Stars in a Time Warp

You might remember this sew-along on Barbara Brackman's Civil War blog a couple years ago.

I thought it sounded like fun, so I jumped right in and was amazed at how many of the various fabrics I was able to pull out of my own stash! I have to admit I did get stuck on a few, "faked" a couple, and was completely stymied on one. Ultimately I ended up with forty eight good blocks, enough for a small quilt.

This was definitely a process quilt. I had a lot of fun going through my stash and finding the particular styles of fabric Barbara was teaching us about. Btw this was an excellent way to refresh my memory and get reacquainted all the different fabrics I've been hoarding all these years! Anyway, I looked at the process (and the product) as a fabric study, as I learned so much going along.

I considered many ideas for my quilt. I auditioned several on my wall, proceeded with a couple,  sewed and un-sewed, and went back to square one several times.

Here's one idea that didn't make the cut.

bleah.

Here's another.

Too circus-y.

And then there was this.

I came really close to sewing this one up, but it was just... too much! My Time Warp Stars were totally lost. Kind of a mess, really, especially up close. Also, too big. I am glad I kept the picture though, which is kinda fun to look at.

As much as I wanted and tried to work with the green setting, I struggled to come up with anything that made me happy. Time to let go, and move in a different direction.

Fast forward a few months (a year?) I happened upon a picture Hartwell Stars, by Cynthia at Wabi Sabi Quilts. What a gorgeous quilt! Simple, yet stunning. I'm thinking, this idea might work. And it didn't hurt that I just so happened to have a stack of triangle squares in very similar fabrics, made for a previous (aborted) project. So with Cynthia's permission, I borrowed her layout idea and color scheme, and hit the road running.

See Cynthia's inspirational quilt here.

Mine is more of a mini version, and really quite different from hers, in spite of the similar fabrics, etc. My stars are only 4" and there are far fewer of them, hence a much smaller quilt. Then I added the border, which really changes the overall look.  I wanted an "old" look, so borrowed a border idea from antique quilts. I think it's perfect. Small enough to use as a fabric reference tool (I intend to install a legend on the back) and big enough to snuggle under on the couch.

Anyway, here's another view of my finished top, taken outdoors, which shows the colors a little better.

I love how the stars take center stage, almost hovering above the more muted colors in the background.

Speaking of hoarding, I've been hoarding the last yard of that deep blue print forever, waiting for "just the right quilt" to feature it in. I think this works. I even have a bit of a scrap left over. 😊



Love,
Sandy

as promised....

This has been finished for several months, but I never got around to posting a picture. At long last, here it is - my Hourglass Medallion quilt. 

Here's a nice detail of the center.

And here's a vignette on the garden swing.

I don't remember if I mentioned I used a cotton/wool blend for the batting. I've been using this quilt off and on for sleeping, and its nice and warm (as opposed to pure cotton) and also light. I love it.

Anyway, that's about it for this quilt! You can scroll down to the previous post if you want read more about it.

Meanwhile, new things are happening. Stay tuned....


love,
Sandy

Hourglass Medallion Nearly Done

Some of you may remember the countless pictures I posted of this quilt when I was in the process of making it. I was sure you were all sick of looking at it. I was sick of looking at it.  So I promised I wouldn't show it again until it was done.

That was four years ago.

 No, its not "done" .. but I'm done with the quilting, anyways.

At the time I finished the top, my intent was to machine quilt it. However the going was really slow, and I had too much difficulty going smoothly around those tight curves. The thought of sitting at my machine for as long as it would take to do it was very depressing, especially considering the shaky results I was likely to end up with. So I thought, hell with it, I'll just hand quilt it. Much more relaxing, and a successful result would be guaranteed.

 (ps that's my teddy bear in the background, who's in the 

process of getting new hands, feet and ears.)

I dove into the quilting process with great enthusiasm, which went along great for awhile. But eventually it stalled, due to ongoing tendon issues, and, frankly, boredom with the tedium of marking and quilting all those little curvy things.

When my hands were up to it, there might be another newer project that was more exciting to work on.

Like a doll quilt.

Or this.

This was another one that was intended to be completely machine quilted, but I had problems getting the arcs smooth ... and those are big arcs!

Anyway... I did manage to plug along on the hourglass quilt a little here and there.

Quilting the medallion was fun, and a break from the tedium.

Finally one day, I discovered I was almost finished! I only had a dozen or so hourglass blocks to quilt, so I revved up the motor and got them done. But then ... oh yeah. The borders.

By this point, I really didn't have it in me to hand quilt the borders. But in the meantime, I got my new machine (that was three years ago) with the hand-quilt stitch, which is much easier to manipulate around curves, etc. and would blend right in with the hand quilted interior.

I liked the idea of a cable in the wider border...

and a simple diamond shape in the smaller, inner border.

I love the way the machine "hand quilting" blends in with my own hand quilting. You can hardly tell the difference (except the machine quilting is more even and consistent.) And... I got the borders done within a couple of days.

Yay!

Now all I have to do is bury some threads, and put on the binding. And label it, of course. When that's all done, I'll post a pic.

love,
Sandy

Marvelous Mini Revisited

or I should say, remade... and then some.

To refresh, the image below is how I set my Marvelous Mini blocks a few weeks ago. In my previous post I confessed a change of heart, resulting in my turning around and picking it apart a few days later.

I really wanted to love this quilt.  But the more I looked at it, the more I knew it wasn't ever going to happen. I found myself frowning instead of smiling whenever I looked at it, and more and more I had the inclination to just stuff it in a drawer.

Something had to change. This quilt should be all about the blocks, but they sort of get lost as rendered above. Instead of standing out, the blocks seem to sink behind the sashing, especially the red. Even the border fabric - pretty as it its - competes with the blocks.

My friend Pam and I worked on these quilts at the same time, and I rushed to complete mine (my excuse, btw) so we could do show-and-tell with our quilt group. When Pam held her quilt up, it took my breath away. She set her blocks in a simple, dark blue print, all the same. Very simple, very gorgeous. I knew immediately that's what I wanted to do with mine.

After picking it apart, I took all the pieces to my quilt retreat over the weekend, bent on reworking it with my new chosen fabrics.

Much better, don't you think?

The narrow dark blue sashing does a way better job of defining the blocks, even considering the fact that the outer "logs" are of varying value, many of them dark. Some of them disappear into the sashing, but I think that's ok.  It adds interest, and keeps the eye moving. The printed border makes it appear as if the blocks are floating in space. With this rendition, the viewer's attention is definitely drawn to the blocks themselves. Which is as it should be, imho. 

Now on to the rejected floral border and stripe. I still think is a brilliant combo and and an ideal setting solution for something, and I believe I had the perfect idea what to do with it. 

 
I pulled colors from the border fabric - basically, browns, reds and greens, for sampler blocks. About half of these came from Lori Smith's book Fat Quarter Quilting, the rest from other sources, including a few from my brain. See, now these blocks let the borders etc. know who's boss!

Speaking of brain, mine didn't register the fact that the replacement sampler blocks were actually a half inch larger than the Mini blocks (I thought they were both 4" duh... ) and because I didn't have any more of the stripe sashing fabric, I had to go with fewer blocks. But I think it works better with the twelve blocks anyway, don't you?

With that done, I decided to attack my carton of  1" strips left over from the mini's. I thought maybe a little Log Cabin doll quilt would be a neat idea.

Not sure l'm done with this yet. Maybe I'll applique a big black crow on it somewhere, and call it "primitive" (insert winkie face) !

Anyway, I had a great quilt retreat, and all in all I think I did pretty good! 

love,
Sandy

a slight adjustment (ahem...)

Recognize this?

Its my Marvelous Mini framework, missing the blocks.

 What happened, you may ask. Well, here's what it comes down to.

This was definitely a "process" quilt, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of making these darling little blocks. I also enjoyed picking "just the right fabrics" (or so I thought) for the setting. Unfortunately, the more I looked at it once it was all sewn together, the less happy I was with the resulting top. Don't get me wrong, I love the blocks, and I love the setting. I just don't think they belong together. I think those tiny little 2" blocks just got lost.

So while slogging through episode 3 of Ken Burns' Vietnam War the other night, I went about slowly picking the the whole thing apart.

Yeah, I know. I'm insane. But there it is.

Anxious to move ahead, or backwards as it may seem, I went back to my audition pix and really like how the blocks pop out on a more solid color. Then I fished around and came up with this idea.

This is just pieces of fabric slapped together, but you get the picture.

I have a quilt retreat coming up in a couple weeks, so will have time to do some fine tuning, and do the cutting and sewing.  Also give it time to marinate, in case I change my mind again.

 Meanwhile, I have some ideas of what I want to fill those holes with. One thing, they will be four inch blocks, not two inch with scrappy borders. (not that there's anything wrong with that, ha ha) Probably sampler-style, probably reds and browns.

So that's what's on my design wall today.

Check out what others have on their walls on Judy's blog, Design Wall Monday.

Marvelous Mini Flimsy

I sewed along with Temecula Quilt Company's Marvelous Mini Mondays, and I just now got my top sewn together.

I made all the pieced blocks, but fewer postage stamp blocks and none of the "plain" blocks. Good thing, as it is, I barely had enough of my chosen fabric for the vertical sashing, which I had to piece, and also squeaked by on the borders.

Will go ahead now and link up with Judy's Design Wall Monday.

love,
Sandy

Spray Basting on the Garage Door

I'm sure there are lots of opinions on whether or not one should even use the stuff (basting spray).  However I believe when you plan on doing an all-over curvy quilting design where pins would get in the way, spray basting presents a handy option. I do feel it must be done outdoors. But have you ever tried to tape a quilt back to concrete? Not easy, nor is manipulating the layers once you've sprayed.

So.. one sleepless night, I spent a few hours surfing the internet and Youtube, trying to find a better way. I eventually came across this technique , which  I think its brilliant!

I first tried it over the weekend on my Rail Fence quilt, as you can see above. Its amazingly fast and easy. One tip I'll add is that I placed a little rubber bumper in the middle of the garage door, as a placement guide for my layers. Then all you have to do is find the exact center of each layer (back, batting, top) and make sure the centers are over that dot as you layer. No guessing, and is crucial especially when your backing piece ends up being barely big enough, as is often the case with me.

On to the quilting. I used one of my favorite patterns, the large arcs, which are like an oversized, random Baptist Fan. Easy, with a walking foot. And dense enough to give a wonderful crinkle after washing and drying in the dryer.

I was able to use a little wider arc on the plaid quilt, about 1 1/8", and only two "fans", which made this one even faster. I love how they turned out.

Now, what about this crazy weather! It was oppressively hot over the weekend here, with temps above 100 three days in a row, topping out at 111 on Saturday. This was in Watsonville, which is on the Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California, where people who live inland come to cool off! It was actually hotter here than most of those inland cities. Very strange, and a bit scary. 

None of the houses here have actual air conditioning, because it "never gets that hot" here. We do top100 from time to time, but "it always cools down at night" - another constant that never happened last weekend. It never got below 65, so the house never cooled down. My "air conditioning" consisted of a small fan in front of the window in my sewing room, which I had pointed directly on my face as I was working, about two feet away. My tiny little oasis in a sea of sweltering heat.

I'm happy to say its cooled down to a muggy mid-70's this week. But you know I can't complain too much, at least we're not in the line of any major fires, or hurricanes. Keeping fingers crossed on that ....

My heart and thoughts are with the thousands of folks being burned out, blown out, or flooded out by these devastating events. Not to mention the wildlife, and loss of habitat. I pray for relief, all the way around.

love,
Sandy