Pickle Dish Progress

I've been busy paper-piecing arcs for a pickle dish quilt.

 

I need a total of 96 arcs; I've completed a little more than half that amount so far.

I've been piecing them together assembly-line style, working in sets of 8.  I've been surprised at how quickly they are coming together.  I can usually finish a set of 8 in an evening's sewing time.  I cut plenty of rectangles in advance (too many, to be honest), and it is easy to get in a rhythm of sewing, pressing, and trimming.

The pattern (from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance) strongly suggests using a design wall to plan out the quilt layout, so a couple of months ago I made a few 4'x4' portable design wall sections.  (They are "portable" because I don't have enough wall space to hang them.)  But when I went to play around with my new arcs, I realized the foundation paper prevents them from sticking to the wall.  So I guess I'll be planning my layout on the floor, then pinning them to the wall to keep them organized.

I'm glad the arcs are coming together quickly.  I imagine the next steps -- piecing the curves and removing the papers -- will be more tedious.

I'm linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday.

Bow Ties

 My latest finish is this pair of bow ties:

I used a pattern from BurdaStyle.  I've used the pattern before, for this tie from 2012:

The pattern is a little short for a size 16 neck; the first one I made barely fits.  For the latest ties, I added a couple of inches to the straps.

The pattern includes a trick for turning the bow ties right-side-out.  It works well once you figure it out, but use strong thread, and double stitch the corners.  The thread used to pull the corners out broke on me once; I was worried that the stitches might break too.

The fabric in the black bow tie is from Parson Gray's inaugural line.  I used this fabric to make bias-cut binding for this quilt, and I set aside a few extra inches of the bias cut just for this purpose.  That means this tie has been in my head for over two years!

I managed to devote some time to making these ties when I ran out of thread for my current quilting project, and had to wait for an order of new thread to arrive.

The map fabric is from Tim Holtz's Eclectic Elements.  Both my teenagers were fascinated with this tie and fabric.  My daughter requested that I make her a travel wallet using it -- I'll have to figure out something for that next!

A quilt for my great-niece

 

 

A few months ago, I made a pair of twin baby quilts using Sassafras Lane's Lullaby Lane quilt pattern.  As I was working on those quilts, I realized Michael Miller's Wee Wander collection would work well with this pattern.  So when my niece announced she was expecting a baby girl, I started this quilt for her.

 

 

The panel fit the pattern perfectly, and the firefly fabric worked well for fussy-cutting squares for the border.  I tried a couple of new-to-me quilting designs, with swirls in the sky and a grassy pattern for the foreground.  I originally quilted the fill only within a quarter inch or so of the characters, but that left them a little puffy for my taste.  I decided to try outlining them with charcoal thread, not knowing whether it would work or not.  I was quite pleased with the result:

I used a trapunto technique under the "A" and "M" of the applique.  For the top and bottom borders, I pondered feathers or scrolls, but I couldn't work out how to do them around the flying geese.  I eventually came up with the idea to repeat the triangles across the borders with the quilting.

I added magenta binding and a pinkish backing to make it more "girly."

As I learned with the twin quilts, it doesn't take much additional fabric to get a second quilt with this design, especially if you shop at places with half-yard minimum cuts. (As long as you don't do a lot of fussy cutting, or make cutting mistakes. Ahem.) So there just might be another Lullaby Lane quilt in my future. And Michael Miller's Cotton Couture in Limeade could make for a great sashing with these prints; it's a perfect lightning-bug green. Just sayin'.

We were able to deliver the quilt in person just before Christmas.  What a treat it was to see and hold my new great-niece at only a few days old.

I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.



A Mini "Ode to Joy"

After making my Ode to Joy quilt, I wanted to make a smaller version as a gift for our music minister.  He not only does great things with our church choir, he also prepared the combined choirs for the Beethoven concert which inspired the quilt.  (I also needed to make up for not returning my music in a timely manner -- I used it to create some of the Spoonflower fabrics in the quilt.)

The flying geese and scrappy borders were left-over piecing from the original quilt.  I had intended to cut strips from the Chicopee fabrics for the FREUDE text, until I realized I had some batik strips already cut, left over from this project, that would work.

I added some miniature liberated stars; I was pleasantly surprised with how the variations in the fabrics make them sparkle.  I used improv piecing to fill in the background with some scraps.

I quilted various patterns in each section of the quilt, with a couple of music notes thrown in.  I also quilted some text in the borders above and below "FREUDE."

For the back, I used a couple of BasicGrey fabrics I had intended to use for border and binding on the original quilt, but didn't seem to suit it.  The corner pockets are used for hanging with a wooden dowel.

As I was preparing to assemble the quilt sandwich, I pressed the seams open using steam, and unfortunately my iron leaked a bit around the batiks, causing some bleeding to occur.  It was worst around the bottom edge of both "E"s.  Needless to say, I was not happy, but after some research I soaked and washed the quilt in Synthrapol following Vicki Welsh's instructions here.  Happily, I could find no trace of the bleeding afterwards.  (There is some pale blue in the design of the background fabric; don't mistake that for bleeding.)

This mini has already gone off to its new home!

 I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I enjoy the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted twice yearly by Amy Ellis at Amy's Creative Side.  For my second entry in this fall's festival, I am offering my Ode To Joy quilt:

I originally blogged about this quilt here.  The quilt is inspired by Beethoven's 9th Symphony, which in turn incorporates Friedrich Schiller's "An die Freude," or "Ode to Joy."  I incorporated text from the poem in multiple ways, and the paper-pieced musical notes spell out the first part of Beethoven's theme.  The fabrics are primarily Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee and Tim Holtz's Eclectic Elements, plus some custom fabric from Spoonflower featuring scans from the choral score.  

See my original blog post for more information about the design of this quilt, and more photos.

Thanks to Amy for hosting the festival!

New Star Rising

I recently finished a repeat version of a quilt I made a couple of years ago.  The first version was shown at the inaugural Quiltcon, and did well there, which was quite a surprise.  It also sold, which was another surprise.  Since it did so well and was no longer in my possession, I decided to make one to keep.

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I quickly settled on a couple of Parson Gray fabrics for the rust and white stars.  For the background, I decided to try a chambray.  The golden yellow fabric for the transparency, though, took quite a while to find.  I tried out several fabrics in mock-ups (sorry, maquettes) like these:

Some were the wrong hue; some worked to create the transparency effect but the fabric design was not to my taste.  I finally found an In The Beginning fabric that seemed just right (the one on the left above).

The background fabric is Robert Kaufman's Nep Chambray in Indigo.  It is a navy/cream cross weave, with flecks of red and gold here and there.

It has a bit of a loose weave, so I got concerned when I read abour Rachel's experience with Essex linen.  I had already cut the pieces, though, so I forged ahead.  I didn't experience much unraveling until I started sewing rows together, then I got nervous.  I ended up placing dots of Fray Check every few inches along the straight seam allowances.  And as you can see, I quilted it quite heavily too.



I quilted the background in the same design I used in the original quilt, but I did the stars differently this time.  For the white stars, I did a point-to-point design:

For the large star, I marked two consecutive stars inside, similar to a Rising Star quilt block, then used different fills in each area.

I filled the outer section of the star with feathers.

For the backing fabric, I wanted something bright and multicolored, to contrast with the front.  I chose a Laura Gunn fabric, and added some Parson Gray stripes with a little bit of BasicGrey trim.

The colors in the stripes don't really match the rest of the quilt -- what I thought was navy in online images is actually charcoal -- but I think it still works.  The label is pieced in.  I'm quite pleased with how well the stripes matched up.  The binding is a Laura Gunn Painters Canvas.

I finished the quilt shortly before we took a family trip for our school's fall break.  I packed along the quilt and got a few of these photos at a North Carolina campground.

That was a couple of weeks ago.  It has taken a while to get the additional photos for this post, because on the last day of our trip, we went whitewater rafting on the Nantahala River, and I came home with a broken ankle.  That has slowed down both my photography and my quilting.  I am thankful it is a simple fracture with no surgery required.

I was motivated to get this posted in time for Blogger's Quilt Festival; I'm also linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.


Update 1/30/2018: A pattern for this quilt is now available as a PDF download in my Craftsy shop.

More background musings

In my previous post, I asked about background fabrics for my pickle dish quilt.  Thanks to everyone who responded!  I got quite a variety of opinions, with no clear consensus -- which leads me to think they are all decent choices.  JanineMarie suggested I mock up a larger number of blocks, so I did a (very rough!) copy and paste in Photoshop, and filled in some of my background ideas.

The Aqua Patina from Carrie Bloomston's Paint was one of my early favorites, but looking at it this way, I think it may be too dark for me.  (Of course it is difficult to judge accurately from on-screen images.)

Carrie Bloomston - Paint

I still like Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms print too, although it may be too bright if this image is accurate:

Amy Butler - Soul Blossoms

 

I haven't given up on this BasicGrey fabric either, although it will be months before it will be available (it will be months before I get all those arcs assembled too!):

 

BasicGrey - Fresh Cut



But I am starting to think about other options.  My daugher and I happened to go on a small road trip last weekend.  We were able to drop into a couple of quilt shops, but I didn't find any of the fabrics on my short list.  We did find one that looked really good in the shop next to my arcs, but the mock-up tells me this is not the look I am hoping for.

Beth Studley - Henna Medallion

 

 

One of the shops had some Cotton + Steel fabrics.  I liked the mint color in a few of the fabrics, but none of the prints in their stock seemed suitable.  After I got home I found the Moonlit Arrows and thought that might work.  I do like this one, but I'd prefer a print with a less regular pattern.  I like that the cream breaks up the mint and helps it read lighter.

 



 Rashida Coleman Hale - Moonlit

I stopped in one of our local shops too, and found a couple of fabrics in just the colors I was hoping to find, but one print was too busy and the other too plain.  Both were from Moda's Spring House collection by Stephanie Ryan.  At home I did an online search for this line, and found another print from the collection that I'm liking a lot.  I think I can trust the colors since I've seen the companion fabrics in the store, and I like the randomness of the design and that the cream helps lighten it.  I just don't know how well I've represented the scale in my mock-up.  This one is getting hard to find, but there are a few online shops that have it in stock -- and a couple even have it on sale.

Stephanie Ryan - Spring House Blossom

 

I've also found a number of mottled near-solids that might work as a lighter alternative to the Carrie Bloomston above.  There's Moda Grunge Basics in Aqua, Spring House Wave, Marcia Derse's Pallette, and others.  These are all pretty similar, so I'm only showing one below.  To make the best choice between them would probably require seeing the fabrics in person.

 



Marcia Derse - Pallette

As you can see, I'm leaning towards mint green.  But here are a couple of other options that stay with the pink and blue:

Sarah Jane - Wee Wander, Meandering in Seafoam

Sarah Jane - Wee Wander, Meandering in Petal

I've got plenty of time before I will need the background fabric, but I know fabrics don't stay in stock forever.  I believe there are four or five among the above selections that I would be happy with, though.

In the meantime, I'm putting the finishing touches on another quilt.  I hope to have photos of that quilt to share soon.

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.