Quilt Reveal: Spread your Dreams and Soar

 

When I went to the sewing room to make the Orange Complements Blue Flower for the Project Quilting challenge, I saw a pattern I had printed out of a hot air balloon. I thought it was a great pattern to use and was hoping I could manage to find a way to make it fit whatever the upcoming theme was.  

I think it would have been great to use for the challenge, but I had already thought of the flower, and wanted to make that.  I realized with the small scraps I have, that I could cut out the zig zags out for the balloon, I could use the scraps for the flower. Then I wouldn't have to choose which quilt to make. I could make both.

So that is what I did. I managed to make both of these early in the week. I could have made them the same day, but I did make them a few minutes a day.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to cut the zigzags perfectly to make them fit with each other.  I was afraid I would wind up with places there may be background. I thought about using a darker background, but instead of cutting zigzags of both the yellow and the blue, I cut the yellow zigzags, and made the blue into larger pieces. This gave me more peace of mind and worked well to avoid any gaps.

Quilt Reveal: Orange Complements Blue Flower

The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is "My Complements". We need to use complementary colors in our project. 

My last project turned out to be much bigger than could be completed in a week, I decided to make a potholder quilt, and managed to finish one "potholder" in time for the challenge, but that left three more to finish in my off week. (An off week is the week between the challenge weeks). I already had projects to work on during the off week, so this just added to the load. By the way, I consider the potholder that I finished to be successful because it was started and finished during the week, but I didn't get it posted in time, so please do go back and take a look at it. I think it turned out nicely.

To avoid that problem, I decided to make sure I chose a project that could be completed in one day, and uses only scraps from the scrap box. I found an art deco quilt that uses a rounded flower. It was a tiny part of that quilt, which is perfect for my project.  

I found a six inch square of blue, some leftover binding strip and some smaller scraps. This is from the Heart and Arrow Quilt, which if you remember, is blue and yellow.

So I made this, fusible applique. A nice quick project and completed and posted on time. I kept it simply quilted in that I didn't quilt the background. That is a look that I like but I have a hard time leaving things alone. I did add some machine embroidery stitch at the bottom, which I didn't like, so I switched to straight stitch for the rest of the quilt. I even remembered to put a label on it though.

I don't usually use a color wheel, and know that green and red are complements, and for some reason I was thinking that yellow and blue go together.  I'm sure I knew at one time, but I didn't care enough to retain that information.  Once I figured out that the complement is orange, I found another scrap and added the orange over the yellow. 

I entitled this Orange Complements Blue so that I would remember this lesson. I needed to add Flower at the end in case I wind up making another orange and blue quilt, and need to know which one is which.

 

Quilt Reveal: Change

 

The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is Plaid. That made me think about a pair of pajamas that I had relegated to the sewing room.  I thought I could make a tiny wonky (in a good way) handmade quilt, like Zak Foster and others make.

Then I came across a quote on Instagram that caught my eye:

Change is made like a quilt: piece by piece together.

I really liked it, and it is short so I decided to embroider it on my little quilt.  I really enjoyed the handwork on my last week's entry, so I wanted to do some more. I had this piece of African fabric on the table and it was the right size so I decided to embroider on it and let the flannel be the backing.  I wanted to embroider something on the flannel, maybe some flowers.

I gathered three colors of threads for this piece - cream, green and black.  They are leftovers from a weaving project that someone did when we took a weaving class. I think weaving is also a good analogy for change.

I added the quote, sandwiched, quilted,  and enclosed the quilt. When I came to the "piece by piece" part, I noticed that the two lines were merging, so I added a second "piece by" to show how the pieces join in a quilt. I think the green thread would have worked better here, but maybe it shows that some change is made quietly and in the background, while others are more visible.

Then I remembered that I needed to add the flowers on the flannel. I added some random stitches on the flannel back, making it a double sided quilt. I had to be careful not to let the stitching get on the front so as to not obscure the quote. 

I just added some french knots on two sides, but didn't want to make any more, so I added an arrow. 

I added some flowers in the corner, because I wanted the arrow to point to something, like the change moving from the messy french knots, to the flowers, using the only other color of floss I brought down, which was black.  After I was finished, I worried about pointing to black flowers because I don't want the change to happen for the worse.  I looked up the symbolism meaning of black flowers, and apparently they symbolize mystery, rebirth and farewells, representing endings, deep transformation, new beginnings. They signify strong emotions, strength, rebellion, or a fresh start after an end.  Accidentally Perfect!

Quilt Reveal: Sweet Ombre Butterfly

 I finished another quilt for the Project Quilting theme of Ombre.  I didn't think I had any ombre fabric and was thinking about creating my own, but I was hesitant to dig out so much fabric. I then thought about just skipping this challenge.

But then I remembered that the fabric I stole from the Glitter quilt for the Al-Buraq quilt was an ombre. So I stole some more. I love that I can make this quilt with only two pieces, and it was very quick and easy to make.

I woke up early and turned on the computer to get started on the day. I queued up some videos to watch while I had breakfast, but Zoey reminded me that I needed to get up and make the quilt.

So I made the quilt and was able to finish the quilt before noon, way before the deadline of 1 pm eastern, thinking I had plenty of time to upload the photos and post it on the blog and submit it for the challenge.

So I made my breakfast and started uploading the photos. And watch the videos I had queued up.

Zoey went outside so she couldn't remind me that I needed to submit the entry to the challenge. oops. Missed the challenge deadline because I lost track of time.

Quilt Reveal: Al-Buraq

 The Project Quilting Challenge this week is Mythical Creatures. The first thought that came to my mind was Pegasus, but when I found pictures of a winged horse with a face, I immediately gravitated towards the Al-Buraq.  One of my rules for this challenge, since there is only a week to make it, is to not overthink any decisions and to just keep going with the flow.  Decision-making takes more time.

So I present to you, Al-Buraq. I love the metallic border that frames my creature and I think for a mythical creature it is a successful project.  Looking at this picture right now, the face reminds me of that photo that looks like a beautiful woman and an old woman at the same time. My quilt doesn't have that feature, I don't think, it just reminds me of that. My creature doesn't have an attractive face, but that wasn't a requirement for me.  Poor creature has to run against the wind, so there is bound to be some damage from that.

With my just in time inventory, I finished this quilt just in time to post for the Project Quilting Challenge

Al-Buraq Quilt by Shelina Virjee

This quilt fits the requirements of the finished projects in that it has applique, three layers and the edges are finished.  Just all of my quilts, though, I reserve the right to come back to do more. And right now, this quilt is calling for more.  I do want to add more quilting on it, and maybe some other embellishments like beading.

Here is the link to the other Project Quilting challenge entries.

Quilt Reveal: Tropical Fish Quilt

 

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.

Linked with:

Wednesday Wait Loss

Patchwork and Quilts Link Party

Off The Wall Friday

Quilt Reveal: Five Minute Quilt

 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.

I had a lot of fun with this challenge.

Quilt Reveal: Beach Picnic

 

Ta Da! I finished the Beach Picnic quilt that I made for the June blog hop. Joan from Moose Stash Quilting and Carol from Just Let Me Quilt take turns hosting a year long blog hop. They chose a different theme for each month. 

 

The theme for the June blog hop was For the Birds. The project is simple, and just needs a bird on it.

 

I made the quilt in June, but I had not finished binding it. 

 

 

I posted the unfinished project here in June.

 

Now it is finally finished.

 

I added a pole with directions to other features on the beach for the picnic goers. I didn't add any words so the beach can have everything the family wants: snorkeling, fishing, boating, boardwalk, shopping, parasailing, sandcastle competitions, art galleries, and of course, bird watching. Whatever they want, it is here on this beach.

 

It adds a story element to the quilt and explains why the people have abandoned their picnic.

This was a really fun quilt to make and makes me want to make even more beach picnic and seagull quilts.

I posted a video on YouTube showing how I made this quilt.

Here's my finishes chart so far. As you can see, there are a lot more starts than finishes this year, so no new beach quilts for me today. I am hoping to get more progress on unfinished quilts this month.

Linked with:

Patchwork and Quilts

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

Quilt Reveal: Crumpled Heart

 I finished another journal quilt this week. It is a quick project made with leftover strips of fabric from my blog hop project I will be showing you on Thursday.

When I made the Raggedy Heart quilt last week, I knew it didn't come close to approximating the inspiration, which was the artwork of Marcellina Akpojotor. She takes strips of Ankara fabric and glues them onto canvas. I translated that work onto a quilt and I think this looks closer to her artwork. Only the black, white and pink fabric is Ankara in my work.

It is a great technique that adds lots of texture to the quilt. Since the pieces aren't fused and keep moving, this technique requires some careful work to make sure that the fabric is where you want it to be and doesn't sewn around the presser foot. 

In keeping with the ragged edging I used last time, I used this trim around the quilt to finish it off.

15 Minutes to Stitch 2024

I still want to try to quilt every day this year. I haven't been updating this every week since I have been so busy working as well as making quilts for the challenges and recording and editing the videos to show them, but I have definitely been working every day.

15 minute days these weeks --21 out of 21 days

15 minute days this year -- 49 out of 49 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with: Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch

Quilt Reveal: Raggedy Heart

  

It's time for another Project Quilting Reveal! This week, the challenge is to:

PQ 15.3 Inside Out

For this week’s project, I want to see what’s normally hidden!

 

Make a project with exposed seams or a raw-edge finish. Take on a bag pattern or other project that is constructed inside out and then literally “birthed” as part of the process. Or use this as a theme and demonstrate your unique inside-out perspective.

Rule One: Some part of your project must thematically or literally be inside out.

I had decided before the challenge was announced that I would make a journal quilt if it was possible with the challenge requirements. A journal quilt is the size of a piece of paper. Even though I don't think the size of the previous projects were too big, I thought a smaller project might save me some time. I have another quilt I am making for the blog hop which I will show you on Thursday and I wanted to save time to make it.

I started out with a quilt sandwich. The top is a fabric I used for the Improv Portraits quilt. The batting and backing are leftovers from other Project Quilting quilts. I sketched out a heart on it using a heat erasable pen. 

I used strips of fabric that were trimmings from the blog hop quilt and cut some more to applique onto the heart shape I had made. 

After I finished sewing all the strips on, I trimmed them to make sure they combined to make the shape of a heart. This was scary to cut while the pieces are sewn on the quilt. Instead of using the shiny ribbon I had planned to use to cover up the raw edges on the outside, I tried a trimming of the fabric I had used to make the heart, and I really liked it, so I cut more that size to add as a border/binding.

Another quilter had made a raw edge border for the quilt and I loved that idea so the fabric is raw edge. I added the strips of fabric around the edge of the quilt using a heart embroidery stitch, then trimmed away the leftover batting and backing.

I think it looks good as is, and doesn't need any additional embellishment. I loved running my fingers through the ragged edges.

Here's a quote I found for it.

“You awaken your True spirit by way of the broken heart: ragged, vulnerable, fierce and finally compassionate. ”

                                        Jack Kornfield

I created a YouTube video for this quilt if you want to see the entire process. I resisted the urge to put suspense music while I was trimming the heart. It will be published Sunday Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. I am going to go ahead and publish this blog post now though, so that I can link it up right away to the challenge.

Quilt Reveal: Where Horses Dream Under Endless Sky

 

It's time for another Project Quilting Reveal! This week, the challenge is to:

Take inspiration from the colors of the sky, but exclude or use less than 10% of the usual blue.

I decided to use my Derwent Inktense pencils (affiliate link) to color the sky so I found a relatively plain background. I knew it would need something in the foreground for interest and decided to find a horse pattern to applique on my quilt. I haven't ever used a horse and I am not so sure why I was intimidated by using a horse. Maybe because it is so intricate with skinny legs. 

I used a pattern for the horse but I cut the rest of the pieces free form and fused most of the pieces on to the background. Then I colored the sky, which is scary. I should have done the sky first in case there was a problem, but I think it looks fine. I don't know if it is a sky after a storm, or dusk or dawn, but it is pretty and fits the theme. Big sky with enough to keep it interesting.

 I secured the applique with a free motion quilting, and I added the wavy lines in the sky.  I bound it with the fence fabric. I hope it doesn't feel like a fenced in horse. I put the fence behind the horse so it wouldn't look too contained. There is space for the horse to get to the other side of the fence, and endless space in front where we are standing. I decided to hand stitch the binding.

It looks like a nice calm scene. Here's a quote I found for it.

• "There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." - Rachel Carson

My quilt was ready on time, but by the time I uploaded the photos and wrote the blog post, it was too late to submit for the challenge. I got distracted while I was waiting for the upload.

I did film the process and will post the Youtube video here after I have finished editing it. 

Linked with: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
 

Quilt Reveal: Rabbit's Reverie 🐰

 

It's my day for the Just Let Me Quilt blog hop challenge. The theme for the week is White Rabbit.

The challenge was: 

Make something with white fabrics, rabbits, or white rabbits. 

It is a perfect theme, because I was just gifted a pair of embroidered white pants.  I had seen a couple of quilts that were animal shapes that were cut out of some embroidered work with batting inside them. I thought about doing just that and having a quilt that was not a rectangle, but I still had house on my mind and wanted to make sure that my rabbit had a home.

I started out with the floral background, but decided to put the rabbit on the green background and add the flowers. It looks like the rabbit is lost in reverie looking at the field of flowers.

I tried machine binding again. I still have yet to master that skill, but I like the shabby chic look to this quilt.

I have made a YouTube video to go with the blog hop. It took a long time to cut down all the footage into a reasonable length video. I still don't know whether it is better to show everything and speed up the footage, show everything in real time and have really long videos, or just chop it up enough so people know what happened and let them imagine the rest. Let me know if you have a preference.

Check out all the really cool bloggers who have been creative!

JANUARY 22
Just Let Me Quilt
Inflorescence
Quilt Schmilt
Sew Many Yarns
Days Filled With Joy
 
JANUARY 23
Quilting Gail
Beaquilter
Ms P Designs USA
Words & Stitches
Lake Girl Quilts
Homespun Hannah's Blog
 
JANUARY 24 
Selina Quilts
Karrin’s Crazy World
Quilted Delights
The Life of Grammy
Quilting Between The Rails (Facebook Page)
Quilted Snail
 
JANUARY 25 (today)
MooseStashQuilting
Vroomans Quilts
Domestic Felicity
Pattern Princess
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Highroad Quilter (that's me!)
Kathy's Kwilts and More