Loopy feathered wreaths

Deciding how to quilt a new quilt is the hardest decision. Stitch-in-the-ditch or grid quilting? An all over free-motion design, or work within the block structure? Modern, casual or traditional looking?

That's been the decision lurking on my bow-tie quilt. This is a traditional block done in a non-traditional manner, an "origami" style block with a folded center that isn't attached around the edges. The blocks were done in patterns and colors evoking Civil War fabrics, though not necessarily repros. Actually the blocks in this quilt were my extras when we did an exchange of this block on Treadle On, using pre-1900 sewing machines. The block was so much fun I just made a lot of extras.

Anyway, the arrangement of the blocks, with bow ties running in diagonal lines, resulted in octagons of muslin at regular intervals. I knew I wanted the quilting to have a traditional mood, but not be so formal as some traditional quilting designs. Also, I do my free-motion free-hand, on my treadle machine, so it couldn't be too even and measured.

After trying several overall designs, I decided that I really wanted to do a motif in the octagons, and surround them with another design. I went back to several of my favorite free-motion design sites and was just floored when I looked at the main page of the Patsy Thompson Design site. There's this absolutely gorgeous feathered wreath done in multiple colors in a style she calls hyper-quilting. Hers uses stencils, but I decided I would do a more casual style wreath, and use the idea of multiple colors.

I started with a sketch pad and drew various styles of feathered wreathes, once I had one I liked I pulled out one of my practice pieces and tested it out. Yes, a winner. I pulled out the quilt, found a round plastic container with the right diameter and traced around it with a marking pencil to give me my base circle. I stitched it first, then free-hand quilted the feathers and loops around the outside of the circle, then the inside, spacing the inside loops so they filled the interior of the circle. I started these with a tan thread that I will use throughout the quilt, and will come back and echo quilt the wreathes with another color. I haven't decided what that color will be yet.

I got five wreathes done before I started getting tired – when my stitches start getting longer, it's time to take a break. I am excited with the start, and think it's going to be great.

For today, I have to do something for work, so I guess I'll get back to it tomorrow.

More later.

Experiments and decisions

I had another productive evening of sewing last night. I tried a quilting design that I'm thinking of adapting to use for my bow ties quilt. I like the flowing lines, I'm just not sure if it works with the Civil War repros and traditional pattern. I tried it out last night on a crumb block, which is destined to become a potholder. I found this design at Patsy Thompson Designs There's some beautiful work on that site.

Another experiment was trying some decorative chain-stitching on my Willcox & Gibbs. I just tried some gently flowing lines to decorate a couple of the little sewing kits I'm doing for our boutique. I'm learning that I can do gentle curves without stopping, but sharper corners require stopping and starting precisely right.

With the decorative stitching in place I finished a few more of the sewing kits, except for fasteners, then I moved on, back to my palm quilted piece. I got all the background quilting done and it's coming along pretty well. Now it just needs a bit more carefully placed stitching and some thought on embellishments I should be ready to share soon.

More later.

Lots of little stuff

Every quilter needs a helper, and my Pepper has been doing his job by guarding my studio whether I'm in there or not. Fortunately, he has moved his favorite perch from the middle of my cutting table, which was a bit of a problem, to the top of this treadle by the window. The machine he is sitting next to is badged Chapman, and it is a New Home Model K, which is based on a Singer model 15. It is a nice little machine, with beautiful decals of a peacock, and is in an Art Deco style parlor cabinet. Here I am using it, in a class last year taught by Bonnie Hunter, in a clip Bonnie originally posted on her blog.

Evenings after work aren't always the best time to work on big projects, like quilting the bow tie quilt, and I still haven't decided on my quilting design. But I'm keeping busy and have made some progress on items for our guild's boutique. Last night I finished two more pillowcases, for a total of five, and cut out and started stitching another six little sewing kits. With the others, that just need fasteners, that gives me 11 sewing kits. After all these are finished I'll decide whether to make more or do something else.

Of course, in addition to finishing my own quilts, I need to prep my finished quilts for the show, with rod pockets and labels, and I have a costume to make for an event that comes before our show, so I'm not getting too ambitious with boutique stuff.

Anyone in the southeast Georgia area? Details on our show is on the High Cotton Quilt Show blog, in my list of blogs.

More later.

New month, new start

September! There's something about September that makes me think of new starts. The beginning of the school year, of course, and the change in weather. It's been a little cooler at night the last few days, though it's still in the 90s during the day. And the sun has moved so the light "looks" like fall.

Since it's kind of a mini-New Year, I've decided to renew my efforts on a couple of things that have fallen aside during the heat of the summer – my effort to organize/clean up/clear out my house and to get in better shape through healthier eating and exercise.

I've also taken advantage of the back-to-school sales and bought new notebooks, paper, pens and pencils for my office and have been going around the house throwing out dried out pens. Who needs the aggravation of hunting for working pens when you need them?

One thing we seldom think of is office supplies in the sewing room or studio. Yesterday I dug out the decorative tape dispenser (shaped like a sewing machine) and put it out where I can get to it. I have a pair of scissors just for paper, some Sharpie pens in different colors, and a hand-held pencil sharpener. I just need to bring in some new pens (maybe the fun colored ones?), pencils and note paper, then set up a little area to keep all of them.

I'm still deciding on the quilting pattern to use for my bow tie quilt, so worked on some other projects last night. I did the applique for my palm tree – stitched the trunk using a handcrank and fused the leaves, then did the main decorative stitching. The palm leaves still need a little work but they are coming along. I can only work on intense projects for a while, so I moved on to the pillowcases I'm making for our guild boutique and got two more in progress. I would have finished them, but I misjudged while cutting and got the tip of my finger with the tip of the scissors. Ouch! When I start making painful mistakes, it's time for a break.

Thanks to Loreen Leedy for the instructions on her blog to put your own background on a blog. I followed her very good instructions yesterday to put the images from one of my works into the background of my blog. It's really nice to be able to make it personal, even when using a basic template.

More later.

The miracle of the sewing machine

One of the things that always amuses me (sometimes annoys) is the "experts" – usually self-proclaimed – who insist you have to have a fancy, new, usually expensive, sewing machine in order to quilt.

Last weekend at our guild workday everyone else had their new sewing machines. One person was using the computerized embroidery machine to embroider some Christmas motifs, another was using decorative stitches to finish a crazy quilt ornament. Everyone else was straight-stitching. So when someone said about my Featherweight, but all they do is straight-stitch, I just shrugged and said, that's all I really need to make a quilt.

And that's true enough. But the fact is that a woman of 1900 with her straight-stitch sewing machine and box of attachments could probably do more than most people today with their computerized machines. Think about the clothing of the day, tucks and ruffles and plackets and eyelets. And there was a way to do them all on the sewing machine.

Machines of the day came with a basic set of attachments, like the puzzle box I've shown, which would have come with a Singer 27. Basic attachments included a ruffler, tucker, various hemmers and a quilting foot. The angled wire piece in the top right corner is a quilting guide. Very handy when you want to make parallel lines of quilting, whether they are straight or curved. The machine's instruction manual would have information on how to use all these basic attachments.

The really fun thing, to me, is that this is just a start. All the modern ideas, free-motion quilting, thread painting, and so on, were done 100 years ago, using straight-stitch sewing machines.

I was recently looking for something online and found the1911 Singer Instructions for Art Embroidery at the Internet Archive site. This is a book I've wanted for years, but never had the money when one came up for sale. Thanks to the wonderful people who share resources online, I can now try it out.

While I was looking around, I found another treasure, the Domestic Handbook of Art Needlework, a similar book written even earlier, in 1896, by one of Singer's competitors.

These two books have some wonderful ideas and techniques, and I'm looking forward to trying them out.

I thought this was a good day to share, as I didn't do a lot of sewing after work yesterday. I did decide on the thread I'll use to quilt the bow tie quilt and wound a half-dozen bobbins. And I started putting together a background for the little art piece I'm thinking about.

Now, time to get back to work, more later!

Putting the puzzle together

Somebody please keep reminding me that when I start working on a machine I should not leave it sitting disassembled for weeks (months, years....) on my workbench!

Yesterday I decided to clear my workbench so I'd have room to work on the new Pfaff. That meant putting back together the Necchi Supernova that has been sitting there for ages. I'd had it pretty well cleaned up, but never done anything with it because I still needed parts (bobbin case, kind of crucial). I gave it an oiling, dusted it off and started putting pieces back on. And realized the end cover was missing. I finally found it under the workbench (where the spiders live), then couldn't figure out which of the dozen or so tiny screws sitting around were the ones to attach the cover.

I finally found what I hope was the right screw and got the machine back together, puttered with some other parts sitting there and cleared part of the workbench. But I've decided I want to redo/rearrange and evict the spiders before I bring the Pfaff in to work, so no heavy lifting.

Other than that, it was a quiet day. I finished pinning the bow tie quilt, tested a swatch with one possible quilting pattern, and finished four little sewing kits, except for snaps or closures.

One of my favorite uses for my digital camera is to take pictures of things in progress, so I can remember where I am. That's especially useful in laying out quilt blocks. Not only can you remember where you were, you can more easily see problems and possibilities in your layout.

Last night I started working on the layout of blocks from last year's Davis exchange I hosted on the Treadle On list. All these blocks were made on sewing machines made by the Davis sewing machine company, which went out of business in the 1920s. We did a maker's choice block at 9.5 inches, using blues/greens/purples with bleached muslin. I think this one will be beautiful!

A whole lot of sewing going on

Actually, not so much sewing as pinning and cutting and all the things that make sewing possible, but I had a good day yesterday. My primary focus right now is finishing up several quilts that I want to put in our guild's show, all traditional quilts, but the creative switch has finally turned back on and I have a couple of ideas for art quilts, including one "reboot" of a theme I tried earlier but didn't come out quite right.

So yesterday I finished a little piece I'd started earlier in the year. I had been walking on the beach and was intrigued by the patterns left by the seagulls walking on the dry sand. I wanted to see if I could recreate the pattern in quilting, so did this little piece. Originally I was going to quilt in a human footprint, but didn't like it, so I covered it with a flipflop. It has some composition issues, but I'm pleased with the effect of the quilting.

If there is one part of making quilts I can't stand, it is pinning them. Lots of reasons, primarily that I don't have enough room. But over time I've found a system that makes it less awful. It's based on Sharon Schamber's basting system, using two pieced of wood to wrap the top and backing, opening up a section at a time. I modified it to use two 1x6 pieces, wrapped in batting, and, of course, I pin rather than hand baste. I had been using a small crochet hook to close the pins, but a couple weeks ago I got a Kwik Klip and that really helps.

So, yesterday I got the backing assembled, found some batting the right size (love it when a leftover is the right size!) and got the bow ties quilt mostly pinned. I'll be finishing pinning today and testing out some quilting ideas, though I don't know if I'll get started on the actual quilting.

One more little project yesterday. Last year a member of one of my groups showed us how to make some cute little sewing kits. I couldn't find the instructions, but found my kit and figured it out. I made one up as a test, then cut out several and started putting them together. These will be great for our boutique at the quilt show.