Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Quilts in the works

Cursed Fabric

by

Sarah, my daughter, and I both make quilts. Lots of quilts. But, we seem to take turns – sort of. As she was packing her things to go back home this weekend, after staying overnight with us, she pushed the box of fabrics at me and then reached to take them back. We both laughed, but then things got serious.

“Are you keeping them?” she asked.

“No, you take them. Don’t you have something to make with them?” I asked back.

“No, but you never use them!” she said.

“Well…… I could make some thing if you leave them here………” was my reply.

“Who ever has this box never makes a quilt!” We both blurted out at the same time, and then laughed nervously, because we both suddenly realized it was true.

When she’s making quilt after quilt, updating her blog and Facebook with pictures of projects, I seem to be tied up with other (non-quilting) projects and all my fabrics are haphazardly stashed in bins and boxes.

When I’m head down and working, testing designs, fabrics and layouts, I can’t even get her to LOOK at a quilt with me. She’s busy with her daughter, her husband, her friends or all three and life in general. We NEVER work on quilts at the same time, and each one give the other one a hard time about it. There’s lots of snide remarks, mumbled comments and sticking out of tongues. Fabric snatching from the other person’s stash has been known to happen, as well as accusations of missing project pieces.

Maybe someday we will work on quilts together, but I am guessing not anytime soon. Meanwhile I have the cursed fabrics. That means she better get to quilting. 🙂

Finishing Up

by

I spent some time sorting out fabrics and unfinished projects this morning. The unfinished projects pile is now larger than my “stash” pile of fabrics. That’s good about the fabrics, but now the projects are nagging me. I am a member of the “Stashbusters” group on Yahoo and every day I read about the quilters who are successfully using their stash of fabrics. It has been good for me to be a member of that group – the messages are very inspirational and motivational 🙂

But, they talk a lot too about finishing up projects. The acronyms used just crack me up! PIGS (projects in grocery bags); WHIMMS (Works I have in my mind); and so many more. Believe me, I have lots of those too.

I had never collected enough fabric to open a shop, like some of the quilters I know, but I had collected more than I want to be saddled with and it’s time to use them up. I still have lots of “Whimms” that I want to make, but like so many other quilters, I am making a vow: Finish one (or two) before starting something new. Oh, and stay off eBay for a while (wish me luck on that, it probably won’t happen 🙂

The Story of Penny’s Quilt

by

Back in the mid 1990’s I started quilting and it didn’t take long before I fell in love with machine quilting. I machine quilted for Trish Stuart, who had just made the transition from making patterns to making self-published books. We made a great team! I went to Quilt Market a few times with Trish and meanwhile my friend Penny had started quilting – and Penny does everything GUNG HO!
PQsm
Penny and I decided to go to spring Quilt Market to help Trish launch her new book “Color Art” in 2002. The first day was a blast but that night in the hotel room Penny was sick. So sick that we had to take her to the hospital – and there she stayed for 3 weeks. It was incredible trauma for us all and for Penny, who is NEVER sick!

Trish made this quilt for Penny and I promised to quilt it for her but I’ve run into difficulty (as have Trish and Penny) over the past years – and with moving, giving the quilt back to her, moving again, getting it back and re-promising to quilt it, I am thrilled to say that Penny’s Quilt is quilted!

I made two videos to go along with it – the first one tells the story of Penny’s Quilt. It’s an important story to three people – me, Penny and Trish. Probably not too interesting to anyone else, but I wanted to make the video. The lighting isn’t good – I’m still learning how to judge lighting.

The second video is me doing the quilting. I use three different stipple techniques on Penny’s Quilt and I show each of them on the video. I just can’t tell you how wonderful it was to give Penny her quilt yesterday. We sat and talked for hours. She lives about 200 miles from me now and we don’t get to see each other much – but distance doesn’t alter friendship and Penny is a lifelong friend, one of my very best friends. She’s into beading now, as well as quilting, and she’s poking through her bead stash looking for a few sparklies to embellish her quilt with.

Here’s Penny’s Quilt Story:

Here’s how I quilted it:

Quilt Confession …

by

I have to confess ….. I buy quilt blocks and quilt tops on ebay.  There.  It’s out.

Sarah recently gave me back of pile of blocks that I had dumped on her, after deciding I’d never do anything with them.  Does that make them double UFO’s?   RUFO’s – Returned Un-Finished Object?  WIHIMMBGTSE – Works I Had In My Mind But Gave To Someone Else?  🙂  I could go on forever…

So, back to the drawing board – and glad I am!!  Guess what – I needed them back!  I want to make a video of using regular quilt blocks, done with our quilt as you go technique, and I was actually looking for more blocks to buy on ebay!!  She just saved me money!  (Don’t tell her, she’ll want a cut of it!)

Check back soon for how to finish your UFO quilt blocks using quilt as you go, with videos and all, so go find those blocks, and we’ll get them quilted together!

(Okay, DON’T tell Sarah, but I just bid on some more blocks on ebay!   Ssshhhhhhhhhhh!)

Our Art Quilt Project

by

audrey-fabricsHehehehe.  A baby and a bucket of fabric scraps.  I’ll be picking them up for the next month!  What was I thinking!?

Well, let’s just say I was rushing things a bit.  The technique worked well but the materials I chose didn’t (not their fault, mine) and the child doesn’t quite have the attention span yet for a project this size.  I’ll try again, but smaller next time  🙂

We played outside for a while but after I took her home we both came down with colds  🙁  Oh well.  We are on the mend!  As I was leaving Audrey at home with her parents I was cooerced into taking one of Sarah’s quilts.  I have no idea why she wants ME to quilt this – she’s quilted several in the past few months and done just fine.  Another “oh, well”.

sarahs-quiltI hope to quilt this (and a few more) and make videos as I quilt them.  I love machine quilting art quilts (maybe that’s why she gave it to me to quilt?) and I now have the space to both quilt and take video, so these few that are waiting will be the test.

The red flowers are texured heavily, they are a product of Bella Nonna and Sarah just loves them. She has made several of their quilts. In fact, if you like it I think you should stop by Sarah’s Blog and tell her to make a video of her making one! Doesn’t that sound like fun?!?

Machine Quilting – How to Stitch in the Ditch

by

Here they are! I went with the two-part format because I felt that there was just too much information that I had to cut in order to meet the 10 minute limit for YouTube (not criticizing, just explaining) so:

Part One – – –
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiJllrOdrZ4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]

I would love to know what you think!! So far I have only remembered one thing that I should have said – and that is “don’t buy cheap pins”. I did this once and totally regret it, it was a waste of time and money because I had to go BACK to the store and buy the good (expensive) ones just to get them to go through 2 layers of fabric and a needled batting. Better to just buy the good ones up front and avoid the frustration and waste of having a bag full of useless pins.

Please let me know what you think of the videos and of quilting a large quilt at home on your sewing machine. Do you stitch-in-the-ditch? Do you do things differently than me?

If you found this useful, please share it with your friends 🙂

var addthis_pub=”margueritam”;
Bookmark and Share

Funky Fuzzy Shortcut Quilt is DONE !

by

I just love that word – DONE! Whoooo Hoooo! This will be another donation quilt, even though I love it with all my heart, the thought that it might make a person happy and benefit a child is also one of the reasons I love it.

BUT, until the CASA auction it is going to hang in Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe in Anchorage! Yay!!

I can’t wait to make another one! LOL 🙂

BTW, I had a really cool webcam chat with Linda last night. She was working on her binding and we chatted a bit about technique. Tonight, as I was working on one of the corners of this quilt’s binding, I took a short video on how I like to make the corners. It is uploading to YouTube now. It says it’s for Linda but you can peek too if you want 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93EhTJvaBM4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]

Stitch in the Ditch Video Dilema

by

I started quilting a 90″ x 90″quilt on my home sewing machine, and doing a “tutorial documentary” on it. Now I am stuck!

I am a long winded teacher (and writer – you have probably noticed) and YouTube, my host of choice for now, allows 10 minute video length. You would think I could get the basics down into 10 minutes…. but no ………. I yap on too long and personally, I don’t like to watch videos (or TV shows) where the speaker talks too fast – -it frustrates me – and I am a naturally slow talker.

So, do I break the video into two parts? Or cut out stuff that I think needs to be said? Meh!! I don’t really know what to do. I think that people don’t really like watching videos in two parts – -but then again, on my “build a cheap sewing or quilting table” I was playing around and made it in two parts and each one has about 7,000 views now. So maybe it’s okay?

I was really hoping to get this all on one 10 minute video! I edited it hard (more than I wanted to) and still have 14 minutes. What do you think? Take more out or make it “part 1” and “part 2”? Oh, here’s the quilt – isn’t it wild? I just love it!

Quilt Block Layout

by

Okay, this is just silly! I have been switching these squares around for an hour or more! I am giving up 🙂 It’s just that the fabrics are so funky that no matter how I move the squares around, it’s always going to make some goofy match-ups. It is going to be a wild quilt! Tell me if you see any areas of “too strong” a concentration of fabrics, or too many of the same thing clumped together. I am open to all suggestions!

New Fabric!

by

Oh what a great trip to Anchorage! To visit my favorite quilt shop (Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe) and see the familiar faces and the new, gorgeous fabrics. Heaven!! Then Sarah arrived with granddaughter Audrey and the *real* fun began 🙂

Confession: I do not shop for fabric. I have asked (that being the polite way of saying ‘forced’) Sarah to pick my fabrics for me for years. Last time I went to Quilt Market I just gave her the cash and said “buy what you wanted but didn’t get”. She always picks the best stuff 🙂

When I buy fabrics and show my choices to people, they politely force a tight smile and whisper “oh, how nice ..” and turn away quickly. It’s true. Honest. I am a total loser at picking fabrics. That’s why I buy the fat quarter bundles or have someone do it for me. I relied upon Doris, my all time best quilt shop friend, and now Sarah. Hopefully Audrey will take after her mom and have a good eye for color too 🙂

So anyway, Audrey and I played with the shop toys while Sarah selected my sashing fabrics for the two projects I have in the works now.

The quilt shop owner, Maret, found a minute between class sessions to say “Hi” (she is a total sweetheart) and take a look at my projects and THEN I spied, hidden at the bottom of a rack, my most favorite thing of all – -scrap bags!! Yay! I *love* buying scrap bags! At the counter Sarah spied a bit of left over ribbon with bunnies on it so of course we had to have it. What a wonderful day!