Northern Wilderness Top is Finished

And here it is...

I finally finished making the pieced border and sewed on all three borders in the past couple of days (the last one went on yesterday - Weds. the 22nd of May). 

Making this quilt has been an amazing journey of trying to perfect my applique techniques and precision piecing.  Lots of fun!

I was going to consider sending this quilt to Stovers for quilting as I've seen some wonderful work come out of their company - but their website is disabled and I'm wondering if they're still in business.

It would make me very sad to have to find another custom quilter for this one.  For obvious reasons, an overall pattern or pantograph wouldn't work on this quilt at all.  It needs custom work and I don't want to quilt it myself.

Any suggestions on an alternative to Stovers?

Edit: Hooray!  Today I called Stovers and they are still there... they weren't even aware their website was down (*later edit*:  and it is now back up again).  I can still have them do my quilts!  I have two in the pipe, ready to send to them to have them do before I decide what level of quilting I want on this one (they have custom and heirloom, and I'm not sure which one I want... they also have pantographs, but I KNOW I don't want that).

Anyway, didn't mean to worry anyone - Stovers is still there and quilting away!

Journey to Alaska

Today I put together my Northern Wilderness quilt.  I got the sashing pieced, and the blocks put together.  A lot of fun just staying organized and sewing so the blocks were in the right order in the rows, and the rows in the right order as well.  But I got 'er done!

The quilt measured exactly 57x75 when I got done, which is what it was supposed to measure.  Yay for that.  I cut my border strips at 1.75 inches, just like I was supposed to.  I put borders on the sides of the quilt, and when I got done, it should have measured 59.5 inches wide, but instead it is measuring 60.5 inches wide now.  I can't figure out what's wrong and I'm feeling stymied.

I think I will just fold it up for now and let it sit for a day or two while I mull it over and decide how to proceed.

It's very discouraging to feel like you've done everything right and it comes out wrong anyway.  I'm sure somehow I'll figure something out, but I'm worried about the next border, as it is heavily pieced and the quilt needs to be the right size to put them on properly.

Ah well, it is what it is and I will somehow 'Make it Work!'

Mother's Day

So I know it's not traditional, but I tend to think of Mother's Day as May 5th.  It's the anniversary of my mother's death, and I always think of her a lot, but especially on that day.  So yesterday was a tough day for me.  Luckily I have my DH, who provided a lot of help and small distractions during the day to keep me from dwelling too much on sadness.  Then he invited a friend over to spend the evening with us, and we had a little fun playing board games and relaxing together. 

I did spend the early part of the day keeping busy cutting fabric and sewing, which is something my mother would have appreciated.  She was always the type to keep very busy - if she wasn't cleaning or working in her garden or cooking, she was crocheting or doing something creative.  She wasn't a quilter, but really appreciated the quilted items I made for her. 

So I worked on the sashings for my Northern Wilderness quilt.  I finished the last two pieced and appliqued blocks of the quilt earlier in the week:

These are the glacier and mountain blocks... I had saved the easiest two blocks for last because I'm lazy like that.  I knew I'd want to do the easiest ones at the end.  Turns out with the intricate trees on the glacier block, it wasn't the easiest, but it was close, and doing the two together was great because they used the same colors so doing them together, I had a lot fewer bobbin and thread changes to make.

I also found this little quilt that I'd made on retreat last year.  It is called "Sisters Nesting Dolls".  I bought the kit for it on my trip to Alaska at the QuiltAlaska/Rushin' Tailor shop... I think it was in Skagway, but I could be misremembering the town.  Anyway, I had finished the embroidery on the quilt and lost the pattern, so I wasn't sure what to do with the border fabrics - how wide to cut the strips, so I emailed the shop and they emailed me the information.  I just trimmed the block, and am working on borders now.

I am hoping to have at least the first borders on before Wednesday when I go to my weekly sew-in with my mini-group.  Then I can put the final borders on there.  The outer border fabric has nesting dolls all over it, so it will be very cute!

Once the Alaska quilt is done, I will be down to two appliqued BOMs to work on each month - a much more manageable than working on three, especially since the Woodland creatures blocks are very detailed and intricate.  My last kit was short a little fabric so even though I've partially done the block, I have to wait for my replacement fabric to finish the applique.  The shop was very nice about it and promised to send me the piece with my next block, so I'm looking forward to that. 

I've heard some horror stories about by-mail BOMs from some shops and them not replacing short or missing fabric.  But I have to say that Quilting by the Bay was very nice about it and even offered to mail the missing piece immediately, but it seemed silly for them to spend extra money on shipping when they are going to be shipping me another block in a couple of weeks anyway.

Anyway - I hope you are looking forward to the REAL Mother's Day and enjoying your own quilting journey.

Teaching

Today I had a class with five lovely and talented women.  I taught them how to make origami kimonos out of strips of fabric.  They all made some wonderful kimonos out of a variety of fabrics - one was even a sombrero pattern, that came out looking oriental when it was done.  You'd never know it was sombreros at all.  We had a couple of hours of lots of fun, and enjoyable comaraderie as fellow quilters and it was amazing to watch these little strips of fabric transform under their hands into adorable little kimonos.

Here are some pictures of the kimonos they made, some with finished or almost finished quilts to put them on:

Not the best pictures I've ever taken, but I was limited to using my phone today.  See that yellow fabric?  It had sombreros on it... you'd never know, looking at the kimono!

Aren't these the cutest things ever????

I had SO much fun this morning with these ladies!!!  What a great way to spend a Saturday morning!!


On a side note: Two of the ladies in the class were professional teachers in their fields and said I did a great job demonstrating and teaching the technique, and being patient with them when they had questions.  That made my day, too, as I have been having sleepless nights with bad dreams leading up to the class for a few days now.  Can you say performance anxiety????  I have it in spades, and was sure something was going to go disastrously wrong.  It didn't!  Hooray!!!

New Projects

I started two new BOMs this week.  Am I crazy or what?  After all, I'm still in the middle of the Alaska quilt, but I joined these BOMs - one I signed up for months ago and it just started, the other I just signed up for last month.  I finished the first block for 'Autumn Joy' - It's an adorable bunny block.

I added some eyes for the bunny with french knots but I did that after I took the picture.  I can't wait for block two! 

The other BOM is the Woodland Creatures Quilt, and I am working on the first block now, which is the squirrel block, which is fine with me - I love squirrels!  Picture to follow when I get it done.  These are huge blocks too - 18 1/2" squares of fabric! It's going to be a massive quilt, which is okay - It is kind of a baltimore album kind of quilt with animals on it, so huge is appropriate.  Of course, I made a mistake and put my fusible on the wrong side of one of the fabrics, so I have more work to do before I can put the block together... Maybe tomorrow or Friday??

A finish!!!

Challenge quilt is FINISHED!  I think...

Now I have to work on the two BOMs I signed up for - both started this month.  Hopefully I have nothing else on my plate now except those two, and my Alaska quilt, so basically 3 BOMs.

Of course I'm not even going to think about all the tops that are languishing needing quilting... sigh.

New Goal

I have to set a new goal for myself this month, so my initial goal is to finish my challenge quilt for the guild challenge.  We had to blindly pick two paint chips and make a two color quilt using the colors on the paint chips.  We were allowed to add one other color, and a background color as well.  My paint chips were purple and violet (oh boy - what a combination - basically purple and purple).  We could use multiple values of those colors, of course.  I chose to add indigo to the mix, and for my 'background' color, I chose peach, which I put in the foreground instead of the background.

Here is what I have so far:

I am adding some peach colored yoyo's to the corners to embellish among the appliques.  The yoyos have beading to make them more 'flower like' - I hope it all comes out okay - and of course those kimonos have to be sewn onto the quilt - right now they are just pinned. 

I have until April 10th to finish this one up, because that is the reveal date for the challenge.  I hope it goes over well - I've had a lot of fun making and quilting this one.

The initial posting for the online '2013 finishes' challenge is at this site.  The reveal for the paint chip challenge is not online - it's at my monthly guild meeting.  Wish me luck - the quilts get voted on by the entire guild membership.

The Man Quilt - Finished!

The quilt is finished - all except the label.  The label will be hand lettered in the bottom left corner of the quilt, in the light grey square there.  No applique required.  I will 'make' the label tomorrow night when I deliver the quilt and find out what the consignor wants to call it.  So far, the only name I have for it, the working title, is just The Man Quilt.  She might want to name it after the recipient, so have her own ideas on a name.  We shall see.  Here it is - photos taken on a real design wall, so the quilt is hung properly for these photos.

I tried to keep the quilting very modern, graphic, and masculine, so while I did quilt around the appliques, the rest is just jagged spikes, with some sitd too.

I hope he likes it!  I had a ball making it... and I'm SO glad it will be delivered on time.  I DO have a problem with procrastination.

I posted this quilt at sew bittersweet designs in their 'March finishes' section, since this is my March finish.

Now I have to finish my challenge quilt for my guild which is in the embellishment stage.  Needs to be done by the second week in April, so I have a little more time, but that will be my April UFO to finish up.

The Man Quilt 3

Work on the Man Quilt continues as time runs out.  Yesterday I pieced the back and today I pinned the quilt, getting it ready for quilting.

This is the back of the quilt, all ready for signatures and such.  I just have to do the quilting.

I will be quilting from the back to start with - going around the applique letters and the bears.  Once that is done, I will be doing the rest of the quilting from the front, probably something structural to go with the design on the front... Not sure exactly what yet - but it will be architectural in feel I think, to go with  the whole 'man quilt' vibe of the thing.

I am hoping to get started on the quilting on Friday or Monday, with the intention of having the quilt all finished before March 31st.  It is needed for a birthday party in April, and I have to have it all bound and ready for signatures before the 'commissioner' leaves for the event.

So far she likes the pictures she's seen of it, and I hope she continues to feel the same way when it is quilted and ready to go.

On a rather sad but amusing note, I had to have one of my kitties shaved this week.  She is very old and can't groom herself like she used to.  She had terrible mattes that were causing her distress, irritating her skin and she just didn't smell good either.  So we took her to the vet, who rather than just shave the mattes, said he had to shave all of her except her head and her 'booties' - he said it was just all connected and even her tail had mattes.  Poor kitty.  She looks so pathetic and sad all the time and is constantly coming for attention - more than usual.  I think she might be cold, I can't tell, but she HAS to be feeling better what with the lumpy bumpy mattes gone and her skin able to breathe and heal up again.  Here she is in all her shaved glory, poor baby:

She really is a beautiful cat with long ultra-soft white fur and beautiful grey spots... but now she looks so... well... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  And I know she doesn't like it so we try not to laugh at her.  I know it will grow back, but still... until it does, she will look like a drowned rat I'm afraid.

I wish she was a little tamer and would let us brush her... then taking care of her fur would be easier... but we love her anyway!

The Man Quilt II

I have been working on this quilt now for a couple of weeks - on and off.  I finally have the components of the back of the quilt made... lots of piano key borders, and two panels.  One panels is to commemorate the recipient's 60th birthday, with places for guests at his party to sign and be creative.  The second panel is a pair of teddy bears, because he is a collector.  Here are the panels, without any borders yet:

This is the signature block, ready for adding borders and connecting to the bear block.

Here is the bear block.  Hard to see some of their facial details, but one bear has his eyes closed - all embellished with hand embroidery.   (Ignore the wet spots in the corners, I accidentally dripped water on the corner when it was folded up.)


Finally got the edge stitching done on all those letters in the signature block and on the bears too.  So now all there is is borders and putting the back together, and then quilting.


I am debating how to quilt it.  I know I will do it on my Bernina, not on the longarm, as there isn't enough backing fabric for the longarm.  I am still trying to figure though how to quilt it - all from the back?  or just quilt around the appliques, then quilt from the front for the rest of it, skipping inside the appliques???  I'm just so ambivalent.  I hope I get it it resolved quickly as I"m running out of time to finish up the quilt.  It is already mid-March and I'm not done yet... yikes!!!