Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas

I've continued piecing the Christmas Tree top during December while it's packed with events to attend or fellowship over a great dinner. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and new ideas for the new year.

That is only some of what I did in December. With instrumental jazz Christmas music playing, I selected fabric for the following six quilt tops. In doing so, I foresaw how much background I would need for those six quilts, and I ordered yards of tone-on-tone, hoping the fabric would be on sale, and only bought what each pattern requires.

 

Small Stash

 

I've sewed and quilted for many years with minimal fabrics. But when I joined a guild with seasoned quilters, the pressure to spend hundreds of dollars on fabric was all my fault. As a retiree, the spending urge halted.

Fabric purchased in the last 10 -20 years has to go before allowing me for newer, vibrant fabric that delights our eyes and hands.

 

From  the four FULL bins I chose the fabrics this is what was left in them.

All the small pieces of fabric are in two bins. The Christmas fabric and solid fabric are in their containers. All yardage over half-meter are folded on comic cartons. Those also have been reduced.

Do not be discouraged by your small stash, you can still piece beautiful quilt with the little you have. Creativity comes from those moments. Enjoy it!

Merry Christmas again! God blessed your time with your family and friends

See you in the New Year!

Wrap it up!

 Hello everyone,

Wow, it's already the end of December, and I had to chill out from preparing my planner for 2024. There is much I've already done; at least six new patterns are in bins, but I need to purchase fabric for all of them at once. My big problem is that for every top I'm making, there needs to be a tone-on-tone background, and for every single quilt, I've to purchase it. The larger the quilt, the more fabric is required. So, like everyone, I shopped for sales and clearance. Still, the material is costly.

Christmas Tree

For this Christmas Tree quilt, I used the same bundle of fabric I used for the Evergreen Tree project. This quilt isn't going to be done by Christmas, but it is certainly before the end of February. 

 

Cutie Frame 

Sewing, backing, binding, and sandwiching four good-sized tops took hours. Now that I've practiced on two quilt tops and simple wavy-loopy lines, I wonder if I could quilt a repeated design.

Wrap it up

So, is it the time to flip through my Quilt Planner 2023 and see what I've achieved this year? Yes, yes, let's do it!

Quilt Finished 2023

1.Spinner (small quilt)

2. Rabbit/bears (small quilt)

3. Spring Thaw (Challenge 2018 and gift)

4. Criss Cross Star (gift)

5. Tangerine (Challenge 2018 and (gift)

6.Tree winter/summer (orphan blocks)

7. Pumpkin (Sew Along)

8.Evergreen (Sew Along)

9. Flower Garden ( orphan blocks)

10.Oh my Stars (Sew Along with Pat Sloan)

11. Homestead (Sew Along 2020)

12. Giddy Gridlock (Challenge 2018)

 

 

Tops completed 2023

1. Arcadia Avenue

2. Lost (Orphan block)

3. Hen Party

Quilt I Designed 2023

1. Abide in Him

 

Joy, Joy, Joy

Finding joy and patience in our quilting projects is satisfying. I look forward to sewing those new patterns and finishing my design: Abide in Him. 

Let's Go Quilt!

 

Evergreen

Snowy Day

It's gorgeous outside on its first snowy day. It's so white that it's intensified the blues in the sky. It's a month of busyness for wrapping up some projects before Christmas is here. By preference, I planned for the entire year, except for the month July and August, which I usually take a break during the sunniest time of the year. 

But last summer, I scattered my sewing throughout the years, due to a crappy-cold spring and a long rainy summer. So, I  worked on finishing a many projects I started as early as 2018, like completing six blocks of Arcadia Avenue and designing a quilted top for orphan blocks.

Now that some quilt tops are sandwiched for the Cutie Frame, I've room for setting up new projects for the coming year. It will be the first time I've planed to sew ten new quilt pattern for 2024 and looked so forward to share those pattern and fabric I will be using for each one of them.

From that Challenge 2018 (sewing 18 tops from a quilting magazine), out the 18, I've four left to quilt. That is progress! This was one of the reason I wanted to invest in a Cutie Frame is to ease the load on my shoulders and arms from quilting larger tops.

Evergreen

A mystery project by Fat Quarter Shop was easy and purchases Christmas fabric because I've none in my stash. Nay, I'm not really a fan of mystery quilt, they never turned the way I imagined it. My brain cannot coped with the tree not having it edges. Yep, I'm going to redo this one...MY WAY.

Front of Evergreen

             

Evergreen

                                                             BACK

Chicken Party Quilt

Hens Party

    One of many fun blocks. Used fabric in my stash. After the top is quilted, I will add buttons for the eyes.

In Progress:

1. Abide in Him

2.Christmas Tree

3.Quilt Planner 2024

Abide in Him

                                                    

Hope you enjoy fellowship with other believers and relative during this awesome month. With my son visiting for a few days, I'm not sure posting next week. 

So until I can, let's go quilt!

God Bless!

O My Stars- Quilt Along with Pat Sloan

If you've precut squares from previous projects that you haven't used yet, it's time to sew a small quilt together. You can make a cute quilt even if those fabrics are not from the same designer collection. I recently have done a few control scrappy quilts and love the result. I did The Criss Cross Stars from the precut scraps from my stash.

Select a Free Printable Pattern

Step 1: Download a free pattern from one of your favourite hosts like Fat Quarter Shop, Pat Sloan, or Riley Blake. Many designers and quilters are willing to share their free designs, so give them their credit.

Step 2: Select your precut squares according to the diagram with your printed pattern beside you.

 

Step 3: Press and starch your fabric even if there are precuts. Mine are a mix of Batik, prints, and everything in between.

 Square Again!

Step 4: Those stretchy fabrics get out of shape after another good pressing.

One-eighth of an inch can make a difference to sew your rows or blocks appropriately. Always square your pieces as needed.

Sew Orphan Block

Step 5: While chain pieced, I sewed pieces from a previous project of the same fabric colour to make orphan blocks. I sewed one dark and light of the 2 1/2" squares to end the chain piecing.

                                           Orphan block are build for another projects.

Step 6: Don't overthink it. For this one, my goal was to use as many 5" squares. The good, bad, and ugly ones . The O my Stars pattern by Pat Sloan used 75. Press everything nicely, either open seams or to one side. Starch again or spray with water. A good 1/4" seam allowance helps too.

Step 7: Whether you like the result or not, you've accomplished your goal of using your scraps.

                                   O my Star was quilted on the Janome 7700

For the batting: I used Warm & Natural 80/20 from strips cut off from the larger quilts. 

For the backing: I used simply Batik piece that fit the entire small quilt.

This pattern was easy and fast. I'm sure of doing it again.

Resources

Pat Sloan: I love to make Quilts: https://www.patsloan.com/pat-sloans-free-patterns.html

Fat Quarter Shop:https://www.fatquartershop.com/free-fat-quarter-shop-exclusive-downloadable-pdf-quilt-patterns.

Riley Blake:https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/free-quilt-patterns

Quilting on the Cutie frame: Homestead Quilt

 Hello my Friends,

Homestead Quilt

The Homestead top quilt attempt on the Cutie Frame by Grace Company was successful. It could have been better, but the lops looked beautiful. A few things I should have bothered doing during this time was burying the loose thread into the layer of the batting. Learning how to quilt on the Cutie Frame was relatively easy and productive. The quilts chosen for the Cutie are those that I can quilt from left to right.

I favoured the Juki 2010 sewing machine over to the Janome 7700 for the Cutie Frame. Both sewing machines are excellent for quilting large quilts, which I have done with both. I mostly used the Janome 7700 for quilting and the Juki for piecing. It's my preference as the Juki's head is smaller in space, and I can see my work better. In contrast, Janome's head sewing machine is bulky and, instead, in my vision, I tend to crank my neck lower to see what I'm sewing. It's a bad habit I must correct while piecing with the Janome 7700.

It's unbelievable that this quilt took a week to finish on the Cutie. The results are excellent.

 Above is the close-up of the lop quilting done on the Homestead quilt. Another trick I learned on YouTube from people who used the Cutie Frame for quilting was to use clamps to hold the rolled quilt in a sausage matter so that every time you move it from left to right, it doesn't drag over the rails. I don't have large clamps, so I use bicycle leg clamps I purchased ages ago. It does the same trick.

Another Quilt

 

There is already a second quilt set on the Cutie Frame. I'll practice the same lop-wave to gain petal speed control and continual consistent stitches.
Another tool I plan to purchase to make this frame more effective is a Cutie Chanel Look. It prevents the sewing machine tray from swinging while dragging the quit from left to right.

In Progress

1. Abide in Him: Worked on the her hair, face, and limps, and  the cross.

2. Planning for year 2024: Choosing patterns & fabrics.

3.Pat Slaon QAL: O My Stars

4. On Cutie Frame: Giddy Gridlock

Let's Go Quilt!

 

 

Cuttie Frame

A Big Decision

 

I would have loved to quilt on a long-arm sewing machine in my wildest dreams as a quilter. BUT...here is the big 'but': I couldn't justify the means when I'm not working, being a homeschooling retired mom. Life is good, but the budget is restricted. So every cent (which doesn't exist anymore) is counted.

 

Even if I was working, I debated whether I had the right reason for purchasing such a toy. The basement's space is limited. And having quilted on a regular sewing machine and switching to a long arm needs practice. 

 

So, after debating with myself for many years, I spoke with my husband about this Cutie Frame by Grace Company. After a concise discussion, we agreed to purchase it.

 

Assembling the Cutie Frame 

The instruction book has good pictures and directions for each step. Also, all the screws, Allen jack, and most pieces are labelled. I was able to assemble the entire frame without the help of my husband. There were a few steps which I wasn't sure about, and after watching on YouTube, Leah Day Tutorial Cutie Frame Build for those confusing steps.

 

 

                                                 Everything comes in a well packed box.

                               All the pieces are identified in the assemble guidebook.

It took a few hours to assemble and set my Juki and quilt. They suggest to practice on a small old project, but I'm in for the learning and challenge. Yep, the challenge was there as I learned the exact length and width of the working space. Which is roughly 6" x 32" if I use the Juki 2010.

Practice Makes Perfect 

I had a quilt set on the Cuttie Frame, and no, I didn't use an old quilt, but one I sewed in recent years. On my first attempt, quilting with a ruler and swinging the machine to the left, up and down in a row, was a disaster.

I had no speed control. I kept bumping the end of the machine into its limit zone. And the tread kept breaking. Ahhhh! My heart sank, and I wanted to cry, "What did I buy this frame? It's not working for me!" Okay, I'm dramatizing here. ( Chuckles).

The Juki 2010 is my favourite sewing machine, and I knew it quilted great on it, so the problem was elsewhere. So, with the mind of a beginner quilter, I simplified the design with free-motion loops. That worked fantastic.

Second, I controlled the speed by ensuring the pedal was in the zone where I swung the sewing machine. (Quilt a section-Stop- move the pedal to the left- Resume )Nope, I don't have a stitch regulator. That's another extravagant expense. Patience and practice is my best friend.

Third, I set a pace by removing the fabric straps and clamps from the rails. The two first rows set in motion how it worked best for me by keeping the same tempo. 

Fourth, I used paint tape for the zone-quilt area. 

Fifth, even if it was a small area the Juki 2010 gave, about 6" x 32", the quilting was much faster and easier on my body. 

Sixth, working on the Cutie Frame requires patience and understanding that it's not the BIG long-arm quilt machine. Still, it provided an opportunity to challenge myself in something new.

 Last week, I quilted the Homestead top, which is about the size of a twin bed. I love the result!

Let's Go Quilt!

 

Grace Company Cutie Assembly

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssaUZT2_oas

Quilt #9: Superlative Quilted!

Perfect Picture

If you don't remember, in April 2018, I posted the Superlative top finished. Now it's quilted, and it looks lovely on the twin bed at my house. Taking a perfect picture of a finished quilt has been challenging with so few sunny days in the forecast. Sometimes, the sun's angle is wrong, or there is too much shadow, but it has to be done and documented in my journal. Many of my quilts are leaving our home as gifts.

Quilter4Him

 Fabric Selection

When the designer for the Superlative chose the Emmy Grace Collection of fabric in the beautiful yellow, pink, and brown fabric, I was a bit reluctant to try it in those colours with my stash. I preferred the cold colour wheel, but the challenge was there, and I picked fabric that needed to go out of stash.

 Amazingly, after Superlative was quilted and hung on the close-line on a sunny Fall day, I fall in love with it! Sheesh, lesson taught here is: never underestimated your old fabric or colour you don't care working with because you never know until you sewed it together what awesome result you can get.

Be Straight with Me

As you see in this picture, there are all straight lines, quilted with a walking foot on the Janome 7700; because it's a smaller and manageable quilt, it was simple enough and not bulky.  

 

Backing Mystery

To keep the cost down for the backing, I sewed the panel and the large pieces of fabric left from the project. For this backing, I also use material I purchased on sale many years ago for a project but never did anything with it, so I used it here (the top part). The backing is upside down.
 

And the label is sewn on it, too. Voila, another in progress completed and checked off my list. How is your list 'in progress' coming along?

 

Resources:

Pattern: https://www.quiltingdaily.com/product/superlative-quilt-pattern-download/

Art Gallery Fabric: https://liveartgalleryfabrics.com/person/bari-j/

Criss-Cross Stars

When the precut scraps accumulates to a point of bothering my mind because of lack of space in my small sewing, then another scrappy quilt is in need to be assembled.After watching Lori Hold tutorial on Criss Cross Star, I wanted to sew an entire quilt with that block.

Choosing a Palette of Colors

Selecting precut squares avoided repeat boredness or prevented a lack of accent for each scrappy block. The process of choosing the precut scraps didn't linger, for my goal was to sew, sew, sew scrappy blocks.

With each block done, I laid them on my design wall. All the background fabric is from my stash and has a different tone, from white to dark eggshell tones.

 Borders

I used EQ8 custom quilt to design a half-triangle border for the border. Another tool I used is Borders by Design by Paulette Peters. It's an "easy-to-follow resource guide that provides the how-to for designing more than 30 borders." Learn how to divide the side of your borders to make the unit. A bit of fun math involved.

Quilting Time

Sometimes, I wing it and quilt my top with a simple design. For Criss Cross Star, I waved diagonal lines throughout the quilt and a few circles inside some lines.

Close-up of the quilting

Interestingly, the finished Criss Cross Star prompted me to make another one. Refrain from letting the precut scraps go to waste. Use them—another quilt for the perfect gift for someone.

Let's Go Quilt!

Quilt # 5: Tangerine

With its spectacular Fall's display of colours in the reds, oranges, yellows, and browns, October could inspire anyone to make a quilt. My tendency is instead in the cold colour palette. So, when it came to making Tangerine in the orange and brown fabrics, it wasn't appealing to me in the least. But once done and quilted, I love it!

                                           Tangerine Pattern quilt by Cynthia Brunz can be downloaded.

To my joy, it was pleasant for this beautiful top to be quilted. The Tangerine top was sewn in 2018—one of the 18 modern quilts I did as a challenge.

Now that I think about it, I should have kept this one for myself, but I gladly gave it to my oldest son as a gift. 

Let's Go Quilt!

Pumpkins

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends. We spent our Thanksgiving with another couple and kept it simple. It was more important to support our friends who were going through a difficult time. 

We are thankful for the plenty we had from our garden this year, even if it was a rainy summer. We cultivated many cucumbers, tomatoes, spaghetti squashes, beans, and lettuce.  

 

 New List of Projects

 

When it rained, I quilted tops and finished a long-term project. I went through all the tasks and organized them in Plastic Clear Bins with a label indicating their completion—the new list was in order of priority for each one.

Each project has the pattern's name, and a label on the right indicating what is done inside: Top, backing, binding & label.

 

The bins all fit great in the upper-opened closet in my sewing room. From the left to the right are the priority order. As you noticed, one quilt is already sandwiched and ready to be quilted. I have two sewing machines. One for assemblage and the other for quilting. Whichever organization system works for you that would encourage your sewing- mojo to move forward.

Pumpkins

For the last three years, I followed Pat Sloan: I love to Make Quilts to keep my sewing mojo creativity alive. Seeing many of her simple patterns and gorgeous fabric inspired me to make one of my quilts using the EQ8 software. While watching her progress with her choices of materials for her pumpkins, I ordered my fabrics and started sewing mine.

                                                          Oupsy! I sewed one row upside-down

Using one wall to visualize our progress is excellent. For this pumpkin project, I used only two pumpkin blocks. One is applique, sewing on the tip with stitches. The other pumpkins were sewed with 2 1/2" strips. The pattern was modified for more straightforward sewing purposes and cutting.

                                                                 Pumpkin 1

Quilting

I modernized the look by quilting straight lines about 1/2" - 3/4" apart, and I didn't mark the top and used a walking foot on the Janome 7700.

                                                 With the extra blocks, I made table runners.

I'm so glad this Pumpkin quilt is completed before the end of October and hung on my hallway.

I used Halloween-themed fabrics for the backing, which I don't care about. It made an excellent backing and was not a waste of material. This collection fabric is All Hallows Eve FQ from Connecting Thread.

 On the Wall

The hallway is a great area to display seasonal quilts and I'm looking forward to do more of them of that size. It brings colours to our home. We both love it!

Happy Thanksgivings to all of you,

Let's Go Quilt!

Lost & Garden Flower

The continual challenge of using orphan blocks or unfinished projects to make one quilt extraordinaire has pushed my creativity overboard. For this to happen, I learned how to use the EQ8 custom quilt. I need to become more savvy about any software, even this one I have had for many years. I don't use it often, but it's so valuable when I do. Here are two examples of quilts done with orphan blocks using the EQ8 custom quilt tool.

 

Lost

 

The name for this quilt isn't original, but I had to give a name to record the project in the Quilting Journal. The truth is, I was at a loss for words for this one.

 

Lost: top finished August 2023

For this finished top, I used:

 

•  3 Criss Cross stars (top corners and one at the bottom right)
•  2 Large blocks (middle top/bottom)
• The Center is four blocks done by my daughter in the grade 9 sewing project.
• Lower left is another orphan block and added a shashing.
• 3 Dash churns are new
• One orphan block in the middle right of the quilt.
•  

Because all the blocks were of different sizes, I needed to figure out the cutting size of each sashing to fit correctly between those blocks. At first, I drew the design on a grid paper with each block in its proper area to visualize the entire quilt. Also, putting those blocks on the design wall helped, but my frustration grew with the sashing pieces I had yet to choose as a background. 

 

Design Wall at Work

                                                  I'm using mostly fabric scraps and precut squares.

EQ8

Eventually, I went to my laptop and brave myself to learn how to use the Custom Quilt program. After watching a few YouTube on it, it became easier to maneuver the program, and I learned how to create my pattern.It was simpler than I thought it would be.

It gives all the size dimensions of each block, and you must add the seam allowance to your pattern after printing it out. This picture shows my progress and how I used some of their included blocks to make my quilt top. It helped visualize the entire finished project.

Flower Garden

Flower Garden completed June 2023

 

For this finished top, I used:

• 3 Grandmother Flower (They are hand-sewn and about 35 years old!)
• Three squares from another project
• A Tree (Times & Season by Piecemaker 2002)
• Large Dresden I did use a new ruler
• A medium size Dresden
  

 

All those orphan blocks are over ten years old and stored in one of my bins. I quilted this top with many different free-motion designs. Unfortunately, I no longer have a close-up picture of the quilt.

What are your goals with your unfinished blocks? And if you're wondering if I still have some orphan blocks in a bin, this will be another project next year.

In Progress:

• Abide in Him
• Superlative   
• Homestead
  

Links

EQ8: Design Custom Quilt Tutorial:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B317hglzs94

Piecemaker:https://store.piecemakers.com/piecemakers-2002-times-and-seasons-calendar-and-quilt-book-p389.aspx