Vol 2 - Project 9 - Four Patch Chain On Point

This is the next project - a pretty top but no new techniques to learn with this one. This can be made scrappy, as in the picture, or using a single fabric for the blocks and a contrast for the chain.  I've gone for the scrappy option.   The difference with this top compared to previous Irish chain quilts I've made, is this one is set on point so will require side setting triangles

As usual, we start with the smallest unit and build from there.  The technique for making the chain can be a little tedious -well for me anyway, but then I prefer to quilt rather than piece :). 

Step 1 - sew a dozen of these..........

Step 2 - cross-cut them into 336 of these..........

..........then press & measure each one - trim if required

Step 3 - top 'n tail and sew them together to make 168 of these.........

Step 4 - Press, starch and fan the seams...........

Step 5 - measure each one individually and trim to exactly 2.5" square..........

no matter how careful I am with cutting, sewing and pressing - I always need to trim every single one :(

168 four patches - sewn, pressed & trimmed

Step 6 - cut 3 strips of cream fabric and sew the half the four patches to them..........

Step 7 - cut, press, measure & trim to size..........

Step 8 - sew the other half of the four patches to the other side..........

Step 9 - press, measure and trim again - now we have 84 of these..........

Those are the 1 inch 'chains' done.  I've opted to make the linking chain in a slightly darker blue.

Step 10 - Make strips for the linking chain (press, measure & trim) then cross-cut into 42 segments..........

almost there..........

Step 11 - sew two of the sections together - press, measure & trim

Step 12 - Now sew the other half on, a final starch &  press, then measure & trim as required..........

 Yay - the Irish Chain is done!

For the scrappy blocks, I selected brown.  Yup, brown.  

Scraps, skinny 8th's and fat quarters will all contribute to this quilt.  There will be thirty different fabrics and shades of brown.  Most of the browns are reproduction fabrics, so together with the classic cream and blue irish chain, I should end up with a very nice quilt!  

I chose brown because my favourite quilt is this one which I made from QA Vol 1..............

Asian Nights

I use this one all the time -  it has a wool batting and is lovely to snuggle into.  The current project also in brown/cream/blue will be a nice companion for it and hopefully share around the wear & tear.

Vol 2 - Project 11 - Ian's Quilt

The quilt is finished, but the binding still needs some hand sewing.

Yes, those are sea turtles .........

They've been appliqued on with raw edge quilting

There is one on the label too

Ian had a special affinity for sea turtles, so I wanted them on his quilt.

He won't get to see them though.  Sadly, my brother passed away yesterday.  I am taking the quilt to his family instead.

Vol 2 - Project 11 - Harriet's Navajo Dreams - Ian's Quilt

The top is finally finished........... here it is!

Sadly, Harriet's advice (see comments previous post) about not using the square to cut the blocks, but measure the 1/4" seam came a bit too late.  I had to do some creative sewing, but managed to not lose any points.

I auditioned a couple of background fabrics, one was too busy and another too pale.  This one, which reads black from a distance, is actually covered with tiny brown and grey dots.

Not all the fabrics worked well when cut up into 1" squares - particularly those with animals or pictures - it's a bit disconcerting to find a kangaroo with a lizard leg stuck to it's nose!  The fabrics with all over prints or large repeats looked great though.

I'll baste the sandwich tonight and get started on the quilting tomorrow.  I'm going to use the book as a guide here and do all straight stitching as in the example.  It looks great on Harriet's quilt and will be faster to do I think

Vol 2 - Project 11 - Harriet's Navajo Dreams - MAKING

I've been busy making blocks................

these are some of them....there are more.

This is a very tricky block to make and while I try to be as precise as I can, fabric is a malleable thing - it moves, it stretches, it flops around.  Harriet says that as long as seams finish at a precise 1/4" the block will be square. 

so here is the block with a 1/4" seam marked all the way around.  Those seams look pretty good....

see what happens when a 6 1/2" template is set on top of it.  Those seams are slightly off, and you can see instantly the block isn't square.

I've made 61 blocks so far and the result is the same on every one of them, not one a perfect fit.   Admittedly I've been working rather quickly and getting tired and errors happen when working in haste!  But as a quilter I still have a long way to go.  I decided to cut the blocks square and sacrifice the prettiness of the points hitting the seam line exactly.

So why have I made so many blocks when the quilt only need 30?  I should first explain the reason I bumped this project forward.  I'd earmarked it for my brother Ian - the fabrics are perfect for him.  When he informed me he had a serious illness, everything else went on hold and I immediately got started on this project.  I wanted to make the quilt larger, as it would be of more use as a bed cover than as a throw.

Also, I could get 3 blocks from a half fat quarter, instead of just 2.  An Australian FQ, being cut from a metre of fabric rather than a yard, is a tad larger than an American FQ.

surprisingly that extra little bit allows me a whole extra block

the 3rd blocks from the large Fat Quarter's - and more fabrics!

What I found interesting also, was that I cut my strips 10" long, instead of the 9" suggested in the pattern.  Simply because half an Aust. FQ is 10" and it was just faster to do it that way.  The template barely fits in there.

that 6 1/2" diagonal square only just fits into this 10" block.

I decided to double the size of the quilt and have 2 blocks of 30 different fabrics.  Sadly, the news came that the illness was untreatable and my time frame to finish shrunk dramatically. Even with the blocks made, there are still the triangles to do, not to mention basting, quilting and binding.  The quilt needs to be complete in about 10 days, so when I travel up north to see my brother, I can give it to him personally. 

Now the decision on which blocks to use.  I'll put the rest of the blocks aside and make another quilt with them, when time allows.  The fabric I'd chosen for the side triangles wasn't working for me, so it's back to the shop tomorrow to audition something else. 

Vol 2 - Project 11 - Harriet's Navajo Dreams

I've skipped ahead a little here but don't worry, I'll go back to the 2 projects I've missed when this one is done.

FABRICS

As soon as I saw this quilt, I knew I wanted to make it using Aboriginal fabrics and started collecting fat quarters for it. 

Here's a selection of my collection.  The project requires 15 different fat quarters and I have a few extras as I want to make the quilt larger than the one in the book.  All of these fabrics have been designed by Indigenous Australians and feature the colours of the outback, the foods, wildlife and fauna, the people and the ceremonies they celebrate.

The fabrics are quite busy and some of the repeats are very large, however the colours and the dots/stripes which make up the designs will all work really well together when cut up into smaller pieces.

THE DESIGN

Harriet's been rather clever with this design.  The block is based on a design often known as the Album Block, or Roman Cross and numerous other names.  Normally it's made with templates and tiny triangles, but Harriet has found a way to make it using strip sets.  The good news is that it's much easier to sew strips than to fiddle around with templates, but the bad news is there is a fair amount of waste to get to the finished block.

CUTTING

There are 9 rows and 4 strip sets to make up the block.  The strips are cut into various sizes so to avoid mistakes I bagged them as I cut.

I used a Westalee Ruler to cut the strips.  I really like this ruler when there are lots of different sizes to cut.  The ruler can be set to the desired size, then locked into place so there can be no mistakes! 

Setting the ruler to 2.5 inches, it's then screwed into place.  I then cut all the 2.5" strips, before changing the setting to the next size.  I cut heaps of strips and not a single mistake!

MAKING

As this is my first go at making this block, I decided to make a complete one first to see how it worked.

the nine rows

Sew the strips and cross-cut, then sew the block.  The seams need to be accurate or the block won't work.  Also, the seams are to be pressed open.  This is more time consuming (for me) than pressing to one side.  The book doesn't explain why the seams are pressed open.  It's a mystery!

Seams are pressed open - a little starch on the back helps them lie flat

Once the block is sewn together, it's time to make the magic happen.  In order to make this square block go 'on point' it needs to be trimmed.  That's where sewing accuracy comes into play.  If your 1/4" seams aren't spot on - it's not going to work!

The block ready for trimming

Measure 1/4" from the point and cut!

Those trimmed triangles are now waste.  If I was an art quilter I'd probably find a use for them!

The finished block.

Sadly for me, his block didn't trim to size - it's too small.  Despite taking all care with sewing, pressing, measuring and trimming the strips, I'm about a 1/4" off the correct size.  I'll have another shot, but I'm not quite sure what went wrong.  Up until I cut the waste off, it all seemed to be exactly the right size.  Maybe I'll figure it out with the next attempt.

UFP'S

I've moved rather quickly onto this project, leaving a growing pile of Un-Finished Projects.  I hate that! 

The red & white quilt has been ditched-stitched, and all the nine patches grid-quilted, but all the bird blocks still need quilting.

Krakatoa is still not finished!

The Michele Hill 'Bird' wall hanging still has some free motion quilting to finish (I ran out of thread).

The Tangled Web Quilter's 'Portrait' quilt is still waiting for a binding.

To top it all off, I started yet another NHP - the Alien's quilt for another grandson.  This one is promised for a September birthday, so I wanted to get started on it.

THE ALIENS QUILT

Like the Bug Quilt, this one is also designed by Amy Bradley - Planetary Party

I cut and fused all the aliens onto starry background fabric

I had an idea to applique these with Glow-In-The-Dark thread, just for some extra fun.  When searching for colours, I found this............

Metallic Glow-in-the-Dark

As the background fabric has little metallic stars, I thought this thread was perfect for the project.  I found I could only buy it as a set of 5 different colours.  At $50 a set it was pricey, especially as there's only 100 yards per reel.

I appliqued the first alien with it.  It sews horribly.  I fiddled with tension for ages, but I still got hideous loops in the blanket stitch.  The thread is also wiry, not soft at all.  It feels just awful on a bed quilt.

Loopy, split stitches. 

To top it off, the thread doesn't glow in the dark at all. Not a spark, not even a teeny glow.  The thread on the spool glows, but as a single thread, there is probably not enough of whatever it needs to make the thread fluorescent. The reel says luminous, but the ads say it glows in the dark.  An expensive mistake, I'm going to have to re-do this block.

Vol 2 - Project 8 - Five Patch Chain - Assembly

The top is now completed and ready for quilting.  First all the birds had to be appliqued -

I like to use a small blanket stitch 1.5 x 1.5 - small enough to go around those tiny curves on the feet

Sewing the rows together was tricky, due to ongoing pressing problems with the polyester fabric.  Lots of distortion in the seams and edges.........

Ewww - quilter's nightmare!

Really frustrating when you take so much care with accurate cutting and sewing, only to get this sort of result after pressing.

The  oops ................

Three little Dickie birds sitting on a quilt .... one is ready to fly away home!

For the backing, I wanted to use the red cotton, but didn't have enough of the fabric left.  Back to Spotlight for some more - sold out!  There were still bolts of the cream and white - so a white backing it will have to be.  Carefully checking the bolts, I found lots of them were unlabelled but there was a mix of cottons and polyester.

I picked out a likely suspect and asked a staff member to scan it as there was no info on the bolt except for a bar code.  It was cotton!  The staff member pointed out that it was easy to tell which was which, the polyester was shinier - but given the mess and poor lighting in the store, not to mention the long queue at the counter just to ask a simple question, it's really a matter of pot luck. A 'fabric expert' could probably tell which was which, but as a relatively new sew-ist I wasn't that confident.  Really, labels on the bolts would be nice!!!

The fabric is 220 cm wide (that's around 87" to you non-metric folk) and I bought extra so I could put a white border around the edges - enough to help square out the wonky quilt and to give the top a nice finish.  I like to use wide fabrics for borders if I can get it - no joins!

First task was to get the grain straight............ check it out!

Almost 11.5" lost from each side after tearing

I lost so much fabric getting the grain straight, there wasn't enough left for the borders.  Grrrrr!!  A pity, cause once I folded the backing around the edges, the white looked quite good.  I'll have to settle for white binding instead.

The fabric also was dotted with little spots and dots, the blue ones were mostly around the edges, so I can work around them, I'm hoping the dark ones will wash out.  This really isn't good enough for fabric which costs $20 per metre.

                                                                                                

I've used a 60/40 wool/polyester batting - it's got a medium loft and I want to see how this works with applique.  I'm hoping the extra loft will help the birds pop up.  I'm planning to do quite a bit of quilting on this - and I'm even going to practice free-form FMQ.  Being confined to small blocks I think will help a bit. 

The Bird wall hanging is currently in the process of being quilted and I've done a combination of echo and free-form.  I have a tendency to get lost and backed into a corner and the 'headband' design I'm using keeps turning into teardrops as I try to fit the quilting into the available space.  LOL.  Still it's nice to climb out of the stencil box!

I have a few things to finish up before moving onto the next project from QA - finish the quilting and bind the bird wall hanging - bind the 'Cobweb Cottage Girls' quilt, finish quilting Krakatoa, bind it and send it to my daughter-in-law (who actually likes it)!!, and of course ditch-stitch, quilt and finish this red & white quilt. Whew - a bit of a list, but what an excellent way to spend spare time!

An Award!

Yesterday at Island Quilts, the Tasmanian Quilt Exhibition,  Pauline and I were thrilled to receive an award for our crazy patch quilt - Crazy Ladies of Franklin Court.

The award we received was Best Use of Mixed Media.  All credit for this win goes to Pauline's extraordinary embroidery.

As much as I love working through Harriet and Carrie's QA projects, I sometimes get the urge to be individually creative.  Imitating someone else's designs is absolutely necessary when learning, but after doing this for a year or so, I needed something else.

After moving house 10 months ago, I was delighted to discover my new neighbour was not only a lovely lady, but talented both as a sew-ist and artist.  Pauline had never made a quilt before but was happy to embroider the crazy patches as I produced them.  I took a lot of time and trouble choosing fabrics, pictures, laces etc. to put the patches together, but honestly, I needn't have bothered.  Handing over the first patch, I expected to have some nicely worked hand embroidery across the seams, but Pauline had other ideas.  She put close to 500 hours of hand-work into this quilt and the completed patches I received back were nothing short of astonishing. 

To understand what I'm talking about, please take around 3 minutes for a close look at the quilt in the slide-show below..............

Pauline, who is quickly approaching 75 (she doesn't mind me saying that, I did ask!) has been sewing and embroidering for as long as she can remember and is currently teaching some of the young neighbourhood girls the craft (for no fee) which is a brilliant opportunity for them.  She learnt to sew from her mother and grandmother as a young child and can still remember embroidering a duck at age 7.  She tried to teach me, but alas I just don't have the patience - I'm busy enough learning machine quilting. 

It seems I've started something - Pauline started making crazy patches of her own and has already made some gorgeous bags from them.  Now, after viewing the beautiful quilts on display at the exhibition, she has shown a lot of interest in learning free-motion quilting.  I think ladies, we have a new quilter about to emerge!  I will of course point her in the direction of the free motion quilting bible - Harriet Hargrave's Heirloom Machine Quilting!

As for my own contribution, after the crazy patch embellishments were completed, I set about turning them into a quilt.  It was no easy task adding the sashing - have you ever tried to rotary cut sashing while your ruler is sew-sawing on top of buttons, beads and balls?   I did the best I could to get it all assembled, using the window-pane technique I'd just learned from making Harriet's Card Trick quilt and adding a jewel pieced border (which I wish I'd made larger),   The quilting is simple stitch-in-the-ditch, it being rather pointless to try to quilt it any other way. 

The inner seams of the patches have been hand-quilted to help carry the weight and prevent sagging of the heavy blocks.  This was done by Pauline, who armed with a batting sample for practice and a how-to-hand-quilt book, learned the technique overnight and finished the quilting the following day.

A big thank you to Horn Australia who sponsored this award.  The prize is very much appreciated!

The Island Quilts Best in Show 2011 - a very well deserved win for Rose Lewis - can be seen on the Tasmanian Quilting Guild website here .  The show finishes Sunday May 1st, so if you're in Tassie and haven't yet been, the details can all be found on the quilt website.

Vol 2 - Project 8 - Five Patch Chain - Making

The bulk of the piecing is done - I'm not quite sure why this design was included as there are no new techniques to learn in putting it together.  Still, it's a nice design and my red and white colour choice looks rather different to the example in the QA book.

Here it is up on the design wall waiting to be sewn together and side triangles added

Many people don't like to use white in their quilts, they prefer cream as white can be a bit stark.  I like cream too, it tends to muddy up the surrounding colours a little and tone it all down, perfect if that's the effect you're after.  I like to use white as I find it gives a freshness and brings out the surrounding colours with a bright and crisp look.

Having said that, this top is nice, but a little, well - boring.  When l first looked at the design I wanted to add something to it, a bit more interest - important as I've chosen rather uninteresting fabrics!  Traditionally, those blank white spaces are perfect for showing off beautiful quilting.  Hmmm - maybe one day, but not this day.

Instead I opted for applique - selecting a simple bird, designed by Michele Hill (which I took from a magazine - hope that's ok copyright police?)  

Two birds are better than one!

ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED

Even though this top has no new techniques to learn, I still managed to make a technical failure.  The white fabric I had so much trouble with, continued to cause problems.  It frayed terribly, it wouldn't press properly and it was tricky to cut and handle under the needle as it was so slippery.

I got suspicious and did a burn test on it and yes - it contains polyester!  The red damask was clearly labelled on the bolt as 100% cotton. It sewed and pressed beautifully.  The white damask was displayed next to it and I assumed it too, was 100% cotton.  I don't remember if I read the bolt label on the white or not, but it should not have been selling amongst the quilters cottons.  Naughty Spotlight.

Anyway, I found out why quilters use cotton and not polyester or polyester blends for quiltmaking!  The main issue for me was the pressing.  The stuff would ripple, bend and stretch.  I ended up with curved strips and wavy seamlines. Having struggled through making the blocks, I decided to live with it, so this quilt is not going to be winning any awards for precision!

Harriet Hargrave has written a brilliant book about the fabrics we use for making quilts called "From Fibre to Fabric".  This book tells us everything we need to know about working with cotton and every serious quilter should read it!  Here's what Harriet has to say about polyester blends (abridged) ..

'Polyester will not press flat because of the permanent press finish - it has a tendency to lift.  Polyester is more transparent than cotton causing seam allowances to shadow through.  Piling is a problem after quilts have been washed a few times and bearding can be a problem when polyester batting and fabrics are sandwiched together.'

As this quilt has lots of white, it's going to require lots of washing and piling is not a good look!  Oh dear.  I think perhaps this one will be put away, or just displayed and not used.  A shame to put so much work into a quilt which in the end won't get used.  It will make good quilting practice though!

Vol 2 - Project 8 - Five Patch Chain

I finally started on this project, the Five Patch Chain.  I had my fabrics selected some time ago and decided to do something a little different with this one.

A red and white.  The plain red & white fabrics are actually cotton damask, which have a nice sheen and a tiny bit of texture.  Why damask?  Because I had rather a lot of it!  The printed fabrics are all simple cottons and yes, I seem to have too many.  A bit of a surprise for later.

The red damask behaved beautifully but the white is naughty!  It frays and stretches and refuses to do as its told.  I think I have it tamed though as I learned to work a little differently with it.

I really haven't got very far - just the cutting and strip sewing.  I did do a single block to check the size after struggling with the white damask, and with a bit of trimming, it should work out fine.

Ready for chain stitching..........

The sample block

It doesn't look much yet, but sometimes simple is exactly right. 

OTHER STUFF

I've been a bit lazy and taken a few days off here and there.  Sometimes we all just need a break. 

The show quilt needed some tweaking, a hanging sleeve and a label and is finally ready for delivery, and I can't wait to show it off - not long now.  The Tasmanian Quilt Show happens at the end of April - be ready for pics then!

Krakatoa, the bright yellow/orange french braid quilt continues to hassle me.  I started quilting it with a twin needle but it snapped and I didn't have another, so had to go to plan B.  I ended up with straight stitching in the braids, FM squares in the centres and a cable on the borders.  I'm now in the long process of unpicking the border quilting as it looked just awful, and some of the worst free motion I've done in a long time.  I'm sure this quilt is cursed, but I can't let it go and move on - I'm now challenged to finish it!  I didn't bother to take any photos of the process - just wasn't inspired to, besides it's not a QA project.

The other thing I've been working on is the Michelle Hill Bird wall hanging.  This one is coming along nicely.

Pre-quilting, but the borders look nice!

I've ditch stitched around all the applique, a job which had to be done s-l-o-w-l-y.  It took quite a while to do, but I'm happy with the result.  I must admit though, it was a relief when the last leaf was done!  At the moment I'm part-way through echo quilting it.  The echo is 1/4 inch from the applique and I plan to go around each piece twice then decide where to go next.  I may continue echo quilting or I may be brave and do a filler pattern.

Finally, I took another workshop at the Patchwork Cafe, this one for a foundation pieced Mariner's Compass table runner.  No pics of this one either.  I've only finished half of one star so far (there are 3 in total), but it was taking a while and I wanted to get back to work on the QA projects.  I'll return to this one a bit later.

Off to Melbourne this weekend for a look at the Tukenkarmen Exhibition and the Australian Quilt Show, so again a delay in progress.  Never mind, I'm enjoying having a bit of a rest!