Category — Quilting

Of course, this may have been discovered on the left and right coasts long before it was by me in Minnesota, the latest innovation in my sewing life has been Laminated Cotton. (I would have called it Oilcloth, but oilcloth is heavier than the stuff I’ve been working with, and has its own category on Fabric.com)  And of course, what I’m making out of it is not really news, particularly to my friends and rellies (relatives) in Maine who’ve been bringing their own bags to the supermarket since about 1985.  I’m making tote bags.  Like this one.  Click the picture if you’d like to see it larger.  The point I’d like to make, though, is that all good ideas can be tinkered with, and sometimes the results are better.

Hip Waterproof Tote

I started with a pattern (The Mighty Tote, by Susan Fuquay, copyright 2008  American Quilt Retailer) that I got as part of a goodie bag at Bear Patch Quilting Co. in White Bear Lake, MN.  That’s also where I spied and bought the lovely laminated cotton you see in the photo.

Of course, after reading through the pattern, which makes a 12″ x 12″ x 12″ bag, (which won’t fit in my shopping bicycle’s baskets), I forged off on my own.   After a couple attempts at measuring standard brown grocery bags, making the thing taller,  adjusting the size of the piece to leave open for turning, etc., I now have some new dimensions.  I’ll probably publish these later after I’ve done the math for the cutting layout, etc.  I plan on doing this for our quilt retreat in March.  I’m debating whether or not to put a Peltex or cardboard, plastic mesh piece in to make the bottom firmer in the next iteration.  The bag is fully lined with the same laminated cotton (or in my case, one bag has a contrasting lining of a leafy pattern).

Why is laminated cotton so cool?  Why is it perfect for shopping bags for me?  Why does this pattern rock?  Because if the milk leaks or fruit gets mushed in the bag there are

• no stains

and

• no extra laundry

because I can just rinse these puppies out under the faucet, or wipe them out with a wet cloth!

All this, and I think they will be a great fashion accessory with the Mary Poppins bike this spring.  (Even though I’ve started to use them already.)  They can also be used as an impromptu cooler, if you throw in the ice or ice packs.  I can also see this as the hip new pool accessory among the swimmers I know for toting suits, fins, goggles, etc.

What are your thoughts regarding solid bottoms vs. bags that can be rolled up, dear readers?  I can see pros and cons to both arguments.

And now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…..  The Quilt Has Been Named!

Ruth Said "Let Us Quilt."

Our winner is Ingrid,  who will receive a $25.00 gift card and a custom Wonder Wallet, which was made with the LazyGirl Designs Wonder Wallet pattern, which I purchased on the WAQG bus trip back in November.  I hope Ingrid likes her Wonder Wallet as much as I like the one I’ve been using for more than a year.   I am especially impressed that Ingrid was able to briefly, but humorously, refer to Ruth B. McDowell and recognize the Boston lettuce.  It was important to refer to Ruth, since it is her Boston lettuce block I used in the quilt.

For her lovely poetry and ability to work in not only The Garden Song, but the fact that this was a long term UFO,  Polly also receives a prize… the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar, which is in the mail on its way to her.  I hope she finds this inspirational as she goes through the next year.

Thanks so much to all who offered up names, good cheer, and support in this process.

If any of you are quilters, and have been on a bus trip that takes you to new stores where they sell cool stuff, you can probably relate to moments of weakness, insanity, or just optimism that brings you to purchase items, figuring you’ll make them into something for someone at some time.  I bought Amy Butler’s In Town Bags pattern
at Bear Patch Quilting in White Bear Lake, MN.  Then, at a later stop at Fat Quarter Quilting in Coon Rapids, MN, my friend E and I purchased some cool fabrics so I could make a bag for her (wicked smart) daughter J as a Christmas gift.  Then E and I got lost in All About Yarn, which was a couple doors down.  Yes, we optimistically purchased items there, too!

Here is one Smart Handbag from Amy Butler’s pattern.  Click on the image for a larger view.

The Snakes Bag for J

The lining and pockets of the Snakes Bag

As I started to cut out the pieces of J’s bag, I decided to make a second Smart Handbag for another smart chickadee in my life, my niece K.  My sister tells me that K and I not only share the family jock gene, we both share a love of a certain baseball team, and admire people who play catcher.  I figured this would be an appropriate use for the fabric I have been saving for years.

Perfect Accessory For a Member of Red Sox Nation

Lining for Sox Purse

Again, click on any of the photos for a larger view.  I’m hoping that these gifts are well received.  I sure had fun making them.  I might need a Smart Handbag of my own.

Happy Choir Members Decked out in New Stoles

Look!  We finished the UUF Choir Stoles project.   You may remember a prototype from the blog many moons ago.  Here are Ellen, Kathy, Becky, and Gayle sporting our results.  We made two sets of 16 stoles, and they are reversible, so we have four options.  The two ladies on the left (Ellen, Kathy) are wearing stoles from the same set, and the ladies on the right (Becky, Gayle) are wearing stoles from the second set.  You can click on the picture for a larger view.

Even More Options for Wearing Stoles

In this photo (again, click it for a larger view), each woman has reversed her look, and Ellen and Kathy have decided to reverse them from front to back.  Can you tell they like these things?  If only you could hear them sing, too.

All in all, I think we used about 5 yards of each of the solid color fabrics, and at least 2.5 yards of the three batiks.  We used about 1 to 1.5 yards of each of the black and white fabrics, since we had more prints for those.  With about 9 or 10 yards of  plain white muslin for the foundations for piecing, this took a fair bit of fabric, but it was  a fun project.  We had two workdays in La Crosse at the Fellowship, and then Kathy and I each did some work at home to finish them off.

Special thanks to all who helped on this project.  I know I’d miss a name or two if I tried to list them.

This has been a real boost for me (using my skills for a great group of people), and a boost for the choir.  They look so great as a group, and I’ve heard they behave better when dressed up. *SMIRK*

A long time in the making

Here is my best example that you can think of a great quilt idea in 30 seconds that can take years to complete.   Click on the photo for a slightly larger image.

I got inspired by Ruth B. McDowell’s book Pieced Vegetables when it first came out, back when I lived in Colorado, more than seven years ago.  I created the lettuce in the lower left corner in Colorado, along with the freezer paper templates for the rest of this quilt.  I remember bringing the green and blue lettuces to a quilt guild meeting not long after I moved to the Midwest, in about 2003.  I completed the last lettuce (the red one) at our WAQG retreat in 2008.  Last night I finished the quilting.

This quilt contains some fabric that I personally hand dyed, in the few times I’ve done some dyeing, but most of the fabrics are commercial quilting fabrics, of a variety of ages.

I’m still trying to decide about the final title for this quilt. It needs to have some reference to Ruth McDowell, since I used her pattern for the lettuces, and perhaps it should reference Andy Warhol, for the coloring influence as well.  Any help out there, readership?  There’s a gift card in it for you, if you come up with the best name!

I’m so proud of myself for being ahead on something!  Saturday (rainy, cool outside) was a great day to work on some sewing.  (Maybe on Sunday I will have some time to work on one of my own projects… Hmmmmm)

Blocks for C

Here is the pair of blocks I made for C’s Friendship Circle quilt this year.  The blocks are 9 1/2 inches square.  This was from a pattern in a magazine from 2002.  I’m not sure what it was, but C’s pictures showed that this block has some real potential.  I actually cut out enough for a third, but didn’t sew it together.  I think I will just add the blocks to an envelope when I give this to C, in case she wants to incorporate the colors in another block she’s working on.  (How’s THAT for re-marketing one’s laziness?  I’m just offering C more OPTIONS!)

This year’s Friendship Circle project is making blocks for each host.  Here’s the one we made for J.  The rules were to have a circle in the 12 inch (finished) block of a certain size, and she gave us one piece of batik fabric with lots of colors in it.  She said to make something sunflower-esque.  I had fun doing this, but it did take a lot more time than I thought it would.

Sunflower Block for J

It was important to me to not just have hand dyes and batiks in the block- I’m not really sure why.  And I like that it looks like a face.  Here’s hoping J likes it, too!

Raizl Makes Music, 24 inches x 28 inches

Here’s the completed quilt, entitled “Raizl Makes Music”. I finished sewing on the label tonight. Raizl’s mother C will be here in about half an hour to pick it up. I’m excited for the big “reveal”, and I’m hoping that she’s as pleased with it as I am.

Here are a couple detail shots of the quilting.

Quilting Detail

More Quilting Detail

I stippled the background pretty tightly, mostly to make it recede. I wanted each section of quilting to stand further forward from the background, to suggest depth. Raizl’s face and hands have the least quilting, since they are the furthest forward.

I’m very happy with how this piece came out, though I’m still a little nervous about it, since it is a commission project. Maybe if I butter C up with a little champagne and strawberries?

Raizl playing her cello

Raizl is about to have her bat mitzvah.  She’s a fun and funky thirteen year old, and she’s done some odd jobs for us, like watering our plants when we’ve been out of town.  She’s a very polite girl, and she’s starting to come into her own.  When her mother approached me about making a quilt for her bat mitzvah gift, I was slightly overwhelmed, particularly when I found out that Raizl had asked for it specifically.  Not just a quilt, but one made by me.

When C (her mother) and I met to discuss it, we spoke a bit about size and price, and the kind of quilt Raizl would like.  I was pleased that a wallhanging was desired, since that is what I am most comfortable with.  Traditional block-based quilts are not what I am used to making, so I began to relax a bit.  We then went on to discuss color and theme.  C mentioned the color scheme of the other quilt Raizl has (her baby quilt), and how some of the same colors would be incorporated into the invitations to the event, which have a stylized striped prayer shawl on their border.  These were suggestions to me, and as C said, I had free reign to interpret them.  I liked the idea of incorporating symbolic textiles, but I wasn’t sure what direction to take them in.

I spent a month or two mulling these ideas in my head, as I tried to figure out how to match the colors and subject with the girl I know.  I decided I needed to talk to Raizl herself, and take a few pictures, to see what became of it.  Raizl and her parents have two dogs (a dachsund, and a Boston terrier).  She’s also a swimmer (much like my niece, K, who’s of similar age), and she plays the cello.  I took pictures of her swim trophy from this year (Most Improved), her dogs, Raizl with the cello, and with a large fluffy scarf, to see if any of these things would suggest good quilt images.

Raizl's Bobblehead Swim Trophy

 

Raizl with a linen scarf, to suggest ideas

First Tracing of the photo

Tracing enlarged 200% with gridding

My next step is what I learned from Ruth B. McDowell, an amazing quilt artist from Massachusetts, and also an MIT grad, for trivia fans. Not only do I love the way she works, I love that she can explain technical details of piecing clearly in print. 

The next step is to alter the picture to make it pieceable.  I decided that it would be best, given my time constraints, to make this image with straight seam piecing, since they are quicker to put together than curved seams.  I used another layer of tracing paper over the image, and used a ruler to simplify the main lines of the image, and divide the image into sections that are pieceable.  For more details on how this is done, refer to one of Ruth’s books, which can explain it much better than I ever could.

After determining the pieceing lines,  it’s time to make templates.  Using freezer paper shiny side up, I duplicated the lines from the tracing paper onto the freezer paper with a fine tip Sharpie marker.

Creating the Freezer Paper Templates

After tracing the design lines, I labeled the pieces on the rough side of the paper with a pencil. This is also the time to mark any connection points or lines to match pieces together. I labeled the pieces with letters, to represent the features of the picture (one letter for background, one letter for skin, one letter for shirt, one letter for sleeves, one letter for the wood part of the cello, etc.) before cutting the templates apart. I also marked major sections on the original tracing for piecing sections. Then I cut the templates apart.

Next came the most creative part of the process- auditioning the fabrics for each piece, before sewing them together. This is a major reason I love this technique for piecing, besides the fact that you are assured to get an accurately sized top when it’s all together!

Auditioning fabrics before sewing

Auditioning Fabrics, again

 I ironed the template pieces to fabric, and added seam allowance around the template with a small rotary cutter, and then pin the fabric to its position on the original tracing, which I have placed on a piece of foam core.  After I’ve selected fabrics, I look at the piece through my color filters (clear red plexiglass and clear green plexiglass) to make sure the values are correct,  in case I want to make adjustments.  There’s a little waste if I have to recut a piece to get the right colors to come forward or move back visually, but it’s a small amount, considering the size of the pieces, and the advantages of auditioning more than one possibility.

Once I have all the fabrics selected, pieces cut, and pinned to the foamcore,  I start sewing the pieces together.  With straight seams, I can usually leave the freezer paper in place, which adds some stability, and visual cues of what goes together.

Sewing the sections together

After I sew a section, I pin it back on the foamcore, mostly to show the progress, partly to make sure I’m not missing something. Again, this process is easier with straight seam piecing than curved, because the pieces fit together quite easily.    This had eight or nine major sections, with the neck of the cello being the divider down the middle.  Once the sections were together, I sewed the left side to the neck of the cello, and the right side to the neck of the cello, and the top was togther.

Raizl Sewn Together, approximately 18 x 24

At this point, I had very little to trim to square this up.  I could have finished this without borders, which I often do for pictorial quilts, but in this case, I wanted to incorporate a reference to the striped prayer shawl, and have a few more colors that C had mentioned in the piece.  I had pieced together some stripes of different fabrics earlier, before I had decided on using the cello picture, and it worked out well to cut those stripes into sections for a border.

With The Striped Borders

With the borders, the piece is about 22 x 25.

Here are a couple of detail shots of the hands and face to show the piecing. 

Piecing Detail of Hand

Cello Neck Detail

We’ve started a new round of Friendship Circle projects, and this time, we’ve simplified the process.  Each hostess gets to choose a block that she’d like members of the group to make, for at least a portion of a quilt.  As an example, I might decide to make a Baltimore Album quilt, and farm out a block to each member of the Friendship Circle, and give them pieces of two fabrics which must be used, so that all blocks have some common themes.  The following month, when we meet, we turn in the blocks to the previous hostess, and get a new project to work on.

(Fear not, if any of the Friendship Circle is a reader, I am unlikely to choose a Baltimore Album. Though that might not be too difficult for the applique whizzes in the group.)

This month’s block is called Mississippi Wheel of Fortune, and we got two fabrics- one red, one yellow.  I still have a sashing piece that is paper pieced sawteeth, but I’ve finished a pinwheel setting square and the big Wheel of Fortune block.

Mississippi Wheel of Fortune Block

This involved curved piecing, and paper piecing.  I hadn’t done any paper piecing in years, so I needed to re-learn.  I found some videos on YouTube about it, some which didn’t show much of the actual technique.  This one is a good tutorial.  And this one is a scream.  Of course, I didn’t find the first one until now, when I’m writing about it.  The second one was fun, and enough to jog my memory.  I don’t remember the folding bit when I first learned, but in my experience this time, the folding helps a lot.

I like the sharp points you get with paper piecing.  But it does take a while, and you can’t be stingy with your fabric pieces.  The curved piecing was easy, since I used Ruth B. McDowell’s technique with freezer paper templates.  That’s my wheelhouse, as they say.  I can’t wait to see what the others look like.