Skirt Update

I do have some progress to show, but it was not without it's challenges.  

After daydreaming about this project all week, I woke up Saturday morning jazzed (chuffed...psyched...) to get started.

I had decided that plastic templates would be the way to go since I would be making 2-4 repeats of most of these designs.

I was so careful to cut them out just inside the tracing lines so I would have accurate templates.

But then I hit a point when I realized that my FMQ is so if-y that it was unlikely to follow those lines very well anyway.

As I was cutting them out I had a tragic realization.  I ALWAYS have yards of black Kona Cotton hanging around the house.  Um. Not today. $#^+!   I'm willing to shift gears, but soon realized that of the 1000 yards of fabric in my stash, I don't have a single piece over 2 yards in a color that A) I will wear B) I can imagine in this design.  And JoAnne's Fabric on Saturday morning is worse than a root-canal with no medication.

After a brief period of panic, I decided that Hancock Fabric might be less painful.

Turns out that I was right.  Quilting cottons 50% off.  As were zippers and Coats & Clark thread.
Instead of a stash buster project, I added 6 yards for this project and 9 yards of white-on-white - my standard quilting background. HOWEVER, I am using stash fabric and batting.  (And if I make it to the red/black version, stash thread.)

And then there was the Marking Saga.  I don't mean to be a drama queen...but really?  I can't find anything that really works on a mid to dark fabric.  I had an insanely expensive white Clover marking pen that I am totally hoping I can find the receipt so I can return it.  I bought it last week for this project thinking I'd be marking on black, and it was an absolute piece of crap.

I pulled out the water soluble blue marker thinking it would work.

Kind of did as long as I had full day light, overhead light, desk lamp, focused LED lamp and the machine light.  And reading glasses.  Double normal strength.

Here is the center front panel of my new skirt.  Since this is a major experiment I am also playing with thread.  I am using a Sulky embroidery thread on the top (with and embroidery needle), and the Coats & Clark on the bobbin.   [this panel has whatever was already on the fuschia bobbin...but the rest will be C&C.]

I did outline stitching on this panel so I can wash them all and get the shrink and texture that I want before I cut out and attach the panels.  I am using Bamboo batting (stash).

My current quilting dilemma is background.  I am thinking that I need to add some sort of stippling so the design will stand out.

So, anyway, welcome to my new 3-D quilt project.

Feb at a glance

One of the things that I love about Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts, is that it gives me a chance to reflect on the month of February and realize that I actually did get things accomplished.

My FMQ is getting better with feathers that look kind-of like they are supposed to.  I realized after making this that I don't actually LIKE feathers in quilting, which is probably why mine never look amazing.

My FMQ confidence is growing, and I'm really glad I decided on these practice panels that are designed to be a whole quilt later.  This piece, for example, I think I could have picked a better background fill, but I still love the leaf.  This leaf deserves better than becoming a pot holder!

One of my 2012 goals was to do trapunto, and this practice panel was my first attempt.  I learned a lot about background fill from the leaf panel and I was quite pleased with the outcome.

I finished piecing the silk tie quilt, which removes 2 things from my quilting bucket list  - upcycling and working with silk.  I learned a lot from this project, most importantly that I'm "totally over" the need to quilt with silk and I can move on.

But I am keeping the bonus silk woobie because it feels so soft.

Although I don't really enjoy piecing, working with someone else's yellow scraps for this charity quilt was a lot of fun.  I need to sew with yellow more often.

My only finish for the month was the Quilts of Valor quilt that was a collaborative effort from my quilt group and a chance for me to use another new-to-me technique.

And I am finally nearing the end of the hand quilting for the Double Wedding Ring.  This has taken 96 episodes of Cake Boss, and I've moved on to watching LA Ink.  Unfortunately the tatoos give me ideas for quilting designs so I tend to get distracted.

For March, I plan to continue to practice FMQ, finish the hand quilting, finish the Executive Woobie and $2.25 Plus Tax, finish piecing the Citrus HST top.  I also want to work on something to use up the blue scraps for another QOV quilt, and I need to get back to some applique on my Hearts Desire.

WIP on Wed Oct 19

Last night was my last of 4 batik classes.  It was a Parent / Child class through the local Community Education program and taught by local artist Cindy Peterson.  If you go to her online gallery, you can see that she uses batik as an art medium instead of just a fabric design element.

The first assignment was to paint the dye on and blend 2 complimentary colors.  The second week, the dragonfly was waxed off and dipped in yellow.  Week 3 was a teal dip to get the green.

This fabric is cherry red in real life and was the result of my playing with some of her stamping tools while I was waiting for my daughter to finish her project.

We have 2 collaborative pieces that Skater Girl and I did together - a lion in tan & red, and a toucan.  They both spent the night in the black dye and I have to go back to pick them up tonight.

My TV time for the past couple weeks has been spent trying to finish up this Crazy Quilt from the UFO bin.  The blue fabric is leftovers from the Hawaiian Quilt Samplers that I made for the girls in 2003.   It has probably been in the UFO basket that long.  I had decided to do all hand embroidery on every seam in a variety of stitches (click on photo to enlarge).  Like traditional Crazies, it will not include a batting.  There is fuseable interfacing on the back of the piecing for more stability.  I have to finish the outer frame stitching (pink & blue) on 7 more blocks.  Then it will be tacked at intervals to a blue Minkee back and bound in hot pink.

Last, but not least, ever distracted by bright shiny objects....  When I read Leah Day's Pea Gravel Path post, I immediately ran to the machine to try it. Yes, I read and immediately ignored the "Advanced" level warning.  And I did really try it on paper first.  Aside from my swirls looking "Seussian" rather than "Smoothly Swirly" I'm quite pleased.

Columbine Quilting

I've finally managed to get some photos that show the quilting on the columbine quilt. I was going for the look of an ornate carved frame around the columbine.  To mimic molding, I used decorative stitches and varied the distance b/w the lines of stitching.  On the print sashing, I used a decorative stitch in lines that varied in width from each other.  This idea was inspired by Jacquie's posts at Tallgrass Prarie Studio.  Thanks!!!  Although now I'm wishing that I had more than a handful of stitches on my machine. 

Spring Break - Update 5

Today is my 7th day in my self proclaimed Quilt marathon.  I'm going to be pretty close to meeting the goals I set out originally...though I'm down to hand-work, which goes slower than I anticipate.

The SD Ashley quilt is done, bound & washed.   I had forgotten how long it takes to sew the binding on a large quilt like this.   I think I like the "modern" side (aka "back") better than the "traditional" side.  I finally found a fabric for the binding that I like.  The blues are a perfect match for the ones in the quilt and the print makes a stripe effect that I like.  My only disappointment, is that compared to the stark white, it looks a little ivory.  Oh, and don't worry, the sides are nice and straight...the wind was blowing. (Took the photo between the snow flurries and the hail storm, when the sun was shining.)  It's quilted on the diagonal and on close inspection, the lines are a little wavy (no officer...I haven't been drinking and sewing...)

While I was working on these other projects, my friend Emily came to my rescue and pieced the colored columbine blocks together with these flying geese.  I'm so lucky to have a friend like this. ( And the cost of the bribe was well worth it.)   Now that I see this from a distance, I'm having second thoughts about the green in the corners.  We never considered red when we were test driving options, and that might complete the frame better. Otherwise, I might have to add another border outside the geese...which just means more quilting for me.  Anyway...THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Emily!!!


I generally abhor anything that has to do with a sewing machine.  ( I was traumatized by a terrible machine in my teens that liked to jam and skip stitches.)  Since my current machine and I are on reasonable terms, I decided to machine quilt the black & white columbine, using the walking foot.  I borrowed an idea from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio  who uses the decorative stitches on her machine to make wonderful, wavy line stitching.  Mine, only has 9 options, two of which work for this idea.  This didn't photograph well, but the floral sections have random width (as you can see with the white markings) lines that look like a rows of brackets {  } stacked on top of each other.  (You can see the stitching better if you double click on the photo for an enlarged version.)  Around the frame sections, I was aiming for the look of a fancy molding,  You can kind-of make that out in the top left corner...the sequence is straight, wiggly, 4 straight close together, then a squarish zig-zag.  I'm hoping this will be more obvious after it's washed.    The only glitch on this quilt, is that I couldn't bring myself to machine quilt the white sections.  I had planned on echo quilting, but realized when I was doing the framing sections, that I would go nuts trying to do so.  And since every attempt I've made at free-motion quilting on my machine has been a disaster, that wasn't an option.  This adds several hours of handwork to the list, but I know I'll be happy with the result.

So the only goal that hasn't been met yet, are 3 more blocks for the Joseph's Coat quilt along for the next cut-off point.  I am, however, making progress.  I have the center 3 petals of the final 17 blocks, basted.  Check out the group site on Flicker to see some great pictures of everyone else's progress.  BahayKoobo is finished and did a color wash version that is absolutely stunning.

Well...I'm not making any progress while sitting at the computer....I'm off to quilt.