a long overdue heartfelt thankyou post.

never having won anything in my life i was impossibly delighted when my name was pulled from josie’s hat in her anniversary draw at mr monkeysuit. to have someone so talented make a baby quilt just for me (well, i suppose technically it was for baby G ) was a dream come true.

but that delight was nothing compared to how i felt when the quilt arrived, just a few days before G (note impeccable timing in contrast to my own belated effort). i posted briefly then but wanted to share more of the details of this wonderful quilt: the fabric choices, the pieced sashing, the softness of the backing, the wonderful spiralling square quilting.

i was really blown away by the quilt and honoured to have won it. we use it every day and G loves it too. more pics.

oh!

i received a parcel that took my breath away today.

the minute i saw these i thought “quilting patterns”. perhaps not exactly, but inspiration, certainly. not that i’m getting ahead of myself or anything

tinsmiths

at embroidery overlaps barbara explains that the contemporary quilt group of the quilters’ guild has set its members a challenge for 2007: an A4 quilt a month. as a novice i’m loving the opportunity offered by tiny quilts to try new techniques without any great investment of time or money. it helps me to sustain my interest through to the end as well, always an issue for me in any project.

in the interests of research i’ve been trying to track down as many of these little quilts (mini contemporary or art quilts as opposed to doll quilts) as i can. it turns out that finding quilters who share my aesthetic is harder than i might have expected. as shannon pointed out there’s a hell of a lot of embellishing going on out there. although that certainly doesn’t put me off, i tend to lose interest in things even quicker if i’m surrounded by people doing exactly what i want to do only much better

one of the few that strikes a chord is margaret cooter. i especially like her two “kilim’ quilts that draw inspiration from woven textiles. i think that’s a direction i’d like to move towards, exploring the relationship between quiltmaking and other fabric construction methods.

the art and mini quilts flickr pool is the most varied source of different styles i’ve found to date, i feel i’ve just begun to scratch the surface there.

even smaller this time, just A4 sized, perfect for an apprentice piece. the background sky/tree fabrics are pieced, everything else is appliqued. since this didn’t have to withstand being washed i thought i’d have a go at fusible applique, but i didn’t want to machine it (everything is hand stitched) or have raw edges, so i had a go at stitching the pieces onto lightweight fusible interfacing, cutting a slit in the interfacing, turning, then fusing. in the main this worked well, although there are a few spots where the interfacing is peeking out around the edges, especially on the smaller/fiddlier pieces. i do think it was definitely worth saving the hassle of slip stitching everything down. i think perhaps i should have cut out behind the appliques to reduce bulk and show-through, especially behind the house, but i wasn’t convinced that the fusible would hold if it was only a thin line around the edge. the quilting is more successful in some spots than others. i’m pleased with the swirly puffiness of the sky - which comes from following the outlines of the paisley pattern - and the wavy ground. on the other hand, i don’t think the concentric circles on the tree actually do it any favours and i think the house is still unresolved. although what i should have done further with it i’m not sure, and with all those layers to work through i’m not sure it woud have taken a pleasing texture anyway.

the little details on the house - the blind, number and button handle - were sadly not at all my invention (although i did have the brainwave of taking the number from a selvedge rather than attempting to embroider it) all credit to syko’s fantastic houses. believe me i had to strongly restrain myself from duplicating wholesale all of her clever little touches.

all in all i’m torn about this, there’s something that really isn’t working for me and i can’t quite put my finger on it. i’m happiest with the tree side of things, and the little dress. but it’s all been good practice - i’m getting quite good at bindings now, i even managed a mitred corner on this one - as neat on the back as it is on the front thanks to this explanation of what to do with the back, cos the suggestion that it will somehow mitre itself on the back which appears to be pretty widespread is a long way from the truth in my experience. and my quilting stitches are getting smaller, if not much more regular. here’s a question for any hand quilters reading - when people say it’s more important that your stitches are even than small, should i be aiming for stitches that are the same size as each other, or should they also be the same size as the spaces between them?

venturing tentatively into the online world of art quilts (why do i find the very idea so off-putting? i think my deeply ingrained art-scepticism instinctively baulks at it - to my mind the whole point of a quilt is that it keeps somebody warm) i’ve found a whole heap more links to drop for later reference:

ragged cloth cafe
art quilt reviews
squidoo: art quilts

quilting is apparently part of the fabric (heh) of society in the us, but here it feels like a rather unlikely thing to do. casting around to find some kind of british tradition i could link into i found quiltart. i’m especially taken by the work of elizabeth brimelow and ann fahy, both speak to the latent archaeologist in me. and for sheer fabric joy i don’t think mary fogg can be beaten.

with immaculate timing the purl bee (i swear i’m not on commission ) today recommended this book on welsh quilts.

early quilt history, wholecloth quilts, inc. welsh, at quiltersmuse.

vintage welsh quilts can be seen (and purchased) here. tangentially, she also has a stock of welsh nursing shawls, which i feel somehow duty-bound to at least have a try with, although the traditional carry is one-handed, rather than hands free. and on the same tangent i must remember to post a pic of my new mei tai - it’s one of the loveliest textiles that’s come into my possession in a loooong time.

sadly not much info online at the v&a, although they do have a reading list and (don’t hold your breath) an upcoming exhibition of british quilts in 2010.

the quilters’ guild

quiltstory has an up to date list of uk exhibitions and events, as well as various articles with a uk slant.

fabric dyeing 101 - definitive dyeing resource (which will follow in due course, i have no doubt ) i’ve also really enjoyed reading her hard-won insights into running an art-based home business (ongoing series).

i think i’m officially hooked on quilting. i haven’t enjoyed making anything as much as this for a long time. it’s a belated (natch) mother’s day present, all hand stitched. the tree fabric might look vaguely familiar - it features in my banner. the design has four different trees but this one is my standout favourite. it’s quite a crowded pattern and you can see the odd leaf and trunk from its companions peeping in around the edges. i cut out and appliqued the trunk while keeping the fabric in a single piece. in some ways i’m not totally happy with the “chopped off” appearance of the tree around the leaves and especially at the top, but it was necessary to keep it visually isolated and in other ways i’m pleased with the way it gives a rather more abstract, textural feel to the whole thing, rather than “oh look a lollipop tree”. the chopped-offness adds to its overall slightly drunken air. the “grass” was supposed to be at an angle - and had to be to cover up other trees - but the “flowers” should be straight. that’s just not enough care at the piecing stage to get them lined up right. i wasn’t totally sure about including this fabric as it’s a different style print to the others and the whole “flowers” thing is a bit literal. but i really like the way the colours play - i think the white background balances the piece - and i like how it echoes the circular motif of the tree. i have so much still to learn about using fabrics together in patchwork, but it’s really fun learning. but leaving aside my reservations about the finished article - and there are plenty, not least the quilting stitches - i found the process utterly engaging. it was really much quicker than i expected, i enjoyed the control i had hand piecing, and i absolutely loved the hand quilting, especially in the softer sections (the tree fabric is furnishing weight so didn’t respond as obligingly to the quilting). having struggled to knot the ends of threads for years the quilter’s knot was a real revelation - it’s quite unnerving how much it still delights me every single time. i managed to get up a fair stitch rhythm and while i improved significantly from the outset my stitches were still wonky and uneven, ocassionally failing to catch at all on the back, and hovering around the 6-stitches-to-the-inch mark at their very best. but nothing worth learning comes immediately and i enjoyed it so much i can see me taking every opportunity to practice, especially on manageable sized projects like this.

oh and yes, i’ve learned pretty much everything i know so far from the purl bee, their tutorials are beautifully clear (as well as clearly beautiful). and to give more credit where it’s due the whole idea was inspired in no small part by liesl and alex .

i can’t explain quite how much i love this quilt, except to say that i found it really hard to edit down the pictures to post them on flickr - i wanted them all. i think one reason i’m so overwhelmed might be that i’ve never actually had a quilt before. i don’t think i’d even seen one in real life until a couple of weekends ago when we went to stay with friends who’d put their very special all-hand-stitched quilt on the guest bed for us (which inspired me to get finally moving with this one). so i’ve never properly experienced the rumpled visual and tactile joy that is a quilt before.

this came together gratifyingly quickly, always a plus for my limited attention span. the top is pieced from mostly charity shop fabrics - cotton curtains (which remind me strongly of the ones that hung in my grandparents kitchen when i was small) and a poly-cotton duvet cover which had the hexagons on one side and the magnificent balloon pattern on the other. the binding is a superbuzzy fabric that i think may have sold out there now, but is also at reprodepot iirc. after a long time sewing clothing i have to say i’m delighted that the entire quilt was made without the use of a single pin (apart from the aforementioned thousands of basting pins) - oh the joy of straight seams and neat rotary cut edges that can just be held together.

after the pleasure of piecing the actual quilting was nearly my downfall. the walking foot did a sterling job, but i made the mistake of trying to rely on the quilting guide that came with it to keep my quilting lines parallel. this might have worked for straight lines (although the fact that it sits on the wrong side of the foot, and that i had to tape it to stop it sliding to random lengths, suggests perhaps not) but it hadn’t occurred to me that it would create concentric, rather than parallel, curves. not until i started. and those curves were getting tighter and tighter and harder and harder to sew. i realised at this point that i really should have lengthened my stitches for the quilting, especially if there was going to be ripping out to do. so i didn’t bother ripping, just started again with the top marked.

marking the top after basting (d’oh!) wasn’t so bad really - i made a cardboard template and traced along it a couple of rows at a time, having removed the pins from that section. after years of dressmakers chalk and assorted other equally-not-very-good fabric marking methods, disappearing marker pen was a revelation too, although i guess the fact that you mustn’t iron it pretty much rules it out for dressmaking. after reading a few horror stories about the ink reacting with detergents i made sure i soaked the whole thing in cold water to remove the marker before i washed.

i chose the wavy line quilting pattern because i wanted something with a bit of movement to break up the static formal lines of the top. it hadn’t occurred to me how much harder this would be with the walking foot than straight lines, but it didn’t turn out too bad, especially since the rumpled patches i was getting in places on the top (nothing on the backing at all, hats off to that walking foot) have disappeared into the general delicious rumpling once the quilt was washed (i used hobbs heirloom 80cotton/20poly batting and i just love the difference the shrinkage makes).

i think the quilting pattern works particularly well on the back, it just seems to carry the balloons along. i’ve since seen some really inspiring machine-quilted patterns using straight lines that are still really free and loose and make this look quite stiff (rats, can’t find all the links, but here’s one i love), so that’s a whole new world to explore too

i was nearly stumped on the binding. i bought a bias tape maker, in the hope of managing a single-pass binding, but failed utterly to get it to work properly. it seemed to me that it didn’t fold over tight enough so it wasn’t feeding under the iron evenly, the “tape” was totally uneven and unusable. maybe i just need more practice. anyway, i ended up cutting 1 1/2″ strips, pressed one edge to just over a 1/4″ then sewed the un-pressed edge at a scant 1/4″ onto the front of the quilt. then i folded over and machine stitched at 3/8″ from the back (with brown thread in the top and white in the bobbin). i know it’s usual to make the second pass narrower than the first, so the stitches catch the binding, but i know how uneven my sewing is, and there was a good chance that i’d end up wandering off the edge of the binding completely on the back - and you’ve worked out by now that i’m rather averse to ripping unless it’s structural so i’d prolly leave it like that and just cringe every time i saw it. i couldn’t work out a neat way of mitring the corners so i just stitched separate strips to each side and hand finished the corners. in the end i really like how it’s turned out, with the neat turned edge on the front, and the row of bobbin stitches framing the rest of the quilting.

i’m itching so badly to get going on the next one

for some reason i don’t quite recall i tend not to post my works in progress. but i’ve been so enjoying my quilting the last few days i wanted to share a few sneak peeks.

this first one is a playmat for our next arrival. i’m slowly working up the critical scale - first a toy quilt, now a baby quilt, next one for M, eventually working up to one for us. i ran out of pins basting it last night, about 2/3 done. having just read lisa call’s basting tutorial i’m thinking perhaps i overdid it a bit, as she pins around 6″ apart, whereas i’d read other advice that you shouldn’t be able to put a fist down without hitting a pin. if i can make it to the button shop today i’ll get more pins, but if not i have the centre section fully pinned and can remove those and pin the edges once the middle’s quilted. my walking foot arrived this morning so i don’t think i’ll be able to resist having a go tonight.

and here are the first of M’s stars. the tutorial utterly and totally rocks. i realised once i’d had a go how it neatly sidesteps all the problems of stretching on the bias you’re likely to encounter sewing triangles. i’m gathering a sizeable bag of offcut triangles that i may use on the backing or binding, or a spin-off doll quilt. the cutting is pleasantly straightforward and the sewing goes by in no time, i was planning to have a quick try at a sample square when i came to a halt on the playmat and managed all 4 yesterday, which included prewashing the fabrics. i really love em, but please reassure me, there is no such thing as too colourful when you’re 4, right?

i’m pretty much decided on a sawtooth star pattern for M’s quilt, not least thanks to this fab tutorial at the purl bee. also inspired by this fantastic mandala quilt.

via wee wonderfuls but josie’s work. i went searching for ideas on quilting patterns for my current wip and found this recent post. i have a strangely overwhelming craving for yellow at the moment, it’s grabbing me like nothing else, and i just adore this orange too. will have a good root around at mr monkeysuit later on.

eta: blimey is this really my first post this month? slap wrists, bad blogger

eta: heh, there must be something in the air, manda over at treefall’s got it too it was her yellow apron set in this post that jumped off the page at me the other day and convinced me i need more yellow in my life.

in the planning stages. i have fabric stashed for a double quilt for me, which is staying well and truly stashed until i’ve worked up to it. i’ve got fabric on the way for a single for madam, but again i want to get some practice in first. so i’m planning a series of mini quilts to get a grip on the piecing, which i think i’ll try hand quilting - so that i can play with different quilting styles without having to master machine quilting at the same time. i enjoy handwork, i’m quite painstaking and reasonably patient, and i’m hoping that hand quilting will give me the control i need. i’m not over fussed on teeny stitches so i’m hoping that reduces the stress potential.

i’ve got 2 plans, one in blues on white, taking inspiration from islamic art. links:
geometry in islamic design
islamic floral patterns and geometry
origami star (part of an astonishing set of original origami designs via flickr)

the second i’m thinking of shades of deep red, geometric but loose, inspired by gunta stolzl’s weavings. i love keiko goke’s use of light and shade in her log cabin work, it has that bauhaus feel and i particularly like how she breaks up the shadow with the bright striped sashing in this quilt, similar to stolzl’s flashes of black and white.

forums: martha pullen phorum
quilters review
sewforum
equilter (also home to a library which includes this discussion on puckering).

flickr: quilts and quilting

misc quilting links: handy info on various things to consider from quiltville including thread colour choice and pieced backings (plus lots else to browse).
batting faq
standard quilt measurements
looooads of info at victoriana quilt designs
press your seams open
starching
hand piecing
cutting - grain lines
piecing sharp points
hand piecing tips
perfect hand quilting stitch

i made a quilt

i can’t believe how quick the whole process was. okay so it’s only a doll size sampler (actually it’s for bender - but he doesn’t mind that it’s rather girly), 15″x21″ish, but it went from conception to completion in the space of a single day.

i decided to get my machine out and give it a good going over to see if i could fix the not-going-in-reverse problem, which magically disappeared even before i cleaned out the wodges of felt that had accumulated around the feed dogs. so i thought why not have a go at a tiny practice quilt. the fabrics are dispensible cottons from stash (i.e. it wouldn’t ever be my choice of colour scheme) stitched with (shhh!) polyester thread. all the cutting was a joy, finally putting my rotary cutter to good use. we (madam was my able design and production assistant for the bits that were child-proof at least) decided on a really basic design, but i wanted to try just a little bit of more complicated piecing, hence the star.

the patchwork went mostly to plan, i was particularly impressed with how well my machine coped with chain sewing the pieces, it fed pretty much flawlessly, even on the triangles, which i didn’t expect at all. maybe it just responded well to a little tlc, i’m not sure i’ve ever oiled it before. i didn’t expect to get any further than finishing the top today, but when it was done with time to spare i dug out some machine-felted wool that fit perfectly. it’s rather stiffer and denser than the wadding in manda’s quilt and it doesn’t indent with quilting in the same way, but worked perfectly for a practice and i’m sure i’ve heard of blankets being used as wadding. the only problem is that it’s dark, and slightly visible through the orange fabric.

i expected the quilting to cause some problems, for lack of a walking foot, and although i’ve no idea how much a walking foot would improve things i was pleasantly surprised at how unhorrific it eventually turned out. despite copious basting i did get a significant amount of slippage - not enough to cause puckering on the top, i worked from the centre and lifted the presser foot at intervals to relieve the bunching - but enough to make the top overshoot so far that it pushed past the edge of the backing, even though i’d cut it larger than the top. this left me around half an inch short of fabric on the backing side, so i widened the binding on the back to cover it.

it was the stitching in the ditch that i found unexpectedly fiendish. although it improved as i went it took utmost concentration and i still wasn’t at all happy with it. having looked very closely at manda’s work i realised that the puffing up of proper quilt wadding and using a properly matching thread actually does a great deal to disguise less than perfect stitching (and i had taken hers to be flawless until then), so didn’t feel quite so bad.

hand stitching the binding to the back didn’t take as long as i’d feared - the whole thing was gratifyingly speedy, i’d expected even a small quilt to be a week or so’s work. i can see that i could easily get a taste for it, although i’m starting to wonder what on earth we’d do with all the quilts i already want to make. we only have 2 beds in the house!

oh must plug the book i unexpectedly found at the local bookshop: linda seward’s patchwork, quilting and applique, that held my hand through the whole process.

browsing flickr for quiltspiration i found Hip To Piece Squares. sadly not much recent blog activity but she’s posting new stuff on flickr.

i’ve just been shopping again, this time for fabrics for a single quilt for madam (lowering my sights somewhat and postponing the planned queen sized until i’ve had a bit more of practice). i’m suffering from fabric dazzle. i.e. picking fabrics that i adore without much thought to how they will work in a quilt. never having made one i’d say that’s probably understandable, just hope it won’t take too many expensive mistakes before i start to get the hang of it.

as it is i have a bunch of generally large-scale prints that coordinate beautifully, but i’m left seeking a bold pattern with fairly large areas of a single fabric to make the most of them. i’m particularly drawn to bold geometric designs on white as here and here. i don’t think either specific design would work for my fabrics, but it’s definitely a style i aim to work towards.

Passionate Patchwork: shirt stripe boxes a Kaffe Fassett design using men’s shirts: inspirational.

oooh my fabrics arrived from cia’s palette. it’s exactly the wrong time for me to appreciate them properly since we’re in the middle of turning the house upside down for decorating so they had to be stashed quickly away, but i couldn’t help stopping to admire how beautifully they were packaged.

lisa call: new work and inspiration: love her work, thoroughly looking forward to reading through the archives at length.

via whipup.

i’ve been playing around with a quilt design and it think it’s shaping up rather nicely. i’ll work out the real thing as i go from the fabrics but this gives a good schematic of how the colours play together (though the scale’s all to pot). it’ll probably have more joins than this since i have a fair number of fat quarters which i’m pretty sure aren’t 30″ wide (for each panel, total is 90″ square). it’ll also be more random looking, less square, thanks to my sewing skillz

i’m considering using the paler blue polkadot fabric as the central panel (with white) on the backing.

you can see the details of the fabrics in the massive size pic.

• Machine Quilting
• batting faq
• major quilting inspiration (and tipping me over the edge into starting with this*) hillary lang of wee wonderfuls. how cool not only that a) she uses one of the fabrics i just bought in this quilt (second row from right, bottom square) but that b) i spotted it immediately on seeing the photo :D. that quilt is pretty close to what i’m currently imagining for my first attempt - geometric, largely white, but i’m thinking stripes.
• yet more inspiration contemporary-stylee from denyse schmidt.
• more inspiration from material obsession: an australian store so not great shopping potential but i like the way their deisgns tread so sure-footedly the line between trad and contemporary.
• forums: there’s a quilting forum at pr, which is rather quiet but there are many very experienced people there if i do have questions to ask; block central is the first of the quilt-only forums i’ve found that’s in a format i like but it is rather pink.
• backings
• discussion on preventing backings puckering: lots of good putting-together info here.
• equilters library
• paula reid tips & tricks

*lol i just saw the massive number of comments on the post, including one that says “I wonder how many people will make their first quilt because of this one” - count me in!

yay new category!