TBT - Pineapple Blues

Shortly after I started quilting, I had the silly idea that I wanted to make a Hawaiian quilt, using (somewhat) traditional methods.  I found a book about them, took one of the patterns (which of course makes it not a true Hawaiian quilt, since those should be unique for each project), and set to work. At first I considered a 40" square (the largest you can make without piecing seams in the quilt), but common sense prevailed and I went with 20" instead. I figured if I loved the technique I could make a few blocks to create a large quilt.

So I set to work, carefully following the directions - folding my fabric, tracing the design.  I was using a fairly heavy broadcloth for the colour (I still hadn't discovered the joy of quilt shops, way back then, so finding solids to work with was limiting), so I cut each section of the design individually (it was too think to cut in layers).  I carefully marked the background, pinned the applique and needle-turned the whole thing. That part actually went really went, and quite quickly.  Then I mounted the quilt top in a hoop and started the hand quilting. That went not so quickly.  I really did not enjoy the handquilting process at all. In retrospect, I think it was the restrictions of the hoop that bothered me - the next quilt I do by hand will be done out of the hoop. I recall doing that for a baby quilt for my nephew (when I didn't know any better) and I had really enjoyed doing it.

However, in 2010, as part of a UFO blitz, I finally finished this little quilt.  This poor little quilt sat out for so long that the colour in the background faded from off-white to white. I was going to do a skinny binding with the same fabric as the background, but the colour difference in the quilt and the leftover fabric was really noticeable. Oddly, the dark blue hardly faded at all, and fortunately I had some leftover. I decided, as I hunted for a suitable binding, that I had looked at this quilt long enough, and rather than being a wall hanging, it is going to be donated to the local children's hospital. They want quilts about 24" square, so I added a wide binding to bring this one up to size.

I was really happy with the outcome of this quilt. But I do wish it hadn't taken me so long to finish that I was sick of seeing it around. I kind of miss the little thing now, and would like to have that souvenir of my foray into Hawaiian quilting.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Morning Splash

In November of 2009, Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times was doing a quilt-along.  I decided to jump in, but being pretty new to the whole process still, I decided to do a smaller version of her quilt using some fat quarters and other yardage that I had in my (small at the time) stash.   The quilt pattern was called "Morning Splash".

This was one of my first quilt that used a variety of colours, rather than shades of one colour. It took some convincing to decide to do this, and I followed Judy's colour scheme pretty closely in the hopes that I would not be disappointed with my choices.

I recall that I made a change to one section of the blocks, to avoid having the green and yellow side-by-side when I put the blocks together. But other than that, I was really happy with the colour choices and the end result of the quilt.  It was smaller than Judy's design, and that required me to recalculate some of the border sections. And I was pretty tight on some of the fabric (the colours of the border sections changed based on the pieces of fabric I was able to cut.

However, I was really happy with the end result. I quilted it with a meander in variegated purple thread, and backed it with green to match the green on the front.  It's a lovely lap-sized quilt, although currently spends most of its time protecting my couch from my kitties.  They seem to love it :)

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - McKenna Ryan Cats

Sometime back in early 2009, before I started blogging, I bought a set of 3 McKenna Ryan wall hanging patterns.  This would be my first attempt at raw-edge applique, but I figured I could follow directions and should be able to figure it out on my own.  I'd done some machine applique already, so this didn't seem like too much of a stretch.

I have to admit, as I was putting it together, it felt more like building a collage in grade school than like quilting.  Trace the piece onto Steam-a-Seam, stick to fabric, cut it out and stick onto the background.  The process went fairly quickly, and the end result was then layered and basted.  I then decided I didn't want the raw edges to fray, so I attached the pieces with a zigzag, with invisible thread on the front, rather than the free motion stitching that the pattern used.

I didn't do any additional quilting in the background areas. Because these are wall hangings, they have held up pretty well in spite of that. Plus there are a whole lot of edges in a McKenna Ryan pattern, so there is quite a bit of stitching holding the whole thing together just in the outlines.

Once the quilting was finished, these sat around as UFOs for most of a year, waiting for me to embroider the faces on the kitties and get them hung. That finally happened in January of 2010, and I hung these in my upstairs hallway.  One kitty wall hanging for each of my 3 cats.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - My first quilt

Back before I was a quilter, I caught the bug by making a single block for a friendship quilt. I thought this was a hobby I would enjoy, but, before I jumped in with both feet I wanted to figure out if I liked *all* the steps.  So far, all I had done was piece a block  What about assembling a top, and quilting it?  So I hunted online, looking for a pattern to make.  The goal was to make this entirely from my stash, since I had a lot of cotton from making clothes for my kids.  Then, if I liked it I could consider actually spending money on quilting supplies.

I think was the point where I bought my first ruler (6x24").  I already had a rotary cutter, as I'd been introduced to those joys by a friend much earlier, and used it almost exclusively for cutting the fabric for children's clothing.

I found a block pattern I liked, and designed the colour layout - because even then I really didn't like the look of scrappy quilts.  Back then, I did all my designing on paper, in hardcover notebooks.  So I grabbed some coloured pencils and went to work.  And wanting to make this somewhat useful but easy to put away, I decided to make a quillow.  For those not familiar with the term, a quillow is quilt that folds up and tucks into a pocket to make a pillow.

Then I checked out my fabric shelves.  All the cotton fabric was bright cheery children's novelty fabric.  Not a single blender or solid in the bunch.  That was not going to work.  What I did find was a really cute corduroy with bears playing baseball.  Really cute, and a lightweight corduroy, so I didn't think I'd have too much trouble manipulating it.  Digging around some more produced more corduroy, in complementary colours, even!  So I had a pattern, fabric, and a plan.

I merrily started cutting the fabric for the squares.  After a few cuts, I decided to assemble a couple of blocks to make sure it was going to work - and to confirm the colour placement.  After the first block was assembled I made a frightening discovery.  Corduroy is directional!  OK, you probably knew that already, and so did I.  But I hadn't considered what that actually meant for assembling a quilt top out of it.  Some will tell you I never do anything the easy way, and this quilt was no exception.

I lucked out, and my first block had all the lines going in the same direction.  I had fortuitously picked a quilt block which, when cut, provided sets of pieces that all paired up perfectly to account for directionality.  I did muck up a couple of the early blocks, and the nap runs the wrong way - the cords are correct, but upside down.  You can see this in the picture.  But I was happy enough to get it mostly straight, so I decided not to stress over that.   The quilt is backed and bound with the baseball bears fabric.

The quilt is 5x8 blocks - about 60x94".  On the back is the pillow pocket.  I created a large square for that, with a slightly different colour placement.  It took several attempts to figure out how to attach the pocket  and what size to make it so that the quilt would fold up neatly inside.  Binding/finishing the edges of the pocket was the biggest challenge, along with sizing (the green border was not in the original plan).

 One major discovery I made, is that corduroy is VERY heavy  This is the heaviest quilt I've ever seen.  Also, corduroy sticks to itself - so folding this quilt into its pocket is difficult.  Not impossible, but it takes some practice and perseverance.  But it is toasty warm for sitting under, and you can tuck your feet into the pocket to keep them warm and off the floor.

As my first completed quilt, this one is special to me.  I learned a lot making this - more about what not to do than anything else.  Rule #1 - don't quilt with corduroy :)

For all its challenges, this quilt simply reinforced the idea that I wanted to quilt.  And next time, I would do it with the right type of fabrics.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Heaven Sent

This quilt is one of my favourite ones.  It is bright, and cheerful - it's actually much brighter in person than in the photo.  When I laid it out in my room before shipping, it just brightened it right up.

The story behind this quilt goes back to my very first quilting experience.  An on-line friend was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer late in 2003.  A group of us from an e-mail list decided to make her a friendship quilt.  We couldn't provide our support in person, so we wanted to send her something to remind her how much we all cared.   I had never quilted before, although I had learned to sew as a girl and was making most of my children's clothes at that time.   I decided to participate, and made my very first quilt block.  The colours for her quilt were her favourite ones - purple and green.   All the blocks - about 48 of them - were assembled by one of our members and the quilt was delivered in 2004.

She went through a lot in the next year or so, a double mastectomy, reconstructive surgery, chemotherapy, but was declared free of the cancer.  And I was completely hooked on quilting.  I have been quilting ever since that first block.   Because of how I got started, I try to donate some of my quilts to groups that support cancer research and help people dealing with cancer in their lives.  In particular, I donated a quilt to theQuilt.com every year for their auction, starting in 2006.

In 2007, Michelle's cancer came back.  In her bones, in her kidneys, and her battle started again.  Again, I couldn't do anything directly for her, as she lived on the other side of the continent.  So I decided that my next donation to theQuilt would be in her honour.  I happened across a beautiful pattern, from Northcott fabrics and I decided to do it in purple & green for Michelle.  The border fabric jumped out at me, and I worked from that starting point, with much help from the ladies at several quilt shops.   After a couple of false starts and some fabric changes, I had what I wanted.  Started the quilt in 2007, and finished it in December 2008 - just in time for the 2009 Quilt Auction.  Sadly, Michelle passed away in June 2008.  The quilt was donated to the auction in her memory.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Tumbling Down

One day, when I'd been quilting for about 4 years, I decided I wanted to make a quilt using baby blocks (or tumbling blocks, as I always call them).  This seemed like a simple enough idea, but I wanted to mix it up a bit by making a design that looked like the blocks were falling.  So, one weekend I dug through my scrap bins, and pulled out a bunch of fabric combinations that I could use for the blocks. I decided to make each block in 3 shades of a colour, and arrange the multiple colours randomly in the layout.

Y-seams?  No problem. I figured I could handle that. I'd done at least one quilt with mitered corners by then, I think.  So I cut a bunch of my scraps into little 2 inch diamonds, and laid some out on my design wall. My vision had the blocks on a dark background, but the fabric I pulled for that did not work at all, as you can see.  So I figured I'd be working with white.  Despite that, I went ahead and started assembling.  First I made a bunch of baby blocks.  Joining 3 diamonds from a colour set, carefully keeping the orientation of light/med/dark the same for each block.  I knew if I tried to do this by hand I'd never finish, so I went ahead and pieced all those fun y-seams on my sewing machine.

After the initial layout shown above, I did some calculations based on the size I thought I wanted (30x40").  Those calculations said I would need 160 blocks for my quilt.  Since at that time I had about 43 blocks done and another 20 cut out, I was pretty down about the amount of work I'd bitten off with this project.  Nevertheless, I soldiered on. 

When I'd finished about 75 blocks, I put them up on my design wall, to have a look at the overall design I was aiming for.  I figured out 2 things at this point. They REALLY needed a dark background.  And I probably had enough blocks to do what I wanted.  So I picked up a black fabric for the background - a bit darker than the original fabric I'd pulled up top - and decided I just needed to ensure that my really dark blocks didn't directly touch the background.  Simple enough.

Then I looked at my lovely falling blocks.  I thought at first I could keep the orientation/location such that I could piece them between black hexagons, and keep things simple. But I quickly decided that this would make the quilt too rigid. I needed it to flow more, so I 'd have to deal with some free-form falling blocks to make that happen.  I did not want to applique them, because I felt that would detract from the look of the quilt. So I did some free form piecing, instead.  This worked reasonably well. I simply added black background around each falling block, until I could trim that to the right angle to allow me to join the pieces into the quilt.

This worked great, until I got to the lower right, where I wanted blocks to overlap each other. Things got a bit trickier there.  I made it work, piecing blocks on top of eaach other. There were some pretty hairy corners to deal with, but I persevered (because I didn't know enough to realize how difficult I was making my life). And I even kept the line for the border pieces running through behind the block set in the lower right.  That was maybe a wasted effort, since you can barely see where the border pieces are, but I was pretty proud when it was done.

I quilted the blocks in the ditch, did some stipple in the background, and left the borders unquilted.  Definitely some choices I would change if I was doing that again, but at the time I was still pretty new to free-motion quilting.

This is still one of my favourite quilts, and it hangs in my bedroom over my bed.  I received lots of compliments online and requests for a pattern, so I finally wrote that out this year, and posted it for sale on Craftsy.  And this year, I entered this quilt in the Richmond Fair, where it received 2nd prize in a wallhanging category.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Mini Delight

It's time for another edition of Throwback Thursday!  Please join me (see links at the bottom) and show off one of your earlier projects.

A few years ago, I made a quilt for my sister. I blogged about it here .  My sister had hinted strongly that she wanted a quilt (I believe the phrase was "Where's mine" when I gave one to my mother :) ).  So I found a picture of a quilt I liked, drafted a pattern, since all I had was the photo, and made dozens of blocks with triangles made from temples.

When the quilt was complete, I had a few blocks left over from my intial attempt.  I didn't like the original colour choices, so I started over with new fabric, but I had these blocks already made.You can see that some of the fabric stuck, but the green and medium purple were replaced in the final quilt.  But, I had these blocks, so I wanted to do something with them.

I made a few more blocks with the fabric I had left. Since I had no more of the background fabric, I switched the orientation around, to change up the design and allow me to use other fabrics as the background. The cream became the focus of the block. I added some borders, and made this into a quiltie-sized top, so that I could donate this quilt.

Then, I quilted the top on the frame I had made for my domestic machine - I think this was the last one I quilted there, before giving up that endeavor.

This quilt was about 24" square in the end, and was donated to the local children's hospital through a guild Quiltie program in Oct 2009.  Because the large quilt for my sister was named "Triangle Delight", I called this one "Mini Delight".


The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Bargello

It's time for another edition of Throwback Thursday!  Please join me (see links at the bottom) and show off one of your earlier projects.

One day early in my quilting career, I was browsing quilts and came across a bargello. That technique immediately went onto my "someday" list, as something that I wanted to try.  A while later, I splurged on a book about bargello quilts, and how to design them. I did some reading, and in September of 2009 I took the plunge.  I picked up some fabric in my favourite turquoise colourway, and came up with the concept of a water scene for my bargello.  I sketched it all out, just like the book said, and started cutting strips.

I was a little leary of the method used in the book I was reading, for assembling the bargello. It had you stitch each line of the design directly to the batting/backing. So essentially a quilt as you go bargello. I still don't know if that's the usual method, but I admit that it kept things straight and square quite nicely.

When I laid out my strips, based on my design, I was not happy at all with the results. I'm not sure what didn't translate, from paper to fabric, but this first cut wasn't working. So I played around, rearranging strips.  I had to work with what I had, as all the fabric had been used already.  A few tweaks over the next couple of days resulted in something that I felt resembled a waterfall, as I had wanted.

This quilt was slowly assembled over a couple of months, and finally finished in January 2010.  The advantage of the assembly method was that when the top was assembled, it was already quilted. All I had to do was add the borders, and quilt the large border so it would stay nice and flat.

I still want to make another bargello one day - something a bit more adventurous with an interweaving design.  But while they are beautiful quilts in the end, the assembly process is a bit repetitive and I think that's what has kept me away from another attempt thus far.

The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog. 

TBT - Cambridge Blues

It's time for another edition of Throwback Thursday!  So sorry for missing last week, but I'm back and hopefully going to keep better track of my calendar :)  Please join me this week (see links at the bottom) and show off one of your earlier projects.

Back in the late 00's, theQuilt.com ran a charity auction every year, and all proceeds went to cancer support services.  Every year, I tried to ensure I had a quilt to send to them, and usually I tried to use Northcott's "Quest for  Cure" fabric line, because that seemed appropriate for the theme of the auction.

In July of 2009, some of the local quilt shops hosted a shop hop. As part of that, they each sold a kit for 1 part of a mystery quilt. The shop hop was a "Quest for a Cure" shop hop, and the mystery quilt was made from fabric from Northcott's Quest for a Cure "Cambridge Square - Blue" fabric line.

Following a 3 year tradition, I decided to participate in the mystery, and donate the resulting quilt to thequilt.com. I had donated a quilt every year for the previous 3, and always tried to use at least some fabric from Northcott's current "Quest for a Cure" collection in the quilt I donated. So, this was a perfect starting point for my next donation, and I picked up all the kits on my tour.

Unfortunately, the first 2 parts of the mystery which I attempted were both short on fabric. A rather disappointing start. I debated my options: give it up as a lost cause; purchase an additional fat quarter of each of the 6 fabrics I was (so far) short on; or try to make something from what I had. I chose option 3. I gave up on the "mystery" aspect, and pulled out all the fabric and directions for the quilt. With a bit of creativity, I rearranged the colour scheme into something that was mostly achievable with the provided fabric. I picked up one extra matching fat quarter, and continued on my way.

In the end I was quite pleased with the result. I ended up modifying the layout somewhat, but the changes from the original design are hardly noticeable if you don't have the original in front of you. The shop hop was a lot of fun - it was one of my first, and introduced me to some new stores in town. It also gave me an excuse to spend a day with a quilting friends, which is always a good time :)  

This quilt was quilted on my domestic machine with a meandering pattern, and then sent off to theQuilt.com for the 2009 auction.  

The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog. 

TBT - Convergence

It's time for another edition of Throwback Thursday!  Please join me (see links at the bottom) and show off one of your earlier projects.

Once upon a time, I used to take classes at a local quilt store. A friend talked me into one, making a convergence quilt based on Ricky Timm's technique.  This was still early in my quilting days, when I bought fabric at Fabricland. I had a few rather poor choices in my "stash" in those days - purchases which were regretted as soon as I got them home.  One of them was this purple batik with flowers. I had it in both blue and purple. The blue was border fabric in Oh! My Stars, and the purple was part of the pieced border in that quilt. But I still had lots left and I wanted it gone.  So, for the Convergence class I pulled that fabric out, and found another purple batik in my stash which actually matched!

A half-yard of each of those fabrics went with me to class, and I carefully cut and sewed and cut and sewed some more, to make this quilt.  Convergence really is a simple project, and goes together really quickly.  And I could not believe the result when I was done. From 2 fabrics I disliked, I ended up with a really neat looking quilt.  I was totally thrilled.  The bright border is another batik which frames the center, and then I bordered it in the leftover purple. 

This was quilted on my domestic machine, with a stitch in the ditch along all the convergence seams.  Then some straight line quilting in the border to keep everything flat. It's about 36" square and was hanging in my quilting room until I reorganized.  I need to find a new wall for it.

I still have some fairly large pieces of this purple batik with flowers in my scrap bin (I think it's been removed from the stash and only scraps are left now).  Cutting scraps, it's been fun identifying what quilts some of the fabrics came from, and every time I see this one I think of the quilt I love,  made from ugly fabrics.

The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Scrappy Trails

This quilt was my first scrappy quilt. It was a mystery as part of a local quilt guild, back in 2005, just after I started quilting.  The pattern was a mystery quilt created by Judy Hopkins, named "Scrappy Trails to You".

Even then I knew that scrappy was a challenge for me, so I stuck with very similar tones in each of the two colourways that were used in the quilt.  And since I was still a very new quilter, I did not actually have many scraps, so all of this fabric was bought specifically for this project. The pattern is relatively simple, being all composed of squares and half-square triangles.

I quilted this on my domestic machine, way back then.  It's a cross-hatch pattern, running through the center of all the blocks.  And the binding is scrappy, using some of the leftovers from the fat quarters which were used for the quilt center.  An interesting choice for me, since I tend to bind my quilts in the border fabric rather than something that stands out like this.

I have to assume this quilt was donated. I do not have it any longer, and I know it wasn't a gift to any of my family.  But looking at the pattern, I am tempted to make a new one with the same pattern. I'd have to reverse engineer it, but as I said it does not seem to be very difficult.  Mostly it would be the placement of colours that requires the most planning and though.

I still have many of these fabrics in my scrap bins. I know that because I recognize a number of them from my scrap cutting efforts of the past week.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday fun. I love seeing all your Throwback projects. So many lovely memories in all those early quilts.

The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again.  Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address.  You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration.  See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Pinwheel Chain

Another quilt from my pre-blogging days. After I finished my Irish Chain for my eldest, I of course needed to make a quilt for my youngest son.  I wanted something a little bit different, but since I was still a new quilter, I didn't want to pick anything too complicated. I decided on this pattern of pinwheels joined by a simple chain.

After quilting the first twin size quilt, I thought I'd experiment with quilt-as-you-go this time.  It was a lot of work manipulating that big quilt through my machine, and I thought this might be easier. But I didn't want the traditional 1/2" sashing between each block that you often get with quilt as you go.  I also didn't want the quilting to follow the blocks - I wanted, as I had done with the last one, to be able to quilt a design of some sort in the negative space between the chains.  But that doesn't line up with where the blocks ended, so I would have to do something different.

I read somewhere about doing quilt as you go with quilted sashing strips, rather than the 1/2" binding type joints, so I thought i would try that out.  In order to deal with that, I decided to make the backing pieced, in a patttern that would map nicely to the front. This would allow me to piece the front and back in rows, and quilt each row (or portions of rows) as I went along.

I designed the top as X-blocks with sashing strips and pinwheel corner stones, so the backing needed to have the same layout.  My son was really into rainbows, so I decided to make the back a scrappy rainbow for him.  Large hourglass blocks, 1/2 square triangles for the corner stones, and sashing strips made everything line up.  The biggest challenge was working in my (very small 6'x10') sewing room and keeping everything organized so it all went together in the right order.  I pieced a row + sash of the top, made the matching row + sashing of the back, layered it and quilted those sections. Then, pieced the next row, sewed the row to the previous sashing (both front and back), added batting and quilted that section. Always staying a couple of inches away from the raw edge, so that I could attach the next row.

The end result was a quilt I love - and he loved to pieces, literally.  Unfortunately, the cheap fabric purchased back in my early days did not stand up to the daily use and regular washings that this quilt endured.  The top was all high-quality fabric from a quilt shop, but many of the backing fabrics were early purchases. These have now started to shred.  I made an attempt to repair this quilt for my son by adding a new layer for the backing, but realized when I started how many seams on top were separating. So unfortunately I abandoned that plan.  I may try again - some dense quilting should hold the top together with a new backing.  It's very sad to see a quilt falling apart, but it is good to know it was well loved.  And never fear - my son does have a new quilt now.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday fun. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again.  Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address.  You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration.  See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

TBT - Oh! My Stars

It's Throwback Thursday! And I've pulled out one of my poor neglected quilts to highlight today. This quilt was one of my very first quilts. It was started and the top was completed before I ever thought of blogging, so I have no photo records of the process. 

This quilt was a shop challenge at one of the local quilt shops, sometime around 2006.  Instructions were open enough that you could end up with almost anything.  Instructions like "make 4 star blocks (any size)"  "make 4-patch blocks (any size)"   "create a border using half-square triangles". Each month everyone received the instructions and 1 piece of fabric, which had to be incorporated into the project in some way.  One of the little tiny yellow squares has a chicken on it - because the fabric for that month was a square of barnyard fabric.

As I said, there are no photos of the process, but when I made this quilt originally, I had used a red fabric for the 1st plain border. I thought that would tie in with the red/burgundy fabric I used for the pieced border chain blocks.  But I hated it from day one. That's part of the reason the quilt sat for 3 years before I pulled it out to quilt it. When I did, I knew I'd never like the result. So I disassembled my way back to that border, and replaced it with the same fabric used in the last border.  I like this much better.

The pieced border just about gave me fits. I didn't know enough to know what I was doing, so it ended up being a lot more complicated to attach than I expected.  Rather than designing it with a simple miter at the corners, I pieced all the chain blocks, and ended up with some funky bits to join at the corners.  Personally, I'm amazed I managed to get the border to fit, given my lack of experience.  But that border I replaced is carefully sized (different on the top/bottom than it is on the sides) to ensure the pieced border fit correctly.

I machine quilted this on my domestic machine (Husqvarna Quilt Designer II) with a simple meander.  Based on the photos, the batting is polyester which is typical for my early quilts. I never actually posted a finished photo of this quilt. The one above, quilted but not bound, is the only project photo I had. Amazingly, given my tendancy to donate quilts, I actually still have this quilt so I was able to take a finished photo of it.

If you want to join the Throwback Thursday fun, rules are simple. Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again.  Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address.  You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration.  See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Throw Back Thursday

Since this seems to be popular around the web, I thought I would start my own version of Throw Back Thursday on my blog. Every week I'll pick one of my quilts and revisit it.  It might be a description of why I made it, how it was created, or pretty much anything related one of my previous projects.  I have 99 to choose from, according to my journal so this should be fun.  Please join in. Dig up a quilt from your past (or someone else's) and blog about it. You can post a link in the comments to your own TBT blog post. 

On the menu for today is my Broken Lone Star quilt. This design was one of the first quilts that I wanted to make, when I started quilting.  I pictured it in blue & white, sitting on my king size bed.  But I was very nervous about making it.  So before I jumped in and purchased a pile of fabric, I decided to make a test quilt. A miniature version to ensure that I understood how it was going to go together and could do all the steps. This quilt was the result of that, and I blogged about it here after it was done.  This quilt is about 24" square, and hangs on the wall in my sewing room. 

I finished this in 2005, and then tried to get up my nerve to buy all the fabric I needed for my king size version and start that. Because I was working without a pattern, I had to do my own size calculations, and those kept throwing me off. I wanted the star to sit on top of the bed, and kept second-guessing my calculations for it.  Then, life changed and the project was shelved for a while.  Divorce, move, and adjusting to single life took over. 

When I revised my plan for this quilt, I no longer had a king sized bed to cover, so I redid the calculations yet again and sized it for a queen.  The piecing of this quilt predates my blogging days - wow, I hadn't realized that. So I have no pictures or record of the process.  The center of this quilt went together nicely. Having a miniature sample make this easier - I could refer to it to make sure I was keeping my strip sets in line. 

Then things got interesting. I recall that I had not planned the borders for this quilt. I got as far as knowing that I wanted the main star to fit on top of the queen bed, and about a 10 inch border on all sides.  So, when the center star was done I started thinking about next steps.

I finally decided on the Ohio Stars for the border. They are all pieced from leftover fabric from the main center. The quilt could have been a bit larger - a white finishing border perhaps.  After quilting and the first washing, the design is smaller and the borders ride up higher on the bed.

A finished picture of this quilt apparently never made it onto my blog, so let's remedy that now. 

Nope, that's not finished either.  We'll have to go with a photo of a well used quilt, 6 years down the road.  The quilt has held up reasonably well, considering I have 3 cats who get free reign onto the bed and any associated bed covering/quilt. Some of the stitching is breaking - I attribute that to using cheap cotton thread (I didn't know any better) and stitching straight lines on the quilt bias.  Quilt stretches, thread doesn't, so the thread breaks.  My 3 most-used early quilts all have this issue.

Quilting of this was done on my domestic machine, with a jury-rigged setup in my sewing room. I created a raised table to help support the quilt, and turned the machine 90 degrees so it was oriented like a regular longarm machine.  A better description of the setup is here. This worked out pretty well, and I used that setup for several years, until I bought my Handi Quilter long arm in 2012.

I quilted feather wreaths in the white sections. you can see where I should have quilted the inside of some of the wreaths, in the larger areas. 


(The colour is horrible here - serves me right for taking pictures in the middle of the night).

The star is outline quilted.  Interestingly, these stitches have not broken. Perhaps because they are stitch in the ditch - and thus reinforced by the piecing seams they are stitches along. Or, perhaps a slightly higher quality thread used here. I can't recall exactly which navy thread I used.

I love the way the dark thread makes the star outline show up on the back of the quilt, although I'm not too thrilled with the knots where I started/stopped my quilting lines.

This is where my stitches are breaking.  I did a simple crosshatch in the borders across all the stars.  The threads are not holding up. I suppose I should put this quilt on the longarm one day, and restitch the borders with something else to repair them.  The fabric in this quilt has all held up really well, and the quilt is lovely and soft after multiple washings.

Here is the quilt as it appears today