finishing the quilt at all.  Generally when someone looks at my quilts, they don't know the circumstances that they were made in, so they will look at the quilt as a measure of my skill level.  And combining easy squares with bad quilting, is well, just lazy. Especially since I know a better way.

Yesterday, I quilted a row of S's, then turned it around, and quilted a row of S's over them to make a figure 8.  It looks really good, neat enough for the modern quilters, even.  This means that all of the loose threads will be at the ends, and there will be no threads to bury. I decided to continue with those instead of my original stitching.  I could add them both on the seams and in the centers to create the look that I was originally going for, but I have decided for now that I will just make them on the seams.  The blocks are small, and don't need that much quilting, and I want to make sure I don't run out of the brown thread.  I'll decide for sure when I am done with the seams. 

Yesterday, I ripped out the rows and rows of bad quilting.  Since my stitch length is not even, there were some parts that were easy to rip, and some parts that are very very hard. I am hoping that the busy fabric will hide anything I missed, although I do plan to go over it one more time to see what else I can rip.  Unbasting would probably help, but that is just going too far.

Back to quilting!

Progress on Simply Squares

I know that most people would have made this quilt in a day, and shown you the finished product in one post - "Look what I made today."  But that's not how I operate - working on a few minutes a day.  In order to save you some impatience, you will be happy to know that not only has the quilt been sandwiched already, but I have even started quilting it.

The change in my horoscope sign must be good for me, because the free motion quilting is working just fine. I even forgot to cover the feed dogs and change the stitch length.  Just changed the foot and started sewing. No thread throwup.  Nice!

I love all the different quilting trends out there, and I love combining them.  I am using basic squares from the modern quilt movement.  Just let the fabric do the work.  Matching corners on squares is easy.  Then I am using quilting methods from the liberated quilters.  No need to mark the design, just have a plan and wing it! 

The safety pins I am using for basting only get in the way on blocks that will really show the quilting, which is normal for me, and I am not expecting perfection, so it is all good. If  you have any complaints about my quilting, please see my setup above.  The machine does not have a needle down position, has a small throat, and is held up by masking tape, which I think is a step down from electrical tape.   I am making ovals, to create a four petal flower pattern. With the busy fabric, and dim lighting, and safety pins, it is hard to make sure I line the petals well , and I didn't, so now I'm not lining them up for the rest of the quilt.

Hopefully when I am finished putting in all the petals, it won't look like tails, or pictures that belong in the bathroom or online in places that aren't family friendly.  I have this worry every time I free motion quilt anything, especially ovals.  I don't mention it, because I don't want you to think about things, if you aren't already thinking about them.  I'm sure Freud would have some things to say about it.  Do you worry about things like that?  I've never seen it mentioned in other blogs, so maybe I am the only one. I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that too.  What do you do to prevent your ovals from turning into things that have ratings with X's in them?

Once you answer my questions, please zap yourself with that thought erasing light, because I don't want you to think those kinds of things when you see any of my quilts.

Innocent

See how sweet and innocent that dog looks? And clean? Did you notice clean?  We gave the dog a bath. This meant this was his first time upstairs.   He was afraid of going upstairs, and then wouldn't get into the bath.  He was so scared, he wouldn't eat the treats.  He had to be carried into the bathtub.  He handled the bath okay - he loves to be petted.  Then he jumped out of the tub because we weren't quick enough with the towel. I used a medicated shampoo for dry skin, so he doesn't smell good, but he is sooo very soft. Very very soft and fluffy.

And now he thinks he can come upstairs whenever he wants.  I have hardwood floors, even on the steps, and he doesn't have much traction, but he does okay.  He is always startling me when I am upstairs because I am not expecting him.

And if that wasn't enough adventure, my daughter's friend came over.  She has a dog, and Zeus just loved her.  She lets him lick her face, something we don't do. He had a great time moving from between the three of us to get petted.  Then we decided it was time to let him out.  I've let him out once before without his leash, and he handled that just fine.  I don't have a fence yet, but he is a well behaved dog and does come when called.  We let him out again without the leash, and he bolted.  I called for him, but it didn't work.

We had a panic, and I decided to take the car to follow our regular walking path.  The girls decided to walk and look for him in the alley.  I went back home, to see if the girls had found him.  They hadn't.

We decided to try again, again with me driving, and them looking on foot. The girls went out. As I was about to go to my car,  I heard a bark, and wasn't sure it was him, but I decided to call again.  Yelling out loud in the neighborhood, bothering the neighbors and drawing attention to my predicament, isn't something I like to do, but desperate circumstances called for it.  It turns out that my daughter had seen him, and was chasing him, and he ran straight to the yard, and when I called him, he went right in the house! 

Yes, we learned our lesson.  Always take him out on a leash. And get a fence ASAP!

In quilting news, I am piecing the backing for the Simply Squares quilt.  Zeus did try to get on the fabric when I set it on the floor to see where and how much fabric I had to add, but I told him to get off, and he behaved and stayed off of the fabric.

Word Play Quilts is Available!

  Have you seen the countdown that Clare and Lynne and of course Tonya have been showing?  The excitement has been building. And now, drum roll, Tonya's book has been published and it is available on Amazon! Amazon is even showing you some sneak peeks on some of the pages.  My affiliation?  I've been following Tonya's blog from before she was an author, and I've made a word quilt (yes only one quilt and only one word, and it isn't finished yet, but I have cut out the shapes for the border, so progress has been made.) And I got an affiliate ID, so that if you go to amazon by clicking on the picture, I will get a small commission.  No pressure for you, but if you are buying anyway, I might as well benefit a little bit.  I promise I am not going to turn this into a sales blog.

In other news, I have finished piecing the backing for the Rail Fence quilt and finally found backing fabric for the Simply Squares quilt.  I was tempted to go shopping to buy the backing fabric, but I really wanted to be able to find it in the stash, and I found some in the Christmas fabric.  I guess it wanted to be Christmas quilt, and who am I to stop that?

Hello

Hello everyone, welcome back. I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.  We did. We met with the entire family at my sister's house, and had a great feast, and great conversation.

Just some random thoughts today.  I am still spending a few minutes to sew the Simply Squares together.  At one time, I had decided that I would no longer buy any pins or safety pins.  The ones I have are enough to make maybe two quilts, and if the supplies are in use, I have to finish the project, so the supplies are free to use.  This is a way to limit myself from starting too many new things.

4-5-6

One of the tips I read or heard, and use, is to identify rows by designating the row # by using that number of pins.  I was afraid I was going to run out of pins using this method, since I had fourteen rows. I needed pins for the seams.  One thing I did, was turn them over in pairs, since they had to be sewn up anyway, so I only had to label seven pairs.  I put the labeling pins on the left side of the row, so it was clear which way the pair went.  I also got smart, and I used a safety pin to designate the number 5, kinda like tallies. No, I don't do it neatly, I am going to take them out anyway, although I recommend not pinning the rows together with the tally pins, and not so close to the edge, so you can leave them in until the entire quilt top is done.

It turns out I have a whole box of pins upstairs - safety pins stay on a quilt until the basted quilt is quilted, but straight pins don't stay on very long.  I am not in a habit of straight pinning fabric or blocks and leaving a project in the pinned state.

Also if you are the kind of person who remembers things, you should know that when I brought the rows downstairs after pressing them, it didn't seem like I had enough rows, so I took the leftover squares, cut a couple more (from a new to this quilt fabric), and made another row.  Now I have fully used all the fabric, and except for the part that was too small.  Then I found that I had dropped two rows upstairs on my way down.  So, when you see the quilt, don't expect fourteen rows.  I don't know how many I have, I'm not the kind who remembers these things. Logic says 15, but I'm not making any promises.

so cute

I received my mushrooms I requested from Meyer Imports, who by the way is having a different giveaway this month. I talked about it here on this post.  When I saw them on Allie's blog, I was hoping that the little bottles were part of the gift, and not something she had bought. And they are!  It's glass glitter.  So adorable.  My first thought was "What do I do with these?"  I think it would be smart for the business owner to show what can be done with this stuff, in order to increase sales.

so tiny

But not to worry, John.  I have signed up for Another Little Quilt Swap with Kate, and ideas are brewing in my mind that uses these.

Worrying

I added some lighter fabric to my simple squares quilt.  I was worried it might be too dark.  Then I worry that the lighter fabric will change the mood too much from the original.  I decided to just add a few pieces of the lighter fabric, but then I worried that the light fabrics, especially the lightest one, might stand out too much compared to all the darker and dark medium fabrics.

I bought the fabric in quarter yard increments.  I decided to cut the squares four and a half inches, in order to best use the fabric.  Then when I was done with cutting the first row, I worried that there wouldn't be enough to cut a second row, considering that any fabric I cut to get a clean cut, would eat into my nine inches of fabric.  I thought I should have cut something slightly smaller than four and a half inches.  I did buy some pieces in half yards, since they were a great price, but I decided to leave those to leave the proportions intact.

The fabric was cut perfectly though, just a sliver over nine inches, so that there was no waste at all, and I was able to get to get two rows out of every piece of fabric.  I started sewing, and then I worried that I didn't make the quilt big enough.  Sure it is big enough for a small lap quilt, but I like my lap quilts to really cover me, and another row would make me feel better.  So I cut the rest of my fabric.  In fact, I am using it all up.  All of it, in fact, so the proportions are dictated more by circumstance, than by choice.

Since the last quilt I finished is the rail fence, where every single fabric matched, whether it "matched" or not. I am out of practice in the "will these play together nicely" decision making.  I am pretty sure it will work regardless, but I will have to finish the quilt before I am reassured.

Squares

I have finished putting the borders of my rail fence quilt. Unfortunately, I didn't record on this blog when I started it, but it was at least a year ago.  Eventually I got motivated to work on it as the main project.  I would like to finish the rail fence quilt now, instead of saving it for later. I am working on piecing the backing now.  Nothing fancy, just getting it big enough.

I have decided that I am not going to be making all of my holiday gifts this year.  I will buy something, and supplement it with a quick handmade gift - like the tissue holders I showed earlier. This leaves my time left to finish quilts. [No, Michele, I am not going to promise to finish 10 quilts. or even one.] It also gives me permission to make little things to get the thrill of making something new as well.

I went shopping for batting, and bought some sale fabric as well, pictured above.  I haven't bought any fabric in a long time, so this was really enjoyable.  I have been fondling the fabric since I bought it, thinking I have so many unfinished projects, and fabric kitted up, that I should just put this away. I hadn't bought the fabric to go together, just what I was in the mood to get at the time, but I think they do look good together.  And I have decided to use it up.  This keeps my promise of not buying fabric for the stash.  I am going to make a quilt simply with squares, like this - letting the fabric do the work.  I'm not sure if I will be doing it as a Leader and Ender or simply just make it now. I'm thinking it is something quick and easy that I should just be able to chain piece, but we all know that those kinds of words should never be uttered.