Free Motion Quilting and Ruler Work

In between piecing projects I've done some free motion quilting and ruler work on my Bernina Q20 sit down long arm machine. While my desings are far from perfect, the quilts are getting done and  I can see improvement.

This is a baby quilt made from the leftover fabrics used in Stella's Splendid Sampler--see this post for more info.  I did "stitch in the ditch" first along all the row seams then used a ruler/template for the semi-circle motifs in the light print blocks and the yellow print blocks. One of my favorite designs is "wishbone" quilting so I used that on the strippy rectangles. Finally, I did a swirl motif in the outer border, really fast and fun.

This I call the "Simple What Nots Sampler". When I taught the second Kim Diehl "Simple What Nots" club at my local shop, I decided not to finish the six small quilts individually as I had with the first "Simple What Nots" club taught the six months previous to this class. I just saved all the small tops, then put them on the design wall and figured out what was needed to join them all together. More info can be found here

A few details:

These are great quilts to practice with because the prints are busy and the individual stitches don't show, just the texture of the quilting. Another tip: use busy prints on the back:

Earlier this year, Amanda Murphy presented a Ruler Work Quilt A-Long on Bernina's We All Sew page.  It was a good way to practice ruler work designs. I just wish I had used a new piece of muslin for the top instead of the stained piece I pulled from an old box. Washing helped it but some staining is still visible:

Practicing free motion quilting can generate a lot of "quilted scraps". My earliest pieces aren't very good but they'll be perfect as kennel quilts for our local animal shelter:

 

The outer edge is finished by turning the back to the front and sewing the edge in place by machine, no added binding. These can be used in the animal cages, washed a lot, then tossed when they get too ratty to use. 

My next practice piece will be larger and from a nice solid fabric. I want to work on a few favorite motifs, mastering them as well as I can. Then I'll get a few more tops quilted. All of quiltmaking is a learning process. I read a lot on quilting, follow several blogs and watch a lot of YouTube videos. Practice makes better.

Next week I am off to Portland, OR for Spring Quilt Market, my favorite show, I think, of all I go to. It is so good to reconnect with friends in the industry and get a chance to see what is coming on the horizon. And, I just might buy some thread...

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Three Amigas Retreat

My two best quilting buddies and I get together each summer for 2 days of quilting, talking, laughing, some eating, and mostly reconnecting as one of us moved 125 miles away some years back.  We look forward to this time and have already decided next year HAS to be 3 days so there can be some retail therapy too.

A few weeks ago I cut the strips for this new class sample and got it made at our retreat:

Box of Wine  40" x 48"

 

It's from a great new book on Color:  The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color by Becky Goldsmith.  I first wrote about it here.  I will be using this book to teach four separate classes in a series I'm calling Color College.  This is for Fall Semester--it shows how clear and grayed fabrics can work well together.  This book is packed with practical, easy to understand information about color but you DO have to read it to get the most out of it.  My hope is that those who take all four classes will have read the entire book by the time they finish the fourth class and have a better grasp on using color in their quilts.  Now it's on to the quilting.

My other finish is this, a compilation of blocks from the Simple What Nots Clubs I led over the past year.  Rather than make a bunch of small quilts, I put the parts and sample bits together:

Simple What Nots Club Parts 1 and 2, approx. 60" square

 

Then Ellen surprised me with a birthday gift, a quilt for my grandchild (ren), called "Sleeping at BB's":

"Sleeping at BB's", 40" x 48"

 

I love how bright and cheerful and scrappy it is and the beautiful machine quilting Ellen put into it!

Here are a few shots of their work, except that Sharon won't let me post several of her pieces as they are class samples for our Quilt-In July  18:

Ellen--we do love our scrappy quilts!

Ellen--always uses her leftovers for another little quilt

Ellen--she makes big quilts too

Ellen--this looks familiar--her guild did a red and white swap block challenge

Ellen--had to make a little one too, great quilting!

Ellen--Snowballs and Nine Patches

Ellen--GREAT Quilt of Valor, she almost finished during our retreat

Sharon--after she bound 4 quilts for her upcoming class

 

Time spent with these two is always so special, particularly because it doesn't happen often enough and we really have to make time to be together.  The first night Sharon's husband, Rick, grilled chicken and we all shared a terrific dinner at her house, including my husband.  Great times!

Time to scour the closets and bookshelves again for more stuff for our guild Yard Sale.

And look who is one month old today:

Stella!
 

Let's quilt!

More Stash and Simple WhatNots Club

 

 

I learned about these wonderful fabric bundles recently on Lori's blog, Humble Quilts. They come from Two Thimbles Quilt shop in Bellingham, WA. There is 2 yards in each bundle, 12 strips, 6" wide by WOF, and the cost of $14.95 seems very reasonable to me. So I bought 3 of them.  I could have bought 4 and paid the same on shipping,  something I forgot to check before I placed the order.  The best part is there is only 1 fabric in the 36 pieces I already have so it was a great stash enhancement event! Their service was excellent--I placed the order on Wednesday and the Priority box arrived today, Saturday.  Thanks, Lori!

There was very little Civil War/1800's fabric at Spring Market.  Most lines are bright and clear and a lot of solids.  The new lines are pretty fabrics, but I still love 1800's repros a lot.  So that is how I justify adding to my collection.  I will use several of these in my Stars in a Time Warp quilt. 

Last night was the Simple WhatNots Club by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass Fabrics that I am conducting at my local shop.  Here are 2 quilts completed from last month's pattern:

Michelle did 16 blocks, Anna did 9, both are great

The pattern is called Cloud Nine and those blocks are 3.75" finished.  I love how you get a little bitty Churn Dash/Monkey Wrench were the blocks come together at the corners. 

This is the pattern we are doing for May, called True Blue.  Each block is 6" finished.  I used one background fabric where the pattern uses several.  My tip for these small blocks is to use a small stitch, 2.0 or 12/inch, and press all the seams open.  These 2 blocks will become part of my WhatNots Sampler quilt, where I am combining the parts of many of these small quilts into one large quilt.  See my post about the parts on the design wall here.  There is only one month to go and I am working on that project now. 

Last night I also told the group about Becky Goldsmith's wonderful new book:

The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color, by Becky Goldsmith


 

I botch the title, I'm afraid.  Becky did a blog this morning about this, featuring a short video tutorial on color:  Color Tutorial.  She quoted my email to her about how much I like this book and think it will be so helpful to quilters.  I plan to teach 4 classes from this book and I'm calling it Color College.  We'll have Fall Semester this September, Winter Semester in January, Spring semester in May  and Summer School, in summer 2016.  Each class will be independent of each other.  The plan is to use 4 of the projects in the book to teach skills with color and by the end of the 4 classes, the students will have read the book.  I know many quilters buy great books, flip through them and don't read them.  You will get lots of out this book if you READ it!

May you all have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday and remember:  We are the Home of the Free, thanks to the Brave.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Design Wall Occupied

There's always something on my design wall but this latest project may be stuck up there for a while. 

First, I finished the next 3 projects I'll be teaching for the Simple What Nots Club:

To teach this collection I decided I didn't have to make the entire small quilt each month.  This was a big time saver.  I make one or two of the blocks and usually make a larger version as well.  I am able to give tips on the process but also give options for how to enlarge the block or make them differently from the pattern instructions.  There is more than one way to do most anything and I like to give students options so they can find the method that suits them best.  That's why there is chocolate AND vanilla.  For perspective, those little Monkey Wrench blocks are each 3" finished. 

Next, I got the latest Stars in a Time Warp done--this week it's Paisley and I had no trouble finding repro paisleys in my stash:

The design wall is covered up with all the parts from the Simple What Nots Club Collection 2 and a larger piece from Collection 1.  My plan is to join them all into one larger quilt.  It will take some effort and planning (that means math) but that's the part I love.  Here are the parts just thrown on the wall--there will be rearranging and lots of piecing to get it all together.  With the first collection, I finished most of the quilts but don't need many more of these little quilts so this is my plan to use these parts up:

At night I am hand quilting my Antique Rose Star quilt so I can enter it in our quilt show in October.  This one is getting Big Stitch, using Perle Cotton size 8.  Slow and steady will get it done. 

There are more projects ongoing but you get the idea.  Once the Simple What Nots club is done I'll have more time to work on a few special projects.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I made 2 more Stars in a Time Warp, these in overshot green.  When we had the lesson in overshot green, a few weeks back, I used more bright greens.  Then I realized I had the perfect overshot green in my stash, the beautiful Peppered Cottons designed by Pepper Cory for StudioE fabrics.  So I added them to the group--can you find the new ones?

Here the are

Tomorrow, Barbara Brackman will introduce the next color we will learn about and I will make 2 new blocks to join these--I am having a blast with this project!  Check it out:  here.

I also got a head a bit with the Simple Whatnots Club project I'll be teaching in April:

This pattern is called Cloud Nine and the little one at the bottom is the size in the project.  It finishes at 3.75"--that's tiny.  So, I made a larger one, that finishes at 10".  On the larger block, I added the triangles on the four outer corners, which I omitted from the small block--I just liked it better without the triangles--though I reserve the right to change my mind later.  If I were making the entire quilt, I definitely would add them because they create a super secondary pattern when the blocks are joined with sashing.  See all the projects here:  Simple Whatnots Club Collection 2.

That's it for today--have a great St. Patrick's Day!

Let's quilt something green!

Barbara

Simple Whatnots Club Collection #2 Session 2

WARNING:  this post is long and photo-laden.

Last night we  had the second session of the second whatnots club, in the second month of the year.  This is a club from Henry Glass Fabrics designed by Kim Diehl.  It runs 6 months and we meet monthly for my lecture/demo class.  There are 35 people signed up and about half were there last night.  It was postponed last Friday due to an ice storm and this week we had 8" of snow so everyone's schedule is somewhat upside down.  I thought those who missed would like to see what we did and you can see what this is all about.

Here is the project I featured for February, Hen Pecked, 10.5" square:

Those are 1" finished half square triangles (HST).  My method for making HST is to use a triangle ruler--I use Omnigrid, there are a couple other brands that work the same way.  With a 1" finished HST, cut strips 1.5", lay them right sides together and cut like this, placing the light background fabric on the bottom:

 

With this ruler, place 1" line on the left, cut

Rotate, do not flip, the ruler, 1" line is at the top, yellow tip line is at the bottom. Unit on left was moved slightly so you can see the process.

I pressed the seam open, and trimmed carefully to exactly 1.5". 

Rotate the unit 180" and trim other two sides.  I am willing to throw away that much fabric for perfect piecing/cutting

Pressing seams open, some do, some don't.  I don't usually because I burn my fingers and my motto is "I want the fastest method that gives me the result I want." So pressing to the darker side  has been my fastest method.  Then I discovered this tool and now it's easier:

 

It's made from heat resistant rubber, does not roll, does not get hot, has two different end tips to allow for turning corners in things like pockets, pillowcases, etc.  Press Perfect by Joan Hawley from Clover.

 

As I only made 2 HST from each set of fabrics, after cutting the red set, I placed a different dark fabric on top of the background strip, cut 2 of those, added a different dark, cut 2, etc.  I used 5 different background fabrics, use only one if you please.  It's your quilt, do it your way.

When I got this done I looked at it for a few days on the design wall and thought What If?  Those 1" HST are pretty small and I can't see the fabric very well so I made another middle, using 2.5" strips for a 2" finished HST.  Instead of 35 1" HST, I made 20 2" finished HST:

 



The original border treatment of using different fabrics really appeals to me--with the one on the left I think I will add only 2 borders per side, from 8 different fabrics.  Time will tell.

Seams pressed open, top is flatter on the front than if I had pressed to one side, alternating rows

 

Another discussion we had was how to keep your sewing straight.  This is how I pin and sew:

I pin at each intersection, pinning IN FRONT of the seam, not after the seam.  I remove the pins as I get to them, I don't sew over them since I sew at a pretty good speed.  If you use fine pins and sew slowly you can probably get away with sewing over the pins without damaging your machine.  Once I get right up to the intersection the pin has done it's job, so I remove it.

 Notice the last pin, at the very bottom on the left.  I put that pin about 1/2" away from the corner and leave it in place as I sew off the piece.  This helps me stay straight all the way to the end.  It is easy to get lazy at the end, reach over to grab what you plan to sew next, and sew less or more than a 1/4" at the most important part, the outside edge of the piece. 

This happens at the beginning too--notice I have a leader/ender unit at the very top--I  LEAD with two 1.5" squares together at the beginning of any piecing I am doing, and END with two 1.5" squares as I finish chain piecing.  This photo shows the pieces at an angle so you can see them, they would actually be straight behind the machine in real life:

Here is the ENDER for the small quilt top shown above:  two 1.5" squares being sewn on the end of the quilt.  Place the ENDER, or any of your piecing, right up against the needle when you start to sew, this keeps your piecing straight at the very beginning too:

 

 What do I do with those small squares? I make four-patches, of course:

I have a small box full of these and have a project in mind to use them, later, when I finish some of the other things I'm currently working on.  Beside my machine, I have two small plastic tubs, one with light 1.5" squares and one with dark.  Easy to pick up two and sew as I go.
 
Here is a neat trick I learned on the Internet that I was so excited to share with the class.  This comes from Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet.  I love to make flying geese four at a time, but the slowest part for me is drawing the diagonal line on the back of 4 squares, as I describe in my Flying Geese tutorial.

Lori shows how to cut one large square the size that will give you four squares, draw the lines on that one large square, then carefully cut the large square into 4 squares and there you have it, four squares with the lines marked perfectly!  Brilliant!  Another plus to this method is, if you are using a fabric with a direction, for example, a stripe, this insures you can have all those striped star points going in the same direction, IF that is important to you.  Lori draws both sewing lines, I only draw one line down the center diagonal and sew with the 1/4" foot but either way works.  Here are my photos, hers are better:

To get four squares, each 2.75", cut a square 5.5", draw pencil line down both diagonals

Carefully cut in half, ruler on the left is set at 2.75"



Being careful not to move the two halves, cut again, 2.75" from the bottom



Four squares, 2.75" each, with perfect pencil line--the fastest method that gives me the result I want--thanks, Lori!





Lori has lots of great ideas for speedy processes, check out her entire blog when you get a chance, Bee in My Bonnet.   Here is her Mini Design Board Tutorial--you'll want to make several.

OK, we are almost done.  In planning for the March project, Honeycomb, I decided to English Paper Piece the entire top:

To prepare those papers quickly, I drafted the design in Electric Quilt 7 (EQ7), and printed the block out onto terrific heavy duty freezer paper, from Cut Rite:

The paper is about the weight of card stock, has a good amount of waxy stuff on the back side, and printed perfectly in my deskjet printer.  All I had to do was carefully cut out the pieces and I was ready to go. 

To make it easy for Club members, I will print them a page onto the Cut Rite Heavy-Duty Freezer paper for a small fee.  If they prefer, I will print it onto copy paper and they can trace it if they like, onto regular freezer paper or cardstock.  They will let me know before the March meeting which page they want, if they want one at all. 

Next month I'll show details of the English Paper Piecing process. 

So there you have it, some of what we talked about last night.  And a reminder, Monday, March 2, all the Kim Diehl Heritage Hollow collection fabric goes out on the store shelves for any customer to buy--until then it is reserved ONLY for Club members.  Yesterday we got in 8 replacement bolts of the most popular fabrics, and two of those were sold out again last night.  Get it while you can.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara