Stitch Adventures

Not like you-tube videos

I think most people use youtube videos on a weekly basis.  Don't know how to do something? Find a quick video.  Want a good laugh?  Pass around the latest dog or cat video.  They are endless, informative, and a great way to learn something new.  I've even posted a few videos of my own!

My only objection?  Anybody can post a video, and so you can't guarantee that the person really knows what they are talking about.  The videos are usually so short and poorly made, there's not alot of info.  So when it comes to finding correct information about sewing, quilting, or knitting, I tread carefully.  I don't know if a technique or the advice given is the best way - or even a good way.  It's just that person's version of what probably worked for them.

Thinking about all this made me think of something my daughter and I share a love for - Craftsy video classes.  She gave me a video for Christmas (yes, they have a wish list you can create, and she saw mine, and it made a wonderful gift!)  So, I rave about my latest quilting classes thru Craftsy, and she tells me about all the stuff she learned about her new serger, baby projects, and working with knits with her video classes. I've got at least 5 more classes waiting for me that I haven't started yet!

The classes are inexpensive for all the projects and info you get (usually about $19 - $40 for 10-15 chapters of videos on the subject).  You get to watch them whenever you want, and keep them forever. If a class is too expensive, get on their email list, and they will soon be sending you discounts. 

But best of all,  the teachers are verified knowledgeable people in their subject.  They teach sewing  quilting, cake decorating, (and many other crafts).  They have blogs, and are in general immersed in the subject you want to learn. They know what they are talking about - and the videos are professionaly produced.  You can also ask questions and talk with others who are taking the same class, and post pictures of what you have made.

If you'd like to try one out (and this is how I discovered Craftsy) take one of their free mini courses to get a taste.  Want to know about sewing machine feet or something else?

There are more places to learn how to sew than your local fabric store.  Although that's the perfect place to get your supplies!

Sashiko is so much fun!

I've been enthralled with sashiko, which is a Japanese style of needlework, for several years. It is most recognizable by the dark navy (indigo) color fabric and heavy white running threads that make the design. 

This is a purse that was made by my teacher in a class I took at the Sew Expo in Washington in 2011.  In that class, we used tracing paper to mark indigo cloth to make a fan design, which is shown below.

I'm still working on this project. It looks easy, but takes some practice to get the stitches evenly spaced, and longer on top. That's because hand quilting, which I also do, requires stitches that are equal in length on both top and bottom, and much closer together.

My newest, completed project is from prestamped sashiko fabric, which allowed me to practice getting my stitches even. 

You can see the lines of another design on the stamped fabric, which may seem a little confusing.  But the stamped lines wash right out.

Here's a finished square called "Ocean Waves".

And the third square, called "Seven Treasures of Buddha". 

This is the final project, which has been quilted.  I applied a red frame around and between each square, a blue frame, and then a large red print border print to make a wall hanging.

And this time, I decided to piece the back of the quilt, just to make it more interesting.  I added two extra sashiko stitched bars on the back too.

There will be more detailed pictures on my website, as well as links to great books and supplies so you can try out this Japanese stitching technique on your own.  There are so many more designs to try!

 

Add a penguin!

Went to the Camarillo Quilt Guild monthly meeting yesterday - I guess I never get tired of quilts! 

Our speaker at the quilt meeting was magnificent.  I'm not particularly fond of portrait quilts, or landscape quilts for that matter.  But once I heard Nancy S. Brown speak, I was absolutely in awe of her passion, and her ability to make an entire group of 300 tired quilters laugh for 30 minutes straight!

Of course her artistry, and her techniques are truly inspsiring. She is in love with animals, of all kinds, and she hand  appliques all of her animals.  Layer upon layer of fabrics of unusual colors - like an Andy Warhol style dog quilt. 

Who would have the ability to make green and yellow dogs look so natural except this amazing quilt artist?  Every dog had a different expression - even the chihuahua looks cute.  (Sorry, I'm just not a fan of little yippy dogs - but more power to you if you love one!)

And then, there was the Baltimore Album style quilt - a very traditional pattern.  But when Nancy does one - the flower blocks are all animals!

See how the detail picture on the right is really hummingbirds.

One of Nancy's favorite animals is penguins.  Her first quilt, and many many others, have penguins.  Her advice - if you have a quilt that isn't working, or lacking in some way, or you're just not happy with the way it's turning out (we've all been there) - add a penguin!

There is a great retrospective of some of her work at The Quilt Show

How I wish I had signed up for her applique workshop today!  But the class filled quickly - so I'll have to keep looking for her at local quilt guilds and workshops.

 

An awesome quilt show

Just got back from The Camarillo Quilt Show at the fairgrounds in Ventura.  A weekend that was filled with inspriation, delightful quilts, and wonderful vendors and people. 

I volunteered many, many hours to help prepare for, and set up the show.  One of my jobs was to be in charge of "white glove" volunteers.  Those are the ladies that walk around, literally, wearing white gloves to lift the corners of quilts so the backs can be seen by viewers. 

No fair touching a quilt without gloves on - fingers (especially hundreds of them) have oils that leave a residue on quilts.  So, to protect the quilts, you should not touch.  Pointing, and oohing is allowed though.

I'll be sharing some of the pictures I took as I walked around helping people.  Here are two similar quilts that I thought were interesting - they show a distinct difference in stitch design.

This was a quilt made by Nancy Kimery called "Unterwaschockstellungs", which was hand pieced and machine quilted.  I count nearly 400 separate pieces on the front.

As you can see by this closeup, there are curved pieces to fit together - but they all have the same shape - either placed vertically or horizontally. The pattern is traditionally called an "apple core quilt", but the name on this one is really fun - German for underwear crotch, because that's what the shapes resemble!

Now, here's another "apple core" quilt, which was made by Camilla Picard, called "Memories".

Again, hand pieced because it is easier to do all the curves that way.  But, the reason I noticed this one is because the hand quilting is done about 1/4" inside each shape.

So, I like this one too - because the shapes are emphasized by the stitching. 

Either way, that's a monumental amount of hand piecing.  But a great way to use up scraps!

As a volunteer, I spent a lot more time than usual looking at the quilts.  Instead of a quick hour, I saw the same quilts, over and over - front and back.  That's when I really began to appreciate not just the quilts that were "show stoppers", but the "simple" ones too.

Amazing to me how each quilter interprets a pattern that has been done for decades, by their own use of fabrics, stitching and title. 

 

Hawaiian applique quilt blocks

In July, it was my turn to choose a block design and fabrics for others in my local quilt guild to make for me. I was driving a quilt friend to LAX airport - and since she was on her way to a 2-week vacation to Hawaii, I was inspired to honor her by having everyone in my group make a Hawaiian needle turn applique block.

I was already in Los Angeles. Since I don't take driving trips there too often - I wanted to do something besides a tuck and roll at the airport.  (That's my husbands term, kind of picturesque, isn't it?)  So, I decided to go to the LA Fabric Mart, and find some interesting fabrics for the quilt-to-be.   I went to a store I've been hearing about for years - Michael Levine's. 

Ever been to Michael Levine's?  I don't know what to compare this fabric shop with.  Maybe right up there with the Fabric Depot in Portland.  I go to Portland just for that fabric store.  But if you don't want to make the trip, their online stores are great too!

Traditional Hawaiian applique quilts are done in solid colored fabric.  But I wanted to try something a little more modern, so I chose red and green prints and a white background for the blocks for my group.

I have a book, Hawaiian Quilt Masterpieces, that serves as inspiration, because it explains the meaning of each design.  For my project, I chose 12 designs, and cut out all the "snowflakes".

Cutting out designs is kind of fun - just like when you were a kid, and cut out snowflake patterns from a folded paper. Only now you fold fabric and cut out the design. 

 There are lots of places online that show and tell how to do needle turn applique. But in short form, you center the cut design on your background fabric and baste it down 1/4" from all edges.  This picture is from a different project, but you can see the basting. 

Very time consuming, because the designs are very intricate.  This is a completed block that I did several years ago.

 

Once the block is basted down, then you hand applique the edges down, turning the edges under about 1/8" - up to the basting. 

I tried several different kind of needles, and finally found one that actually helped me get the edges turned under as I stitched - a size 9 applique needle. It even helped in the corners, where I had to take several stitches to keep the fabric from raveling. 

I also ended up sewing a machine zig zag stitch around the edges of the background fabric, because it was starting to fray from all the handling and turning.

This is a great handwork project for in front of the tv.  Not quick though, because of the intricacy. 

Here's a picture of the finished block that I made as a sample to show my quilt group members, who will all be working on different designs, but similar fabric and colors that I chose.

And here's a picture of the backside - you can see how close together the stitches need to be to make sure the design edges are all caught underneath.

Looks like a lot of work, but just like the crazy quilt block that I did last month, it will help my friends try out a technique they haven't done in awhile. 

And once I get the blocks back, I hope to make a full size quilt, with the addition of a few more.  I can always hope!

 

 

Quilt block exchange

Each month, since March, eight members of my local handquilting group have been making quilt blocks for each other.  The members who wanted to participate each chose a month, a project block, and their own colors.  When it's your month, you bring in enough materials and the directions, so that each member can make a block for you.  My month is July - there will be pictures and details in the next post.

So far, for other members, I've made some interesting blocks.  Interesting in that I learned a new piecing technique or tried different colors.  And great because I only have to make one per month!  Now that I can accomplish.

Last month I made a crazy quilt block, and I was able to play with the fancy stitches on my Bernina.  But I now know I don't want to make a whole crazy quilt myself.  Maybe it's named that way for a reason.

My favorite month so far, was in May.  The quilter brought in a pattern called Girls Favorite, which looked simple enough. 

 

She asked each of us to pick our own blue and yellow fabric, as that would add lots of different fabrics to the final quilt, when she put all the different blocks together.  The quilt was for her boy scout troop, so we were requested to not add too many flowery patterns.

I love the end result, and loved the color combinations that I chose.

However, I should have watched the direction of the striped blue pattern - and that way the stripes would have all been going in the same direction! 

All the people who made the block had difficulty with the way the pattern was written.  The person who wrote the directions for the block (the designer) didn't have the right dimensions of some squares and triangles, and didn't have the correct number of fabric squares to cut.  Something to keep in mind when downloading patterns from the internet.

Next: My quilt block of the month - Hawaiian needle turn applique.

 

 

 

My quilt is on the frame!

Whew!  What an endless task - to mark a quilt.  I "stewed" for weeks about what designs to mark on my to-be-hand-quilted New York Beauty quilt, and how to get the design on the quilt.  Finally, today, I took the marked quilt to the hand quilting group I belong to, and we put it on the frame to be hand quilted.  I could write a whole book on the inner trauma of bringing a quilt top to let other's examine, but maybe later.  I'm just glad it's on a frame, and already being worked on!

I'm still not pleased about the whole marking procedure.  You'd think quilters, who have been around for centuries, would have figured out a way to mark a design on a quilt without all the trauma. 

One person in the group told me to mark with a pencil, but I am so worried about the pencil marks never coming out - especially on light colored fabrics.  The pencil won't come off with an eraser (I tried), so I just have to hope that washing will do the trick. 

Since I was so displeased with using a pencil, I finally decided to use chalk on the darker fabrics.  There's this wonderful miniature tracing wheel/chalk pencil that I've used on other things.  It works so effortlessly.  The wheel comes in three colors, and you can either refill with your own pounce powder, or buy a refill for about $2.50.  The chalk does come off easily, so I know some of the quilt will have to be remarked as we quilt.  But at least it will come off!

So, here's a picture of how we put it on the frame today -

There are long boards that have fabric strips stapled to them.  We lay the quilt on the floor, matched the center of the quilt and the board, and used straight pins to attach the quilt to the fabric strips.

Next, using four people, we rolled the quilt onto each board.  One side of the quilt got rolled under the board, the other side got rolled over.  When the quilt had enough quilting area showing, we used clamps to attach the ends of the quilt to shorter boards.  Then the quilt ends were pinned to the shorter boards, and the quilt was put in the stand.  Ready to be worked on!

It was so exciting to have people working on a quilt I made!  I'm still squeemish about people looking at my stitching close-up.  But it is what it is.  That's how I'll get better!

A different traditional quilt

A few weeks ago I was working frantically on cutting out a traditional quilt to be hand quilted by my friends in my local quilt guild.  It took me a week of full time cutting to get all the pieces done.
Here's a picture of some of the squares for month 1 of the block of the month.

and another picture of the colored squares needed for paper pieceing, for month 1, and the set squares for month 1 too (the white ones). 

So the cutting is done for all 12 months.  Then I got organized, and put all the pieces and directions for each month in it's own plastic bag. 

Then I got realistic.  If it took me a week to cut all the pieces, I knew I wouldn't be done quickly with the piecing, then the marking, then the basting.  Certainly not fast enough to put the quilt on the clubs frame in a week or two. No matter how hard I worked (and it wouldn't be much fun either!)

Then I remembered a small wall quilt I had pieced a few years ago - it was pinned and ready to be machine quilted, and I was using it to cover my bolts of fabric.

 
The quilt was a kit from Connecting Threads and was fun to put together.  But I never finished it because it was a 54x54 wall quilt, and I don't have many empty walls to put quilts on! 

Although this picture I downloaded from their website doesn't do it justice, I was pleased with the quality of fabrics and directions, designed for beginners, like me.  If you go there, you can download the pattern for free, and use your own fabrics. (The kit's no longer available)

So, I've decided to add borders to make the quilt larger and longer, then add some more batting and a different backing.  That I should be able to get done quickly, and since it's a traditional pattern (New York beauty), is worthy of being quilted by hand.

I'm not giving up on my block of the month quilt, just need to put it off for a few weeks so I can take my time piecing it!

 

The naivete of a beginning quilter

I consider myself to be a beginning or almost intermediate quilter.  I really love quilting - both hand and machine quilting are fascinating to me. 

I joined the Ojai Quilters group about two years ago - because I was getting lonely sitting at home typing on the computer all day.  Most Tuesday mornings I get up early enough to exercise, have coffee, and get to the meeting place by 9a.m.  I'm mentioning that because I am not normally a morning person!  The group is small (5-10 people most times), and does all hand quilting and pieceing too. 

There are usually 2-3 quilts in frames set up to hand-quilt.  Or, in my case, practice quilting on.  We keep track of the hours spent working on quilts, and then whomever has the most hours gets to put on the next quilt.  I had no idea I had built up enough hours, but two weeks ago I was apalled to hear that I was next up to put a quilt on a frame!

Dismayed because I don't have a bunch of quilt tops laying around which apparently most avid quilters have.  I've prided myself on completing one quilt at a time, before going on to the next.  But the biggest challenge - I have never really made a "traditional" quilt.  Of the 7 quilts I've made, all have been very simple blocks, applique, and wall quilts. 

I feel a need to make a quilt that deserves to be hand quilted by these wonderful quilting ladies.  They work on traditional quilts, so I need to make a traditional quilt. 

I finally settled on a pattern I downloaded from The Quilt Show.  Last year I was a member, and was able to access the block of the month for both applique and piecing. (You can sign up for their newsletter and videos, which are excellent - even if you can't afford a membership).

So the quilt I began working on is the pieced block of the month (BOM) designed by Sue Garman.  It is a star and irish chain quilt.  Here's what it will look like, design-wise, when I get done.

 
Now that I'm looking at the completed picture, and have spent countless days just cutting, I'm wondering at the naivete of a beginner quilter.  How in the world can I have expected to get this done quickly so I have a quilt to put on the frame?

One step at a time.

 

My Mom as Cowgirl

Like many of my quilts, the cowgirl quilt was an odyssey. I never finish quickly because they have to “feel right”, and because there’s always so many other things to do (like knitting, making presents, working on my website, cooking). I work on one sporadically, so when it’s done, I feel complete and totally satisfied in my accomplishment. 

The idea for the cowgirl quilt came several years ago while helping with the quilt judging at the county fair. I just fell in love with the quilts that had a western theme. Usually though, the western theme fabric consisted of cowboys and broncos. I wanted a cowgirl quilt.

So, I started a search for cowgirl fabric and when I had enough, got inspired by a quilt book by Earlene Fowler. She’s a novelist that writes murder mystery books that take place in San Luis Obispo, CA. Her books all have a quilt name and theme, and her main character is a modern cowgirl.

I never copy a quilt exactly, just kind of use the ideas and appliqué shapes and go from there. I had purchased a printed set of old-fashioned cowgirls. Taking my favorite one, I started building the quilt around the print, adding squares and borders. Then I did some motifs: running horses, horseshoes, stars, etc.

I was having fun, but once the top was pieced, it sat. Don’t know why, because I love the quilting part, and really wanted it to get done. But it didn’t please me, for some reason. It needed something.

Months later, a box of pictures belonging to my mom (who passed away about 5 years ago), was given to me by the daughter of my mom's former boyfriend.  When I got the box, I couldn't wait to see what was in it.  And there was a picture of my mom, as a 1930's teenager, dressed in a cowgirl costume! I couldn’t believe it.  I had never seen the picture before and they just didn’t wear jeans and cowgirl hats then. But somehow, she had the cowgirl urge too.

I scanned the picture, fooled around with the size, and printed the picture out on cotton fabric in my printer. Then I added it as the centerpiece of my cowgirl quilt, and added a ropey trim to accentuate it.,

That’s why the quilt is entitled: “My mom as Cowgirl” . It is a unique tribute to my mom, and how similar we truly are.