Equal and Opposite

All things are obey the laws of physics.  Especially quilting.  Now hold on there and let me explain.  For each and every action a quilter takes that quilter has a opposite reaction that will also happen.  For example.  A quilter takes a quilting class and learns a new technique.  The results?  You'll either be swearing off ever doing that again, or you'll certain to be making something that utilizes what you learned.

Take for example my friend Sue.  She thought she would border out her Lone Star Quilt with friendship blocks.  The results?  Having to make 56 friendship blocks.

My personal example is this.  If you make a huge border and fill it with applique...  You'll have a lot of applique to quilt!  Remember all that Wisteria?  Uh hu.  Remember all those leaves?  Remember there being no good way to travel through all that quilting?  Yep hours and hours of quilting.  And so many starts and stops I was actually having to cut my jumpers to quilt within the each new area.  What a challenge!  I told DD that I promise not to take on another contract quilt for a (long) while.  She paid me no mind one way or the other.  I'm not sure if she didn't believe me or not.   But thankfully I can say that I now have every speck of Wisteria quilted.  No, I can't show it to you.  The threads aren't tucked, and it looks - oh such a sight!  Which is more to my physics point.  It doesn't look pretty yet so I don't want to show you.

All of my sewing meant that I missed my Lone star Quilt-a-long day.  Thankfully I wasn't hostessing hu?  Anyway I don't have anything to show.  I had thought I'd dig out the Fabrico pens and see if I could get a bit more ink out of them.  But really, didn't you notice?  It's December 1st!  That means it's 23 days until Christmas!    ACK!  Someone slow down Santa!

Lonestar Nov. Dinner

Scrolls Passing the Tiny Test

Well now, how was your afternoon?  Tiny joined me after lunch.  I took that as a good omen, after all if she likes it enough to sleep on it, surely it passes the Tiny test?

Tiny said my struggles didn't matter,
and who cares if she's in the way?

Anyway I don't think I've given my fingers this much of a workout in a long time.  About halfway through the first corner I wondered if the two Fabrico markers I purchased could handle this entire job, and now with half of the scrolls done I'm certain I need to buy at least two more.  One for each of the remaining corners, and perhaps one for touching them up.  It was odd using them, the first one did an entire corner with some breaks.  But the second one seemed to star out with less ink and the wide end make a different color ink in the beginning?  More greenish than brown?  At the end of both corners I felt like I was struggling to lay down enough dye to make it through the pattern.

All the same that's HALFWAY!  Wow, who would have guessed?  Yippie!  When these scrolls are completed my Lone Star flismy top will be completed and ready to quilt...

A Lonestar Nap

For now both Tiny and I are calling it a day.

Lonestar November Afternoon Check-In.

Hello again!  Has everyone been busy so far?  I am finding I'm making faster progress than I had expected.  That's good for you as it means I have something to show!

First thing this morning I got down to the nitty gritty of my curved ends.  Some of these didn't print with the smoothest of curves and I wanted to refine that before I started cutting out the template.  Cutting the template was fine but my goodness it's delicate, and with all those hooks on the ends of the curves it wants to catch on itself.

Tracing the template is working out fairly well.  I've found I need to trace one side of the line and extrapolate the second curve and that seems to be working better than just tracing both sides, the curves transition more smoothly when I offset them without the template.

So far I've learned it's good to keep a wet edge on the Fabrico ink line, working from your last marked edge outwards.  That makes a nicer mark.  Not much else to add.  The part in the pictures is all I have done.  My white marking pen makes really nice lines but they wear off if left to long so after I'm done with these scrolls I'll be working up this side of first corner with more tracing.  It's a process, but one I hope will be worth it.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No it's Lonestar Quilt-a-Long Day!

Good Morning!  How are you today?  Autumn has finally started showing her face around here, and the mornings are nippy.  I like that actually.  It makes me more inclined to do a bit of baking or do a bit of quilting.  I actually will be doing none of those things, at least not by normal quilting standards.  Last night DH and I printed many pages of my scrolling border and taped them all together.  Yes, I know I said that I was going to have it printed and I was but then I forgot, so just as well do it this way.

Today I plan to go through and thicken up the lighter scrolling areas before starting to cut this out.  Then I'll use it as a template and trace around it onto my Lonestar.  Once the tracing is done for the first corner I can start using my Fabrico markers to fill in the scrolls.  Are you up to anything today?

Lone Star Day: October Afternoon

Lone Star Quilt awaiting Swirl Art

I got the Lone Star Quilt all squared up!  What a job that was!  I marked everything first and then went back and trimmed.  Thank goodness I did that, or when I did what I thought was a quarter turn but was really only an 1/8th turn I would have cut a corner right off.  With the way my glowing rays radiate you see the corners look quite a bit like sides.

This quilt is a behemoth!  I thought the final size would be something like 100" square.  Not on the life of this quilt apparently.  Instead it is 112".  What a big beast!  At least it will look good on someone's bed in the future.  I don't even think this will fit my quilt frame at all.  I believe the advertised width max. is something like 106" square so I'll need to measure that and find out.

After I finished squaring this bad boy I realized that if I have the printer print one side of each scrolling edge instead of the entire corner the printer will not have to be as wide as I had thought.  Instead of needing a printer that can print 42"+, something that will print 18"+ (most likely the more common 24" printer) width would be fine.  So now I just need to check my assumed measurements to the quilt scrolls to be sure it will fit how I was hoping and if not scale the scrolls up a little (Eegads!).  But that is surely a job when my arms ache a little less...

I've been so busy with other sewing projects that it really was nice to spend a bit of time on this quilt that otherwise would have stayed put away for another time.  Just think I can check off "Square Quilt"!  That alone will make it a more welcoming project for next time!

Jayne says she's hoping planning to have her Lone Star done by the new year.  Isn't that a marvel?  Personally if I have the scrolls done by the New Year and thereby the flismy top will be done I'll be a happy camper.  There just isn't enough time once the holidays start hitting.

Lonestar Day: October

Good Morning!  How has everyone been?  As you may have noticed I've been busy.  I ordered my Fabrico pens from a company whose "reading between the lines" reviews said "buy only if it doesn't matter when you get your stuff".  Well the price was something I couldn't pass up, so I went with that.  I was delighted that only a week or so later here came my two Fabrico Pens, I truly hadn't been expecting them yet.

These are much nicer than I had imagined.  They fit in my hand well, which will be good considering how many hours I'll spend holding them.  As you can see the wide cap flares so you don't need to be paying much attention to tell one end from the other.  They aren't fat like a prismacolor marker and I will be looking forward to working on the scrolls.

That wont be today though.  Yesterday I made 3 doggie dresses and have two more to do so those are all over the sewing room table.  I am hoping to square up the Lonestar Quilt today, which is a challenge I have not been looking forward too.  I'll check in later to let you know how that went.  Happy Sewing!

Lonestar Quilt-a-long Day September

Hidey Ho There!  It's my birthday!  Yes, it sure is, and I'd tell you my age too, but this is the Internet and you all might hunt me down and stalk me.

My Lonestar hasn't changed since the last time I posted about it but my mother did give me an Amazon gift card, so likely I will be using that to order those Fabrico Pens that I need for the Swirls in the border.  While I'm at it I have another project that I'm planning, I've been working on this one for about three hours this afternoon and it will likely need some Tsukineko Platinum ink, so that will make for a nice joint order.  What have I been working on?  Well I'm calling it Lilly's Garden, and it is a contract quilt.  I am using embroidered fairy blocks from a friend and those are already placed within the quilt.  I'll be using charm packs for my piano border which should look very nice.  What you're not seeing is the embroidered garden scene that will grace the middle that isn't started yet, as well as the Wisteria branch that will drape in the upper left corner of the blue and green, and a group of giant white calla lilies will bloom in the lower right corner.  From there little toadstools will wander out from the calla's off to the left.  I'll be posting those as I make more progress on this mock up.

My inspiration is this McKenna Ryan Quilt Bella Garden and while I tried to make her peacock fabric work for the background it just fought the colors of the fairies to much.

Lonestar Day August!

Happy Lonestar Quilting Day! 

Queen Lone Star Top with DD

I am happy to say that my Lonestar Quilt Top is all together as one nice giant square.   It is a queen at this point though I do not have exact measurements yet, as I'm not quite certain how to square it in my tiny house...  I added the background pieces a week or so ago. 

In one amazingly peaceful morning with my sister I sat down with a some of Bonefish's Press Pot Coffee and came up with these rather extensive quilting plans.  With only a midarm I knew I needed a section by section plan.  I was also concerned that without a detailed images at the very least in my minds eye, I would inadvertently change quilting designs going instead for those that are more comfortable as I moved through the quilt, thereby loosing continuity. 

Quilting Notes for Lone Star

On the blog front things have been very quiet and I have missed stopping by and seeing how everyone is doing, but never fear we have just been enjoying the last strains of summer with DD which I will share with you later.  Have a nice evening. 

July Lone Star Day

Lone Star with Background
fabric audition

Yesterday I mentioned that I have the background fabric for the Lone Star.  It is a Caribbean blue blender, and just for Sue I spread out the Lone Star a bit so you can see them together.  These will make the corners of the quilts bringing everything to a square shape.  I had been planning on using a Marine blue for my scrolls but now I'm thinking brown or perhaps black.  What do you think?  Give it some thought while I go iron the wrinkles out.

July: Lone Star Quilt-a-long

It's that time again!  Tomorrow is our Lone Star Quilt-a-long!  I have my background fabric and am planning on finding a bit of cleared off space in this sewing room of mine to cut and add the last background pieces.  I don't have my Fabrico markers yet, so no scroll work, but it sure will be fun to see my star in it's full size and color wont it?  See you tomorrow.

Back to your regularly scheduled blog

I had so much fun yesterday, it was a bit bittersweet tiding up after the party.  I heard that one guest even forgot their drink me bottle, and was nearly eaten by their pet cat.  The good news is everyone is safe and sound now.

I am in a bit of a pickle about the quilting for my Lone Star.  I have some ideas about how I'd like it quilted but...  Of course there's always a but.  I was thinking I'd need to send it out to someone with a bigger throat.  Yet I wonder.

What if I quilted the quilt top to bottom and did what I could in the space allotted, and then came back and instead of turning the quilt 90 degrees, instead staggered it a bit for something more like 15 or 20 degrees, quilt through some more and turn another 15 or 20 degrees my leaders are big and fat so I could pin side up near the take up and the other towards the bottom?  That would give me the width of the frame to work some of the bigger/longer designs in.  And  it's true I'd have to be careful not to sew the extra leaders to the quilt, and yes I will likely have more starts and stops but...

Any thoughts for this rule breaking quilter?  For the record this is all Sue and Dana's fault, making me think maybe I too can quilt it myself...  Must still have a little bit of Alice in me.

Lone Star 1st Border On

Oh my goodness.  I never imagined that I could celebrate with all of you today, and sew on my first border.  Everyone mentioned that I should be dancing over having the star sewn, but trust me this border - I'm proud and there's no doubt about it!  Hehehehe!

What is next for this large charmer?  A visit to the LQS to select the background color for the scrolls, I do believe.  Or is that indubitably?

As for our Party, we were visited by the White Rabbit, Two Mad Hatters as Promised, the Dormouse, a Dodo Bird, some friends from the blogland, and of course myself your hostess Alice.

Did you have a mad time visiting today?  Don't forget to grab a drink so you can go home.  Your family would never recognize you at this size.

More Tea?

After squaring up the Lone Star Quilt, I started thinking about the leftover diamonds that make up my first border.  I drew that in and thought, hey no problem, and will be a good use for the leftover strips.

I didn't count on a couple of things.  One to make the border go around and around at each intersection - there are 16 on this star, the diamonds change their slant from one direction to the other.  Hence half of my leftovers, about 60 +/- pieces have had to be seam ripped apart and then sewn back together to slant the other way.  That's taken a while because the one bargello I made was strip pieced and the directions clearly said to lower the stitches per inch to make it easier to unpick the tubes as needed - well that just made a radial mess as what goes for a standard seam allowance for someone else seemed to make mine fall apart - at least in those beginning days.  So this time I knew better.  Let me count...  My stitches in the Lone star are about 15 per inch, so that's a lot of nit picky ripping.  At least that's all done.

Now I just need to cut a few extra diamonds - 22 I believe, and then I'll be piecing them back together.  This really does make me feel like I fell down the rabbit hole.  With all those extra strips and ripped apart diamonds why do I need to cut more you ask?  Well it occured to me that this quilt is so neat patterned and orderly, that I really wanted to keep that patterned look rather than just scrappy here and there as I would be concerned it would ruin the over all effect.

Don't recall what I'm talking about?  Just look up at the sketch.  I'm talking about that small border that goes around all the humps and bumps just after the star and background pieces.  This is no a border I've seen anywhere else, and trust me last night when I was trying to figure out how to make everything work I went looking for other people to try a border like this, and didn't have any luck.  Talk about a plunge in the dark.  That's okay though, I'm sure I have it worked out now.

Now if you'll excuse me I think it's lunch time.  Wont you join me in the dining room?  You will need to grab one of these or you will be simply to small to reach the door knob! 

Our pictures this afternoon can all be traced back to their creators, the real workers on this fine day here.

Welcome to Our Mad Hatter Tea Party

Now, now, you mustn't lurk in door ways!  

Oh wait Wrong Movie!

March Hare: (in an encouraging tone) Have some wine.

Alice: (looking down the table) I don't see any wine...

March Hare: There isn't any. And you're too young.

Alice: Then it wasn't very kind of you to offer it!

March Hare: It wasn't very kind of YOU to sit down without an invitation! This is a PRIVATE soirée...

Alice: Well, I know it wasn't polite to barge in when I know I wasn't invited. But the table was laid out for a great many people.

  Now I've gotten it, shall we get on with our party?

Who needs caught up?  Here we go.

Remember when I was like this?

Then I came up with the beautiful scrolling border for the Lone Star it felt like I'd discovered a whole new world.

And when I finished the last glow block and felt more like this!

Now Drum Roll Please - Oh wait, we forgot to pass out the TEA!!!!

I have cups for everyone!  Grab yours before the Cat gets it!

One for you.

Here's another!

No grabbing, I'm getting to you! 

Now see you weren't patient and the cat got yours.

Do you have one yet?

Nope?  Guess we'll have to share.  (leaning back in over sized lime green chair and crossing legs)  Now the way I see it is this, if you've made it this far it's either because you adore me, or you want to see the Lone Star center all put together.  Or I suppose you're a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and Google dumped you here on accident as that does happen.  No matter we must get on with our party.

Remember now this is just my star, I haven't purchased the fabric for the scrolling border yet, so we might have to have another party...  Ta Da!

Now leave a comment, and by all means, whatever you do, don't tell the governness you were here!

All products made and produced by the exclusively by and for the Walt Disney Company and can be purchased on their website.  And in case you were wondering they had nothing to do with this post.

Lone Star Stitching Together Tea Party

In honor of sewing my Lone Star together:

Be sure to fall down the rabbit hole!

Who are You?

Last Glow Arc for Lone Star and Paisley Prints Detail

I feel a little bit like Alice and Wonderland tonight with the Lone Star Quilt.  Who might you be?  And truly how deep does this rabbit hole go?  The last time we talked about the Lone Star Quilt, I was stuck with Mr. Runny Dye Arc from a water glass spill.  Sure enough the bleach pen did get rid of Mr. Runny, but also brought along a friend.  We'll call the friend "fade". Yep, that's what happened.  Some of the glows in that block had noticeable fading - okay noticeable to me and DH after I pointed it out.  That isn't the quality of workmanship I put into my quilts, so I made another.

Meet the last glow block; 8 of 8 for the Lone Star Quilt!!!!  Right now you're surely thinking what I'm thinking.  Does this mean the center star is ready to be put together?  Oh YES!  YES! YES YES!  Huzzah!  Who wants to join my putting together party?  We'll have tea for Alice - I suppose that's me.  Who will be the Mad Hatter?  Oh and What about the Dormouse?  Hehehe.  And of course the March Hare and if we're thinking Disney - which I always do, the White Rabbit who can only stay for a second?

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back to see the entire pieced star to be posted right here soon.

My May WIP: Jammin Jammiez

Jammin' Jammiez

Okay Normally I would wait to tell you about my new project for May but I just started it this evening and finished it too.  Using leftover flannel I made my daughter new pj's.  Jammin' Jammiez.

This is my own pattern.  I seem to do much better making clothes when I just wing it, and I find not only do I enjoy the process more, I am often much happier with the results both short and long term.  Because I didn't use a pattern that meant I took the measurements off my daughter, while she was feeling impatient with me because she wanted to play on the computer.  I was sure 26" would do it with plenty of wiggle room, but she doesn't feel it's loose enough.  Being sleepwear I'm inclined to agree, so tomorrow I will seam rip off the bodice, adding likely 3" over all (by adding at the side seams of the bodice and resewing the front and back pleats then re-attaching.  It sounds like a big deal but it isn't, and will likely give her a year or more of grow room.

Jammin' Jammiez Back

Oh you should have seen her.  She was delighted, wanting to know if she could pretend it is a dress and wear it to school.  I have never seen her so happy over a blue garment before.  Granted it has been a while since I sewed anything for her.  A year, I think?  Perhaps I need to make a point to hand make something for her every so often.  Oh and the big surprise?  I have enough leftover of the light blue stars to make a simple version for me too.   Then we'll be mom and me sleepers.  Or should I say daughter and me?

Now no worries about the Lone Star, I've been making progress since that border post.  I've have 3 of the last 4 glow blocks fully sewn - and they are completed blocks not just arcs!  As for the 7th there was a little water spill on the completed arc and I had a bit of an issue with the dye in the purple running.  Currently I feel like I have three options.  #1 Just remake the entire glow  #2 Carefully use a bleach pen and last but not least  #3 seam rip out the 3 or 4 offending pieces, cut new ones exactly the same size and replace.

I'm feeling in favor of #2 or #3.  What do you think?

Lone Star Scrolling Corners

There is quilting when you're cutting and piecing, and then there is quilting when you're thinking and researching. I suppose quilting is akin to making a really good stew as you're not always thinking about it, but it's simmering in the back of your mind.

I've been working on the stewing part, and wanted to update you with what I've come up with.  After looking at 100's likely even 1,000's of scrolls and scrolling borders I opened Illustrator and began to play.  I didn't like what I created at first, but as I spent more time I was able to bring the curves around to my way of thinking.  These would be printed out to scale, then using a light box traced onto fabric (I found a palest blueish/teal calico) and then detailed over the markings with Fabrico Markers (likely their ultramarine).

Obviously the blank squares are the Glow Blocks I've been piecing.  I'm on number seven remember?!  I need to clear off the sewing table some to make room for the cutting mat before I can get back to those.  Ironically I'll be clearing away the glow blocks to make room to cut more strips.

So I can't hardly stand it, what do you think?

Quilting Quiet

Have you missed me?  I've missed you.  I'm still around, clearly.  The school year is coming to a close here, and I really need to use the last of the peace and quiet to get the Lone Star Glows done.  I'm halfway done with arc #7 of the 8 blocks that I need, so steady progress is getting me there.

I've found leaving in the paper piecing paper, ruined my accuracy when sewing the two completer curves to the arcs, so I have already removed the paper from blocks 5 & 6 in preparation of sewing the last two seams for those blocks.  Why stop in the middle of block 7 you ask?  Well I just ran out of my pre-cut strips, so that is a job for tomorrow or maybe for Friday...

Have you been having nice weather?  We have a storm sitting on top of us and the forecast says it should rain daily through Tuesday.  At least the grass will be happy right?

Lone Star Border Thoughts

Here is the beginning stages of my planning for the border of my Lone Star.  I saw this really amazing Lone Star Quilt, which you can see here, it was made and quilted by Jennifer McRae whose website you can visit here (though she doesn't have any pictures of it on her site).  The details, both in the border and in the quilting are really remarkable.  The more you scroll down, the more images there are of the amazing details.  If you're wondering about your Lone Star, or just want to feel like oh my goodness now what, check that one out.

EQ5 does not have a lonestar block, at least not one that I can find, so rather than let that deter me, I took pencil in hand.  As you can see the leftover trapeziods will surround the quilt, and then from there I'm not sure.  I think I'd like to do something in the corners...  Maybe more paper pieced blocks with the rays flaring in towards the center of the quilt (the reverse of the ones shooting out of the star).  When I look at the quilt as it is now, there is a pale blue that speaks to me.  You can see what I'm talking about here. I'd like to do seomthing with that and I'm thinking I'd like to move away from the white, allowing it to be contained within the center focus.  So maybe brown or black for the background to really light the center fire?  Or perhaps the other way around with the blue as the background and the details in black? 

Anything jumping into your mind for those big open corners?  The border is about 16" from trapeziods to the edge of the quilt.