Month: June 2023

Summer Camp

I’m going to a quilty summer camp.

I couldn’t resist the adorable blocks being made in the Modern Quilt Studio’s “Modern Mystery Quiltalong Summer Camp” taking place now. The participants are full of helpful assists and have lots of good humor.

I’m crazy. I know. There are two quilts on my design wall already, the quilt from hell, and Traverse waiting to be hand quilted. But at the very least I’ll print out all the directions.

However… I already have my cutting table covered with solids, so why not? I kept telling myself I absolutely SHOULD NOT start another project, but I really liked what I was seeing online (I found this group on a Facebook page), and I walked away and walked back for two days before I realized I was already putting together a palette and watching videos.

You can go online and see what has tempted me so strongly. I really like this organization and did review its lively patterns and mystery quilt results that people have posted on FB. There is an Instagram account as well.

I have been working in solids for these past 4 or 5 years, as longtime readers know, so I have a solid stash of colors. Here’s the palette I’ve made for this project:

I’m going to remove the dark magenta from this palette as I’m going to use a dark olive green for what is called the “field” fabric that will surround the modern blocks (Kona Juniper 409). The magenta will not show up on a dark green. Per the helpful videos, I’ve included some duller, lighter fabrics that will make the brights shine in the quilt.

The cutting and sewing are easy–and the block load coming weekly now is doable, for sure. I’m already learning some new piecing methods–and it is always fun to get directions for various blocks to make. Out of the initial 8 blocks, one chooses 4 to make. These first blocks are what I was seeing as people made theirs and shared.

Crazy, yes. But happy too. And energized with my creative work.

Here’s a little bouquet I cut when I pruned and deadheaded the other day.

The Quilt From Hell

…is all in one piece.

Well, except for the border.

I started this English Paper Piecing project in June of 2018. That’s FIVE YEARS for heaven’s sake. There are SO MANY tiny pieces, and I have spent COUNTLESS hours prepping all the templates. Plus, sewing all the curves is so, so hard. I’ve used up a whole roll of artist tape along the way.

The block centers are all Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society. The rings are solid pastels, and the ring centers and the 4-patches between the rings are all dark solids. The outer border will square it off and is made of BIGGER (thank heavens!) pieces–all dark solids.

I got the two large pieces joined by Monday at some point and ironed the top. I spent a chunk of time late Monday and Tuesday cutting and making the border templates. Here’s an example of one of the border units–a corner piece. They will be turned so that that little square goes down into the quilt and will finish off the 4-patchess. So, yes, more curves to sew!!!

Here’s the real problem now. All those templates now have to come OUT of the quilt. I pulled out templates for hours yesterday and don’t feel like I made much of a dent. I’ll leave the templates around the edges until I sew in the borders–for stability.

The thumb nail on my right hand is so, so sore this morning. Tweezers to the rescue!

I might as well just settle back and listen to a book or tv as this part is going to take DAYS.

Meanwhile I had a LOVELY weekend with two granddaughters staying overnight Friday and Saturday. We kept busy, which included three swims in the pool to which I have access as part of my HOA. We visited, shopped (bead store for making a necklace and a bracelet), went to the library, cooked (a soup lesson here), watched tv, made popcorn, and in general had a lovely weekend. (This granddaughter weaves friendship bracelets with a kind of hard loom.)

And, sale cotton fabric from Missouri Star arrived, and I’ll make a long tunic to go over leggings. It’s a new pattern that I’ve had for about a year and have just been too busy to make it. I am needing lighter clothes here in South Carolina.

Here’s the first post on what has turned out to be “the quilt from hell.”

Turkey Tracks: Looks Looky: My Next EPP Project

The Traverse Quilt is Basted

I put her on the longarm yesterday, after prepping and ironing her backing and trimming the batting. It took all afternoon, so no work happened on my two new projects that are filling up the design wall.

I can set my machine to a VERY big stitch. When I am longarm quilting a quilt, I follow this same process, but just baste down the edges as I go–so the longarm needle plate does not get caught in the fabric at the edge of the quilt. Believe me, that creates a terrible mess. And, sometimes, at least once for me, a hole in the quilt. For a regular quilt I just sew straight lines across the quilt, and I measure the distance of the sides to the quilt frame to make sure the quilt stays even on its backing and batting.

But with a quilt I want to hand quilt, I make big curvy swirls as they will really hold down the fabric. The top might look a little puffy, but trust me, it is tight to the backing and batting as that is the gift of the longarm basting.

Here she is–and remember the camera distorts…

I have a whole little bin of Sulky 12-weight threads in so many lovely colors. And I want to use a lot of thread color in this quilt–probably to match the colors in the quilt. These are “little” spools that are very inexpensive at Red Rock Threads–under $3 each the last time I looked.

Tara Faughnan also likes Wonderful 12-weight “Spaghetti” threads, and she has a lovely package of them in her shop. I ordered it as I’d like to try the Wonderful 12-weight threads. Those two big spools are threads I’ve had for years, for decades actually, that I bought for a quilting project when I wanted a thick-thread look.

I won’t let myself start quilting this quilt, although my fingers are itching to start it, especially after taking Tara’s online class on hand quilting, where I got a much-needed refresher on hand quilting. I’m going to practice delayed gratification until I get the quilt from hell all together–and except for its borders, I’m close to that moment. Yeah!

Coastal Clouds

I am no stranger to coastal weather as I lived near the Maine coast for almost 19 years.

The clouds are always fascinating along a coast, and weather moves fast.

I like to eat my noon dinner in the “outdoor room” (screened porch), after which I enjoy an espresso and read a little. And I watch the clouds. (The porch screen distorts a bit.)

Weather boils up, for the most part, from the direction straight in front of my porch. And almost always these days, there is a very cool breeze that comes directly into my porch.

Summer heat in the south will still the wind on a lot of days. Even the ocean will become flat and smooth, except for the fringe of the waves at the water’s edge. But for now, our weather has just been delightful.

Quilty Play Time

Traverse is waiting for me to put her on the longarm to baste her layers, but I’ve digressed to quilty playing for a bit.

Almost two decades ago I bought this kit from the now-closed Mainely Sewing quilt shop. Actually I bought TWO kits as I wanted to make a quilt that was wider than one kit allowed. The main fabrics are Kaffe Fasset RED florals.

The sashing is an Alexander Henry pattern from 2008. And it is fine, as is the above pattern. But why didn’t I make this project back in the day? I don’t really know. I do remember that I wanted to make a RED quilt.

But I’ve moved on and changed with my quilting–becoming much more interested in modern quilts and the modern traditional category–both of which are simpler and often very graphic. So, how to use these red floral fabrics? I’m determined to wipe out all the saved projects I have–and I’m moving right along on that effort.

First, the pink sashing went into the stash–and I pulled out solid scraps that needed to be used. And here is what is growing on the design wall.

The blocks finish at 10 inches. And I’ll use a solid for a narrow sashing. I won’t use borders–I’ll take the blocks out to the border and use the narrow sashing as a finish–with no corner stones. Maybe the binding will be one of the red florals? I have a hunk of one fabric that…strangely…is cut on a bias and it might work. Seven 10-inch blocks by 8 blocks would make a nice-size quilt.

I don’t know the sashing color yet. Maybe a lime green? There is a lot of bright green these fabrics.

Meanwhile, I’m also cutting and making half-square triangles from the solid scraps. And, playing with this idea, which would make a 20-inch block. Perhaps that rose sashing needs to be brighter? I saw a quilt Tara Faughnan made, using this kind of a block, and it is so fun. Her creativity knows no bounds. For sure. The squares on the right are for the next big block so I won’t repeat blocks in this first one.

Yesterday was a grilled lamb chop and roasted squash day–zucchini, yellow squash, sweet onion, carrots sliced thin, and fresh herbs from the garden. I should have added some garlic chopped fine too. Next time. ***I’ve learned from son Mike NOT to roast these tender squashes very long in the oven or they get mushy. Just 20 minutes in a hot oven. Then just broil them for a few minutes.

I can’t wait to get back to my studio upstairs today! But I have some errands to run first. And cooking for the day as well, though I have more of the squash mixture.

The Traverse Quilt Top is Finished

Tara Faughnan designed Traverse and Sewtopia hosted the project, which ran as a block-of-the-month project, starting early fall last year. I chose this version, made with Windham’s Artisan Cottons (shot cottons). Those fabrics…glow. As usual, when I work with Tara Faughnan, I learn so much. And I continue to love her design work.

Somehow I’ve never learned the trick of getting my cell phone NOT to distort a quilt picture so the bottoms always look like they are not as wide as the tops.

I took Tara Faughnan’s “on demand” online class about hand quilting last week. She pretty much hand quilts all of her work. (I don’t know how she has the necessary time, but like me with hand work at night, she finds hand quilting can sooth away one’s stresses.)

I’ve hand quilted for decades now, and in more recent years gravitated to thicker threads and bigger stitches. But in both methods, I’ve never been terribly good about getting my back stitches to be even like the front ones. Busy backing fabrics help hide that lack, but Tara pretty much works in all solids, and her quilt backs are as pretty as her fronts!

Can I just say I learned so much with this hand quilting update. Like me with these bigger threads, she does not use a hoop. And it was so good to see how she uses her hands and her thimble. I’ve learned a lot of new information about using the thicker threads I’ve grown to love for these projects; which of these threads work best; and which needles, thimbles, and thread conditioners work best. (I’ve gotten some new thimbles and a new thread conditioner which I love already.)

The other issue is what solid backings make hand quilting easier as they have a lighter base–so I ordered a Michael Miller Couture Cotton backing in a beautiful teal color. And I chose Dream Cotton’s lightest backing–Request.

So, yes, I’m going to hand quilt Traverse–after I put it on the longarm and baste it. And after I make myself finish the last row of the “quilt from hell,” join the two big pieces, and set up the final border, which will be much easier than all the curves in the quilt. And, yes, I’ll hand quilt it too when it is done.

Finally, one bunch of grocery store flowers fixed these two empty pots on the porch which were begging to be used. I could hardly walk past them as they were screaming at me…so loudly too.

And a friend brought me these lovely beauties Tuesday.

Grandson Kelly graduates high school today. The family is now gathering for that event.

Go Kelly!