A little bit of magic

My quilting friends say there are three ways to quilt, by hand, by machine, or by checkbook.

While I know there are many good reasons to have someone else quilt for you, I can't help feeling you must miss something.

Because, while I enjoy all (almost all) parts of making a quilt, there's a magic in the quilting, it's when a bundle of fabric is transformed into something completely new.

I love picking out fabric. So many colors, patterns and moods. Do I want something traditional, modern, wild and crazy, soothing and cheerful? What design am I going to use? A block that I will arrange to suit myself, or a quilt designed as a whole.

From there it's cutting the fabric and seeing how the colors start to mesh together, and seeing piles of strips, squares and triangles become blocks and sections, and a pattern starts to emerge.

Since I do a lot of block exchanges, arranging the blocks and assembling the top is creative, too. Which colors should be next to each other? If there are different block designs, like the one I'm laying out now, which designs should go where? Looking at it as a whole, does it balance and flow. And suddenly you have a quilt top, or flimsy.

I have to admit, I don't like pinning. It's a crucial part of the process, and can make the difference between a beautiful quilt and a hashed up mess, but it's physically tiring and tedious and I'm always glad when it's done.

And then, somewhere in the quilting process, there's a transformation. You start with this bundle of layered fabric and batting. It's stiff, it's unresponsive, it doesn't want to do what you want it to do.

At first I have to really think about the quilting, but as I go along, I find a flow. And with every tilt of the treadle, every stroke of the needle, I'm making my mark, literally, on every inch of the quilt. And somewhere about the middle of the quilting, the magic happens. I don't have a bundle of fabric anymore, I have a quilt. Suddenly it's a single unit that drapes instead of bunches, that moves smoothly and feels firm and soft at the same time, but no longer stiff and unresponsive.

Historically, alchemists tried to turn lead into gold. As a quilter, I get to turn a bunch of fabric into a quilt. I think I like my magic better.

As you might guess, I hit that magic point in my bow tie quilt last night. The quilting was going along smoothly and I suddenly realized it had made the transformation. It's always a thrill when it hits that point and I can envision the finished quilt.

Have a wonderful quilty day. More later!

A nine yard yellow snake

With polka dots!

That's what I ended up with after washing the fabric for backing my Triple Star quilt.

I knew I would need a lot of fabric, since the Triple Star is queen size, so I figured out what I needed – 8.5 yards – and checked to see how much I had on the bolt. I had enough, with about a yard to spare. So it's now cut, washed, folded and waiting for me to seam together to make the backing.

The Triple Star is from an exchange in 2004, and the top has been complete since 2005 or 2006. The backing fabric, on the right, has also been in my stash for a while, since the fabric store where I got it has been gone at least four years.

The big accomplishment for yesterday was finishing stitching all the wreaths on my bow tie quilt, and starting on the background stitching. It's slow work, as I needed to take frequent breaks, but I think it's coming along well.

I also finished going through the strings and have a big bin of strings to play with, as well as plenty of new strips in the strip and square drawers. And, it's one more thing moved off the hanging rack and out of the way of one of my sewing machines. Another baby step toward making my studio look less cluttered.

Speaking of clutter, what's the difference between having too much stuff and being a hoarder? There are now two shows on television about hoarding, and they have a scary fascination. On the one hand we look at them with relief, saying, no that's not me. I don't save trash and my stuff hasn't taken over the house. But on the other hand we know that we have things, like old cotton shirts, or the clear plastic containers some produce comes in, that we have a use for but others would consider trash.

As a quilter, fiber artist and collector of antique sewing machines, I know I have a lot of stuff. It's not just fabric, it's batting and yarn and beads and odd bits to use in art quilts and, yes, old cotton shirts to recycle into quilts. And rulers and scissors and spools of thread and on and on.

I guess the difference is being able to recognize if things are getting a little out of hand. We join Stashbusters for encouragement to use our fabric and finish our UFOs, instead of just accumulating it/them. We make up some things to donate to charity or contribute to our guild's sale. We haul old clothes to a favorite thrift store or hold a garage sale to get rid of some excess. And when we realize we have too much, we slow down on acquiring new stuff.

That's what I'm doing now, a little at a time. I like my stuff and will probably always have more than a person without hobbies would understand. But I want people to be able to come into my house without thinking I belong on one of those shows!

Some fortunate finds

Isn't it nice when you find just what you are looking for in your stash? And it's already cut to the right size?

One item on my list for yesterday was clearing out my project boxes. When I'm working on a set of blocks I keep them in project boxes (including pizza boxes and "cake takers" I found a couple of years ago). I usually leave the leftover fabric in the box until I send the blocks off for an exchange or put them together in a flimsy. So since my Boxy Stars flimsy is done, I sorted all the squares and strips into my scrap drawers, and went through the other boxes. In one I found leftover bleached muslin, including several two-inch strips. I was planning to use two-inch bleached muslin for the sashing of my next quilt, the Davis exchange, so put them with the Davis blocks, where I found more two-inch strips left over from making the blocks. I have enough for the sashing without having to cut anything.

Another "find" yesterday was a beautiful yellow with colorful dots on it. I had thought of it yesterday as the backing for my jewel tone quilt, and when I pulled it out I found it was perfect. This was a bolt I bought when a fabric store was going out of business several years ago. Since it's on the bolt it's among the few fabrics I haven't washed, so I guess today I'll figure how much I need for backing and get it washed and ready to piece.

My big project yesterday was continuing to work on the bow tie quilt. I got most of the loopy feather wreathes done, including the half and quarter ones on the sides and corners. There are just a few wreathes to go, then I'll start on the background quilting.

I worked on the organizing and sorting and finding during breaks from the quilting. One area I made pretty good progress was going through a big batch of strings from some scrap bags I got at Mary Jo's Cloth Store (in Gastonia, NC) this summer. A lot of the pieces are big enough to cut strips from, so I spent some time cutting strips from what I could, and putting the smaller pieces into my strings box. Or if I found something really special, into my applique bits box. I save batiks and other special fabrics there so I don't have to cut into yardage when I need just a bit.

I got through about half the strings and hope to finish them today. Then there are more organizing projects to get started. I love having lots of nice fabrics and other fun things to work with, but it's even better when they are organized and I can get to them.

Time to get sewing, more later!

A quilter's prerogative

Is to change her mind!

Yesterday was a non-sewing day. I had to go to Savannah for a work-related event, then made a quick stop at JoAnn's fabrics while I was in the neighborhood. I found some faux suede for a costume and the perfect color variegated thread for a project that's coming up.

This thread is the Signature Pixelles tri-lobal polyester in the Primaries colorway (on left). The colors are perfect for the next quilt, which is jewel tones on an unbleached muslin background. I don't usually use synthetics for quilting large quilts (I use them a lot on wall-hangings and smaller projects), but the colors are perfect. I've never used the Signature thread before, but I'll do test swatches and make sure I'm happy before I start the quilt. My backup is a YLI cotton in the Barrier Reef colorway (on right). It is beautiful, too, but the colors aren't quite as saturated as I want.

Back to changing my mind. I was too tired to work on the quilt, but wanted to get in the studio for a while, so I did yet another test swatch of the loopy wreath, this time on muslin. I did the wreath in the tan I've been using, then echo quilted just inside with a green variegated thread. And didn't like it. It looked too fussy and lost the clean, open look I like so much with the design. So for now I'm going to stick to the design as is, with just the tan thread.

I'm looking forward to a great day in the studio, so should have plenty to report tomorrow. More later!

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.