Little Stitches, Big Ideas

Hand quilting creates its own little oasis of calm and solitude.  I have been quietly quilting my red and white quilt, contemplating, amongst other things, a name for this baby. 

The straight lines are 1/2" apart.  Originally I intended cross hatching, but I think the quilting will be dense enough without that.  In fact there is so much quilting in the white squares that feathered circle isn't very clear. 

On my first circle (top right) I even did some 1/4" cross hatching in the centre.  I've left it in for your interest only and will now undo it.  Sometimes there can be too much quilting.  I never thought I'd say that since I am from the school of more-is-more in the quilting department.

On another front, quilterie has been the recipient of a couple of sweet and generous gifts.

In the foreground is a small magnetic case for pins and needles.  It was a surprise present from Jane for no particular reason.  Gifts like these are the best of all; unexpected and generous.  It means someone has been thinking of you.  Thanks Jane! 

Beneath and behind the needle case are 3 half yards of solids from Sharon and a lovely card.  Sharon wants to make sure my Year of the Solids is not stymied by lack of fabric!  Equally unexpected and equally generous.  Thank you so much Sharon.

Now the plan is to go off and cut some fabric for an Amish style quilt top.  I hope I have something to show you later.

Sidetracked

Cleaning up the workspace (again) I came across some blocks I made a few years ago.  I was trying to come up with a quick technique for making the tree blocks and made 9 before I gave up.  I love  tree blocks and I'm surprised they don't appear more in quilts.

After squaring them up at 9" I decided to sash the blocks.

Then they seem to need large setting triangles.  Some fabric originally bought as backing fitted the bill.  I don't even recall which top it was meant to back, so there are no regrets cutting into it.  Yellow green must be my current favourite colour.  Someone even heard me refer to it as a "neutral" the other day.

The idea for the border is still maturing.  Not a solid quilt, it's true.  But the blocks were made 3 years ago  and were found unloved in a UFO bag, so I am not bound by the challenge rules. 

 The item I was searching for is still missing, but at least I have cleaned up a small corner of my sewing world and made a fresh start on something that was gathering cobwebs.

On the red and white front I have drawn up my 5" stencil.    Since I was making my own I made sure I didn't put too many feathers, and I was able to draw a nicer shape of  feather as it attaches to its "rib".  The inside commercial feathers appear a bit stumpy to my eye.

Now for the nasty job of cutting the channels for marking the pattern.

Intermission

Quilterie has been  posting for 18 months.  Due to a slight hiatus in actual sewing activity I thought it might be time to slow release some older quilts. 

I really enjoyed making the specimen below.  I had to concentrate completely on placement or the courthouse steps would have resembled "Law and Disorder".   That eventually became its name.

Oops!.. Sorry about the wonky photo.

While I was making "Law and Disorder", I came to realise that the greatest interest lay with the large scale fabrics.  Although the colour palette was planned to be olive green for the centres and reds for the lanterns, I learned how to extend the idea of red.  There are  reds, pinks, oranges, burgundies, purples, tans and brown.  The original idea came from a picture from a Kaffe Fassett book.  Now there are so many of them, I can't remember which one, but it was one of his earliest.

It has been long-arm machined.  I wanted a wavy pattern because I thought there were too many straight lines in the piecing, so the surface looks like a topographic map.

 You may be able to see by the creases through the centre that this little baby (70" x 62") has been curled up in a dark cupboard, resting for some time.  It's time to bring it back out, don't you think?

If you have not noticed,  I have added a small piece to my left sidebar regarding Pinterest.  After reading a few blogposts  (thanks, Marianne)  regarding pinning photos I feel it may not be as innocuous as it appears.  If anyone knows the code to opt out of having your photos pinned it would be nice if you could share it.

Red and White and Thread All Over

I caved.  64 blocks not 81.  But at least it is finished, and it is a healthy 74 sq".

Although it is not clear from my photo, the final border is a 3" red strip.  After canvassing a few quilters,  I am using a cream quilters muslin for the back, and hand quilting with an off-white thread.  It will take a while, and during that time I can dwell on the choice of white or red binding.  I would love some blogger input on the decision, so please feel free to voice your opinion.

Getting the top ready for a photo opportunity took an unusual amount of time, due to the red threads that gathered on the white fabric and the white threads that wanted to lie on the red fabric.  Now the migrating threads have been removed, but I bet that's not the last time I'll have to do it. 

Since I've been home, I've also found time to complete another block for my BTCT quilt; now I have 20 finished, 3 in progress, one to draw up and another to find.  The block below is not from the downloaded patterns.

The kangaroo on the left  (yes, that is my humble effort of a kangaroo) may or may not make it into the final quilt.  I wanted to add something identifiably Australian, even though the original quilt was probably made in the US.  I will audition it when the blocks are all finished.

I hope you are all enjoying some quality sewing time this weekend.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

If you're old enough you will remember this tune, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and sung first by Dionne Warwick.  It kept cycling through my mind as I sat on the train to San Jose Quilt and Textile Museum in California.

According to some locals I met, this is the only San Jose in the US and the song was written for it.  I can't help adding that San Jose is also home to eBay.  On my way I passed through Menlo Park, home of Facebook. 

While in San Jose,  I was lucky enough to see the Quilt National for 2011 in the museum.  It is an exhibition of international modern quilts  that had been juried into a travelling collection.    Unfortunately, I can't share my pleasure.  Once again, no photographs allowed.  You can, however, buy the book online.

In San Francisco I visited the SFMOMA.  Photography without a flash was permitted so I have a small collection of images that appealed to me.  I particularly want to share a picture of my afternoon tea.

Yes, a slice of cake made to look like Mondrian's artwork!

  Here is my latest BTCT block:

Travelling blog

In October last year I travelled across the world to the Houston Quilt Festival.  On my way I stopped at LA and met up with my new buddy/mate Dawn from collectorwithaneedle.blogspot.com You probably recognize the url since she has the best show and tell ever.   Check her out, but not before you have a look at where she took me

I don't want to make you  drool over the keyboard, but look at all the flatpacks here

"Flatpacks" refers to the absence of the usual cardboard that the fabric is wrapped around.  Difficult to see what is actually there when it is stored like this, but at $2/yard, I was prepared to look harder.  There were aisles of flatpacks to hunt through.

Thanks for the experience, Dawn.  Far be it from me to advertise on my blog, but if you are curious about our destination, look up M & L fabrics.  I hope you laugh like I did at the customer feedback.

I am on my way to the US again and have packed a whole pile of handwork to do in the down times.  According to quilterie's law  I won't get much sewing in, but here is what I aspire to do:

There are four different projects, none of them involve solids.  As I was explaining to Janet, if a quilt top is started in 2012, then it can only be made from solids.  Otherwise, with work started prior, I can continue on in patterned fabric.

Better late than never

I have been working away on my red and white quilt.  I couldn't resist previewing the blocks before I had made them all.  Well, to be honest, I got quite fed up with making so many red and white HSTs that I just had to put some together.

I would like to make a total of 81 red and white blocks at 5" finished, but lethargy may  prevail, and I could  finish at 64 instead.    I used to prefer rectangular quilts, but tastes change and now I like to make my quilts square if possible.

I've never pressed the seams open before, but the opportunity presents itself here, so I am giving it a go

and I hope it makes hand quilting easier.

Something else that has been occupying my time has been Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt aka "Red Herring".  I was happily sailing along with my piecing and posted a picture of part of the centre.  A couple of my followers kindly pointed out I had the green squares going in the wrong direction.  It wasn't apparent on a  small scale, but when I had 2/3rds of the blocks sewn together, I realised that the secondary pattern was absent.  Compare the picture below with the first attempt here.

That's right; I removed every green string square and rotated it 90 degrees and then sewed it back in.  I think it is an improvement and now I am ready to complete the top.

 My apologies for delaying the announcement of the 2 winners from the recent giveaway of the Quilters Companion magazine #53.  They are Janet from Quiltsalott and Yankeequilter.   I wish I could have given a copy to everyone who entered.  There are so many interesting projects including quilts from Chris Jurd and Sarah Fielke as well as interviews and articles about Aneela Hoey and Sharon Schamber.

So Janet and Yankee (if I may call you by your first name) congratulations and  could you please send me mailing details so I can post your magazines to you.