Dusting off my Blog

Wow, it's June and I only put one post up in May.  Hand quilting and secret sewing really makes for a boring blog.  I'm going to try to keep this up a bit more as I have a few of my own projects in the works.  First up is this one.  Look at this fabulous Christmas fabric.  Timeless Treasures sure knows how put print some great pieces.This is the fabric that started this journey many years ago.

I was visiting my parents in AZ over Christmas and the 'quilt lady' across the street took me to a long arm quilter's home.  She sold a little bit of fabric from her garage and also taught classes.  Here was this amazing Stack and Wack made out of the above fabric.  I was smitten and I HAD to have this.  Of course she didn't' have any yardage left, but she did have some left over blocks already cut from her class.  And of course they were two different sizes.  Not to worry, I can fix that.  So here is my quilt that has lived in the bottom of a big plastic bin for many years.

The plan has always to put loads of feathers on this piece.  I have stashed away a 30 wt orange/red thread just for this occasion.  The setting triangles are quite large as the blocks finish out at 16". I've chalked out a feather, trying to see how much it will fill the space.  I've over cut the setting and corner triangles as my plan was to grid from the feathers to the edges and then trim down.  I'm all ready to go.

The quilt got loaded up on my machine, I pulled out the heavy thread, nope, then I pulled out my 'go to' So Fine from Superior and this happened. Good bye feathers and hello dense matchstick quilting with double orange peel motifs and a ton of stitch in the ditch. 

After the center was quilted, I pulled out my 'tools of the trade' and got busy.  The first thing was to get out my carpenters L and mark out the corners, as I had intentionally over cut them. These are big corners.

Next up was my rulers, markers and adding machine tap, along with my trusty seam ripper.  That tool was over worked on this project.

The corners were the biggest challenge, but I just kept my focus and worked through the process of "divide and design". This is the first real attempt I've made at this type of "modern" quilting.  Adding machine tape is my best friend for this.  Just roll out the length of your area, fold it in however many places you want to divide into and voilà, no measuring.  Other tools were used as needed , and here you can see my outline and chalk registrations.

Here is the 'after' shot with all the quilting done.

The smaller blocks had a sashing sewn around them to build them up the larger block size.  However, when sewing the centers together, apparently I did not pay attention to the direction of the spin.  Yup, makes for a mixed up background of patchwork.  But remember, I was going to feather all the red background so no big deal................... until I changed my plan.

Another shot of the stacks.

If you enlarge the photos you will see more of what I'm describing.  When it can to the setting triangles, the quilting on the surrounding blocks was different on each area where the triangle was set in, due to the reverse spin and orientation placement of the blocks.  I couldn't have made a more mixed up setting if I tried.

The side triangles each have a different pattern, but they do match to the same on the other side.  The top and bottom triangles match, as do the four corner triangles.  Here are two side triangles stitched out.

Second design, just divide and conquer.

The long shot when it was still on my machine.

It's hard to photograph the whole piece, but once it's bound and washed, I'll try to share another picture. 

It takes a lot of thread to quilt like this.  My long arm uses L bobbins, (the smaller version) but I've never used 17 bobbins of thread, not even on a King that was custom feathered. Wow. There were a lot of stops and starts as well. Look at the tread tails.

This fabric made for some amazing medallions.  It's a Christmas print, so I will have a new piece to put out this year.  I'm super pleased how well it came out design wise.  It's got flannel on the back, but with all this thread, there is nothing cuddly about this quilt.

An easy skinny L design filled the spins, and I used a tan thread as to no detract from the fabric.

I managed to find this piece at a later date and bought enough to bind the quilt. Now that it's done, I'm debating about keeping the binding in the red.  I have lots of that "crackle" print filed away.  

I'll try to post a little more often, I'm still taking customer quilts, I'm open for quilting, so if you have some tops you would like turned into quilts, please consider my services. My guy is waiting for surgery, all our summer plans are canceled so I'm staying home stitching the summer away. He's looking at shoulder surgery which comes with a 6 month rehab. Yuck.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Doll Swap from Humble Quilts

Lori over at Humble Quilts posted about a doll swap and I just couldn't resist.  I've done two of these and have been so thrilled with what I have received that I didn't want to miss out on this round. 

I'm so glad I participated.  My squishy arrived on Monday.

My partner nailed it. I absolutely love what I received. I showed it to my guy and he thought I made it. I told him it came in the mail and he was so confused. That's a good thing, it means my swap partner hit a home run when she designed this piece for me.

It's like Debra, from My Life is a Stitch, came to my sewing room, took a look around, snuck a few pieces of fabric from my scrap bag into her pocket and then went home and made this piece for me.  And she included some chocolate with peanut butter.  It doesn't get any better than this!

Thanks Lori for hosting this swap and for partnering me up with Debra

Lucky me,
Sharon

Star Tutorial

Warning - Photo heavy post.

Here is a step by step photo tutorial for making the pieced star block. There is time involved in the pinning process at certain stages, but the results are worth taking a few extra minutes at these stages.

After cutting all your pieces, lay out the star points on top of the background wedges.  This will keep you from stitching the star point to the wrong side of the wedge.  Trust me, I learned the hard way!

When you made your templates, mark the dots, these will line up and you will stitch right off the edge.  Sew all the star points to the wedge section and press towards the star point.

Sew the sections together and your stitching will cross over the first seam.  This is how it goes together and it will lay flat when finished.

Press again towards the star point and this is what the outside will look like.  The 1/4" is there for setting this into the background.

Take the background sections and finger press it in half.  This will give you a crease to line up to the pieced star section.

Here is where you need your pins.  Using the best quality sharp thin pins, (I like IBC silk pins) start by pinning to the star points.  You can see how the seams line up to the points and the crease will line up to the point in the center.

Now start filling in the sections by pinning in the middle of each section.........

 and continue to pin in the middle of each section ....... 

And keep pinning..........

And pinning.......

Until it looks like this.  Yes, seriously, using all these pins will ensure an excellent result.
 

Now slowly start stitching the curved seam you have just pinned. 

And you will end up with this.  Press to the outside.

Now it's time to inset the center circle.  You could take the quick way and applique the center. Or you could insert it by using, yes, a lot of pins.

Again, fold the center to get creases to line up with piecing, and start placing pins.

Pin each section.....

And don't worry about using too many pins.  Yes, this really is how I do this piecing. 

S-L-O-W-L-Y stitch around this seam ......

Target the dots you have a the seam sections.

And press to the center. 

There you have it.  A beautiful 20 1/2" unfinished star block.

Any questions, just ask. 
Sharon

I'm a Cover Girl for APQ

My project is featured on the cover of June 2016 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine! See my project, as well as other featured projects from this issue.  Wow, do they ever make my quilt look good.  Just pinch me!!!

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2016 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. 

It's currently hanging up at a LQS in my area,  Fabric Etc, in Bellingham, WA

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2016 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. 

Here is the quilt when it was just a top.  I love pinning them to my old weathered fence for photo shoots.  This top was finished in July, what a surprise.  I always seem to be inspired by holidays or events and feel the urge to start something new.

I'd purchased the templates for this star block in late June and after making one star, I made another and another, varying the prints and color placements.  Just like potato chips, I couldn't stop after one!

Then came the secondary block. I originally thought these pieced star blocks would be set on point, but after playing around, I liked the idea of adding some appliques to lighten up the whole piece.  The background fabric is Primitive Muslin - color 22 by Primitive Gatherings for Moda.

Plus it was a great way to use up the scraps that were left over from the piecing.  I used every patriotic print that I had, and I think this one was from the very first quilted piece I made.  A red, white, and blue table runner for my mom, and I even hand quilted it with red thread.  What was I thinking?  But I digress........I love using the blanket stitch for my machine applique, and you can enlarge all these pictures.

Here is the piece on my long arm while I did the quilting.  Batting is Hobbs wool, one layer. A lot of ruler action going on.

The back looks pretty good too.  Solid light backing makes for a great secondary pattern on this piece.  I love running my hand over the backing to feel the texture.  Using wool really enhances the quilting. 

Hot off the machine, not even trimmed or bound at this point.  My quilts get washed and blocked out before sending them off for photo shoots, it just makes them look that much better.
 

It has been such a great experience working with Elizabeth at American Patchwork and Quilting.  She keeps me in the loop, gives me plenty of time to get the quilting and binding done and has been so professional with all my dealings with her.  They send me proofs of the layout so I can double check things, they pattern test and truly do a fabulous job.  Hats off to them.

So if you haven't got this delivered to your door, please take a look at it when you see it at your LQS or on the news stand. There are great quilts in this issue, and the secondary color choices might surprise you. We gravitate to our favorite colors and sometimess it's the "other" option that sings to us.

I will be posting a detailed, step by step tutorial on the star block, Give it a Whirl, so stay tuned.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Why I Buy Magazines

I will admit that I have cancelled all my magazine subscriptions. What this doesn't mean is that I don't buy any magazines. I do, and probably too many, but that's another story. This magazine, Primitive Quilts,  was purchased in 2013 and here it is, late March of 2016 and I'm working on the project that piqued my interest almost 3 years ago.

After flipping through the pages of this issue, I knew I had to make this wall hanging. I just didn't know when that would happen. Since I love doing back basting, this was a perfect piece to take on vacation. I just didn't think it would go on two trips.

This is also the first time I've worked with wool. I continue to stay away from all the 'new' things that come my way in regards to quilting. I've got a bit of an addictive personality and if I started working with wool, then I'd need all those threads and with that comes all the new needles, books, workshops....... well, some of you know what slippery slope I've tried to avoid.

Grunge is such a fabulous group of fabrics.  I have used many of their colors and they just lend a really good look to the finished piece.  The designer, Laurie Simpson, of Minick and Simpson used the grey grunge and I loved the look so I copied it.  I did needle turn and used regular cottons for the candy canes. 
Since my collection of wool contained zero pieces, seriously, I had to shop for each color.  I was originally going to use green cottons, but after putting piece after piece onto the layout, there was just something lovely about the wool.  I went with 4 different greens, and since I'm an ex  X stitcher, I have boxes of DMC floss to pick from.

The wool was fused down with a very light product and then I did the blind hem stitch around each leaf.  It was tedious at first, and not what I thought was a good look.  So I did a little section of whip stitching and thought, "yes, that's faster and easier" and went back to finishing that leaf with the blanket stitch.  I started the next leaf with the whip stitch, and quickly went back to the blanket stitch.  It's true, the more you do the better your stitches look, and the wool definitely looked better with the blanket stitch.

Here is everything stitched down, the last bit is the red berries.  25 are on the pattern along with a stem stitch for the berry branches.  I have everything with me to make this a 'finish' with the exception of scissors good enough to cut the circles out with a nice crisp edge. I doubt this will see another vacation, as it's just a few berries.

I've loved this piece since I first saw it, and now, three years later, I'll be able to hang it up at Christmas.  In fact, it's such a good piece there might be a second one at some point, as I think this would make a lovely gift. 

Keep your eyes open for the newest American Patchwork and Quilting June issue, coming to your mailbox or newsstand very soon.  If you don't subscribe, I hope you will purchase this issue as it's packed with great color ideas.  I'm excited to share that one of the reasons my blog has been a bit quiet this past year will be presented to everyone in this next issue.   It's got a wow factor to it, and it was very fun to make. 

Aloha and keep stitching, (yes, I get to say Aloha for one more day)
Sharon