Remember when I showed the recently made bracelet from the class at the Sew and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup? Well, today I finally finished all the other homework that I had left from three other classes I took.

First up was a class where we used Gelatos and Inktense Watercolor pencils to 'paint' a flower on muslin. Then we cut it out and mounted it to a background fabric with a fusible glue. With verigated thread we did thread painting over the flower. The instructor showed us a different way to bind it without any showing on the front side. Here is my finished wall hanging.

Another class had us learning to do free-motion embroidery. This was just like free-motion quilting but with no batting. We did have water-soluble stabilizer on both top and bottom. We stitched with verigated thread, following the lines on a provided illustration.

At home we had to soak off the stabilizer, add batting to the back and stitch around the image and trim away extra batting. The rest of the finishing was just like any other quilt with borders, quilting and binding.

And here is my finished wall hanging:

The third project was a wallet. The class was advertised as a 'serger project' but when we got to class the only use of the serger was a new feature - the machine sewed a chain stitch. REALLY!?!?! I wanted to learn to use a serger and I get a chain stitch? I could have constructed the whole project on a regular maching. Harrumph!

The other thing they were overly excited about was 'cork fabric'. May I just say... Big deal!

So, beyond that, we did make a wallet (with extremely poor instructors and assistants and instructions) and I had a lot of work to do at home, including the hardware.

I have several photos of this project. Here you see it closed.

I did all that top-stitching on the cork fabric, too.

Here is a view that shows the hardware.

That little tongue flips up straight out and then you can open the wallet.

This is a view of the outside when opened. There is a full zippered pocket for carrying currency.

And, finally, the inside view. On the top is a zippered pocket for coins and on the bottom are slots for credit cards.

You can see in the photo above how the hardware is held on with ittsy-bitsy screws.

So, homework all done - and it only took me three weeks to get it done!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:15 PM PDT

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When I went to log this quilt into my spreadsheet I realized this is the 70th one I have made for the hospital's Passages program. I am so glad that this program exists and that I have a place to donate the quilts I make where they will serve as a comfort to a dying patient and a remembrance for their survivors.

The fabrics for this are more from the stash we were given by the family of a recently deceased quilter. 

I used two reds, two greens, two blues and two browns - each color having a dark and a light version. The colors were chosen out of the focus fabric which is printed with a faux quilt pattern.

The quilting is done with diagonal lines both directions through the frames and squares.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:10 PM PST

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Back in December there was a lady who received one of our Passages quilts at the local hospital. When she passed away, her family contacted our group with the offer of all of the fabric their mother had in her house. You see... she was a quilter!.

So three of us went and picked up about 14 totes-worth of fabrics and sorted them all out. We had a 'stash bash' where anyone in our group (and several people from other groups we had invited) chose whatever we wanted to work with.

So far, I have made 4 quilts from her materials:

This first baby quilt will go to the pregnancy center. The center portion had alteady been pieced, perhaps with the intention of using it for a pillow. I used coordinating fabrics to add multiple borders to extend the size to 40 inches.

From a different donation we had on hand some flannel and some polyester batting. I quilted it with three sizes of hearts and it is so cute with all that puffiness!

The second baby quilt was constructed with the online instructions for a 'disappearing hourglass' block. It also finished at 40 inches and got a flannel backing.

Third up is a quilt that will go to the Passages program. On this one, our donating lady had completed the ladder portions of fabric strips. I used more of her stash to create sashings to set these into a lap quilt size.

And last is a rail fence quilt that started as a striped fabric. Those stripes were of alternating prints of 'pieced fabrics'.

I cut apart all those stripes and alternated them with a coordinating stripe. With sections that were 4 strips wide, I cut them to make square blocks and then twisted back and forth to complete the rail-fence layout.

This is lap quilt size and will also go to the Passages progerm.

So, the donation of a quilt led to the gift of fabric which was made into quilts to make more donations... full circle.

The gift goes on.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:40 PM PST

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Another quilt today, actually finished up yesterday along with the trio already showed.

At a warehouse sale at the fabric store I picked up a bunch of matching mini-charm packs and two charm packs of cream solid. The pattern I found (a tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company) needed 96 units of each and I only had 84 so I had to cut a few extras from the stash.

All the blocks are constructed by sewing a half square triangle of the mini-charm onto the corner of each cream block. Then they are twisted and turned to form circles.

In the tutorial there are circles all over the quilt and no diamond shapes out in the middle.

One could also move the half circles on one side to join those on the other so there would be 6 full circles.

However, this is the arrangement I settled on:

The circles made me think of the big circles of crops that one sees when flying over the midwest. I quilted nested shapes in diagonals to represent the furrows in fields and I'm letting those diamonds out in the open spaces represent the farm houses.

I filled the wide borders with continuous triangles.

The binding matches the border.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 4:22 PM PST

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What do you do when you have a LOT of a specialty fabric to use up and you don't like to do the same project over and over? Well, you could make three different patterns with the fabric. But it took so long to finally find a pattern that I liked for it that I didn't really want to do that.

So I cut all the parts for three quilts from the same pattern, subbing in alternate fabrics where there wasn't enough to use the same (mostly the sashings, but also the lightest squares).

I worked through them all step-by-step all at the same time - sew fabric A to B on all the quilts, then AB to C on all the quilts, etc. This followed through all the way - borders on all, backings on all, quilting all, binding all.

The whole process took a little over two weeks from cutting to binding (not working on them every day and some days only a few hours.)

Since I don't like to do the same thing over and over I changed up the quilting on each of them. The quilting choices inform the titles for the quilts.

This first one is called 'Exit 10' and the quilting is loop-the-loops. The freeway exit we go through the most has flocks of Canada Geese hanging out in the grassy areas surrounded by the ramps. The loops in the quilting represent those freeway ramps.

The second one is called 'Gander At This'. Obviously, gander refers to the geese on the feature fabric. The quilting is overall leaves. You get the best view of this in the white areas. Both the sashings andthe fabric with the open pattern have leaves.

The third quilt is named 'To Each His Own' as each fabric type is quilted in a different manner. Geese have a wavy line side to side, dark green has loops, white tree prints have trees, leafy print has leaves, plaid has 'plaid' quilting, and sashings have leaves on vines.

So, the same.... but different.

Each has binding to match its sashing.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:50 PM PST

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I have had a spreadsheet detailing my quilt finishes since near the beginning. Today I made a second sheet for it that gathers statistics and sumarizes several categories (sizes, disposition and pattern source). This is the current tabulation:

It's kind of fun to see them categorized these different ways.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:42 PM PST

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I wanted to ‘build a snowman’ and I did it!

I started in March with a paper piecing pattern that I had won as a door prize several years ago and had not stitched up. It included three snowmen and a pair of mittens. They were arranged in the pattern to be a horizontal banner.

So I stitched up these 5 blocks and laid them out as instructed –

Then I yawned because, not only is this boring but I don’t have a place to display a horizontal banner.

I tried some other arrangements:

Then I brainstormed with the hubby and finally decided to make MORE motifs and create a row-by-row Christmas tree wall hanging.

The angel was from an outline of a pattern found on Pinterest. I added a halo of sequins.

Then came the pair of mittens from the original design. I added fluffy yarn to the cuffs.

I drew my own paper piecing pattern for the wreaths. They have a fabric bow and red seed beads as decoration.

I also drew my own paper piecing pattern for the candle. It is decorated with a single gold tube bead in the flame.

I used the outline of a paper pieced pattern found on Pinterest for the poinsettias. They have yellow seed beads stitched into a cluster for the center.

The snowflake is the one motif I am most disappointed with. The pattern I found online was very small. I had to enlarge it a LOT to get the size I wanted. Unfortunately, any inconsistencies in the seam matching on those small pattern pieces were magnified in my version so there are some snaggly edges toward the center. I used scrappy whites throughout this block and I chose not to use any embellishments.

The snowmen were part of the original pattern. I left off pom-poms on their hats but added fabric scarves and small tube beads for eyes and buttons.

I drew my own paper piecing pattern for the trees. They got star buttons (that I had on hand!) sewn on for decorations.

I set in green half-rectangles for the overall tree shape. I obviously had some problems with the math on these!

After stitching in the ditch around all the blue background blocks I did free-motion ‘snow’ and ‘icicles’ around the tree branches.

I also did a stitch in the ditch across the rows where they connect and used a 1 ½ inch vertical line to quilt the background.

Finally, I added a hanging sleeve the same fabric as the binding.

So – 9 months to birth this baby! I can’t wait for it to be time to put up the Christmas decorations. This will be front and center at my house.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:37 PM PDT

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When my daughter saw the tree skirt I made for myself last Christmas she requested one 'just like it'. I had to move some of the colors around because of the amount of fabric I had on hand, but it is essentially the same.

I used a pattern from the November/December 2015 issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine that uses the LeMoyne Star. I don't have their special tool so I made the directions fit my own method. That makes the outer diamonds into trapezoids but I like them anyway.

This is the new one:

Compared to the one last year:

On last year's skirt I used a pieced back but for this new one I found a neat metallic 'brush painting' fabric for the backing.

Now it's off to arrive as a birthday gift and dress up the upcoming Christmas festivities.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:21 PM PDT

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Progress! I got back to work on a quilt that I started at retreat in June and just finished it.

This started with a panel of prints. There are six views of country life with repeats in reverse that total 18 units.

I made patch units with six fall-colored prints bordered in black.

Those patch units appear in twos fours and sixes to intersperse with the picture panels.

The result is a small lap quilt bordered in plaid and a leaf print for binding.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:14 AM PDT

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I am amazed by the tutorials that come out of Missouri Star Quilt Company week after week. Every one is easy, innovative and attractive.

But there are some that I just can't wait to dive right in on.

I rarely print out the accompanying materials with materials, measurements and instructions. Instead, I have my little tablet of graph paper and I make sketches of the blocks, the step-by-step and layouts. I pencil in measurements as I go.

Usually, they work out just fine even though I don't often make them in the size they are designed. This is because they are mostly using pre-cuts in full packets (or multiples of them) and I just work out what size I want the finish to be and cut the number of pieces needed to do up the pattern.

The tutorial for this quilt is called Totally Tulips and starts with 10" precuts and makes a quilt measuring 89" x 90". That's huge.

I am generally making lap quilts so I only needed 12 tulips. That used 24 10" squares from my stash - half colors and half greens. I used muslin I had on hand for the background.

I did overall large stippling over all the white. Then I did three wavy vees on all the flowers and stitch in the ditch up both sides of each stem.

The backing is a modern print with little blocks of color on point. It has all the colors used on the front. It looked so nice I used it for the binding as well.

This will go to the hospital Passages program.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:59 PM PDT

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A bang-up warehouse sale at the HUGE fabric store some months back netted me some multiples of charm packs and some mini-charms which I set aside in my stash. They were of different lines but coordinated well. I also had a yardage for background left over from a previous project.

When Jenny Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company released her tutorial for 'Garden Stars' I knew I had all the ingredients for the perfect recipe.

The fabrics have a vintage look to them and the quilt block incorporates two sizes of 'Friendship Star' so I combined these to come up with the title.

I love how this goes right up to the edges with no border.

I used large loops to stitch an overall pattern.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:44 PM PDT

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Due to traveling and a lot of books coming in all at once from holds at the library, a couple of quilting project got set aside for a while. Our hospital chaplain will be coming to pick up the next batch one day soon when I won't be at quilting so I needed to get these moved to the 'done' pile.

The one shown today was inspired by a white print fabric with bright colored poppies. I selected bright fabrics matching all three of the colors in the print - coral, tangerine and lime.

These all sat in my stash until just the right pattern came along. I found this one in a magazine at the library. Unfortunately, I sketched it out on graph paper and didn't make a note of which magazine (brand OR issue) it was in.

Now, I had bought a whole rainbow of cones of thread to use for quilting. When I tried out the coral on this quilt I wanted to make huge free-motion poppies all over it. The thread just kept breaking and breaking! I tried new needles, different sizes of needles, different styles of needles, rethreaded..... everything they tell you to do. No effect on the breakage.

I gave up on the poppies after about 5 - 6 of them and then used the thread for straight-line quilting at varying intervals. It looks great and very modern.

This lap quilt will go to the hospital Passages program.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:59 PM PDT

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Well, since I gave a sneak peek of this quilt yesterday on the design wall, I thought I'd go ahead and update it with the top finished. It still needs to be sandwiched, quilted and bound.

I'm throwing in a step by step for some of the process, as well.

I started out with a panel of bird pictures, all camped out in the branches of one tree. There are 12 bird pictures on the panel and duplicates on the other half of the fabric.

In deciding how to arrange these I remembered I had a paper-piecing pattern for three birdhouses. I checked and they were about the right size for interspersing with the birds.

This is the pattern cover (bad photo):

I made up four of each style with a consistent sky and a mix of siding and roofs. I had to make one extra for the final layout.

I didn't want to use buttons for the entrance holes like the pattern indicated, so I used a process that I had done on a birdhouse quilt several years ago. Here's the method I used.

I set my machine stitch short (2.0) and set needle down to 'on'. I used black thread throughout.

I started with a plain house:

Then I used black pen to draw a circle on the back of a square of black fabric.

This was centered on the front of the house, right sides together and pinned in place

I very carefully stitched on the lines around the circle

With tiny, sharp-point scissors I cut a whole through both layers leaving about 3/16 from the stitching line

From whichever side the stitching showed best I snipped right up to the stitching leaving very narrow fringes

You can see how finely cut the fringes are

Pushed all of the black fabric through the hole to the wrong side of the house

Used a wooden tool to smooth and press the opening round and flat

Took to the pressing surface and steam ironed completely flat

Cut a length of wooly or eyelash yarn in light tan (amout 3 inches)

Drape it on a second square of black mimicing the curve of the bottom of the hole

Lay the birdhouse on top of the yarn, allowing just a fringe to peek out

Carefully top-stitch around the hole very close to the edge to secure the yarn and the backing in place

Trim the two layers of black about 1/2 inch from the stitching

One house done

Return houses to the layout

Trim all the birds to a standard size (mine were cut at 5 x 6 inches) and cut the birdhouse blocks the same

Assemble the top

Borders of complementary fabric were added

After quilting I will finish this with a black binding.

The top measures 27 wide by 32 tall and will be a wall hanging for the fireplace.

UPDATED 4/11/17

I finished this off by quilting around one main bird in each panel and around each birdhouse:

I attached a hanging sleeve to the top border and bound it with black.

Here is the finish:

I like this very much!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Three baby quilts in a row? What's up with that?

Our church donates to a local pregnancy clinic (Hope 360) and our quilt group that meets at the church makes donation quilts for them to give the new babies.

We have made Passages quilts for the local hospital for several years but Hope 360 is only a couple years old. Other ladies in our group have already donated several baby quilts but I had never done so. I decided to make some and, since I didn't have other projects waiting, I quickly finished off three of them.

The quilt today is from a tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Company. They called it 'Dizzy Daisies'. 

In the tutorial, they used a line of fabric that was quite subdued in coloring. I wanted to go bold and bright. I chose, from my stash, 5 bright pinks, 4 bright oranges, bright yellow, bright green, bright turquoise and crisp white.

The petals of the flowers start out as 5-inch squares and are snowballed on three sides - two white and a yellow - using 2 1/2 inch squares. Then these are joined together with the yellows together to make the flower.

The blocks were joined with 2 1/2 inch white sashing with green cornerstones. Then the turquoise border was added - also 2 1/2 inches wide.

I quilted the orange flowers like daisies (all of the flowers got spiral centers):

The pink flowers got rose-type petals:

The vertical sashing was quilted first with vines and leaves. Then the horizontal sashing got rows of tiny flowers:

The turquoise border has dragonflies printed on it so I just quilted with loop-the-loops down the length.

The binding matches the border and the backing is green flannel.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:40 PM PST

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A quilting supplies catalog arrived in my mail box just as I was looking for a pattern to make another baby quilt. One pattern looked very complicated but the notes at the bottom said it was only three blocks and showed them. All were made from squares and half-square triangles and only five fabrics required: black, a dark and a light of color one, a dark and a light of color two.

Well, I did some calculations to see what size of blocks and building units it would take to make a baby quilt between 36 to 40 inches. I cut all the units to finish at 2.5 inches. Therefore the blocks would be 7.5 inches.

Then I went off to find fabrics and was delighted to run across a set of fabrics I bought to use together and they met the criteria precicely. I had a black with tiny roses, a tone-on-tone dark green with leafy shapes, a light green with sweet peas, a dark pink with open flowers and a light pink with small white flowers.

I calculated the number of each unit I needed and cut/sewed them. Then the blocks were assembled. I needed 13 of one block and 6 of each of the other two blocks and they lay out in a 5 x 5 grid.

The assembly that makes all the cane weaving look requires that there be no sashing between the blocks.

Ready?

Don't you love it?

I used a light green flannel on the back and did large meander quilting.

A border around the outside would have broken up the pattern so I just finished it with a binding in the black floral.

Finished size is 38 inches.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:17 PM PST

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Final Finish!

I am officially caught up with all of my UFO quilting and sewing projects. 

The fabrics for this quilt were pre-cuts from a fabric line featuring a garden theme. There weren't enough strips for the pattern so I added in a few from my stash and also provided the creamy background and border from the stash.

The pattern is from a book on quilting with precuts and I cut it down considerably to end up with a lap quilt size.

I quilted with an over-all pattern of vines and leaves. I love using this when I am working with garden or flower fabrics.

I won't stay without projects for long though. I already have fabrics and patterns set aside and can't wait to get cutting again. And then there's that big fabric sale going on this weekend....

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:54 PM PST

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ANOTHER FINISH! I'm on a roll now.

I did a repeat of the Twizzle pattern used for Pixie Sticks - this time using Teal, Green and Purple. This gave it a tropical look to me leading to the name 'Tropical Twist'.

I gave this one a wide border matching the background and used that for the binding as well. This makes the pattern float above the background.

Here is the background fabric. It reminds me of coconut husk so fits the tropical theme.

Because of the pattern on the background it did not lend itself to the converging lines quilting that I used on the other quilt. So I just did stitch in the ditch quilting and called it good.

This quilt will go to the hospital Passages program.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:14 PM PST

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Today was an all day (9 am to 4 pm) quilting session at the church. We do this two Saturdays a month September through June.

My project for the day was to work on quilting one of my donations quilts that will go to the hospital's Passages program.

The pattern I started with was a free download from Craftsy.

Although it was designed with four sections of color running top to bottom I didn't want mine to be that big so I cut only three colors. When I laid them out in these vertical bars I didn't like it so I mixed the colors all together.

This has such a modern, graphic look that I decided to quilt it with converging lines running top to bottom. It really reinforces the modern look.

The name came about because these colored bars remind me of those sugar-filled straws that children so love.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:57 PM PST

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