Do over

Sometimes quilting just requires a "do over'.  This quilt is one of those.

I made this quilt for my niece-the-quilter 8-9 years ago and did straight line quilting since I did not have access to a longarm.  I called it "Tequila Sunrise" because she is a huge Jimmy Buffett fan. But alas, as it turns out Jimmy Buffett did not sing "Tequila Sunrise" but I think the name is perfect in spite of my feeble attempt.

As with this black and white quilt I did for my now daughter-in-law, the stitching started pulling and breaking over time and it needed to be fixed.

So, I loaded it on the longarm.

I quilted it with a curvy pattern so it wouldn't overlap the straight line quilting.

I pulled out the old stitching.

It was a little work but I was happy to do it....and happy to have it done.

It's now back home where it belongs and I'm thrillled it's "fixed" and should hold for another 8-9 years.

But --- I have one more to do and then I think I will have fixed all the quilts that I can remember that I quilted this way.  I want my quilts loved.  I want them used.  And I want them to last.  So a do over is an easy decision -- start to finish, it's easily done in a week and the binding is already done!

I hope you are avoiding do overs and starting the new year with lots of creativity!

Jan

Remediation

Last month, I posted about this quilt and the problems I was having with the straight line quilting popping free.  I asked for suggestions about how to fix this and ended up with a lot to consider.

Many people suggested I cross hatch it by straight line quilting in the other direction.  That had never ever occurred to me but the thought of having to do that on my domestic machine was daunting.  And I don't have the right rulers to be able to it on Lola.  

Other suggestions were to repair the straight lines that were pulling and then be done with it.  Let them love it and enjoy it as it was originally designed.  That made me a little itchy because it meant the problem would continue.

Others suggested that I quilt over it on my long arm and then leave in the original stitching.  I so wish I had the ability to do that.  But the old stitching would make me nuts.

In the end, I pinned the quilt on Lola, put in a charcoal thread so I could distinguish from the original black quilting and did some square quilting on it.  I knew I didn't want to do any kind of swirly design that might overlap the original stitching and could be hard to manage.

I quilted it on a Wednesday and it was in the washer Sunday afternoon with all the old stitching taken out.  There were memory lines from the straight line quilting but I washed it again two weeks later and it's almost gone.  Taking out the stitches was relatively easy and a great project for the evening and was a great excuse NOT to be working on a Lollypop appliqué block.

We head to Toronto next week and I'm happy to be returning the quilt within 3 months of bringing it home.  Hopefully it has a number of good years left in it and can provide hours more cuddle time (or tent time for a 3 year old).  In the meantime, you all are an incredible source of knowledge and ideas.  Thanks to everyone that took the time to suggest a solution and give me something to think about.

I hope you are finding easy and right solutions for any problems you may be having!

Jan

Surgery or a Band-aid?

I have a dilemma and I would deeply appreciate your thoughts.

This is a quilt that I made years ago for our son's girlfriend (who I'm happy to say is now my daughter-in-law and mother of our only grandchild).  With most any quilt, there are factors that make it special (at least to the quilt maker).  In the case of this quilt there are two:

• She was working with leaf cutter ants as part of her PhD in microbiology.  Thus, the ant fabric was the genesis for what other fabrics would be used.

• I paper pieced the Canadian maple leaf on the back.  I can't remember how many pieces are in this but I wanted to honor her with a special label. I will not do this again although I'm sure there is an easier pattern out there.  This is not my forte!

The dilemma is this.  I did not have easy access to a long arm machine at the time and quilted it on my Bernina.  I did straight line quilting about an inch apart and changed directions periodically for interest. But, all stitching was on the diagonal.  I really liked the look of it.

Now, several years later (8 to be exact) and after lots of use, the quilting stitching is breaking.  A lot.  I have the quilt in my possession and was going to repair it but was startled to find more than 30 breaks that range from 1'-1.5" to 3"-4".  And I suspect there are more -- this is black thread on a lot of black fabric and hard to see.

So -- I can only see two options:

1.  I can fix the black linear stitching like I had planned.

The good, bad, and ugly are:  I can do it pretty quickly; it will keep the linear stitching; and it will probably continue to rip out over time when the quilt is used.  So -- basically, it's fast and nothing else changes.  Essentially, a band-aid.

2.  I can put the quilt on Lola and quilt it with a more 'fluid" design in a different color thread and pick out the black stitching.  

The good, bad, and ugly are:  It will take longer; the linear "look" will be gone once I take out the black stitching; and it will be more secure with stitching going in lots of directions.  Essentially, surgery.

At the heart of the matter (I think) is whether the quilt is worthy of being saved.  It's not a show quilt and certainly not fancy.  It gets lots of use in a home that appreciates and loves my quilts and it's not the only quilt they have.  My son and daughter-in-law are NO help.  I mean NONE!  I believe they would be happy with either.  I am not happy with the fidelity of my stitching not being secure but I have never put a finished quilt on a long arm and then ripped stitching.  I cannot figure out whether it's "worth" it or not.  I am usually pretty decisive so being in limbo (or denial) is a new occurrence for me.

I welcome your thoughts and questions!

I hope you are finding time to create and not hamstrung by decisions!

Jan

A Little of This -- A Little of That

This has been a few weeks of nothing "BIG" -- but enough "littles" to make me feel like I've gotten something done.

I managed to force myself to finally put the mitered borders on my circle quilt.  I have posted about this quilt and these fabrics here and I really like it.  Borders, of course, make it more "real" and I have to start thinking about how to quilt it.  But I don't have to think about that today.

I quilted a very very small lap quilt from a Mary Engelbreit jelly roll that my sister gave me for my birthday 3.5 years ago.  I have had the top done for three years but the fabrics are Christmas and there was always something more pressing that needed attention.

I got the strip quilt put together and quilted.  There is something about an all over pattern that helps a "blah" quilt become something really cute.  I haven't had a chance to take pictures so here's a reminder of what the blocks looked like prior to assembling.

I managed to get the binding on this Kaffe Fassett jelly roll quilt that I put together last year.  I really like it -- and I'm happy it's quilted and ready for binding to be sewn down.  Get in line.  I have not been motivated to bind lately!

Thanksgiving napkins got done -- well in advance.  Isn't this fabric beautiful?  For the second year in a row, I've made napkins for our dinner, washed them, and then every family gets some for their use.

And -- in a matter of a week, this Spiderman quilt got made in time for our grandson to have when he got here and then take home for his big-boy bed.  The back is a lime green flannel.  It's a great fabric and I figured I could get by with it when he was 3 -- but not so sure that will be the case in a few years.

I also got the binding on three hospital quilts -- makes me so happy that both the December and January allotments are done and ready for delivery.  I had some yummy Marcus flannel that allowed me to line them all up on the same piece of fabric and quilt them one after the other.  Hurray -- quilted and bound!

I have started Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery after sitting out last year.  Thus far -- Step 1 is done and Step 2 (released today) is cut. I have not made a dent in the scraps I have pulled for this.  For the first time, I have a friend who is also participating - although she's a high achiever and is doing the king sized version.  I am doing the 75" x 75" version.  Monkeymama rocks!  She also finished the first clue and is working on #2.  It's not too late if you would like to use some scraps and join in the race to get Christmas done while having each step complete by every Friday morning!  Here's a link if you want to take a peek.  Pictures next week!

Finally, I lined up all the completed tops and cut the batting for them.  I don't like doing that and so I'm pretty happy to have them folded with their appropriate batting in the right direction.  Backs for most are another story -- but at least the batting is done and another roll of Warm and Natural has bitten the dust (almost).

With Thanksgiving and I'm happy-happy-happy to say that our Toronto family was here -- fabric was the least of my concern.  It was all about family!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving -- I am thankful for many things -- and the generosity of quilters would certainly be on my list!

Jan

Flying in Circles

Don't you love these colors? This quilt hangs on a wall in my living room and makes me smile every time I see it.  This is the most recent circle quilt I've made but it's certainly not going to be the last one.  I've fallen in love with this block again.

When I posted the picture of the circles out of our challenge fabric, I had pulled out the templates I bought years ago at the Chicago version of the International Quilt Festival.  They are from Elisa's Back Porch and work like a charm.  There were several of us who bought the templates and packets of 20 FQ of batiks which makes a medium sized quilt.  One of us (logcabinquilting) stayed up until 2am to finish hers that night! One of the reason I love them is that you get a 8.5" block with just two pieces!  How cool and quick is that?

The purple quilt was my first circle quilt from those templates.  Unfortunately I didn't take any close ups when I made the quilt.  But there was sufficient fabric left over from the fat quarters to make a little wallhanging for a co-worker as a thanks for a kindness she provided. I have to say that making the larger circles is a lot more fun than the smaller ones!

This quilt was made for my niece when she graduated from college and got her first apartment.  I loved the colors and I called it "Tequila Sunrise".

I also decided to make one for my son's girlfriend after they had been dating a bit (now my daughter-in-law I'd like to say!).  This is when I decided my stash needed more black and white fabrics to go with the ant fabric I found in Virginia a year or so before.

This had been a "find" since she was working on her PhD and had been studying leaf cutter ants. I grabbed it when I saw it and hoped that there might be an occasion to put in a quilt.  So -- lots of collecting started and the end result was a large lap sized quilt.

And, because she is Canadian, I thought I'd make a special label.  That was not smart.  I made up a pattern of the maple leaf and cut it into pieces in order to paper piece it.  Never again.  This was hard.  I'm reasonably happy with result but some of the teeny-tiny pieces and points made me fidget way too much.  And -- for all our Canadian family and readers -- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I was lucky enough to have a few circles and fabric left over to make a Project Linus quilt that ended up being displayed in the Project Linus booth at the Chicago International Quilt Festival.  That was pretty cool!

Which brings us "full circle" to my last circle quilt -- Flying in Circles.  I got the plaid fabric in a swap at a small quilt group I attended in Chicago.  So, using it as a focus fabric I pulled golds, purples, blues, plums, etc.  The border is brick colored and a bit deeper than it shows up here and I used the last of the fabrics to make some flying geese for the border.

I'm looking forward to pulling randomly from the challenge fabrics and seeing how many blocks I can make.  I have no idea when I can get to it -- but they are cut and waiting for me and I can periodically pick up 2 fabrics, sew one seam, and have an 8" (finished) block.  Gotta love that.

I have one quality control trick that I use that ends up creating close to perfect circles and avoids the square not meeting the circle at the end.  I use one pin in these blocks.  I pin at the top to make sure I have the pieces square and lined up.  I then finger press each piece to get the center and cut the tiniest of notches in each (pins fall out somewhere in the process).  All I have to do is slowly sew the pieces (square wedge on top and slowly straightening it as I sew -- but not stretching it).  When I get to the notches and they are "close" I know I'm on track and I keep sewing.  If they are off too much, then I've probably stretched, didn't maintain a 1/4" seam, lost my focus or didn't have them square at the start.  So, I stop and rip.  It's easy enough to go on and maybe compensate for it and end up pretty close at the end.  But, I'd rather rip a few inches and try again.  If the same thing happens again, I've cut badly or notched badly and I rip again and take a deep breath!  I hate for the block to win.  At the end, a pair of tweezers is wonderful to keep the pieces moving through the machine and squared up since squaring at the end is just as important.  

I hope you have been flying in circles in only the best of ways!  Jan

Bouncy - Bouncy - Bouncy

Well this has been a week of bouncing around like a rubber ball.  

I had a perfectly good plan of action -- try to re-purpose the florals that didn't work in the D9P, finish the challenge quilt top out of the fabric line you see above, clean up the quilt mess that has exploded in my quilt room.   A good plan.  And then this happened:

My-niece-the-quilter came to visit and brought more goodies than should be allowed.  The tote had strips and strips -- yards and yards of strips.  The bag had 1" cuts and some selvages (one addiction I don't have), and a few other scraps.

I love her good taste in fabric!  Modas.  Batiks.  Sock monkeys.  Kaffe.  The list goes on.....

Did I mention a jelly roll of batiks that are pre-cut to 10.5" and pinned together?  WHAT IS SHE THINKING?

My head has been bouncing like a rubber ball since all this came to live with me.  I had already cut the circles that you see above out of the balance of the challenge fabric (that was instead of finishing the challenge quilt which I decided needed 8 more blocks).  

But, I kept being distracted by the batiks.  I mean really distracted!  I have never had a jelly roll of batiks and these colors are incredible.  This is the perfect chance to try Wanda's (Exuberant Color) tutorial on separating lights, darks, mediums.    Wanda is a master (mistress?) on value and you will love reading her blog and learning from her if you're not already a follower.

This is my design wall after bouncing around.  A few circles from the challenge fabrics led me to think about my shirts and what a circle quilt from the plaids/stripes might look like so I made a block.  I had the templates out anyway, right?  The workmanship is not the best but I think I like it and believe I could get king sized quilt out of just sleeves -- never mind the backs and fronts.

I also made two practice string blocks from the 1" goodies -- I think this will make a great donation quilt for a child.  And these are very different fabrics from my normal stash. How can you work on these and not smile?  They are cut at 5.5" to finish at 5".  Aren't they the cutest?

And, because I had to go a funeral three hours away in the beautiful Appalachians, I decided to take a break on the way home and see if I could find a companion fabric (besides black or another solid) for my pink FQs that was my birthday gift from my-niece-the-quilter.  I love this -- it works with the light salmon on one end of the spectrum and the deep pink on the other.  

What a week!  I love the fabrics but I honestly don't understand gifting such a treasure trove.  This young woman buys good stuff -- and I've been telling her since before she was born that I was her favorite aunt.  I think she believes me, don't you?  And -- to add more joy and anticipation to the future quilting here at iquiltforfun -- my-niece-the-athlete has decided she wants a large queen out of batiks.  I can't wait to go shopping with her to see what she selects or what jelly rolls she decides on.  She's doing lots of research and will pick the fabric and pattern.  I get to the the cutting and sewing and quilting.  I love my girlies!

I hope you have had a wonderful week full of good quilting surprises and family that loves and appreciates you!  I certainly have.   

Jan