Experiments in the Quilting World

Sometimes the best things come from  no planning.  Lesson: life does not have to be over planned all the time.  When it comes to my quilting (and piecing) I always have some sort of plan in place.  I have an extremely hard time just letting things flow.  I need direction.

A few months ago after I discovered Marti at 52 Quilts and her Susie's Magic Binding (my new favorite binding) my local guild asked if I would do a demo this month to explain how the method works.  They were in love with the new binding on my quilts.  Now a few things you should know about Tish...she is NOT a public speaker.  You stick me in front of people (even if I know almost all of them) and make me speak I will shake like a leaf.  I have even passed out before (sad I know)...can't control it, it just happens.  So I wanted my presentation to go as smooth and quick as possible.  My plan was to demo the binding on my Indian Summer wall hanging from my TBT post from March. (you can read about this poor neglected quilt here)

The goal was to have the binding mostly sewed on (I showed how to make the strips separately to save time) so I could show how to turn a corner and connect the tails.  Ah, connecting the tails...this seems to be something that either:

 A) I get correct and lined up the very first time
 B) takes a million times and wine to accomplish.

Since drinking at the guild meeting and having a melt down probably wasn't the best plan, I decided maybe I should have another small quilt with tails connected in case I couldn't get it right the first time.  So on Saturday (two days before the demo) I decided to give something a try I hadn't before.  Flow quilting or Wild Quilting.

After seeing Beth at Cooking Up Quilts amazing whole cloth baby quilt (check it out) a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to give this type of quilting a go.  So I decided it was time to watch Christina Cameli's Wild Quilting class I had purchased from Craftsy.

In this class Christina talks about showboats, those bigger elements you add in your quilting and how to highlight them (embrace the echo).  I decided that I would have one large showboat that would be a big billowing feather (thank you Patsy Thompson and Ultimate Free-Motion Feathers).  Then I would organically fill the area around my feather with pebbles and sprinkle in some paisleys and what turned into this seaweed looking shape.

I started with a yard cut of plain blue green fabric.  I knew that my finished piece would not be this big, but I wanted to let the quilt tell me where it was going and give it plenty of room to grow.  So I lightly marked a spine for my feather, got my Aurifil #2021 (natural white) and let the plumes bloom.  Do plumes bloom?

After adding the echo, it was time to throw down some pebbles and see how this played out.

After two paisley combos and some surprise double pebbles (can you spot them?) I had to stop.  No really I ran out of bobbin.  But also I was feeling a bit over whelmed about where to go next.  I was totally over thinking things and worrying about the roundness of my pebbles so....

I opened a bottle of sweet sunshine and relaxed a bit.  In no time at all I had found my groove again and that's when I added the suppose to be pea pods/but turned into seaweed shapes.

I called this the halfway point slept on it and picked back up Sunday morning.  The second stitching went much faster because I understood better how I was moving around the quilt.  After a bit of trimming my first wild quilting piece was complete!  I have to say I was on cloud 9.  I did it!   I want to do more!!

This is just a small sample of things that Christina goes over in the class.  My next goal is to play around with layering and combining the technique with showboats.  It also makes me realize the importance of documenting all the quilting motifs you know how to do.  I want to quilt or record (doodles) in a notebook of all the different things I know how to quilt; ribbon candy, pebbles, paisley, etc, so that when I get stuck I have something to glance at and find inspiration.

So how did the demo go?  I think it went really well.  Sandra (mmm! quilts) was sending me positive vibes and assuring me I wouldn't let my goober side show.  I did start out shaking a bit (goober side), but after a few minuets of talking it stopped and my love for what I was doing shinned through.  I got my tails connected (pretty darn close) and was able to get Indian summer bound in front of the group.  I handed out little slips of paper directing the ladies to Aunt Marti's blog so they could view her tutorial and video after they got home.  Success.  So without further ado...Indian Summer as it should have been.

I'm glad I waited all these years, this binding is what it needed.

And how about one more picture of my flow piece?

I'm seriously considering creating a slightly bigger piece to enter into the machine quilting division of our local quilt show, but I have a few things I need to accomplish before that can happen.  I'm all revved up and ready to quilt again.  So on that note, it's time for me to go.  Let's go quilt!!

Today I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop! TGIFF, Free Motion Maverics, Needle and Thread Thursday, Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, Sew Cute Tuesday, and Linky Tuesday.

For more information on Christina Cameli's Wild Quilting and Patsy Thompson's Ultimate Free Motion Feathers click on the pictures below.

And this just in...Sale-A-Bration Alert!  For a very limited time, you'll find top designers, beloved brands and much more marked down on Craftsy  With up to 60% off best-selling kits and supplies, you can shop 'til you drop!  Hurry, the deals end Sunday.  Click on any of the pictuers below to check out these awesome deals.

Winter Star--Finish

This finish feels like it has been a long time coming, so I am very happy to share it with you today.  This is the last of the Aurifil Mystery Designer mini quilts from 2015.  It completes my set of 12 minis.  The finial one.  The pattern is called Winter Stars and was designed by Celine Perkins. (You can read Pat Sloan's interview with Celine here)  Celine's version of Winter Stars showed a wonderful off white print for the background fabric and rich deep blues for the stars.  When I started piecing my version I was getting quite tired of the color white.  We were in the middle of snow storm Jonas and this was the view from my sewing room.

I still wanted my quilt to have a winter feel so I decided on switching the colors a bit.  I wanted a back ground of dark blue with bright pops of white stars.  When I found the fabric with the little anchors I was in love.

Piecing went pretty quick with this one.

In no time at all I had flying geese and strips sets assembled into blocks.

The snow stopped falling, the sun came out again and I found myself with a completed top.  I decided to trek out into the snow for a few scenic shots of quilt tops.  I thought this would be the perfect chance to see Winter Stars against the snow.  

I figured by the time this one was quilted the spring peepers (tiny frogs) would be chirping again...and I was right.

The quilting plan for this one came together very quickly.  This mini knew exactly what it wanted as soon as the markers hit the Plexiglas.  My love for tiny pebbles and the ease of quilting dot-to-dot designs ruled the design.  (check out my Craftsy review of Angela Walter's Dot-to-Dot quilting class.  If you have not tried this simple form of quilting you are missing out.)

I knew I wanted my thread to match as closely as possible.  I found two spools in my stash that would work for the lighter blue sections.  I went with the gray spool on the right, it just blended better.

None of my blue spools quite worked with this project.  Most of them were not even close in shade or seemed to bright against the fabric.  I hopped over to Hawthorn Threads to check out the color chart of Aurifil 50w thread.  I narrowed it down to two spools that I felt certain would work and ordered both of them.  We all know I will use that other spool eventually...I LOVE THREAD.  This is my only complaint about online ordering, sometimes you just have to have the spool in your hand.

I am glad I ordered both spools.  I was leaning toward the one on the right based on the online pictures but the one on the left worked like a charm.  Now with my spools chosen it was time to put thread to fabric.  Let the quilting begin!

The only lines I marked where the straight diagonal lines breaking up my background.  I used my walking foot to quilt them.  Everything else was pure free motion fun.

For my background I stuck with pebbling and a continuous curvy line.  The stars and patchwork blocks had various dot-to-to lines and curves.  Let me officially introduce you to the Aurifil thread that brought this creation to life.

#2021 natural white, #2610 light blue grey and #2785 very dark navy

And how about a few more goody shots before we wrap up?

And of course I framed my quilt using Susie's Magic Binding method over at 52 Quilts

2016 has brought with it a new Aurifil Designer Mystery BOM.  Pat Sloan releases the new block around the 15th of each month over at her free pattern page.  I believe 2015 was the first time they tried the mini quilt a month.  I'm not sure how well it went over, but I loved it!  I hope they will consider doing it again in the future.  But it is never too late to make one of the mini's from last year.  Here is a recap of all the Aurifil Mini's I made from last year.  For more details hop on over to my Aurifil Mini Gallery.

Now that my 2015 goal of finishing all these little babies is complete, it is time to recharge, refocus and complete some of my 2016 goals.  One of those goals included more pattern writing.  Last year I participated in the Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop and created Watermelon Taffy.  I am happy to announce I will be participating in the New Block Blog Hop again this year hosted by Paintbrush Studio.

The hop will be at the end of the month and is being hosted by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs and Stephanie at Late Night Quilter and will run March 28th through the 30th.  I hope you will stop back by to see what I come up with.  Will there be a ton of tiny pieces in my block or will I go with something simple?  We shall see my friends.

Come join the party!  Today I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday, Whoop There It Is,  Can I Get A Whoop! Whoop!, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Let's Bee Social and Midweek Makers.

OMG--March

Last month I participated in Red Letter Quilt's OMG Linky Party and had great success.  My goal was to make a Mini Swoon Quilt and I did.

Read more about my Mini Swoon here.

So this month I thought I would give myself a kick in the pants and participate again.  Actually the end of this month scares me a bit.  Back in January, I set a few goals for myself publicly (thank you my blog) and the end of March I should be checking back in to see how things are going.  Some are going great and others...ehhhh.  My OMG goal will at least put me a step in the right direction with my long term goal of finishing a UFO a quarter.  This month I will tackle my Labyrinth Quilt done in batiks.  It's a smaller quilt measuring around 56 inches.

I think this one managed to fall by the wayside over the years, because every time I set down to plan its quilting, I get overwhelmed by all the possibilities, chicken out, and fold it neatly and put it back in the pile.  That will not happen this month.  NO! It will be finished.

So the other evening I pulled out my trusty markers and plexiglas and tried a few things out.

Will any of these designs make the cut?  Honestly, I'm not quite sure yet.  The quilt is trying to talk to me but I haven't quite deciphered what it's saying.  I have backing fabric, batting and my threads have been picked out.

Now all I have to do is finish the December Aurifil mini Winter Stars by Celine Perkins and I will be on my way with Labyrinth.

Hopefully, if you check back in within the next week, I can show you all the fun I had with this little guy.  With my daughter's archery tournament being in town this weekend, I'm not sure how much stitching will actually take place, so it may be a bit longer till I'm finished.  But I promise you will love it.

Today I'm posting my commitment to my goal over at Red Letter Quilts March OMG Linky Party.  What better way to celebrate goals and finishes than with friends?  Hop over and join the party.

Indian Summer--TBT

**WARNING: This post may contain pictures that are not for the weak of quilting heart.  It has received a rating of M for "mess" due to the graphic nature of a disorganized house, many stray animal hairs (if you look closely) and beginning quilting skills.  This post may induce fainting spells or rapid head shaking.  If these should occur, quickly press the back page button and cease reading. **

Okay, so maybe things aren't quite that bad, but I do have several issues with this small wall hanging from my quilty past.  I was looking for something small and easy to piece that I could practice quilting on.  I found the pattern for Indian Summer Wall Hanging by Kim Sherrod on Moda Bake Shop and thought it would be the perfect fit for my need.  So to my LQS I trotted to find fabric to make this small quilt.

I immediately fell in love with this fabric.  There was something about the brown, the green leaves and those cute little berries that made me have to have it.  So I quickly went to work trying to match some fat quarter to the greens, reddish oranges and find some nice neutrals.  Sigh...epic fail.

I'd like to think that if I tried to match fabrics up today I would do a much better job.  Why someone didn't try to intervene, makes me scratch my head still to this day.  There had to have been much better choices among the racks of bolts, but no, I left very confidently with these fabrics.  After I got home and starting putting it all together, I realized maybe my orange was a bit too orange and there could have been better contrast with my neutrals.

But onward I pressed, determined to quilt it.  I remember being so mad at this quilt after I finished the quilting, but now after time has passed, I realize the quilting isn't so bad.

These little cross hash sections are probably one of the things I'm most proud of.  I'm not sure I could do them that well today, so I will give myself a pat on the back for that.

I attempted stippling in the small tan-ish diamonds of the star.  I used a brown thread in my bobbin and tan thread on top.  Those little brown dots represent little hand/feet speed issues that would eventually start working themselves out with practice.  Lesson learned, matching threads on top and bottom can hide a whole bunch.  But before I decided on the meander in these spaces, I thought I would throw some beautiful feathers in there.  How hard could it be??

Let's just say much harder than I expected.  It looked awful!  I got most of the tiny plumes picked out.  It was so hard to pick out all of those microscopic uneven stitches, I thought I would just leave the stem and cover it with the meandering.  Tattooing and quilting both require drawing with needles.  I figured this would be like a bad tattoo cover up. (I love watching the talented Dirk Vermin star of Bad Ink)  I would just throw some more thread down and ta da beautiful texture.  Nope, not how things work.  Not in tattooing or quilting.  There is a definite skill in making bad work look good.  I did not have it.

So, why not try some free hand leaves and a vine in a border?

Ummm...I think you get what I was going for, but let's face it, it's leaves only my mother could love...cause she has to.  She's my mom!  And check out the outside border.  It's a new design I came up with called Hot Mess Meandering.  You should try it sometime.  Bwhahaha!

I was so mad and frustrated with myself when I finished this quilt, I never bound it.

How disrespectful can one quilter be??  And to make matters worse, this poor little wall hanging, that did absolutely nothing wrong has lived it's life as a mere catch all for our house hold junk.

Please don't even try to analyze this pile of junk.  To Kill a Mockingbird beside Married with Children obviously these people are not stable.  And clearly they must have four teenagers who play video games.  Or that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

If you take anything away from this story, life is all about perception and perspective, and those views easily change over time.  We are our own worst critics.  Everyone starts somewhere.  At the time when I quilted this I was ready to jump off a free motion cliff and not come back.  Doesn't that make me seem like such a drama queen?  We've all done it.  Today I can look at it, laugh and say, it's really not that bad.  What was my problem?? (hey maybe I'll even bind it now)  Don't be afraid to try.  Heck, be prepared to fail.  Failure is good as long as you learn and grow from it.  Ok, time to get down off this soap box.  Could someone please get me a ladder?  I'm scared of heights!

This concludes my installment for Throw Back Thursday over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge.  If you have some time pop over and check out everyone's look back at projects from quilty pasts.  We all have a past, let's laugh and cry together.

Today I'm linking up at Tuesday Archives, and Can I Get A Whoop! Whoop!