Today's Work
| I'm going to post some pictures of whatever I'm working on each day. This doesn't exactly show how to make a quilt top, but it will show a quilt top being "born." Hopefully, it will be a little like a quilting blog. I think the most important thing to know about how to make a quilt, is that there are as many right ways to make a quilt as there are people who are happy with the quilt they've made. I'll just do one page and then delete from the bottom as the page fills so you may not see each quilt top's complete process. I do jump around a lot!! If you click on these pictures, you can get a real close-up shot, where you can see mistakes, dust and all kinds of fun things! |
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| ************************************************************************************************************************************************************* When I set up my website in August 2006, I committed to putting new Quilt Tops on the New Tops Page on the first of each month and I've been able to do that every month. Lately, I've taken some pre-orders from the Today's Work page before the tops were completed, but I'm not going to do that anymore .... I want to stick to my original commitment of new tops being sold only on the New Tops page. The Today's Work page is intended as a way to share my process of completing a Quilt Top with anyone interested. Tops from here may or may not be on the website on the first of the next month, but they will be on the site on the first of some month. Sales will be on a "First Come, First Serve" basis after the Quilt Tops are put on the New Tops page on the first of the month. If you'd like me to send you an Email reminder on the first of each month, when the new tops are put on the website, just send me an E Mail and I'll put your name on my Mailing List. EMail Me *************************************************************************************************************************************************************** |
Saturday, August 14, 2010
| First off, let's just ignore the fact that a new block has appeared on the floor, when the current top isn't completed. I so wanted to find a way to use a thirty degree wedge shape without having to end up using applique to get it into a block. Hand sewing just doesn't make me as happy as piecing :) I think this block will work....I'm going to call it a pinwheel, I guess. It does have some bias edges, but I think I can work with them. I'll keep working along on this block design to see if I can make it easier to make, but I do like the looks of it :) |
Sunday, August 15, 2010
| Still working along on this block! The one on the left is better because it eliminates the corner patch and the grain lines are better. Why, oh why, don't I just get out my graph paper and protractor and do this correctly! Maybe I will :) |
| I just went ahead and put the "Fruit Slices" away because, apparently, I'm not going to get anything else done until I make more of these pinwheels. How fortunate for me that I'm retired and don't need to be very self-disciplined anymore:) These blocks are working with the templates that I made, so I don't need to get out the graph paper.....I can just sew more blocks instead! |
| I'm practicing on trying to do some machine appliqué. |
Monday, August 16, 2010
| Still working on finding a way to machine appliqué that will look OK and still be pleasant for me to do. I really want circles! I'm happy with the last circle - the light blue on orange. We'll ignore the fact that it's not in the center! These circles aren't for anything but practice and they'll go in the This and That box. I used some of the iron on web stuff and also used a paper backing, which does seem to make the stitches nicer. When I tear off the paper on the back, there are little pieces stuck in the stitches, which I could get with tweezers, but I don't want to do that. I think, if I make something with this method, I'd just show someone a picture the back of the quilt if they were interested in it because I don't think those little bits of paper hurt anything. Learning new things is very time consuming, but also fun :) |
| I've made a few more of the small pinwheels, but now I think I need to decide what to do with these blocks before I make anything else! |
| I'm going to start pulling some five inch squares from my precuts for the circle backgrounds. Hopefully I'll have enough for the variety I want without cutting more. |
| I don't think I'll have trouble finding what I want in the three and a half inch squares for the circles! Actually, I'm not going to put circles in each block, so I think I may look for another project for some three and a half inch blocks! |
| This is enough five inch squares and it hardly looks like I've touched the piles! Well, the piles are a lot more messy now :) Nothing like a picture to let you see what's missing - I want more blues and I may change out other squares, as well. I think I'll take from the light side and add to the darks. |
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
| I wanted to lay these out so I could get an idea of how to arrange them and see which ones need to be replaced. For one thing, I think I need more larger prints. |
| I'm liking this! Of course, I'll really like it if I can actually get all of those little circle sewn on. I used a very light batik because I thought white would be too stark. I may go for some darker circles at the top - not sure. First, it's time to see if I can sew the circles on! |
| This picture looks a lot like the last picture, but there is one huge difference.....all of the circles are sewn :) I'm really pleased with them and, by the end, it was pretty painless! I tried several kinds of paper for a stabilizer and decided that my favorite was the phone book pages. They did the job and were fairly easy to tear away. |
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
| This is coming along, but very slowly. The reason it's coming along slowly is that I can't stop bonding little circles to little squares! I've begun another top.....I've become a bonding fool :) |
Thursday, August 19, 2010
| I like the way this top is looking! I'm also enjoying making the circles for the next top, shown at the bottom right. That one will be twice as scrappy because it will have scrappy circles in addition to the scrappy squares :) |
| All ready for the border. I've given a lot of thought to the border....I still don't know what it will be, but I have thought about it :) |
Friday, August 20, 2010
| All done! I'm so pleased with my little circles and I like that they get smaller as they move toward the bottom of the quilt top :) For the binding, I didn't like the way these dots looked when made into bias binding, so I'm going with the green floral shown at the bottom |
| I'm going to go back to working with these pinwheels. I've got a small pile of the scrappy circles in a square ready to be machine appliqued and I'll just work along on them. |
| I'm just going to add some pieces until I like the general color look and then figure out how to set the pieces. |
Sunday, August 22, 2010
| It's coming along :) I want to keep a lot of light background, so I'm mixing an unbleached muslin with a very light, tiny floral print, just so the background isn't too static. |
| Ready for borders. I'm glad I kept this light and airy, because I think I'll be going back to the dark focus fabric now. |
Monday, August 23, 2010
| I kept the piecing to a minimum on this one because I wanted to use a really wide border of this fabric that I love. I cut the borders so that they will all be the same design coming out from the quilt center. Two more sides to put on - the bottom is just placed there. I've been having a "learning experience" with my computer since yesterday. I found that, if I used the brightness feature in the photo editor, it really helped to make the pictures much truer to the actual colors of the tops. So, although there are hundreds of pictures on the website, I went ahead a did most of them. I added a number 2 to the end, so I could tell that the picture had been worked on - so clever!!! I also put a space between the name and the number, because I'm tidy. My website program did not like the space and didn't care if I was tidy. It not only would not use those pictures, but it left blank spaces all over the website because it no longer had the old picture name! So, I have now spent hours reposting most of the pictures to the site with their new name. The good news is that I believe it worked and the pictures do look a bit more spiffy :) I could feel good about learning something new on the website, but my experience is that I'll probably forget how to do the whole thing before I use it again :) When you don't know what you're doing, it sure takes a lot of time to do it!! |
| All done! The binding will be in the bright turquoise. I have several tops started, so it shouldn't be too hard to find what I'll do next....or, maybe, I'll start something new :) |
| Finally, I have these stitched down :) I do love the Dresden Plate, but if I'm going to make more, I need to stitch them down by machine! Now, I'm looking forward to finding a setting for these four. |
August 24, 2010
| Before I get started on the Dresden Plate today, I just wanted to lay out my circle squares, which I've been working along on. I really love them :) The Heat & Bond is so nice to work with, although I don't know how anyone will feel about it being in a quilt. I can say that, if you covered with a quilt made with this much Heat & Bond, you would be able to nap in the rain! |
| This top looks so old fashioned to me that I'm naming it Yesteryear. I thought some hearts would be nice and I haven't sewn them down yet because I haven't decided on the corners. |
| I like these corners. Now, hopefully, I can get it all to fit together! |
| It's together :) Now to the borders. |
Thursday, August 26, 2010
| I think these little stacked half hexagons look a bit like scallops, which fits right in with the old fashioned look of this top. One more border...... |
| It's finished! The binding will be in the pale blue background fabric. I really do love the Dresden Plates done with the stacked fabric and I can think of so many more fabrics I'd like to do them with. However, unless I learn to sew them down by machine so that they look good, this will be my last Dresden Plate top. The hand sewing is not my thing :) |
| Before I began cutting scraps when I was finished with a top (well, I haven't cut the scraps from the last few yet!) I just saved them all in a huge plastic container. Then I sorted them by color, thinking that would make me enthusiastic about cutting them - didn't work. Now I'm wondering if I make a top at the same time I'm cutting, maybe that would be more exciting :) So, I'm going to work with these reds and see what I can make just from this box - no adding to it. If I get terribly bored, I'll just put the reds back in their box, from which they can continue to haunt me. However, if it is fun to make an all red top, just think, I could then make a green one, a blue one, purple, orange, yellow, brown and tan (that one could be big enough to cover a house) and black and white. Actually, I'll be delighted if I just do the red one :) |
| Yes, this is much more fun than just cutting :) I'm naming this one "Clash Of The Reds" and I think it will look super when I get enough reds in there. |
Friday, August 27, 2010
| I'm just adding blocks right now and I'll arrange them later. I'm still working out of the scrap box, but I will need to add one large piece of red for borders and possibly binding. I could do a red scrap binding, but I'll have to see how it all looks by then - lots of time to decide that! |
| I wanted to keep the light to a minimum in the body of the top, so that what was there, would really show up. I kind of expected the spinners to show up, but the three little one inch blocks really shine, as well. I finally fixed that one plaid block - it was very crooked and was bothering me :) |
Saturday, August 28, 2010
| I've cut enough to finish this top and also to add a lot to my pre cut scraps. Both my back and my brain are telling me that's enough cutting for now :) |
| Look what's left! The one pile of reds and two piles of medium and almost white reds. If you look down to the beginning picture of the scraps, I think you'll agree that it looks like more now! Seriously, I didn't add anything to them. I will add two large pieces to this top, but everything so far is from the scraps. Funny! |
| I'm wondering about my border plan. This is supposed to look like a light zig-zag and not a random placement. I think it will show up better once it has the red borders on each side of it. This is a side piece, but I wanted to see how it looked in a picture. Sometimes, I can see things better in a picture. It's funny the way these colors are photographing - the actual top has a much more orange/red look to it. |
| Good, I do think that getting two sides of the border on brings out the zig zag :) Nothing wrong with a random placement, however, if I do all of the work to keep the colors in the right place for a design, I'd really like it to show! |
Sunday, August 29, 2010
| I don't know if I love this one because of the way it looks or because it was all from that scrap box, but I do love it! Well, all from scraps except for the inner and outer borders. I think I will make the binding from left over red binding pieces as well. |
| I think this scrappy binding will look great! I had enough solid reds in different shades that I used those mostly, with just a few subtle patterns added for variety. |
| I was looking through my fabrics to decide what to work with next and I came to this piece. This is all I have left of it, obviously I cut a binding from this section. I really think this piece has wonderful colors, so even though there isn't much of it, I'm going to work with it and try to build a top around it. |
| Much to my surprise, that triangular piece of fabric yielded 35 five inch squares! So, I'm going to frame them in these four colors and then see what things are looking like. |
| These are fun to make, but I think I'd better stop and figure out a setting so I'll know which colors I want more of. |
Monday, August 30, 2010
| I tried a white sashing on this one and it was just too....well, white. So, I went with the taupe, which lets the blocks stand out a bit. I arranged them so that there would be a minimal number of connections between blocks of the same color. I'll be anxious to see how this looks when it's together. I'm hoping that the connections show up. |
| I like the way this is looking. Before the seams were taken, I was having a bit of a taupe-overload! |
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
| All finished! The binding will be in the lime green. Now, what to get into next......:) |
| At the end of each month, I take pictures of the tops going on the website and also put away the scraps that I've cut during the month. Some of my scrap groups are getting really large, so next up is a scrappy top. Not that it ever seems to diminish the number of scraps, but I do enjoy using them. It's funny, I had been thinking orange - pink and before I got to the drawer of two and a half inch strips, I'd changed my mind to red-blue-yellow. Shows you how firm my thinking is! So, I pulled a small number of strips in those colors and now to think of something to do with them. |
| Wow, these are bright little guys! I'll make some more and decide about them. |
| These blocks are small - they finish at six inches. This doesn't look like a day's work, but it was! |
| I always like the look of this Tri Recs star set on point. To save you the trouble of turning your computer monitor on the diagonal, I've taken this picture :) I don't know yet how I'll set these, or even if I'll leave them this size or add frames or sashing. |
| As I was working with these blocks today, I was thinking about scrap piecing. If you have a lot of scraps (and I do!!) I think the hardest part of scrap piecing is to use enough variety. I had enough clear reds, royal blues and deep yellows to do these blocks without using any scraps that had other colors in them. I really have to make myself include the blue square with some green fish and the yellow with some red stars, etc. I do think the result is a more interesting and lively scrap quilt. I mean, if you get too matchy, why not just use solids or tone on tone fabrics. I do think this design would be fine in solids, but then it wouldn't be a scrap quilt. Lots of room in quilting for different ideas and thus, different quilts :) |
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
| I think I have a setting idea. I added one round to the little stars and I'll see how this looks as I get more finished. |
| Starting to take shape. These blocks have a lot of little pieces, but that's OK because I like them and they're going together well. It sure has given me an opportunity to get into a number of the boxes of precuts ...two inch strips and squares and two and a half inch strips and squares. When I finish the stars, I'm getting out the one and a half inch strips. |
| The next picture is a little slow in getting here and let me tell you why. I sewed the corner half-square triangles on in the wrong direction on a bunch of blocks and didn't notice it until the blocks were completed. So, as I was ripping and resewing, I was so busy chiding myself for not paying better attention while sewing, that I sewed them on incorrectly yet again! Not the same way as the first time, but in a whole new direction. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get it right this time because, I mean, just how many ways can a half square triangle go :) |
Thursday, September 2, 2010
| The triangles are now correct :) |
| You can probably tell what the next group of blocks will be. |
Friday, September 3, 2010
| Super! I really like the Log Cabin blocks here. I felt another round of stars was just too many stars too close to each other. I think the little zig zag edge of the Log Cabins and the red center squares show up well :) |
| I tried a number of jazzier things for the setting triangles and also for the center star, but ended up liking this the best. All ready to be sewn together :) |
Saturday, September 4, 2010
| I didn't feel like sewing blocks together this morning, so I decided to work on more scrappy circles :) |
| A lot of color rearranging to be done yet. The plan here is for dark circles on light squares starting in the upper left. As you get to the middle, I'm hoping that the circles and squares kind of blend, so you only see an occasional circle. Then, a gradual shift to light circles on dark squares as you come to the bottom right. Fun to work with and hopefully, it will look like I want it to when I get all of the circles made. |
Sunday, September 5, 2010
| More circles! I would have thought I'd be really tired of making these by now, but it's still fun :) When I go to put them all together - then I'll get tired! |
| All of the circles are finished! Now, I'm debating about obsessively rearranging them a bunch of times, or sewing them together as is, since I like the way they look now. |
Monday, September 6, 2010
| I've begun to sew the rows of circles in squares together. However, I was lured away by the box of one and a half inch squares a some of the one and a quarter inch strips. |
| So, while there are some rows of circles sewn, there are also those tiny boxes :) Loving scraps this month! |
| More circle rows - more little boxes - fun day! |