Hop on Spot.

All Done! From the start, this quilt was destined for the soon-to-be born baby of a friend of mine. They don't know whether the baby is a boy or a girl, so I chose bright, gender neutral colors -- turquoise, orange, and yellow. The quilt is so happy and cheerful, just like the mom to be! I bound the quilt in orange and white seersucker. I love the hint of texture this gave the quilt, and you can't beat the diagonal stripes. The back was pieced from some thrifted ikea fabric printed with orange birds, and some turquoise print from Joann's that I mysteriously bought yards of. I hand-embroidered a label, which I think is the first time I've done a label by hand. I love the hand-crafted touch this adds to the machine-sewn quilt.

Catch up...

Once again, I let my swap obligations pile up. I took the opportunity this weekend to catch up, and I feel so much better. These are all off to their recipients, yay!

Whew....

I may have bit off more than I can chew. I am now involved in THREE quilting bees/block swaps. This may not sound like much, but two of them require two blocks each, so that's a minimum of five blocks a month. Even thought this is a little bit crazy, I love the bees. They give me a chance to use fabric I had not yet tried, learn new techniques, and work in other styles. Plus, I know that no matter how busy I am, I have to make time for a little bit of quilting. Unfortunately, the holidays really threw me off. Plus, in DC, the inauguration made everything crazy until only a week ago. Then, add in a new job, a barely sleeping baby, and a crazy crazy toddler, um, yeah. I was a little behind. Fear not. I am caught up. They will all be going out on Monday. Here they are, in all their glory. First up, Alissa's blocks for Block Party. If you want to hear more about these blocks, check out the Block Party blog. Next up, the January block for Sew Connected 2 Now the December blocks for the About.com Birthday Block Swap Finally, the About.com swap January Blocks What a relief to be all caught up!

First quilt of 2009...

I made this quilt, called "Traffic Jam," for two dear friends of ours who are about to have a baby boy. The mom-to-be had her shower last Saturday, and the poor thing has definitely reached the "get this baby out of me!" stage. I was hoping that this quilt might brighten her day and help them feel ready for the new baby. This is my first "boy" quilt and I am very happy with the result. The quilt features a mid-tone solid grey, probably Kona, and pieced strips containing various primary colored prints, along with a few focal car prints. Some of the car prints are from purl soho and some are from pink chalk studio. As for the quilting, I quilted straight parallel lines in the grey "road" sections, and stipple quilted the patterned sections. My stippling is starting to improve, although I find that because I have to set my tension fairly high to keep the back looking neat, my thread often breaks while free motion quilting. This can be very frustrating, and often leads to a string of expletives on my part. Has anyone else experienced this? My machine has a scale from 0 to 9, and I have to keep it at about a 7 in order for the back not to look loopy. What do you keep your machine's tension on when free motion quilting? I bordered the quilt in a solid yellow, which I like, but do not love. It makes the quilt look a little less sophisticated that I wanted, maybe because the grey/yellow combo screams construction site. The back is pieced from a large piece of rocketship printed fabric from Purl, along with some other pieces from my stash. The white/red check is from Joelle Hoverson's Cake Rock Beach line.

November Block Swap blocks

For Deb, the Autumn Tints block in 30's prints: For Angelina, a Tuscon or Sonoran Desert inspired block:

First Love, First Quilt...

One day, about two years ago, my husband and I were walking around the West Village headed to my favorite yarn store, Purl. We passed the then-brand-new Purl patchwork, and I dragged my husband in. Pregnant at the time with Annie, I instantly decided I would make her a quilt. I already owned Kaffe Fassett's Caravan of Quilts, and wanted to make one of the more complicated quilts in that book. The lovely woman staffing the shop talked me down off that ledge and convinced me to pick something much more manageable for my first project. I spent an hour salivating over all the gorgeous prints, and plucked various gems off the shelf. After spending way too much money, I walked out with a stack of fabric and a new love of fabric. For the next few weeks, I slaved over my mother's Singer sewing machine. I had never made a quilt before, yet I was convinced that it couldn't be too difficult. I worked and worked, and this was the result!

Why you should always pre-wash...

Now, I know that some of you swear that you never pre-wash fabrics. In various quilting forums, I have heard that pre-washing is a "waste of time," "unnecessary," and just plain "silly." I have always questioned this wisdom, and have always pre-washed my fabrics, especially solid colors. I was just too worried that the dye would run later and ruin all my hard work. As you may remember, Mattie's quilt featured some of Patapri's lovely hand-printed fabric. In pulling out my accent colors, I knew that I wanted to use the bright, lively, chartreuse. I embarked on my usual thorough search for a quilting solid in such a color. All local fabric stores were visited, and alas, no chartreuse... really nothing even close. Kona samples were ordered... the greens were a bland disappointment. But then, out of the corner of my eye, in the red-dot clearance section of Jo-Ann's (gasp!), I saw the perfect color. Eye-poppingly bright and vivacious-- CHARTREUSE!!!! I quickly checked the fiber content-- yes!!! 100% Cotton. My one concern was that the fabric was dip-dyed, so I was worried about color consistency. I decided that I would only use strips from the end, which would ensure that all strips were the exact same shade. Now, as I explained above, I ALWAYS pre-wash. Suspicious of the dip-dyed fabric of uknown origin, I prewashed it not just once, but TWICE!!! Apparently, twice was not enough. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the greenish-yellow fabric in Tilda's quilt has bled (twice now), turning the white sashing to more of a yellow. It's not too bad, but it is disappointing none the less to have something that I worked so hard on turn out to be less than perfect. The moral of the story... always pre-wash. Although maybe the true moral is not to trust Jo-Ann's clearance offerings, no matter how perfect the color!

Finally!

I sent out Matilda's quilt to be quilted by Jessica Brunemer on a long-arm machine. Jessica did an amazing job, and I received the quilt back in the middle of August. Then, it sat, and sat, and sat, just waiting for me to bind and label it. Finally, I tackled the binding. For the first time, I handsewed the binding to the back of the quilt. It makes such a difference. This binding looks better than any I have done before. I think it is well worth the time, energy, and pricked fingers! Here are some pictures of the finished product:

block swap september

Here are the blocks for this month's birthday block swap. For Becca, a brasstown stars block in black and batiks: For Faye, a basket block on point: This was my first attempt, but it came out a little smaller than it should: Because it wasn't quite big enough, I made her another one: A picnic basket! I sent Faye both, on the chance that she can use both. Hope everyone likes their blocks!!

Mini Color Wheel Quilt

As soon as I joined Doll Quilt Swap 4, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. A mini version of Purl's color wheel quilt. The most difficult part of this quilt was the initial planning, especially the math. I first figured out the dimensions of the color wheel. I decided to make the wheel about 20 inches in diameter, with a 4 inch diameter white center. This would give me about 2 inches of white around the whole wheel. I then figured out how many pieces I wanted in the wheel. The original used 52 pieces-- 14 in each section. I knew that many would be too difficult; they would just be too skinny. I decided on 32 total, 8 in each quadrant. I then figured out the size of each piece by dividing the 360 degrees of the circle by 32. This made each piece 11.25 degrees. I next used powerpoint to draw templates. I made a quarter circle template for the wheel and a circle for the white center. I also made a wedge template that was 11.25 degrees and 10 inches long with 2 inches chopped off of the middle. I added a quarter inch seam allowance and used the templates to cut out the 32 colored pieces. I then cut 4 13 inch by 13 inch squares out of white kona cotton, and used the templates to remove the color wheel sections. I sewed the colored pieces together into a quarter of a color wheel, then sewed the white pieces onto the outside. Last, I sewed the white center in. This was the most difficult part of the piecing. It required a lot of pins to keep the edges aligned and I ended up using some stabilizer to keep the points together in the center. I decided to use a solid teal linen blend for the back, and quilted in the ditch around the color wheel. I stipple quilted the center of the wheel, as well as the white background. I used a white linen for the binding, and added the label.

July Birthday Block Swap

I am participating in a Birthday Block Swap at the about.com quilting forums. The concept is pretty neat. 24 quilters participate, and each month it is two quilters' "birthdays." All of the other quilters then make the birthday ladies a block of their choice. So, I send out two blocks every month, and then, when it is my "birthday" month, I will receive 23 blocks of my choice. Some quilters choose a general theme, such as gardening or birdhouses, and let everyone run with it. Others choose a particular block in a particular color. For me, this is a great way to force myself to try "traditional" quilting techniques, such as complicated piecing or applique, that I wouldn't normally. I think that over the course of the year I will definitely make a lot of mistakes, but also learn a lot in the process. Here are the first blocks, for July: On the left is my contribution to a "garden" theme. The background sky and ground are pieced together using curved piecing. The veggies are appliqued on, using light fusible and a teeny-tiny zig zag stitch. I love how bright the colors are, and I think the cross-section view is neat. On the right, the birthday gal requested blue stars on a white background, quilter's choice of pattern. I used this pattern: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/06/star-quilt-along-week-7.htm from the crazy mom quilts star quilt-a-long. Her tutorial was great, and I love the star pattern. This quilt will be going to someone who lost everything in Katrina. I hope she likes it!

What We've Been Up to...

We've been busy around here, but have been lazy about posting updates.

• I sent out my fat quarters for the Oh, Fransson! vintage sheet swap. I ended up having a few extra, so I sent those as well and Elizabeth can distribute them to those less fortunate in the sheet hunting!

• As a thank you for Elizabeth, I sewed the bottle bag below out of a vintage dishcloth and some fabric from my stash. It came out very cute and was so easy. These would make great Christmas gifts when filled with a bottle of wine. Inside the bag I tucked two vintage aprons that I found when scavenging for vintage sheets. The picture doesn't really do them justice, but they are quite cute.

• I've been busy working on my quilt for doll quilt swap 4. Because of the baby and the move, I wanted to make sure I was finished nice and early. Below is a sneak peek. I hope it doesn't give to much away! The quilt ended up about 24" x 24." I have finished the patchwork and the quilting. All that is left is the binding, but I've been feeling very indecisive about color choices. Luckily I have some time. These aren't due until the beginning of September.

• Father's Day! We celebrated Father's Day last weekend. Joe's present came out awesome, and definitely involved some craftiness on my part. I will post on that later this week.

Quilt for new baby...

I (finally) finished the quilt top for the new baby's quilt. The quilt was inspired by the bundle of fabric that I purchased from patapri on etsy. I decided to do a modified log cabin quilt block, and pulled out four colors from the prints to serve as the borders-- teal, chartreuse, plum, and orange. I strip-pieced the log cabin blocks with the colors, then added the white strips. I sewed up a bunch of random "confetti" strips to mix in with the plain white strips. There are 12 different prints total. Overall, I am very pleased with this project. There are plenty of wonky seams. I really hope that I get the hand of straight 1/4" seam sewing soon! The biggest difficulty in this quilt was that the printed squares and the white fabric is 100% linen. Because of that, it frays like mad! For durability, I double-seamed each of the seams, which took forever. Also, the quilt is huge! I don't think I realized quilt how big 60" by 60" is. I kind of think I just should have made it a twin, but I think it will be a nice place to lay down the baby. Now, all that is left to do is quilt! I purchased a lovely linen/rayon blend in the exact teal I used on the front to use for the back. But, after scouring the internet for advice, I've decided that using the rayon blend is just too risky. I'm worried about the rayon wearing unevenly or deteriorating. So.... impatient me must wait for the quilt back fabric to be delivered. Sorry teal linen, we will save you for another day! I am also thinking of sending this quilt out to be long-armed. I've never done that before. Anyone have any recommendations for long-arm quilters that do "modern" quilting?

Vintage Sheet Swap

Yeah! I am participating in the Oh, Fransson! vintage sheet swap. Coincidentally, I just picked up a bunch of vintage linens at Goodwill a few weeks ago. Some of those will definitely get turned into fat quarters for the swap. I do think that this calls for another trip to Goodwill this weekend, whoopee! Here are some pics of what people are contributing: There are a bunch more pics in the flicker pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/792015@N22

Nadia's Quilt

Recently, Joe's cousin Andy and his wife Rika had a baby girl. I felt that the new arrival, Nadia Kiko, was clearly in need of a quilt and began working on a pinwheel patchwork design.

I had many of the fabrics in my stash. The fruit print is part of the Alexander Henry picnic collection. I bought a decent amount of that print, as well as the blue dots, at Purl in NYC to make my daughter a sundress. I way overbought, however, and had plenty left to make this quilt. In fact, I still have enough for another few pinwheels!

The red dot and blue pattern fabrics came from the quilting cottons section at Jo-ann. Quality wise, they were ok, but the red dot was a little thin. It has almost a challis-y rayon-y feel to it. The red zig zag fabric came from a local quilting store. The blue/red rickrack for the back came from Hancocks, and was such a perfect fit for the front that I overlooked the fact that it is a poly/cotton blend.

The biggest challenge for me was the actual construction of the pinwheels. My half-square triangles were never quite square, and therefore, I had to do a lot of squaring up. It was also hard to not cut off the pinwheel points when piecing the pinwheels together. Another issue that I had was that I sewed some of the pinwheels backwards, so they were "spinning" the wrong way. I was more careful after having to rip out four blocks.

I made a bunch of the pinwheels before deciding on a layout, and actually had made some green pinwheels as well. I tried a few different settings, but I think laying out the pinwheels on point gave the quilt a modern feel. I love the way the pieced border came out, but I did have some problems with the border flaring out slightly.

I used two layers of cotton quilt batting and basted the quilt using a wide zig zag stitch. I think that the thread basting worked better for me than safety pins, but I had some trouble with the basting threads getting caught in the quilting. I quilted in the ditch for the pinwheels, then did some variously sized squares in the white blocks. I still have some puckering problems in the back, but this looked a lot better than my last attempt. I may try spray basting glue next time.

As you can see, I also made a bag to package the quilt in. it's basically a pillowcase made from chocolate brown corduroy, with two appliqued birds on the front. I also made a quilt label. I just printed with an ink-jet right on the fabric, I hope it is wash-proof!

Catching Up . . . Quilt #1

I made this quilt while I was pregnant with Annie, and it is the first quilt that I ever made. I think I finished it in February of 2007.

I bought all of the fabric at purl patchwork in NYC. When I was in law school I often frequented the sister yarn store, but at that time the patchwork store was not yet open. During a trip to the city, Joe and I wandered by and I was totally and completely in love. I made him come inside with me, where I proceeded to spend $100 on fabric with the intention of making a quilt for the baby. Due to his unwavering confidence in me, or perhaps simply a fear of my hormones, Joe didn't even bat an eye as he pulled out the debit card. He did make me promise that I would actually make a quilt.

I had previously bought Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Patchwork and was intent on making one of the quilts in that book. I had originally thought of making this one, but luckily the very kind lady talked me out of that endeavor. Something about my lack of experience. Instead, I chose the Pieced Stripes Quilt. This was a great choice for a first quilt. There was no accurate piecing or cutting requires. Instead, I cut all of the fabric into 4" wide strips, then randomly cut them into shorter pieces using 60 degree angles.

Here is a picture of the quilt in the book, courtesy of http://redisforpassion-red.blogspot.com/2007/12/quilt-inspiration.html

Here are pictures of my quilt:

Um, sorry about the baby that is in the way! I will try to put up better pictures of this quilt later. I wish I had kept track of what fabrics I used in the quilt. I pulled out all sorts of fabrics at purl, and I know there were some Amy Butler, Katie Jump Rope, and Alexander Henry fabrics, but I didn't note the patterns. Oh well.