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: 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: Making Friends

 

 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

 

Quilt Reveal: One Tree

 

 

I was minding my own business, thinking about what fabric to use for the binding for the camel quilt that I didn't manage to finish last year. It is a small quilt and a thought occurred to me that I am so glad the Project Quilting challenge helped motivate me to finish a bunch of small quilts early last year. Then, I wondered about when they would start a new challenge. I looked up the blog and see that a challenge has already been announced! It is The First One. This was on Thursday, which means my time to complete it is even more limited than usual. But it should be an easy challenge since you can just use one of something. 

Before I could even decide whether I am willing to do the challenge with such limited time, I clicked on a YouTube video of Irene of Sugaridoo showing her WIPs. One of them was her One Two Tree quilt that was a part of a quilt-along that I wanted to join but was too busy at the time. The pattern is free if you click on the link. 

Did you notice the word One in the title? What if I just make one tree and use that as my challenge? It looks like a very simple tree and looks like it will be quick to make.

Zoey, cancel all my plans. I need an emergency quilt retreat!

Then I got the bright idea that I could use one color - all greens - to really use the "One "rule. Of course it makes it harder to match the fabric. No, just add a beige and a brown and it will be fine. I found two other greens that will be fine with it. The good thing about Project Quilting is that because the deadline is so short, the first decision has to be the one I run with. There is no time for indecision when I have to get the quilt made on time.

 This Debbie Mumm acorn fabric has been sitting in my stash for a long time. One year, when I was trying to reduce the amount of fabric I had, I thought about giving it up. There is something about the shade of green that didn't really seem to match any other fabric. So I decided to use it for this project. I had been thinking about reducing the size of the tree, but once I found this fabric, I figured I could use up more if I made it full size.

I didn't take any in progress photos so now you can see the finished quilt photos. If any of you are complaining that there is black in the acorn fabric and white, yellow and pink in the background fabric, don't be hating on the fabric designers. They didn't know I would want to make an all green quilt in 2023. Besides, since I usually buy fabric on clearance, they wouldn't cater to my needs even if they did know.

Here it is, my family tree.

 

The original pattern calls for paper piecing, but I used improv to make the corners of the tree. The video makes it look easy, but I decided I didn't have the patience to learn it in a day. It worked out well. I had to piece the batting. I quilted a grid on it, like one of the quilts Irene made. Even though I used a walking foot, it did form a couple little tucks. Since I was just making some organic lines, some of the lines look like I missed the ditch, but I wasn't aiming for the ditch.

I was able to use the acorn fabric for the back as well.

Usually, to join the binding, I tuck it into the other part of the binding and applique it. This time, I sewed it properly. So I don't have the lump I get in some of my quilts, no matter how small I try to make the overlap.

So I made a modern quilt using Debbie Mumm fabric. It is mighty tempting to add some embellishment, but I will resist.

 For its glamor shot, I tried to find a stuffed animal, but I don't have a squirrel. I do have this applique template, but now I am tempted to add a squirrel.

2023: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 1

I am so happy that Kate is hosting the 15 Minutes to Stitch again this year. She made a beautiful button for it too. 

I have a strong finish to start off the year, working on the camel and the tree.

 

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

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

Success rate  = 100%

Edited to add: I couldn't resist.

It doesn't look as lumpy in real life as it does in the photo.