Quilted and Bound Birthday Quilt

It’s finished and on time. I don’t have anyone handy to hold it for me, so I’ll show it in parts. (The full view of the top is here.and as full a view as I could get of the back is here.) I’d originally planned .to use gold for the binding, except I used too much when I had to piece the back. So I decided on a pieced binding. Took a bit longer, but the quilting had taken less time than I’d allowed (a rare occurrence). I didn’t make any plan to match or not match to blocks nearby. I tried to do some variation of size strips and order of fabrics, but not totally random either.

As whole a view as you get:

You can see the baseball fabric on the backing, which I added after learning of a new interest. Neither the camera nor the operator knew how to adjust the light for the white of the backing and the dark of the top. The camera chose to adjust to the lighter part.

And various views: As much as I can get into one photo first.

And the two lower corners

As you can see the quilting is simple meandering. I decided that the size of the top was enough challenge; I didn’t need to add complex design, though I have several I want to be trying. There will be other chances.

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It’s Time to Quilt

What was once “plenty of time” is now “crunch time.” I made the top back in July. So now the birthday is a couple weeks away, and I’ve pieced the back today. It’s bigger than I have made for a while and doesn’t fit on my design bed. Or on available floor for that matter. So I’ll be experimenting with a roll up method I’ve read about.

I did get baseball and car fabric for pillowcases to acknowledge new interests since I had made the top.

The car fabric is the wrong colorway, but it is the only car fabric I could find. Guess it will mostly be hidden, so it won’t really matter. I’ll be curious to see if the cars are recognizable, and if grandson knows them.

Although I’d not used the baseball fabric in the front, I did use it in the back.

And here’s the finished back.

I didn’t have a place where I could get far enough away to show the whole thing, but you get the idea. By the time I added the extra around the edges, it seems huge. It will be a bit of a challenge to quilt it on my Featherweight, but it isn’t queen size. And Christna Carmeli assures me she has done a queen on hers. This time you can see that the flaming soccer balls are not the ghosts they looked like in the earlier post. The music fabric could be more clear, so here it is.

And the cat fabric is in honor of the family kitty, named Hairiette. (She’s a very fluffy long-hair.). White is not serviceable color, though. And I already got to test the old saying about saliva removing blood. I’d stuck myself on a pin while messing with the big pieces and not noticed it till blood appeared on the white. It took a bit of rubbing with a cotton ball, but it worked! (I’ve heard that the spit and blood have to be from the same person; don’t know if that is true or not.)

I really hate working with the large pieces. Maybe that is why so many tops have a long wait for their finishes.

Shaggy, Baggy Elephant Finished

The baby quilt started last week (here) is finished. I went to the post office confident of it getting to its destination in time, thinking of the old 2-day service. It is no more. Choice is 3-day or 1-day. Well, since 3-day would get it there a day after the shower, I took a deep breath and sprang for 1-day. It seemed important enough. Had I known the options, I would have tried harder to finish it by Wednesday. But this way I could pick up the books and add them to the package. It seemed the story should go along with it. There was an original Little Golden Book version and a board book. Seemed good to have both.

40 x 60 inches

Up close the peach blends better as there are peach strips on the tug boat and orange flowers. But from a distance, not so much. The border is more thematically related than color related.

And though I had enough fabric that I didn’t need to piece the back, what else would I do with the panels that were to be the covers had I made a book? I’d intended the panels to be less centered, but by the time I trimmed, they had edged middlewise.

The back fabric had 17 color dots!  I think that is the most I have seen on a print, though there are usually more than colors I have noticed in a print.

I quilted it in a simple, big meander.

Post about beginning and designing here.

I’ll like with the Friday finish sites (buttons in sidebar).

 

Baby Quilt and Little Golden Books

As a kid, I loved Little Golden Books. So I was tickled when I saw fabric based on them. I snatched it up because I knew it wouldn’t be around long. Twice. Then I didn’t see it again. I can’t imagine it didn’t sell. Maybe Quilting Treasures stopped after two? Anyway, I got Pokey Little Puppy (made up rather quickly, a very long time ago–here) and The Shaggy, Baggy Elephant (has been in waiting).

Its day has come–a shower for my great-niece. (It’s okay, she doesn’t read my blog.)

I’ll have to trim the blocks. They were made to be a book, so not precise squares. Hence, when I cut 1/2 inch beyond the white, the “squares” came out crooked.  So I’ll make it so that no brown edge shows. Might look better than edging anyway. (Looks like that is what I did the first time too.)

I started out thinking blue or green sashing, but noticed the peach in most of the “pages.” I rather liked it and then thought to the cornerstones.  Again I started out thinking green, but it got too bright against the peach. So I went to a warm brown (that I will use for binding too).

Ah, but there in the pile of batiks to be put away was this brown with green splotches.

I thought it might draw too much attention to itself, but it doesn’t seem to. So I’ll use it.

I’ll make a narrow border of the binding brown then use this print for final borders.

It almost looks like the intent had been to make all those stories. Or maybe they did, and I found the fabric only near the end of the series. I think this piece was in with a batch of fabric someone gave me. The quilt back will be from companion fabric I bought that is more like the inner cover of the books.

ETA: The date on each of the three selvages is 2009.

A couple intense sewing days are in my future. Deadlines do help progress.

Linking with the Clever Chamelion’s color linky party.

 

More Lotto Block Tops

As I assembled these tops, I pondered my process for grouping unlike  blocks.There are many features to play with: color, shape, value, intensity . . .

• I look for exact pairs (or groups when there are more than two).
• I look for similar colors and balance them–usually into corners.
• I fill in the empty spaces with similar or coordinating colors; sometimes blocks that match in color add different colors as well, and that new color leads to a criteria for selecting other blocks.
• I evaluate shapes and shift blocks around.
• I consider values and shift blocks around.

Sometimes, of course, the block that is the right shape is the “wrong” color or value, so I shift around and go for the Gestalt effect that is pleasing.

I’d started this process toward the end of July (here), and after a reading break,  I made five more tops. This first one is about similar shapes first, then color considerations.

42 x 42

I had some of the stripe left that  I’d used in the first batch,  just enough for sashing/borders by adding the yellow cornerstones. The plan is that the stripes unify the different colors.

Another top where striped fabric comes to the rescue:

42 x 60

This one started out with framed pictures as the unifying idea, then framed anything, then 9-patch blocks that had a novelty center. Finally the Shoo-Fly block that sorta fit. Next I shuffled them around till I liked the look of the colors and shapes.

The next one was arranged mostly by color; secondarily by shape. The yellow center block might have looked good in the bottom middle, but so did the one with green.  Either one would have balanced the top center.

42 x 42

The border and cornerstones tie those two blocks to the other more aqua ones; however, there is purple and green in the prints of the corner blocks, which suggested the addition of the two center purple/green blocks. Aqua around the center block was to keep the top from becoming too purple.

I played more drastically with color in the next one. The closer to the end, the fewer to swap around.

42 x 60

I started with the matching pink blocks and added the pink-brown-green. I’m not sure which came first the 36-patch or the aqua in the corner. The bottom center balanced the top center’s dark value. Originally I had the orange and aqua 36-patch in the lower corner to balance the upper aqua, but it was too dark. Dark seemed to fit the center better. Then, because the colors were so varied, I made the sashing and borders in as many of the colors as I could and tried to spread them around. It isn’t the world’s best design, but this is, after all, a utility quilt, so making do is okay.

And the last one is a surprise.  Looking at them tossed on the floor–the 12 rejects from the other 9 tops–I had decided they didn’t play together at all. I decided to take a photo to show that.

Instead of putting the blocks away, I started moving them around until they became a workable group.

36 x 48

Isn’t it amazing what just a little rearranging will do?

That concludes my current batch of Lotto blocks, collected over about 6-7 years and 9+ winnings. I still have Blocks of the month from guild to assemble and my Foot Squared Freestyle blocks to arrange. Maybe in a day or two.

Oldest UFO

The quilted date

And if I was marking quilting in 1980, I’d have started the applique in 1978 or 79.It was 2/3 quilted when we downsized and the quilting frame had to go.  I must not have known about quilting hoops. I lost all interest in all aspects of quilting for about 20 years.  The 7 year old had become 27 and of course had no interest in a juvenile quilt. (For the record, she got an adult queen sized quilt.)

You may remember a previous mention of this quilt around Christmas when I made toys to go with its companion for my grandson–his mother’s quilt had long been finished and had become his. One of her friends saw and admired it and asked to have me make one. She was happy to take the unfinished one and didn’t mind if I finished quilting by machine.

The transition is apparent but not awful.

And besides, it is a playmat, not an heirloom.

Note the high contrast binding. It also contrasts on the back. In machine binding I have never been too successful at keeping the stitching either in the ditch or like top stitching on the back.  I concentrated on that stitch placement more than on filling the binding and it worked pretty well.

Now we all know that a date stitched into a quilt holds a lot of weight, and this one is misleading. So just in case it ends up in a quilt historian’s hands, I updated the notation–not that they wouldn’t figure out there had been a gap, but so they would know how big the gap. Aren’t barns usually dated somewhere?

So just inside the barn door is a second date.

When marking the quilt, long ago, I thought it would be fun for the girls to draw on it and quilt the lines. I asked them to draw themselves.

And write their names and draw anything else they wanted.

Besides the sun and moon, she also drew one of our cats, but I didn’t get a photo of the cat.

So, finished after almost 40 years.

The new owner will make the toys for this one.

This isn’t a contest or anything, but inquiring minds want to know: has anyone taken longer than 38 years to pull out a UFO and finish it?

Linking with TGIFF (link in sidebar) and Finish it Up Friday (link supplied Friday evening).

ETA This quilt was backed the old way, with a sheet. I had no problems–don’t remember why it is no longer a favored option.

8/22/17 ETA Linking with Tuesday Archives–button in sidebar–for yellow. Oops, no linky. Make that 9/5/17 linking because there is a zipper attaching the side of the house to the backing so the dolls can be put to bed or given diner.

Butterfly Outtakes Finished

It has been a while. At first I was waiting for more experience in FMQ; then I stalled when I realized I’d have to piece the back. That was ten months ago! But I finally got to the quilting and binding.

43 x 43 inches

Paisley in the fabric suggested paisley overall quilting. I briefly pondered doing something fancy in the setting triangle area and dark border, but got on a roll with the overall design and decided to stay with it. (For the history of its making, including source of the name, the back links are in the post in the above link. )

Here is a closer look at the quilting:

As usual, I quilted this on my Featherweight. It is my favorite size to quilt–too bad it isn’t the most frequent size I make. This size could be either a baby quilt or a wheelchair lap quilt, depending on the fabric. I could see this fabric going either way, so I’ll link with Let’s Make Baby Quilts.

I had two blocks that were a bit smaller than the others, so I put them on the back (which needed to be made a couple inches wider).

I’m thinking they would look better had they been placed closer to each other. I’ll try to remember that the next time.

I may do some more linking: Free Motion Mavericks (at Needle and Foot this week), Free Motion By the River, TGIFF (at Faith and Fabric this week) and Finish it up Friday; at any rate check the buttons in the sidebar to go see what others have linked.

ETA links.

It’s Very Pink

Remember the block of the month frenzy? ( here) One block came back home with me when I won the 10 pink ones. Now ten doesn’t make a quilt. Nine or twelve would. I didn’t have enough variety in pink fabrics to add two blocks. And one block had been assembled differently than the BOM plan and had to be taken apart anyway. So it became cornerstones in the border.

44 x 44

And the fifth four-patch block will probably end up in a pieced back. I have a perfect backing piece, except it is only a one-yard cut. so some piecing is in my future.

Its destination is the guild’s Comforting Quilts. The size is right for either wheelchair lap quilt or baby quilt. I see it as a baby quilt, but they will send it where they need it most.

Lots of scraps here, other peoples’ scraps along with mine, so I’m linking with Oh Scrap! (I’ve been neglecting that one recently, at least linking. It is fun to read whether or not I’ve added something.) And because it could be a baby quilt, I’ll like with Let’s Make Baby Quilts.  Buttons for each are in the sidebar.

ETA link to Scraphappy Saturday. Even though I made only one of the blocks, the quilt is very scrappy and very pink, the color of the month.

Farm Quilt and Accessories

Years ago I made the “Fun on the Farm” (a Good Housekeeping pattern from the 70s-80s) quilt for my daughter. I never finished the play parts. Now that her son is almost 3, it seemed a good time to make the parts. (It’s a Christmas present, but it is okay to show it early–Logan doesn’t read my blog.)

Being from an earlier time, the pattern for the people was very stereotypical: The “farmer “had overalls. The “wife” had braids and wore a dress and apron. I wanted to change that and also to add kids. First I considered jeans and shirt for each. But “unisex” dress is always male. Then I remembered the Fisher Price toys with the generic peg people. That seemed the solution to allow for imagination to take over.

The car and tractor have a pocket so the people can “ride.” Inside the house (opens both with door and a side zipper) one person can slip behind the table to “eat” or into the bed to “sleep.”

The apples snap to the tree and can be “picked” and put in the bag or in the feed trough for the animals; the ears of corn snap to the stalks, and the stalks have a middle and a top snap so they can “grow.” The hay can be feed or snapped to the haystack. The nest in the tree has a pocket for the hatching baby bird. The letter fits in the mail box.

It will be interesting to see what imagination does to the parts and the whole.

Linking the current finish of toys to Link a Finish Friday. Button in sidebar.

On another note: at guild they announced that we had 1100 doll and infant quilts for the Toy and Joy program (mentioned in previous post)

Two Noah Panel Infant Quilts

Long ago–hard to believe it was 2012–I got most of these two tops finished at a retreat. (Here) They have been patiently waiting for final borders and quilting, so they seemed good to add to my UFO list. Of the ten I’d listed, I’ve finished three, so something small seemed a good project. I’d hoped to do two, but I forgot a couple obligations that took away from quilting time, so I finished one. I’m thinking that it pays to have a bigger goal than what can be accomplished; I think it pushes so that even if not reached, more is finished than would have been without it. Of course if you are going to play that game with yourself, you don’t dare beat yourself up for not accomplishing your whole goal!

This is the one that got finished.

37 x 37

It needed at least three inches of border; I was aiming for 36-inch square, and thought more would be taken up in quilting. I used the added two borders to brighten it up a bit. The blue HSTs had a duller effect than I had expected. The quilt is made from scraps, mine and others’ scraps. Two of the fabrics–the stripe and the blue star print–were left over from two queen quilts; the panel and the cream stripe came from the give-away table at a guild retreat (around 2010). The other prints were from various guild charity starter kits, made up from donated scraps. Even the back was made from scraps of flannel a friend had given me.

While not quite synchronized with the top, it does have animals. 🙂

I knew how I wanted to quilt the center and outer borders,but it took a while to decide on quilting patterns for the HST rows. I’d designed them to be two-color flying geese; however, the overall look was of two saw tooth rows. I thought maybe I could emphasize the geese units with quilting.

I knew I wanted to outline the figures in the panel, and that led to the vine with leaves for the blue and blue-checked borders.

On one side of the panel I added leaves in the sky and wished I’d thought of it when doing the first half–I’ll have to remember that when I quilt Noah #2.

For the outer two borders,I wanted to use the “wonky triangle” quilting that I found on Night Quilter’s blog. I thought of three loops in the “geese,” but decided I wanted something more transitional between the curvy center and angular outer borders. I think I got the idea that I ended up using, the three triangles per “goose,” from Angela Walters’ dot to dot quilting. Only I didn’t use dots. Even making dots is more marking than I want to do.

The corners were a challenge.

I wanted to keep the straight line going–it would have looked better if I’d done the curvy outline or at least have connected with stitch in the ditch instead of the one lone line on the 3/4 square. And you can see (lower right) where I began.  Yep, I should have practiced the idea before starting on the quilt itself.  It took a “goose” or two to get the bottoms of the three triangles to come out even.

And here is the wonky triangles border.

The striped border, where you can’t see the quilting, is where I practiced the border. I really like the effect of this design, and it is fast and easy after the first couple repeats. (I keep the pencil diagram nearby for moments when I forget where I am in the pattern.) I’ve done various corner turning tactics, mostly estimating how much distance is left and remembering that the first line on the new side is perpendicular to the length.

There was no binding to do because I’d “birthed” it (aka envelop style edge).

Linking up with  Finish it up Friday , Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF,  Let’s Make Baby Quilts, on Sunday with Oh Scrap! And on Tuesday Freemotion by the River (buttons in sidebar).