Early Autumn, Backing

It's no secret that I hate getting the backing ready for quilts. I've had the backing fabric and the signature panel for the Early Autumn quilt since, well... 2018. Now that Tutti Frutti is done, I figured it was time to complete some of the unfinished projects I have hanging in my closet. The quilts are finished, but these quilts needed backings:

• Early Autumn
• Not Paper Pieced
• Goose Rocks Beach
• 58 Carats
• Tutti Frutti

 So, first things first. I went shopping online and found the backing and binding fabric for Tutti Frutti. That's on order. CHECK!

Then I shopped for the backing of 58 Carats. Found backing for that. Got it on order. CHECK

Goose Rocks Beach was next. Found something for the back of that quilt. CHECK!

The signature panel for the Early Autumn quilt was complete (above) so I decided that was next. (The words for the panel for the Not Paper Pieced signature panel are done, but they are not assembled into a panel yet. I'll do that one after I finish this one.) I had bought plenty of that lovely green for the backing of the Early Autumn quilt. I don't often buy 108" wide backing fabric for a quilt, and when I do, I usually buy enough to lay the quilt crosswise, so I don't have much waste. But for Early Autumn I bought three yards. The quilt measured about 62" wide x 92" long, so I had plenty to work with.

I just had to put the signature panel in the middle of it. I laid it out on the floor and then put the quilt on top of it. I also wanted to add a small green border around the quilt itself.

I was worried that some of the shorter tree trunks around the edges would disappear. As it happened, if I set the quilt on the backing, allowed for my six inches extra on each side, I still had enough to center the signature panel. So measuring by eye as I always do, I clipped one edge of the fabric and then RIPPED it the entire length.

 Fortunately for me, it was a nice straight edge. I had a lot left over, so I trimmed out the sides of the quilt, tinkered as necessary and added a border all around the quilt.

I still had fabric left over, so I made the binding. Woot!

A Bird in the...?

OK, so I tried a bird. Looks passably successful here but...

The body disappeared. Birds need contrast, and I didn't want this guy to take over.

Along with everybody else I really liked the little red tree. Maybe he just needed a friend? Yup.

Yup indeed. This is it. This is what I will sew up for the signature panel of the Early Autumn quilt. Regular readers know I do not "drop the ball" on the back of my quilts. The backings are always chosen specifically for the quilt.

This is pretty much what it will look like. All the bits you see aren't sewn together and that is what I will do next.

I am teaching a Birds class at Quilted Threads on Saturday December 1. I have to prepare for that, so that will take precedence. And my studio is a mess and I want to clean it. I don't know what I will do next, but I am sure I will figure something out.

Signature Panel Part Two

Ten years ago I made my first signature panel for a quilt. This was the year. I really liked the number 8.

 NIne years ago I made a sampler quilt and included numbers. Nobody had made numbers before and I had to figure them out for myself. I made the 8 by starting with an X. I wasn't sold on it then, and decided that if I ever had to make another 8 I'd make it the way I did the first time. (see top photo.)

Well, it took me a couple of tries, and I think this one is "serviceable."

So anyway. I know you all like this little red tree...

but no matter where I put him he sticks out like a sore thumb. (Because, hell-o-oh, CONTRAST!)

No matter how cute the little guy is, I am the architect of what I want you to see and I do NOT want the little tree to be a point of interest in the back of the quilt. So here is a version without any trees.

Of course, it needs something.

I will need a transition between the signature panel and the rest of the backing fabric, and this red looks good.

Here is the backing fabric next to this, and yes, I like it. But yeah, I can see that big empty space and I can hear you all already... "Hey Lynne, why don't you put one of your BIRDS there."




... Because it's time for bed, that's why!


oh yes.... some of you have questions.

1. the new refrigerator is 20 cubic feet.

2. a letters tutorial (or several) is in my future... If something as simple as binding takes 60 pages, the letters will take lots and lots more than that.

3. why don't I like binding clips.. because you can't sew over them with a sewing machine, and they get in the way when I'm trying to hand sew.

4. Baklava... yes Suzanne I had also read that the baklava had to be HOT and the syrup had to be COLD when your poured it on, or the other way around. My recipe had me make the syrup the very first thing, and told me to get it COLD... so when it had cooled to lukewarm I put it on the front porch (where it was 11F). I had also read the other way around would work. I was rather wary when I took my hot baklava out of the oven and started to pour very cold syrup into the pan (it was a glass pan) but I knew it was Pyrex and could take it. Otherwise it would have made a hell of a mess.

Signature

When I make a quilt that's really special, I'll add a signature panel on the back.

This is the signature panel I am working on for the Early Autumn quilt. I don't know if the little red tree over on the right is going to stay, and I need to add the year, 2018.

The lower case letters are about 3" tall.

Early Autumn Backing

When I finish a quilt top, I usually put it away for a bit and don't choose the backing fabric until a few weeks later. Why don't I pick it out right away?  Dunno, but when I have had a project deep in my head for so long, I need a breather. So I set it aside and then when I get around to it, I go looking for a backing. 



 I picked the green for the backing. I have decided I want to exhibit this quilt, so I will make a signature panel for the back, so I also chose this reddish orange and this deep brown. The brown looks like tree bark and might make a great binding. I am not sure about that because it is darker than anything else in the quilt, but I am not worried. I won't have to decide for a while. The brown would be good for letters too.

I also bought this orange-y stuff, and the one in the middle looks cream but is actually a sage-y green.

I'll figure it all out, but I want to start making letters over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

I Am A Bowl Freak, Part 2

I love bowls, especially the big decorative ones that are designed for your dining room table. I have a few of them, and you can read about them here. Now that I have finished the October table quilt, I need a bowl for it, so I went to Home Goods this morning.

I found these two leaf shaped glass bowls for eight bucks each. The green fabric scraps are fabrics I used in the Early Autumn quilt.  Yup. That was easy.

Here are the bowls on the Fall House Top quilt I use for November. They're more like small platters.

 I think they are going to be better on the Early Autumn quilt, but speaking of leaves...

This was the view outside my living room window on Sunday afternoon.

I created a Blog Page that shows all my table quilts. You can find it here. There is also a link on the header.

Early Autumn Flimsy is Complete

The tree quilt, Early Autumn, is now a flimsy. Here are some details:

It measures about 63" x 93".

There are 81 trees.
There are 20 different tree trunk fabrics.
There are 10 different "focus" tree fabrics.
There are 61 different greens.

Early Autumn Showing Off

Since the tree quilt, Early Autumn, was designed for my dining room table, I had to take pictures of it on the table. Here they are.

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I'm really happy I designed it the way I did, and it looks great

The Wrong Road

About 10 days ago, I posted this on the blog,

and pointed out the strong diagonal from the light background block on the left, to the white tree on the right. I said it was going to go.

I removed the white tree on the right. I felt it was enough. Before there was a continuous light streak. I felt removing the light tree broke it up. Starsthatblaze disagreed. It didn't bother me THAT much.

Except the more I thought about it, the more it annoyed me. So I removed that light yellow green and replaced it.

The new tree still had to be light, but I think it's better. I could have removed both trees with that light green batik-y background, but I liked the lightness they brought to the overall design.

This is all but one row. I sewed all these panels together into one big chunk, THEN removed the bright yellow tree and replaced it with the less bright fabric.

Because, you know, Starsthatblaze reminded me of a quote I have tacked up on my inspiration wall.

Close-Up

I've sewn the bottom row together into one long panel.  I thought you might like to see close ups of the trees so you could enjoy the different fabrics and how I used them.

Let's see, a batik, an oriental, a wild modern print and a couple of blenders...

The green print at the bottom is from 2009, then there are lots of blenders. See the trunk of the yellow tree? Hold that thought.

Another batik and a lot of blenders. That big leaf fabric? That's the same fabric I used for the tree trunk of the yellow tree in the photo above. Moving right along, an Oriental and more blenders (and see that batik that's the trunk of the red tree? That's the background of the Black Box quilt.) Moving over again, some fabrics sent to me by Rondi, blenders all.

I love the olive-y fabric with the waving rows of varying sized white dots. Another gift. Then a batik tree made from leftover fabric that I used in the quilt I made for Julie Sefton, No Rules for Julie in 2009.

And more blenders, a light green Grunge and some Christmas green.

Here's how this bottom row fits with the row above it. I think it's great.

When I started this quilt I had absolutely no idea it would be anything out of the ordinary.

The Final Push

I'd been burning the midnight oil working on this quilt, and I finally needed to rest so the last couple of evenings I have been reading and getting to bed a lot earlier.

I haven't done any sewing since last time, but I have been doing some rearranging. I needed some more brightness in the top section (the first rows I sewed together now seem too much the same), so I will replace some of those green trees with colored ones. Yes, I will remove the block and replace it. Yes, right in the middle of a quilt. You should all know I'll rip anything out if I don't feel it is working.***

I'm not a big fan of too much light/dark contrast at the edges or corners of a quilt, so the upper right and lower left corners have changed from light backgrounds with dark trees to something more middle ground. I know it looks dark in the pictures, but it really isn't quite that dark in real life.

I've also shifted the bottom row over to the right a bit. I didn't want two blocks of overlapping trees to be directly one on top of the other. And since I have taken this photo, I made another change. In this photo there are overlapping trees in each of the four corners.  Not anymore! I don't want this quilt to be too predictable, I want it to be balanced, but look random.

That, my friends, is a balancing act indeed!




***In my quilt The Black Box, I made every element at least twice. I made all the letters twice, I made the rays twice, and I made the box itself three times.

Close But No Cigar

I've got the right side column done, all the way to the bottom row (which isn't finished yet). Those pieces in the corners are just placeholders. I'm not at all convinced that left side row is ready to be sewn together... the four trees below the dark green tree with the busy leafy background look a bit monotonous...  OH LOOK... the top half of each of those rows contain overlapping trees, but neither bottom half does. That has to change. Maybe that will fix what bugs me.

And you know me. I can't leave well enough alone. Here I have shifted the bottom row to the floor so I can put the topmost row where it belongs so finally I can see the whole thing the way it might be.  I see a few things I may tinker with.

That should surprise nobody.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel...

Here's the last row.

Since I really wanted to see everything all together, I got the bright idea of hanging that last row from the edge of the shelf above my design wall, and then pinning the other edge to the top of the design wall.  Obviously it isn't centered, and it looks funny, but it gives me enough information to make some final design decisions.

1. I thought it would be the red trees that would lead the viewer into this quilt, but I was wrong. It is the yellow trees (not surprising, they are the brightest element in the quilt. Note I didn't say lightest, I said brightest. There is a difference. They eye is drawn to contrast.) I will have to add some yellow to that top row. No biggie, that's what seam rippers are for.

2. The idea of having tiny trees diminish in size at the corners of the quilt is just not going to work. They would look to "tricky" and "cutesy" and since trees like that aren't really shown in the quilt anywhere else, they'd look out of place. So I decided to just carry on with the trees in the top and bottom-most rows, like shown in the picture above. The blocks in the corners here aren't blocks at all, just fabric scraps thrown up on the design wall. But you get the idea.

If you think this whole thing was easy, let me enlighten you. Colors change depending on what colors are next to them. A green that looked dark suddenly looked light when I'd put it next to some tree blocks. Olive colored fabrics looked really green sometimes, and sickly yellow others.

Fabrics that looked like they had a medium texture or print suddenly looked downright "blender"-like when placed next to something busier. And don't even THINK of putting a busy background print with a busy tree print. Sometimes a print would just disappear next to the "right" (translation: wrong) fabric, and I'd never know until I tried to find a home for it. Some fabrics like to play along only in the most particular circumstances, and sometimes not at all.

Green and Red are very close to each other in "brightness" or "intensity." If you want something to look really red, put it next to something green, but they can't be the same value (lightness or darkness) or both colors will look like mud. Really. So putting the red trees in wasn't by any stretch of the imagination an easy task, particularly since I like to distribute my fabrics, scale of print, and color all around the quilt. Look at the placement of the red trees if you do not believe me.

Sometimes fabrics I was convinced would NOT work proved me a liar by working beautifully. Which was fine except I didn't have much of them, and I'd have to resort to piecing scraps together just to get a tree triangle, or background.

I pulled virtually every single piece of green fabric I owned out of my stash. When my worktable is this cluttered

and my ironing table is piled with fabric, it's hard to work.  I actually had to spend two hours cleaning on Sunday before I could work on the quilt. I just didn't have space to press and straighten the big panels once I started sewing them together.

But I'm close. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Other End

I've sewn the central panel of the tree quilt together, and here it is on my dining room table. I also have named the quilt: Early Autumn.

I've moved all the blocks so the quilt is "upside down" from the way I have been working on it until now. I've removed the bottom-most row and set it aside so I have room to design the corresponding row at the other end of the quilt. I could have moved everything lower on the design wall, but I wanted to see it "right side up" and I didn't want to be working on a step stool all the time.

I have to make a lot more trees, and since I have new fabrics, I have to be careful to make sure the new fabrics don't look new or of out of place.