Quilt Retreat Part 2

This is part 2 of my retreat - the "less" part of the finished quilts.

My goal on the retreat was to finish 2 quilt tops - and I was sort of successful. There are 2 finished tops, but the second isn't big enough so I'll have to add to it, which might require doing some un-sewing.

Here is what's done so far

This is for another 5 year old, daughter of yet another cousin. (We had 3 little girls born two weeks apart one year, with another to follow a few months later - hence, the plethora of 5 year old girls in my family)

I used the "chic shells" pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful, which uses the quick curve ruler. I think I'm in love with this ruler (it is the same I used for the metro rings quilt). I had 7 pieces of fabric I purchased years ago, each 1/2 yard. I figured out my math and figured I could make it work. Not such a good idea.

I had an epic math fail. I failed to account for the partial clams on the sides and top and so I was significantly short fabric and clams. I dug into what I'd brought along - the lightest pink then got added. I was closer to the size I wanted, but still not. This is destined to be a twin size and it's more crib size. It's basically wide enough but missing some significant length.

When I got home I hunted on the internet and found enough of the fabric (Coquette by Chez Moi for Moda) to add to the quilt. I've ordered it and it should arrive shortly. It will cost me a small fortune due to US shipping and our poor dollar, but this little girl is worth it! I'll probably have to rearrange some of the clams so everything looks orderly and that will require un-sewing. I'll survive - and make sure my math is better next time.

I'll keep you posted.

Quilt Retreat Part 1

I was lucky enough to be invited on a quilting retreat again this year. I went with my friend, her grandmother, and friends of her grandmother. These women have known each other for years and are good company and excellent sewers and quilters. There is so much support and experience in the room it's so fantastic.

Unfortunately, this was our last retreat at the place we went because the owner has sold the property. I've only been there twice and am sorry to see it sold. Hopefully we can find another venue for next year. (And I'm hoping we can convince L to come along).

I finished two quilt tops, more or less. The more part is today.

This is a quilt for my cousin's 5 year old daughter. This little lady has a mind of her own and loves pink. I hope this meets with her approval!

This is the finished top...

I've always had a dresden plate in mind for this quilt and I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I used an 8" dresden ruler and it took 20 pieces to make a circle. I varied the height of the fabric to get the different sized dresdens. The inside circles are all the same size.

The original fabric I purchased years ago didn't suit my fancy anymore so I picked up a bunch more pink last week when I was out with L shop hopping. I'm really glad I went with the new fabrics.

The centres are a solid that I've appliqued on - by machine. The dresden's are appliqued on by machine as well. Before putting the solids on I added a circle of batting to the back of them for two reasons - I'll get some extra puff when I quilt them and the uneven centres of the dresden's are hidden as well.

This will likely get a feather design of some kind when I get to quilting it. I'll keep you posted!

Finished and Gifted Quilts

A photo post:

Progress Update

The quilting on the red and white Hunter's Star is going well. The quilt is huge so slow going as I have to re-package it to do each row. Today I finished off all the horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. You can't tell much from the front - except where I wobbled out of the ditch, and I'm not pointing those out. The quilting shows up nicely on the back though.

This is pretty accurate to the colour.

I decided to quilt around the stars as well cuz I like what it adds to the back

Tilt your head a little if you can't see it - it was getting dark so the colour and lighting are terrible.

I'm definitely on track to finish for my Sunday deadline - the reunion starts mid afternoon so I might still be sewing binding on Sunday morning. It wouldn't be the first gift I made that was getting finished just in the nick of time.

Happy sewing.

Keep Calm and Quilt On

It's stinking hot here in Southern Ontario these days - high 30s with humidex and I think the heat is starting to get to me.

I'm working on quilting the hunter's star for my cousin, trying to meet my Sunday deadline. And I've emailed my cousin to tell her I think it might be finished.

One thing I've really had to do with this quilt is package it before feeding it through the machine. I've moved from quilting at the dining room table back to the sewing table, so I can package the quilt at the dining room table.

This is the view of how it goes in the machine from above

And this is the view from the side.

It's folded up a lot and it's helping.

What I didn't take into consideration was packaging it as it came out of the machine. I watched it run into the light on the tv table at the end of the sewing table, knock the light off the table, and take the Christmas cactus beside with it. No harm to the quilt but my floor took a bit of a beating and now I really have to replace the pot for the Xmas cactus (my cat knocked it over awhile ago and I've been stalling replacing the pot cuz I can't find anything I like - no more stalling).

At this point I took a break to remain calm. I've got a fan blowing right on me and my a/c is working great so I'm at least keeping reasonably cool. The heat is supposed to let up a bit overnight when we might get some rain - I'm hopeful.

Stay cool and happy quilting.

Just Do It!

I'm overtly stealing from Nike here. This quilt was a lesson in "stop thinking so much and just do it".

I struggled a lot with how to quilt this baby. I don't know why. In the end, I'm really happy with my results - I also started reminding myself that this is a gift for a 5 year old - what she is most concerned about is whether there is enough purple - not how great the quilting is.

All my fussing was worth it. I took my first foray into feathers and I'm pleased with my results. I want to practice lots more and my confidence has a good foundation.

Here are some close up shots of quilting

It is actually bound and ready to go. I can't get any photos yet - it's way too hot to be lugging around a quilt. I'll get a few though and post them.

The label:

And an oil update - there were 2 possible spots I marked and treated for oil. Here is what I see now...

...nothing. The oil is gone or so lightweight that it hasn't left a mark, or the baking soda worked, or it was just water and not oil that dripped. I've breathed a sigh of relief.

Now I'm trying to quilt the quilt for my cousin. It's huge and heavy and slow going. Wish me luck.

Quilting Decisions

Last summer I pieced this purple swoon quilt when my quilty friends and I decided to do a "swoon-a-long". They all looked different and it was nice to all be making the same thing. Mine is a gift for my cousin's daughter - to welcome her to the family. She's 5 now, but that's inconsequential.

I'm struggling with quilting this one, in a way I've never struggled with quilting before. I don't know if it's such large spaces, or so much solid space (where the thread really shows) or I'm just in a funk. I looked online for ideas and found some I liked, but when I tried them on my quilt I didn't like them. For the solids I used 2 stencils in my collection. I marked them with a frixion pen and ironed them out - I'm happy with that. I finished that part and now I'm onto the cream part.

My first idea was loop-de-loops.

I don't like them - not loopy enough I think. So I ripped them out and tried again.

I did a split triangle but it had too many pieces - but I liked the idea. I settled on this for the triangles:

I like this much better. I did make myself a stencil and I'm tracing my lines - on this quilt for some reason I feel I must have straight lines and accurate quilting. I've no idea why I feel this way, but I do.

This quilt also has a deadline of Sun Aug 2 - I'm confident I'll get finished, especially since it's going to get hot here again so I'll hide in my house with the fans and a/c and quilt.