Once upon a time, I came across a tutorial on how to make a quilt with collage pieces. It was a llama and I really enjoyed the process of making it.
I really enjoyed the process so I made more like it.
I didn't research whether the elephant came before or after the camel, but it is not really that important. I just wanted to show you the elephant too.
When I made the camel, instead of making a collage that was just the size of the camel, I got the bright idea that I could collage the whole sheet of fusible, and that would give me some scrap collage for another project.
It is a gift that keeps on giving!
There were so many leftover scraps!
We got a giraffe!
There was also a scrappy cat.
That left this fish piece.
I finished it in January, in between the Project Quilting Challenges.
I made a video about making it if you want to see it.
There was a tiny walrus. That piece didn't stay fused and I didn't bother to salvage it.
I'm not sure where this piece is either, but I know there are more collage quilts in my future because they are so much fun to make and use up the tiniest of scraps.
I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted. So much has been going on.
I have been working on making progress on my quilts, but mostly I have been making videos.
I made a video about How I Made the Tropical Fish Quilt With a Pieced Border. I showed this quilt to you in my last post. I wish Blogger would show the whole thumbnail instead of just part of it.
I bought another batch of African fabric, and recorded a video about that. It turned out to be too long and kept crashing my system, so instead of making a three part video, I decided to make three videos. The first one, The Controversy About African Fabrics, reached a lot of viewers, and the comments on this video are worth the read.
The second video Quilting With African Fabrics, FAQs Answered is really helpful as it answers all of the questions I had when I first was introduced to the fabrics, as well as questions I have been asked.
The third one was going to be the one where I show closeups of the fabric. I made videos but I used the the clips to explain things in the other two videos. I might still show that as a separate video, something about drooling over the fabric and coming up with plans for them. I also want to make a video about how I made the people for the Elephant Parade quilt. I could use some of this fabric for that.
Then I made a very short video as a part of my series for beginning quilters. How to Tell if a Fabric is Cotton or Polyester. The shorter videos don't do as well, but maybe it is because I don't have many videos in the beginner series yet.
Finally today, I published the delightful interview I had with Susan Lenz Dingman. She is a textile artist I have been following for many years. She works with found objects and she stretches the meaning of the word "quilt" in so many ways. I love all of the series of works that she has created. She has traveled across the country to have art installations in galleries and museums, she has sold art as commissions, and has gone on artist residencies.
I got an email that I won a Babylock sewing machine, and I will tell you about that soon.
Next week, I will be participating in the "Something Wicked" blog hop.
I get so excited about Halloween and love to see what my creepy friends create.
The wicked fun begins October 21st...I can't wait!
I started this Tropical Fish quilt for the July blog hop, but I wasn't able to finish it before my post date. Since then, I have finished quilting and binding it, and it is now ready for its grand reveal.
The fish is made with free cut applique pieces, made out of fabric scraps from some of my other projects. I used school glue instead of fusible to secure it. I combined stitching down the applique pieces with the quilting.
I surrounded the fish with half square triangles. I could have used scraps for this part, but I was eager to cut into my bright and colorful fabric. I used the two at a time method to make the half square triangles. I cut the squares larger so I didn't have to deal with eighths, but didn't bother to trim the blocks. Instead of making the center panel fit the size of the blocks, I made the borders first, and then cut the center panel the size of the blocks.
It was fun to make this quilt with the colorful fabric and the free motion quilting.
I wound up with four hours of video, even though I didn't video each step, like the binding. I was able to reduce it down to a more reasonable size by cutting out lots of it, and speeding some of it to 400%. Speeding the video caused my editing program to crash several times, and I had to break down the video into two pieces to get it to work without crashing.
I am getting pretty good with finding workarounds to problems and am enjoying the editing process.
According to my spreadsheet, I have finished 160 quilts in my lifetime. I still have to work on finishing more quilts than I started, but I have finished a lot of quilts this year.
I thought it would be fun to try out the AI trend, so even though I have lots of ideas for quilt videos, I asked AI to give me a title, a description and a script for a viral YouTube video and waited to see the results.
I have to admit that it took me five minutes to stop laughing, because the title said "How to Make a Quilt in Five Minutes". Since making a quilt is so much fun, why would anyone want to make one that quickly. Wouldn't you want to make the fun last as long as possible?
Also, I don't think it is possible to make a quilt in five minutes. My spreadsheet says my average speed to make a quilt is one year, but that includes the time it waits while I think. Start to finish, I estimate my minimum speed to be eight hours for a simple quilt.
It makes sense though that someone might just want a quick explanation about what quilting is about, to decide whether they would be willing to do those things, or maybe to understand why someone else is so interested in quilting.
I started reading the script and it is definitely about making a quilt in five minutes. I think I might be able to make a quilt in five minutes. Maybe a 3" x 5" whole quilt, sewn around the edges to batting and binding and turned right side out. A line for quilting. I'm not sure, but it would only be five minutes of my time, so I accepted the challenge. After all, if I meet the challenge, I am a winner, but if I don't, I can say "I told you it wasn't possible".
Then I read more of the script, and it talks about cutting five inch squares, and making rows and sewing rows to each other. It didn't say how many squares, so maybe a four patch would work. It definitely ups the challenge, and makes it less manageable, but I was committed at this point and decided I would try to make it anyway. Just five minutes of my time, after all.
I made a video about this five minute challenge. I'll let you decide for yourself if I managed to meet the challenge. You get to decide if I wound up with a quilt, and whether I cheated.
I also made a video about explaining how to make a quilt in five minutes. I already had most of the video done, so I figured it would be pretty easy. I am still under the delusion that a five minute video will only take an hour to edit. It still takes me hours to edit even a five minute video.
When I was showing the additions I was making to the Inspirational Quote Crazy Quilt, lots of my blog friends said they would like to see the quilt in person. The photographs just don't show the size of the additions, how they work with the other motifs that are around it, or where in the quilt the motifs are.
I started a YouTube channel so I could show you the quilt in video form to help with some of that. It doesn't replace seeing the quilt in person, but it is closer than the photographs.
I hope this video helps you see the quilt better in its full glory.
The "Give it a Whirl" blog hop, hosted by Carol Swift starts on Monday. There is a big group of participants and we have been spinning around getting
our projects done to share with all of you.
Check it out, I'm sure your head will be spinning from all the fun! The pinwheels are sprinkling happiness throughout blogland.
On YouTube this week, I recorded videos for both quilts. For the pajamas quilt, I made a tutorial for how to make a quilt with blocks that are on point, but my microphone has malfunctioned, and I didn't check it since it generally works, so I have many videos without sound. I thought I had forgotten to turn on the microphone so I recorded it again. But apparently it is the microphone's fault. Replacing the battery didn't help.
I was getting so frustrated and running out of time so I switched tracks and recorded a video about quilts that are already finished. I am hoping to have some videos ready to go for these types of situations, but so far I haven't been able to get that far ahead.
In today's video, I showed my two Drunkard's Path quilts. I had lots of photos and videos already ready for these quilts so that worked out much better.
