Quilt Reveal: To Wash Or Not To Wash

 

The Project Quilting Challenge for the week is Common Blocks. The rule is to make a quilt with three common quilt blocks.  There is also a quote "No one owns the copyright on a 16-patch block, or an Ohio star."

You have no idea how happy this challenge made me.  I was working on a tutorial about whether you should pre-wash your fabric before making a quilt. I was thinking about making three nine patch blocks - one with all pre-washed fabrics, one with no pre-washed fabrics, and one with a mixture of both.  I was debating making three different quilts, but wondering if I could get away with putting them all in one quilt, separated by sashing. 

I wanted to keep as much similar as possible, so the experiment could focus only on whether the fabric was pre-washed.  I used fabric from the same layer cake, so that the manufacturer, the cotton, even the dye would all be the same.  I wanted to make the same block for all three blocks so that the comparison would be the same.

So when this project is announced, I read the post thoroughly.  Although I think there is an implication that the three blocks should be different, there wasn't anything that specifically said that. I didn't ask.  This challenge gives me permission, nay, it requires me to put them all three blocks in one quilt. Challenge accepted.

Making this quilt was fun. It took some added time to prewash the fabrics. I got impatient and pressed them dry, but they were small so it didn't take long, and these fabrics are not likely to shrink any more for sure. Strip piecing made the job easier, although with 10" squares, there wasn't much time savings involved with that. 

I also didn't plan the right set up for recording the process for the video, since I was using the same space for pressing and cutting, so I had to keep putting up and taking down the ironing board.

I had another, much busier, border fabric planned, so I added the peach sashing to highlight the three blocks, but eventually I decided to switch out the busy border. I did think about switching the peach with the green, but that would involve ripping out seams, and with the weekly deadline, I decided not to risk it.

I took the quilt outside to take a good photograph. The lighting is better outside than inside.

I thought I would ask Zoey to be in the picture, so I told her to come to me, but when she did, she jumped on the quilt.

And got mud on it.  It is a good thing I was planning on washing the quilt to complete the experiment.

Quilt Reveal: Bona Lisa

I started the Bona Lisa quilt in October as a part of the Something Wicked blog hop challenge.

 

I used a pattern by Joan who is one of the hostesses of the blog hop challenge.  It is a part of a bigger quilt, but I just used the pattern of the center. 

I combined applique and quilting as I usually do.

I then added some simple stitching in the background which you can't really see on the front, but you will see it on the back.

In December, I finished quilting it.  

I enjoyed making it so much that I took the time to make a label for it.  I was planning on hand stitching the rest of the label down in December, but I set it aside to make the daily videos in December. 

I finished sewing the label yesterday, so this quilt is ready for its big reveal! It fits perfectly as a door banner.

Here's the back so you can see the stitching. 

 This is the 13th quilt I finished this year, which is an appropriate number for a Halloween quilt, and the 161th quilt that I have ever finished.

Here is the video where I made the quilt.

Here is the 15 Minutes to Quilt video where I made the label.

Here is the 15 Minutes to Quilt video where I added the binding and label.

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: 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

Quilt Reveal: Haven of Harmony

 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.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

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:

My Diamonds for the Be a Diamond Blog Hop

It's my day to present my rendition of a diamond for the Be A Diamond Blog Hop.

I have to say I am really nervous. Normally when I am expecting company, I thoroughly clean the house, hide all the incriminating evidence, and make the best, labor intensive dishes so you will think of me as a fine, upstanding person who is worthy of being in your community.

However, today, that's not how I am presenting myself. I am sitting in my sweatpants, letting it all hang out, and letting you see the inner workings of my mind. If you are all dressed up in your fancy jewelry for this diamond blog hop, maybe you had better to visit one of the other presenters for the hop.

The rules were:

Make a project with a diamond block on it.
It can be a mug rug, pot holder, mini quilt, baby quilt, bag, etc.

Here's the list of diamond makers:

April 22

Needled Mom

Keepsake Moments

Kathy’s Quilts

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Color, Creating, and Quilting

April 23

Ms P Designs USA

Vroomans Quilts

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Melva Loves Scraps

Storied Quilts

Words & Stitches

Clever Chameleon Quilting

Songbird Designs

April 24

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Creative Blonde 

Selina Quilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

Two Maker Chicks

Quilts By Joanne

Today - April 25

Patchouli Moon Studio

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Hill Valley Quilter

Mageez Room

Websterquilt

High Road Quilter - that's me!
Seams To Be Sew

April 26

Creatin' in the Sticks

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Days Filled With Joy

For The Love Of Geese

Quilt Fabrication

Stitchin At Home

Just Let Me Quilt

You can find all the projects on the Be A Diamond Pinterest page HERE

My Diamonds 

After I was done having a discussion with myself for volunteering to join a hop during peak season at work, we came to a compromise.  I would make one small simple diamond quilt. No multiple diamonds, no big project. Just a small thing to hang on the bulletin board.  And with only one diamond, there aren't a lot of options so I was very literal.  I made a diamond quilt. The goal was to make something quick and easy without doing a lot of agonizing over choices. I even used fabric that is reserved for another quilt I am making. The challenge was to do it in the fifteen minutes I had available to quilt. This quilt took more than one session because of some mistakes I made in drawing.

My list of quilts to make includes a quilt that isn't square or rectangular, so this quilt does help with that. It isn't as nice as I would like, but I think it serves as a good prototype for future ideas.

After I finished that one, I decided to try again with the leftover triangles I had from the first quilt.   I really like this lacy fabric I got from Nann, so I made another literal diamond quilt. I just placed the triangles raw edge on the quilt sandwich. I used some of the embroidery stitches from my machine. The lacy fabric has some lacy embroidery stitches and the white has straight stitches. There is a diamond stitch around the quilt to secure the raw edges.

Day 29: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random photo of the day: Scenery

Day 28: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day: fishing

Linked to: Friday Foto Fun

High Road Quilter Best of 2018

Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a linky party. To take part in the link party, simply write a new blog post highlighting your "best" 5 posts from 2018 and linkup.  There is no set way or rules to pick your best, you can pick and highlight your posts anyway you would like.

• Posts with the most comments
• Posts that provoked the best discussions
• Posts showing your favorite 2018 finishes
• Posts of your best tutorials
• Posts that are simply your favorites

I have decided to show my five favorite posts from 2018.  There are a lot to choose from, since I have written a lot of posts this year.

Here they are, in chronological order.  I have deliberately not shown you any of my finished quilts, because I am saving them for my end of the year post. I don't want you to get sick and tired of them before I present them all together in a group shot.





In March, I showed you a fabric mandala my sister made out of some of my fabric scraps.  Besides getting a beautiful present to remind me of my friendship with my sister and a wonderful way to decorate my home, it also gave me a new way to use fabric scraps.

Jourdan Dukes cc by 2.0 via Flickr

In April, I presented 11 Suggestions For How to Avoid Unfinished Quilts. It had all sorts of good ideas about how to get the quilts moving along. Be sure to read the comments as well to see other suggestions by my readers.





In June, I posted The Problem With the Blue where talked about my frustration with my On Ringo Lake quilt and how a change of perspective changed everything.

 
I want to highlight a group of posts instead of a single post. That is my Daily Photographs.
 I tried to take pictures often, not really daily, but close, and show them to you on my blog. There were some camera troubles and such, but I took a lot of pictures this year and shared them with you.  In fact, all of my posts have at least one photo, but I tried to label the ones that are not quilt related as Daily Photographs.


 

Last, but not least, I wanted to highlight my 15 Minutes to Stitch posts. The goal was to stitch 15 minutes every day. I changed the rules a bit and allowed myself to make up time if I missed a day as long as I made it up during the week.  Besides giving me permission to quilt every single day, thereby relieving stress, this challenge has also required me to blog every week so I could report my progress. I didn't keep up with using this image, and over time, simplified the stats I was recording.  I was hoping to finish out the year with a better than 80% success rate and I have met it.

I hope you have enjoyed my 5 Favorite Posts of 2018.

Thrift Store Adventures

Two random pictures in the same day: thrift store finds

I showed these cross stitch projects to you earlier. I  got them for great prices at the thrift store and they are now hanging in my guest room.

The other day I went to the same thrift store and picked up a baby quilt. It was a nine patch quilt in soft reds with a white background alternated with a solid white block. It was slightly faded and had some small stains on the back, but that made it more precious. It was well made and without a thorough examination, I didn't know if it was factory or home made.  It was a super price too, and I thought that I could find a use for it even though I don't have a baby to gift it to. 

I was walking around the store carrying it around (I don't get a cart unless I need it for something I really want to buy. It is my system of avoiding impulse purchases).  A lady asked about it and I told her she could have it.  She doesn't have a baby either but she said she would put it on her bed.

At least now I've made sure it got a good home.

Day 25: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day: I wish for cheese

Day 24: 31 Day Blog Challenge

I did a test run with the fabrics I will be using to see if I can add the sashing and the corner triangles at the same time.  Yes it stays together very well with just pressure from my fingers and does not need any basting.  The corners are small but I think they will work just fine to show the ATC without covering it up too much.

Random picture of the day: ferret.  I picked it because it is red and green with a touch of yellow and white.

I hope you  have a very Happy Christmas Eve and an extraordinary, Merry Christmas!

Day 23: Sewing for the Holidays

My daughter's pillow is finished. She can choose to not use the pillow form if she would rather have a wall hanging. She made this when she was much younger without any prompting for me. The kit was a gift from my mother, I think.

So it is fitting that I used some upholstery fabric my mother gave me for the backing. I used the pair of jeans I saved last week for the upper flap.  I didn't want to use more upholstery fabric because the patterns would clash with each other.

Random picture of the day: dog. Since the floor matches the pillow, I have to show it to you first.

I made some HSTs for the Garden Mosaic quilt. It is just a test to see if I can handle it.  So far, so good.

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I finished hand sewing the binding on the Droid quilt. Also cut and pressed a few triangles for the Sunlight in Winter quilt, and made the pillow for my daughter.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  304 out of 357 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch 
Monday Making 
Slow Sunday Stitching  My daughter did most of the slow stitching, putting in all the latch hook knots.  But I did stitch slowly by machine to get all the layers just right. It is my first time sewing a latch hook that I can remember.

Day 22: Quilts Floating in my Head

Random picture of the day: Piano flowerpot

I have so many ideas floating in my head about quilts I want to make. I usually do not write them down, because every day a bunch of new ideas come in and crowd some of the other ones out.  But it is the end of the year, and you are supposed to come up with lists, especially if you are doing a blog challenge to write every day. 

So here are some random ideas floating in my head of things to do for the rest of 2018 and 2019:

1.  Finish the drunkard path quilt. Top is already pieced, and I basted it this week, so progress is being made.

2.  Move other UFOs along to a finished state.  Here are the ones I am thinking of at this point.

• a. trip around the world needs quilting. I had high hopes of adding some kind of applique border, but it might be okay to quilt without fancy borders. I haven't seen the quilt in a long time so I don't know for sure. I know it does have wide borders.  Would a TATW look good with scalloped borders?
• a rail fence from the book Cultural Fusion. It is an awkward size - too big to be a small quilt that fits on the bulletin board and too small to be a wall hanging that fits on my hangers above my couches. The center is made with warm colors. I think I can make the border with cool colors and that will make it look like I did it on purpose and not like I ran out of fabric. Yes I know this quilt was on the list for 2016 and 2017 and 2018.
  
   

3.  Work on the ATC holder.  I've figured out I need many more triangle pieces and was thinking of starting the sewing to see how bad it is before I cut any more. My original plan (dare I say it?), is a 12 x 12 grid, which means 144 spaces, which means 576 triangles.   I am hoping I can find a way to sew on the corners and the sashing at the same time without basting.  I will get some white thread so I can get started and see how bad it is. I reserve the right to limit quantities.

4.  Make a scrap quilt, or two or three. Or a hundred.  I have to reduce the boxes of scraps.  They are contained, but there are too many containers. Instead of getting rid of the scraps, my goal is to sew them up and justify their existence. I have lots of ideas for scrap quilts but I want to keep it simple. Right now I am thinking of another rail fence. I made one with three rails, so maybe one with four rails would be different but still easy.

5. Here's another dare I say it?  I want to make the Mosaic quilt.  The reason I don't want to put that in the scrap quilt list is that this quilt has small triangles, and while the simple block is really perfect for scrap quilts, I think I will have trouble finishing it if I have to cut out so many little pieces, trim triangles, sew them back together over and over again.  I like quilts with repetition, but I tend to get whiney when I make them. So to spare you, I am thinking of making it with yardage.  I am thinking about the impulse buy of yellow fabrics I just bought.  Maybe if I use them in the Mosaic quilt, I can justify their existence too.  . Right now, I am thinking of a two color quilt - a yellow and white one. I was really taken with the blog name Sunshine in Winter, and I think a yellow and white quilt with that name is something I need to have.  I don't know if using the same colors will get monotonous for me.  I am going to make a couple of sample blocks to see.  I have to get some white thread first. I might make the blocks smaller, or use bigger pieces to make the quilt more manageable. I haven't decided yet.

6. Lorna Mahon is going to start a Harry Potter quiltalong which is very tempting. And Bonnie Hunter's mystery is tempting. And retroactively Temucula Quilt's mystery quilt is worth making.

7. Red and white quilts. I want to have a collection of red and white quilts I've made. I keep seeing them in my bloglovin' feed and I can only resist so long.