Quilting

September 30. I'm beginning to learn how to quilt using techniques I'm finding on Youtube. I'm so grateful to all those creative people who take the time to teach! I don't know if any of these pieces will end up in a quilt or not...so far I'm just practicing.

As I worked on the facemasks, I had tossed the leftover scraps into a popup bin. By the end of the project, it was overflowing. The photo at the top shows how I then layered the pieces to both smooth them out and save space in my small work area. When I realized I really was going to make a quilt, I (almost with regret) deconstructed my lovely pile and sorted the fabrics by color.

I decided to dive into this brand new venture by working first with the colors I probably would not want in a finished quilt. Red is not one of Julie's Preferred Colors, so I started with it. I chose some of the fabrics I liked best, and following the Youtube video, further sorted them by large design, medium design, and small design. I arranged, rearranged, and rearranged again until the design was pleasing to my eye. It's going to take a while before my eye gets good at knowing what pleases it.

I can tell that I need to get better at keeping my seams straight!

I had a lot of red fabric, so I made another one, trying to improve upon my large-medium-small pattern placement. Actually, I think I did better in that regard on the first one. If I were going to do this one over, I would replace the large blue flowered piece with something with a smaller pattern.

October 1. Browns came next on my list of not-preferred colors. I used the same technique of combining odd-sized pieces, looking for an eye-pleasing design. It came out okay, but not particularly great.

October 2. For my next piece, I divided the greens into light and dark, and when I combined the light green with pink, I loved the effect! This time I used a different technique, cutting same-size blocks, sewing them into two-block pieces, and then making sure each one of them was perpendicular to all the adjacent blocks. What I learned on this piece: It's really important to cut all the pieces EXACTLY the same size. And then sew them using EXACTLY the same seam allowance. Also, for some reason, combining four-block pieces so that they would fit into the design scheme was easier than combining six-block pieces. I thought perhaps I was going crazy when initially something looked correct, but then suddenly it became apparent the pattern wasn't right at all, and I had to re-combine the pieces. I'm still puzzling over that.

It was also at this point that I realized I simply HAD to find a solution to the dull blade in my rotary knife. It seemed to get dull right after I had changed the blade, and that mystified me. I found a rotary blade sharpener on Ebay. Who knew they even had such a thing? I'm semi-patiently waiting for it to arrive.

And then I did the dark greens. There was a lot of changing around going on as I made this one. I learned not to use colors that wouldn't actually be complementary to the piece, even if they matched the idea of the color. Yeah, they might be green, but they were UGLY green!

October 4. I wasn't happy with the way the brown piece turned out, so I decided to make another one, this time with pink added in. I also found a new technique to use called crumb quilting. It's really free-form, and it's REALLY labor intensive--it took eight hours to make this 18-inch by 18-inch piece--but I love the way it turned out. There are more than 150 pieces in it. I got tired of counting, so I'm guessing. You can count them if you want to.

I learned the same lesson on this piece that I learned on the dark green one: Don't use colors that don't really go with the scheme. I ripped out and replaced some of the pieces that I had originally put in, and I was much happier with the result.

Which brings me to my philosophy of ripping out and redoing. It's all part of the process. If I realize that I'm not going to be satisfied with the result, I don't mind discarding what I've done and doing it again. I do it in knitting all the time. As John Denver said to one of his fellow musicians in response to the question, "Is this practice?": "It's all practice."

On to the next one.

October 6. There were so many blues that I had enough for two blocks. Many of the fabrics were used for kids' facemasks, so there are lots of dogs and cats and other animals, as well as flowers and other fun designs.

October 8. I watched a video that showed "string quilting" with strips of fabric. Using this technique, I'm working on getting better at combining colors. The blade sharpener came yesterday, and I had fun sharpening my first blade. It took about five minutes. I was VERY careful not to cut myself.

I think my next purchase has to be an Omnigrid ruler that will help me cut blocks with straighter edges.

October 9. After researching the prices of Omnigrid rulers (!!!), I went to ScrapsKC to find either a used one or something that would work as well. Since right now I don't care about exact sizes, all I needed was square or rectangular things that would work as templates. I found a bunch of things in different sizes at a total cost of $3.00.

Using my newly sharpened blade and the templates from ScrapsKC, I reworked the gold blocks and cut some green ones, still using the string design. They're looking better, but they're still not as crisp as I would like them. I'm thinking the unevenness and waviness is caused by the differing weights and content of the fabrics. If I were using all cotton "official quilting" fabric, I think the final product would be smoother. I learned that with this design, I need to press all the seams in the same direction.

Whoo, boy. I watched a video yesterday about ironing for quilting. No wonder I haven't been happy with how these pieces have been turning out. I was ironing them incorrectly, which stretched them. I now know the three-step process of pressing quilt pieces: set the seam (press it with fabric front-to-front), open it and finger press the pieces apart, and then press the front without moving the iron. Those steps have already improved the look of my pieces!

October 10. Big news! I've been puzzling over how I'm ever going to get a quilt actually put together after I finish the top. It shouldn't be a big deal to find batting and the muslin that constitute the other two elements of a quilt. But putting it all together? THAT's a big deal. Fortunately, Fabric Recycles offers a quilting service that does all of that, plus adding the binding. I'm a happy girl!

October 11. I spent the morning practicing my cutting. I'm getting better...decided to move the blade away from me instead of towards me, as I've seen in most videos, and for some reason, that really does work better. Although I bought a quilting ruler yesterday at Fabric Recycles, I don't find it as useful as the 18-inch ruler with the metal edge that I've been using all along.

I thought I was going to do a block with the gray pieces, but they were so dull and uninteresting, I decided to make a black and white block instead. I'm still not happy with the waviness I see, but since the fabrics are of different content, maybe that's just the way it has to be. For now. The fabrics are darling!

October 12. Yesterday I watched a video on coin quilting. Today I found some fabric that I had intended to use for facemasks but then discovered the pieces were too small. However, cut lengthwise, they were perfect for this technique. So here's my first coin quilting. I'm working on both my pressing technique and the accuracy of my seams. This one came out better because of both of those factors, but also because all of these pieces have the same content. They may have even been originally sold as part of a quilt bundle.

I watched a video about pillowcase quilting. It's a technique used for smaller pieces to eliminate the need for binding. As it happens, it's the exact same process as the one I used for the 3,566 face masks I just finished, so no learning curve will be required. I also found a video about how to use my industrial machine for freeform quilting. Now I know how I'm going to finish the smaller parts that don't make it into the final quilt. This is getting quite exciting... :)

October 13. Learning to do sashing, the fabric that connects the two blocks. In this case it's white, but that's only because I didn't have enough of anything else that was more exciting. If I wanted to continue the sashing, I would put another strip above and below the blocks, and then connect more rows of blocks.
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Flamingos! I wasn't able to use this fabric for face masks because the design was too large. But it's perfect for quilting. I already see some things I would change if I were to do it over. But for this stage of my learning, I'll just leave it the way it is and know what to do differently next time.

Took a little trip to ScrapsKC this afternoon to find batting. What do you know...they had some. I'm going to experiment with the pillowcase finishing technique on some smaller pieces.

Another piece of learning from a Quilty video: Use water sparingly while pressing, and preferably ONLY on the finished block or quilt. Otherwise, you risk distorting the fabric. Aha! (Again.) She recommended not using the steam feature in the iron, but spraying water from a bottle.

October 14. Playing with pink panels. I wanted to do a kind of mobius effect by putting the outside strips over and under at each corner. It was complicated to do...I'm not sure there was an easier way to do it. But I like the effect. (BTW, I bought a set of rulers today from Arteza. It was a good price, and I think I'm going to continue playing with quilting for a while.)

October 15. Oh, my. This is getting to be too much fun. I've starting adding batting to some of my practice pieces, and I can't believe how it changes them. Even the brown piece that I didn't like is now looking pretty good. I'm using the pillowcase technique, so there's no binding. The funny thing is, the pillowcase process is exactly what I was doing to make the face masks: the top piece goes front to front with the back, with the batting on the bottom. Sew the edges, leaving an opening for turning. Turn right side out, stitch 1/2" from the edge, and there you have it. I used "stitch in the ditch" for the quilting on most of these. I'll add free motion quilting later, after I've practiced a bunch.

My 31-15 does passably well with sewing curves, but I've ordered a free-motion foot to help me with that. I also found a new Youtube channel where I downloaded a helpful pdf, 101 ideas for quilting. It'll help me figure out how to proceed with the brown one.

October 16. Having fun adding batting to all my small pieces. I've used stitch-in-the-ditch (stitching following a seam line) for each of them; I want to add some free-motion quilting to them at some point. I'm waiting for that foot to arrive. Patiently waiting.

I have to say something about the piece with the cats. I'm sorry I didn't take a before photo of it...it's an ironing board cover that I got from my sister. The design was just so dang cute that even though it had a couple of burned spots on it, I wanted to do something with it. It's now a quilted wall hanging. And it's also waiting for some free-motion action.

October 18. Kris helped me manhandle the lever on my machine to change the stitch length to zero so I can start practicing free-motion stitching. I think that particular lever had not been moved in a looooong time, and it was frozen in place. It's still hard to move, but I can manage it. So now I'm practicing the alphabet on batting sandwiches.

October 19. I love Sundays. I can play in my studio all day. I had so much fun--after I got over my self-doubt about my ability to put fabrics together. It's rather daunting. I'm at the bottom of the learning curve, and it feels like there's so much to discover. But I plowed ahead, and I'm pretty happy with how this piece turned out. I used some fabrics from Fabric Recycles in addition to the scraps in my stash. I also did some "fussy cutting," which is when you cut out a particular piece of a design. I did that for the elephants, zebras, and giraffes.

I also used a technique I learned from Karen Brown of the Youtube video channel Just Get It Done Quilting. She says when a fabric is ugly, you just haven't cut it small enough. I did that with the two multi-colored strips above the yellow and below the orange. As a two-inch strip, it was pretty dang ugly, but I wanted the colors. I split it into two one-inch strips, and it worked! I have the colors without the icky design. (I had also alternated the ugly fabric with some red pepper fabric.)

I asked Kris to replace some bulbs in the overhead can lights, and it's much brighter in the studio now. From there, I found a new way to photograph hanging pieces. The piece is hanging from a ruler braced against the two knobs on the closet doors. I cut a piece of mat board to cover the opening between the doors, and now I have a good background for photos.

I'm going to revise this piece just a little...I see that the yellow block above the tigers is a little off. I know it's because of the foot I'm using. I need to get a walking foot in order to keep the three layers even as I sew. Otherwise, I'll get the "creep" I see on the top layer and the resulting unevenness.

Yesterday I also redid two of the three flamingo pieces. I had finished them as standalones, but I decided I wanted them in the quilt. I had taken them apart earlier in the day, and just before I stopped (it was hard to make myself go to bed!), I added the polka dots that had been on the back as layers on the front. Love it!

October 20. I'm so happy with this panel. I saved my favorite colors for later in my learning process so I could commit my rookie mistakes on the earlier ones. I LOVE these colors, and the design is SO pleasing! I like showcasing a design in the center and framing it with multiple layers. This one gives the feeling of being on the outside looking into an aquarium. Or the ocean.

I used the same technique I described above (regarding ugly fabric that has good colors) for the horizonal bands. However, this time the fabric wasn't ugly, but the design was very distinct; I was avoiding the conflict between its design and the main one by making the bands so skinny that all you can see are the colors. Maybe I can use that fabric again somewhere else; it's cats and dogs, and how can I not feature it somehow!

Both the new blades and the grid rulers came today. I used both of them as I made this panel. Gosh, it's nice to have a sharp blade!

October 22. So much to learn! My new Juki free-motion quilting foot came yesterday. I've begun practicing with it. To be honest, I'm intimidated. It's quite different than anything I've done with my machine before, requiring several adjustments (stitch length -> 0, foot pressure adjustment, and of course, the new foot). The hard part is going to be training my hands, foot, and mind to coordinate well enough to create designs on the "quilt sandwich." So far my practice pieces look downright awful.

In the meantime, I've also finished another panel featuring pastel greens and oranges. I started with the six-inch square (-ish) that I made a couple weeks ago. Since I still had lots of scraps with those colors, I decided to alter it and expand it. I took out some of the solid orange in the middle and added a floral pattern.

When I ran out of the lighter oranges, I started looking around for scraps in the other color bags and found more that would go with what I already had made. I ripped out my first "final" border and found another that I liked better. Ripping is my friend.

I ordered a walking foot from Singeronline.com that will help me keep all three layers of the quilt even as I sew. It may be my final purchase for my quilting adventure. We'll see.