Gizmos for the new Quilt

 

Here is the new word, Sunshine.

Here's a pink butterfly.

The letters are made without templates, patterns or paper piecing. You can make them too. I show you how in my tutorial, and you can get it here, on my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

 

I designed the butterfly also, and wrote a tutorial for the butterflies as well. You can get it here, also at my Etsy shop, and it is also an instant download.

 

It's a Picnic!

 

The new word is picnic. It isn't sewn together and the letters are not at their final size. I will make the i's smaller.

I've decided this is a summer fun quilt. 

 

My letters are "free-pieced" or "improvisationally pieced." They are made without templates or patterns and they are not paper pieced. If you are interested in making letters, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

I got an email from the curator of the New England Quilt Museum. The plan is to have a one person show of my quilts there and we are looking at April or May of 2021. WOW!

Fizzy and Fuzzy

 I'm writing this because I don't want you to think anything bad happened to me. It's just that I had an eye exam and at the end of it they dilated my eyes so when I got home I couldn't read or look at a computer or sew.

Since I can't leave you with nothing to look at, here's a picture of Millie, napping contentedly in the basket that lives on my dining room table. I bought it for something else, but she decided she liked it and that, as they say, was that.

Giggles

 I decided the next word should be GIGGLES. It's fun and silly.

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I knew where I wanted to go with the word, but it wasn't until I tilted the letters that I really started loving it.

 I think the fabric I is perfect, and the dino dot is the bomb!.

 

I'm not quite sure about the L, but overall I am pleased.

Of course, looking at it now I think the third G needs to be a bit bigger.  I want to make a pink butterfly as a companion to this word.

If you want to know how to make letters, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. My letters are made without patterns or templates and they are NOT paper pieced.

JOY *

 

 Here is today's word, Joy.

Here is an asterisk. 

I've decided to use the fabric from the leftover triangles in these letters.

These letters are not paper pieced. They are "improvisationally" pieced. They are made without templates or patterns. If you want to know how to make them, you can get my tutorial here, on my Etsy shop.

 

 

Hope This Finds You Well

 There was an article in the New York Times about that phrase, "Hope this finds you well," that we have all been using when we check in on each other. 2020 will undoubtedly be the strangest year most of us will ever live through. It hasn't been easy for many of us, and downright disastrous for far too many.

I live alone, so it's up to me to keep myself involved. I usually have the TV on when I work in the studio. I'm used to watching the big sporting events - The Kentucky Derby, The Masters, The Indianapolis 500, The French Open, Wimbledon, and so on. Those have been cancelled or postponed, or run without spectators, as you can see from the photo of the Indy 500 race above.

I've got one more quilt to bind, but I wanted something to keep my brain occupied. My pal Julie said she was going to make something pink, because we all need more pink in our lives.

Hmmm, I replied. Maybe I need words. Fun, happy words. We need happy. Maybe something with birds, hearts, asterisk flowers. "Yes, yes, yes" Julie texted back. "Hope."

Flowers, happy, joy, fun, laugh...

"Sparkle"

It should be cuckoo like the chicken, with upside down words, vertical words, silly spelling. And it should have images... sailboats, cats, cake. Butterflies

"Sunshine"

It should have white on white backgrounds...

"Duh!"

OK! I'm going to get my notebook and start writing this stuff down...

Kites, smiles,

Thus inspired, I went into the studio to make some

The plan is to make a word a day, and also some "thing" else - here it is a heart. I want lots of other stuff in addition to the words. I want a quilt of happy. We'll see how this goes. Regular readers know I often get started with less than a complete idea, but that as I work other ideas will pop up, things will change, and after a bit, I'll figure it out, and then I'll be off to the races.

 

These letters are not paper pieced. They are "improvisationally" pieced. They are made without templates or patterns. If you want to know how to make them, you can get my tutorial here, on my Etsy shop.

HEY: https://squamish.arcteryxacademy.com/films, check out the film, FREE AS CAN BE. That old guy is my brother Mark. Yeah, it's rock climbing on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, but hey, it's my brother!

Tutti Frutti in the Sun

 It's hard to see the true colors of something in a photograph, especially a quilt that's five feet wide and six feet tall from a distance of ten feet away in an enclosed space. If  you take a picture of the same quilt outside in the sun, a lot of the colors are a bit washed out. If you take a picture of the same quilt on a sunny day with the quilt in the shade, the colors will have a bluish cast because of the reflection of the blue of the sky. If you take a picture of a quilt when it is overcast, the colors are much closer to reality.

LAST WEEK, the Firebird quilt was photographed on an overcast day.  

As you can see it was sunny the day I took these pictures of Tutti Frutti. But I needed to show that this is not a dark quilt, that it is bright and fun and cheery.

I live in New England, in the northeastern US. It's very green. It's something that's easy to take for granted. So when I have an opportunity to take a picture of one of my quilts in very green New England, I do it. So yeah, if you visit me, when you are in the driveway and look up, you see this.

Tutti Frutti is a Zebra quilt. If you are interested in making a Zebra quilt, you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Tutti Frutti is Finished

 

The Tutti Frutti quilt is finished. I'll take it outside tomorrow and hang it up so you can see the whole thing.

 

I really like this one. I like the pizzazz.

This is a Zebra quilt. If you would like to make one, you can get my tutorial on my Etsy shop, here.

BTW, the Firebird quilt now lives at my sister's house. (Yes, the same sister who helped me build my ironing table. I only have one sister.) She has a yellow living room and a red sofa, so the quilt is right at home. She loves it. I can't visit her at her house (sigh) so I don't have a picture of it, but I'm working on it!

Binding Tutti Frutti

 

The binding of the Tutti Frutti quilt is the same fabrics as the inner border, which is to say I used the same low-key creamish fabrics. For the inner border I cut the strips WOF and then cut those in half, sewed them all together end to end more or less randomly, then attached them to the quilt. The inner border is about 1-1/4" wide. I decided I liked that effect and decided to do the same thing for the binding.

 

I didn't have all the fabrics I used in the inner border, so I did the best I could, but I didn't add any new fabrics. If it is in the quilt, it is in the binding. 

Regular readers know I sew my binding to the back of my quilt and fold it over to the front and do my hand-stitching on the front. You can get all my binding hints in my Binding tutorial on my Etsy shop.

 

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So now as I "watch" TV, I sew the binding down.

 

 

Yellow Ribbons

 I added a border to the Yellow Ribbons quilt. I didn't want one that was too light or too dark. This was just right. Now I will hunt for a backing.

This is a Zebras quilt. If you would like to make one, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

The Ironing Table

While my son was in college, we set up his room so he could have more space and privacy. My dad and I built an L-shaped desk, and put my son's bed in a loft. I painted it with cats and other fun designs. In the photo above he is playing with Gizzy, "the cat who came before."

When my son moved out, I wasted no time in taking the bed apart and setting the room up as a painting studio. Life had other plans for me, and I got back into making quilts. At some point I got frustrated with the standard ironing board. I had an idea to make an ironing table. I mentioned it to my sister at Christmas one year. (My sister has a love affair with power tools.) A quick trip to the basement where I had stored all the pieces and parts of the old bed confirmed I had enough wood. A few days later we got to work.

First we figured out how big the top should be. I guessed 48" long. The plywood we had was 24" wide, so that was that. Then we added an apron to the top, and then assembled a base. It's nothing fancy.  We did mark the front of the base and the top "FRONT" so when I remove the top I can put it back together properly.

We put a shelf at the bottom, mostly to stabilize the thing, and brought it up to the sewing studio.

I covered the table with two layers of cotton batting, and a layer of "Insul-brite" which is a kind of batting with a heat layer, designed to be used in potholders

 

A trip to the local fabric store yielded a couple of yards of that silver ironing board fabric. I stapled it in place using an electric staple gun.

 By that time I was aware of ergonomics. We determined how high the table would be my figuring out how many inches from the floor the faceplate of my iron was when I held it with my elbow bent at at 90 degree angle with my shoulder relaxed. I'm five feet tall. The height is 32-1/2". It's perfect for me, but if you're taller, make it taller.

In retrospect, I should have made the table wider, about 54". Why? Because although the table at 48" wide is plenty wide enough for a piece of 42-44" fabric, it is not quite wide enough to set an iron on it while shifting the fabric. I've solved that problem by setting an end table to one side, covered with a plastic placemat, where the iron rests along with a spray bottle and a measuring cup for water. (I use steam.) Still though, this is a thousand times better than any alternative. You can buy a "handy panel" of plywood at the average big box hardware store that's precut to 24" x 48" for short money.

Since I built this in 2007 I've recovered it four times. (That works out to every three years.) The first time I replaced the silver ironing board fabric I also added another layer of cotton batting and insulbrite. Oh, and make sure the top is stretched TIGHT! Wrinkles in the top make your work harder.

I use the ironing board cover fabric because it is designed for heat and there is no "drag." In other words, it's easy to use, because it is "slippery", it is not tiring to use when ironing quilt backing. Ordinary cotton looks great, but with all the heat, it burns eventually, and then dries and cracks, and then tears. It would work, but would have to be replaced more frequently.

There are a couple of other considerations. Your ironing table should NOT be placed right up against a wall, and there should be space all around for the extra fabric to fall over the edges. Let's face it, if you are ironing a six yard piece of fabric, you only want to do it ONCE! You will also need an electrical outlet close by for your iron (mine has a very long cord. I find the cordless ones don't get hot enough.) and for a light that should be placed above your ironing table so you can see what you are doing. And since ironing (or pressing or whatever) is done standing up, one of those comfort mats for standing on is a really nice addition. Your back, and your feet, will thank you.

This is a simple thing, but well worth the small investment in time and effort.

 

Recovering the Ironing Table

My ironing table cover has been showing its age. It's stained and has holes in it, so it had to be replaced.

I removed the old layer.

Then I replaced the cover.

It looks great, and irons great too. It's a lot slipperier!

 

Firebird Outside

 

Here is the Firebird quilt, all finished, hanging outside so you can see the real colors. 

It looks good from across the street too.

Firebird is Finished

 

I've spent the last few evenings sewing the binding on the Firebird quilt.

 

 I love the paisley binding.

I love the quilting.

 

I love the fabrics.

 

This is a Zebra quilt. If you would like to make a Zebra quilt, you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

 Although it looks really nice on the back of my couch, this quilt will not be living here.

 

Colorwash at Home & Answers

 

 

I've finished sewing the binding and the hanging sleeve on my colorwash quilt and I hung it up in my living room.

 

 Each square is 2" and it is 20 squares across and 20 down so it is about 40" square with 400 pieces. There are about 382 unique fabrics.

If you ever have the opportunity to take Wanda Hansen's colorwash class I urge you to do it. It's a terrific class that teaches you how to use color in your quilts.

I have a lot of artwork hanging in my house. From my spot on the couch I can see into the dining room and my mom's painting on the far wall. I did the watercolors that hang above the archway, and I made the quilts on the wall and on the table.

You can see Millie in the lower right. Last week marked the 16th anniversary of her "Gotcha Day." 

Oh, I have had a couple of questions...

 

1. Yes I -always- work on the angled drafting table. Always. Everything. This blog started in July 2008, and I know there are tons of pictures of my drafting table in use.

 

2. Yes, the bulldog clips are used as weights. They are tied to string which is pinned to the top of my design wall. I have several and use them as plumb lines to keep my blocks straight when designing a quilt. I also use a laser level for keeping things perfectly horizontal.

 

3. I will update the Zebra tutorial with pictures and a design layout for the Yellow Ribbons quilt and i have also created an outline page for it in case anybody wants to color it as they work out a design (thank you Cathy.) Anybody who has bought a zebra tutorial can contact me for an updated version when it is ready. I am sewing the binding on the Firebird quilt, and want to include finished pictures of that in the update, so it won't be ready for a week or two.

 

4. Many glass companies sell and cut plexiglass, and there are custom quilting template makers on the internet. You can get your own templates made. Just think carefully about what you want. If you want a hole to hang your template, you'll have to ask for it.

5. I don't use any kind of sticky ANYTHING on the underside of my templates, ever. Any adhesive gets stickier over time and is harder to remove. The chemicals needed to remove sticky residue are very bad if they get on your skin, and into your body. Plus the edges of tape lift and get caught on fabric and drag the fabric where I don't want it to go. Really, I've thought about all this stuff.

6. I can contour draw left handed, but I don't trust my non-dominant hand with a sharp rotary cutter in it. I keep a box of band-aids in my studio for a reason.

7. I find that teaching in-person is good because you can clarify something if a student gets confused. You can go off on tangents. You can see if your students really "get it." I don't think the type of tools you use matters one way or the other. I have written eight tutorials, and these are harder. You have to be very careful about your language, you have to be very clear about your process, it has to make sense and you have to be consistent. Writing directions is very hard and few people do it well. I work very very very hard (and I have a crack team of proofreaders and testers who help me) to get it right. I've sold hundreds of tutorials, and nobody gives me grief because they can't understand what I am saying. But I don't think a tool is better for "live" or "written" or "video" learning. A tool is a tool.

8. I've said it before, and it bears saying again. Do What Works For You.

Yellow Ribbons Flimsy Complete

 The Yellow Ribbons flimsy is complete. The picture is a little bit dark, and the quilt is yellower than this. The flimsy is about 55-1/2" by 72"inches. The Zebra quilts tend to need a border, so that is my next trick.

If you would like to make a Zebra quilt, get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Yellow Ribbons

 As soon as I backed up and looked at this from across the studio, I liked the way the bland blenders made a waving shape up and down the quilt. I immediately wondered if they were getting TOO much attention. Should they be swapped with the big busy prints? Only one way to find out.

Starting at the right I began to shift the triangles. As soon as I had done two columns I knew this was better and that it was a layout I would sew together.

But OOPS, I saw a mistake (again!)

This is almost it. The layout is all set, but I am a bit concerned about the light streak in the middle and the slightly too heavy right side. But this is 95% there. I wasn't sure I'd EVER like these fabrics all together, but now I do.

 

THIS IS IT! And it has a name. Yellow Ribbons.

 

THIS, believe it or not, is a Zebras quilt. If you would like to make your own Zebra quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.