Quilting Update

 

I finally found the right lighting to show off the quilting on the back of the USA quilt. 

I am currently on block #15 of 50.  I will go back afterwards and add some fill stitching between the blocks.

My other accomplishment of the weekend was indexing the past 3 years of blog entries and updating my  Finished Project Page 

I also updated the Works in Progress Page.

While it is true that I have more than the 19 UFO's that I have posted there, these are the only ones that have photographic proof and providence that they exist.  I will admit to others as needed.  

Progress Report Dec 28

Amy's quilt, aka Bonus Quilt 2 is pieced.

Interestingly, I hung this upside down from the way that I designed it.  I kind of like it better.  In fact, I was planning to do machine stitched lines from top to bottom as it hangs in this photo.  But now I think I might quilt it left to right.  The flimsy finished 74" x 85".  It'll shrink a fair bit as I plan on a cotton batting and fairly close stitching.  That will have to wait, however, as I only have 1 set of basting pins and I'll have to make more progress on the USA quilt to free them up.

Speaking of which, I am extremely pleased with my progress.  I'm working on the outline and first echo quilting on each block.  This is #10 (from the back).  That seems really fast to me.  But all things are relative.

I have added a sidebar to my blog to track my progress on UFO's.  It is my goal for 2014 to clear off 10 of these before I start a couple applique projects that I really, really, really want to do.  I am embarrassed to admit that I have at least 30 quilting UFOs, so I may end up finishing things not on the original list first.   But I am trying really, really, hard to stay focused.

As I saw on a Face Book Poster: " Ask me about my attention deficit disorder or pie or my cat. A dog. I have a bike. Do you like TV? I saw a rock.  Hi! "

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.

Bonus Quilt 1

I have been plugging away on sewing up the red scraps from the USA quilt donations.  I had imagined this quite differently, with 12x16  rectangles.  However, I started running low on fabrics and decided to try to organize them in rows of similar widths, 12-13" wide.  I swear that I started this process with 25 blocks...but somewhere in the process I think 2 of the smaller blocks got sewn together.

My new plan is to arrange the blocks into rows of similar widths as I did with the Blue Damn Rube quilt.  I'll be using white sashing.

And I picked a winner.

Amy, this quilt is for you. (If you want it.)
Amy sent heart fabric from Virginia for this quilt, and has been a long time blog follower who always leaves encouraging comments that keep me motivated!

 

Merry Christmas!

FMQ Feathers

I have issues with feathers.

My issue is that I don't like traditional feathers.

So I don't make them.

Therefore, when I think I might want to make some, I have no experience and they look like $#@&.

I spent some time trying to work out the flow.

There was A LOT  of erasing while I tried to sort out how to shift directions.

I did the first practice pass with an orange pen, trying to get into a rhythm.  I figured out that my groove is top to bottom and left to right.

It helps me to identify the spot on the inside curve where I need a "circle" to wrap the opposite direction feathers around.

For the next pass, I used a green pen and tried to focus only on the "spine" and focused on where things connected, letting the outer part flow on it's own.

I tried marking the spine of my practice block with a wash away marker but it wasn't noticeable on the dark green, so I used a yellow pencil on that side.

My final outcome was this.

When I was stitching it, everything felt smooth and amazing.  I tried to focus on ending the feathers in the same location to make heart shapes.

On close inspection, 30% of those feathers are still a little wonky.  And my effort to make a "stem" spine on the right just simply looks bad.

Oh well.

Progress.

USA Pieced!

At long last, the USA quilt is finally pieced.  Every block, every sashing, every border stitched by hand. Most of the reds came from the state the block represents (I fudged a little to get it finished.) The blocks are in alphabetical order from the upper left.  I picked blocks that represented the state to me either symbolically or by name. (i.e. Card Trick for Nevada, Cowboy Star for Wyoming.)
Of course it was dark last night when I finished, and this morning was freezing fog.  At last, there's a picture, though I wish the lighting was better.

Even though it wasn't on my "official" I-Will-Finish UFO list, I spent last night's football game hand piecing a stack of HST for the 1st bonus quilt from the leftover reds.  I added 28 to the pile.

There are about 200 already joined into 12" finished blocks like these 4.

I think I concluded at one point that I'd need close to 2000 squares.  This  used to be my waiting room /  staff meeting project.  But now my daughter drives her self to appointments and I quit the job with eternal staff meetings.  I may have to make it a goal to stitch a few squares every day until it's finished.