Boot Straps

I guess I've been in a bit of a quilting funk lately.  The Red quilt is coming along just as I'd hoped and I'm in the process of quilting it, the tutorial will follow it's completion.  The weather has turned colder here and that has me in the mood for Christmas shopping. 

Do you know how hard it is to Christmas shop only to come up against a shipping cost total to put your entire purchase on hold?  I know it seems so strange but it's okay to pay $30 something but it's not okay to pay $40 something for the same items.  My family comes from all walks of life so not even Amazon or ebay or Kmart can be my one stop shop.

So I gave up on looking for a while to dwell.  When I dwell I clean.  It's a nasty trait I picked up from my mother during my childhood.  I remember the days of look out mom's cleaning - oh so very well.  Lucky for my family I was home alone at the time.

Because of my disability I clean while sitting on the floor.  I start by cleaning a patch to sit and then sitting there while I clean outward from that spot (and you wonder why my DH doesn't like me to clean?) it works for me but when I'm already a bit sad about what I can and can't do being on the floor makes the perfect place to get down in the dumps and really start feeling sorry for myself.  The "I hates" started in my head started when I was nearly done in the kitchen.  I then made my unhappy way with the vac down the hallway and by the time I got to the bathroom door I'd pulled myself out of my funk.  Thankfully!  It's easy when you come to the end of a lintany and say to yourself  "So what are you going to do about it?" and that's when I decided. 

Oh now I'm nearly teary to admit what I did.  I listed all of my quilts that are finished that don't have owners on Ebay!  I know!  It's sad, but isn't living hidden away in a box sad too?  Isn't it sad that four quilts selling at $25 could help my Christmas?  I listed them and I stand by my listings. 

In case you're wondering my ebay name is jcelestesewingmom; that's "J Celeste Sewing Mom" all smushed together.  The quilts I listed are Christmas Hodgepodge, Patchwork Swirl, Feathered Star and Buckeye Beauty.  I hope they sell well for I'm going to use every last penny earned on our Christmas.  LOL, sort of makes me wish they were bigger! 

Buckeye Beauty Finished!

Yippie!  Today I finished up the Buckeye Beauty.  This quilt should nearly be called a firsts quilt as it is both my first raw edge applique and my first attempts at freemotion quilting.  It is quilted 1/4"-1/2" over the entire course of the quilt with the sole exception being the borders, which have tulips quilted on them leaving areas puffy with gaps more like 1"-2.5".  It is not an all over pattern as most of my readers already know, and instead it is quilted to show off the pin wheels and appliques.  This quilt feels like the quilts my grandmother had at her house that she would always pull out when I visited.

The black fabric I had leftover was more than enough to bind the quilt, and adds just the right touch.  I'm so glad I saved it back.  So what do you think?

Freemotion Quilting on the Buckeye

Today I did some more quilting on the Buckeye Beauty Quilt. I really wanted to set off the flowers by echoing around them, but with the top of the quilt light and the back of it dark I was very torn with what color thread to use for this part of the quilting. After staring at the quilt for at least a week I took it over to my thread collection and it dawned on me. Tan! Why hadn't I thought about it before? As there is no tan on the quilt it seems like a bit of a leap, but the tan is a neutral so on the front it blends and accents to the light color and on the back it blends to the dark. It was just the answer I was looking for.

This quilt is my first attempts at freemotion quilting and clearly thereby my this is my first six practice runs at offset freemotion quilting. I pulled the quilting line from the tip of the flower and brought it around that way it spiraled out getting bigger with each go round.

I love this little trapezoidal border, but I was concerned about how to quilt it, stitch in the ditch would have yielded all together to many stars and stops and more thread build up than I was willing to have. As I was quilting the echoes it came to me a bit of a whirl on each color would do the trick and then I stitched in the ditch on both sides. That just leaves the outer most border to be quilted (and to pick up the black thread to finish off the bursts on the Windmills).

We are all indeed still sick with me having a mild fever all day. At this point I long to be better. Hopefully you are well and will enjoy a happy holiday.  Best Wishes from our home to yours!

As always if you would like to see an image closer up, feel free to click on it.

Hard Core Quilter? Or Lazy...

Today I made the binding for the Buckeye Beauty Quilt.  While I was cutting my finger got in the way, but I kept at it.  In this house anytime I get up it might be a long while before I get back to what I was doing.  Would you believe I finished making the binding and wrapped it up for later before doing anything about this?

The best news is that Lady Bird Cardinal is back this Spring, it was such a thrill to see her one footed self yesterday morning.  She was a little tippy as she alighted the bird feeder which is how I reconized her right away.  A Gackle was there as well which was bigger than her and made her a bit leary of staying to long, and of course I dug out my camera, that was to much for her.  Hopefully she will be back soon.  I went back through my old posts so you can feel free to follow the link above and read all about her visits last year as well as any new viewings this year.  I first sighted her as an adult on May 4th, 2009.

Windmill Quilting

So I researched Windmill arms and what I discovered is that I didn't want the traditional tiny squares of a real windmill quilted all over the arms of my quilted Windmill blocks, nor would they have fit very well anyway as real windmill arms are very long and rectangular whereas in a typical Windmill Quilt block you're working with triangles.  So I altered the Bright Star quilting pattern by Day Style Designs to only run over the teal part of the blocks.  This worked out great for 3+ blocks when I ran out of the thread I was using. 

We're all quite sick here so catching Tiny keeping my sewing area company was to sweet to resist.  I'm not even certain how she has found the time as it seems every time I look up she's right there with me.

Spinning Flowers - Raw Edge

I've been struggling with how I'd like to quilt the offsetting blocks on the Buckeye Beauty Quilt ever since the trouble with my attempts to freemotion quilt through the paper resulted in broken threads. Well yesterday I stumbled on the answer. Appliqué. Could I truly happily appliqué on a quilt that is already being quilted? Shock of shock it’s not a problem at all, in fact it has worked beautifully. I used a glue stick to hold the pieces in place and then touched the iron to the appliqué pieces setting them while trying the glue, and then I quilted right over them through the quilt with a dark purple thread. This resulted in the entire flower including the veins of the petals showing on the reverse.  

I really like how this gentle touch of the fabrics from the front really brought the colors of the quilt together, uniting both sides. What do you think? As I still have a bit more quilting left to do, I'm really looking forward to discovering what other whispers this quilt will give me.

The free applique pattern can be found here.  I increased the size when I printed out the pieces by 150% to ensure the flower would fill my 10" offset block and I smoothed out the interior curve to allow the spin to appear more natural.  Last but not least I made my own circle templates, as by the time I'd scaled up the originals they needed reformed.  Wink--> The lid to my glue stick was perfect.

The Process of Quilting

For me quilting is the process of quilting together my top my back and my batting.  Often I plan while I'm piecing how I will quilt the finished piece.  Just like building a house sometimes the knowledge comes quickly and it's something I know right away without hesitation and other times it comes more slowly.  With the Buckeye Beauty Quilt it's been a slow revelation.  I've been quilting from the back which I suppose makes it the front now with the Windmills taking first thread (that wasn't ripped out).

Above is what I have so far, with the echoes over the purple quilted over all of the windmill blocks. I'm thinking I might like to make diagonal quilting now over the teal fabric to give it the appearance of the blades of a windmill; perhaps I should Google Windmills for more insight. No thoughts on those offset blocks yet; I think when I've settled on the Windmills the offsets will come to me.

The more I look at the trapezoid border the more I love it. The texture is just amazing - well worth the effort to strip piece then cut and sew again.

What I See

Yippie! I've basted the Buckeye Beauty flimsy front to the Windmill flimsy back and now it's time to quilt! Yet I'm not as excited as all that sounds. I started quilting completely free motion and hated it. Ripped it all out and started over free motion quilting over a paper template. The results are what you see below. As I sit here and try not to look it I think it looks pretty good. The real trouble is that as I remove the paper template from my quilting it is also breaking the threads - which is ripping some of the stitches out. Time for more of the seam ripper and a stronger thread… I know, I know, I just really liked that color as it matches beautifully both to the front and to the reverse

We're still sick here; at this point the grownups are more down than Jessica who is hindered by only a terrible cough. Personally I'm hoping I'll have my voice back tomorrow.  At least now I'll have something to do in bed, aka pick out my quilting. 

Reversible Buckeye Beauty

This quilt top is destined to be the back of the Buckeye Beauty Quilt.  It will need just one more border all around to bring it up to size.  I haven't decided should I border it in these fabrics or the ones from the front?  The entire quilt will be bound in the black from the front.  I'm really looking forward to that because I believe the black will give it a nice finished look.

Everyone here is sick in some way or another.  The doctor said it's virual so we just have to deal with it until we're better.  Lots of water and rest.

Buckeye Beauty Quilt - Flismy

Ever looked at something and thought I know just what I'll do with that, and then when the time comes you go in a completely different direction? That was me yesterday. Shelly sent me a squishy bonus with the Apple Quilt she long armed for me.  I wanted to use it to try out raw edge appliqué, but for some reason the background I had planned wasn't working for me so I went off to my Eleanor Burn's Quilts Through the Seasons for inspiration.

Since I knew I would have a bit of extra fabric I made an extra block and split it over the length of the quilt to make it bigger.  It took about a day and a half to complete the flimsy so I'm not certain how Quilt in a Day it is.

After I created this little quilt I looked up other Buckeye Beauty Quilts and found something barely close to what I had made, I suppose that must make this an interpretation of the original pattern? Ah well to each his own I suppose. I bordered mine out to be 40"x48" and I have enough of the black print to use it for the binding sometime in the future.

I made this quilt because I love the feel of quality fabric slipping through my fingers and into the sewing machine.  When dealing with cheap fabric even pressing seams can seem like a chore, but a nice slightly heavy uniform weave can make all the difference. 

Happy Sewing!