Thursday, December 6, 2018

Temp Quilt Update

These are the months of September, October and November.  The upper left hand side of each square is the day's high and the low is on the bottom right.  Now that the days are getting colder, more colors are being added and it's starting to look like I envisioned at the start of this project.

A reminder of the colors for each temperature-
All temps are Fahrenheit
50-55 lt. pink
56-59  Bright pink
60-65 light green
66-69 med. green
70-75 lt. yellow
76-79 bright yellow
80-85 lt. orange
86-89 dark orange
90 and above will be reds...hopefully, I won't be using those for a while!  The 40's and below will be aquas, purples and blues.

The two days in the bottom center with the dark aqua and the dark purple represent temps of 49/38F and 48/36F.  So far, December has had some nights below freezing so more colors coming. The grey patches are the beginning of each month.  I'm planning on embroidery the month's name on them at the end of this project.

Linking with Sarah Did ItFinish or Not Friday

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Finally a Finish!







I don't have a very good record with Christmas quilts....I've got five in a box unfinished....the earliest dating back about four years!

This one was started last year when I was making a much larger version of this pattern.  I found a layer cake of Christmas fabrics and put the larger version on hold when I read the directions for this smaller version.  The pattern is Lone Star Baby by Amy Smart.  My version measures about 36" x 36".  This was partially quilted when my sewing machine died.  I've killed more than one cheap modern machine trying to shove a quilt through.  Some day I'll learn and get my vintage Brother machine repaired but the local repair service retired after about 40 years in the area.

Now that I'm inspired to finish, it's back to the box to see what I can do with the rest!

Linking with Finish or Not Friday

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Sajou Mini Top Finished!


I've been working on the final borders for days but the top is finally finished!  Most of these triangles have been sewn at least twice and the beginning ones five or six times.  I went through two full   bobbins on my machine and this is only 18x18".  About halfway through I decided to ditch the triangles and do something clever with HST's but I used up all my matching fabric cutting triangles 
so I persevered.

If you are a beginner, you are probably wondering what the problem was.  When you lay out two triangles like these and sew them together, they are out of alignment. The first two went together fine but adding the third caused either the base or the point to be too high or too low. I'd read that you are supposed to place one higher than the other but I never got it right the first time around.  I'm sure there is some trick to getting it perfect on the first try but I haven't discovered it!

Overall, I'm pleased with the colors and this was a fun design to do.  Now to quilt it. Thanx to Lori at Humble Quilts for another fun project.  You can go to Humble Quilts for the Linky Party and see all the finished ones.







Monday, October 22, 2018

Quilting a Large Quilt on a Home Machine


In my last blog post, I mentioned that my quilt was in two sections so I could quilt it and I was asked how I join the pieces together after quilting.  It does require some planning ahead but being able to do it at home makes up for that.  I usually use a 1950's Brother straight stitch machine which has a somewhat larger harp space than my more modern Brothers but still not enough for a large quilt.

I made this quilt in 2014 and it taught me a very valuable lesson.  I hadn't been quilting long and had only done smaller pieces so when I found it in Kathy Doughty's book Making Quilts it never occurred to me to ask myself a few questions such as "how am I going to lay it out" and "how on earth am I going to quilt it on a home machine?"  I never looked at the finished size which is about 84 x 94.  At the time my design wall was a flannel backed tablecloth pinned to a curtain valance over a 72" window.  It was also too large to layout on my available floor space.  I ended up doing it in sections, sewing it and then folding and pinning the section to the tablecloth so I could do the next section. I ended up with three sections of the quilt with the center section being the largest.

Earlier I had researched quilting in sections but most of the methods required adding strips or extremely accurate measurements or lots of hand sewing.  I did run across a two or three year old blog post which described a method that seemed to be what I wanted, but by the time I made this quilt, the blog and the post had disappeared.  I went from memory and it worked so well that I've done all my quilts with this method.

When you are making the top, decide where you can separate it into sections.  This was divided at the top point of the heart leaving  two smaller ends and a larger section in the middle.  If you don't want seam lines in the borders, they can be added after the rest is quilted and joined.  The batting used needs to have enough cotton in it that it won't melt when ironed.  I use Hobbs 80/20 and have had no problems but I do test each new batch in case they change fibers.  Lay your top section on the batting and leave enough on the outside edge for the border.  Attach it with your favorite method...I use a spray adhesive.  Then quilt that section WITHOUT backing.  The batting won't stick to the feed dogs. Then quilt up to one or two inches from each edge depending on your pattern.  I also leave an unquilted portion on each outside corner and the top and bottom of the middle section.

When each section is finished, trim the batting on the edges to be joined. I usually trim even with the fabric which makes it easier to match seams and patterns.  Sew the sections together and iron the seams open.  This prevents lumps along the seam lines.  I used pinking shears to trim this one but I haven't noticed a difference when I used regular shears.

Lay your quilt top on the backing and baste with your regular method.  Then you can complete your quilting in the undone sections and add any borders.  Since these sections are all near the edges, there is not a large portion to be sent through the small harps of most machines.  Even the area where the sections are joined aren't too difficult to send through the machine and this is enough quilting to hold the backing on without wrinkles or tearing.  The above quilt has been used almost daily, washed several times and slept on by cats...it's still in good shape and no separation of seams where joined.

I hope this is clear enough ...If you have any questions, I'll do my best to explain more clearly.

Linking with Em's Scrapbag and Monday Making


Sunday, October 21, 2018

Day 107-A Finished Top!

It didn't quite take the extra seven days as I took a couple of days off from it and then spent yesterday replacing my original green border with the pink.  I ran out off the green fabric and as it is several years old, I knew I couldn't color match it.  I think I like the pink better than the original greenish yellow.

I'm discovering that things look very different in photos than they do in person!  My color flow looked a lot different laid out on my floor...not sure I'm completely happy with it..I may do some more tweaking. As you can see it's in two pieces for ease of quilting.  I've had good results with quilting in two or three pieces on my home machine and then joining the pieces.

I really enjoyed this quilt along!  Many thanks to Angie at Gnome Angel for the incentive and the organization.  I'm looking forward to next year's project!

Now for the clean up!

Linking with Quilting is more fun than housework for Oh Scrap!
Moving it Forward
Monday Making

Sunday, October 14, 2018

100 Days Later.......

99 blocks +1=100

I finished!!!   Several months ago, I saw a message from Angie at Gnome Angel for her sew along using Tula Pink's City Sampler book and quilt.  I was missing not having a circle to make every day so I ordered the book.  The first few blocks had 20-25 pieces and four or five fabrics in a 6.5" block. I almost gave up there but ordered some fabrics and decided to it. Most of those fabrics weren't used and all, except for four of the blocks, were made from my existing stash.

I'm so glad that I did!  I've seen so many new ways to look at the same block and so many ways to use colors to make a block look different.  There are holiday quilts, solid color quilts, a denim one and several people used just one color or black, white and grey.  All are on the Instagram 100days100blocks2018.

 Now to layout my blocks and make a quilt of them....and to clean up my mess...fabrics migrated from my shelves to a laundry size basket and grew to overflowing.  They need to be refolded and reshelved..a daunting task!




Licorice 2002-10/10/18


Linking with Oh Scrap!






Friday, October 12, 2018

Sajou Part Two

Part 2 finished....now to decide if I want to make a pillow cover or wall hanging out of it.  I'm leaning to a wall hanging as my new apartment has the delightful feature of having the fridge side fully visible from the living room.  It's been irritating me more and more every time I look at it.  It may become a mini gallery for all my mini quilts!  Thank you Lori and your Humble Quilts for the pattern .

I'm going to finish up the last two blocks for the Tula Pink City Sampler today and then spend the weekend laying it out.  I really didn't think that I would complete it....but 100 blocks in 100 days is almost done and I've done it!

Linking with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Fridays