Mande's Orange Star Quilt Top is Complete

I actually finished this top BEFORE I left for Quilt Camp last week.  I was afraid the pieces would get mixed up and out-of-order if I dismantled it and took it down to transport it to Quilt Camp.  I just knew the blocks would get out of order, and it would be a disaster waiting to happen.

It's been a remarkably difficult quilt top to photograph, as the colors don't usually show true to life.  This is as close as I've seen it (minus the flecks of sunlight on the lower left quadrant). 

This way, I had something for show-and-share. And I could hand it off to my mom so she could do her share ... which is to get a backing, and get it quilted.  I'll probably wind up doing the binding before next summer.

We'll plan on having it done by next August when my sister comes for her annual visit from Japan.   Then we don't have to spend $150 (or more) just to mail it to her.  Postage is crazy to Japan!

Oliver's RBW String Quilt is Complete!

Oliver's RBW String Quilt is complete, and given for Christmas 2016.

 

Happy Boy finally has his quilt!

Detail of the quilting pattern mapped out on quilt tracing paper, so that I can stitch through it, and know where to go.  The wuilt paper can then be pulled off, leaving only the stitching.  I love this no-mark method because it yields such great results for intricate designs.

Detail of the quilting from the backside.

 We were trying to get the sun to show off the stitching from the back, but didn't quite work out as planned ...  Still, it's an unusual smiling picture of OKL!

These are the quilting patterns I chose for the blocks.  

These were all used multiple times.

Batting : Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Poly Batting.  

I love this stuff, as it gives this antique-y crinkle look after it's washed.

For the haf-square triangles, I used this design. 

 

And for the corners, a quarter section of a full design worked well.

 I wasn[t sure what to do with the borders for the longest time.  Finally, I took inspiration from the wooden trim edging doorways in our old house.  Simple.

A simple hand-written label, as I didn't want to wrestle with the printer and the special fabric.  

Another finished quilt for 2016!

That's 3 quilts finished, and all 3 given away this year.

Oliver's Black Diamond String Quilt Top

Finished Oliver's quilt top this week.  If it looks familiar, that's because I finished one for me and my husband last year.  Oliver liked it so much, he wanted one of his own, so ...

These string quilts are fun to make, and I knew the color combination worked!

Now to do the work of pin basting and quilting it to finish it ...  Good thing I have 2 quilt camps coming up before Christmas.

Another String Quilt

I started another String Quilt.  Kay at Borderline Quilter has a great String Quilt Tutorial on using old telephone book pages as the foundation papers.  I used muslin as the foundation for the first string quilt I made, and it made the resulting quilt top rather heavy, so I thought I would try a new method.  Trouble is -- telephone books are in short supply these days!  Not to worry-- I did find one that I expect to be a lifetime supply of foundation papers for quilting!

 Here's the initial "test" block.  The paper rips off easily and without much fuss.  I had to test this, as I've used some paper that was more trouble than it was worth.  Telephone book pages work well for this application.

The colors aren't showing true in the photo above.  The purple is a little too plummy, and the blues are a little too cool ....   Now I just need to collect some more blue and purple fabrics!

The great thing about Kay's tutorial is that she shows the many ways these versatile string blocks can be laid out.  It's worth a look -- Go see ...

In another post, Kay has a wonderful tip for DIY Linen Water :
Kay at Borderline Quilter shared a great idea for making your own spray starch for pressing fabric.  It's so simple!  Just a little Vodka with tap water (or distilled water, if you prefer) in a spray bottle.  It works because vodka is made from potatoes.  Apparently, there's enough starch left in the distilled spirits to make it work in this distilled form.   Only Vodka will work.

In a spray bottle, mix 2 capfuls of straight Vodka in 1-1/2 cups water (tap water works, but you could also used distilled).

For a heavier starch,
mix 3-4 capfuls of straight Vodka with 1-1/2 cups water.

I suppose you could add a drop of your favorite essential oil for a nice scent. 

So many good and economical ideas out in Blogland!

Black White and Red String Quilt Top

 

I am so pleased with the way this came out!  In only about 2 weeks, I've been able to finish this quilt top.  It came together quickly.  I was able to concentrate on it at Quilt Camp last week, finished the blocks this weekend, laid them out and put it all together.   [It is pretty square in real life.  It's just hanging on a slumped mattress against the wall in this picture.]

Voila!


Here is one of the finished blocks.   It's a little hard to see the solitary block in the full layout because the layout makes the secondary red, black and white squares.   I purposely laid out the strings (2-1/2 in strip sets of black and white; 1 honey bun thrown in, too, for some narrower strips) so that there would be a white side and a black side with the intention of creating additional black and white blocks in the final layout.  I love it!



This is a block before it's trimmed.  The instructions have you start with a foundation square (I used muslin).  Then you lay down the color strip corner to corner, then lay down the second strip and sew it down through the foundation, then flip it and sew down the next string.  You keep building the blocks that way until it's done.  Heartstrings block guidelines / instructions are here.

 
Here's the back side of the untrimmed block.  You can see how sturdy the foundation square is; how it keeps things nice and tidy.   It also makes it quite a bit heavier than the usual 1-layered quilt top.  I'm wondering if I need to add a batting, or if the muslin will be enough?

Maybe a light batt?   It may take another 5 years to finish this quilt.  At least I can say I finished the top.

Missives from Quilt Camp Spring 2014

I made progress on several projects, but no spectacular finishes--yet.  Here are some sneak peaks ...

Tree of Life Wall Quilt

I made progress on The Tree of Life wall quilt that I worked on last year at Quilt Camp.  I stitched down the tree silhouette.  Then I sandwiched it with batting, and stitched around the tree to make it pop out.  It really added a nice relief to the piece.  Now I need to work out how I want to quilt the rest of the background.  I didn't feel I had the right thread with me to blend with the background so I decided to wait on finishing it.  

String Quilt in Red, Black and White

The test block from The Red String Quilt.  I completed 1 block and trimmed it up before starting any of the other blocks.  I laid it out as inspiration and guide--always visible as I sewed on the strips for the remaining blocks.  I spent most of the Quilt Camp weekend working on this one project.  By the end of the weekend, I only had 1 strip left to sew on the white side of the blocks.   Great progress!

Easy Origami Bag

This was my warm-up project Friday night.  I always bring a small-ish project that I can warm up with, and actually finish on Friday night.    I used 2 squares of fabric about 20 inches square.  Instructions here. 

Flying Geese Quilt

During my stay-cation, I spent most of the week quilting this Flying Geese quilt.  With my new sewing table (made by my sweet husband), it's easier to quilt at home than at camp.  That wasn't always the case.  I brought this along for show-and-share.  I didn't finish it, but I made serious progress during the week.  The whole center part is quilted now.

At the sewing expo at the local tech school the week before, one of the vendors was drawing / auditioning possible machine quilting patterns on a photo of the quilt top on her iPad.  I asked what app it was, and she told me.  So I played with Doodle Pro to do the same with this quilt.  Very helpful for getting familiar with the motifs, and developing a path over the quilt.  I had originally thought I wanted to do feathers in the channels (It's a flying geese quilt--feathers are called for!), but it seemed like it would be too heavy, too much quilting for this light-hearted quilt.  So I went with the more open undulations instead.

 

View from the back of the quilt -- so far.

View from the front

 

Afternoon Break

Quilt Camp took place at Silver Birch Ranch, a camp only about 20 minutes from where I grew up in Northern Wisconsin.  They were still in the throes of winter, but I did venture out to walk the roads Saturday afternoon.  Here's some of what I saw that afternoon [Here's what you missed, Ma!] :

Although there is little snow still on the ground in the horse pen, I was standing knee-deep in a snowbank to get this pony shot.  The horses had thick coats and good fat layers to keep them warm.

The chickens were really hard to photograph because they are always in motion.   There's a setting for that on my camera, but heck if I can find it in the moment!