AQS QuiltWeek Grand Rapids 2014 Part 2

This first quilt was the best of show. 

This one caught my attention with is vibrancy. I am planning to do my next Dear Jane quilt bright. 

I love the colour play in this one. I did not get who made it. Here in Canada, a red ribbon is first prize.

It is called Complex Irish Chain and is done in solids.

 This is the quilt that made me stop and take out my camera for the first time. As I was taking the picture, a voice behind me asked if I would like to talk to his wife who made it. I turned in my walker where I was sitting taking a closer look and met Leslie Stevenson sitting in a wheel chair.

 

She calls it The Fabric of our Lives. When asked how many hours it took doing the work, she replies "it is more like how  many innings". She took several Baltimore classes with Elly Sienkiewicz and over 20 years did all the hand applique and embroidery, often at her sons' baseball games. She was unable to complete the hand quilting so got someone to help.  

She designed the quilted leaf sashing around each block. AND that IS no less than 1/4 inch cross hatching stitched throughout the inside of the blocks.  Each block has a Bible verse written on it somewhere. She explained how she used her light box to find a spot suitable for some of the writing and practiced on paper before using pen and ink.

This has me thinking about pulling out the Baltimore quilt I started 4 1/2 years ago with Kathy Dunigan when she lived in Oakville Ontario. The project was a bit out of my skills level then, but she did teach me how to needle turn applique and introduced me to #10 milliners needles. You can check out her new venture in Rockwall, Texas.   TKDAA

Blessings,
Chris

AQS QuiltWeek 2014 Part 1

I spent a glorious 3 days this past week going to the Quilt show in Grand Rapids Michigan. It was the closest. It only took us 7 hours to drive there and 7 hours to drive home. I had just gotten a walker and used it for the first time. I realized that if I was ever going to be able to handle all the walking and standing of a big quilt show, I had to get help. I absolutely love my new way of getting around and actually got a lot of exercise over those 3 days. Also, I had a place to put all my shopping and not have to carry it. I could sit down whenever I needed to and  to stop (not stoop) for a closer look. Just today I was diagnosed with some compressed discs and we are starting a plan to get me out of my chair and walking comfortably again.

I could not get into my first 3 class choices, so, I signed us up for the Sat morning Tessellating Stars with Pat Yamin. "Miss Janome" introduced us to the brand new fancy dancy Elna classroom sewing machines and showed us how to use the things. It was a bit intimidating for someone who still does so much of her sewing on a singer Featherweight.

Tessellating Stars

 This picture makes it look a lot better than it really is. I was not expecting curves. Inside curves and outside curves and points and pivoting. It was awkward with a large presser foot on the machine and I could  not see my seam allowance as I was trying to stitch it. When I got home, I completed the last few black pieces on my Featherweight and they went in a bit more pointy. The rules here are to cut ALL the pieces out from the SAME side of the fabric so you do not get mirrored pieces. NO pressing until the WHOLE thing is completed. This would be a great hand piecing project.

Then we went shopping again in the merchants mall. Two women from Spain were doing demos on how to use these gadgets to improve applique skills. I first saw them featured on someones blog a few months ago and payed close attention to how to turn pointy points. I will try them out on this month's Ben Bigg's block that I have not yet started. More about that later.

I also bought some thread to machine quilt my Dear Jane and lots of milliners applique needles to share with my new students next month. They are really hard to find around here. I wore my I AM AQS button and won a gift card to one of the booths and got some Best Press in peach.
And. yes, we did see some quilts. I will post more later.

Blessings,
Chris

225/225

Almost Done

Only 2 more after these

Chris

Quilting Proteges

I got to spend a delightful evening babysitting my amazing little girl grand babies. Only they are not so little any more. I was getting a bottle for 15 month old Devan and gave almost 7 year old Ava instructions about pinning the coloured fabric scraps onto the background square for 2 1/2 year old Elly to un-pin. Simple instructs, or so I thought. Ten minutes later I come down after putting the baby to bed, who by the way, went without a single peep. Ava found the scissors in my other bag and proceeded to trim the loose threads off the fabric scraps.

 Elly was very happy to participate and started laying out pieces onto the background square. So far, so good. Then Gramma decided to open out the square to give Elly more room for her creativity.

And that is when I discovered that Ava was trying to cut some grass onto the background square. Oops.

Blessings,
Gramma Kiss

Single Digits

It is very exciting to be in the single digits with the Dear Jane triangles. There are so many other things I should be doing, but completing this thing is a bit of an obsession right not. Not that I am spending all my time WORKING on it, but I am spending most of my time THINKING about it and TALKING about it and WRITING about it. But I have been a good girl, sort of, and not started in on the next one, yet. I have all the fabrics for 2-3 of them sitting here in a big project box waiting for this lady to come down off the wall. 

Dear Jane BR # 12

This orange is from the Dear Jane 2 Collection of reproduction fabrics. Apparently, the original Jane Stickle has brighter colours than most of the Civil War reproduction fabrics that I bought to use for this quilt. So, they are all mixed in together and hopefully they will look okay in the finished product.

This triangle was straight forward. I simply paper pieced it and appliqued the base.

BR # 13

This last one was an interesting experience. I paper pieced it from the DJ software. However, the point was not available there so, I deferred to thatquilt for insight. I traced the top part of the point onto some foundation paper and started to stitch it up until I realized that I had not left enough seam allowance on the edge. So, instead of unstitching, I traced a second pattern and started over. Then, I realized that I had reversed the colours of the center and traced a third pattern, this time drawing in the seam allowances. I paid more careful attention and got the thing done. You can see the brighter blue of the Dear Jane reproduction to the right.

 

Dear Jane BR # 6

Seven more to go.
Blessings,
Chris

Dear Jane Triangle Bottom Row # 5

BR # 5

The following is how I did this triangle. Keep in mind that I have already made 42 triangles for the borders and 3 corner kites, so I have had a bit of experience getting this far.

The Dear Jane software has all the patterns and the EQ7 program will make all the calculations for whatever size you want to print off the patterns. It gives you the choice of foundation, rotary cutting or templates. Not every pattern has every option, so I discovered.

For applique, I printed off the pattern onto freezer paper or traced the shape needed.

Sometimes I combined different techniques from different sources to get it done. I even learned how to think some of it through myself before finding thatquilt.blogspot where I got insights in freezer paper foundation and reverse applique combinations.

There are no given patterns or instructions in the Dear Jane book. Each block and border triangle has a photo from the original Jane Stickle quilt and a full sized diagram of the finished block.

There are 2 blocks or triangles per page.
I am doing the one on the top. It looks like it could also be appliqued.
I did mine by foundation or paper piecing.

Using the DJ software and EQ7, I printed off the foundation patterns 3 years ago when I was preparing the border kits for my group. I tried to be 10 blocks ahead of the girls, even though I did not always know what I was doing . We decided to wait until after the center blocks were complete to start on the borders.  So, I started back on the triangles back in April.

I forgot to mirror the images because at the time I did not realize that I had to or that there was an option. 

I find that it is helpful to mark each of the coloured sections to avoid mistakes.
Even with this, I still managed to reverse some of the pieces and had to unstitch.

Also, marking the outside seam lines is helpful.

It is important to line up the sections correctly since I move the pattern pieces around before printing in order to get all the pieces on one page.
In the beginning, I did not now that I had the option to move them and I printed off patterns and then proceeded to "cut and paste" with scissors and tape before making copies for everyone.
I am so educated now.

The narrow triangle shapes on the outside of each of the edge sections are different widths. Good thing I spotted that before connecting them.

Before connecting the sewn up sections, I turned them over and lined them up. For some reason it is easier from the back.

 I did not make any attempt to fussy cut. Not all of my fabric choices give me that option. It was when I was lining these up that I realized that the outside edges were different widths in each row.

 I use the very fine Clover blue and yellow glass head pins to pin together the sections. I find they slide in and through all the paper and fabric easier.

It is also important to use a very short stitch length with paper piecing otherwise, the stitches rip out when removing the papers. This then becomes a bit of a challenge when you make a mistake and need to unstitch.
It is never called ripping out a seam. That sounds so destructive. You unsew or unstitch.

And yes, I use one of my 4 Featherweights for paper piecing. I can set it up on the table with the cutting mat to the left and the ironing board to the right at an angle so I can just swivel my comfy chair.

 When all the sections in each row are connected, I lay them all out again to make sure I have them in the right order. I see that not all the diamonds are alined perfectly, but I am not redoing them since they are much better that ones I did a long time ago.

After all the sewing is done, the papers still have to be removed.  This can take me 1/2 hour for some blocks. I discovered the wash away foundation paper at block 167/169 and did not like it.
I find that tearing the bits out onto a sheet of paper is less messy.  I have started to remove some of the papers before connecting the rows to make it easier, but have removed too much and lost the 1/4 inch seam line, so, I try to be careful.

 And the triangle is completed, almost.

 But first, must square it up using the special DJ triangle ruler.

 Not all the papers  make it into the trash bin  no matter how careful I am.

And that is DJ BR #5. It took about 3-3 1/2 hours since I only made a couple errors.
Blessings,
Chris

Beyond the Cherry Trees

Completed the last leaves on BTCT # 8 after redoing 2 leaves that were a bit out of line for my perspective. This brings to completion 4 of the hand appliqued blocks from sentimentalstitches.

BTCT # 8

 Who says slow stitching should be slow preparation? I ran the green fabric through the one of the  GO cutter custom leaf dies I had made up last year to speed up the cutting process. I am needle turning with a size 10 milliner's needle. Now to take time to run a few more strips through the bias tape maker. 

BTCT # 5

I am linking to slow stitching Sunday.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Blessings,
Chris

Pageviews all time history 20,000

Time to celebrate. 

20,000 exactly. 

Just 1 day after our 43rd wedding anniversary.

And just 4 weeks until the one year blog anniversary. 

I think I will have a giveaway then. 

Chris

More Dear Jane Triangles

Three more triangles completed on Dear Jane. I made fewer mistakes this time with the paper piecing. I needle turned the melon in the middle of this one since I am no longer using the freezer paper and glue method.

Right Side # 5

 I appliqued the bottom of this one and foundation pieced the top. Easy peasey.

Right Side # 10

I had to check out thatquilt for insights here. I paper pieced most of it and did a reverse applique of that
arrow in the center. I am shocked that it fit in so well. I guess practice does pay off. This is only block # 214/225.

Bottom Row # 7

This now leaves only 11 more triangles and then the final corner kite.
I am linking to myquiltinfatuation today for the first time.

Blessings,
Chris

BTCT So Far

Four BTCT blocks completed since I started 2 months ago. I still have 2 more that I started prepping ready to pick up and do a few stitches when the baby is sleeping. He is still here for today.

BTCT

I think the hand applique here is progressing faster than the machine applique on the Ben Biggs blocks. I have only 4/8 complete in 7 months. It's those little moments. And, I cannot take the sewing machine when I go out babysitting.
Chris

Slow Progress

Slow and steady stitching and this block will soon be done. I had a grand-babysitting gig yesterday and  managed to applique about 15 leaves. It helped that the 2 older ones were at the other grandma's for the weekend and the baby slept for 3 hours. Mom and Dad got home 5 minutes after she got up.

BTCT #8

I cut out one each of 3 sizes of freezer paper shapes for the leaves and then cut out several at a time with 3/8th inch seam all around. I did not mark the stitching lines. I did mark leaf placements but 2 1/2 year old Elly removed most of the pins last week and I just sort of placed the leaves. The leaves turned out a bit smaller than they were supposed to so next time I probably should cut them a bit bigger. I still need practice to get those curves smooth all the time. I have about 300 cherries and 200 grapes to come in the distant future of this quilt, but that will be another story.                        The pattern can be found  here.
I am linking to slow stitching sunday
Blessings,
Chris

August Quilting Goals List

I got 5 of the 8 July goals accomplished. I prepped several blocks, completed a couiple, got  my daughter's quilt long arm quilted and bound it yesterday.
My August goals will be less.

1. Complete Dear Jane. Still 14 triangles to go.
2. Quilt Dear Jane. Got the long arm booked for the 13th. 
3. Begin DJ2 and DJ3. Cut the background into many different sizes of strips and make the first 10 blocks of each for the first class Sept 6.
4. Prep Ben Biggs #8. It arrives today!!
5. Machine applique all the prepped Ben Biggs blocks.
6. Attend the AQS QuiltWeek in Grand Rapids Michigan.

Guess that's enough since Baby Jonathan is here for few more days.
blessing,
Chris