Just Sew Something or Wisdom and Encouragement For the Process

I sat down to a quick brunch at one of the newer foodie places in town. I kinda like eating alone. It gives me time to people watch. To sit. To think. To be among people without having to be with them. Do any of you introverts know what I mean?  

Before brunch, I grabbed a copy of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. To my great delight, there's an article by Thomas Knauer. Quilter Extradordinaire. His work is beautiful, inspired and thoughtful. A lot of things I want my work to be. So I'm reading and I read: 

"Go make a lot of stuff. Let it be crappy, because it is going to be. Don't worry about screwing it up, and don't pretend you don't. Be proud of what you make, but don't be satisfied -- you can always do better and more. If you don't look back on what you made six months ago and think it is crap you are doing something wrong." - Thomas Knauer

and then my heart leaps. Not quite like baby John in the womb of Elizabeth upon coming to Mary and Jesus, but a wave of encouraged excitement washes over me. 

Because I relate. I make a lot of crap (in my opinion). I think some of it is pretty,  but it is often simple or my points don't line up or no one on IG likes it. (Wahhhhh -- not an actual problem, but more like one of the hashtag hobbyquilterprobelms).  Sometimes I make things I like, and other times, maybe even more often, I'm just glad the stitching part was fun or that I get to bind the dang thing, because the sewing is cathartic and good for me to get out of my own head even when the product isn't fabulous. 

But TK says this is okay.  That it is normal and that It's a crucial part of the design process.

So  I'm going to keep sewing "crap." I'm going to keep sewing to get better at the stitching and I'm going to play with color combinations that aren't my cup of joe to push myself and experiment.  I'm going to sew the crap, because eventually, maybe, I'll sew something I just LOVE. Something that is inspired and beautiful. Something that has a greater meaning. Something that touches someone else (and no in a blanket on the couch kind of way, although I see value in that, too).  

(Photos in this post are just some of the things I've made or am in the midst of making. Some may be crap (or have crappy parts), but I might like them, anyway). 

Ruby Dancing :: An Improv Curves Quilt inspired by Vintage Modern Quilts tutorial

The most fun day I've ever had sewing was a rainy afternoon, not long after QuiltCon, when I happened upon Vintage Modern Quilts' tutorial on Improv Curves. It was filmed at QuiltCon

Inspired and excited, I busted open a layer cake of Bonnie and Camille's famed line "Ruby" and got to work.After a couple hours and an entire bottle of Ellen's Best Press Starch alternative, I had all the blocks done and a top finished.

I racked my brain and just couldn't decide on the quilting, so the quilt sat and sat. Until one day when I saw a picture Abby Latimer of Latimer Lane Quilting posted of a feathered type of long arm pattern... and instantly I just knew that it would be perfect for my special Ruby quilt.

Off it went and soon enough it came back. I loved it, but couldn't quite decide on a binding, until I realized that the grey in their Vintage Modern line looked great with the grey in Ruby.

I still love this quilt and I really can't wait to make another Improv Curves quilt from a layer cake some day.

Back soon,

Katie

(It's Black and) White and Red All Over!

So hey, it's me! And I'm crazy excited about this quilt I'm about to show you. It's black and white and red all over... except it's only black and white on one side and red and white on the other.

I made it especially for a local red and white quilt show that is happening in my area, that is being modeled after the big old show that had in NYC some years ago.  The local show was only announced about two months ago, and while that might not be a short deadline to make a little something, it also didn't leave ample time for pondering and wandering and procrastinating.

So I got busy on pinterest and came across this lovely post about an old vintage red and white quilt and I knew immediately that I wanted to model my quilt after it.

I could tell the blocks were a simple snowball and 9-patch, but couldn't find a pattern, so I just worked out the dimensions, did some calculations and got to work. Within a solid weekend (isn) of sewing at my mom's house, I had the top pieced.

(Oh dang, my finger is there on the screen, too. Good blogger.)

And because I loved the orange peel quilting on the antique I had my mind SET on getting orange peel on this quilt. A little googling and I came across the super talented and fabulous Jessica Toye's quilting blog. (If you want something custom quilted, CHOOSE Jessica! She's fabulous to work with!)

After a few emails back and forth we had a plan! And I was more than thrilled to send it to her. And BOY did she work some custom quilting magic.... She took my orange peel idea and made it even more fabulous. (Seriously, go check out the detail pics in her post about my quilt!) I'm so very pleased with it.

And honestly, because of the quilting and the awesome Britten Numbers fabric, I like the back as much as the front.

 (I lifted this picture from Jessica...)

This quilt will be on display for several weeks in May (if you're local and want to see it, contact me and I'll send you the info) and then it's coming back to live at my house. Woohoo!

Details:
Dimensions:
Pattern: Snowball and 9-patch
Fabric: Sandy Gervais (Flirt-related?) solid for the red, Not sure about the white...
Backing: IKEA Britten Numbers
Moda: White jelly roll strips for the binding
Finished: Easter Sunday

P.S. This is my first actual QUILT to finish this year! So...go me! (hashtag "it's April, nothing to brag about")

Modern Insta Bee & February and March Bee Blocks

One thing I haven't mentioned on le blog, is that I joined an Instagram Bee {the #moderninstabee} with 12 new friends. Each month, one queen bee gets to choose her color and block options and I get to try out new fabric combinations, use scraps, and have fun sewing with women from all over North America. Pretty cool, huh? If you're on IG, I'm in Hive 3... and you can see what my hive is up to my checking out #instabee2014hive3

We are using this awesome book called Modern Bee by Lindsay Conner. There's a baker's dozen of pretty cool quilts in this book! Get yourself one!

And so far, I've gotten two months finished and shipped off!


Emily (@elephantgrace) chose this cool lattice for her for February block. She asked for bright scrappy colors with a white background!

And for March, another Emily (@emilykimlee), chose this cool triple star and she requested yellow for the bitty star, aqua-y blues for the middle star, and greys for the biggest star. Due to some traveling and not LOVING stars, I totally procrastinated making this block. Right until the very end, but once I got to the sewing HSTs into 8 pointed stars, I started having fun and ended up LOVING this block!

I'll keep posting these every few months, so you can see all the wonderful bee quilts being made!

Katie

Project Mania :: A WIP Wednesday Post

{Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced}

So it seems I have a bit of start-iris or project mania or fabric petting ADD right now. There is so much fun to be had sewing when the weather is brisk, err freezing! (And below freezing).

I have a baby quilt going for a new niece using In Color Order's Warm Cool HST quilt.

I'm finally joining in the #swoonalong and making Swoon blocks!

I have fabric washed for several more of THESE quilts (including two matching for me and my mom... because we need matching quilts like BFFs need matching necklaces).

I mean, come ON... how fun is the idea of a buddy quilt? Here's the fabric for those.

I have this fun top almost completely together... And I think I'm sending it to the quilter, so that means it is practically a finish, right?

I'm still working on a couple blocks for the Civil War Sampler QAL BOW that she and I are making. (I got a week or two behind in January---good start to the year, huh?). Here's Block 2...

And lastly, I just finished my first bee block ever for the Instragram (IG) #moderninstabee #moderninstabeehive3  It's from the book Modern Bee and is the Trellis Crossroads block. #loveit

See what I mean about project mania? I guess if I'm going to be a little crazy, at least it's a colorful fun quilty type of crazy, right? 

Katie

Civil War Sampler Block of the Week : Week 1 : The White House

I spent a good bit of 2013 sewing, but I mostly sewed things that were FAST and sort of pattern-less. One of my (unspoken) goals for this year, is to spend some time making some more complex quilts. Things that require following a pattern and don't become a finished top in an afternoon or a week. It's because I want to expand my skills and grow as a quilter...

So late in the fall, I started thinking about this and realized a good way to do this would be to do some type of quilt-a-long or block-of-the week. I got really excited about it and mentioned it to my mom and we did some investigating and have decided to quilt-a-long to Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler as a BOW.

She chose her fabrics and I chose mine.

I'm going to use Dowry, AMH True Colors, Florence and Botanics.  I love mixy scrappy things, and all of these lines, so I'm excited to see how they'll look all together.

We've set out to sew this really cool sampler quilt, in fabrics we love (even though they aren't "civil war" fabrics).

Here's my block #1 :: The White House

Moving Forward! Exciting 2014 Plans

So we're about a month into 2014 (crazy, right?), and I think it's high time that I talk about the rest of the coming year. I'm so excited about the months to come and what this year means for my quilting journey. I have a number of quilts in my brain that I want to work on and some tops in my closet that must be dealt with, ehem... finished. Yay for the possibility of finished quilts!

I'm pretty excited about all the quilts I made and finished this year...and the fact that in the last month I have become increasingly confident about quilting on my domestic machine. (Yes, only straightish-type lines, but I happen to love lines, so that's a good step forward). BUT, I'm even more excited about what's on the horizon.

So let's talk about what's to come::

Category 1: Ready for quilting

1. Etchings Pluses
2. Ruby Curves
3. Scrappy Trip Along
4. A couple Santas I made

Category 2: Tops to Finish

1. A low volume
2. A quilt made with Happy-Go-Lucky and Simply Color
3. The X and PLUS along. (I only made one block for this one, so I'm kind of on the fence about moving it forward).

Category 3: Brand New Projects

1. QuiltCon 2013 inspired
2. Giant Star x 2 or 3 (?)
3. A super Swoon
4. Civil War Sampler BOW with G

Category 4: Surprises

1. Something of a curious nature
2. Something simple and sweet

I'm going to update this list quarterly... To stay accountable. I'm hoping to get Category 1 finished by the end of March. And have some of Category 2 moved into Category 1 by that time!

I'm in no rush on Category 3 (they are just like somethings I want to prioritize before 2015!) , and Category 4 has a definite finish date, but I can't share that or I might be giving away the surprise.

I'm going to try and be better at posting pictures of some WIPs.... BUT we'll see. :-)

Perhaps in the next year I can also tackle some more free motion quilting at home and maybe even take a long-arm certification course, for those extra large quilts, but let's just wait it out and see.

Christmas Gifts Quilt

Today I'm back and I'm sharing a quilt that was a long time in the finishing....

I made the top as a shop sample last year. I didn't have it back until after Christmas, so there wasn't a big rush in finishing it.   I had it quilted over the summer and the it sat and sat. And sat and waited to be bound.

And finally, when the snow came an it was December and we still had no other Christmas decorations up, I decided it was time to just get it done. Now we can theoretically snuggle under it and watch all the Christmas movies. (Which we always say we will do, but never really do).

I'm not super into vintage anything, but for some reason I loooooved both the Cosmo Cricket line and the backing. And the Mr. at my house loooooooves anything Christmas, so it's already one of his favorites.

Details:

Fabric: The top is entirely from Cosmo Cricket's "Dear Mr. Claus" 2012 Christmas line. (Well, except the binding which is a Moda Bella Solids White).
            The backing is some awesome flannel that has the appearance of being pieced and has a bunch of gorgeous vintage images all meshed together. (Sorry, I don't know the manufacturer or designer of it).

Pattern:  It is from the free pattern Moda released with the line. I'm not a big pattern follower, so this doesn't really look like much of what I have done recently. But I love it anyway.

Size: 58" x 71"

Quilted: Snowflakes Motif (in cream on the top and a sage-y green on the back)

His and Hers. Quilts for my Grandad and Nana

So last spring when I was visiting my mom, we got into a sewing frenzy and had so much fun digging through her stash! She has a bit of everything. From girly to masculine, primitive to modern, bright to lower contrast (or volume for the trendy types). You could seriously make a quilt for just about anyone with her fabrics and I'm blessed to have access to it.

While stash diving, I was so inspired by two very different sets of fabric.

One looked like a life spent with horses. There were denim-y blues, tans and creams and was filled with designs that reminded me of barb wire fences, the American flag's stars, and good old pearl snap shirts with Wranglers or Levis (your choice).

One set was gorgeous light blues and buttery yellows and several shades of the prettiest pinks. It had flowers of many sizes and pin dots and stripes.

These fabrics, to me, represented two very important people: my Nana and my Grandad. Because they are married to each other (!) and have been for over 70 years (what an amazing legacy is that?), we used the same basic design to represent the sameness that comes from being a couple. But we wanted to acknowledge that they are still individuals with their own preferences and personalities, so the fabrics and the quilting are different.

His is quilted with cowboy motifs of horses and stars and guns.

Hers is quilted with gorgeous roses.  

I delivered these while I was home visiting a few weeks back, as early birthday presents, so hopefully they've both opened them already!

"Humanity Contained" A Quilt for Me!

Shortly after QuiltCon I got on a sewing spree and made a ton of (okay, like 5) quilt tops all using the same method.

At that time, I didn't know that deconstructed 9-patch blocks existed, but I sewed a bunch of charm squares together and cut them apart ever other row and then unpicked seams going the other direction and created what I now know is called a deconstructed 9-patch block. After the first top, when I used the unpicking method, I figured out that I could  actually just sew 9-patch blocks together and just cut those apart. I had so much fun doing it that I kept making more of them. And I just love them!

But I actually have only completely finished one of the tops (thus, far) and here it is:

One of the tops (that isn't finished yet) was made with the Asbury prints by Thomas Knauer. I started calling it Joy Contained, because the 9-patch blocks were all contained between the sashings and borders, but the colors are so dang pretty and joyful, that it just fit.


In this version, the bright joyful prints from Comma, like the asterisks and atoms and polka dots in bright yellow and orange and green, reminded me of everything good and "bright" (as in smart) and thoughtful about humans... But the greys and blacks, coupled with the blacks I used in sashing and border, darkened the whole quilt and the News print, reminded me of socialism  and communism  and Orwell's1984 and a world where everything is numbered and humanity is controlled by the government. So, combining all of those thoughts, I jokingly started referring to this version of my (not-so-clever) deconstructed 9-patch as Humanity Contained.  And now, that is its name.


Also, the name inspired use of the old-school jail-like-black-and-white-stripe on the back and the news print as a portion of the binding... like a bar code for the quilt so it can be accounted for.

I think my quilt guild thought I was crazy when I presented it and explained all of this at Show and Tell, but everything reminds me of something else so I shared anyway.

Details:

Fabrics:
     Block fabric and middle border: Comma Layer Cake
     Sashing and first black border: An old black strip from Debbie Mumm
     Outer border: An old Jinny Beyer print
     Binding: Moda Bella Solid in Black and Comma News in White
     Backing: Something cool from my mom's stash mixed with a white and black stripe that resembles a jail print and Comma News in Black.

Blocks: Deconstructed 9-Patch with Sashing

Started: March 2013
Finished: May 2013

WIP Wednesday: Un-quilting (mostly)

Linking up again with Freshly Pieced.

 So I didn't make as much progress on as many WIPs last week as I wanted to, but I did successfully turn one WIP into a Finish!! It is the cutest little bright baby boy quilt! 

I also started the quilting on this little pretty, but am now, unfortunately, in the process of ripping it out.

 

The backing puckered! So thanks to the advice of IG and my mom, I'm going to re-baste it and try again. I thought I had it as taught as I needed, but apparently not.  See the damage:

Yikes! At least I can rip it out while sitting on the couch watching old One Tree Hill episodes.
Hopefully I'll have more progress on my x and plus blocks by next week! And maybe have another finish or brand new WIP to report as well.

Thanks for checking in! 

Any Way You Go :: A Little Man Baby Quilt for Jude

So in the vein of sewing baby quilts for old roommates, I bring you a new baby quilt story: version 3.

This one is for a former roomie who is a bright and wonderful woman! She is full of life and joy and I totally missed her wedding last May (and neglected to send a gift, too). Tacky me.  I know.  I'm totally embarrassed about that, but I really want to make it up to her.... so I wanted to sew a special quilt for her first baby, a little boy who should be here on or before next Saturday.

I'm so pleased that I actually finished this before he arrived. Now, I just hope it gets TO him, via the USPS, before he is born.  I started it Super Bowl Sunday. I had the top pieced the next morning. Had it basted and was quilting it the next Tuesday. I attempted FMQ for the first time (on a real quilt on it). My stippling was decent. My long loops were OK, too. But I got stumped after that, so the top sat in my closet, haunting me when I dug in my stash, for the next four weeks. Finally, a week or so ago, I pulled it out, ripped out the old quilting, and started quilting it from the back, simply following the chevron lines.

It is not perfect. Not even close. But I absolutely love it and how bright it turned out.  I really hope my friend and her first little one love it, too.

Details:

Pattern: Quick Triangles Baby Quilt Tutorial from Lindsay Sews (this is an awesome tutorial, with a TON of layout options. Not too mention that it is super speedy because the blocks are large.

Fabrics: A collection of bright prints from my stash with a large yellow and white chevron print for the back.

Quilting: By me, straight lines following the chevron backing.

Finished: April 13, 2013

QuiltCon 2013: Denyse Schmidt Lecture and Quilts

Well, I'm finally back with another QuiltCon 2013 post. I promised to show photos of her quilts and a few tidbits from her lecture, so without further ado...

my favorite quilts from the Denyse Schmidt exhibit at QuiltCon.

The Straight and Narrow #2.

Cotton, linen. 2011. Courtesy Ralph Pucci International.

(The Straight and Narrow #2, detail of fabrics and quilting)

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4 Crosses, steel.

Cotton, designed 2008, produced 2013.

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Glasshouse Shelves.

 Cotton. Designed 2008, produced 2013.

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Roots, ginger. 

Cotton. 1998. Collection of Wendy Marquardt.

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Hope as the Anchor of the Soul #2.

Mount Lebanon Series New.

New and vintage cotton and linen. 2010. Collection of Greg Couch.

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String Theory, red, from the Denyse Schmidt for Sarita Handa Collection.

Cotton, 2005.

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Pretty Square, fog, from the Denyse Schmidt for Sarita Handa Collection. 

Cotton, 2004-2005.

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Courthouse Steps. 

Cotton, 2009. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing these.

If you have a chance to see them in person, go! They are wonderful.

And if you can ever listen to Denyse speak, go! She's wonderful and hilarious.

Some highlights from her lecture:

She began her quilting journey when she moved to a new place (New Jersey I believe) to live with a boyfriend and needed to make friends. 

She took a stone carving class and for one assignment she carved the saying:

"My Mother Said Nothing Is Ever Written In Stone."

She created a font for text and showed us pictures of it being used on the backs of semi trailers (which she loves to take pictures of and look at because they are of similar size to quilts). One of those trailers was for a fish company with the slogan: Meat Without Feet!

Lastly, she said she designs and plans quilts for beds. So every quilt is designed to look good when draped over a bed. 

Katie