Monthly Archives: September 2016

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For my first entry into this year's Blogger's Quilt Festival, I've chosen my Wizard of Oz Baby Quilt for the Original Design (<--voting open through Friday!) category. Welcome to anyone visiting for the first time!

When my sister told me that they had decided to decorate with Wizard of Oz for my nephew's room, I knew I had to make a quilt. However, I didn't really want to use licensed character fabric, and I don't love appliqué. There are some beautiful depictions of Oz in appliqué out there, and I knew I didn't have that in me. After asking my sister what her favorite elements were, I got to work, focusing on the Emerald City and the poppies.

I found the perfect panel (sky and poppies) and used appliqué to attach the buildings and reverse appliqué to piece in the sections of yellow brick road. Each border represents one character: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.

One of my favorite features of the quilt is the rainbow, which I quilted in six colors of thread. In total, I quilted in 17 different colors using 24 different quilting motifs.

In the border sections I chose a different quilting motif for each, and also quilted an icon to represent the character.

The backing featured rainbow lollipops, a nod to the munchkins.

 

You can view the rest of the quilts in the Original Design category and starting soon you can vote on your favorites. There is so much amazing work being shown through the festival. Please visit Amy's Creative Side which has links to all the categories.

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I had high hopes for this past week. I really wouldn't have minded having a pile of finished quilts to show off today. Yeah, no. Instead, I've spent the last 5 1/2 days straight with some level of headache. Thankfully there have been chunks of time that I felt well enough to sew, but it really killed my motivation overall. My thoughts go out to those of you who live with chronic pain.

 

I found that the thought of quilting was far more mentally taxing than the job of making binding, so I finished prepping bindings for the five quilts. This is great since I always hate feeling so close to being done and then realizing that not only do I have to attach the binding, but I also still have to make it. I'm excited to see how that scrappy binding does on my Star Light Star Dark quilt.

 

My daughter's doll quilt is quilted. She meticulously chose her thread color and sat with me to quilt it (since my machine was already set up for walking foot quilting and it was a quick job.) I love that she was so impressed with herself at getting it quilted in one day. It has three lines of quilting as it's only about 15" x 18". However, the quilting did go way faster than her first quilt, so she's right about that.

Today, I added the free motion quilting for her in an outline of her hand (photo below, with my marking lines still visible). I think it's nice that she wanted to include this sweet detail on the quilt for her friend.

 

My secret project (no photos) is about 36" x 36" and I've made a first pass at quilting diagonal lines that are spaced 1.5" apart. It always surprises me how long this takes and has made me consider calling it done with one set of lines. My initial plan was crosshatch quilting; I still believe that's the right choice. Better done than perfect may win out here. Time will tell. I've switched my machine over to free motion quilting. Maybe when I finish these other quilts I'll feel more energized to go back and do the crosshatch quilting. Fingers crossed.

 

Zoom Zoom, my race car quilt, is the one I'm actively working on now. I just started the actual quilting yesterday, but I've made an overall plan. Here's a glimpse of my first sections of quilting. The colored sections will each be quilted in matching thread. Just had to order the right green, since none of the six green spools I bought for the Wizard of Oz quilt were right. :-/

 

I pieced the backing and attached the label for Star Light Star Dark. It's mostly basted, which is to say that all the pins are in, but I was many dozens short on pinmoors, so I had to go back to quilting the above quilts in order to free up some pinmoors to finish prepping this one. I've also placed an order for more pinmoors, because this continues to be an issue and I have some larger quilts coming up in the queue.

Caterpillar Fizz is still waiting to be basted. I pieced the batting and taped the backing down to my bedroom floor... then, ya know, not enough pinmoors. Plus headache. Equals slower overall progress than planned. And that quilt back is still taped to my floor. At least the binding is ready to go, eh?

Thanks for visiting!

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Most of the past week was spent stitching my block and preparing my post for the New Block Hop I participated in this week. If you haven't checked out those posts, we have some amazingly talented participants with some really awesome blocks. (Links to day one posts and to the hosts can be found in my last post.) Beyond that, everything has been about preparing to quilt a number of quilts. That number happens to be five.

The Quilts

  1. I helped my daughter baste her doll quilt. She's getting very excited to give her gift. Here's the front view and a peek at the backing/label. I love that she's named it Striped Quilt.
  2. I have a secret project that is basted and ready for some straight line quilting. No pics.
  3. The race car quilt is basted and ready to quilt. I'm going for some Jess inspired free motion on that one. 
  4. My sister and brother-in-law requested another quilt for my baby nephew to play on so I'll be finishing up Star Light Star Dark for them. I've chosen backing (see below) and binding fabrics for this one, and made the label. (Edited: I'm linking up to the Star Light Star Dark Final Linky Party with my finished quilt top.)
  5. I hope to crank out a fast finish on a Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt to deliver this weekend. It's all ready to baste. I love that it's small enough to not need a pieced backing. The label is above. 

Now I'm hoping for some great sewjo and a few really productive days of quilting. Fingers crossed.

 

A Little Bit About My Quilting Process

I start by working on my hardwood floor to baste, using blue tape to tape down only my backing fabric. I pin baste. I like to use Clover Flower Head Pins and Pinmoors. I am very generous with the number of pins I use, pinning every 3-4" to avoid shifting. Generally, I put all the pins in, remove the tape and then sit in a comfortable seat while I put on the Pinmoors. (I love how fast and easy they are to remove during quilting.) I use Quilter's Dream cotton batting exclusively. My quilts usually stay in California, and it doesn't get that cold here. My preferred batting weight is Select. I use both walking foot and free motion quilting, all done on my domestic machine, which has a 7" throat (the space to the right of the needle). The largest quilt I think I've quilted on it to date is Bold Blooms, which is 65" x 83". Our king-sized bed quilt is the one quilt I've sent out to a long arm quilter. (I just wanted it done!) I use a closed toe darning foot for free motion quilting, but wish I had an open toe darning foot. I think that's about it. Let me know if I missed anything you'd like to know about!

Thanks for visiting!