Making Peace with Piecing

So, I guess it's time I come clean and admit that I don't really like piecing. I get no joy in the persuit of perfect points. But sometimes it's a necessary evil. And some of the people that I love are tired of being cold on winter nights.

Here's the top I just finished for Jesse and Ashley. Yea...it's their wedding quilt. I think they've been married 7 years. Ya just don't want to rush into these things, you know, in case things don't work out. I figured as long as I was doing make-up quilting, I'd also make Jesse a high school graduation quilt too. I'm still in the planning stage. I might get it done before their kids graduate. At least that is my goal.

Double Irish Casserole

I stepped away from both the applique and quilting projects this week to do some piecing. I have to admit that I don't enjoy time at the machine as much as I do hand work. It was a good change of pace, and I was able to get a lot done in the couple of afternoons that I had free. The pattern is going to be Double Irish Chain. But as I was sewing yesterday, I realized that because it's a "stash" quilt...it's starting to evolve a lot like a pre-payday casserole. Not enough of some of the ingredients to follow the recipe exactly. The center 18 blocks will have the blue/grey print, with the grey swirl making a row outside them. I have one more row of 10" blocks to go outside that if I'm to get to Queen size. Unfortunately, I'm nearly out of the solid blue, and nothing in the stash that matches. I also need to go back and make the mostly-white connecting blocks that go between these. There's a real chance that I don't have enough of the patterned fabric to follow the design. Sounds like a project for Saturday to sort it all out. The good news is that I'm fairly certain how I want to finish the back, with a panel of variable width stripes to use up some other blues. That'll make the quilt completely reversable with a "traditional" and a "modern" design side.

Progress

I seem to make great progress in everything but photography. The girls long ago confiscated my camera and finding it (charged) is a real challenge. Blog tonight...hunt down and add the photos tomorrow.

The past couple weeks I've been focused on the Joseph's Coat Quilt Along. I figured I could get a lot done over Thanksgiving weekend between the long road trip and lots of Football. Managed to get 9 blocks done, and parts of several others by the time I returned. By the end of this past weekend I was up to 15. Since the goal was to be at 6 by last week, I'm in pretty good shape. Doing the back-basting, needle turn approach is also saving a lot of time. I saw one post that estimated that it was taking 4 hours per block. I'm averaging 2.5 since I'm not messing with the interfacing, gluing and placement steps. It has also helped me to do multiple blocks at once. Since I'm working with so many colors it seems easier and faster to sew one color at a time. I'm prepping the next 10 so when they are done, I'll be over 1/2 way (49 needed total)

Still working on the Coral Reef Quilt. Ugh. I'm not sure I'll ever get done. I spent hours and hours this weekend with nothing meaningful to show for it. I did notice Sunday morning that I was almost out of the teal quilting thread. Drove to Hancock Fabric at half-time and was horrified to find that the didn't carry that color. Not even in regular thread. What if it was discontinued? Could I find it on-line? Could I send out a plea to my quilt blog friends to dig through their stash? How much would I be willing to pay if I could find it? Fortunately my anxiety was short-lived as JoAnne's is only 3 miles further and they had the needed color. I didn't even feel bad about paying full price.

I had planned on today being a day I could completely devote to quilting. Got de-railed until about 2:00, but then managed to put in about 3 hours on the Double Irish Chain quilt. Have 14 of the 25-patch blocks done. Now it gets tricky. This is a "stash" quilt, so there isn't enough fabric to do the whole quilt in the traditional 3 fabrics. White background is OK. A blue primary color I'm pretty sure I'll have enough of. But the 3rd fabric is going to have to transition into 2-3 fabrics. I re-designed the quilt at least 4 times this afternoon. The main 3rd fabric was left over from a fussy-cutting project which makes estimating the yardage pretty challenging. I think it's going to be some trial and error. Time to make peace with my seam ripper.

Needle Test

I believe that it is important for me to purchase SOMETHING whenever I go into a quilt shop in hopes that this on-going support will ensure that the shop is there when I need something they sell. Subsequently, I have a pretty good selection of different brands of needles for both quilting and applique. When I ordered my new set of silk thread, I also decided to try a new brand of needles by Jean Lyle. When they arrived Saturday, I decided to do a controlled test to see which needles I REALLY like best.

The quilting contenders were:

Regal Ergonomically Superior Needles, size 9, Japan

Colonial Quilting Betweens, size 10, England

Jean S. Lyle, Quilting, size 10

Colonial Quilting/Betweens, size 11

Richard Hemming & Son, Large Eye Betweens, size 11, England

Jean S. Lyle, Quilting, size 11

John James, Gold n Glide Quilting, Size 12

The conditions: The Hawaiian applique quilt, going through 2 layers of batik, 1 layer of Kona cotton, and 100% cotton batting. Hooped, so fairly taught. Guterman 100% cotton hand quilting thread...the kind with the finish on it that makes it stiff and somewhat tangle resistant. I stitched approximately 2" then on the same thread, switched needles.

The results: I will be giving away the Regal size 9s. The sharp tip does a good job grabbing the fabric, but the bigger needle means having to push harder to get the needle through. I also, somehow managed to snap the tip off the needle in the 2" of stitching that I did. Both of the 10's were OK, but needed more pressure than the 11's. That's a problem if I'm doing more than 30 minutes of stitching in a sitting since it makes my hands tired. Maybe I'll save those for stitching on looser woven cottons and single layers. I loved all the 11's and didn't notice much difference between the brands when it came to performance. The eyes in the Colonial might be slightly smaller...but I'd need a magnifying glass to know for sure. The Lyle needles come in a wooden needle case which looks cool, and makes it easier to get them out than the other display cases. The 12s were just way too small. I could barely get it threaded. It glided nicely through the fabric, but where the thread went through they eye, it became frayed within a couple inches of stitching. It might work with a thinner thread, or one that isn't glazed.

The winner: Any size 11 quilting needle, with Lyle winning extra points for packaging.

I took pics of the needles, but my computer isn't reading the camera card...will try later from a different computer.

Silk Thread

I absolutely love silk thread for applique. Thanks Anna for the tip about how it absolutely disappears. On this project, I've been even more amazed with how the colors don't even have to match very closely. Unfortunately, I haven't found hot pink in this brand, so either have to use burgundy or light pink. This is especially helpful on this project with so many multi-color prints. I'd be very happy if I could also find a bright yellow.

The other advantage is that it allows me to use the super thin size 11 and 12 needles that have impossibly small eyes. I actually believe the quilter's lore about smaller needles = smaller stitches. Although I have used bees wax to prevent the thread from tangling, I really prefer the Thread Heaven thread conditioner. It's not as stiff as the wax, but gets the job done.

UPDATE: I finally broke down and searched the internet for the thread colors that I want, rather than try to find them locally. That turned out to be an expensive decision. But by buying a "collection" I saved nearly enough $ to pay for the shipping ;)

Sunday Update

I now have 4 of the Joseph's Coat Blocks done. I'm still very anxious to see how these are going together, but will have to wait as well as having faith in Kellie, as she won't be posting the next step for a couple weeks. Looks like she wants us to have 14 blocks done before they are joined together.

Still slogging away on the coral reef quilt. I have most of the light green background filled in. Need to go back and quilt 6 of the fish in the middle that I missed, and 3/4 of the outer border.

Was just given a design challenge tonight by Anna. In all my spare time, I'm to figure out a series of one-fabric applique patterns for a potential workshop in West Yellowstone. The concept being Hawaiian applique moves to the Intermountain West.

Coral Reef Quilt

Although I've nearly finished 2 more of the Joseph's Coat blocks, I've spent my quilting time this week working on the Joy In the New Year UFO Challenge. The biggest, most time consuming item is finishing up the Coral Reef quilt. This monster is 96" square. I finished the applique in a couple months, but it's been years and years of quilting...mostly because I start feeling like I'll never get it done so give up and work on something else. I had to go buy another 200 meter spool of light green quilting thread, and am about half way through the blue one. I figure that by the time I'm done, it will be between 1/4 and 1/3 mile of hand quilting. The echo quilting is about 1/2" apart and my stitches really tiny (8 per inch on the front side or 15-16/" if you count stitches the same way people in the East count points on deer).