To Do Tuesday #63 - Slow Going!

It has been a couple of weeks again. My last list was very small:

- baste and quilt another little charity quilt

- start the marking of my wholecloth quilt.

Well, I have done two little charity quilts...

Just did an overall stipple on this and the next one as well as I am still struggling with my shoulder. My cortisone shot has only worked for about two months and then I injured the same shoulder again. As it is the right one this time there is not much I can do in terms of resting it so I just have to be super careful. Very much a hassle!

The next one is a little quilt with a flannel top.

Enjoyed quilting on the flannel...never done this before and was not sure what to expect. Really like the softness of the flannel. Had some slight tension issues in the border but apart from that, no problem. The only thing that I did find was that the stitching was harder to see as it just sunk in which was not helped by the light lavender thread that I was using.

So with that done, I tackled my wholecloth. Last time I attempted this I had some marks left on the fabric and also had some inconsistencies when tracing off my design. Went super slow in my preparation for this and took my time. Basically took most of today to trace the whole lot.

Probably a bit hard to see. The new fabric is 'Shadow Play' from Maywood Studios in a creamy colour. For some unknown reason this turned out quite big and was quite hard to align. Initially I just traced off a quarter of the design, however that did not work that well. Too much movement in the fabric while tracing. This time I traced the entire half off and then flipped and did the other half. That worked quite well, mind you I spent a long time making sure everything aligned. 

My tracing is a bit untidy in spots as I also corrected a few things here and there as I went along. As I had drawn this design out on the Ipad I was curious to see how that translated into actually drawing it out to scale. Must say that that went really well...the feathers were easy to draw with my particular angle and thickness and I did not have to spent a lot of time making it look pretty as I drew them exactly as I would stitch them. My husband remarked that he thought I was going to stitch this freehand! Yes, I could, but it would not turn out very consistent I would think and as this is a rather involved project. I did not want to risk it. You probably wonder why I drew the pebbles in...this is not so much to stitch them out exactly as they are drawn there, but rather a way to ensure that I end up with a pebble at the end of the row. If it was smaller you could eyeball this but not over the distance that I made that section and there is nothing worse than going along and realising in the last minute that you cannot fill out the corner properly.

Thought a lot about the stitching as I went along...did not leave myself enough space at the outer edge and added 1/4in in width and length and also had to correct a few feathers to ensure that there was a gap between the binding and feathers. Also thought about whether to stitch the spine out or stitch the spine as I go along. Both methods are quite fine and I think I will definitely stitch the spine as I go for the Amish feather. Not sure about the other one yet. One annoying thing though...I developed this wholecloth many years ago before I got used to using rulers in my quilting. Would have been easier to stitch if I had designed this around particular rulers to use. Was looking today at various rulers I could use...not sure yet...if I use one of the Pro Echo rulers for the centre frame it will be slightly different. I will wait and see how difficult that is going to be when I get there. For now I just want this stitched out...it has been hanging around for such a long time that it is almost annoying. There are definitely a few things where I thought that I could have done that a bit better, but so be it...there is always next time.

My list for next week includes

- pinning, basting and making a start on the wholecloth; backing fabric is ready to go, just needs to be cut and then I will need to make a decision on thread.

- wash the background fabric for the Fox quilt

- maybe make a Fox block to get started on that project which will be ongoing until I have enough blocks for a quilt.

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #63 over at Quilt Schmilt

Karin

Query re Pattern

I have been working on cleaning up my Mini Wholecloth design over the last few days. I had it initially drawn in the Procreate program to an approximate measurement. With my new drawing program I tidied this up and made an exact copy of it. Turned out really well...locked all my layers this time and labelled everything as I went along which made the whole process much more enjoyable.

I am now wondering whether quilters might be interested in this pattern as I am thinking about putting it in my Etsy shop. The pattern would come in PDF format and needs to be tiled when printed out and then taped together. The Mini Wholecloth comes out at 18in but can be made smaller by squaring it off to a different size.

It is intended as a skill builder as you can leave it as it is, put grids in various spaces or FMQ a design of your choice around the design. I used it in a workshop I held last year and people chose various options on how to fill it depending on their skill level. 

Would be interested to hear what people think about this idea. Too difficult, too bland or not enough direction to complete this project if I just put the pattern up there?

Karin

To do Tuesday#61

My list from last week was a bit ambitious:

- start marking my wholecloth quilt again; the new fabric is washed and ready to go so there really is not any excuse not to go ahead.

- work on writing the pattern for the little baby quilt above; in terms of time line, that should take no more than 2 weeks

- baste one more charity quilt

- look at that online workshop and see where I can build this in...

I did work consistently on writing up my new pattern and it went quite quickly however it does take me a few days to proof-read everything several times and to take good photos for my listing on Etsy.

Well, here it is...the Zig-Zag Baby Quilt...a striking little project.

I wrote the pattern for two sizes

- 30-1/2in x 36-1/2in and

- 36-1/2in x 42-1/2in

This pattern is partially foundation pieced, however it is not difficult to do if you have a basic knowledge of foundation piecing. I used the Freezer Paper Foundation Piecing method which was completely new to me. You can find detailed tutorials about this method at Bryan House Quilts. Great method, I cannot believe that I have not come across this earlier. The units came together in no time at all, the Freezer Paper method is just fantastic and so quick to do. I think I had more difficulties with squaring up my blocks which is not unusual for me. Then I remembered that I had the Bloc Loc Ruler set (you have to laugh - I cannot even remember the things that I have accumulated over the years). Equipped with that my blocks came out nice and straight. I quilted this little quilt with an overall edge-to-edge design called 'Ginger Snap' from Apricot Moon Designs available through Urban Elementz. Looks great and was fun to do.

Of my list, I did purchase another online class...the 'Sweet Tooth' class from Bethanne Nemesh at White Arbor Quilting. I love Bethanne's classes and this one was flagged with a discount in the newsletter that I subscribe to. It is a quick 3 hour class and while I probably can work out how to stitch hearts like that I do really enjoy Bethanne's teaching style and figured that there is always something new that I pick up when doing her classes. I will not quilt this straight away so for now it is sitting in my Teachable-Bethanne Nemesh set up, ready for when I have the time to quilt this little beauty.

Apart from this nothing else got done. We are currently exploring kitchen renovations which seems to be a whole world of its own with hundreds of choices one has to make. We are at the quotation stage and it should be interesting to see the differences in costs between companies.

For the remainder of the week I am planning to

- baste and quilt another little charity quilt

-start the marking of my wholecloth quilt.

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #60 over at Quilt Schmilt. 

By the way, still having problems with commenting on some sites and not on others. When I go around looking at individual blog posts and comment, some of my comments get through, but others are rejected. For the life of me, I cannot work out what the problem is...I suspect that it is not on my side but who knows. So, please be assured I am not ignoring your blog posts. Chances are that I have tried to comment but cannot for some reason.

Karin

To Do Tuesday #60

Here I am again. Missed the last week and also saw that I again forgot to make a list of what goals I was thinking about. Yep, it's all in my head...and that is probably the reason why I get so confused at times.

I have not continued on my wholecloth following the disaster with the brown lines, however will put that on the list for the following week as I do need to get 'back on the horse' and start the marking otherwise that thing will never be done.

Finished my latest pattern

Its a cute little quilt that I quilted with an edge-to-edge design again as I just could not face doing all the ditch quilting this would have required. The design is called 'Ginger Snap' from Apricot Moon Designs available through Urban Elementz. The pattern would be suitable for intermediate quilters as it involves some Foundation Piecing. Maybe not the best pattern to put up there however once I had started it I felt compelled to finish it to see what that looked like. It is very bright and I am just in the process of putting the bright blue binding on...a perfect little boy quilt. Then I will have to knuckle down to write up the pattern.

In terms of my planning for the year, I am already behind. Will have to get going on the pile of charity quilts that I have sitting there and also have not done a block on my Fox quilt. And already I am being lured by a small online workshop...I think I have to stop looking at the internet, it is just too full of really great ideas.

So, for the coming week I will

- start marking my wholecloth quilt again; the new fabric is washed and ready to go so there really is not any excuse not to go ahead.

- work on writing the pattern for the little baby quilt above; in terms of time line, that should take no more than 2 weeks

- baste one more charity quilt

- look at that online workshop and see where I can build this in...

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #60 over at Quilt Schmilt

Karin