Annie's Choice Door Hanging

It's true. I have been quilting.  My work year got a bit involved, but I'm still doing a few projects.  This was meant to be up six weeks ago, I just never had the time to finish it.

The block is Annie's Choice from the Fat Quarter Shop's Wishes Quilt Along.

Five Things you should know about this door hanging:

1.  It's a scrappy project, meaning I used fabric from my stash. That is a very good thing.  My fabric stash is important. Each piece of fabric has been hand selected by me.  I love them all and don't use them lightly.  I really loved that blue patterned fabric. I've been waiting to use it for at least two years.
2. I used a pattern for the block.  But I mentioned that already.  Also, I finished. This is another good thing.
3. I did the Square in a square all. by. myself.  I looked up online how to measure for this finishing feature, and I'm rather proud of myself.
4. I quilted it myself.  Both in the ditch quilting as well as free motion.  I've never free motioned quilted before, for real.  Scary.  It isn't pretty. But you have to start somewhere, right?  And I finished it.  Bam. I should have used thread that is the same color of the fabric...but I didn't.
5. From the street, you can't see the hideousness that is my free motion quilting.  You just see a nice looking door hanging. 

Urban Cabin

 This is it! My first quilt!  In September I took a class at Prairie Shop Quilts taught by the talented Barb R.  The pattern Urban Cabin is by Atkinson Design.  I saw an example  at the shop and loved the look.  My mom wanted a new quilt for her guest bed.  Why not?  The class was in September and my mom and I went to five shops one day this summer looking for  fabric.  It became overwhelming for her.  So, I asked her: would you like bright or would you like pastel?  Bright.  What color do you want?  Not blue. Shortly after that, I went to the Quilt Merchant and found this wonderful line of fabrics from Amy Butler.  I supplemented the colors with some Kaffe fabrics and other scraps I had at home.

The blocks are large and I found my groove.  Do you finish a block and then go to the next?  Or do you focus on one step at a time?  In the end, that turned out to be what I did. 1-1/2 " strips, 2-1/2" strips, 3-1/2" strips?  It got to be confusing for me.  So, one step at a time.  It was good because I could chain stitch things together and go go go.

I've self-diagnosed myself as having ADhD.  I get very distracted when I sew. And when I'm distracted I make mistakes.  I found an answer -- audiobooks.  When I'm listening to a very good story, I sit and listen and sew.  and I want to get back to the story...so I keep sewing.   It's worked so far.

After a really hectic Autumn at work, I abandoned housework on the weekends and finished!  I took to Elvira the Long Arm Quilter and hoped it would be back in time for binding.

In early November I had my gallbladder out.  It was unplanned. And so was the week off I was suddenly given.  I had time to sew.  So I did.  I made pillows.  I started sewing scraps together and made a 20" pillow.  Then, I quilted it.  No, really I did.  I quilted straight lines.  I'm not sure it's the best straight line quilting in the world, but I'm rather happy with it.  I used Kaffe Spray Brown as the back.  It was one of my favorites and wanted to use more of it.

The next fabric I found was a gorgeous piece of wool herringbone.  I made a ruffle of the backing fabric (a struggle in sewing, but I did it).  I'm quite pleased with how that looks.

My first attempt at a wool pillow was really unsuccessful, but I rallied and added buttons.  It's not the best pillow but I think it will add something.

I love the border fabric.  I love that flax color with the acid green.  I was lucky enough to find a very tactile silk fabric the exact color. I attempted to make a pillow but my mitred corners need work and I cut wrong.  What to do? That was pricey fabric.  I reworked some things and created a flange on the pillow.  It's fluffy and a good attempt.  Again, I think it adds to the whole look.

By then, Elvira had finished my quilt.  It's gorgeous. Even without the binding.  Prairie Shop Quilts hosts a Sew Anything class (called Anything Goes)...featuring the estimable Barb R.  She suggested I bring my binding and she'd show me what to do. I did this and discovered that binding is an important but miserable step in the process.  What a drag.  I didn't get nearly enough done those three hours when Barb told me I had to finish the binding by hand.

A lot of whining took place. I whined at the store.  I whined at home. I whined on Facebook and I whined at work.  Those who know, told me to just do it.  That I'd be infinitely more happy with hand binding.

Another friend, someone I've know since high school, offered to coach me on binding.  Caroljoy teaches quilting and is a very patient teacher.  It was nice to see her and she reiterated that I needed to finish it by hand.

Did I mention the size of my twin quilt?  It's 75x102.  That's 354 inches of binding.  It's a big quilt!

So, one week before Christmas I took the day off and finished the binding by hand.  It took me 9 hours and 50 minutes.  My fingers ached and I understood the phrase "carpal tunnel pain."  But I'm done. And I think it looks great.  I'll post my mother's response!

Here it is.  As I said before, this is a twin size quilt.  I staged it on a queen bed. It's very big, isn't it?    You can see the pillows as well.  Enjoy!

Words to Remember: Wordless Wednesday

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Machine Quilting 101

When I started learning to quilt, I looked at blogs and read lots of books. This helped me decide what I did and didn't like. Project #2 and the yet-to-be completed Project #3 were found online. These sources helped me piece together a quilt top. Blogs helped me learn how to properly make a quilt sandwich and finish my quilt. But I knew enough about my sewing skills that I knew I would need help with the actual quilting of my projects. A local quilt shop, Prairie Shop Quilts, held a Machine Quilting class this weekend led by the very capable Elvia Illig.

Elvira had a list of supplies we were to bring to class, including a prepared quilt sandwich of muslin and batting. I purchased my muslin at a different store and unknowingly, or perhaps ignorantly, purchased 2 yards of very w-i-d-e muslin. 92 inches to be specific. Well, I figured it out and made my 1 yard muslin practice quilt and drew the very specific grid Elvira requested for her class. I used the purple marker that says the ink will vanish in about 48 hours. Here is my work:

Assuming the ink was light sensitive, I folded the muslin up and immediately put it away. (I did this Friday morning for a Saturday class.) Did you guess what I'm about to say? Yep, when I got to the class all my markings were gone. 48 hours? I laugh at the 48 hour time frame, ha! No bother, marking it up was easier the second time around.

During class, Elvira gave us some great hints.

• use thread that matches your fabric
• use monofilament thread when quilting "in the ditch" It's invisible and won't interfere with the fabric.
• If you're having problems with your quilting, do some diagnostics: re-thread your machine and your bobbin; change your needle
• In the middle of your stitching, when it seems like what you're doing is horrible, keep going. There is beauty in abundance.
• To start and end your thread do the "bobbin trick." Pull the bobbin thread up through the batting. Practice this. A lot!
• A fast needle and slow hand movements are the key to machine quilting.

These are the stitches that Elvira demonstrated and we "learned":

• How to use the scary foot (aka walking foot)
• In the Ditch
• How to use the free motion foot (feed dog down)
• How and why to use quilter's gloves. Use them once and you'll know why.
• Meandering. Stippling (Meandering, Jr.), and microstippling (Meandering III)
• Loops, Loops and Stars, Pebbles (small circles), and circles
• Flames, Heartbeat, and Waves (I never did try Waves)
• in the border: Alphabet (l's and e's) and Continuous Leaves in a border
• Tear drops (graded) and Baptist Fan
• and lastly McTavishing

This is my attempt at circles, loops, and pebbles.

Things I learned:

• I thought I knew how to use my machine. I mean. I do know how to use my machine. But machine quilting? All bets are off! If I threaded that machine, I threaded it 25 times. Truly. As I was getting in the groove, the thread was gone. Get in the groove, snap, the thread broke. I was very frustrated. Elvira did what she could to diagnose the problem... re-threaded the bobbin, changed the needle. Snap. it was frustrating. After I got home, I showed Dave my attempt and told him how frustrated I was at the thread continuously breaking. Nonchalantly he said, "change the thread." Says I, "the instructor said the thread was good." As I was practicing in my sewing room, snap goes the thread. At this point, it wouldn't hurt to change the thread... and if I can actually see the thread wouldn't that be good? It worked. The thicker thread stayed in the machine and I learned a little more about how to machine quilt.
• I need an extension table for my machine. The small surface is hindering what I'm able to do. I found a project on e-How to make an extension table. If I continue to quilt, I'll need a new machine. Until that happens, a homemade table will work.
• I need to find the right needle speed for me. And this might change once I get that extension table. A fast needle and slow hand movements are the key. Fast needle and jerky hand movements = jumped stitches. Jumped stitches are bad. Bad. Uniform stitches are good and uniform stitches are formed with slow hands and a fast needle.
• I need to practice. Rome wasn't built in a day. Quilting may or may not be for me. But I won't know unless I practice.
• I should take more classes. It's good for technique.