Monday, September 7, 2020

Hello! I have reverted back to Legacy Blogger.

Yesterday it was 108 degrees at my house. No wonder I was in a foul mood when I posted. (could you tell? ;-)) We live about two miles from the beach on the central coast of California. I don't think it was much cooler on the beach itself. This might actually be a record high here. We do not have air conditioning, but rely on a few strategically placed fans around the house. One (rotating) in the living room, one in the bedroom pointed at the bed, and one about three feet behind my sewing machine, pointed directly at my head. You can probably figure out where I spent most of the day yesterday! 


Mostly I worked on machine quilting large fans across my Summer Sampler. In addition to pin basting, I went ahead and spritzed a tiny bit of 505 basting spray here and there, avoiding the edges as I was doing this on my dining room table. So far so good, everything is staying in place with no drifting, stretching or pushing. Which can be an issue for me, even with a walking foot. I'm using the stencil I got from Barb (Fun with Barb), and then extending the fans even larger with the guide on my walking foot.

I also used the technique (see arrows) where when you butt up to the prevously stitched fan, you turn and stitch down the one you are butting up to (directly on top of the previous stitching) for the width of your blades, about 1/2" in this case, then pivot again and sew your next fan blade going the other direction. This avoids having to end your stitching and start again, leaving all those loose ends to bury. It does take a lot of pivoting though, and could be challenging with a large quilt. I hope this makes sense.

Meanwhile ...

I've been looking at this antique quilt on Pinterest.


 I'm not the only one. Barbara Brackman featured it on her blog about Madder quilts a few months ago. Katy (katyquilts) was also inspired, and made a darling mini from her madders.

I happen to have a stack of madder prints begging to be used, and a few stacks of shirtings, many of which qualify more as scraps. Perfect for making four-patches. So away I went!

(btw in the photos my madders look browner than they are in real life. They're closer to the original, but maybe not quite as "orange".)



First I played around with an on-point setting with the idea of using this print for side triangles, but ass you can see, that wasn't going to work.

Then I laid them out in a straight set and played around.




Julie K had just sent me this cool cheater medallion. I love it, but I don't think it belongs in this quilt. (note: I also have a big stack of reds that are begging to be used, so you will see this again.)






 Meanwhile, I kept making more four-patches and the top grew.

I was trying to think of ways to make the quilt more interesting and engaging, so as I went along I increased the number of the more eye-catching fabrics.  Then I put them up using the "true random" (aka paper bag) method so that there would be random groups and lines of the same fabrics. This helped a lot, but I still thought it might appear somewhat ... boring?

Then I got the idea of adding a "rogue block"* which turned into several, which imo, was exactly what this quilt needed.

*"rogue blocks" being the brilliant idea of Janet Olson, the Rogue Quilter, when she used them in her 365 challenge quilt.


Voila!  Nothing like the original inspiration quilt, but my goal was to make it look "old", and I think I've accomplished that.  In keeping with that idea, I may do fans again, but meanwhile I'm waiting for a piece of fabric to arrive (a nice  vintage-looking shirting) for the back.

I had to revert to Legacy Blogger in order to manipulate my settings, but I believe your comments will again go to my email. I hope Blogger fixes the many snags with their new format, and in the meantime keep giving us time to figure it out - and to revert to Legacy when we need it. (are you listening, Google?)

love,
Sandyy

14 comments:

  1. Sorry about the heat! Your fan quilting looks amazing! I love your madder quilt. The rogue blocks are perfect!

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  2. I'm so sorry for the miserable heat you're having, Sandy. Love how your quilt is turning out with the random rogues! What size are your blocks for the four-patches?

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  3. Oh that is horribly hot!! I maybe would have added a pan of ice for my feet! But the quilting on that quilt is amazing!! I am glad you spent time on it!

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  4. If it were 108, I think I'd have the fan pointed at my head too! The fans look awesome on your quilt. Thanks for sharing the continuing stitching method. The real winner today is your scrappy squares with the rogue blocks! Love it! "Stashing" that idea away!!

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  5. I absolutely love your final version! Oh that Janet provides us with such inspiration. Yours came out perfectly!

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  6. The baptist fans look wonderful on this quilt. What a beauty. The madder quilt intrigued me. At first it's just a monochrome-like 4-patch and then it drew me in and I had to look at all the fabrics. Then you made one, a little darker, and it too drew me in. And then you put in those rogue blocks, what a delight.

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  7. Hello it’s Sandy! I’m still trying to get your comments to show up in my email, so I can reply. No way to reply here on the blog, either.
    I’ll keep trying ... meanwhile, thanks, I do appreciate your comments!

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  8. Love that blue for background on the top quilt! Wish I could find enough like that for a project that is in the works. What a darling Madder quilt. Please tell us all the size of your 4-patches.

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  9. Hello! The four-patches are 4” finished, so each individual square is 2” finished. Sorry I still cannot answer your comments via email. And answering comments individually on the blog is no longer an option.

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  10. Your Baptist Fan quilting looks wonderful! I have Barb's stencil and there are about 3 tops right now on which I plan to use it, but I can't seem to get around to them.
    That is a great madder inspiration quilt, and while I like each of your early tries with them, I do absolutely adore the final product with the random rogue blocks!
    Blogger has been such a challenge, hasn't it? My first attempt to post in the new blogger went relatively well, and then the next three have left me wanting to toss the computer through a window!

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  11. Oh My! that is so so hot!!! I hope it cooler now.
    Your fan quilting looks lovely!
    You have great projects going on.
    I love those rogue blocks and they really do add a lot of interest.

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  12. I love your fan quilting--it looks great and so perfect for that quilt. I did like the cheater medallion, but the rogue blocks are even better--what a fun scrappy quilt and such a good idea to use up some stash!

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  13. Oh wow that heat would be hard to take without air conditioning. Both Facebook and Blogger keep converting me to a new but horrible format, and everytime I switch back, they each only let me do it for a little while. Your quilting looks fabulous, and I understand about all the turning, since I tend to quilt like that. I think you are supposed to free motion it so you don't have to do so many turns. Your new quilt is wonderful - I like each of the layouts and your final rogue one is so quirky and fun.

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  14. That Sampler is to-die-for, excuse the dramatic phase but it is just wonderful!! And I love the way you quilted it!! See, now, I can't do that kind of quilting on the longarm. It just looks sooooo good!I like the Madder project too. It does look 'old timey' but I guess I'm just more partial to the blues....take care!

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