Beauty Shots

 

I finally got beauty shots of a few quilts and here they are. This is Needle in a Haystack, so named because I hid a purple triangle in the quilt.

This is the Blue Ribbon quilt.

This is the Carnelian quilt. It was an overcast day, so the colors are really true in these photos.

I've also been adding the binding to the Nonchalant quilt.

Carnelian Quilt, Finished

 

The Carnelian quilt is all finished. I had never made an orange quilt, so I made this, and I am really happy with it.

Carnelian, Binding

 

I added an orange binding to the Carnelian quilt.

Now I am hand sewing it down. 

Yeah I know, boring boring, boring.

Long-Arming

 

My Mom's boyfriend is a retired Electrical Engineer. He is interested in the quilts that I make and was very curious about the long arm quilting machine that quilts them So I brought he and my Mom with me when I brought a quilt to Janet-Lee for quilting. Here they are watching one of the machines at work.

Janet-Lee asked me if we'd like to watch her set up one of my quilts on her machine to see the whole process. Of course I said yes. In the photo above, the backing of my Carnelian quilt has been set up.

Janet-Lee patiently explained every step of the process as she set up the quilt on her machine, wound the bobbins and threaded the machine.

Janet-Lee said once again how my quilts are a pleasure to work with because they are flat and square, the seams on the back are pressed flat and there are no threads popping through the seams on the front. Apparently that is rather rare. "Sometimes I'll put one of Lynne's quilts on the machines when I can't take it anymore," she said to my Mom. 

She explained how she set up the design and told the machine where to start and stop. Naturally there is a lot more than that, which I can't remember, but it was fascinating. Mike was very interested in the mechanics of it, the tension of the thread and what was happening underneath. JL explained it all.

I could have stood there and watched the machine work all day long.

Here's the newest green bird (or bird on a green background). I use a leftover piece from the backing of the Harlequin quilt for the wing. I am also having great fun making white birds. I think I might make a stork or an egret with long legs.  

Hmmm...

Backing for the Carnelian Quilt

It turns out I had a great piece of orangy-ish backing in my stash. I don't know when I got it, or what I got it for. Problem is, it isn't big enough for the backing, because I need six extra inches on all four sides.

I sewed a long strips of leftover blocks together. I would use that to make the backing wider, but that wouldn't be enough. I decided to cut 12" across the backing strip along the bottom, add some extra orange fabric to it, and sew it to one side of the backing, then I'd insert the strip of blocks into the backing.

I often forget to use my great big dining room table as a work surface, but I put it to good use trimming the backing fabric. Before I could sew something to the side, I had to trim it straight. A great big long table is really useful here.

Then I sewed my extra strips to a big chunk of the backing.

Here's what that looked like. Lastly, I sewed the other piece of backing to the other side of the pieced blocks.

Before I bring any quilt to the long-arm quilter, I always lay the quilt on top of the backing so I can make sure the backing is big enough. 

It's big enough, and I think this is going to be terrific!

Carnelian is a Flimsy!

 

This is IT, and what I will sew together.

And as you can see, I start where I can reach without getting out the stepladder.

Here I am pinning the two halves of the quilt together.

Ta-Da! Here it is all sewn up. 

I do not think I will add a border to it. Never say never and all that, but I just don't think it needs it.  

I have 36 leftover blocks I did not use, and about 50 more 8" squares of fabric I didn't use either. I thought about using them on the back, but I don't want there to be any competition on this quilt of which is more interesting, so while I might use the leftovers somewhere, chances are pretty good they won't be on the back.

Unless I have miscounted, this quilt has 46 unique fabrics in it. The pictures are pretty good, but this quilt really shines in daylight.

Carnelian Blocks First Pass

 

Here the design wall is full of the blocks for the orange quilt, called Carnelian. I haven't rearranged these at all, and I haven't replaced blocks or fabrics I think aren't working. I can tell you that I won't be tinkering overmuch with these. I have about two dozen blocks in progress to replace blocks I don't think are working. 

Yeah, I know, but "overmuch" would mean removing ALL the blocks from the design wall and starting over.

I had a LOT of orange fabric, but the problem was they were all so similar in value that it reduced the number of successful blocks I could get. It also meant I had to use some light coral fabrics which lean a bit toward pink in order to get some contrast between the two fabrics in each block.

These were some of my test blocks. I did NOT like the fact that the points didn't meet, so I had to figure out how to get the points to match. (You know I did that, right?)

I tell anybody who'll listen that if you know how to sew clothes, then making a quilt will be a snap. I matched the seams on both pieces, then worked backwards to pin the edges I would start sewing. (As in attaching a sleeve or adding a collar to a neckline.)  I didn't need to pin the whole thing. (The full instructions are in the book, and I want to respect Sujata's work, so if you want to know how to do these, you'll have to refer her book, Cultural Fusion Quilts.)

This isn't quite "IT" but it's getting close. I've replaced a lot of blocks. This is like the 6th iteration from the photo above. (Notice the blocks in the top and bottom rows are larger than the others.)

Thanks ever so much for your comments. It's nice to know I don't have rocks in my head and that this quilts sings for so many of you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the health front, I saw my nutritionist last week. She was overjoyed by my progress. I have lost close to 10 pounds, and my A1C numbers are dropping steadily. Woo Hoo!

Wonky Orange Hourglass Blocks

I'm making slightly wonky hourglass blocks the way Sujata Shah makes them with gentle curves as seen in her book Cultural Fusion Quilts.

Because they use curves, the original blocks look very much like potato chips, which is to say, warped.

Trimmed, they are better, although this particular block has to go. That big teardrop shape on the left tends to blend into the adjacent block, and we can't have that.

This is about half the blocks I need, and the blocks are not arranged in any particular way.

NOW LOOK, I know this is not everybody's cup of tea. Orange is generally the least favorite color, and these blocks have a very narrow range of intensity (Brightness. Not Value.)  This is actually by design. I wanted something like a Turkish carpet or a mosaic. 

This is also a result of the color choice. Orange is a fairly middle value color, and when you make it ligher it gets washed out. You can make it yellower and again it's not particularly intense. If you make it darker, you get brown. That makes for a narrow range, and because this is an ORANGE quilt, and not ORANGE AND something else, the quilt has a compressed range of tones.

Remember, this is by choice. You are entitled to your opinion, which is, of course, subjective.

This is different from anything I have ever done, but to me it has a kind of appeal. and I really like it.

This is most of the blocks I need. Notice the large rectangular blocks at the upper left and right corners. I like those, and the top and bottom row of this quilt will be rectangular blocks instead of square ones.

There are some fabrics that I don't like, and I will have to remake some blocks. That will take time. The blocks aren't difficult to make, but the way they are sewn together makes me hunch over the sewing machine intensely, and that just makes me sore, so they are taking a bit longer than usual.

 

Oh Oh Orange!

 

Woo hoo! The orange fabric has arrived, and been through the washer and dryer, and has been pressed.

I have cut much of the orange fabrics I already have.

Now I have cut the new fabrics.

It's time to start playing. Originally I expected the fabrics in the quilt would be close in value. I wanted the quilt to read as "Orange."

But these preliminary blocks tell me the blocks should have more contrast to make a more interesting design. So I have more work to do.

I will name this quilt Carnelian, which is a semi-precious stone.