Modern Elegance

Modern Elegance

for Megan

The front

The back

My new fave quilting style: squares on point

Color choices
I chose a bold navy blue and rose fabric and paired it with a gorgeous near-white print. The ladies at Boersma's helped me choose the white fabric. We were pairing pinks, purples, greens and a soft yellow all because I was against using white. But when we paired the "painter's canvas" white with the navy blue, this very elegant tone was set. I was surprised to love the combination.

Process
When I chose to teach a couple friends how to quilt, I needed to make the quilt myself so I knew what they'd be getting into. This was my sample quilt. I took notes along the way to gauge how long it took me to do each step. So much time for squaring those half-square triangles! The backing used up scraps-- something I always feel is "true to quilting." Making do, you know?

As always, a label

Result
I love love love this quilt. Thanks to a sewing day with a friend I managed to finish the quilting in one day, followed by a day at home in which I watched movies and hand sewed the binding on.

Recipient
Megan, one of my best friends also quilts. She's given me two quilts which I use and love. It's been on my mind to eventually make a quilt for her and my "Quilt Camp" was the best excuse to do it. I'm so proud of the finished product.

Girls at Play

Happy November! I finally finished a quilt. I have not finished a quilt since July!! I've been busy in my sewing room (check instagram for proof) but I've been wandering from project to project. And of course, the real problem is that I dread that final step of quilting.

Thank goodness that a friend requested a baby blanket or else I might not have finished any quilts during the second half of the year.

I've used this pattern before... all with the same line of deer fabric. See my list below
Deer No. 3 in 2014
Deer Crossing in 2013
Deer in the Woods in 2013
So it was a delight to branch out of that fabric scheme.

The white fabric is from Sarah Jane Studios. The other fabrics are all from my stash. I collect a lot of those colors so it was easy to select what I wanted. If you zoom in, one of those orange fabrics has little bicycles and tricycles. Adorable, right?! There are also itty bitty strawberries!

The backing really excited me. I can't remember where I bought that blue fabric but I love it. I have to force myself to buy blue or green fabrics normally because they don't automatically draw my attention. And the triangles on the right side are from my first or second quilt that I made. You can deduce my introductory sewing level by looking at those blunt triangle points. I'm happy to see that early work get brought in with a more recent project.

Girls at Play 

38 in X 38 in.

(stamped and handwritten label included on back- added after the photos were taken)

The front

The back

The quilting

My first quilt from which the back triangles originated

Quilt Repair in Photos

Somewhere between Fall 2012 and Spring 2013
When I was working only at the bakery, a regular customer learned that I sewed and asked if I could repair a quilt for him. And he'd pay me for it. "Sure thing!" I said. I was still beginning to learn how to quilt when I agreed and adopted his torn up quilt, but I was confident that I could figure it out. When I brought it home and laid it out, I was overwhelmed.

A quilt is made of three parts: a pieced front, a batting, and fabric for the backing. In his quilt, there were chunks where all three layers were missing! How was I going to fix it?

I folded it and stored it in the closet until...

July 2014
I sent out a plea to two friends to review this quilt and help me make a game plan. Molly said, "Sounds like an SOS. I can swing by today to look at it." Her assessment was that I should rip out all the quilting and "start over" with a new quilt front and scrap the backing and batting.

So I set to it. For a few weeks I would sit on the futon at my friends house during our crafting social nights with this quilt and my seam ripper. Luckily the hand-quilted stitches were easier to remove than had it been machine-sewn.

Then slowly, as I had patience for it, I would patch small holes with a similar looking fabric. And for the much larger gaping holes, I made my own mock log cabin blocks to insert onto his.

March 2015
I finally finished this gd quilt! I felt really proud. And then sometimes I would look at it up close and think, "God, this is shit in comparison to his original, original quilt." And then I'd remember, "But oh yeah... his dog tore through it and made the whole quilt impossible to use and now this is a fully functional quilt!" Mission accomplished. : )

Held up to the window to check for the smaller holes. The bottom center part is one of the log cabin blocks that I sewed on already.

Getting ready to tie knots to keep this baby together

Details of tying knots

Cramped. Machine sewing on the binding

(poor photo quality) The finished quilt!

One line at a time

Quilting is one of my least favorite parts of quilting. I love making the quilt blocks, making the front as one giant piece from all of these small pieces, and I love getting to free-hand the back fabrics with scraps or new material.

But sitting down at my machine and slowly feeding the sandwich of fabrics through is mind-numbing, never mind that I get extremely frustrated.  I'm never satisfied with the quality of my straight lines. I sew slanted lines. The fabric pulls and puckers. All the safety pins that I painstakingly put in are all off because it was fed wrong.

Because I've learned how to sew just through experience, I don't really feel confident in my actual knowledge of the machine. What does the tension do? What if I don't use the top feeder legs? It took me 45 minutes to sew one line down my most recent project.  Granted, part of it was keeping the dogs out of my work space, but the rest of the time was that trial and error learning curve. I needed more desk space, so I added my ironing board to the backside as an extender. But the quilt was still too heavy and pulled the work down.

Austin Kleon's books Show Your Work! and Steal Like an Artist have been so beneficial to my confidence. I feel less pessimistic.  More encouraged by the track I'm on.
In ShowYour Work! he quotes one stupefying statement by Russell Brand.

One day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple but it isn't easy: it requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.

Whatever it is, you have to start small, to start somewhere, to build up from that.  So I say to myself today, "One line at a time." And that, friends, is how I quilt.

Acting like I'm not frustrated in the least bit.

Hot damn!

A new record! Quilt blocks finished in one week!

I recently surprised myself with the speed of block making. And of course it comes right after writing that it takes me so long to make a quilt.

Over Friday night and all day Saturday I studied various quilt blocks and drew them out in my notebook. Then I colored the blocks in according to the color schemes that I liked best.

On Monday I started cutting into the fabric and created 12 "Sets" for the different quilt blocks.
Between the mornings and evenings around work, I finished all of the blocks that I wanted.  (This might not be much of an accomplishment to anyone but me because I work so sporadically.)

Today, the following Monday I am going to add sashing to the blocks. And hopefully before long, I will have the quilt top all finished.