"Heartbroken": A Valentine's Day Mini for the Scrappy Improv Quilting Blog Hop Tour

Woo-hoo!  It's finally my turn to share my project on the Scrappy Improv Quilting blog hop, hosted by Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation in conjunction with the release of her newest book!  When Kelly asked me to participate several months ago, I was thrilled to accept because: 1. I have never done ANY improv quilting before and it's something I've been wanting to try anyway, and 2. the "mini quilt" projects in Kelly's book are small and manageable, most finishing at 24" x 24" like the one I'm sharing today.  Great size for experimenting with new techniques when you're not sure you are ready to commit to a huge bed quilt.  

My 24 x 24 "Heartbroken" Improv Mini with Rose Texture B2B Quilting Design

The project I was assigned is called "Heartstruck" in Kelly's book, and it's the Valentine's Day project from her Seasonal Sensations chapter.  Most projects in this book finish at 24" x 24", by the way, which is awesome for your front door,  entryway, classroom, office  -- any space you're wanting to brighten up with a splash of quilty cheer that can be swapped out regularly so you never get tired of any one quilt.  Since many of my clients drop off and pick up their quilts from my home, I'm thinking of making a whole series of these mini quilts to display on my front door to welcome new clients -- and to reassure them that yes, this IS the right house where the quilter lives!

Kelly's 24 x 24 "Heartstrings" Improv Mini, As Featured In Her Book

Studying Kelly's "Heartstrings" mini, I love how her arrows direct your eye through the quilt in a back-and-forth motion and I was also excited about all of the empty "negative" background space because that's a great opportunity for dramatic quilting to make an impact. When Kelly invited me to participate in the blog hop, she encouraged me to "make the project my own" and have fun with it.  So, as much as I like Kelly's Heartstrings mini, I was looking for a way to change it up somehow to make it "mine."  I started thinking about the fact that there were three hearts rather than just two,  kind of like a Love Triangle.  And THAT reminded me of the late Princess Diana's remark in her 1995 BBC interview, about how there were three people in her marriage, making things "a bit crowded."  💔. Aha!  In my version, the top two hearts were going to be lucky lovers who get "struck by Cupid's arrow," but the third one was going to be a broken heart that Cupid passes by.

My One Monthly Goal for October: Church Charity Tops Quilted and Delivered

This is the third time I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts.  I did not manage to ACCOMPLISH my goals for either of those previous months, but what the heck -- I'm giving it another go.

Just. ONE. Goal...  Hmmm...

OMG for October: Load and Quilt Second Church Charity Quilt Top

Okay, you guys, here's my goal: I have already quilted the first of two charity tops that I volunteered to quilt for my church, and struggled with it dreadfully due to the mix of fabrics in the top itself and the tightly woven bed sheet backing that was provided to me.  After having such a difficult time with the first of these charity projects that were supposed to be quick and easy practice, I've been DREADING the second one...  But at the same time, I really want these off my conscience and out of my house so I can move on to other projects.  

So that's my One Monthly Goal for October -- I'm going to finish loading this charity quilt top, quilt it, and deliver both of the quilts back to the ladies at my church by the end of this month.

Now honestly, I should be able to get this top quilted in one or two days if I don't run into any major problems, so this is also my To Do On Tuesday goal for the week.  It would feel SO GOOD to have this finished by Friday!  But life has a habit of intervening and throwing my lofty plans into disarray.  Also these are not my favorite colors, and that makes it even harder for me to get motivated to begin...  So my "super goal" is to get it done this week, and my "reality check, backup goal" is to get it done by the end of the month.

Thread Selected: Smoother, Slippery Fil-Tec Glide Trilobal Polyester

I strongly suspect that this second quilt top is also made primarily of bed sheets, and some of the squares feel like that same poly/cotton almost twill of the backing bed sheet that I was fighting with on the last quilt, so I've been thinking about what I can do differently to get better results with less frustration this time.  I'm switching to Fil-Tec Glide Trilobal Polyester thread (which reminds me of Isacord machine embroidery thread except that it comes on much bigger cones), in hopes that the slicker surface of this thread will help it to slide through the tight sheeting weave easier and form better stitches.  

I chose a thread color that would blend okay across the quilt top fabrics, but more importantly, it's a close color match to the backing fabric this time.  For this second charity quilt, I'm not using the bed sheet I was given for backing.  Instead, I bought an extra-wide quilting cotton with my JoAnn's coupon in a busy paisley print, and as of this morning that backing is already partially loaded on the quilt frame.  The hope is that if the tight sheeting weave of the quilt top fabrics continues to cause directional tension issues even with a quilting cotton backing and slippery thread, at least the intermittent flatlining won't be as apparent on the back of the quilt when the thread matches the backing AND the backing is a print.  A print backing hides a multitude of sins!

Do You See That Strand of Thread Across the Backing Fabric?  Neither Do I!

I did a partial float for the first of these charity quilts, thinking that having the top rolled up nice and straight on the quilt top roller would help coax it into the straightest, squarest quilt it could possibly be, but I'm thinking I might just do a full float with this one.  My vertical and horizontal channel locks make it easy to check and adjust seams for straightness every time I advance the quilt, for one thing.  But the other factor I'm considering is that pulling the quilt sandwich too taut on the frame can contribute to the needle flex/directional tension problems I've been dealing with.  I know I have difficult fabrics in this quilt top that are already going to be fighting my needle with every stitch.  I wonder whether fully floating the quilt top might give me extra "insurance" by reducing the likelihood that I accidentally have the quilt top too tight in the frame.  I can't pull it too tight if it's just basted in place on top of the batting and backing and not attached to any rollers, right?

The next decision is how am I going to quilt this one once I've gotten it loaded?  My APQS dealer, who was patiently helping me troubleshoot the problems I was having on the previous quilt, suggested that I quilt an allover freehand design from the front of the machine rather than following a pantograph in a situation like this where there are questionable fabrics involved and possible bulk challenges at some of the seam intersections, and that makes perfect sense.  However -- I always have a HOWEVER, don't I? -- my personal learning objective with these two quilt tops was a chance to practice hand guided pantograph quilting.  I don't trust myself to maintain the same quilting density from one end of the quilt to the other with a freehand design, and I can't imagine it would look very good when it was finished, either.  So I hunted through my trove of paper pantograph patterns, looking for something that I could execute quickly AND successfully.  

14 Inch Scribble Pantograph by Anne Bright

I'm leaning towards the 14" Scribbles pattern by Anne Bright Designs.  It's a nice, openly spaced pantograph that will give me good practice on smoothing out my curves, with no tricky backtracking points to slow me down.  It doesn't look very exciting on paper, but some of the simplest pantograph designs surprise me by how much better they look once you see them actually quilted on a quilt.

Okay, so now that I have committed to the entire Internet that I am going to get this quilting done, I need to sign off the computer and get into my studio to do some quilting!  That quilt guild I joined is meeting tonight, too, and I'll feel better about going if I actually accomplish some quilting today!

Today I'm linking up with:

• To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: www.stitchallthethings.com
•  One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts: www.elmstreetquilts.com/
•  Let’s Bee Social at www.sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/ 
• Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
• WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com