Almost twin quilts – The second one

Hubby went to sleep with the grand dogs (yip, some of us have those too) while the kids went out of town but I asked him to clear the dining room table in order for me to start marking the second quilt.  We are in the process of redecorating and everything is absolutely all over the place. 

Started marking and almost got halfway when the need for sleep took over but needed to get up early the next morning to finish as grinding into the walls to move an electric socket needed to be done.  I don’t need all that dust on a customer quilt.

I chose a different motif for the printed blocks but wanted to keep the two sister quilts fairly similar.  Didn’t want the one to feel she got less.  Marking, needless to say, took forever and just when I thought I was done and walked away from the light table, I saw that I missed the marking on one full row.  Duh!!!

Anyway, the age-old saying proved itself again with this second quilt.  “Practise makes perfect”.  Sewing on the marked line on this second quilt (after doing it on 48 blocks in the first) came so much more natural and easy.

When I only had one more border to do I took a photo to show the ever so subtle differences between the two quilts, the centre motif, the sashing and the borders, all had a different take on it.

Finally done with both and this is quilt B

Almost twin quilts – The first one

I got two almost identical quilts made from kits by a mom for her 2 daughters and having played around with marking a motif on a quilt with the blue pen, I opted to get some more practice in with this technique.

What I didn’t think of was that marking ONE test block might seem easy but marking 48 blocks (one quilt only) on a large piece of cloth, sliding every which way, was a totally different ball game.  I moved the light table deeper onto the dining room table to try to prevent the sliding which meant leaning forward to mark the motifs….. my glutes complained all the way.

On some of the heavier coloured squares, I also found it almost impossible to mark, neither my blue pen nor the white chalk marker showed up properly.  Thought I’d take a photo to show how feint the image showed up and guess what?  With the flash of the camera, it stood out like nothing before.  If only I had enough hands to control the sliding fabric, trace with the pen while looking through the camera, this might be easier.

For a moment there I thought of giving up but persevered.  Started the quilting, which goes much slower and the usual free motion quilting but as I almost completed the first row, I took another picture and decided to stick it out.  Even though I missed my marked line while stitching and had to unpick more than once, this could turn our very nice.

There can be nothing as depressing when you are having fun, advance a quilt and see a mess on the back and this is what I saw midway through this quilt.  Luckily I immediately knew why the problem arose as I saw thread loops on the top, saw that my thread jumped out of one guide, fixed the loops on top, not thinking then that what happens on top, will happen on the back too.  So more unpicking awaited me.

Once done with the top and bottom border and the inner of the quilt and before turning it on the frame to do the sides, I roll it off the frame and inspect the back for any missed problem areas.  Apart from the two blocks that I need to unpick and redo, I couldn’t find anything else.

With the quilt turned I did the side borders and this one is done, on to the second one, repeating it all over again!

Winnie the Pooh

On Wednesday one lady of a dance school group brought me a printed Winnie the Pooh top that I had to turn into a quilt for their dance instructor, who is apparently Winnie obsessed.

I decided on a large scale overall pattern as I had no blocks to work in and also knew outlining every little detail would take forever and these are all non-quilters, so they won’t even appreciate or understand the effort.

When done thinking that one of them will have to do the biding which they may not have thought off, so ‘what the heck’, let me finish this up completely.

I could phone her on Saturday to fetch their quilt.

The back

The Front

Mauritian elephant quilt - Completed

Whoop – whoop I got it done! BUT dear old me fell asleep before the end of the Wimbledon final.  Luckily my overactive bladder woke me up just in time to see the trophy ceremony, so at least I know who won.

The quilt withstood its first wash but I still had some colours bleeding onto the backing even after adding Retayne to the water.

Mauritian elephant quilt 2

For my birthday friend, Karin gave me two huge pieces of batting and when I measured the first one, it measured perfect for the top.  I also had extra-wide backing in my stash thus having everything ready to go.

I exchanged my ruler foot for a Glide foot that is meant for quilting around applique or any other dimensional elements in a quilt although I do think with this flimsy applique I’ll have to quilt over the applique and not just around them.  I also opted for YLI Wonder invisible thread, colour Smoke.

Before I took the parrot for her afternoon nap (under a blanket, on our bed) on Saturday I had the quilt loaded and ready for quilting.  Hoped to get started before the Wimbledon women’s finals started.

Knowing this won’t ever become an heirloom, I opted for dense meandering to try and catch all the applique pieces in order for them not to deteriorate after one wash.  The invisible thread truly lived up to its name as I crossed lines several times (a big NO when doing meandering) but I simply couldn’t see my previous stitching line.  Had a thread break once and getting to find the exact spot where the thread broke was almost an impossible task.

I got a row done before the ladies’ final started, took a break to watch Halep’s amazing victory and then quilted a little more before bedtime.

Early up this morning, I continued and if I ever complained about a skew quilt, this one must be the worst. When advancing a quilt to the next section the ideal is to see either a sashing or stitching forming a straight line over the frame but look at this orange applique to the right…. All over the place and definitely not a straight line.  Fortunately meandering is forgiving and one can get away with murder doing this.

While quilting I also noticed that some of the hand-dyes already bled over the background, I guess from the sweat on the piecer’s hands and I encountered several spots with dried food bits on which made me somewhat sad as I’ve often read about child labour being used without giving these kids a meal break and they have to eat while working.  Couldn’t help wondering if this was the case here too.

There was no way I would be able to square this quilt so I simply kept my ruler a quarter inch away from the outer orange applique and cut it.  Finding something to use as binding will be my next headache.

This is the back where the crossing of the lines can clearly be seen.  Now if I get going with the binding I might just start hand sewing the back while watching the Wimbledon men’s final.

Mauritian elephant quilt 1

Way back in April 2006 I went on vacation with my kids to Mauritius and at the market bought this, which was sold as a quilt BUT it had no batting or backing.  I decided to buy it as a souvenir anyway. It measures 76” x 92” but after close inspection, at home, I realised that I would never be able to wash this, as it will fall apart with the first wash.

It was hand-sewn and appliqued with huge stitches for piecing and the applique.

Loose threads covered most of the top and I was simply too scared to pull on or clip these.

It also had a sort of binding that was all but perfect or at least neat but this was machine stitched.

As with most souvenirs it therefor ended up stashed in a cupboard in the garage and I actually forgot about it until one cleaning day.  I just knew something had to be done with this.

Step one for me was to unpick the binding.  At this stage not even sure the applique will go under my machine foot but I definitely knew the binding made it way too thick. As huge as the stitches for piecing and applique were, the machine stitches were intensely small and unpicking these was not an easy task.

While taking off the binding, I took a photo of the applique stitches on the back.  Huge!

Then I ironed the sides and the top and noticed that not only did the sides not match where the blocks were joined

But in several places, the applique was not caught in the stitching.

I think I might have bitten off more than I could chew.

Celebrate Panel – Completed

With all my customer quilts done, I could zip this one back on the frame and finish it. It has plenty of white which is most probably not suitable for any of my family’s homes as we all have pets but I might just keep it for the guest room.

Even though I hated working with the percale as a backing (the needle left huge holes in the fabric) it turned out rather well after washing and the holes closed.

We were invited to supper at a local restaurant by friend Karin and her hubby and as usual, nothing to complain about, good food, good company which ended with Karin giving me my birthday gifts early.

I loaded my tension tester on the frame and experimented with marking a motif with the blue pen onto fabric and then stitching on the lines.  This worked much better than trying to follow a line with the laser.  Now I just need to find out how one can see these designs on your light table, when using dark or black fabric.

The tension, however, was perfect as I had white thread on the top and navy in the bobbin.

A laid back Sunday

With no quilt on the frame, not in the mood for piecing, a quilt waiting to have the binding finished by hand (which I started this afternoon sitting by hubby at the TV as he played golf this morning), I decided to take some ‘me-time’ and stay in my PJ’s (cold enough) and do whatever I want if I feel like it.

First up was doodling some of the beautiful quilting designs seen all over the WWW, building memory muscle should I ever want to try it on a quilt.

Then I made a new tension test sample for the frame.  I’ve been through plenty of these as I like to know that I have good tension before starting a quilt.  In the process of having made so many, I’ve learnt a lot.  My first ones were way too wide and one doesn’t really need all that width as you can see tension problems rather quickly.  So this one is about 12” wide but much longer; now I have space to go for quite a while before having to make a new tester.

Next up was the ties on cushions meant for my dining room chairs, I purchased months ago.  The ties on the cushions were made for a different kind of chair and didn’t fit around the back of our chairs.  So I clipped one end of the double-folded tie, stitched that to the other ends to get them longer and now the cushions are neatly tied and won’t fall all over the place.

While in that room I decided to do a little cupboard and drawer clutter inspection and wipe all with a wet cloth.  I did good and got rid of more than one shopping bag of clutter.  I was glad hubby was not here as he ‘saves’ more clutter than I can get rid of.  Now that room is good for a couple of months again.

Apparently ‘laid back’ means cleaning to me as next up was the dining room sideboard.  With everything in it washed and the racks and drawers wiped, I decided to pour myself a glass of wine just to get chilled.  I find it extremely hard simply to sit and not do a thing, even watching a movie, takes its toll….. I just don’t do this sitting thing.  Working on a binding while watching a movie, now that is a different story.

I won’t do much quilting this coming week with it being the last week of Wimbledon.  I am glued to the TV and yes, this I can SIT and watch without becoming bored.

Anyway felt a sore throat most of the day and fought off a cold two days ago, so I made myself a throat concoction off the internet, going to take a long, hot relaxing bath and hoping to have none of these irritations in the morning.