I Washed It

At one of the classes I taught a few weeks ago, I took a good look at my quilt, Letters From Home, and realized it was dirty. There were some dusty greasy stains across the top edge, and some spots along the edges.

Now, this quilt hangs in my house, just outside my kitchen.  It doesn't get any sunlight, but it has been rather active during it's 3 year life. It's been to Tennessee, to Washington State, to Quilt Market in Houston, to Quilted Threads in Henniker NH, to work with me, and anywhere I can show it off, so with all that, it wasn't really a surprise to me that it was a little soiled.  So I washed it.

In my usual cavalier fashion, I just tossed it in the washing machine (cold water, permanent press cycle) with some detergent and a color catcher.  When it came out, I tossed it in the dryer on low, then took it out when it was slightly damp and let it dry flat.  After a week, I hung it back up. It looks lovely, with the quilty wrinkles a lot of quilters like.

I'll bring it with me to Quintessential Quilts 2013 in St Louis next year, and after that I think I might take it down and let it rest.

Help!

You've all seen my Alphabet Sampler Quilt. It's going to be published in an upcoming book and I think it needs a more creative title. The quilt is completely free-pieced, so maybe the title needs to reflect that. I'm terrible at naming things. (you can click the photo to enlarge.)

Any suggestions? Leave them in the comments. Thanks!

***Update*** I asked my friend Julie and she asked her coworkers and one of them came up with a name I really like:

Letters From Home

Since the book project isn't mine, I don't feel comfortable divulging more information about it, but I will surely let you know when it happens!

Blogging Quilt Festival - 2009

Thanks to Amy for organizing an online Quilt Festival!

It was easy for me to figure out which is my favorite quilt. It's my Alphabet Sampler Quilt. I had been making Tonya's free pieced letters so much, I decided I needed to make an alphabet for myself as a reference, so wouldn't have to keep looking at the instructions whenever I wanted to make a letter.

I knew I wanted both upper and lower case letters. Somewhere along the line I decided to add numbers. I wasn't sure how I wanted to arrange them, so I stared looking at early American cross-stitch samplers. Then I decided to add my house, and sign the quilt along with the date.

I needed some elements to fill empty spaces, so I added hearts, flowers, butterflies, the spools of thread and finally, my own hand.

I'm really thrilled with the way it turned out.

Check out the other quiltmakers who are participating in this Blogging Quilt Festival here.

Alphabet Samper Quilt - finished

It's all finished. I finished hand sewing the binding and the sleeve in a marathon sewing session on Saturday.

It's in my dining room, the largest room in my apartment, so it's really center stage. This is the wall the quilt was designed for. It is a wall that will never get direct sunlight, thank goodness, yet the quilting shows up very well in all lighting situations

It's 44-1/2" x 62"

All it needs is a label. My mom has a color bubble jet printer, but she was sick all weekend, and I don't want to get sick, so I will print the label next weekend. I can't bring myself to write on the back of the quilt with a permanent marker.




btw, the quilt is taller than I am!

Alphabet Sampler Quilt - Quilted

I have to add the binding (it will be the white of the edges) and a sleeve on the back for hanging, and a label, and then it will be really finished. Chris asked if I was going to wash it, and I think she was a bit startled when I said no. It will hang in my dining room.

I had always wanted this quilt to be reminiscent of an antique needlework sampler, and it incorporates many of the same elements: the upper and lower case letters, numbers, a house, some decorative stitching separating the elements, the maker's name and location as well as the year of completion. Many of these samplers also included the maker's age, an element I decided not to include.

The house is modeled after the house I live in. The letters and hearts are from Tonya of Lazy Gal Quilting, the little asterisk-flowers are from Sarah. The little wonky stars are from Belinda. The hand is my own hand, and I designed the butterflies. The quilt was quilted by the wonderful and talented Chris Ballard and photographed by Julie Sefton.

Aside from the hand, which is pieced in traditional patchwork, the quilt is entirely free-pieced, and made without templates, patterns or foundation paper piecing.

You can click the photo to enlarge.

It's Home

My quilt is home. And it isn't just mine. Chris did an awesome job.

The quilt is truly a collaboration. I'm still trying to take it all in.
I don't make lots of quilts, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. I make quilts for a specific person or occasion. Each one is unique. This one was intended as a sort of "art quilt" right from the beginning. I made it for myself, and I already know where it will hang when it is finished.

Tomorrow, a picture of the -entire- quilt.

Alphabet Quilt Fairy Godmothers

These are my quilt's Fairy Godmothers. On the left is Julie, the QuiltDivaJulie of the Flying Monkeys fame. Julie is holding Angel, who performed the Quality Assurance inspection of the magnificent quilting done by Chris (on the right) who, along with her trusty longarm machine, Iris, quilted my sampler quilt. Julie's husband Larry, a fabulous artist in wood, helped take photos.

You can see more of Chris' work here, at her Picasa album, and in a few days, you'll be able to see more pictures of Chris' quilting on the Alphabet Sampler. (I am still waiting for it to fly back home to me!)

It was Julie who recommended Chris to quilt my quilt. I am so happy she did. When I first talked to Chris on the telephone, I knew she was the one to quilt my quilt when she said, "The quilt will tell me how it wants to be quilted."

I think all my future quilts will take a side trip to Tennessee...

(you can should click the picture to enlarge)

Stay tuned.

Red Butterfly

This is the red butterfly that is part of my name panel on the Alphabet Sampler Quilt. You can see Chris' awesome quilting.

I knew Chris was the right person to quilt my quilt when she said to me, "I don't know what I am going to do. I will hang it up and look at it for a while. The quilt will tell me how it wants to be quilted."

I told Chris to do whatever the quilt told her to do. She created the allover quilting pattern and added the little antennae on the butterflies. It's a perfect little touch.

I am thrilled. I can't wait to see the quilt in real life.

Stay tuned.

You can click the photo to enlarge.

Alphabet Sampler - Teaser Preview

My Alphabet Sampler Quilt is all quilted, and will be flying back to me this week. Here is a teaser photo of the back.

If you look at the profile photo, you can get another hint.

Alphabet Sampler Quilt Top is Finished

I am really happy with it. It is 41" x 60".

The row of yellow dots went up at the top. The lavender ones went below the numbers, the soft green went below the house, and pink ones are at the very bottom. Now I am working on piecing the backing and making binding.

I also have to figure out how to quilt it, which is going to be interesting because I don't have a longarm machine, and my elderly Kenmore is not designed for stipple quilting.

You can click the photo to enlarge.

I Have a Hand!

I knew what was wrong with the "rubber glove" hand in the last post. The fingers were too narrow and they didn't join the hand in a "V" as Callie correctly pointed out. In that regard my first try was better.

So I decided to do it the old-fashioned way. I copied my hand drawing, and cut individual templates.
Here's the finished hand:
It really is my hand, too, as you can see:
Really!
So now the components are all sewn, and I can assemble the top.

(I might move the rows of dots around, though. I'm not really sold on the yellow dots underneath the numbers. I liked the lavender ones better.)


Edit: My son came over, took one look and said, "You cut off the arm. It looks weird." So I added a cuff. We both like it better.

I have to go out tonight, and then to a concert tomorrow, so I don't know when I will be able to sew the top up, but for now, all the pieces are finished, and I am very happy with the layout.

Got a Hand?

I can absolutely draw my own hand. I love drawing hands. They are harder than faces, and I love drawing those too.

A friend suggested I put my hand on the sampler quilt, on one side of the house. I thought it was a great idea. So I traced my hand.


Then I worked out how I would piece it. So far, so good.


And then I tried to free-piece it. This looks like a clumsy rake to me.


And this looks like a sick rubber glove.

Makes me think I might actually have to cheat and use paper piecing (eeek). I will absolutely NOT applique this. The rest of the quilt is pieced, this hand will be pieced too.

because, you know, the idea has legs.


(okay, okay, I couldn't resist. I love a good [bad] pun.)

Stars!

Gunny Mom suggested sunshine and Paula suggested stars. So I decided to use Belinda's little tutorial and make some mini stars.

These are only 3" tall, and I had a hard time with them, and now that I see them near the numbers, I think I can easily make them a little bit bigger.

Dot suggested pencils or crayons, which a coworker had also suggested, and that thought led me to the idea of spools of thread, which I like very much.

Derby and 3anklebiters, hold that thought about the punctuation marks. I've already got a plan for those, but not in this quilt.

I had always planned to have a cat on the right side of the house, in the empty spot below, so Magpie Sue and Maggie, you are on the right track.


I have finished my signature panel, and I like the idea of the yellow flower between the location and the date. And I've got more rows of "dots" planned to separate all the individual "panels."



Finally, please go visit Tanya. She's just finished a spectacular quilt with words, hearts, houses, Japanese kanji and original cat and dog free pieced blocks. It's filled with color, love and originality. It's a knockout!

Suggestions, Please!

My Sampler quilt is coming along. This morning I worked on the rest of the signature block. All I need to add now is the year, 2009.

But I have a small problem. I need something to fill in the space on either side of the numbers panel. In this photo, I am trying out a little flower, and a wonky heart, but neither really hits the mark I am looking for.

I need something to fill in the blocks marked with ?? The letters are 3" tall, so it can't be bigger, and whatever it is has to be sorta wonky.

Whatever goes on one side, should go on the other, so hearts, flowers, tiny butterflies...?

Suggestions welcome! Leave a comment.

Thank you!

The Dotted Line

I'm starting to assemble the top of the Alphabet Sampler Quilt, and I didn't like the way the upper and lower case letters blended together.

I wanted each of them to have their own emphasis. In the historical samplers, there is usually a line of decorative stitching separating the various rows of letters. So I decided to make a row of little squares on their points. I didn't want the little squares to disappear, but I didn't want them too too bright either. So I used a dusty blue. I am very happy with the way looks now.

I guess I've set myself up to make a couple more of these. (I'll post a tutorial to make this Seminole "band" tomorrow.)

Alphabet Sampler Quilt Progress

Yesterday I made a few hearts, a butterfly, and my name panel. I'm keeping my surname covered up for privacy. I have a few more elements planned, then I'll start sewing all the components together. I'm actually planning to quilt this one.


Here is my (belated) list of 2008 quiltmaking accomplishments, in no particular order:
44 Gizzy Quilts. (24" x 24")
3 Swap quilts
2 Queen-sized quilts
3 Baby quilts
1 King sized quilt
4 Twin bed quilts

and I started the Sunshine Quilt and made all the letters for the Alphabet Sampler Quilt. I have no particular quilting goals for 2009 aside from finishing the quilts that are in work now. Quilting is my stress relief (I work full time as the sole Network Adminstrator for a $11M manufacturing company) and I refuse to make it more like work.

Alphabet Line Up

Sewing the uppercase letters together is easy, because they are all the same height. I just sew a 1" strip to the left side of each letter, and then join them. I might fiddle with them a bit, but by and large it's pretty straightforward.

The lower case letters, however, are a different story. Some have extra bits that go up (b, d, h, k, l, & t) and some have bits that go down (g, p, q, y). So the lower case letters need extra fabric both above and below, in addition to the bit along the side for spacing.


So here is a layout that I like so far.

I'm not 100% sure, however, and I have learned that when I get to that place, it's best to stop and do something else. At any rate, I have to make the letters that spell my name and the date. I've also decided to fill in some of the empty spaces at the beginning and ending of the letter rows with hearts, flowers and butterflies, kind of like this:


I've run out of the colorful polka dot fabric that I've used for the background of the letters. So I'll improvise. I should have known better. When I made Violette's quilt, I went back to the fabric store repeatedly to buy more of the same background fabric. In the end, I bought close to 10 yards. Of course, when I bought the white for the alphabet, I wasn't sure if I would use the letters with the white or black background.

I am really, really, really liking this quilt, and am very excited because it will be MINE when it is finished.

NUMB3RS

I finally finished the numbers for my Alphabet Sampler Quilt. When I got the fabrics for this quilt, I deliberately selected 26 different colored batiks, and made each letter of the alphabet a different fabric/color. When I was making the letters, I didn't want a "rainbow", or "color wheel" effect, but for the numbers, I did.

By the way, the title of this blog, "NUMB3RS" is a leet version of the word "numbers." For information about leet, check the Wikipedia entry. Can you tell I have a job as a geek?

By the way, the Wikipedia entry for needlework samplers is interesting.

And yes, I watch the tv show, NUMB3RS, faithfully. It's my second favorite TV show after the original CSI.

Alphabet Sampler Quilt

I changed my mind. The letters with the white background look much better. This is a preliminary layout. I have a particular wallspace in mind for this quilt, and it measures about 36" wide by 52" high, so those are my imaginary boundaries.

I have to finish the numbers, add my name and year I made the quilt. And I want to add a butterfly and maybe a heart somewhere, somehow. We'll see. This layout is by no means a done deal.

A House is a House, Part Two

Back in October, when I finished piecing the letters for my alphabet quilt, I started thinking about the house I would add. Eventually I decided to make a slightly wonky pieced version of the house I live in.

Over the Christmas Holiday, I started thinking about the house again. I decided that since it's white, the background would have to be darker, so I decided to use the letters with the black background. While looking at my sketches, I also decided not to make the house strictly black and white. So I picked a soft green for the windows, and lavender for the doors. The roof is a couple of very dark greens, the steps two browns and the foundation is a grey. I don't think I was really thinking when I added the blue backgrounds. The one on the sides of the house really doesn't do much. I might rip it out and replace it with the blue sky fabric. My house does have a chimney, but I couldn't see it in any of my pictures, so I left it out. Of course, the house also has a side porch which I left out too, as well as the bushes in the front.

My upstairs neighbors really do have an oversized potted plant on their porch railing, and my cat really does sit in that window. The windows are 1" wide by 2" tall. The house block is 14" x 18". You can click the photo to enlarge, if you like.Here is the block with a picture of my house and one of my preliminary sketches. I didn't make a pattern for the house, and I didn't use paper piecing. It's all free-pieced.

Happy New Year! Thanks to all of you who read this blog and give me such encouragement. Have a very healthy and prosperous New Year.