Decent Feathers

I had a weekend of small victories on the WIP front.

As for feathers...by jove, I think I've got it!  Two bits of advice that I picked up on line that helped are 1) making the feathers smaller  2) spend a lot of time drawing them on paper before going to the fabric.

I also discovered that the amount of fabric to hold on to makes a difference as well.  The outer edges of this practice panel are less impressive than this center section.

I have 27 state blocks quilted.

I had been doing a row or two of echo stitching on each block, but leaving the connecting bits to finish later.  I am now pretty comfortable with how the overall flow of the quilt is going to go and I've been adding the fill as I go.

I learned on my last quilt with wool batting that manipulating the distance between quilting  creates more textural difference than with cotton or bamboo batting.  I am using that to my advantage.

I finally got serious about organizing my HST project by arranging 10 red and 10 white squares in piles that I can grab and throw in my purse to work on anytime I have a spare moment.  I had a total panic moment when I discovered that I was nearly out of white-on-white fabric. (I buy it on sale in 6-10 yard pieces since I use it for everything.)  Fortunately, I found a couple big pieces that were in "project" boxes.  336 HST finished, 600 prepped.

   Speaking of which, I've managed to reorganize some project boxes.  I moved all the red batiks that I've been collecting for some undecided project in with about 1/2 the green batik fat quarters that were for a leaf motif quilt I haven't gotten around to designing.   When I found the rogue white-on-whites, I prepped 10 squares for the Benjamin Biggs quilt.   They are all living happily together in my circa 1969 Groovy Suitcase.

While I have successfully avoided buying any fabric for months, I have already spent $21 this week on needles.
The good news is that I finally found the perfect combination for quilting this quilt.

A traditional length quilting needle (on the right) is perfect for making 1-2 stitches at a time.  It needs to be very sharp since there are many seams go go through, not to mention the "paint" on the white background.  The coated Coats & Clark quilting thread I had in the stash is thicker than standard threads, so my solution is the Clover Black Gold size 10.

A sturdy applique needle (10 or 11 depending on the brand) is great for the long straight sections.  I can load 4-5 stitches on at a time, which keeps the lines significantly straighter.

USA Quilting 1

I got my least favorite part of the quilt process done yesterday - the sandwiching of the layers.

I was going to use a white backing, but the fabric I had available was white-on-white one of which was too thin and the other to painty. I opted for a red Ikea cotton sheet that I had already pre-washed, but needed ironing.

While I was wishing that I had some really white batting in the stash, it occurred to me that easy stitching was priority because of all the piecing.  I decided to use another piece of the wool I've been saving.  Interestingly, I think that the patterning of the white-on-white backgrounds stands up more with that cream colored layer.

I also discovered at this point that despite my careful stitching, the outer border has a little bit of a wave to it.  It's the result of having a bias edge of triangles all around the outside.  That problem should quilt out with this somewhat lofty batting.

I pin basted and started with a block near the center.

Windblown Square for North Dakota

Algonquin Square for Rhode Island.

After the outline stitching, I plan to do some echoing like this but in a way that merges with or flows to the stitching of the next block.

Third finished block for Sunday was Salt Lake City, for Utah (obviously).

 You may remember from a previous post on this quilt, that there are several rows that got off-grid from the others.  I can see now that there's going to be some clever stitching to camouflage the problem.

This block, for example is about 1/4" smaller than the one below it, but lined up on the right side. It's only noticeable when you try to line up the center points of each block.   A little "fool the eye" quilting and no one will notice.

Fussy

Continuing to make progress on the State Quilt.  Here's "Windblown Square" for North Dakota.  Lynn picked this up for me while on a road trip.  I fussy cut the words on the fabric for Peace, Family, Laughter, and Joy.

This is a beautiful block, but by using parallelagrams instead of half-square-triangles, it made for a very fussy block with lots of "Y" junctions.

Click here to listen to James Taylor Carolina In my Mind  which was what was going through my mind the whole time I was making this block.   Missy sent me the primary fabric and I filled in with a random fabric for the stem.

I found it to be ironic that one of my favorite songs is related to one of the states that I've been to the least times.  I've never been to Alaska, have been to Hawaii only once, but all other states have been to 3 or more times.  Thinking the South Carolina only hits the "Twice" mark.

Here's my version of Carolina Lilly (which usually has 3 flowers...but remember this is a 6 inch block).

The Maple Leaf block is for Vermont.  This is another of those fabric donations from non-quilters.  My brother's friend ET got pulled into the process and graciously went to a fabric store to help me out.

This is a great example of why I think I totally lost momentum.  Many of the traditional quilt state blocks were "36 Patch".  Ugh.  It's 6 inches square.  There are actually 32 pieces in this square.  Yoiks!

Progress...

This and That

Somehow I managed to stay busy all weekend quilting without really having much to show for it.

I hand pieced a few more of these blocks from the fabric that Nadine sent while watching Saturday morning cooking shows.  I'm up to 16 and will be making 25.

When my fingers got tired from sewing, I cut out a few more hexies from fabric I bought on the Epic Road Trip, and glue basted this stack.

But that got boring, so I drafted more state blocks on the computer.

And hand pieced North Wind for Illinois.

Farmer's Daughter for Nebraska.

( I finally got brave and used a red Pigma pen to write the block name and state on all the finished blocks. )

And Cowboy Star for Wyoming.

(I'm quite proud of the fussy cutting on this one. The fabric says "Ranch Raised"  "Hey Cowboy" "Ropes" and "Boots". )


But then Guitar Girl took over my computer for her on-line class so I decided to move on to another project.

Which involved sewing the back for the Joseph's Coat quilt out of these fabrics.

And pulling the quilt frame out of its hiding place and setting it up.  Unfortunately, I didn't find the directions along with the pieces and parts. Although I managed to get the frame together correctly, I knew at the time that I hadn't put the quilt on the frame quite right...and the solution didn't come to me until I was in the shower the next morning.   I need to swap the location of the back and middle bars, which will be fairly easy to do w/o removing the fabric as long as there are 4 people involved in the process.

East Meets West

Ta-Da!  Here's my finished sashiko experiment.
At this distance it's quite lovely.  Up close, you can see the irregularity of the stitches caused by the gigantic needle and rope really thick thread it was pulling.  I enjoy seeing this kind of work, but I don't anticipate ever doing it again.  I do, however, love the  quilt patterns and will try reproducing them with quilt thread and tiny needles.

The fabric on the inside is actually a flour sack.  Really.  I was at the grocery store and saw flour in a fabric sack.  I justified the higher price of the flour because of the yard of fabric that came with it.  I won't show you close ups of the binding...it won't win any awards on the inside corners.  As a quilter, I rock at outside corners...but what is the secret to inside corners?  And there wasn't quite enough of the of the white-on-white fabric 2" strip...so there's a different fabric for the top flap.

And now you can see the purpose of the project.  It's a quilt block holder for my 6.5" USA state blocks.  I only have 4 done, but have fabric from many of the states thanks to friends...and a long road trip.  I'm using the blue dragon-fly pin to hold the packet together.

Keep and eye on my USA quilt page, and let me know if you can send me fabric from my "missing" states.

The First 4 State Blocks

"Corn & Beans" - Iowa
"Ohio Star" -Ohio
"Crockett Cabin" - Tennesee
"Anvil" - Pennsylvania.


I've been talking with friends and family in several states, but realize that I don't have connections in some states.  If you live in or will be visiting one of the following states, would you be willing to buy 1/8 yard of red for me?

Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas Minnesota, Missisipi, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota

Block 1 - Pennsylvania

 My first fabric Treasure Hunt care package came today from my QBFF Laurel H at Lively Stitches.com .  I was supposed to be packing, cleaning, and generally preparing for vacation.  And technically, I did wash the fabric she sent along with the clothes I'll be packing.  While Guitar Girl drives over the river and through the woods to G'mas house...I'll be stitching this beauty by hand.

And since every good quilt has a story...here's my thoughts behind this block.  In my original planning for this quilt, I tried to match traditional block names to states.  I'm sure that I picked Anvil in honor of the Steel industry.  But I'm also a football fan.  And Merril Hodge is an Idaho boy who played for the Steelers (87-94) after he played for Idaho State University in the only years we actually had a winning season.   Maybe it's a stretch, but it works for me.

I'm actually very pleased that I've made a decision on the PA block.  I'm not having nearly as much luck on the Oregon block.  My original plan was Tall Pine Trees.  Guitar Girl wants Ducks.  Skater Girl is emo...so her converstion wanders off about how depressing Fort Clatsop & the Whitman Massacre were. Harley Dude suggests volcanoes and lava...but would settle for a big circle to symbolize Crater Lake.  Now they're talking about onions. [SIGH] Why do I ask?   I've been thinking about ferns...symbolizing the west coast humidity as well as the John Day fossils.  Well...at least I have the fabric.

Handwork Holiday

I will be taking a vacation in July, with plans to do hand work while I travel.  I've decided to commit to not using my sewing machine for the whole month of July.

That means packing up some partially finished projects.  Tereece Beesley fans, you are excused until Aug 1.  The bottom right background sections are mostly pieced now.  Having put together 100+ unique pieces for the cartoons, I'm looking forward to how fast the popsicles themselves should go.

And Monet needs a little break so I can get excited about it again.

But I finally get to start on the hexies...which will look a little like this.  This quilt is for my sister-in-law Rita.  I have over 1050 hexes cut out with 126 glue basted and ready to stitch.

Any leftovers will be rolled into a scrapier hex quilt for my niece Hillary.  Hers will be lighter pinks and greens that have a more yellow undertone.  I did discover that one of the fuschia fabrics had a streak of a rather brown shade of burgundy.  Looks like I'll be hosting a hex scrap give-away later in the summer for those blocks.

I have also been working drafting 6" blocks for the USA quilt.  Since I don't have the EQ software, I'm relying on my Power Point graphics skills.  I figured out how to save them as a PDF...next step...figuring out how to load a document onto the blog.   I am planning to sew this quilt by hand, so I could get started this month...but I'm nervous about reds bleeding so I will pre-wash the fabrics in batches before I start.

Update:  I discovered a way to upload PDFs to Scribd.com and add the links through Blogger.  I added the first 8 blocks that I drafted on the side bar.   No particular logic to the order...though I did start with 9 patch blocks figuring they would be easiest.  I will be hand stitching these, with the more detailed ones using English piecing.  I'll post pictures & tutorials when I get started on them.

More Distractions

When I was finishing up the piecing& quilting on the Pinwheel quilt.... I pondered if there was any quilt that I liked well enough to piece...just for the sake of the end product.  Since I don't like making more than one of anything....I  started thinking about samplers.  Which took me back to when I started quilting and I had planned a 50 block quilt to represent each of the states.  I have a binder of ideas and patterns that I had put together.   However...back then I didn't applique, and I hadn't spent much time in some of the states...so my pattern choices might be different now.  (I will omit the details of which state I chose for a "Boondocks" block.) This all reminded me of another project I started at that time, that I dug out of the "Archive" basket.  (That's a cross between a UFO bin and a scrapbook, filled with things I either have finished, or have no desire to.)

This used English paper piecing and was intended for the back of a jacket in 1987.  No telling where those missing states are.  But this trip down memory lane reminded me of 2 reasons that the USA quilt had not been made.  1) I couldn't imagine displaying a red,white & blue quilt  (remember...this is the 80's when everything was mauve & slate blue) and  2) I was drafting 12" blocks, which would make for an enormous quilt.

So that got me thinking.....What if I made the quilt just red and white.  And made 6" blocks...like those Dear Jane quilts that I'm in awe of.  BUT WAIT!  Wouldn't it be cool if the fabric for each state came FROM each of those states!!!!  And I just happen to be going on a cross-country road trip this summer.

And I had just bought the Quilter's Travel Companion...with the thought that we are going to have to pee sometime...and all quiltshops have bathrooms.  Long story short...I spent several hours planning a route that would get us to a quilt shop in each state.  We'll be a little pressed for time when we get back West...but those are states in which I have friends & family so there are still opportunities for collecting fabric from those states.

And...of course, I figured out that I'd really only need 1/8 yard of fabric, which could be mailed for a 1st class stamp.  So I could always lure my family, Facebook and Blogger friends into joining my treasure hunt.  After all, it would be less than $2 to participate.  Since I started this evil plan a couple weeks ago...Harley Dude brought be a fat quarter of red from his bike trip to Oregon, and Debbie picked up some red in Maui while she was on a business trip.

Today's Distraction:  I'm off to the Boise Basin Quilt Show.
Wearing the Stalker Cat skirt.


Editor's note:  Harley Dude is now referring to this as "A poodle skirt for cat butlers."