Squealing Over Scalloped Borders for My $10,000 Pineapple Log Cabin Quilt!

First of all, thank you so much, all of you who have been weighing in with advice and opinions about my pineapple log cabin quilt.  I got a good night's sleep last night for a change, and woke up with some fresh new ideas buzzing around in my brain.  I think this is my final, FINAL design plan for this quilt, and I couldn't wait to share it with you because I'm SO STINKIN' EXCITED about it!

5 x 6 Layout Plus Half Block Border and Scalloped Edges.  LOVE!!

I'm so giddy; it's like I've just down a gallon of high-test espresso (I swear I've only had one latte today).

(I apologize for the poor quality of that picture, by the way.  There is probably a way to add half blocks and scallop the borders in EQ8, but I don't have time to learn how to do it right now so here's what I did instead.  I added an additional row and an additional column of pineapple log cabin blocks in EQ8 for an 8 x 7 layout.  Then I printed a photo of that design directly from EQ8 with my inkjet printer, cut the outer blocks down the middle with scalloped edges with a scissors, and drew my coral binding onto the edges with a red Sharpie marker.  I lost a lot of resolution when I scanned the printed photo back into my computer so I could share it with you).

Here's why I love this design:

• It's a really clean and simple layout visually, keeping all of the attention on the impactful pineapple log cabin blocks.  And what I loved about this 19th century quilt, what made me want to create my own version of it in the first place, is how utterly MODERN this design looks when I update the color palette.  I mean, do you look at that design and think, "Oh, it's another 19th century reproduction quilt?"
• Adding the half blocks further emphasizes the secondary pattern that emerges when multiple pineapple blocks are combined.  Now it looks like the blue and green "stars" are the blocks -- no more "half stars" all the way around the edges of the quilt like I had when I only had full pineapple blocks.
• What I most love about the pineapple log cabin block, especially when it's pieced with skinny little 3/4" finished strips like mine, is the strong illusion of curved lines.  I'm able to bring that out even more by scalloping the borders of the quilt.
• This design gets me to the size I need to fit my bed properly even if I have 10% shrinkage.
• The partial block, scalloped edge border is my own idea, not something I got from anyone else.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with following quilt patterns exactly, but I personally get a much bigger thrill out of seeing my own ideas come to life in fabric.  So this design also gets bonus points (yes, I am giving myself bonus points now) for being more original than just adding another row of blocks or slapping on some kind of border.
• I've never made a quilt with scalloped borders before and I'm looking forward to giving it a try!  I like to learn new things with every project.

So, here's the nitty-gritty about the sizing:

Doing My Quilt Math

The partial blocks in my border are a bit larger than half blocks, more like 5/8 blocks, because I wanted to grab all of the red center square from each block and then curve it out even more to get the neutrals in my scallops.  Each full block finishes at about 17 3/4", but my partial blocks will add 10" to each side at the SP (short point -- the edge of the red square) and 13" at the DP (deepest part of the scallop).  So my 5 x 6 layout with partial blocks added to all four sides should result in a quilt top of approximately: 

126.5"SP/132.5"DP wide x 108.75"SP/114.75"DP long BEFORE QUILTING

When I factor in 10% shrinkage from moderate to severe longarm quilting plus laundering, I estimate a finished quilt of approximately:

113.75"SP/119.25"DP wide x 97.75"SP/103.25"DP long AFTER QUILTING

In yesterday's post, I calculated my personal minimum dimensions for a finished quilt that would completely cover my extra deep pillow top mattress on all three sides.  Those dimensions were 104" wide x 100" long.  At first glance, you might be thinking that I'm cutting it too close with the lengthwise dimension, since my new plan would result in a quilt that ends up to be 2.25" shorter than my calculated minimum length.  However, when I put the quilt on the bed I'm going to be aligning the deep point of the scallops with the top edge of the mattress -- I'm not going to pull the red squares all the way up to the top mattress edge and then have the scallops extending off the cliff, so to speak.  (If you need a visual on that, scroll back up to my math photo and check out my little diagram in the lower left corner of my scrap paper).  The difference between the SP and the DP on each partial block is 3", so if I align the DP with the top edge of the mattress, I actually exceed my minimum length to cover my mattress by 3/4" at the short point, even factoring in 10% shrinkage.  The perfectionist interior design tyrant within me is adequately satisfied that this design will result in a beautiful custom fit for my bed.

...And Now What, You Ask?

Well, I've already spent approximately 216 hours piecing 36 blocks for this quilt so far (that does not count any of the time prewashing or cutting cutting up fabric into strips, shopping for fabrics, or any of the considerable design time that I've invested in this project).  And now I have a design that calls for only 30 complete quilt blocks plus 4 quarter blocks and 22 half blocks.  Unfortunately, that means that 6 of my finished blocks are going to get cut apart and 3/8 of each of those blocks will be wasted.  Ah, the curse of mathematics -- naturally I had to calculate how much time I spent on the portion of the blocks that will now be cut off and scrapped.  I will be removing and discarding 3/8 of each block.  I spent 6 hours piecing each of these blocks, and 3/8 of 6 hours is 2 hours and 15 minutes wasted per block.  Multiplied by 6 blocks getting amputated into partial blocks, that means I have wasted a whopping 13 1/2 hours.  Please join me in a moment of silence while I mourn 13 1/2 hours of my life that I can never get back again.

Thank you.  Moving on!

So my corner quarter blocks are actually 3/8 blocks, and my half blocks are really 5/8 blocks.  If each full block took 6 hours to piece, then each 5/8 block should take me 3 hours and 45 minutes and each 3/8 corner block should take me 2 hours and 15 minutes to piece.  I have 6 full blocks that I am going to dismember into 5/8 blocks so that means I only need to make 16 more of those, plus 4 of the 3/8 corner blocks...

Okay, Math, I'm ready to be friends again.  Let's have some fun!

My estimated remaining piecing time for this quilt top is 69 hours for the partial blocks plus however long it takes me to lay out the blocks the way I want them and piece them together into a quilt top, carefully pinning and matching all of those seams along the edges of each block -- easily another 10 hours there. When all is said and done, I will have spent well over 300 hours piecing this quilt top, plus at least 5 hours cutting fabric and a good 10 hours or more (VERY conservative estimate) in design time.  Now, my hourly rate interior design services ranges from $95-150/hr depending on the project, but I know the commission quilt market doesn't support those rates.  The average Money Center Clerk at Walmart -- kind of like a Head Cashier, with additional responsibilities beyond a regular sales associate, is making $25 per hour here in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they even get benefits on top of that.  So I'm going to be generous and quote my labor at just $25/hr for this example, as if designing and creating a quilt like this was something any cashier at Walmart could do.  If I was making this quilt for hire and I charged $25 per hour for my skilled design and piecing labor, this quilt would cost $7,8750 in labor alone, not including any cost for materials.  But a pieced quilt top still has a long way to go before it's a finished quilt, doesn't it?  Once the blocks have all been made and pieced into a quilt top, there would be a labor charge for layering the quilt top with batting and backing fabric, quilting through all three layers, and for making and attaching the scalloped, hand stitched binding.  This quilt will be custom quilted for sure, and the going rate for custom quilting is around five cents per square inch and up.  My California King quilt top will be 13,680.625 square inches before quilting, so that works out to a minimum custom quilting labor charge of $684.  Most professional longarm quilters would probably have a surcharge for the scalloped borders as well, since they will require special handling throughout the loading and quilting process, but I'm not factoring that in right now.  A professional longarm quilter is also going to charge a flat fee of about $35 to cut and join enough bias binding strips for this enormous quilt, and the scalloped edge will increase the required amount of binding by about 50% (I know this from calculating material requirements for a bazillion window treatments with scalloped edges over the years -- just trust me).  So this quilt will require approximately 668" of binding.  Again, looking at published current rates charged by professional longarm quilters, a typical labor charge for machine stitching regular straight binding to the front of a quilt is 11 cents per inch, but binding a curved edge without puckers and pleats is MUCH more involved, so I'm going to double that and go with 22 cents per inch.  That would make it $147 to machine stitch bias binding to the front of this enormous quilt -- but the binding will need to be stitched down to the BACK of the quilt completely by hand, with tiny invisible applique stitches spaced about 1/16" apart.  As I discovered when I timed myself stitching the binding by hand on my Math Is Beautiful quilt, hand stitched binding takes a REALLY LONG TIME!  There is a reason why my professional drapery workroom charged in the neighborhood of $40 per yard or $40/hr for hand stitching trim!  Since it took me 6 hours to hand stitch 200" of binding on my Math Quilt, I can confidently estimate that the scalloped binding on THIS quilt will take me about 20 hours to hand stitch.  So that's another $760 in labor to finish the binding by hand.  Are you keeping track of these numbers as we go along?  We're up to $9,501 in labor alone for this quilt.

And yet, not being Rumplestiltskin, I cannot spin gold out of straw or make a quilt without materials.  Based on the yardage requirements in the Fons & Porter pattern, this quilt uses approximately one yard of fabric per block for the top, binding, and backing.  My whole and partial blocks for this quilt design add up to 45 total complete blocks, so that would equate to roughly 45 yards of fabric required to make this quilt.  Although I did use some fabulous individually marbled hand dyed fabric that go for $42/yd, most of my fabrics were commercially dyed prints priced around $11.75/yd, so that's the number I'll use in my calculations.  45 Yards x $11.75/yd = $528.75 for fabric.  It cost me $118 to to print all fifty-six 18" x 18" foundation paper piecing patterns on the large format printer at the FedEx Office shop.  I'll need 5 yards of Quilter's Dream 120" wide batting for this quilt at $20 per yard plus shipping, so that's $120, and I may use a layer of Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Polyester batting as well for additional warms as well as to ensure that I get a nice "puff" between my quilting stitches.  At 5 yards of 120" wide 80/20 batting x $13/yd plus shipping, that would add another $75 to the cost of this quilt.  Finally, throughout the entire process of piecing, quilting, and binding, I'm going to add in $50 worth of needles and thread.  That's probably a very conservative figure, considering that there are 97 seams in every single block and I need different colors and weights of thread for piecing, quilting, and binding.  So my materials for this quilt come out to $773.75 plus 7.25% North Carolina Sales Tax -- and my grand total for materials for this quilt comes out to $829.85.  

$9,501 Labor + $829.85 Materials = $10,330.85

Wow.  Outlandish, you say?  Before doing all the math, if someone had asked me to make them a quilt just like this one I might have thought $5,000 was a fair price, and I would have felt uncomfortable asking for even that much compensation.  But with $829.85 of that eaten up by the cost of materials, that $5,000 figure means I would be working on someone else's project for 380 hours, and giving up 380 hours of MY precious free time -- nine and a half full, forty-hour work weeks -- for less than the $11/hr a fast food worker gets for taking your order at McDonald's.  And forget about making this quilt for someone else for free, just passing along the cost of materials.  Would you have the nerve to ask anyone, even one of your closest friends, to spend that much time working on something for you "as a favor," just because they know how to do it and you don't?  I wouldn't ask an accountant friend to do my taxes for free, and I wouldn't ask a plastic surgeon friend for a free tummy tuck, even though that would be only asking for a few hours of their time -- not 380 hours!  ;-)  Yes, $10,000 is the minimum commission I would accept to make this quilt as a commission for someone else.  When I finish making it, I think I'll get it appraised.  It will be interesting to see how close my estimate is to what an appraiser would come up with.  

But even if someone offered me $10,000 to make this quilt for them, I would still probably turn them down. 

That's right.  By accepting a commission at all, even one that pays me fairly for my time, I would still be giving up my stress-relieving hobby that keeps me sane, trading those restorative hours in my studio for endless boring and stressful hours spent making something for someone else, worrying over every little imperfection...  With a commission quilt, all of the design work would need to be completed and agreed upon up front, too.  I would lose creative control.  I couldn't completely change the setting midway through the project or do a completely different quilting plan on a whim.  I'd probably be working with colors and fabrics I didn't really love, either, and that's going to affect how much I enjoy or despise the time I spend on the project.  

So, how DOES anyone get Rebecca to make a quilt for them if she won't even do it for $10,000?

Remember Jeff Burmbeau and Gail De Marcken's wonderful 1999 picture book, The Quiltmaker's Gift?

That king wanted the quiltmaker to make him a quilt more than anything.  He was rich, so he offered her all kinds of money, and he was all-powerful, so he even threatened her with imprisonment and drowning, but she still said no.

I Love This Book.  :-)

Like the quiltmaker in the story, I'm am probably not going to make you a quilt for any amount of money.  BUT -- If you love me, if you are one of those special people who shine light into my darkness, who care for me when I need to be cared for, or who look out for my children when I can't be there to watch over them myself -- if you are one of those truly amazing people, I might just sneak up behind you one day and wrap one of my quilts around your shoulders for free.  

And now I'm off to Ardrey Kell High School to see my son perform in the first evening's competitions of the Improv Olympics!  Yippee!

I'm linking up with:

• ·       Finish It Up Friday at www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com
• ·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com
• ·       Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/

S-L-O-W-L-Y Starting the Skirt Project, Research and Discovery Phase

Making A Start: The Package Is Opened!

Ten days ago, I announced my plans to make myself a skirt.  See how much I have accomplished so far?  I actually bought my cotton voile print skirt fabric, solid navy cotton voile lining fabric, invisible zipper, thread, and twill tape over a month ago.  Then I spent several weeks procrastinating researching and agonizing over:

1. Whether and how to prewash my fabrics
2. What kind of interfacing to use for the waistband of the skirt 
3. What size should I cut out

I know my mom is going to laugh when she reads this.  She would have started cutting and sewing immediately and finished the skirt in a day.  I, on the other hand, need to research, ponder, mull, consult the Internet, and only THEN can I proceed.  Since I have only ever made one garment that ended up wearable (and I was disappointed with the fit), I started by purchasing a new book to teach me the basics.  I picked the Threads Magazine Sewing Guide because, having subscribed to Threads in the past, I know that Threads is all about garment sewing as an art form, with the goal of achieving couture quality garments with the best fit possible.  The frustrating thing about trying to learn to sew from a monthly magazine is that each issue has a random assortment of articles that never seem to mesh with the project I have in mind.  So, for instance, I have studied articles on how to contour princess seams, underlining with silk organza, and how to do a hand-picked zipper from reading Threads magazine, but I don't know what to do first when I open a new pattern.  The Threads Sewing Guide seems to be a compilation of articles from the magazine, but arranged logically so that a beginner like me can start reading at the beginning and know what to do.





The Skirt Pattern: New Look 6708

At this point I should probably explain that my goal for this project is not to have another skirt in my closet.  I already have a bunch of skirts in my closet, and if I really needed another one I could go to the store and buy one faster and probably for less money than it will cost me to make this one myself: $5 pattern, $45 for 3 yds of floral print fabric, $1.50 zipper, $1.30 twill tape, $3.35 thread, $17.25 for 3 yards of lining fabric, and $4.30 for an 8-yard bolt of fusible interfacing that I got with a 50% off coupon...  It is costing me about $78 to make this skirt.  Gone are the days of sewing for thrift!  But the skirt is not the goal, and saving money on a skirt is not the goal.  The whole point of making this skirt is to teach myself garment sewing on a simple project that is easy to fit, so I can learn the basics of reading and following a pattern and constructing a garment from start to finish, and then work my way up to more difficult garments like blouses and dresses -- again, not to save money, but because I have a horrible time finding anything in the stores that fits me well.  I took some great classes on pattern alterations and fitting when I went to Atlanta in March for the Sewing & Quilt Expo, but I think I need to get more comfortable with the basics before I tackle something that will require pattern alterations.  I want to take my time, learn as much as I can from this skirt, and do everything in my power to ensure that this garment is a "win" -- meaning that it fits well and looks good enough that, if it was a ready-made item in a store, I would have liked it enough to purchase it.

The Fabric: Pretty Potent Echinachea on Cotton Voile

So in answer to Quandary #1, yes, I did prewash my fabrics, both the print fashion fabric and the lining fabric.  They are 100% cotton voile fabrics of slightly different weights, so two concerns: First of all, when I establish the finished length of this skirt, I want that to be the REAL finished length of the skirt.  I do not want it to shrink two inches the first time I wash it.  Second, what if the print fashion fabric shrank more than the lining fabric and I ended up with the lining hanging out at the bottom of the skirt?  That actually happened to me with a ready-to-wear skirt from Ann Taylor, and after shortening the lining and having the top layer of the skirt CONTINUE to shrink, I finally added crochet lace to the skirt hem to make up the difference.  But since I'm going to all the bother of sewing this skirt myself, it's worth the extra trouble to preshrink the fabric before cutting into it.  I washed the fabrics in the machine with the Very Warm temperature setting and dried them in the dryer.  I plan to wash the finished skirt in cold water and line dry.

As for Quandary #2...  My pattern calls for fusible interfacing, period.  As if there was only one kind of fusible interfacing out there, and everyone knows where to get it.  Hah!  There must have been twenty different kinds of fusible interfacing at JoAnn's, some of it tissue-thin, others that were stiff and reminded me of heavy weight cutaway machine embroidery stabilizer.  How am I supposed to know which one to use?  I consulted several different sources for this one.  According to my Threads book, the general rule of thumb is that you want to use an interfacing that is similar in weight or lighter weight than your fashion fabric.  That helps.  But then I consulted another great book, Sandra Betzina's More Fabric Savvy, which lists today's common garment fabrics alphabetically and gives sewing recommendations for each of them.  Betzina has a section in the book for Batiste & Voile, and she recommends interfacing with self-fabric.  Hunh?  But my pattern says FUSIBLE interfacing!  I consulted another resource, Shannon Gifford's sewing tutorial for Voile at EmmaOneSock (one of my favorite online garment fabric shops).  Gifford says, "If you prefer to use a fusible interfacing, use the thinnest fusible available... However, the best interfacing for this fabric is a coordinating solid colored silk organza."  When I went to JoAnn's for interfacing, they did not have any coordinating silk organza, and the lightest weight fusible interfacing they had was a Pellon Ultra Lightweight Fusible Interfacing By the Bolt.  It's 100% polyester and the care instructions are machine wash warm, tumble dry and warm iron.  Fortunately, I bought a little more fabric than the pattern called for, so I'll be able to experiment.  I'll try both ways, fusible interfacing and self-fabric interfacing, and see which one looks and feels better.

Fitting Class with Lorraine Henry

And finally, Quandary #3, which size do I cut out?  Well, the reason I picked a loose-fitting skirt for this project is that it should be fairly easy to fit, just as long as I go by my waist measurement when deciding what size to cut out.  Easy enough, right?  As long as I know WHERE MY WAIST IS...  I learned from Lorraine Henry's fitting classes to tie a piece of elastic around my middle and then bend at the waist from side to side, forwards and backwards.  The elastic naturally settles at the elusive Natural Waistline (nowhere near where the waist of today's clothing is generally located) and THAT'S where you take your waist measurement.  No sucking in your abs, just relax those tummy muscles or the skirt will be way too tight and I won't want to wear it!  I got 30 1/4" for my waist measurement, and then I looked at the back of the pattern envelope and saw that a 30" waist is a size 16 and a 32" waist is a size 18.  Panic!!  That can't be right!  The skirts in my closet that fit comfortably are size 6 or size 8.  I understand that pattern sizes and RTW clothing sizes are no longer comparable due to serious vanity sizing in ready-to-wear, but size 16 for my skirt sounds HUGE. 

So I decided to figure out how big the waist of the finished skirt would be if I made a size 16, so I could compare that to the waist of the skirts hanging in my closet.  I measured along the top edge of the skirt waistband pieces, and subtracted out the side seam allowances, and I got a finished waist band of approximately 32 3/4" for a size 16 skirt (not the same as the waist measurement for that size, because the pattern adds wearing ease and the skirt is designed to sit 1" below the natural waistline).  Then I went into my closet and discovered that the most comfortable skirts I own actually do measure around 32" at the waist.  Go figure!  It looks like I'll be making a size 16, after all.  I'm still a little nervous about that -- what if I made a mistake measuring the pattern pieces or subtracting out seam allowances?  Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll cut the waistband pieces out of muslin, stitch them together, and try it on before I cut into the real fabric.  Maybe I should make the WHOLE skirt out of muslin, since I don't really know what I'm doing? 

Ironing Pattern Pieces

Meanwhile, I did manage to cut the pattern pieces apart and iron out the folds and wrinkles (dry iron, medium setting).  But then I stalled out, remembering how I made Lars a cute pair of toddler pajamas (a long, LONG time ago) in size 2T, and then when he outgrew them I couldn't reuse the pattern to make him a larger pair because I had already cut out the smallest size, cutting off all of the larger sizes of the multi-size pattern.  What if I cut on the size 16 line to cut out my muslin, but then after sewing up the muslin I realize that a smaller or larger size would be better?  I'm making the 24" long version of the skirt this time, but what if I decide that I want to make the 29" long skirt someday in the future and I've already cut the extra length off my pattern?  Should I trace the original tissue pattern pieces onto butcher paper, Swedish Tracing Paper, or some other material before cutting them out?  Or is that silly for something so straightforward as this skirt pattern?  I haven't decided yet.

Today I spent some time straightening up and organizing my studio so I have room to work on this project.  I ordered a roll of the Swedish Tracing Paper from Amazon because, even if I don't use it for this pattern, I know I'll want it for when I'm ready to make a lot of pattern alterations to dress and blouse patterns.  I had hoped to make more progress on the skirt today, but I ended up writing about it here instead.  Which is fine.  Writing about it helps me to sort out all of the conflicting advice gleaned from various sources, and helps me to clarify what to do next:

1. I need to read through the pattern instructions and make sure I understand everything.  I may need to look some things up in my sewing books, like how to do a sewn-in self-fabric interfacing, if I decide to go that route.

2. I need to decide how I'm going to finish my seams.  My Fabric Savvy book suggests either French seams or a 3-thread overlock stitch. 

3. I need to trace off the pattern pieces (if I decide to do that) and make up a muslin to check that I like the fit and the style. 

...and THEN I can cut out the pieces from the fashion fabric and the lining!

I'm linking up with Esther's WIPs on Wednesday even though this one isn't quilting related (I hope that's okay).  Meanwhile, we're headed to Carowinds tomorrow to ride the roller coasters with Lars and Anders.  Fingers crossed for light crowds and clear skies!

Book Review: 163 Favorite Patchwork Patterns, in Japanese!

163 Favorite Patchwork Patterns

パッチワークのお気に入りパターン１６３ by Shufutoseikatsusha
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is amazing -- Someone mentioned it on a blog, and I hunted it down online and ordered it on Amazon here.  I paid close to $50 for the 200+ page paperback book, which shipped from a 3rd party Amazon seller directly from Japan, and nervously awaited the book's arrival, hoping I wouldn't be completely flummoxed by the fact that this book is entirely in Japanese. Well, the clear, full-color photographs of the front AND back side of each block design, as well as clear illustrations with numbers and arrows designating the order of construction of each block, make it easy for anyone with basic knowledge of patchwork construction to follow. 

photo from Amazon.com

Each block is line drawn without seam allowances, so basic drafting skills will be needed to create templates for the blocks in sizes appropriate for your project. And the blocks themselves -- WOW! The patterns get progressively more challenging as you flip through the book, but there are so many vintage block designs that I had never seen before, so many that I know I want to make. This book was worth every penny that I paid for it and then some; it's now one of my favorite quilting books. Highly recommended!

View all my reviews

Belated March FMQ Challenge: Thread Dancing with Ann Fahl



My Belated March 2012 FMQ Challenge Efforts

Having only joined SewCalGal's 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge this month, I was disappointed to see that Ann Fahl's tutorial for the month of March had been removed at the end of the month as per Ann's wishes.  I followed the linkys to see what other challenge participants had done that month, and then I was even more disappointed to have missed out on it.  I ordered a copy of Ann's book, Dancing With Thread, (available here from Amazon, or you can order it from Ann's own web site here) and, using Ann's book as well as the posts and photos from those who completed the challenge during the month of March, I think I was able to figure out the gist of the March exercises. 

Photo from Amazon.com

Now, why did I need another quilting book when I already have so many?  (That's my husband you hear, groaning across the Internet).  My other machine quilting books, by Harriet Hargrave and Diane Gaudynski, discuss how to achieve very traditional effects with modern machine quilting, but Ann pushes the boundaries with quilting that is fresh and modern, a celebration of modern tools and techniques rather than a faster or easier way to simulate the heirloom quilting seen in antique quilts.  I've read all about why I shouldn't use Coats Clark thread or bargain/ancient thread or polyester-wrapped regular sewing thread for quilting.  I've experimented with the 40-weight variegated quilting threads from YLI, and lately I've been using a combination of invisible monofilament nylon thread with Mettler 2-ply 60-weight cotton embroidery thread on my Drunken Dragons quilt, and I like how that looks.  I know that some quilters use silk threads for dense heirloom quilting, although I haven't tried that yet myself. 

Well, Ann Fahl quilts with rayon and trilobal polyester embroidery thread!  To me, that sounds like a diet expert telling me to eat chocolate for breakfast.  The caveat is that Ann makes primarily wall quilts rather than bed quilts -- she knows her quilts will receive very little wear and will seldom be washed, and realizes that these threads are not ideal for every project.  She also uses invisible nylon monofilament thread in every one of her quilts, but only for quilting in the ditch and quilting around appliques or embroidered motifs.  That's kind of how I feel about the monofilament thread now -- I loved it in the ditch, but was disappointed with its invisibility otherwise.  Ann says that she even uses the invisible nylon thread in the BOBBIN, which I had originally wanted to do on my Drunken Dragons quilt but did not attempt because I couldn't find information about anyone else using monofilmant in the bobbin successfully, and I worried about how I was even going to get that stretchy thread wound on a bobbin properly. 

Meanwhile, I have a whole tub of rayon embroidery thread that I never use anymore since switching to Isacord for embroidery, so I decided to play with rayon threads for this exercise, as Ann recommends in her book.  I didn't have the titanium topstitch needle that Ann likes to use for quilting, so I used a Schmetz embroidery needle instead.  I started out with my 60 weight cotton embroidery thread in the bobbin, but then I found a bobbin wound with pink embroidery thread (rayon?  Isacord?  No idea!) and popped that one in the bobbin case.  My batting is Hobbs Tuscany Silk, because that's what I have scraps of at the moment. 

I divided my fat-quarter-sized sample sandwich into four quadrants with purple disappearing marker, and tried my hand at each of the four quilting motifs that I saw in the March challenge linkys.  I did the Loop and Twist design first, because it's similar to the way I quilted most of my Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt.  Since the quilting on that quilt came out much denser than I'd intended, seriously shrinking up the quilt top, I deliberately tried to keep my loops and twists larger and more open this time, with more puff between the lines of quilting.  I liked it, and I think the larger Loops and Twists might even look good in the heavier variegated YLI threads, on the right quilt. 

"Loops and Twists"

Next, I attempted the variations with stars and hearts instead of loops.  That was harder than it looked!  The stars were kind of fun, but my hearts all look like sickly philodendron leaves.  It's okay; I'm not a big fan of hearts, anyway! 

Stars and Hearts

On to the spirals!  I have to admit, I didn't care for the Spirals when I first saw the drawing, but when I started quilting them with the rayon thread, they were so much FUN!  I've been practicing other kinds of spirals a lot lately -- the kind where you spiral from the outside in, and then spiral back out again, and I discovered that Ann's version of cutting straight out from the center is a lot easier and less stressful for me.  It also looks better in thread than it does in a black and white drawing.  I'm so glad I tried it, and I'll definitely be using that soon. 

Spirals

Last but not least, Spirals + Petals = Little Flowers.  Again, I don't see myself quilting flowers onto a project any time soon, but you never know.  The most interesting thing about this exercise was learning to travel out far enough from the previous flower to have just enough room for the next flower, without too much of a gap between them. 

Spiral Flowers

Another fabulous idea Ann shares in her book is creating a Quilting Ideas notebook or scrapbook, which I had coincidentally just started to do on my own prior to reading her tutorial.  I had been collecting quilting ideas on my Pinterest board for awhile, and then one day I printed them all out and stuck them in a three-ring binder next to my sewing room so I could remember them and have a visual reminder when I attempted to recreate those patterns on my own.  Now, in addition to those Pinterest photos, I also have the monthly FMQ Challenge Tutorials filed in my binder, both photos and hilighted text, as well as the handouts I received at the quilting class I took at my local quilt shop and some ideas torn from magazines. 

You know what the hardest part of this whole FMQ challenge is for me?  It's choosing the fabric for the practice sandwich.  I stand there, sadly contemplating all the lovely fabrics in my stash, and I feel like I'm selecting a victim for ritual sacrifice.  I am trying to use solid fabrics for these practice exercises so I can see what I'm doing and concentrate on the quilting without being distracted by a print, but I don't have very many solids in my stash at all and I hate to use them up like this.  I know others are making crafty little tote bags and table runners and such from their samples, but I just want to practice for the sake of practice and then get back to my big quilt for Lars.  So what I really need to do is go out and buy a selection of solid practice fabrics and make up a big pile of fat quarter "sandwiches" with batting, backing, and solid fabric on top, all ready to go.  Maybe I'll get a half yard of each fabric so that one FQ can be a FMQ Practice Victim, and the other FQ can go into my stash.  Yes, I said it -- I need to BUY MORE FABRIC.  Now we'll find out if my husband really reads my blog, or if he just skims through and looks at the pictures...  ;-)

Back to work on Lars's quilt!

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was never assigned to read this in school; I'm glad I finally got around to it. It was a quick read, finished in a couple of days. At first it was annoyingly predictable -- I was familiar with the premise of the story. However, I was drawn in as the plot developed and took some unanticipated turns. I was quite surprised by how many of the things Bradbury envisioned in 1950 have actually come to pass: living rooms with giant flat screen TV "walls," wireless earbuds, sensational reality TV shows, advertising merging with programming, and a population so caught up in trivial television programs that the characters on screen seem more real than the people in the room with them. The crises of the world that people SHOULD be talking about (war, poverty, the mystery of why the entire world hates us -- sound familiar?) are completely obscured and shut out by the television programming that, as I read the book, reminded me of The Real Housewives of New Jersey or The Bachelor. 

Our TV "family?": The Real Housewives of New Jersey

Finally, Bradbury envisioned that government would not be the instigator of book burning in a democracy such as ours, but well-intentioned minorities, self-appointed sergeants of political correctness censoring one word, then one page, then one book at a time until the libraries stand empty and there is not much left to burn.  Think this is all make believe?  Just recently, in 2012, New York City censored its standardized tests to remove references to dinosaurs (might upset fundamentalists who don't believe in evolution), homes with swimming pools (don't want to draw attention to disparity of wealth, which might upset kids who don't have swimming pools), Halloween, divorce, slavery, etc.  Not Jackson, Mississippi, but New York, New York!


By the way, I bought this book for my 11-year-old son Lars to read originally, then decided to shelve it until I had a chance to read it myself first. It's very child-friendly, and he'll enjoy the Mechanical Hound inspired by the Hound of the Baskervilles, which is part of the Sherlock Holmes collection we're reading now.


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Lars's Kindle has been Deregistered! Take That, You Little Book Bandit!

Lars's Kindle Keyboard 3G

Ugh -- when I checked my email this morning, I was met with several new greetings from Amazon, thanking me for kindle purchases that Lars the Book Bandito was making in the wee hours of the morning, without my permission, effortlessly charged to my American Express card via my Amazon account, with the click of one button.  It wouldn't even be so bad if he was downloading books to read, but he was downloading Active Content -- mind-numbing little games to play on his Kindle instead of using it for reading. 

If you missed my previous posts about my quest to find a child-friendly eReader for Lars and Anders, you can catch up here.  I ended up purchasing the Kindle Keyboard 3G (the version without promotional advertising) for both boys, and it's working out perfectly for Anders because he doesn't struggle with impulsivity the way that Lars does.  I told him one time, "If you want a new book for your Kindle, come and ask me for permission and I'll get it for you," and for Anders, that's enough.  But Lars breaks this rule again and again, several times a week, and then I have to take the Kindle away as a punishment consequence.  It's incredibly annoying.  I didn't buy the Kindle so I would have one more thing to take away, and I didn't buy it so he could play games on it, either -- I wanted him to have a dedicated electronic reader for reading books only, something I wouldn't have to limit the way we do the iPod, Playstation and Nintendo DS games.  I bought it so he could carry a hundred books around with him wherever he goes without breaking his little back and always have something to read.  I bought it so that, when he comes to an unfamiliar word while reading, he could highlight the word and instantly get a definition without having to put the book down and go looking for a dictionary.

So I called Amazon Kindle's tech support this morning, more to share my disappointment and frustration with a captive audience than because I thought there was anything they could do about it.  The first woman I spoke with told me that there are actually parental controls for wifi access on the newest Amazon Fire Kindle, and I looked at that online briefly, but then came to my senses -- I'm beyond punishment with Lars on this issue, because yelling and confiscating the Kindle isn't working, and is unpleasant for everyone in the house, but I'm not about to reward him for his behavior by buying him a brand-new, full-color, web-surfing Kindle, either.  I called Kindle Tech Support again, and this time I spoke with a young man who suggested changing my Amazon 1-click settings and using some kind of reloadable payment card as the default payment method for the Kindles so I could put $10 a month or whatever, and when he'd used that up it would decline additional purchases.

Still not satisfied -- here's why: The Kindle is great for reading books once they are downloaded, but the Kindle Store that you access through the device is difficult to navigate, and especially difficult to browse if your objective is to find good reading material for an 11-year-old boy.  That's why Lars has downloaded so many lame, super-short books, as well as the annoying Active Content games -- they're easiest for him to find.  It's much easier for me to find books for him when I browse Amazon on my PC, where I can find Listmania lists like "best sci-fi kindle books for all ages" or even search Listmania for lists containing other titles Lars has already read and enjoyed.  So I had an ephiphany -- What if I just deregistered Lars's Kindle from my Amazon account?  Tech support guy said that all of his current content would remain, and he just would not be able to make new purchases from the Kindle device if it isn't registered to an Amazon account.  Theoretically, I can log into my Amazon account and re-register his Kindle whenever I want to purchase new content for him, and then deregister the Kindle as soon as the content has finished downloading.  I can still get new content for his Kindle from wherever we are, because I can use the Safari browser on my iPad or iPhone to reregister his Kindle from anywhere.  I'm just going to have to type in the whole serial number and everything.  So I downloaded four new books for Lars this morning, and then I cut him off from my Amazon account.  I'll let you know how it works out!