Three Hearts Quilt

In my last post, I showed you the open book showing you my inspiration for my latest hearts quilt.  There is another picture n this post so you don't have to look for it.  It is from this book called Red White and Sometimes Blue: Classics from McCalls Quilting by Patchwork Place.

My main goal was to make something small and quick, with a modern feel to it. I decided that it would be great to have the three hearts form one heart.  I used pink instead of red because I had just purchased a BOM kit for one month, and it happened to be pink.

You know how libraries put certain books out on display to draw attention to them?  I had found a pink fabric while I was looking for something else, and I had placed it on top as a display because I wanted to use it next.

The piecing was quick and simple, although it did require some unsewing. Why did it take four seams before I noticed the error?  This would have worked great as an orphan block, leaving everyone wondering why I made a y, but I didn't want to cut any more pieces.

I only had three pieces of pink, so instead of looking for more or using a fabric twice, I decided to make only three hearts.  I liked the idea of using three hearts that form one heart, instead of making all six blocks. I think this design would be great for a couple with a child, or three children, or three grandchildren.  The white spaces would be lovely for embroidering in the loved ones' names or quotations.

My choice to use only three of the hearts left a lot of white space for quilting. Even though the goal was to make a thoroughly modern quilt, I decided that it was my quilt and a more interesting design would be a better choice.  Besides, I wanted to make use of the books from my big book buying spree.   Instead of simple quilting, I decided to use some quilting designs from the book Sophisticated Stitches by Don Linn.

It is a machine quilting book, but the motifs work just as well for hand quilting. The author encourages adapting the designs and using parts instead of the whole, and mixing and matching. I used some parts, and was happy to see that they fit perfectly into my quilt without resizing. This decision to hand quilt slowed the progress down considerably, but it is enjoyable. This week I have been hand quilting for at least fifteen minutes every day while I watch the Olympics. I was going to use white or cream thread, but decided it I was going to take the time to hand quilt, I would get credit for it, even if it did look sloppy and show my uneven and crooked quilting stitches. In fact, with my modern quilting style, I am not even fretting about uneven or crooked stitches. It's liberated if I do it on purpose, not mistakes. Can you be liberated and sophisticated at the same time?

 I did the top center and two of the little free form hearts on Monday.
 Tuesday, I did the left side and the other free form heart.
On Wednesday, as I was quilting, my mother called and reminded me about the family pack of chicken in my refrigerator. She said she had come over earlier in the day when I wasn't home and saw it there. She would have cooked it for me, but she didn't know what I wanted. Oops, I had left it there to defrost and I was supposed to cook it on Tuesday. When I got home from work, I was too hungry to cook, so I ate something quick from the freezer, planning to cook it later. But I would forget, because I wasn't hungry. So, I quickly set the hand quilting aside for my cooking emergency.
When it was time to quilt on Thursday, I could not find my needle. The thread from my unfinished motif had broken in two and the needle was missing. The quilt was on the couch, but I didn't remember it being in that location. Apparently in my cooking emergency, I hadn't properly put away the quilt. The dog was frantic because of the thunderstorm. I was worried that he might have had a fight with the quilt, and I was hoping that the needle didn't win. It wasn't until it was time for bed that I found the needle in the fold of the couch. On Friday, I finished the top half and started on the bottom half, which I completed on the weekend.
There is a little bit of extra space on the sides I want to quilt and I will be finished.

Quilting Orgy

No Mom, not that kind.

I've been madly trying to make up for lost quilting time.  I've been sewing anything and everything that wants to go under my pressure foot.  Big or small, new or old, it doesn't matter.  All sorts of parts and pieces are piling up on my sewing table, all jumbled up in a glorious mess.

The HSTs are star points for the BOM I did last year.  Instead of buying the package finishing kit, I chose to buy my own fabric, so that my quilt wouldn't look like all the others.  As usual, I wound up buying much more fabric than I need for this quilt.  Of course, I can use it for other quilts, including my Jane Stickle quilt and my other fall quilts.

The little pink things are for the hearts quilt - my newest project.  I like to have a new project going to keep my momentum going on my older quilts.  When I tell myself that I can't start a new project until I have all the old ones done, my motivation to quilt completely leaves, so now I use the new projects as a jumping ground to finish the older ones.

The purple / orange/ blue/ green thing at the very bottom is my Wildflower Garden quilt.  This one is even older than the BOM.  I had a minor error on this block and ripped it, but for some reason, didn't manage to sew it back together.  Now it is done.  All the pieced blocks are done. I need to work on the applique on this project.

I've also been madly skimming through my Google Reader.  I can't just delete the whole and start over.  So I skim and keep all the ones with the pretty quilt pictures, and keep adding to that never ending quilts-to-make list.

The hearts quilt is actually completely pieced.  I still was not able to free motion quilt it.  My machine is very fickle with free motion quilting, and I'm not in the mood to make it behave, so I am hand quilting it. It is another small quilt, and I am hoping that it will be my next finish. I'm actually enjoying the hand quilting.

A Quilt for Lily

I've made a quilt and been frustrated about my inability to show it to you, since I lost the cord that attaches the camera to the computer.  I thought there was a way to use the card reader on my computer, but the card didn't fit in the slots.  This morning, I tried again, and there is a card reader that works, it just looks like it is bigger than the card.

So, at long last, I can show you a quilt for Lily.

First the background story.  Last year, the first weekend in June, 2011, I went to the National Quilt Society quilt show in Columbus, Ohio and took a photograph of a small quilt that looked very intriguing to me. Well, I actually took lots and lots of photographs, but this story is about this photo.

I showed it to a friend of mine who has a granddaughter named Lily, and she said "make that for me."  Well, there was no way I could even make anything exactly like that, and I wouldn't want to break any copyright laws legally or morally, but I figured I could make something inspired by it.  Unfortunately, this request happened during our busy time at work and somehow this little quilt took a year and a month to make.


I liked the original technique of cutting through layers for the background, but decided to keep it simple for my quilt.  I took a jelly roll and put the strips together for a background.  Then I traced the flower from this photograph and cut out some fabric with fusible attached to it.  Then I zig zagged it down.  Yes, I know that even after tracing, my lily doesn't look like the original.  Even when I try, I am not good at copying.

I chose a different font and a different location for the name.

This little bud is such a wonderful feature.

I didn't take the stem all the way to the binding so the flower is floating on the surface.  I used Timtex as a batting because this is a wall hanging and I wanted it to hang straight on the wall. This made it difficult to free motion quilt, but I had fun choosing different straight line quilting designs.  The backing fabric is folded to the front.  I did stitch it down. This quilt seemed too formal to just use fusible web, and I didn't want to use up any more fusible web.  I added a false back to hide my stitches, so I wound up having to use extra fusible anyway.

I added an extra layer of batting for the flower to give it more interest.  I gave it to my friend and they loved it.  It matches the room since it is purple and yellow.  I only today realized I don't have a photo of the whole quilt showing all the binding, but the binding is right underneath the photo so you aren't missing much.

Overall, I am really happy with it. The flower itself isn't as good as the original quilt, but I really like the rest of it, so it balances out. The quilt is 12" x 12", and was finished the end of July 2012.

I haven't stopped quilting, so there are more pictures to show on another post.

Freedom to Quilt!

My big, Papa Bear size, project is over, as I told you already.  Remember that big stack of paper?

Now the Mama Bear size project is also over.  The next project is now a Baby Bear size one.  You know what this means?  It means I have time to quilt!

I have worked on some massive spring cleaning to catch up on all the things that were postponed until now. The weather has even cooperated, and my yard no longer looks like a jungle.  Maybe just a dense forest.  Progress is definitely being made.

I have been reading blogs left and right trying to catch up on everything I have missed this year.  There is so much inspiration!

I even finished a quilt!  It was a small one, for a friend.  Unfortunately, I have lost my camera cord, so as soon as I find it, I will post a quilt reveal.

I think my next quilt will be a small quilt, but there are so many projects that are left in an unfinished stage that I will definitely be working on finishing an old quilt while I am working on a new small quilt.

I hope things are going well for all of you, and you are having a wonderful summer.

Fuse-and-Tell Journal Quilts

I promised Paula that I would review Fuse-and-Tell Journal Quilts first, so here goes.

Fuse-and-Tell Journal Quilts is a book by Laura Wasilowski, who has since published Fanciful Stitches Colorful Quilts which I have previously reviewed on HubPages.

The information is only from Fuse-And Tell Journal Quilts, although a lot of  the information probably applies to both.  The quilts were made using the technique of fusible applique.  They also use Fast2Fuse instead of or in addition to batting.  As Laura says, "Fusing is a fast, easy way to assemble a wall quilt without sewing seams, using templates, or following a pattern."

A journal quilt is like a small diary in cloth.  "Whether geometric or pictorial, they tell of happy memories, sad events, funny anecdotes or flights of fancy."  There are many ideas in the book on how to find inspiration for journal quilts.

The book shows you how to make six colorful and fun journal quilts, and has many other examples scattered throughout. These are journal quilts in that they allow you to journal the stories of your life.  These quilts are not limited to the size of a piece of paper that another journal quilt project used. This makes it much easier for me, since I have difficulty following size constraints.  Some of the quilts do have stitches on them.

The first section discusses Fascinating Fusing Facts, materials and tools for the fusible journal quilt. Then it goes into the six journal quilts, with facts about the inspiration of the quilt, and step by step directions (with lots of photos) on how to make them.  You are not limited to making just these six quilts, of course.  There are lots of other quilts that serve as inspiration throughout the book.  The final chapter explains how to finish a fused journal quilt.  There are ideas about how to quilt these journal quilts and three different ideas about how to bind them.  I am going to try the Wrapped Binding method for the quilt I am making now, just as soon as I finish adding the photos to this post.  There are also instructions on how to add hanging loops.  The final section has some templates to make the six featured quilts.

Amazon is offering a preview of other pages of Fuse-and Tell Journal Quilts. Click on the link and see many other pages of the book, or buy it there.  I will get a small percentage of Amazon's share of the price if you do.

Quilt Books!

Just so you can get a preview of the books that I got from the C&T sale.  They had really good prices, and I really needed a quilt fix.  I don't think that I would believe you if you told me last year that I would buy so many books all at once.  I am going to look at them one at a time, and thoroughly enjoy looking at one before moving on to the next one.

A friend of mine asked me if I was going to make quilts out of each one.  I told her no, that wasn't my plan.  If I am not required to do anything other than read non-pattern books, then why would I be required to make something out of pattern books.  Of course, that doesn't mean I can't make something either.  I definitely would if I had more time in my day!

Shuffling Paper

When I showed my photo of a stack of paper from the end of our project last year, and said something to the effect that "there is more", I'm not sure people fully understood the extent of the "more." So here is a bigger stack, and yet again, I have to say there is more, and hopefully this time you will have a better understanding of "more." This is probably a third of the total of actual paper.

It may be hard to believe when looking at these big stacks that most of the work on this project is actually done on the computer and not printed at all.  The paper is just the reference material.

I have been looking at this paper nonstop pretty much all month, stopping only to come home to shower and sleep.

I have been missing quilting, but I managed to catch the C&T clearance sale.  Normally, I wouldn't buy the books, because even though the prices are quite low, the shipping would add to the price, but I needed a quilting fix, and I bought a stack of books.  Since I didn't have time to look at the books, I could dream about getting them in the mail and wallowing in quilty goodness.  It worked out quite perfectly, because I received the box in the mail after the project was completed.

I haven't had a lot of time to write on HubPages either, and only wrote a few hubs.  One you may be interested in reading is 10 Great Ways to Learn How to Quilt.  I thought it would be useful for people who didn't have family members or others around that knew how to quilt.