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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
I made my first quilt of the year for the first Project Quilting challenge. Project Quilting is a challenge that was started years ago by Kim Lapacek of Persimmon Dreams. It is inspired by Project Runway challenges.
Every other week for the first three months of the year, Kim's friend, Tricia Franklin, posts a theme. Quilters then make quilts based on this theme. The quilt cannot be started before the challenge is posted, and must be finished by the deadline, which is only one week later.
Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.
The challenge this week is to make a quilt inspired by a birdhouse.
I did some cursory searches for some birdhouse patterns, but I was attracted by a quilt that someone had made on Facebook based on a quilt pattern by Cheri Payne. It isn't a birdhouse, but it is a house and does have a bird in it so it works in my book. I really liked the fact that it wasn't a rectangular quilt, and decided to make something like that.
For the rest of the week, I kept finding other birdhouse patterns, and it was hard not to switch plans, but my rule is to go with the first instinct. It keeps me from overthinking things, and in the end, I am so glad I stayed with my plan.
There aren't houses where I live with two chimneys, but there are other architectural features. I am not sure whether this is called a gable, but I will call it that until I learn otherwise.
I made the house, added a door and window. I used a stiffer middle layer instead of batting. I am not sure whether this is Peltex or Timtex, but I am pretty sure I bought it for fabric bowls. Since the quilt wasn't rectangular, I think it needs more support. I thought about a binding, but decided to take it easy on myself and birthed the quilt.
I encountered a lot of obstacles in making this quilt, but I was having so much fun making this quilt so it didn't faze me. I nicked my thumb with a rotary blade. My bobbin ran out of thread, twice, because I used bobbins that weren't full. I didn't get a good camera angle for the ironing station and wound up being in the way and the camera kept focusing on my sweater. Then both of my cameras ran out of battery even though I had charged them to prepare for this videoing quilt for YouTube. (I use one for talking, watching the ironing station and the sewing machine, and the phone camera for overhead shots).
I have beautiful fabrics on the table because I am collecting them for an autobiography quilt, and they really helped me make this wonderful quilt that feels very Indian.
Here is a link to the challenge post so you can see what everyone else made. Mine is #198 so there is lots of inspiration to see.
Here is the YouTube video that shows the entire process from start to finish:
I finished the quilt formerly known as Tuxedo Vest. Since the name is based on the fabrics on what is now the background, I am changing the name to African Garden to refer to the applique which is now the focal point.
This was the quilt as I left it in 2021. It was supposed to be a simple baby quilt, but I don't know anyone who would want it as a baby quilt. I thought about keeping it, but I would need a lap quilt so my original plan was to add more columns and make it larger. But it didn't motivate me to continue.
When I finished the Portraits quilt and listed the chart that I include every time I start or finish a quilt, I realized that I needed to get some more finishes in order to meet my very easy goal of finishing more quilts than I start.
I pulled out the Tuxedo Vest quilt but kept it in my bedroom until I was ready to work on it in an effort to keep the sewing studio clean for the YouTube videos.
I bought a bunch of African fabrics and put them in the same staging area in my bedroom until I was ready to film them. Placing them together like that with the Tuxedo Vest quilt gave me the idea that I could use them to applique on the quilt.
I was originally thinking of adding just one or two motifs to help the floral fabric and the stripe fabric work better together. I cut out a bunch of motifs to try them out on the quilt, and I couldn't reject any of them, so I used all of the ones I cut.
I used my general technique to combine the applique and the quilting. I secured the edges of the appliue and then stippled the background.
I tried to add a piece from an older quilt, but they are shiny, and I decided to use this piece from the stash of fabrics. I think I have used some of the background fabric in another quilt so the continuity is there, and I can use scraps of this quilt in another quilt.
I made a YouTube video about the process if you are interested in seeing that.
I've made a lot of quilts this year but I need to finish at least one more to meet my goal of finishing more quilts than I start. One thing about keeping records, I know it is not a record year in terms of started or finished quilts.
I finished the portraits quilt I showed you in the last post.
I used the index card portraits as my inspiration, so I used background fabric that would result in the same size as the index cards.
I used fusible applique to add the body and the body parts: hair, whites of eyes, eyeballs, nose (optional), mouth, and clothing.
I decided to use the binding fabric as a border instead, and since it looked like a frame, I decided to birth the quilt instead of bind it.
I used embroidery stitches to stabilize the quilt instead of stitching in the ditch.
I added straight stitches in the border to mirror the look of the frame.
Finally, I used free motion quilting to secure all the fused pieces.
Although I had a bit of a panic when I thought the portraits would look like aliens instead of people, I settled on the idea and am really happy with how it turned out.
It took me 24 working hours to edit the video, since there were so many clips as it took me a little less than two weeks to make the quilt, and the software added extra, duplicate, and unnecessary clips.
15 Minutes to Stitch Week 34, 35, 36
I have been awful about reporting my 15 minutes to stitch progress this year. The good news is that I did stitch every day these three weeks and even finished a quilt - the Making Friends quilt I have been showing you on this post.
15 minute days these weeks --21 out of 21
15 minute days this year -- 183 out of 253 days
Success rate = 72%
Linked with:
15 Minutes to Stitch follow this link to see all the other people who participate in this challenge
