Now Quilting

Well, I was quilting, but now I'm done.

Every so often I get the itch to make a quilt. And then I've got it out of my system. I so admire the quilts made by dedicated quilters - all the precision and attention to every detail - but I can only manage to quilt in small doses. Then my attention wanders back to clothing.

This one was inspired by a car load of gifted fabric from a friend at church. The first batch required machine washing. By the time I finished that, I found that I actually liked some of the fabric. I felt it deserved to become part of a quilt. It is mostly older prints but by flipping it over, I had solids. I gravitate to solids more than prints.

The pattern I used (mostly) is a simplified courthouse steps. The quilting is simply vertical lines more-or-less an inch apart. I was actually a pretty satisfying make, in the end.

The back of the quilt is made from some white muslin included in the gifted fabric. It had a few flaws, so I added a bit of boro to the quilt back. I also used some of my remnants from thrifted men's shirts. Those too had some flaws requiring a bit of boro repair.

This is to be a present for DS. I wonder what he will think of boro repair!

The rest of the gifted fabric will be used in future sewing camps or go to my local American Sewing Guild chapter for redistribution. We will use it to make projects like this:

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Julie's Quilt

In a truly shocking turn of events, my eldest turned 40 last week. It's official. She's now older than me. In my head.

To celebrate her birthday, I decided to make her a quilt with all new fabric. Such extravagance but she deserves it. She has 4 children, a husband and a dog. And she lives close by. I'm so lucky.

bias binding for the edge

Recently I've been attracted to modern quilts on social media and it certainly shows in this design. I used Kona solids in colors Julie likes, but mostly white. She loves white. This may be my first and last quilt made exclusively with Kona solids. The fabric comes in yummy colors but it is too dense for me to comfortably apply sashiko. I did add some but there might have been more if it was easier to needle.

Just a little sashiko

Making large quilts is always a challenge for me. I finish the top, and I'm finished but the quilt is not. I could hire out the quilting but I'm too stubborn to do that. This is only 50x60, so sort of at the high end of a large quilt for me.

Backing secured to the table

And somehow I always enjoy the process. It gives me opportunity to think about the last 40 years and how Julie has blossomed.

Batting in place over backing - low loft cotton - so soft

Even the pinning is zen-like, meditative.

I quilted it with mostly vertical lines. I enjoy quilting with a walking foot. I've never worked hard enough to master free-motion quilting. Plus I love regular geometric shapes. The quilting rows range from 1" to 2" apart.

I added a handful of diagonal quilting lines and the quilting was done.

After I attached the binding and a label, I washed and dried it. A wrinkled quilt is soothing to me.

It was a sweet process and I so enjoyed giving it to her. I don't know when or if I'll make another quilt. So many other satisfying projects call to me.

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Improv Stripes

For a while now, I've been an admirer of modern quilts and especially those that are improvisational. I have been following Debbie of A Quilter's Table via her blog, as well as Flickr and Instagram. When she issued a challenge a few weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. The challenge is called Improv Stripes and you can see the description here.

My first attempt involved two coordinating fabrics. I made one block with some pretty skinny stripes first:

Back of block with skinny stripes

Front of block with skinny blocks

After this block I tried more chunky blocks and found those to be more fun for me. It is lots easier to make the blocks flat if the stripes don't overlap one another. And I like the look of the more chunky blocks.

I arranged the blocks free-form, layering the raw edges until it pleased me. Then I added a cotton flannel batting and a striped linen piece for the back. The striped linen piece came from a thrifted shirt. My quilting is simply more-or-less straight lines that are 1/8 to 1/2 inches apart.

The quilting stitch runs across the linen stripe, creating a wavy look.

I was enjoying the freedom of overlapping the oddly shaped blocks and so left the edge of the quilt raw too. I simply top-stitched it densely along the edge. The resulting 23x25 inch quilt had great body, just right for a bag of some sort.

I'm pretty pleased with the duffle and think I'll use it quite a lot. It has a good feel to it. Also I have fond memories of previous sewing projects in all those stripes.

It is not finely finished and I am happy with that. The entire project was a good exercise in letting go of my need to strive for perfection.

I used the block with skinny stripes to make another small bag but it is not nearly so satisfying as the larger one.

If you are interested in seeing more responses to this quilt-along, check them out here on instagram. There are so many pretty and inspiring quilters out there! And thanks to Debbie for her inspiration and leadership in this fun activity.

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Dual Solution

Reading Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has led me to think of the duality of other aspects of life. Dr. Edwards discusses the roles and interference between the left and right sides of the brain, particularly as it applies to drawing. But there is duality elsewhere too.

This quilt has a very traditional side. This side is mostly symmetrical in terms of the layout of the overall pattern and even the layout of each block. I've used equal amounts of light and dark, square and circle. And it is a 36 inch square.

And it has a boro side. This side is clearly asymmetrical, almost chaotic, I think. The colors are unbalanced. The shapes are squares, rectangles and circles.

When I consider this side, I feel organized but a little sad.

And when I consider this side, I feel creative and a little bit wild.

This will hang in my sewing studio but I'll probably flip it from front to back some. It will hang above my thread cones, protecting them from dust and sun damage.

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The blues

Sew blue. Mini layers.

This quilt has a conventional side and a boro side. You can see parts of the boro side that is made up of some fabrics that I dyed in an indigo class with Rowland Ricketts at Arrowmont several years ago. I'm in the process of hand-quilting it with size 12 pearl cotton thread, my favorite. The pattern mostly follows the conventional side, with one nod to the moon-shaped resist on one of the indigo pieces (boro side).

the more conventional side before quilting

I am amazed at how meditative this has been. That is probably a response to my full week of hand-sewing at Arrowmont this year with Jody Alexander. I can hardly bear to do anything but stitch on this. It's also a healing process during an upside-down week.

It's been feeling a lot like summer here, as it should, since we just passed the summer solstice. I wanted loose clothing and imagined this until I finally made it up.

It is the Urban tunic from Indygo Junction, again lengthened three inches so that I can wear it as a dress, probably more often than not with leggings or jeans underneath. I guess that defeats the purpose of loose clothing though.

The fabric is a medium weight linen that was delightful to cut, press, sew. I did goof one part. I really should have added interfacing to the pocket openings. I can always unsew and correct that.

I have a blue jacket cut out and ready to puzzle through. It is the All About Details pattern, view B, from Cutting Line Designs. I will likely enjoy that process a great deal. It is full of Issey Miyake details. The CLD patterns almost always include a few interesting details to try, but with the Miyake inspiration, this one promises to be a particularly good puzzler.

So I guess I'll continue to sew the blues for now.

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MMM Day 23

Today is a good day, 'cause I get to sew.

Bonjour! mini-quilt

Top:

Today's top is the Olive view from the pattern Alex and Olive, by the Sewing Workshop. I added navy striped knit piping to accent its interesting lines. I did not add the decorative back zipper.

Pants:

These are the Hudson pants also from TSW. These are made in yummy navy blue silk noil. I think I need another pair of these pants.

What I'm sewing today, I think:

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New old quilts

From time to time, a previous make needs repairs or just changes. I consider that great fun.

About 36 inches x 45 inches

According to my label, I made this quilt - *Many Moons* - a decade ago. It was a long-term project for travel. I cut out 3 inch circles from freezer paper and ironed it on cotton batik. Then I basted the batik fabric around the perimeter of the paper circle. Lastly I hand-appliqued it to 4 inch square backgrounds of varying batiks. It was very portable. For the large motif I appliqued varying sizes of circles together. After piecing it together, I quilted it with the machine, stitching in the ditch. I finished it with batik bias binding.

It mostly hangs on the wall, being too small to use for warmth. Recently I took it down and washed it. Afterwards I realized that it needed more quilting. What a fine opportunity for hand work! You can see in the picture above that I used sashiko stitching to stitch about 1/4 inch inside the circles. Some are not yet stitched. I really like the hand-stitch look, and of course, it is relaxing to stitch this way.

A couple of days ago, my granddaughter wanted to sew something, anything.  So we made a tiny quilt, really just a quilt block. We stacked created the three layers by stacking a solid piece on either side of the nine patch. Then we turned it inside out, and (I) hand-stitched it together. I added just a bit of hand-quilting after granddaughter lost interest.

I'm always the last one to give up on a coloring project too.

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Happy Day

Today is celebrated as Valentine's Day in the US and other places, mostly kept alive by the card, florist, and candy businesses. It is also a fun theme for making something sweet.

My sewing group, Sew Incredibles, is having a gift exchange tonight with the theme of Valentine's Day. It was fun to make this very small quilt, also known as a mug rug.

And I still had time to make a Valentine for Mr. NowSewing:

He left me a lovely hand-written note this morning. And yet, last week, we both agreed to ignore Valentine's Day.

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