2 Minutes Quilting; 30 Minutes Ripping

I saw a really lovely border design I wanted to try - the one at the bottom of the picture:

(courtesy of Green Fairy Quilts)

(Check out her blog; it's awesome!)

Yeah...., Although I did trying drawing it on paper first, and really wasn't able to consistently emulate her beautiful consistency, I decided to give it a shot.  My quilting didn't look any worse than my drawing, but I discovered my brain really balked - a lot of "duh..., which way now."  Spastic!  I like free motion quilting, but wasn't enjoying trying to make this design.

As with anything, my first thought was to keep going; I'm bound to get better.  But I am working on an outer border.  There is going to be too much time spent finishing it to do a design I don't enjoy.

Next up, the nestled circles above it!  :D

Free Motion Hand-Quilting

What's a quilter to do?

I love the black and white checked fabric in the first border. It adds a bit of feisty-ness to the quilt. However, I quickly discovered that I was not going to enjoy quilting it. The lines don't run true enough to use them as a guide for any major straight-line pattern, and I couldn't see any way to mark the fabric. Whether I used white or black, part of the markings would always to fade into the fabric.

My apologies for the poor photo quality

Aha! Free-motion hand-quilting. If I can do free motion quilting on a sewing machine, why couldn't I do it by hand? And so, the checked border is filled with free motion flowers and vines.

Click on the photos to make them larger

Alas, I've discovered that as much as I like hand-quilting blocks, I'm not at all fond of hand-quilting borders.  They go on FOREVER.  With a block, I get that sense of satisfaction of having another one done.  Borders take so long that by the time I've finished a side, the thrill is definitely gone.

I've got two more borders to do on this quilt after I finish the checked border, and I'm seriously considering doing them on the machine.  How bad is that?  Would that be considered mixed media?

A Shout Out for Kristen at So Happy, and Quilter's Cache

Kristen at So Happy hosted the Dresden Plate Party which inspired the Dresden Plate that P. gave to me.  Now Kristen is hosting a giveaway.  She's giving away lots of cool stuff, so don't hesitate to check it out.  Maybe you'll be her next winner!

Secondly, several quilters commented on how much they liked the ribbon border in the Dresden Plate wall-hanging mock up I presented in A Quilty 4th of July Lift Off.  It had been my intention to mention the source of the ribbon border in that blog, but I was so excited to show off my plans for P.'s Dresden Plate, that I forgot it.  So I'm making amends now.  The source is Quilter's Cache, Borders.  The directions on how to make the ribbon border are there along with directions for over a dozen other borders. It's a wonderful resource, and I plan on using it again.

Say it with me.....

Say it with me, Quilters: The seam ripper is my friend; the seam ripper is my friend; the seam ripper is my friend....

The freakin' *&^%$ ripper is my friend!

Okay, I feel better now. Thanks.

Hand-piecing

One of the most interesting aspects about quilting is that there are many techniques that can be used to reach that ultimate goal of the finished work of art--a work of art we so modestly refer to as a quilt. The various approaches include: machine-piecing and quilting (including free motion quilting), paper-piecing, applique, art quilting, rotary cutting, using templates, hand-piecing and hand-quilting. This blog is about hand-piecing.

I do both machine-piecing and hand-piecing. A quilter must approach hand-piecing with a different psychology. It's not about getting the quilt done ASAP. It can't be. A hand-pieced quilt takes time. It's about communing with our female pioneer ancestors; it's about enjoying the color and texture of each fabric; it's about the meditative quality of stitching each block together.

There are some practical aspects to hand-piecing as well. Being low tech, a hand-pieced quilt can go anywhere. Take your quilt block pieces, a needle, some thread, and scissors and you're good to go. Then when you need a little quiet time at your relative's house or in the hotel after a day out in and about, you've got a some quilting on hand that just fits the bill. Hand-piecing is also a form of quilting that can be done in front of the TV when you're hanging out at home with family watching a movie.

I've also found that I prefer to do smaller blocks and blocks with curves by hand. Every curved seam, no matter whether it is to be hand-pieced or machine-pieced must be pinned. When I'm using the machine, I'm going for speed. Stopping to pin just seems wrong. But when I'm in the slow mode of hand-piecing, stopping to pin just seems like part of the process.




When the seam is short enough, I can just about hand-piece the seam in the time it would take me to position it on the sewing machine and sew it together. On a seam that's an inch and half long, the sewing machine just isn't that much of an advantage.


To that end, I've started yet another hand-pieced quilt. These are examples of the blocks I've done so far. I've made forty just sitting in front of the TV in the evening with my family. This way, I've got both a hand-pieced project going AND a machine pieced project going. Maximizes my quilting time.

All of the quilts featured below have been hand-pieced. It is my preferred method of quilting.

Sew and Tell Friday

This year, I'm pushing hard to lessen my quilting UFO pile. To that end, this week I dragged out the "Pansy Quilt". It is "finished" languishing in the closet. :-) The quilt came about due to a block exchange called "Your Pick". The block exchange got the "Your Pick" name because we each bought a focus fabric--in my case pansy fabric--and sent a piece to each of the participants. Each participant made a block with the focus fabric and sent the block back. I received some particularly beautiful blocks.

Like many of my projects, I got so far with it, and then got distracted. In this case, I have did get the 16 blocks sashed and joined together before going off on another tangent. So here's where I'm picking up.

At this point, I need to add some borders. I began auditioning borders, and decided the first border around would be 2" and green. I plan to add a 4" inch border of the same white on beige fabric that is in the sashing, and finally another 2" green border. (That big 4 inch white on beige border will give me lots of space to improve my FMQ skills. HA!)

The outermost border will be composed of 6" butterfly blocks like the ones below. I *think* I need 52 of them. So far I have 20 done.

So that's where I am this week. More of a start really than a finish.

I want to extend my thanks to Amy for hosting Sew and Tell Fridays. :-) This is my first Sew and Tell, and I'm excited to see what everyone else is doing.

The Reluctant Semi Free Motion Quilter

Ahhh, the best laid plans. I received a lovely border stencil for Christmas. Thought it would be just the perfect thing for doing the final border on the baby quilt. Just one problem. No matter what I tried, the markings I used just didn't show up on the blue polka dotted cloth. I tried a white quilt marking pencil, and the marks disappeared into the white polka dots. I tried regular pencil and still a no go. I considered my pink quilt marking pencil, but I had a bad experience once where the pink didn't completely wash out.

So I adopted an idea from my mom. I drew the stencil on to paper and attached it to the quilt, machine quilting the lines on the paper.



Still, the method wasn't perfect. Somehow my mom has the patience and ability to do this by straight-stitching. Me? I couldn't see well enough to follow the lines using the regular stitching foot so I switched to the smallest free motion quilting foot I had.

Now, I could see very well, but I discovered that when using the free motion quilting foot on my beloved Juki, whether I dropped the feed dogs or not, I was in fact free motion quilting. The free motion foot doesn't fit tight enough to be used for regular stitching. Big deep breath. I took the plunge and started to follow the lines.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as full free motion quilting since I am in fact following a pattern as opposed to visualizing and going where that vision leads. However, it is proving to be a very good learning tool. I don't have to think about where I'm going; I just have to concentrate on moving the quilt properly. And it's working! I'm getting better.

Actually, I'd planned to practice on something inconsequential before diving in to free motion quilting, but it came down to giving it a shot or giving up on putting that beautiful corded quilting pattern on the baby quilt. I decided to give it a shot, knowing I could always rip it out. I'm glad I did.

Now to remove the paper pattern.