Welcome to today's boring blog post. I'm bored already and I am the one writing it -- not a good sign, but let's begin.
😂. Clearly I was not in a good mood when I started writing this blog post yesterday! Good thing I left it in Draft mode or I might have driven all of you away for good! The blog post begun with a bad attitude yesterday and revised with a better attitude today is about not-so-glamorous prep work at the front end of a project that lays the foundation for smooth sailing and a successful finish. It's like stretching in the morning or flossing your teeth before you go to bed -- you can skip this stuff if you want to, but you'll probably pay for it later if you do! I'll be talking about the foundational stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on my Deco quilt as well as getting my appliqué templates ready for my next Stonefields quilt blocks.
Quilting Begins on My Deco Quilt
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| I Loathe the Drudgery of Stitching In the Ditch Quilting! |
Stitching in the ditch -- quilting along patchwork seamlines -- is utter and abysmal drudgery. If you do it really well, you can't see the quilting at all and sometimes that results in quilting over a line you already stitched because you couldn't see it. But if you wobble or some speck of thread or bit of gook on your carriage wheels creates a hiccup in your straight line of quilting, it will stick out at you like Pinnochio's nose or a lump on the noggin of the Wylie Coyote. And right now I DO have something somewhere that is giving me grief. I wish I'd done a thorough cleaning of my carriage wheels before I loaded this quilt because it's really hard to get to all of them with a quilt on the frame. It could also be that one of the machine's cables is catching on something at the back of the frame and needs adjusting, but I can't see what's going on back there when I'm quilting manually from the front of the frame and Bernie has been too busy lately to help me troubleshoot.
Here's a block in the top row before the ditch quilting:
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| Not Quilted Yet |
Below, I have outlined all of the green squares with stitching in the ditch. Do you see those couple of wobble bumps? Those are happening when I feel my machine catching on something ever so slightly. I am stitching very slowly and using a straight edge quilting ruler as a guide, but then suddenly the machine gets knocked away from my ruler edge by some microscopic obstruction and Bad Words come out of my mouth. For now I am just ignoring it and soldiering on. Every imperfection is glaring when the quilt is on the frame under the bright lights and I am hyperfocused on every stitch. Much of what looks like a catastrophe in the moment ends up not being a big deal in the end, and anything that is STILL a catastrophe at the end can be ripped out and restitched if it still drives me crazy.
I'm using Aurifil monofilament thread in color Smoke (this post contains affiliate links) with Fil-Tec MagnaGlide Classic 60 wt navy bobbin thread, in case anyone is interested. If you can't find MagnaGlide Classic, it doesn't come in the color you need, or your machine can't accept prewound bobbins, Superior's 60 wt Bottom Line or Microquilter would be good alternatives. You can even wind monofilament on your bobbin but beware -- it's prone to stretching so slow your bobbin winding speed way down, only wind your bobbin half full, and recognize that with invisible thread top and bottom it will be much more difficult to monitor your tension throughout the quilting process. Those are the reasons I prefer not to use monofilament thread in my bobbin even though it works beautifully in my Berninas. Oh, and I'm also using Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Black batting. I know that if/when I wash this quilt, the needle holes will close up and my imperfections will be less visible. You don't see the monofilament thread against my green fabric, but you do see tiny specks of black batting in the needle holes if you put your nose right up to the quilt and you have your strongest reading glasses on your face. Ask me how I know this. 👀
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| SID Finished (Sloppily) Around Green Squares |
I deliberately did not SID the seams between navy patches within those blocks because I want to deemphasize those seams and do some other quilting in those areas to make the background recede and the green squares pop forward. These are vague plans half formed in my mind; I won't decide for sure until after I see how my digital designs look stitched out.
My big, boring accomplishment for this week is that I have done this SID quilting to all of the green and navy blocks across the top row of the quilt. I think I am going to rip off my ruler base tomorrow and start stitching the digital designs in the setting triangles between these blocks, because I am hoping that will cheer me up and distract me from my wobbly SID quilting. Imaginary Judge's comments: "Straight lines should be straight." Duh. My dog thinks it looks awesome, so there! ;-)
Stonefields Applique Prep
Meanwhile, I spent some time last week getting appliqué templates ready for my Stonefields project. After making the four pieced star blocks, the remaining blocks for Month One are all appliqué. My block backgrounds are ready to go, but I needed to get templates selected and made for all of my shapes as I'll be using preturned edge methods, at least on this first batch.
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| Getting Ready for Some Stonefields Appliqué! |
I went through my Stonefields Month One appliqué block patterns, matched up the circle templates to my patterns, and traced the other sheets off onto heat resistant template plastic sheets so I could cut them out by hand with my spring loaded scissors, which really does make a huge difference for hand fatigue now that I have arthritis in my right hand (annoying!). I don't have trouble cutting fabric or regular paper with scissors, but the template plastic is thicker and was hurting my hand with my regular "paper scissors." Glad I found the spring loaded scissors in my drawer. I carefully traced off the orange peel shape that will be used for both the orange peel and the pomegranate blocks, found the closest size Karen Kay Buckley Bigger Perfect Circles template from my set, and then discovered that my orange peel shape was just a smidge too big to work with my circle. I could have traced another circle off the pattern and cut it out myself out of a sheet of template plastic, but I knew it wouldn't come out as perfectly smooth and round as the Perfect Circle template -- and I like using the tools that I have invested in, if you catch my drift.
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| Rats! My Orange Peel is Too Big for My Perfect Circle Template! |
So I just eyeballed and trimmed off my black Sharpie marker line with my cute little scissors. By the way, after using an extra fine point Sharpie marker to trace my appliqué shapes onto the template plastic, I found my notes from Karen Kay Buckley's appliqué workshop instructing me to NEVER use permanent marker on the template plastic because it might run and transfer onto my fabric when you press the dampened fabric edges over your template with the iron. I was supposed to trace my shapes with a mechanical pencil instead. Whoops! So ignore those black marker lines in my photo! I sliced them off anyway.
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| Me and Karen Kay Buckley, July 2019 |
I had a wonderful opportunity to take both hand applique and machine applique workshops with Karen Kay Buckley when the Charlotte Quilters Guild hosted her in July of 2019 (read about that here). This was one of her last teaching engagements before she retired and I bought most of the products I'm using and recommending directly from Karen during those workshops.
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| Fiskars Spring Loaded Scissors for Cutting Template Plastic |
...And now it fits perfectly!
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| My Orange Peel Just Needed a Little Haircut |
Much better! I have both sets of Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circle templates as well as the Applipops circle tools that look like sets of metal washers. If you're not familiar with Applipops, here's a quick video tutorial. It's the same concept as the Perfect Circle templates, where you're an iron to press the starch-moistened fabric turning allowance over the edge of a rigid, perfectly smooth and round template. The difference is that there's an additional step of hand sewing a running stitch in the fabric allowance to pull up the gathers around the Perfect Circle templates before wetting them with starch that's not needed with the Applipops, and that should make Applipops a faster method. The downside? I've never actually used my Applipops before as the size range is much more limited and this is the first time that my pattern is calling for a circle in a size I can make with Applipops. So that should be fun to test out.
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| Matching Applipop Circle Templates to My Pattern Sheets |
Note that I'm on the fence about the block in the photo above. I know they are deliberately intended to be primitive "folksy" flowers. I believe Stonefields was intentionally designed to resemble an antique quilt (to meet the requirements of the movie art director who commissioned the quilt from Susan Smith) and that handmade antique vibe is a big part of what attracts me to this pattern. The rounded leaf lumps could easily have been drawn freehand and needle turned by candlelight a hundred and fifty years ago... I appreciate all of this, and yet I look at the block pattern and I see Dum Dum lollipops stuck in the sand with giant puffy arms drawn by kindergarteners. Something feels off about the size of the leaves relative to the sucker heads. I might use pointy Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Leaves templates in a slightly smaller size. Depends on my mood the day I make them -- and perhaps the leaf shapes that bother me in the line drawing will look more appealing when I cut them out of fabric scraps. I did make a plastic template of the rounded arm-like leaves just in case I do want to make them like the pattern.
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| Freezer Paper Template for Reverse Appliqué (in Ziplock bag) |
Another of the Month One appliqué blocks (I think I'm supposed to make two of them in different fabrics?) has a big reverse appliqué circle in the middle. I made a template for that one from a double layer of freezer paper (now I'm following Jean Sullivan's methods from her wonderful book Simply Successful Appliqué) and was promptly reminded that I hate working with freezer paper because of how it shrinks and bubbles and curls. I kept ironing the layers over and over again trying to get all the shrink and bubble nonsense over and done with, but I finally decided Good Enough and just stuck it in my Ziplock bag with all the other templates. For those of you working on Stonefields along with me, I'd like to point out that some of the measurements in the written instructions do not match the size of the shapes in the line pattern drawings, and this block is one example of that. The instructions reference a 3 3/4" circle and I was perplexed that none of my Perfect Circle templates matched the size of the circle on the line drawing. Then I measured the circle on the pattern and discovered that it's actually more like 3 7/8" diameter. I decided to use my 3 3/4" Perfect Circle template. Also, for any of you out there who are thinking about making Stonefields but have not yet purchased the patterns: Beware that this is NOT a beginner friendly pattern, not because of difficulty, but because there aren't really any instructions included. This pattern assumes that you already know how to do appliqué. If you are someone wanting to attempt applique for the first time with a pattern that will teach you everything you need to know along the way, I highly recommend any of Sarah Fielke's Block of the Month projects that come with access to her excellent video tutorials. After tackling any of Sarah Fielke's quilts, you will be well prepared for any other appliqué project that strikes your fancy.
Back to the project at hand. A couple of this month's appliqué blocks are intended to be made with "shirtings" fabric rather than the regular background fabric used for most of the quilt. Unless this is your first time visiting, you know I don't always follow pattern directions, but I am obeying this particular directive because I am trying to recreate that antique quilt look that Susan Smith's quilt captures so beautifully. I scratched my head a bit about what "shirtings" meant and finally decided that it refers to fabrics that might have been used to make blouses and shirts for Laura Ingalls' family to wear on Little House On the Prairie. I selected fabrics that aligned with my imagination from one of my Laundry Basket Quilts fat eighths assortments, cut out oversized squares, and serged the edges so they are ready to receive appliqué.
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| My "Shirtings" Background Blocks |
So quick and easy to serge the edges now that my serger is set up for the narrow 3-thread overlock stitch and still threaded with my lime green thread (it's getting trimmed off later when the blocks get cut down to size, but in the meantime using lime green will help me remember that all of these blocks go in the Stonefields quilt project.
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| 3-Thread Narrow Overlock, did NOT Turn Corners |
Here's another Note To Self: It was a lot faster to just chain serge one side of each block at a time, then turn them a quarter to serge one more side of each block, and so on. I gave up on trying to make neat turned corners on the serger (going around all four sides of each block in one pass) because it slowed me down and it's so easy to accidentally distort the corner. I want nice, true right angles on my corners to facilitate lining up my applique shapes properly and trimming the blocks squarely at the end.
Isn't it amazing how much I have to say about barely any progress whatsoever?! That's why Rebecca From Yesterday warned you about a boring read. Well, I promise it's going to get better in the weeks to come!
Stitching Goals Heading Into August
My top priority for August is quilting Deco, or at least quilting it to the point where I can zip it off the frame and sneak in a baby quilt for edge to edge quilting near the end of the month. That means the stitch in the ditch quilting for sure and hopefully the digital designs as well. I'm going to be making a hard push with Deco quilting this coming week while Bernie is out of town. Then I'm traveling the following week and it sure would be nice to have some hand stitching at the airport and on the plane, so my secondary goal is to get a few appliqué blocks for Stonefields packed up and ready to go in my carryon bag. You know what would help me reach my goals faster this month? Ending the Eternal Blog Post and turning on my long arm machine! Have a great week, everyone. I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties:
ONE MONTHLY GOAL
Anne-Marie at Stories From the Sewing Room
MONDAY
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Musings at Songbird Designs
TUESDAY
To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
THURSDAY
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
FRIDAY
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre
Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty
TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday
SUNDAY
Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué
Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework
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