Big, Complicated Finish

Hi Everyone,

I was trying to wait for a nice day to take some outdoor photos, but after we had thunder, lightning, pouring rain and then snow and wind all in 24 hours, I decided it probably wasn't going to happen, so I will have to settle for showing you the photos I took inside.

After fixing my problem border sections, it wasn't too difficult to get all the border completed and sewn on the quilt, finishing my part of my big, complicated project that I wanted to make last year.

I have it hanging on the soffit of my basement.  It will be a king-sized quilt and measures 114" square.

It's from Judy Martin's "Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts."

I love how you get curves and circles, but all of the pieces are rectangles or squares!


Now I need to get it to the long-armer.

After finishing such a major project, I felt compelled to clean up my sewing room.  Do you ever do that or do you keep things tidy all the time?  I tend to make a mess as I sew and then clean up after.  I even vacuumed!

Have a wonderful day,
JoAnne

A Big, Big Finish

Goodness, it has been nearly a year ago since I first saw this:



It was a wall-hanging sized quilt in McCalls from last year's May/June issue.  I fell immediately in love and knew it would be our next bed quilt.  In the meantime I had to move from Hawaii to Virginia and boy that was a long process that wasn't really complete until August and in the midst of it all, we got a new, king-sized bed, so I had to refigure everything. 

I began making star blocks.  A few weeks ago I had this stack of 84 or so.  I needed 100.




I got them all done but it was NO FUN sewing all those star blocks to each others.  The seam allowances were all pressed the same way.  It was sewing over hills and valleys.  Luckily, when I complained about it here, many of you wrote to say I could do it!  And so I perservered.

Then I began on the borders.  Around the big block of 100 stars went a cream border (cut at 2" finishing at 1.5") then a navy border (also cut 2") a gold border (cut 1" finishing at .5") and then another red border (cut 2.")  I was about to start the red borders when I realized my math was wrong and that I "grew" the quilt by nearly 2 inches.  UGH!  I had to rip off all the borders down to the cream one and begin again.

I got the inner borders all on and began with the double-sawtooth borders.  When I make half-square triangles, I cut a bit larger and then trim them down to the correct measurement so that they fit perfectly.  There was a lot of trimming to do, but Harry Potter on the audiobooks helped pass the time.  I think I've listened to all all those books at least 10 times, if not more.  They entertain me, but if I miss part of it, no big deal.

Anyway, Saturday morning was the big day!  I finished!!!!!  Next up, photography.  Only it rained or snowed most of the day.  Sunday morning it was sunny, but still a bit slushy, so we waited.  Finally, in the afternoon it was a bit breezy, but otherwise okay to take photos.


TA DA!!!

It finishes at 108" square.  King-sized!  I was really liking it all blue and white, but once I added the first red border, it really started singing to me!

Here is a detail of those pesky inner borders which I had to remove and redo.

 

Cream, navy, gold, and red. 

 

I almost didn't use the gold border, but I think that it brings a lot to the party.  That little jolt of difference really packs a punch.

 

 



  I love the variety of blues in the stars.  If we look at the whole thing again, notice how the different blues shimmer across the quilt.

It was a bit windy, but my darling husband managed the quilt on a ladder, clamped to a length of bamboo.

The original quilt was designed by Lynn Lister.  I enlarged the stars to finish at 8" and my large sawtooth border consisted of 6" half-square triangles and the smaller one is made of 3" half-square triangles.  Changing the sizes of the units helped keep my much-larger project more in scale to hers, but also allowed me to make far less stars than I would have needed if they were smaller. 

I am so tickled that this project is finally done--except for the long-arm quilting.  I'll be sending it off soon.

Maybe it will actually make it onto the bed before winter is technically over!

I hope you all have a great day!
JoAnne

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a quilt that I made and donated to my quilt guild to raffle at our meeting Tuesday night.   I particularly like the middle left heart.

I fussy-cut it.

Do any of you have special plans for the day?  I don't think we do.  We will probably exchange cards and that is about it.  We are sort of beyond the romatic gesture-phase in our relationship where the day requires over-priced or drooping-head roses.  I would rather have a cheerful bouquet on a different day.  We will also avoid going out to dinner as the crowds are not worth it.  Friday is a day off for my husband (Monday too) so I expect we will do something fun then--maybe lunch out or something. 

I spent yesterday unsewing nearly all that I had done on Tuesday.  Ugh!  Thanks to all of your encouragement, I got all 100 stars pieced together for my king-sized quilt and I had begun to do the borders.  There is a cream one, then a navy, then a gold, and then a red.  After the red comes a large pieced sawtooth border of hsts.  Since I have enlarged the pattern, I didn't have the necessary measurments.  I "figured" them out on paper and set about sewing them on.  All 4 of the cream.  All 4 of the navy.  All four of the gold.  This morning I started out to work on the red.  But something wasn't quite right.  The interior of the quilt (the stars) finished at 80" so it was 80.5"  The cream, navy, gold, and red borders finish at 5" so that when on, the quilt will now measure 90.5"  (to finish at 90")  I have to have a number divisible by 6 so that the pieced sawtooth borders fit.  The problem was that my borders were mostly on and the quilt was going to end up being 92!"  What had happened?  I went over it all a few times.  Finally, I realized that I had forgotten to take off the quarter inch seam allowances of the center of the quilt each time I did the figuring to determine the lenth of the next borders.  This made the quilt grow by a half inch with each round.  I was surprised that I hadn't noticed an extra half inch when I was applying them.  I even cut and pin, but I guess losing a half inch in a length over 80 inches is pretty easy.  Nothing was left to do but to rip them all off.  Luckily I hadn't messed up the first one, so the cream could stay on. 

It took about two hour-long tv shows to get them all off.  My stitch was tiny!  This is a good place to mention that I got new glasses early last week and I'm still not used to them.  My new prescription is drastically different than my old, so they said it would take awhile.  Well, it wasn't fun trying to see those tiny stitches, but I perservered.  Once I got them off, I pressed them, recut them, and sewed them back on.  Luckily the borders were too long and not too short!!!!!!

So today I shall go back up and begin (again) with the red border and then start making tons of HSTs for the sawtooth borders.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!
JoAnne

A Distraction

Good Morning Everyone!

I began my morning by waking up and hearing the rain drumming down on the roof, lashing against the window, and the wind howling.  This is our part of the "big storm."  Luckily we won't be getting the snow.  It is the kind of day that I would love to spend all cozy in my quilt room, but I have to go out this morning.  The occasion is quilt guild, though, so it will be a fun outing.

Lately I have been "busy" with these.

 

This pile is 84 sawtooth star blocks.  I need 100 for the king-sized quilt I'm making for our bed.  Winter is nearly over (if we are to believe the groundhog) and my husband keeps mentioning that our bed is quilt-less.  Anyway, since I took this photo, I finished all the blocks (plus a few extras) and have laid out 70 of them.  My design wall only holds that many, so I will put them together and then lay out the other 30.  Usually when I get to this stage of my project, the momentum really pushes me to the end, however, I'm having the opposite situtation with this project. 

 

I constructed all of these blocks the same way.  My problem in putting them together is that all the seams are pressed the same way--the seam allowances do not nestle!  So, all those points have to be matched and all the bulk is in the same places.  It is a little like stitching hills and valleys!  Anyway, I used the Fit to Be Geese ruler when I constucted the stars, so at least they are matching nicely.  Since the seams are such a disaster, I'm choosing to press them open to help distribute the bulk, and I must add that trying to press a really long strip open on a shorter ironing board is "challenging" and less than fun.  And so far, I've only done sets of two of the long strips!  I'm dreading sewing them into larger pieces, sigh. 

 

You can't be surprised to find out that I've found other things that I "needed to get done."  I got caught up on the Temecula Quilt Co.'s row quilt.  Next I remembered that Mary from Quilt Hollow had alerted me to a project that made her think of me in the new April issue of American and Patchwork Quilting.  I picked it up at the store and browsed through it.  At first I didn't see anything, but then I finally spotted it.  This project was shown in an alternate color story.  Now usually I don't care for a one-block quilt, so I disregarded it for a bit.  I kept looking at the picture, though, and yesterday I carried the magazine up to my quilt room with me.  I started pulling fabric to see what I had that would work, and then I began cutting, and well, one thing led to another and the next thing I knew my husband was calling to say he was on his way home from work.  It was nearly 7 pm and I had no clue what was for supper.  I had sunk into that wonderful "no distractions, no realization of time, etc." quilt mode!!!  I love that, especially since I've been so distracted lately!

 

Luckily my husband is very understanding and sweet about me not making supper and so we just had a "heat and eat" meal and then I disappeared back upstairs and came down a couple hours later with this:

 

 

I taped the flimsy to my mantle.  It fits there just perfectly--and I can get a nice picture of it hanging.  I'm really loving it!  This year is my year to improve my machine quilting and I'm taking a class in a few weeks on feathers, so this quilt is going to be perfect to "custom" quilt.   I can't thank Mary enough for putting me onto this project!

 

Meanwhile, back on the design wall....   I really hope I can refocus on the project and get it done!  But of course the next row is going to be published at Temecula Quilt Co.!

 

Have a great day!  I hope your weather is better than mine!

JoAnne

Completed Patriotic Quilt

A while ago I blogged about completing this quilt top.

I decided to have it custom quilted so I sent it to Sandi and I got it back last week!  I bound it and have been waiting for the opportunity to photograph it to share with you all.

When visulaizing the quilting that I wanted, I knew the border would be a large focus.  With the applique in two of the corners, I wanted more elaborate quilting in the empty corners.

 My other desire was to have the applique outlined, so it would puff up.  I also wanted feathers or stars--I didn't want to introduce any other shape.  Other than that, I let Sandi decide what she wanted.
I love the background quilting around the star blocks.  It is "McTavishing" which I had heard of but was unfamiliar with.  I need to try it myself!

 I love the feathers!  She did such a great job on the quilting!  I'm really pleased.

This is the border with the applique.  I really wanted the piano keys when I saw them on another quilt that she quilted.  I know they were a bit tedious for her, but they look so awesome.  I really like that they contribute a "stripe" motif to this patriotic star quilt!

 The empty corners of the border are filled with curvy feathers.  I love, love the transitions between them and the piano keys.

A picture of the back--because that is where you really get the full impact of all the quilting.  You can see on the back the cables that she quilted into the navy borders.  I LOVE what Sandi did to turn this nice top into a gorgeous quilt! 

We are off for one more Island Hop to the Big Island.  When we get back I will be in full on moving mode.  The packers and movers will be done two weeks from today!  I can't wait.  The chaos that will take over between now and then drives me nuts!  Meanwhile, I'm trying to photograph other quilts that I have made in the past so that I have something to show you this summer.

Aloha,
JoAnne

Exciting Email

Can anything possibly be more thrilling than to wake up way over here in Hawaii (6 hours later than Eastern time) and find an email from a custom quilter containing photos of your finished quilt!! 

I sent this quilt to Sandi Zuker who blogs here at the recommendation of Mary at Quilt Hollow.  I had initially asked Mary to quilt it, but she was pretty busy.  I suspected Linda at the Quilted Pineapple was pretty busy, too, but I had no idea she was quilting for famous people!  (I'm so thrilled for her!)

Anyways, I got up this morning and checked my email and there was the magic message from Sandi saying the quilt was done and in the mail and there were also pictures!!  Oh my goodness!  It looks so fabulous!

It is also perfect timing!  I will get the quilt and have time to bind it and be able to share it at our Guild's Show and Tell and then let the packers pack it. 

Anyways, I can't write much longer--I have to go cut binding!!!!!!  Oh, and I also have Doc layered and hope to get him quilted this afternoon.

Aloha,
JoAnne

Top Finally Finished

After hauling this around for over a year as my "handwork" project to bees and other quilt groups, I finally completed this top!

This is the overview and below is a detail shot of one of the corners.

Now I'm considering the quilting.  I could do it myself and it would be great.  But, I could get it custom quilted and it would be a masterpiece.  I'm leaning towards the second option right now.  I have only had three quilts custom quilted so far so it isn't something I often do.  The third one is on it's way home now, and I haven't yet seen it.   It is pretty exciting!

It was a gorgeous day in Hawaii today.  I spent it running errands, cleaning the bathrooms, and washing the sheets and hanging them outside to dry.   Sun-dried sheets are somewhere in my top 5 all time things! What are the rest, you may be asking?  They are, in no particular order:  trees, hot baths (NEVER underestimate the power of hot water for making any thing, any situation--aside from a burn--better) quilting, and of course, my beloved husband.

Aloha,
JoAnne