Mystery Wall Quilt

I participated in a mystery QAL (quilt along) last spring for the Colour Value Mystery and pieced together this wall hanging.  It then sat for several months until I had a chance to quilt and bind it.  I'm pleased with the result!

I started the quilting with a walking foot.  My design required pivoting the quilt back and forth and that got tedious pretty quickly.  I switched to free motion quilting which sacrificed straight lines and precision but the process was a lot more enjoyable.  (Especially having fixed the bobbin tension issues.) 

At some point I started to quilt some curves, but disliked the look.  I ripped them out and continued quilting straight lines.  I really like the designs over the gold and white (the black is quilted, too, but does not stand out).  I extended those patterns across the border as well.

Project Quilting 16.6 - Swirling Spheres

The last Project Quilting challenge of the year was called Button it Up.  My first thought was a shirt or a coat.  Boring.  I have a pile of buttons I want to use up, so how to use them?  Creating a postcard or a mug rug seemed awfully lumpy (and not very useful).  Maybe a pillow or a wall hanging would work better with the texture?  After some research on button quilts I found some interesting designs featuring circles.  I was fully inspired by this and ran with it.

Both Rob and my mother thought I was crazy attempting a wall hanging in less than a week, especially since I was still cutting and ironing circles on Friday morning.  I had a final layout by Friday evening ready to fuse in place.  Saturday morning I fused, sandwiched and quilted.  I had hoped to quilt it all with one color of thread (for speed reasons), but quickly hated how it looked.  So I took the time to rip what I quilted and switch matching thread.  It was quilted and bound with corner pockets for a hanging rod by early afternoon.  It had to be!  I ran off to dance the rest of the afternoon and evening.  I brought the quilt with me to the dance and spent the dance break burying threads.  Whew!

Half and Half Headboard

I finally finished my Two Colour Mystery quilt (the pattern is now officially called Half and Half).  It's been a fun and frustrating project as I tried new things and experimented.  

This was my first time participating in a mystery quilt.  I was intrigued when Joanne announced the two color mystery quilt on Canuck Quilter.  I have always enjoyed watching others' progress with mystery quilts, but haven't had the time nor faith in my color selection to participate myself.  But only two colors?  Hard to go wrong with that.  

Around the same time, my mother had asked for a wall hanging to cover the wall above her new full-sized bed.  (Interestingly enough, not a quilt for the bed itself... how long before she hints about that?  LOL)  Excellent.  I could join in on the mystery quilt and know what I was doing with it.  I let my mom pick out two fabrics from my stash and set to making the baby sized blocks.

Project Quilting 15.2 - Milky Way Postcard

My second Project Quilting challenge is complete!  I made another postcard.  This week's challenge was Sky Color - the twist was to not use more than 10% of typical "sky" blue.  My first thought was an evening star at sunset; I was thinking reds and blues.  Then Rob suggested the Milky Way.  Hmmm... that had potential.  Last September I stood with a friend at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, admiring the stars in the Milky Way.  That's what popped into my head. 

And I really like how it came out.  I started with black fabric, added some dark blue, then indigo.  I bound it in a very dark purple.

It's quilted in shiny grey and flat black.  Then I embroidered a bunch of french knots and some running stitch with white, cream and pastel pink and blue thread entwined with sparkly thread of purple, blue and white.  It twinkles quite nicely in the sunlight.

Confetti and Streamers

Huzzah!  I got the baby quilt done in time for Family Weekend.  Well, finished at Family Weekend.  I wrapped up the binding and buried the last quilting threads down on the Cape less than four hours before the festivities began.  Luck was with me - I had sunshine, nearly no breeze and some excellent places to photograph at the cottage.

I held onto the quilt long enough to confirm I got good photos and then gifted it on Sunday.  Whew!

The quilt pattern is called Woven Jewelbox.  I wanted the throw quilt design as a baby quilt size.  So I cut my strips just shy of two inches wide, which resulted in a quilt roughly 40x50 inches.  The diamonds are about 11 inches tall.

Project Quilting 14.6: Broken Dishes Cover

The last of this season's Project Quilting challenges was an odd one:  Conquer a Fear. Quilting fear?  Personal fear?  How do I represent that?  And what do I fear?

I dismissed most of the sewing/quilting fears... almost all those are just something I haven't gotten around to trying yet.  Personal fears?  I have some strong dislikes (like making phone calls to people I don't know).  But what causes me the most anxiety is around What if I couldn't....  I've had some illnesses that have made me too weak or painful to do basic things, like climb stairs or go shopping (let alone go dancing).  Made my brain too fuzzy to do my work.  I've been lucky - my worst problems have cleared up in months or maybe years.  But a few never got a real diagnosis, so they could return.  What if I couldn't dance any more?  What if I can't sew?  or do yoga?  can't eat real food?  have a heart attack?

My fear is becoming broken.  

How the hell do I quilt that?

Project Quilting 14.5: Fabric Bowl

I spent most of the week quilting my mandala quilt, which I was determined to finish by the end of the week.  (It's quilted!)  That made this week's challenge a bit more challenging.  The rule was simple - Sew Not A Square.  

I picked it up on Saturday morning and it proceeded to go in a few directions.  I started out with a bunch of leftover pieces from one of my kite quilts.  I stitched them into a hexagon, which was a little large for a mug rug.  Then I remembered Rob asking for another bowl cozy.  I pinned in some darts which looked pretty good.  I decided to go with it.

Project Quilting 14.2: Wavy Pink Pillow

I finished my second challenge of Project Quilting with plenty of time to spare... but then had trouble finding good light to photograph it for my post!  This week's theme was Pink Tint:  the project need to be inspired by the color pink.  I dug through my stash and found more pink than I thought I had.  The first thing that popped into my head was wavy strings.  I kept coming back to that every time I tried to think of some other pattern to do.  I swung between a quilted post card or another pillow case (since I still have all of last season's mug rugs).  My fabric drawer is rather packed, so I picked the pillow to use up more fabric.

Initially I thought I'd contrast the pink with some black.  I though all pink would be overwhelming.  But as the piecing progressed I decided to make the entire pillow pink.  I added in a bit of red, just for some interest (the kitties are pink!). 

Project Quilting 13.5: Circle of Geese

I have continued with the paper pieced rug mug theme I seemed to have fallen into for this year's Project Quilting.  Turns out that's perfect for this week's challenge of rhythm and repetition.  I picked a circle of geese pattern that I had bookmarked ages ago and shrunk it down to finish at about 10" square.

Once I picked the pattern, I dug through my scrap bin.  Initially I wanted blue geese, then found a bunch of greens.  They ended up not playing well together so I moved onto a ton of little neutral bits.  Those looked lovely against my large scrap of blue.  

I briefly panicked that I'd run out of the blue before finishing the block.  Definitely not enough left to bind with, but found a chunk of light blue that fit the bill.  Geese in a clear blue sky! 

I was happy to give my little Singer 99 some more work with the piecing and quilting.  This quilt goes nicely with my growing row of mug rugs for this season.

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 13.5
Wendy's Quilts and More - Peacock Party

Project Quilting 13.4: Stormy Heart

This week's Project Quilting challenge was Mining for Diamonds.  The first thing that popped into my head was Storm at Sea - lots of diamonds in that!  I was also looking at my design wall that had a patch of pink and red on it, and being February, I thought a heart would be cool.  I've always wanted to do a Storm at Sea heart.

The pattern was more complex than I wanted to tackle this week (it's been a very busy week).  When I looked for simpler diamond patterns, though, I kept thinking: that red is perfect for a heart.  So I caved - better to spend the time on the working on what I wanted to do rather than looking for an easier pattern.

Project Quilting 13.2: Cat Silhouette

Finishing the Project Quilting 13.2 was more of a challenge than I anticipated.

I picked this lovely cat paper pieced pattern for my silhouette.  (Ulas has some great patterns!)  I had considered enlarging it, because 6" is small for a mug rug.  In the end I stuck with the original and added borders.  I really like how it turned out!

I was worried all the pieces in the tail would be bulky, but it's not bad.  The whole thing went together quickly.  I forget how much fabric a small thing like this takes - there's a lot of seam allowance!  

I started quilting with my new thread - which is thinner than what I've been working with.  In trying to adjust my thread tension, I screwed up the whole machine.  I broke out my little Singer 99 to quilt it.  I've never been happy with my walking foot and it added to the problem by jamming.  Anyone have a recommendation for a low-shank walking foot that they like?

Finishes for 2021

I did lots of work this year, mostly in the first few months.  I currently have four unfinished quilts, so January of next year is going to look amazing for finishes.

Fussy Spots, Mini Nauset Light
Kitty Corners, Crazy Postcard, From the Sunroom

I participated in the Project Quilting this year, which was fun!  These were my entries for fussy cutting, mini quilt, snail trail quilt, crazy quilt and Ab Intra (from within).  The crazy quilt is a post card.  The others are mug rugs and table toppers or little wall hangings.  I learned something new with each one.

Project Quilting 12.4: Kitty Corners

I have been really enjoying the Project Quilting challenges.  This week's challenge was to create a quilt that contained at least one snail's trail block.  I poked around and found a pattern I liked of four cats with their tails entwined.  

I didn't want primary-colored cats and found a set of grey scraps I liked.  The pattern was for 8-inch blocks, which was pretty big.  I shrunk it down to 6-inch blocks and set it on point - partly because I wasn't sure if I had enough pink background fabric and partly because it looked neat.

The rounded corners were a last minute addition.  I was squaring the quilt before adding the binding and the background fabric didn't quite cover the batting on one corner.  Oops.  Rounded corners fixed that!  (And I got a chance to use one of my new rulers.  Fun!)

Project Quilting 12.2: Fussy Spots

I've watched a few seasons of Project Quilting float by my Facebook feed and decided to try it out this season.  I missed the first challenge, but anyone can jump in at any time, so I tackled the fussy cut challenge this week.

Tidal Pool

After I finished Stepping Stones, there were lots of extra Homebase pieces left over.  Since I had enough to assemble half a small quilt, I decided to sew them together.  This was an opportunity to use the bright fabrics that I loved but didn't work with Stepping Stones.

Turns out the cut brights alone didn't look right, so I raided my stash for other primary colors.  This is the end result.  I had to purchase more background fabric to finish and the new stuff is from a different bolt.  The slight shade difference shows in bright sunlight, but given the scrappy nature of the quilt, it works.

I really like the wavy quilting I did on Stepping Stones.  I played with a few different designs for this quilt before simply quilting wiggly lines with my walking foot.  That was more of an adventure than I anticipated; I'm pleased with the final results.

Wavy Quilting

I fought so hard to quilt the first seven lines on this quilt.  Took me hours between ripping out the first two lines and dealing with snapped thread.  The next 10 were a little easier and faster.  At that point I wasn't sold on the design, but forged ahead with the last set of lines.  I whipped through those in less than 30 minutes.  Wonderful!  I didn't snap the thread once even though I was cruising along with the walking foot.

I based the quilting on this tutorial.  I wanted to do the criss-crossed lines they described because it looks so cool.  However, now that this quilt has been resting on my design floor for a couple of days, I'm not so sure.  I suspect another set of wavy lines would be too dense.  I don't see a place where a criss-crossed pair of lines would look right.  At this point I should just bind it and be done with the quilt.  I risk ruining it if I try to add any more to it.  It's so hard to know when to stop.

All over the Place

Once again I'm stalled with quilting.  The thread kept snapping at the needle while quilting the little Homebase.  I've swapped out the needle, the bobbin, re-threaded everything multiple times, and I concluded it's the walking foot.  The foot works fine as long as I stay in a straight line.  But if I try to turn a curve too sharply, either the foot or the feeds rub against the needle and snips the thread.  (I've never been happy with this foot - my other walker is much sturdier, but I am hesitant to try buying another walking foot online without seeing it first.)

In troubleshooting the problem, I discovered the spool of thread I was using shouldn't be on top of the sewing machine but on a thread stand.  Fancy that!  I don't have one of those, but discovered a great work around.  I have had this ornament holder stuffed in a cupboard, unloved and unused for years.  Works pretty well, too!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Shiplapped

I worked on this all weekend to squeeze it into the Blogger's Quilt Festival before the deadline.  Whew! I made it!

A few years ago I bought a kite ruler that could be used to create equilateral triangles.  At that time I had also collected a bunch of scrap strings.  I decided I wanted to make a quilt with triangle string blocks.  Soon after I started making my 6" string blocks I discovered selvedge quilts, and the remaining blocks primarily consisted of selvedge strings.  Every time I finished a quilting project, I'd make several more triangles (and some crumb hexies that were also inspired from the same ruler).

Slouching Zig-Zags

I'm quilting the zig-zag quilt.  It has proven to be more challenging than I anticipated.  Normally I worry about puckering the back of the quilt, not the front.  Basted, pinned and quilted with a walking foot, this thing is determined to crawl all over. 

How frustrating.  Straight line quilting is pretty simple.  Yet this thing refuses to stay still.

So Close!

I need to bury threads and attach binding.  Ooh, and a label.  But I am so close to being done with the Homebase quilt.  I finished the quilting last night.

I found the design on Cluck Cluck Sew.  This certainly would have been easier to quilt on a long arm machine, but I really liked how it looked.  I tried doing it all freehand, but ended up needing a template to see what I was doing.

I broke up the quilting to two parts.  The first step was to quilt wavy lines on the diagonal with a walking foot.  Once the waves were in place, I echoed them and added in circles with free motion quilting.

Isn't it neat?  I'm only showing off the back of the quilt because it's to be gifted.  (Besides, quilting shows up better on the back.)  No more photos of the whole thing until after the recipients get it.