Quilting

Mapping Out My Quilting Plan

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It occurred to me last night that I have 5 months to finish my 3 Christmas quilts. I can be a bit of a procrastinator. 5 months sounds like forever, right??

But when I divide that by 3 quilts, that’s roughly 1.67 months per quilt! Um… time to panic!

So, I have to make myself start putting some quality time into those quilts. Not only have I taken on a gargantuan task, but I also chose to venture into unknown and potentially complicated pattern territory.

It’s so hard for me to focus on just one project. I get bored, or I get super excited about something else! But I have to harness my energy, because I don’t want to give my sisters IOU’s for Christmas. That would be jerky.

So, here’s the plan:

Quilt #1- Deborah’s Owl Quilt

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The front of the quilt will have 12 pink and blue blocks, shashed with dark brown. At least one block will have an owl. My sister wanted to think about how many owls she wanted 🙂

IMG_5217 The back will have a pink and brown striped fabric, with a strip of pieces from the front along the bottom. Then I’m going to attempt to do a tree in brown, via ohfrannson!. I probably will not do patchwork on this tree, because I really don’t think it’s necessary. And then I’ll have 3 little owls peeking out of holes in the tree.

I have 6 blocks completed. So if I could do 1 block per day I’d be done in a week.

Week 1: Complete blocks.

Week 2: Cut sashing and piece blocks together.

Week 3: Work on the back. (I’m going to call this one week’s worth of work, but I don’t actually know how long this will take.

Week 4: Sandwich quilt and start quilting!

Week 5: Quilt.

Week 6: Bind the edges and clip threads.

Quilt #2- Alisha’s Bird Quilt

I have all the fabric for this quilt, and a general idea, but it’s still mostly in my head. It will consist of some combination of the following fabrics:

IMG_5233 And it will have a design similar to this:IMG_5224 I sketched this out without really paying attention to the quantities of fabric I have on hand. Most likely I will have to play around with color combinations. So, Alisha, don’t get attached to it 🙂 Also, I’m not sure about how to put this together, so I sure hope ohfrannson! has a pattern!!

Week 1: Work on planning. Which color do I have enough of for the background, trees, etc?

Week 2: Cut fabric.

Week 3: Piece back ground.

Week 4: Piece tree 1.

Week 5: Piece tree 2.

Week 6: Piece tree 3.

Week 7: Cut back pieces.

Week 8: Piece back. Appliqué birds on front and back.

Week 9: Sandwich and quilt.

Week 10: Bind the edges and clip threads.

(Uh-oh. This plan is 4 weeks over time-budget.)

Quilt #3- Michelle’s Bird Quilt

Sigh. Now that I’ve mapped out Alisha’s quilt, I know Michelle’s is essentially the same except in different colors. So, it, too, is slated for 4 extra weeks. I can’t let this happen! I just need to remember this is just an estimate and kick it into high gear!

Michelle’s fabrics:IMG_5241 This batch is a little messy because I’m currently using some of the fabrics for another project 🙂

And for some reason, I thought it would be faster to revamp the same picture in Paint. It was *not* faster, but it was fun 🙂final painted bird quilt IMG_5224

Week 1: Work on planning. Which color do I have enough of for the background, trees, etc?

Week 2: Cut fabric.

Week 3: Piece back ground.

Week 4: Piece tree 1.

Week 5: Piece tree 2.

Week 6: Piece tree 3.

Week 7: Cut back pieces.

Week 8: Piece back. Appliqué birds on front and back.

Week 9: Sandwich and quilt.

Week 10: Bind the edges and clip threads.

Wish me luck! And the ability to focus. I’ll need it.

Pattern: Owl Appliqué

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This quilt will be my sister’s Christmas present. It’s not a surprise, she’s an active participant in the process 🙂IMG_4941

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IMG_4950 This pink square is in bad need of ironing, but it’s a good example of how I currently piece my crazy quilts. I sew the strips onto muslin, a habit I hope to soon break. I’m going to eventually try true paper pieces, but I’m just scared and I’ve been relying on the stability of the muslin.

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The finished quilt will be 12 12”x12” blocks sashed with dark brown. The back will be from a pink and brown sheet (you can see that fabric in one of the squares). I’m going to attempt a birch tree on the back similar to Elizabeth’s at www.ohfransson.com (one of my favorite sites!) I’ll have a little owl peeking out of a hole in the tree 🙂 This will be the first time I’ve attempted to make the back of a quilt worth looking at 🙂

Well, I’ve pledged to show my process, and the roughly sketched owl pattern definitely shows that! The odd smaller owl shape across the center is where I started working out my owl but decided I needed a bigger one. I saved paper by just flipping it and starting again 🙂 I didn’t bother making a template for the eyes and beak. I just eyeballed them and cut!

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When it came to sewing on the appliqué, I just sewed around the edges with a tight zig-zag stitch. I left some raw edges showing because I want a worn, loved look for this quilt.

One day I want to try appliquéing the owl pattern onto a t-shirt or something.

I think you can just click to enlarge the picture to print. If you save the picture onto your computer, you can resize it! Leave a comment if it doesn’t work well and I’ll see what I can do to make it more printer-friendly! Also I’d love to see anything made from the pattern, so feel free to leave a link in the comments!!

*This pattern is free for personal use. Please link to the pattern on my blog if you use it and post it. Thanks!!

Awesome Find: Vintage Sheets

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I was so excited to find these sheets the other day! I plan to use the pink one for a Strawberry Lemonade quilt (While I work on it I’m also going to make Strawberry Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade Cake—these things *do* deserve uppercase. I’ll probably also paint my toenails pink… it’ll be a super girly time 🙂 ) I’m pretty sure I’m going to use the blue sheet to back my denim quilt, and then I think I’m going to make an owl quilt with the earthy floral sheet. I’m excited to see what I come up with!

Sneak Peek: Denim Picnic Quilt

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As I sorted through my old stash recently, I found some old jeans I was converting to skirts. It occurred to me that I’m never actually going to make those skirts (they’ve been sitting, pinned together, for around 4 years) so I decided to use the denim for a picnic quilt.

I used a seam ripper to take apart pretty much every stitch in 3 pairs of jeans and a mini skirt I’d been saving for a purse. It was worth it. Every fold yielded surprising tonal variations. This is what I have so far, roughly a 12”x18” block. I’m considering adding other fabric to make it bigger without having to tear apart more clothes, but I really don’t want to take away from the patterns and tones that are emerging. We’ll see!

Blue Scrap Quilt

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I just completed my blue scrap quilt. Ignore the fact that the quilting is pretty awful and that no threads have been clipped! In the future I want to focus on becoming better at quilting, but it was nice being able to just zip through a quilt.

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Creating this quilt was such a soothing experience. There was virtually no planning involved. I chose blues and greens as my palette. I then went through my scraps, selecting pieces that were big enough to cut blocks that were 4 inches wide with varying lengths. The fabrics are from leftover projects, hand-me-downs from my Grandma Ona’s stash, and recycled clothes. I just cut pieces until I was certain I had enough. Then I started sewing the blocks into strips. IMG_4887

In the middle of sewing, my husband claimed the quilt 🙂 He’s 6’9, so I ended up making the it about the size of the top of our king size bed. It’s the largest quilt I’ve ever made. Sewing the top was no problem, it was very relaxing. However, quilting the mammoth was not. I definitely want a long arm sewing machine now :). The quilting is ugly, but I think the pattern hides it well. All that matters is that Alex loves it 🙂IMG_4889

Grumpy Quilt

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I’m very close to finishing the first quilt I’ve made for myself!! Such a nice feeling 🙂 Usually I only make quilts to give away. We have one that I made for a charity auction… my husband bought it because he didn’t want to part with it 🙂 1024091949

My Grumpy Quilt is actually a crazy quilt. A few years ago I decided I wanted to make a quilt to snuggle in when I was grumpy (hence the name), made of tons of red, pink, and orange scraps. The quilt includes pieces of clothing I used to love, and bits of fabric  from other projects I’ve done.

It’s taken me a while because projects for myself tend to take a back seat to projects for other people and purposes. But I sewed a bit here and there. It was a great stress reliever because there is no rhyme or reason. The only rule I made for this quilt is that all my scraps fit into the color scheme. Beyond that, the crazy quilt offered a really nice change of pace. I was able to just sew for the fun of sewing and seeing something come together without worrying about “messing up”.

Then last week, I realized I’d finally made enough blocks to complete my quilt! I pieced them together with bright pumpkin orange and backed it with a shade a bit richer than hot pink. Looking at it nearly makes my eyes burn, but I love it!

Right now I’m busy doing freeform quilting all over the orange areas. Hopefully it will be officially done within the next few days!! But for now, I offer a sneak peek phone-pic for your viewing pleasure!