Quilt of the Week

If only I really had time to make a quilt a week...but I digress, and I haven't even started.

This one is a commissioned baby gift. The request was that it be the style of a quilt I made a few years ago (now living with a cutie pie named Lucy). The recipient likes light pink, light peach, light blue, etc.

Above, left to right, the original, the first layout (ugh), the final plan.

Amazing what different fabric can do to the same design. While working on this quilt I came to two realizations:
1. There is a big difference between light colors that are pastel and light colors that are bright. I am sure you can recognize a pastel, but finding the good light/brights is a bit tricky. Thank goodness I got some new things because the first layout for this one was aptly named the "Easter Basket" by my husband.
2. It's hard to recreate the feel of an old quilt with all new fabrics. Ultimately, I needed to let the new one live its own life. That's when it got good. I was finally happy with the fabrics and layout.

Then there was a new challenge. I ordered fabric online for the first time and was terrified. (I got everything from Hawthorne Threads, a great site though a few colors and scale of prints were hard to see clearly online.) The main fabric that I chose is a voile. I knew that before ordering, but I wasn't sure what it would mean. Well, voile is a lighter, sometimes sheer cotton fabric. I looked up this fabric line and found that it can be used for quilting, is not sheer, but is slippery. Hmmmm. It had been hard to find prints that I liked for this quilt, so I ordered this voile despite the slippery concerns. Indeed, it was a bit more slippery than a standard quilter's cotton. I found with careful pinning there was no problem sewing it, and the end result is a quilt that's really sumptuous and soft.

To sum it all up, all's well that ends well.

The top was pieced, the quilt sandwich prepared, and the binding was made.

All done! I like this one a lot, and I learned a lot making it.

Matisse Quilt

I love this whole line of Alexander Henry Matisse fabric. I love the oversized roses, the mini flower still life, and this classic Matisse paper-cut pattern. I knew I wanted to make something with this amazing textile inspired by some of my favorite works of art. But what to make? I decided to make up a quilt design that maximized use of this fabric, and allowed for some large, unbroken areas to show off the great shape and pattern.

This quilt quickly became a geometric experiment that merges Matisse and Mondrian. Cutting the pieces made me kind of dizzy, and when it was all laid out I admit that I didn’t love it. So I left the quilt on my design wall and slept on it (though it was all cut, so I’m not sure what I could really have done about it.) Don’t worry, though, the next day when I looked at it with rested eyes I thought it was pretty cool.

This design really reinforces the old adage “measure twice, cut once.” As a sculpture major in college this phrase was tantamount. And I was careful to measure each piece of fabric even three times. But what I discovered is that measuring three times doesn’t help if the measurement you’re checking is incorrect. I bought the exact amount of fabric for this layout. I swear I have NO black scraps leftover, and only a few small strips of the Matisse. But I made a mistake in the design that didn’t allow for feasible piecing. I solved the problem, but the solution included cutting one of my Matisse pieces in half and adding an additional black strip. I salvaged a few tiny pieces of black to piece that strip- hardly noticeable unless you know about it, see?

Betcha can't even tell which line it is. Anyway, once cut, this was a really easy top to piece. Almost like one huge log cabin block.

At first I thought the fabric was too sophisticated for a child, but now I think it’d actually be fun for a baby because of all the great contrast. Leah, who is seven months old, loves this fabric and keeps trying to play with it.

The top is done, and the solid yellow binding is all ready to go.

Now I just need to choose a back for it. Hmmm…decisions, decisions.

Drumroll, please...

It's finally done!

Since I last wrote, here's what happened:

Quilt sandwich made and pinned.

Layers quilted in perpendicular lines with a
(slightly) wonky Greek Key in the center of each block.

Binding made.

and, finally, attached.

What a weight off my shoulders. This project has been hanging over me like no other, and the half-hour chunks of time I could find to work on it just didn't add up fast enough. Regardless, just 5 months overdue, it's complete, and Leah seems to love it already! In fact, within 20 minutes of getting to play on it today, it was officially inducted into baby-land with one explosive diaper and a quick trip through the laundry cycle. As most quilts do, it looks even better after being washed--I love that soft pucker of quilted fabric.

I managed to find a picture of Naomi taken nearly three years ago in a similar pose in the same spot in our family room. So, there you have it, my girls and their quilts.

Well, Leah, here's to many happy playtime hours and sunggly naps with your quilt. Enjoy!

And now I can work on some of the other projects on that shelf...

Leah's Quilt-Part II

Apparently, there's nothing quite like the public promise to do nothing else until a project is complete. Indeed, I had barely posted that commitment when the sheer pressure to get this thing sewn so my nearly-five-month-old can roll around on it lit a serious fire under my rear end. The quilt's not done yet, but (drumroll, please)...

The top is finished!

Once all the horizontal rows are sewn together, it's time to start going vertical. This is the step where it's really important to line up the corners of each block. That's why, even though I admitted yesterday to avoiding pinning whenever possible, I pin the heck out of these rows.

Start by lining up the seam for one corner. Pin the rows, right sides together, at the intersection of seams. Then work your way across the row filling in with pins every few inches.

Sew the rows together. Repeat until all rows are attached, and VOILA! The top is complete.

What lies ahead is the least fun, and perhaps most physically uncomfortable step of quilt making. Tomorrow I will lay out the layers of my "quilt sandwich" and safety pin this sucker within an inch of its life. But in the meantime, I'm just going to celebrate the simple fact that after five months, Leah's quilt is well on its way.

Leah's Quilt-Part I

I've mentioned before that I have a shelf in my studio dedicated to storing works-in-progress. Most of them are of no particular origin, nor meant for any particular destination. Therefore, the projects' lingering status in purgatory doesn't weigh on me too much, other than my wanting to buy more fabric- which I won't allow myself to do until some of what I have has been used. For all you quilters and textiliphiles out there, you know just how hard that is. There is one project, however, in the studio right now, that is approximately 4 1/2 months overdue for completion. That is the baby quilt for my second child, Leah.

Ok, I'll cut myself a bit of slack. I wanted to choose the fabric with my husband, and we couldn't do that until I was so pregnant it was nearly impossible to sit at my machine. But the blocks have been complete since about two weeks before she was born. They've even been nicely arranged on my batting board all ready to go since then. This picture is dated April 29th.

Leah was content for about four months to just lay on her back and make some noise, mostly pleasant and calm. She recently began to rock her tummy time, and just rolled over for the first time two days ago. I figure I'd better get this blanket finished if there's any hope of her actually playing on it before she goes mobile. Here is an account of the quilt top construction to date. And, as I won't allow myself to buy any new fabric until some projects are done, so I won't allow myself to post about anything else until this particular quilt is complete.

1. Carefully recheck each block for square-ness- this is definitely a measure twice, cut once situation.
2. Put two blocks, right sides together, with the sides lined up. I hate pinning, so I rarely do it, but make sure these edges remain aligned.
3. Sew a 1/4 inch seam and press open. In addition to pinning, I also hate pressing seams open. I know I'm not the only quilter to avoid this step if possible. But I want this quilt to be EXTRA nice, so I'm going the extra, if annoying, mile.
4. Repeat for the entire horizontal row of blocks. Press the row flat.

Now I've got three out of five rows complete.

Signing off to go sew the last two. Wish me luck.