The Accidental Quilt

My mom and I are making a quilt that we'd never planned, wished for, or much less imagined--but we're happy about it. How did this happen? It was due to a fabric mix-up. I'd ordered the fabric pictured on the left, but received the fabric pictured on the right. Oops!
A quick call to the online fabric shop, Fabric.com, immediately corrected the situation. They not only sent the correct fabric out to me ASAP, they also told me to keep the fabric they'd sent by mistake. It was 2 1/2 yards worth. Wow! Okay, time to make another quilt.

The fabric is part of Kaufman's Intergalactic line. Given the astronomical theme of the fabric, we decided to make a star sampler. Every block in the quilt will be a different star block, with the themed fabric serving as the background. We also decided to do something a little novel (at least for us) and use only the colors that are present in the Intergalactic fabric. This does limit us to a narrow range on colors and tones, but that's part of the fun. The blocks will be sashed, (we're thinking with some shade of teal), and the quilt will be tailored, like the quilt shown here.

Here is the block I made this week:This particular block pattern came from The Quilter's Cache.

Eventually, we'll need 47 blocks to complete the king-size quilt. However, at the moment, it is a low priority project. We make a block when we need a diversion from our primary project(s)--which are going along nicely and hopefully will soon be the subject of another Sew & Tell Friday. In the meantime, I'll be linking up this post over at Amylouwho's tomorrow.

New York Beauty update. Here are this week's blocks, which brings my total up to 56. Just 140 more to go.

Confessions of a Dual Duty User

No matter how ashamed I am to say it, it's confession time. (Deep breath.) I use Coats & Clark Dual-Duty thread and I like it. Both the sewing machine thread and the hand-quilting thread.

Whew! That was a big one to get off my chest.

How did this happen, you ask? How could a so-called experienced quilter use Dual Duty? Well, it's like this, I'm a self-taught quilter. No classes; and although I've read many books, I don't recall much about thread in any of them.

When I first began my adventures in quilting, I bought many of my supplies at Wal-mart (back when they had a pretty decent sewing department), and Wal-mart carried Dual Duty. Truth be told, I thought thread was thread and didn't even realize there were any other manufacturers much less types of thread. My LQS did carry some thread, but it was specialized stuff, like metallics and other unusual types.

It wasn't until I started interacting with quilters on the internet, mostly through the newsgroup, rec.crafts.textiles.quilting, that I began to realize that thread was not always just thread, and that most quilters use 100% cotton thread. Names like Aurifil, Essential, Sulky, and Gutermann were bandied about. Hmmm. And I could read the unsaid disdain about Dual Duty in between the lines. Yessir.

So I bought some 100% cotton thread just to try. Eke! The thread frayed and broke. It was linty. My sewing machines just didn't like it one bit. Not impressed at all. And I'll tell you as one who bows down to my new Juki on a regular basis, and asks the sewing machine gods to smile on us, I'll do darn near anything to keep the sewing machines happy. They like Dual Duty. Okay, I'll admit, I don't even remember what brand the 100% cotton thread was, and it probably wasn't top of the line.

So there you have it. My confession. I still don't know what is wrong with Dual Duty.

Now, I'm trusting you all to set me straight. Please leave comments telling me what thread you like and why. I really am interested in learning.

Progress on Free Motion Quilting

I'm a free motion quilting newbie, doing free motion quilting on my first quilt. I'd intended that the first quilt be one that I would keep for myself, knowing that my initial attempt would be less than perfect (despite practice). However, it didn't work out that way. Instead my first attempt is on a quilt for a friend.
How did this happen? First off, I'm a slow quilt-maker. Due to time-constraints and the fact that I have a tendency to go off on tangents, it normally takes me about a year to complete one quilt from start to finish. Even knowing this, silly me, I volunteered to make not one, but two quilts for friends of mine, a couple, Robynn and Matt. I gave Robynn her quilt for her birthday earlier this year. (You can view it here.) I machine quilted it using straight-stitching, decorating it with stars and squares. All that turning--I swore never again!

In the meantime, I got a new sewing machine, a Juki TL-98Q, that is perfect for free motion quilting. So here I am now, ready to quilt Matt's quilt. I can't face any more straight-line quilting (unless the lines really are to be straight--no turning the quilt), and I don't feel like I should take the time to quilt another quilt before I do Matt's. After all, it's been nearly two years since I started the two quilts. So, I took a deep breath, and decided to free motion quilt. Just something simple.

I don't yet know how I'm going to quilt the other block in this two block quilt.

As expected, I'm running into the same problems that I expect confronts most new FM quilters. My stitch length changes from day to day and from minute to minute. I can go forwards and backwards better than I can go from side to side. I find that if I can go faster, the quilting looks a bit smoother, but I can also run into trouble much quicker too. All in all though, I'm not disappointed in this first attempt.

I've found that using gloves does help the process. If anyone has any other great tips, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section. I can use all the help I can get. :-)

And last, but not least, here is this week's bunch of completed New York Beauty blocks:
I'll be linking up for Sew & Tell Fridays at Amylouwho's. Drop by and check out what everyone else has been up to this week. :-)

Hand-piecing Questions from a Friend Answered

When I published my blog article entitled Hand-piecing, a friend of mine, a very accomplished quilter, (whose blog, The Way I Sew It, can be viewed here) emailed me with a bunch of good questions on hand-piecing:

I'm so glad you posted this. It makes me want to try hand piecing something. Also, can you take a close up of your stitching? It looks so fine and straight. I can't click the picture to make it bigger. Just a running stitch, right? Doubled thread? Do you run your thread through beeswax so it doesn't knot? Do you use a thimble? How do your seams look pressed? I presume you must press to one side, not open? Is there a "right" number of stitches per inch for stability? Maybe you could do a followup post answering these and any other questions? :)

Her wish is my command (now that sounds hokey doesn't it?)! First off the picture. I hope Blogger will allow readers to click on the picture and make it larger. I've found that in some cases, it just doesn't go there. Screen doesn't change; pictures remain small. Maybe I did something to tick off the Blogger gods that day? I don't know.


Now to the questions:

1. Yes, it is just a running stitch. I thread the needle through the fabric 3 or 4 times at one time, however, there is no magic number. Others may be able to do more. This is just what feels comfortable to me.

2. I use a single thread, although I can't think of any reason why you couldn't use a double thread. I realize that machine-piecers will see hand-piecing as more fragile. And initially, it is--but it's not as fragile as you think. Once the hand-pieced top is quilted, those seams are held in place and are well-protected from stress by the quilting--whether it is hand-quilted or machine-quilted. Here is an example:

In this hand-quilted example, except for the center wreath area, I quilted right up next to the seams on either side. So those seams are held in place by the seam itself and two rows of quilting. Those seams ain't gonna move. :-) Even the wreath in the center of the block will stabilize the seams and prevent them from being susceptible to stress.

3. Beeswax. I have used it when my thread seems particularly prone to tangling, but often it's not necessary.

4. While I use a thimble for hand-quilting, I do not use it for hand-piecing.

5. I press my seams to the sides. I do understand the idea of pressing them open in certain cases where there is simply too much fabric joined in the center of a block or something along those lines, but I think the overlap of pressing the seams to the sides makes the block more solid, especially a hand-pieced block. This is just my opinion. I haven't done any tests or anything. ;-)

6. As for stitches per inch, I just went and measured, and my stitching comes out at about 8 stitches per inch. However, I won't swear that 8 is the "right" number. I've had success with that number, but it may be that 6 or 7 per inch would work too, and that if a quilter could manage 9 or 10, it might be better.

Hand-piecing really is a different animal from machine-piecing. Being totally "hand-crafted", each individual quilter will have her own way of approaching hand-piecing, and different tips and techniques. While yes, it is necessary to have a certain degree of integrity in the hand-pieced seams, there is no absolute right or wrong method.

If any other hand-piecers read this article, please leave any tips or techniques you'd like to share in the comment section. I'm always looking for new ideas, and maybe we can take the intimidation factor out of those who are curious to try hand-piecing, yet feeling a little daunted by it.

Hand-pieced New York Beauty Blocks

Last week, I said good-bye to hand-quilting since the temperature is getting too warm to hold a quilt in my lap. However, it's all good. Hand-quilting season gives way to hand-piecing season. I stitched together these New York Beauty blocks this week.





I enjoyed making the twin-sized New York Beauty (shown in the blog article here) so much, I decided to do it again--except that this one will be full-size.

Yes, I admit that it's a bit wild. Ahem. The only colors that are left out are the browns, yellows, oranges (except for coral), and neutrals. The quilt is heavy in turquoise, purple, mauve, pink, black, white, and blue-greens.

I estimate that I'll need 196 of these 7" blocks. I did 40 last summer (I don't know exactly when I started). So I'm off and running on it again. Ought to keep me entertained for awhile, don't you think?

(But I'm already cutting for a hand-pieced, scrappy Drunkard's Path. Yeah, crazy--I know.)

I'll be linking up for Sew & Tell Fridays at Amy's. Stop in and see what everyone else is doing.