High Road Quilter

Monday, October 21, 2024

My Wicked Quilt: Bona Lisa

I am participating in the Something Wicked blog hop and now it's time for my blog hop day.

I've been seeing a lot of beautiful Halloween patterns lately, and since Joan and Carol have been so accommodating and kind in hosting this blog hop, I decided to use one of their patterns. They both have provided so many Halloween patterns that it is difficult to choose, but a lot of them are on another hard drive, so it was pretty easy to choose.

I chose the center panel of the block of the month, Bona Lisa. The pattern is by Joan Kawano and the pattern is called Bona Lisa's Sweater Emporium 2024 BOM. This is the pattern for the center of the quilt, and the remaining blocks are supposed to surround the center panel, but I decided to keep it simple and make this one block.

I had thought about adding a house in the background, to go with my last Halloween quilt, but my fabric wasn't wide enough.

I put together the headstone first, securing the fusible applique with some stitches. I chose a different fabric for the yarn at first, but I kept seeing this scrap of fabric from the Tropical Fish quilt and it looks more like yarn to me, so I switched it out.

The green is the backing fabric and will be trimmed away before I bind it.

Then I put together the skeleton and decided to combine the stitching to secure the applique with the quilting. I didn't use the layout in the pattern and didn't overlap the bones nearly as much as the pattern does. I used the rejected yarn fabric for the mouth, though I realize my Lisa is going to have peach lipstick all over her teeth!

I thought about adding more blocks around this panel, but I decided to stop here. I have so many quilts that I need to finish that I wanted to get this one finished, which means the panel is enough by itself.

The size of it is perfect for a door banner, and if I put it on the coat closet which is right by the front door, I think it makes a nice welcome for the season.

I need to do some more quilting on it, to secure the background with dark thread, to add the teeth, but since it gets dark early, I decided I could finish it tomorrow instead of rushing to get it done. I like to enjoy the process, and I am really enjoying making this quilt.

I also thought about adding extras like a bat or pumpkins or spider, but for some reason, this quilt is really satisfying the way it is, and I don't feel the need to add anything else. See, I can stop when I want. I'm not addicted to quilting.

I'll show you the finished quilt soon.

Be sure to check out the other participants in the blog hop this week. I gave you the list in my last post.

Friday, October 18, 2024

Something Wicked Blog Hop Starts on Monday!

The "Something Wicked" blog hop is starting next week! This time, I will be posting my quilt at a wickedly early hour on Monday.

Be sure to join us for the wicked fun!

Look who will be creating their magic:

OCTOBER 21

Just Let Me Quilt - hostess

Just Sew Quilter

Sew Many Yarns

Patchouli Moon Studio

High Road Quilter - that's me!

OCTOBER 22

OCTOBER 23

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

OCTOBER 24

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilted Delights

Quilting Between the Rails

Monday, October 14, 2024

Catching Up

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted. So much has been going on.

I have been working on making progress on my quilts, but mostly I have been making videos.

I made a video about How I Made the Tropical Fish Quilt With a Pieced Border. I showed this quilt to you in my last post. I wish Blogger would show the whole thumbnail instead of just part of it.

I bought another batch of African fabric, and recorded a video about that. It turned out to be too long and kept crashing my system, so instead of making a three part video, I decided to make three videos. The first one, The Controversy About African Fabrics, reached a lot of viewers, and the comments on this video are worth the read.

The second video Quilting With African Fabrics, FAQs Answered is really helpful as it answers all of the questions I had when I first was introduced to the fabrics, as well as questions I have been asked.

The third one was going to be the one where I show closeups of the fabric. I made videos but I used the the clips to explain things in the other two videos. I might still show that as a separate video, something about drooling over the fabric and coming up with plans for them. I also want to make a video about how I made the people for the Elephant Parade quilt. I could use some of this fabric for that.

Then I made a very short video as a part of my series for beginning quilters. How to Tell if a Fabric is Cotton or Polyester. The shorter videos don't do as well, but maybe it is because I don't have many videos in the beginner series yet.

Finally today, I published the delightful interview I had with Susan Lenz Dingman. She is a textile artist I have been following for many years. She works with found objects and she stretches the meaning of the word "quilt" in so many ways. I love all of the series of works that she has created. She has traveled across the country to have art installations in galleries and museums, she has sold art as commissions, and has gone on artist residencies.

I got an email that I won a Babylock sewing machine, and I will tell you about that soon.

Next week, I will be participating in the "Something Wicked" blog hop.

I get so excited about Halloween and love to see what my creepy friends create.

The wicked fun begins October 21st...I can't wait!

Look who will be creating their magic:

OCTOBER 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Just Sew Quilter

Sew Many Yarns

Patchouli Moon Studio

High Road Quilter - that's me!

OCTOBER 22

OCTOBER 23

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

OCTOBER 24

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilted Delights

Quilting Between the Rails

I have been busy working on my quilt. I will post it on Monday. I look forward to seeing you next week!

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Quilt Reveal: Tropical Fish Quilt

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.

Linked with:

Wednesday Wait Loss

Patchwork and Quilts Link Party

Off The Wall Friday

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

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.

Monday, August 19, 2024

Elephant Parade Resumes

Last year, or at least it feels like it, in 2015, I made some Elephant Parade blocks. Then other quilts pushed to the front of the line. So when Joan and Carol announced that the theme for the August blog hop was It's a Jungle, I was eager to join so that I can make more progress on my Elephant Parade quilt. Hopefully if you squint and bend the rules, you might be able to fit it into a jungle theme.

It is a fun quilt and I really would like to turn this into a finished quilt.

Welcome to my Blog Hop post, and let me show you my Elephant Parade quilt. When last we left this quilt, in 2015 (yikes!) it was a bunch of stray blocks. I had made too many and asked my blog friends which one I should eliminate or put in the back, and they said I should fit them all in.

So I am leaving them all in the front of the quilt. They will just have to squeeze in somehow. The blocks are various sizes so I do have to add coping strips to make them fit properly in a quilt.

Because of all the other projects I am working on, mostly because I was trying to finish my June and July blog hop quilts, I got behind on this one too. The June quilt is finished if you want to scroll back. It's called Beach Picnic.

The July quilt is quilted and just needs to be bound. It's called Tropical Fish. I had to drop it so I could make progress on the Elephant Parade quilt.

Because of my tardiness, my hope for this August quilt was that I could at least get one or two rows sewn together. I needed to do measuring and fudging to put them together and I didn't want to rush it and make frustrating mistakes. I am focusing on the height of the blocks and making sure they will fit into a row. Later I will worry about the width. I will just add sashing to the outside to make them fit, though I may make a sashing/coping strip wider if I would prefer it that way when I get to that point.

I wound up getting into a good rhythm, and managed to complete three and a half rows. I am happy with the progress, and am stopping only so I can get the blog post out.

Hopefully like the June and July quilts I can keep working on them until I get them finished. As usual, since I am taking the photos at near midnight, the lighting is bad, which will make the reveal glamour shots look that much better.

Thank you for providing the motivation for me to make progress on this quilt, and be sure to check out the other participants in the blog hop. They are listed in my previous post.

Linked with:

Wednesday Wait Loss