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.

At Last... RED!

It rained most of October, and the wind and rain knocked the leaves off the trees so the fall foliage in this area didn't live up to expectations.  But this morning the sun came out, and I was treated to this view! FINALLY! A tree that turned beautifully RED!


I'm still working on the binding tutorial. I've sent previews to my "editors" and have already received some terrific feedback. One important note is that my binding tutorial will be for quilts with straight edges and 90-degree corners!

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.

Scrap Slabs Class at Quilted Threads

I love small classes. Students get so much personal attention.  These are the ladies from yesterday's Scrap Slab Triangles class at Quilted Threads.

The biggest benefit of a class is the ability for the students to see what can happen when they start arranging a large number of the blocks on a design wall. It's all we do for the last hour of the day, and it is usually the most powerful, as the ladies see the tremendous possibilities of this simple block.

The Scrap Slabs class always inspires ME too! I particularly love this layout and already have ideas in my head to make a quilt using this arrangement.

The fall foliage is really looking good, in spite of the rain. I had to pull over and take a photo on the ride to Henniker yesterday.

I shopped for some greens and reds and golds to finish the tree quilt.

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

Can You See Me Now?

This is the central part of the tree quilt. Look a bit familiar, but not quite?  It's because this is upside down from the way you usually have been looking at it.

If you have been having a hard time with this quilt, with the trees going in four directions, it helps if you look at it strictly as an abstract design of color and shape.

This is the same quilt, "right side up" and without the bottom row chopped off. I've been "fine tuning" and made a couple more yellow trees and another overlapping tree. You can find them.

The blocks on the vertical rows on either side have not been sewn together, but everything else has been. When I sew those long side chunks together, and then sewn those to the central panel, I'll flip the quilt upside down as in the first photo and design the extra row across the top (because my design wall isn't big enough).

I know I've said it before, but I am really, really, really, liking this quilt.

A Star is Born

Not  my quilt, the movie, which I went to see last night. Enjoyed it very much.

My quilt is getting to the point where I am happy enough with it to start sewing big chunks of it together.  I will be able to sew the five big sections that comprise the "top" of the table quilt together later, then the section on the far right. The vertical row on the far left still needs work, as does the yet undesigned row that will be above the top row.

I'm teaching the Scrap Slab Triangles class at Quilted Threads on Saturday, so I won't be finishing this for another couple of weeks, but I am very happy with it.

Getting Closer...

I'm getting closer. This is where the quilt was just before I went to bed last night. It still needs some tweaks, another row at the top, and the corners need trees. Overall I am very happy with this. (Yes, I see that light diagonal that moves across the center of the quilt, and I promise that will change...)

I worked on the topmost row last night.  Oh wait a minute...

This might be a bit easier for you.

And if you are wondering did I fussy cut the tree on the far right and the olive-y tree fabric with the rows of meandering dots...

Heck yeah!

Sur La Table (On the Table)

Since the tree quilt is designed for a table, I really had to put it all on the table to see if the vision I had in my head really looked that way in real life.

I'm pleased to say it did. This is the overall view of what it looks like.

Moving to the left, here is the left side of the quilt.

Rounding the corner to the left, this is the "top" of the quilt, viewed upside down, or right side up if you are sitting at that end of the table.

 This is the right side of the quilt.

 This is another view of the top area.

After I took these pictures, I put all the pieces back on the design wall and started sewing things together. 

I even added a red tree to this green one, which lives on the left side of the quilt.


I really had been wrestling with this idea. On the wall the quilt looked good from a purely abstract point of view, but it didn't necessarily make a lot of sense. I was thinking about it as I drove to work yesterday. The reason why it looked funny on the wall is because it was supposed to be on a table. OR, like on a bed! Amazing, huh? A quilt on a bed! We are so accustomed to looking at quilts flat on the wall that we forget how they look "in context."

I'll be sewing the blocks that make up the tabletop part of the quilt together, and then I'll sort out the rest. Those blocks change places so frequently you'd think they were playing musical chairs.