Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2013

Addhttp://amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-two-color-quilts/ caption

Well this is a first for me. I am going to enter one of my quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I wasn't going to but Sharon convinced me to try. After seeing the quilts there already I didn't think it was good enough but, oh well here goes. For those people who already saw most of this information I'm sorry but here it comes again.

This quilt started out as a challenge for the Dresden Challenge and ended up being a very personal quilt. I designed it, pieced it and quilted it. I was designed with inspiration from my relationship with my father. I also wanted to use black and white as the colours to show up the desden shape. The colours inspired the meaning behind the quilt, but more about that later.

In the sun...

In the shade.

The back with extra Dresden strips.

Quilt Name: Things Aren't Always Black and White
Quilt Size: 50" x 36"
Ruler: EZ Desden Ruler
In the center you can see the two colour sections that make the Desden shape. Even the break in the outside black border is a Desden section.

Making the center section was a learning curve for me. I had a tough time lining up the wedges and the seam ripper was my new best friend. After all I wanted all the corners to match up perfectly!

The first 4 borders!

Check out how small the first border is. (ignore the dog hair please) I even put borders on the wedge!

Then I added borders. I wanted it to look like an optical illusion. So I checked out other optical illusions and knew I had to draw the eye into the center by making the borders smaller as they went toward the center.

When I was finished I had fun quilting the different sections. I am a new LA quilter and still struggle with tension but I gave myself permission to go for it on this quilt.

I quilted the borders first with radiating lines.

At this point I changed my mind about how to quilt this.

I added wiggly lines between the radiating lines.

I quilted pebbles in the white trapezoids.

(back of quilt) I quilted a meander in the black trapezoids.

In the grey section I quilted a concentric box.

The more I look at this quilt the more I like it. It is hanging on the wall behind me at work and I get a lot of comments about it. Here is the description I wrote on the original post,

January 4, 1932 - August 19, 2010.

As a teenager I had lots of loud discussions with my Dad who always saw the black and white and really couldn't see the grey areas between, you know the what if? kinds of discussions. Later when he developed Alzheimer's he left the black and white area of the world and kind of lived in the grey area not sure of himself or his abilities or who we were. So he was my inspiration for this design, the first quilt I have designed, pieced and quilted. My Dad was able to build cupboards, paint oil paintings, work with copper foil, carve/paint decoys and fishing lures, create a beautiful garden make pretty well anything we needed and he fixed our cars all with less than a grade 8 education! We miss you.  Be at peace until we meet again Dad! August 19, 2010.

Busy Weekend

Wow it's amazing what you can get done if you wake up early on a Saturday! Sharon and I headed up to Peterborough for the Farmers Market.

 It was outside because it was so warm (usually it's inside during the winter and Spring). We eat a lot of vegetables being vegetarians and now Sharon has us juicing with her new toy - a Vitamixer.

 We made our purchases then headed to the Feelings in Fabric Quilt Show put on by the Kawartha Quiltmakers' Guild. I had about 30 - 40 minutes to spend there. I bought thread :)

Love this quilting.

This is so much better in person.

Wow, this is amazing!

Love the quilting.

 

Next we grabbed a coffee and then we drove home. Sharon went to her 1:00 hair appointment and I loaded my Jewel quilt on my frame.

Later I started the quilting on this quilt. I did one section then unpicked the whole thing, it looked awful. I also found an awesome chalk pencil that will now be my go to pencil when drawing marks on my quilts. This is what I've done so far...

Swirls, circles and back and forth

Piano keys and meander in the border.

Swirls again in the corners.

Circular Sewing Attachment!

I have been looking at circular sewing attachments for awhile now. I covet one!

Husqvarna/Pfaff circular attachment

I see the projects that people are making and I want to do it too
I looked at a vintage attachment but it won't fit on my Husqvarna. It will fit on my Singer 301 or my Featherweight but they are straight stitch machines. I know I can use my zigzag attachment but I don't like the way it shakes the machine. While searching I found a reference to people using popsicle sticks and thumb tacks to make their own attachment. So I thought okay I can do that too.

http://scrapsaplenty.blogspot.ca/2009/02/starting-up.html

http://thehabygoddess.blogspot.ca/2011/03/use-thumb-tack-tape-to-sew-perfect.html

I  found these pictures after I made mine. My design was based on a popsicle stick but I didn't want to use a stick because it might split and there would be a bump.

I searched through my sewing stuff and found plastic quilting template material. I cut a strip 2" by the width of the sewing machine throat.

Then I chose where I would tape it to my machine and measured from the center needle position. I marked the measurements on the plastic with a thin sharpie marker.

Then I used a needle and poked a hole on the line at each inch and half inch.

I need to use black marker - I thought I was on the 5 not 4.5!!!

Many people say they used a thumb tack and an eraser to cover the point. I found a broken tie tack in my jewelry box. I had to bend some metal edges but it worked perfectly and I have a nice gold cover for my pin.  Then I got my fabric ready. I cut a 10" square of white Kona and some Pellon I had lying around. I ironed the pellon onto the back of the fabric.

You can see the tack sticking out - careful cover it up!

Next I gently folded the square in half from both sides to find the center of the circle. (I made a mistake - not good to use white fabric and fold gently - next time I would use a fabric marker.) Push it onto the tack.

There's my fancy tack cover and look a circle is starting!

Now it's time to sew. Let the machine move the fabric and it will travel in a circle. Make sure you have a full bobbin - I ran out :( but that is one reason I chose to position the plastic away from the bobbin cover.

Not bad for home-made!

Here is the finished circle. I would put a drop of fray check on the back or you can use your method of preference to secure your threads. I had to run out to visit my Mum so I didn't get to use any other stitches/sizes or shapes YET! Now all I have to do is find a nice person who will photocopy their pattern sheet so I can make flowers etc. Or I was thinking I could enlarge a Spirograph dial and try that?

Update:
Here are 2 photos of circle work I have done. The first photo is the same yellow circle as above, the fabric was folded so it appears that the circle is dented, it isn't! I like the second circle and can see making a series of circles similar to this for a quilt. I'd like to use a stabilizer that disappears before I sewed them into a quilt.

Spirograph!

The circle is not bent just the fabric!

Triangle Log Cabin Quilt Top

Well I finally decided to use the purple fabric I bought in the discount bin. It worked very well with the colours in the log cabin triangles.

I played around with the triangles until I liked the way it looked. I only had enough strips to make 12 triangles so I was limited in what I could arrange.

I might name this Jewels!

What do you think? Now how to quilt it and what to use as the backing?