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.
At the beginning of every year, I have been posting my stats for the previous year so that I can compare them year to year. I am running late this year because when I ran the 15 Minutes to Quilt challenge on YouTube, I found more quilts that weren't on my list of quilts in progress, and some of my estimated dates on the spreadsheet were incorrect, so I felt like I had to do more auditing to try to be as correct as I can. This means that my charts this year will look a little different than they did last year, but not by much.
I've shown you this chart before, but it will help with the other charts. I started 11 projects in 2023 and finished 12.
Here is how it looks for 2024. The two starts are more thoughts than actual starts but I have chosen the fabric and will start cutting into it soon, so I went ahead and added them. The Autobiography Quilt will be a long term project and I am editing a Youtube video that explains it. The Pink Explosion is for the February blog hop so you will see it finished (hopefully) in February.
Here is how the starts and finishes chart looks year to year. I am going to ignore the 2024 data since it will change dramatically but it does show that I have more starts than finishes overall, but that I am getting better about making up for 2007 and 2019 when I had so many starts. I am happy that I did manage to finish more than I started in 2023 and hope that I can continue that this year.
This chart shows the cumulative starts and finishes over my quilting life. I did get the two lines closer last year and hope to be able to continue to get more finishes. With the Project Quilting challenges and the blog hops, I know I have plans to start (and finish) lots of quilts, which leaves me less time to finish older projects, but I do hope to get to more finishes. I did make a lot of progress in December, and will try to sneak in more 15 minutes for the older projects one at a time so I can get more of them down the finish line.
15 Minutes to Stitch 2024
The final chart is not on a spreadsheet, but I do want to continue to stitch every day in 2024. I haven't been updating this every week since I have been so busy making quilts for the challenges and recording and editing the videos to show them, but I have definitely been working every day.
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!
The White Rabbit Blog Hop Challenge starts today. Here is a list of the participants. Enjoy the hop, and come back on Thursday! My quilt is ready and waiting!
Challenge:
Make something with white fabrics, rabbits, or white rabbits.
There is a tradition for people to say “white rabbit” first thing in the morning (have you
ever heard of this?) The phrase is supposed to bring good luck for the rest of the month.
Even President Roosevelt did this!
I hadn't heard of it, but I had heard that people say Rabbit Rabbit on the first of each month for luck.
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:
