Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

Thursday, January 09, 2020

Sacred Geometry for Project Quilting at Free Motion Mavericks

It's that time of the year again - Project Quilting! Since it's the first Challenge of the 11th season (11.1), this week's challenge is Notably Numeric - celebrating all things numerical including geometry.

Project Quilting Challenge 11.1 - Notably Numbers

Flower of Life
Sacred Geometry

To be honest, my first reaction was oh... but then as I was reading, the word geometry leaped off the page. Not that I'm into geometry but I love hexagons (hexies) and recently learned about Shri Yantra, that intriguing pattern made of triangles. Like the proverbial rabbit hole that is the internet, that brought me to Sacred Geometry and finally the Flower of Life.

I think that I love the Orange Peel pattern almost as much as hexies. As you can see from my piece, if you're into quilting, the first thing that stands out are the lovely orange peel in this pattern. Well, after reading more about it, it turns out that the Flower of Life is made up of a series of circles! Yup. If you want to learn more about them, see Related links below.

After finding out that this was a series of circles,
I started drawing (see What I learned below)

How to draw a big circle around the
project? With a plastic lid of course!

My project is not quite done. I worked on it all evening on Sunday and created this without the circle. I found the right plastic container lid and then I had two circles!

The next step is making biased binding. I did find more fabric, so it's just a matter of doing it!

A Flower of Life done in free motion quilting

The deadline is Sunday but I would love to have it done by Saturday at the latest. If all goes well, I'm tempted to add small beads where the circles intersect. It's not a traditional thing to do, but it might be fun and pretty. I'll have to think about it.

What I learned

After learning about the Shri Yantra, I've been wanting to quilt one since it's composed of tons of triangles. It didn't take me long to realise that this was way above my ability, especially within a week. I'm really glad that I found the Flower of Life, which is not quite as complex.
It turns out that I'm not as inept in math as I thought. Once I found out that these were a series of circles, I actually figured out that the orange peels were created when the circles intersected at 60 and 120 degree angles. (I may have said that badly but I did draw it out! I was very impressed with myself).😊
After being too impressed with myself, I drew the pattern on the fabric with Frixion pens - and it left a "shadow" on the fabric! What to do? After a few attempts at different solutions such as appliqué, I finally decided to quilt the Flower of Life from the back of the quilt, so that the bobbin thread showed up on pristine fabric! I successfully did this in a couple of "large print wholecloth quilts". It really is a great technique.

Sunday, January 05, 2020

Slow Stitching and Free Motion Quilting

I love being able to create something using techniques that aren't usually put together - such as slow stitching and free motion quilting (FMQ). It's not that they don't go together, but rather that it's not usually done.

Slow Stitching and FMQ in Exit Strategy 1

In September I introduced my Exit Strategy...and got caught up with all kinds of projects and distractions. Then, while writing my 2020 Planning post, I realised that creating art quilts had become daunting and that my expectations were too high and too serious. So enough of that! It's time to just do it for fun, and if it turns out well, all the better. If not, then I'm bound to have learned something.😊

So this weekend, I took out the batik fabric bought for the sashing and put my first piece together. I did some stitch-in-the-ditch around the sashing and border and then started to play. It felt really good to be having fun making art again.

Exit Strategy 1 is slowly emerging.

I just did enough FMQ to see what it might look like among the hand stitching. I worked on the top two panels.

In the three triangles panel, I wanted to see how I could highlight the triangle with quilting. I think that there's a lot of potential there.

FMQ around one of the triangles.

In the next panel, I FMQ around some of the stitching and then on some of the lines that I hadn't embroidered.

FMQ around the couching and following the lines of the fabric

I'm really looking forward to experimenting on these panels. I'll keep FMQ but I also want to add more stitching and embroidery. My objective is to link the four panels together so that they become a cohesive whole.

What I learned

I didn't really plan the sashing and border - so the top and the bottom panels are not finished in the same way. To camouflage this, I FMQ where there should have been seams. I think that this will make the differences less obvious.
Although I've got some embroidery and couching in each panel, I want this to extend beyond the sashing. Even with the batting and backing, I want to embroider some of it only on the top layer. I'll experiment with this and let you know the results.
I wanted to add a section in this post on how I created those fun triangles but I would rather spend more time on this in a separate post. I'll be doing this soon!

What's on this week

Sunday is the first day of Project Quilting. We'll find out what our first assignment is, and have until Sunday morning to post our finish. I really can't wait to start!
It's my turn to host the Free Motion Mavericks linking party. I hope you'll join me. You don't have to FMQ to link up!
Since it's a brand new year, I've been preparing a new quilting agenda. My January OMG is to FMQ a journal cover for it. I think that this is going to be a VERY busy month!
Finally, please join me on January 21 for the Winter Blues Blog Hop. I've got an idea and found the instructions for part of my piece. Now I need to find the fabric and MAKE IT!

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Happy New Year and Finishing up stuff - PHD in 2020

Happy New Year!

You may have heard of UFO (UnFinished Objects) but did you know that there are PHD (Projects Half Done)? Quilting Gail is hosting PHD link-ups twice a month to encourage us all to finish these lovelies. Some projects may be almost done while others are probably much less than half done. It doesn't matter. In 2020 we will work on finishing 12 of these!

And that's not all. We also have to finish the projects we start in 2020 so that we don't contribute to more UFO or PHD. It may be very optimistic to think that I will get twelve of these projects finished, if not totally unrealistic, but I can sure give it a shot.

Except for my first priority quilt below, I'm not stressing about the rest since they've waited this long, another year won't hurt!

UFOs and PHDs

In order of priority, here are my 12 projects.

1. A long awaited version 2.0 of my son's loved-to-death quilt

I'm sure that there are definitions of what constitutes a UFO, but since I promised my son at least 5 years ago that I would remake his quilt and that I've bought and washed all of the fabric, I consider this a UFO.

As I mentioned in my 2020 Planning Party post (before I decided to embark on this journey), this quilt was made by my mother for my son when he as a young boy. He has loved it to death and I don't think that I could fix it for him to use, so that's why I offered to make him a new one. I can share more stories about this quilt when I'm making significant progress. 😊

Version 1.0 - the original loved-to-death quilt

2. Paddington Bear Quilt

Is it a UFO? Well, it has been promised for well over a year, the fabric is bought and washed and the template for the appliqué is made. It's a priority, but not before quilt #1 is made (above).

In the meantime, I made my daughter a Paddington Bear mini. It will have to do for now.

A Paddington Bear mini as an IOU for a
Paddington Bear quilt

Fabric ready to go

3. Kingfisher Stitch-Along hexie quilt

I started this quilt in June 2018 and finished the quilt top in August 2019. I also planned to make a quick pillow to go with the quilt so that I could try out an idea for the quilting. It was my October 2019 OMG that didn't get done.

4. Postcard from Sweden

I finished the quilt top of Postcard from Sweden in April 2018. It took me two quilt-alongs and one year before that to make this beauty (probably Spring 2016). The reason that I made this was to practice my FMQ. I've mentioned it in most of my planning since I started it. I sure would be a lot of fun quilting it! 😊

Postcard from Sweden made with batiks

5. Leaves from "Appliqué Inside the Lines"

I probably started this project in 2012 but first blogged about it in 2014. Each leaf is appliquéd inside an embroidered line. I've done a few of the projects in the book. This one has been around for a long time. At a retreat during the summer of 2016, I finally found the fabric to frame it. It just needs to be hand-quilted.

Framed leaves

Each leaf is appliquéd within the embroidered lines.

6. Étude in Stem Stitching

In June 2017 I started Étude in Stem Stitching. I eventually started another one, called Symphony in Stem Stitch that I finished for an Out of the Box Artist Group Challenge. I free motion quilted it and added a quote. I never did finish this one and I would love to FMQ it like the other one.

Étude in Stem Stitching

7. Wholecloth Quilt 2

This quilt was started during my Learning Quilt-A-Long in November of 2017. The pattern of the quilt comes from tracing the pattern on the back. This means that the bobbin thread is showing on what is now the front of the quilt. Now that it's traced, I can FMQ from the front.

Adding colour to the wholecloth quilt

Details of the butterfly on the wholecloth quilt

This is actually the back that I quilted over.

8. Frog Work Quilt

This project is based on the Frog Work pattern by Briarwood Cottage. I've always wanted to have embroidery in a traditional quilt. I started this project in 2013 but only blogged about it when most of the frog embroidery panels were completed. Of course I still have some of the pieced blocks to make! .

The completed embroidered panels

Some of the pieced blocks

9. King Size Batik Bed Quilt

It may not look like a UFO since we've been sleeping under it for several years, but there are 169 batik blocks. In July of 2016, I only had 146 blocks left to quilt. Fast forward to August 2019 and there was only 115 blocks to go. I'm not sure if I've worked on it since then but these blocks need to be quilted before they become damaged since the un-quilted surface is too large.

King size bed quilt had 169 blocks!

One of the quilted blocks

10. Snippet Flowers in a Vase

This quilt top is at least from 2008. I created the vase and the flowers after watching a day-time quilting show - I must have been home sick. Anyway, it appears in my 2015 UFO Challenge list for my quilting guild. I did thread paint it in 2015 but I had no idea how to finish it. I'm hoping that my skills and creativity is finally up to the challenge. 😊

FMQ outside of the lines 😊

Lilies pieced and FMQ

My Snippet Flowers in a Vase is ready for a finish

11. Orange Peel Quilt-Along

I started this project in 2014. Most of the orange peels were appliquéd during my trip to China that year. In early 2016 I had the quilt pieced but had no idea how to quilt it. I think that I'm ready for this project now and I'm really looking forward to it.

Tula Pink fabrics on my Orange Peel quilt

Some finished blocks

Orange peels ready to be appliquéd

12. Grandmother's Choice Block of the Week - Votes for women

This was the second quilt along/ block of the week that I joined. It was probably a little beyond my piecing abilities at the time but I did make a large number of the blocks. My first post was in November 2013, although the Block of the Week started in May 2012. There was a total of 49 blocks, and each post including history, historical colour choices, etc. The only reason that I didn't finish it is that I really want to create a medallion with something representing the Canadian struggle for votes for women. I've got an idea for an appliqué, so, is this the year that it gets done?

Some of the blocks in the
Grandmother's Choice - Votes for Women
Block of the Week (2012-13)

What I learned

I had no intentions of participating in this PHD in 2020 until I read Dione's post of Clever Chameleon Quilting. Thanks Dione!
The worst is that I had already written my 2020 planning priorities. Oh well, as I've mentioned, I would really like to finish the first quilt on my list. The rest would just be a bonus.
It's also a good thing to review these UFOs since I hadn't really thought of a few of them for a long time.
This blog is the perfect way to keep track of what I've done in the last few years. I'm so grateful to have this amazing community of quilters around.
As I was gathering my list of UFOs, it turns out that I have quite a few more - not really tons of them but probably between 20 and 30. A few of them are large quilts, but most of them are smaller.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Best of 2019

This year has been very productive if not overwhelming at times. I had a great start to 2019 with many art quilts for two Out of the Box (OOTB) textile artists group exhibition. That kept me creatively fulfilled until I over-did it. After that I enjoyed working on more traditional quilts and minis.

Art Quilts

I made 4 mini art quilts and learned a lot since they had to been seen as a particular colour and were mounted on canvas. It was tricky and my first one was very monochromatic, but they got better as I made more.

Peek-a-boo Red

Blooming Yellow

Green Garden Gate

Blue Moon

I also made a an art quilt based on the art piece, Ultramarine Blue by Ron Martin, which is at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. That was a really great learning experience.

My Blue Painting

My final art quilt of 2019 was Gaïa's Garden.

Gaïa's Garden

Blog Hops and events

This year I joined quite a few blog hops and other events. The first one was Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop. I made a Mola. It wasn't an impressive finish but I did learn a lot. The second one was All About Strings Blog Hop. I think that it's my favourite finish of the year. It had everything I love about quilting - improv, scrappy colourful piecing, free motion quilting (FMQ) and hexies!

Tries to Play Nice With Others

I also discovered Project Quilting and joined in the last week. That was both challenging and quick. I'm going to be participating for the full project in 2020.

Chocolate Cravings

For the second year, I participated in One Hundred Days of Hexies on Instagram. It's always enjoyable. I love making the hexies and going out on photo shoots. It's so lovely to see everyone else's hexies.

Beautiful hexies

Lovely creatures

Sewing Notions

Another Instragram project was the Summer Book Club Quilt-Along
It was so much fun making these book blocks. I made individual blocks and finished them as minis.

Bambi book block

The Earth is Not Flat book block

I also used the book block pattern to participate in the Nifty Novelties Blog Hop.

Paddington Bear book block mini

I now have two more colourful UFOs from the Summer Book Club event that are almost done.

Free Motion Quilting

Hosting the Free Motion Mavericks linking party with Muv has been a lot of fun and has made me practice my FMQ so that I have something to show on those days that I host.

My favourite FMQ finish is this Garden and Pond mini. There sure is a lot of thread on that baby😊