Ambitious Paper-Piecing Project

I’m not sure why I started this project. I had many projects in mind that I was going to make. This one wasn't even near the top of the list but somehow it was at the right place at the right time (on the top of the pile when I got bored!)

It’s the perfect time to make this project since it’s a fall scarecrow with pumpkins. I also didn't realise how large it would end up being (it’s 24 by 36 inches). The project, Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector by Jaynette Huff, was free on one of my favourite book publishing  internet sites – Martingale. You just have to sign up. They’ll ask you to get their newsletter, which is great if you want to find out about the books that are coming out and if you want to know more about their authors. It’s one of the few newsletters that I read fairly regularly.

Here’s a picture of the pattern as well as my unfinished version.  I just need to add the patches and finishing details and then quilt it. Doesn't that black border scream for some cool quilting?

I was going to make an elaborate backing using the four pumpkins in the corners of the original pattern….but then I got side tracked with needle-turn appliqué. I also found some great backing fabric when I was taking the course last week, so I may actually finish this project before winter comes!

I have no idea where Patches is going to reside, but he’s sure to spend a few days at work with me.

What I learned:

• It might be a good idea to look at the size of the finished quilt before starting it (I keep saying that but I’m having problems learning that one!)
• I had the perfect hand-dyed fabric for this quilt – but I didn't want to use it! After some serious self-talk, it’s in the quilt!
• The pattern called for 1/3 of a yard of fabric for the field background. I only had a fat quarter – but that’s the fabric I wanted. Thank goodness, it turns out that you can do a lot of fudging with paper piecing!

Happy fall from Patches and Andrée!

Learning Needle Turn Appliqué from an Expert

I had the pleasure last week of taking a hand appliqué course with international award winning quilter, Kathy Wylie. Wow, this lady knows appliqué! She was the speaker at our guild meeting last Tuesday. She’s funny, smart, knowledgeable and really down to earth. Her work is meticulous and has won many prizes. Those are actually the kind of quilts that I see at quilt shows and in magazines and automatically think that I’ll never be able to do that. Both the appliqué and the quilting are really unbelievable. She has sure earned those prizes.

I registered for the course this summer, before even knowing what we would be appliquéing. It’s just as well, or I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to take the course. We learned to appliquéd a small section of her pattern, Flourish on the Vine. Our pattern is one of the horizontal stem pieces coming out of the centre. It’s placed at both ends of the runner.

Flourish on the Vine by Kathy Wylie

Applique project

I thought I was exhausted coming home after the workshop, but once I got some supper in me, I kept going and finished the section we were working on. I even transferred the rest of the pattern onto freezer paper. It’s now all ready to cut out and be appliquéd.

Butterfly

Applique Inside the Lines

I've only done needle-turn appliqué a couple of times before. Based on the book, Appliqué Inside the Lines: 12 Quilt Projects to Embroider and Appliqué by Carol Armstrong, I embroidered and appliquéd two projects that are in my cubicle.

I put aside the Flourish on the Vine project to practice a little more. I’m working on the feather project from the book that I had started but never finished. I’m doing the project as fall coloured leaves. I know that quilters will recognize them as feathers but anyone else will see leaves!

Dresden Plate

What did I learn?

• Like anything else, the more you practice the better you get.
• Appliqué is addictive.
• It’s best to appliqué in really good light. It makes all the difference!
• It’s important to have a ¼ inch to do the needle-turn. Less is NOT a good thing!
• Kathy taught us to mark the pattern onto the fabric before doing the appliqué. It really helps! 
• It’s also important to mark the appliqué piece on the fabric before cutting it a ¼ inch larger. This helps you guide where you should be turning and appliquéing. 
• We learned many other things, but I’m not going to reveal all of Kathy’s secrets here. Instead, I’ll encourage you to take one of her classes!

Too Much of a Good Thing?

The quilting world seems to be enamored with quilts that are covered in free motion quilting. As I’m learning to free motion quilt, I can see the appeal – up to a point. A heavily quilted area will make a less quilted area pop. The effect can be quite stunning.

Partially quilted wall hanging

This is what I did with my paper pieced wall hanging. Originally, I lightly quilted the border and some of the design elements. The star and the area surrounding it were only stitched-in-the-ditch. After seeing that “popping” effect on quilts at the Philadelphia quilt show, I went back and stippled the blue area surrounding the star. What a difference this makes (the pictures, unfortunately, don't do it justice).

In this case, and because it’s a wall hanging, some background free motion quilting makes a lot of sense. What I’m not convinced of is doing this much quilting on a quilt that is made to be cuddled, such as a

Finished Sunflower Fun Wall Hanging

throw or bed cover.

A few years ago, I took a machine quilting course. To practice, I decided that I would machine quilt one of the cuddle quilts that I was making. Our guild gives these to the local hospital for premature newborn babies to help keep them warm and to brighten up the room. So, on I went to quilt the cuddle quilt with a few different motifs I had learned. It wasn't quilted densely, but more than just stitch-in-the-ditch. That practice quilt was so stiff that even Boots, my brother’s dog, wouldn't sleep on it!  I’m sure that some of that stiffness can be reduced by using different batting, but I've decided that I’ll keep practicing my free motion quilting on wall hangings and table runners and keep my quilts cuddly!

Learning from the Quilt Show

I just spent an amazing week in Pennsylvania. I went with a bus full of women to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XX.  We stayed in Lancaster PA and traveled each day to quilt shops, the quilt show as well as one day touring Philadelphia. Here are some of the quilt shops we visited – I highly recommend all of them!

My favourite was Burkholder Fabrics in Denver PA. It’s huge and bright. The prices are great and the personnel very friendly and helpful. On our way to Lancaster, we stopped in a Sauder’s Fabric. There was a lot of fabric, good prices and helpful personnel.

During our shopping day, we went to Intercourse PA. It’s a quaint village in Amish / Mennonite country. There is a small but lovely quilt museum over The Old Country Store that is worth visiting. The Old Quilt Store also has gifts and fabric at the back of the shop that you’ll want to  check out. Don’t forget to stop in at the Intercourse Canning Company down the street for samples of their jams and pickled products! Thanks to these guys, I will have lovely pickled beets for the winter (‘cause who wants to stop quilting to do canning....not me!) I also bought some pickled sweet brussel sprouts – they are awesome! For my daughter, who loves all things bacon, I picked up some bacon lip gloss at the Intercourse Canning Company (to quote her “to grease up those lips”) and some candied bacon at a small vendor! I tasted the candied bacon – delicious. Enough about shopping except to say that I now have enough notions, batting and fabric for the upcoming year (or two). Notice books, patterns and courses are not on that list!

Wonderful mural in Philadelphia

The Quilt Show had some wonderful special exhibits and quilts. As well as looking at the quilts as works of art, which they are, it was also very educational. Now that I've tried my hand at free motion quilting and art quilts, I can now look at quilts in the same way that aspiring artists look at paintings in a museum – with a view to learn from them. I took about a hundred photos – to learn about composition, colour, the use of embroidery and embellishment, and of course quilting. One of the first things I did when I got home, other than start washing all that fabric, was to organise the photos in categories so that I can refer to them when I want ideas and inspiration.

I was sure that I wouldn't be doing any shopping at the quilt show since I had bought so much on the way there – right! Some of the vendors had great prices, but the best part was meeting the authors of patterns, books, rulers, etc. I know that it’s a lot of work, time and expense to have a booth at this type of show but it really was great to thank these authors and creators for their work. 

What I learned during my trip:

• There is such a thing as too much shopping (I never in a million years thought I would say that!)
• My girlfriends were right – to do that much shopping, you have to be really well organised and have a good idea of what you want to buy.
• You can fit an awful lot of fabric in a large suitcase (though it will weigh a ton!)
• Travelling with a bus full of quilters you’re not sure you know is not risky – we have so much in common, it’s easy to make friends.
• I have no idea where most of the States are located – so I bought a cute little app that will help me learn them. After those 50 states, the rest of the world!
• After thinking about quilting all week, I thought I would be dying to start quilting – but I seem to be exhausted and am spending my free time reading! 

First Paper Piecing Assignment Completed

As you may recall, I have been learning up a storm with Craftsy. For the Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing course with Carol Doak, I started off by making some cute 3-inch squares. They were more interesting and less intimidating than the course assignment. Last night, I finished free motion quilting my first assignment. It’s a Sunflower Fun Foundation block. It wasn't difficult, but since all of my points and corners are not perfect, maybe it was more complicated than I thought! I still need to bind the project. As soon as it's done, I'll add a picture.

completed block

Sunflower Fun Foundation Block - partially done

Carol Doak suggested that since we had to make 4 blocks that are the same, that we use a production method (i.e. doing the same thing on all fours blocks before going on to the next part). That worked well until about half way through the project. Then I couldn't wait to see what the block would look like, so I completed one block before making the other three.

As I mentioned earlier, I thought I was following the lines, but somewhere, I must have gone off since my points were certainly not the same on all 4 pieces. I’ll have to pay attention to that in the next project.

I really enjoyed free motion quilting the project. I drew the border and tried to follow the lines. I was getting pretty good near the end. That probably means I should have practices more. I also tried out the free motion stitch that looks like a rainbow. I think that it was very effective. It was neat trying out different free motion stitches for the various parts of the quilt.

I used a very good quality gray thread in the bobbin. Since I don’t have that many good quality threads to match the top, I ended up trying some cotton thread of lesser quality on top – it worked out fine. It looks like my machine is mostly finicky about the bobbin thread it uses. Bonus!

What did I learn?

• I can do production piecing only up to a certain point, after that, I don’t have the patience to wait to see the final result.
• I need to practice following those lines!
• Some more good quality thread, especially for the bobbin would be a good investment.(Any excuse to shop!)

Update! See the final version.

First Free Motion Quilted Runner

Table Runner - free motion quilted

The adventure continues. My childhood friends, Lyne and Luc, were coming to Ottawa to see their daughter during the long weekend. Since I knew they would be dropping in, I asked Lyne what her kitchen colours were: light yellow, lime green and rose. Those are so not my colours, so off to Quilty Pleasures for some fabric. I got really lucky and found two beautiful prints, obviously from the same line with flowers and cattails. They both had yellow, green and pink. The green is more minty than lime – hopefully it won’t clash.

Of course after all of that practicing, I had to use my new free-motion quilting skills. I started the paisleys in the right-hand corner. It’s a good thing that it’s a table runner ‘cause it’s awfully stiff! Those first paisleys were just a little too small and close together. For the left-hand corner and the bottom left, I used a pattern of 2 rows of half-circles with stippling in the middle. This was perfect for the 2 inch strips. For the middle green fabric I used a template to make a type of spiral. I marked all of them and of course practiced before quilting them. By the end, they were looking pretty good!

Finally I had to do something in the bottom right. I watched Leah Day’s Free Motion Quilting on Craftsy again, and sure enough, her paisleys were much larger than mine. So off I went to practice. I like the final result. It’s much less stiff than my first attempt.

The runner won’t win any quilting prizes, but that wasn't the point. It was a gift to a dear friend and a practice piece at the same time. Lyne is an artist – she knows all about practicing!

What did I learn?
1. Free motion quilting is fun, but if it’s done too closely, it can make a quilt very stiff!
2. I really like fabric that drapes and isn't stiff!
3. Practice, practice and when you think you have it, practice again!

Playing & Learning

It's been a whirlwind of quilty activity. It seems that I'm not just hooked on all things quilty, I'm addicted and I love it.  Since my e-learning career seems to be at a standstill (and maybe I need a holiday), I've decided to spend that extra energy on quilting. Wow, I didn't realise how much energy I had!

I have spent the last couple of weeks doing something related to quilting every day. Thanks to Craftsy, I've been practicing free motion quilting on my new-to-me Jag. After seven days in a row, I can safely say that it's all about practice. So far Leah Day has taught me to free motion stipples and paisleys. I made a whole bunch of small practice sandwiches using a huge bag of fabric that I bought for $10. It has all kinds of miss-dyed fabrics. I practiced those curvy “U”s, up, down and sideways. My stippling is coming along nicely.

Next came the paisleys. Leah makes it look so easy as she zips through them, while talking to us! I was having a lot of problems making teardrop shapes, let alone shadowing them and "travelling" across previously quilted lines. Finally one day at lunch time, I spent 20 minutes drawing teardrops and paisleys and my hands got it! My paisleys are not great but they are looking more like paisleys every day.

Then, because practicing free motion quilting isn't really "creating" anything, one evening I decided to challenge myself. I used my bag of scraps to make a landscape. I only dipped into my stash for a piece of stripy orange fabric that was perfect for the setting sun.

First version

Latest version

Once I had cut out and attached the pieces, of course I had to consult my other Craftsy course - Stupendous Stitching: Adventures in Surface Design with Carol Ann Waugh. That should be easy enough except that Carol Ann suggests that we create a stitch bible (I prefer stitch dictionary). Since I’m playing on a new machine, that made too much sense to bypass. I’m now on page 5 of the stitch dictionary. My machine has over 200 stitches and after 5 pages I’m at stitch 38. I did the math – that’s another 27 pages! I’m sure I’ll get it done....in the next few months!

Luckily the appliqué stitch on my machine is in the twenties – so I practiced that stitch on the outline of the trees and the grass. I then added some straight stitches on the trees. I also found another stitch that looks like waves, so they got added to the water. They don’t show up much but now I know how to make them.

Details of the tree trunks

Waves sewn in the water

Last night I spent the evening looking at my Quilting Arts magazines. I've always loved the various quilts but didn't have a clue about going about making them. It was amazing going through these magazines and noticing (and understanding) the types of free motion quilting. It’s like going through life without noticing the colour red – and suddenly seeing it!

I’ll never look at quilts in the same way. That’s what learning is all about!