Grad Quilt Design Evolution + A Fabric Shopping Mission

Okay, so from those initial ideas I showed you last time, this was the color scheme my senior liked best for his graduation quilt design, the one with the royal blue flying geese against chartreuse:

The Chosen Colorway

But of course I can't just leave it at that, because, well, ME.  Once Lars-of-Ours gave me the thumbs up on the yellow/green and blue idea, I went back to EQ8 for some finessing.  

First concern: I don't want the finished quilt to look too juvenile, which could happen if the colors are all too bright and pure.  Yet I don't want it to be sombre and dreary, either.  Solution: the background is going to be the darkest, inkyest purple that I can find, like if the Amish wore purple, this is the purple they would wear.  But the geese are going to be lighter/brighter so they kind of glow and float against the dark background.

Second concern: If I'm not excited enough about the design, I am much, MUCH less likely to actually get the quilt finished -- EVER -- let alone in time for the Quillow Ceremony in June.  The piecing of this quilt is just as straightforward if I'm working with three solid color fabrics as it is if I'm playing with tints and shades...

So here's where I am with the design right now:

Now I Am Starting to Get Excited!

I am loving the three-dimensional effect that happens when I simulate using gradient fabrics for those geese!  Doesn't it look like chain links woven together?

So, how do I pull this off in real life?  Well, looking at my Kona Solids color chart, I selected Kona Midnight Purple for that background fabric:

Kona Solid in Midnight Purple, on Amazon here

Then for the flying geese, I was looking at ombre fabrics over on eQuilter.com.  

Gelato Ombre in Chartreuse

Gelato Ombre in Olive Garden

...And for the geese themselves:

Evening Ombres in Ocean

Gelato Ombre in Ocean Blue

And this is the part where I wish I was shopping in person at the well-appointed LQS (Local Quilt Shop) that exists only in my imagination.  I found six different online sources for that Kona Solid Midnight Purple fabric, and the exact same fabric looks completely different on each web site because each one is using their own photo of the fabric with different lighting, etc.  Yet I'm confident that I've chosen the right color because I have an actual swatch of it in my hand on the Kona color chart.  With these ombre fabrics, they could turn out to be all kinds of darker or brighter or greener or whatever once they showed up in my mailbox.  

And yes, I know I could just select seven different blue fabrics and seven different shades of the yellow-green to achieve a similar effect, but I like the effect of the colors gradually deepening WITHIN each patch rather than each patch being slightly darker than the patch before.

As I've lamented to y'all before, my nearest "local" source for a decent selection of high quality quilting cottons is an hour and a half round trip, or worse if I time it so that I get stuck in rush hour.  I know I have seen a few ombre fabrics there in the past, but I don't remember it being an extensive collection so it's really hit or miss that they'll have what I'm looking for.  

Ugh.

Well, I do have a bit of a shopping list accumulated:

• I need to find and purchases a replacement green fabric for the leaves on my remaining Frankenwhiggish Rose applique blocks.  I need a tattoo on my forehead that says "ATTENTION FABRIC SHOP: PLEASE SELL ME TWICE AS MUCH FABRIC AS I THINK I NEED BECAUSE IT'S ALWAYS DISCONTINUED BY THE TIME I RUN OUT!"

  

  I Did Not Buy Enough of This Fabric Back in 2014, and Now I Am Punished!

• I need the blue inner border/binding fabric, Kona Solid in Denim or something similar, for my pineapple log cabin quilt 

  

  I've Been Joining These Blocks Into Rows Intermittently...

  
  

  

  ...But I Haven't Yet Purchased the Blue Inner Border Fabric

• I need a backing fabric for my pineapple log cabin quilt, too.  

So that probably warrants a journey down to Sew Much Fun, don't you think?  Today and tomorrow it's their End of the Month/End of the Bolt Sale, 25% off any regular priced fabric if I buy whatever's left on the bolt.  The dark purple and the pineapple quilt backing are each going to be over 10 yards of fabric, and check out this photo from their shop that they just posted on their Facebook page a few minutes ago:

This Fabric Is Waiting for ME at Sew Much Fun!

I spy with my little eye some deep, dark PURPLE!  You guys, this fabric is calling to me and I have to go purchase liberate it from captivity immediately.  Wish me luck!

But first, I'm linking up with:

• ·       Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
• ·       Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/ 

Moving Right Along: Backing Fabrics Selected for Math Quilt and Bear Paws Quilt!

Good morning, and a big thanks to all of you who responded to yesterday's post with feedback about teaching beginner quilters.  You guys are reinforcing my own gut feeling about this.  This opportunity may or may not be a good fit for me right now, what with everything else I'm trying to juggle and balance.  I'm not looking to reap dazzling financial rewards from teaching (hah!).  I'm only interested in doing it to reap those intangible rewards that come from motivating and empowering others.  I don't want to simplify the project any further because I think my current design incorporates the bare minimum amount of practice with 1/4" seams and intersecting seam allowances that students need to reinforce and master those skills.  I also don't want to just do something using precuts, because someone who only knows how to quilt with precuts and doesn't know how to cut her own fabric is very limited in what she or he can do.  Cutting, 1/4" seams, and matching seam intersections are the three basic skills that everything else builds on and I feel I would be doing a disservice to cut those out.  It would be like teaching beginner math, but skipping addition and subtraction to save time!  So I'll talk to the shop owner again and see what she says.

Meanwhile, I found and ordered backing fabrics for two of my own projects that are nearing completion.  First, for the Math Is Beautiful quilt:

Koi Garden Tiny Droplet in Chartreuse, available here from eQuilter.com

...This quilt was based on a graph paper doodle that my son Lars made in his 8th grade Math II notebook:

Lars's Math Doodle

Lars is going to be a junior this fall, so that tells you a bit about how long this quilt has been languishing as a UFO... 

Math Is Beautiful Quilt On My Design Wall (Anders Watching TV)

Anyway, it's destined to be the first real quilt that gets loaded on my long arm frame once I've finished my giant practice quilt.  I was having a tough time picking backing fabric for this one because all of the fabrics in the quilt top are so busy, but I think the chartreuse and magenta dot fabric will complement this OOP Kaffe Fasset poppies and irises print really nicely and help to brighten up what ended up being a very dark quilt top:

OOP Kaffe Fasset Print, Can't Remember the Name

Backing Fabric for the Math Quilt

Better Shot of the Math Quilt, Taken Prior to Borders

I probably should have mixed in a solid somewhere, but ah, well!  This may very well be one of those quilts that grows on me once it is finished.

And the second backing fabric I ordered yesterday is this one, for my Butterflies and Bear Paws quilt:

Tula Pink Slow and Steady Orange Crush Pit Crew available here from Fat Quarter Shop

I am going to finish the borders on this quilt top TODAY, I PROMISE...  But here's what it looks like at the moment:

Butterflies and Bear Paws Quilt, Borders Not Yet Attached

I'm planning on solid white (Kona Snow) inner and outer borders on either side of my pieced batik stripe border, and I'm thinking the Tula Pink fabric would be a nice surprise on the other side of the quilt without risking color showing through the white sections of the quilt top.

OOP Lou Lou Thi Fabric by Anna Maria Horner

Of course, there are drawbacks to online fabric shopping.  Colors can look very different in real life than they do on the computer monitor, based on monitor settings, camera or scanner settings of the photo you're looking at, etc.  There's always a chance that what comes in the mail doesn't look just right with your quilt top, after all.  If that happens, it goes in the stash and I have to start looking all over again.

I would much prefer to shop for my fabrics locally, but I don't have a shop near me that carries fabric that I like: solids, text prints, Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink, etc.  

Do any of you shop for fabric online?  If so, what are your favorite online quilt shops?  I shop with Fat Quarter Shop and with eQuilter a lot, mostly because they both have a huge selection and their sites are well organized so it's easy to browse and come up with enough fabric in my shopping cart to qualify for free shipping.

The other thing that happens to me in this online quilting community is that I fall in love with fabric someone else is using on their blog, fabric they have had in their stash for a few years that is now OOP (Out Of Print).  That happened to me this week with this fabric, which I just found 5 yards of on eBay:

OOP Tula Pink Royal Elizabeth

How did I miss that loveliness when it was first introduced?!  I snatched it up, of course!  When I'm buying fabric for my stash, without a specific purpose in mind, I typically only buy a fat quarter or half yard, so this is the first time I'm stashing a backing.  It might coordinate with the Tula Pink clam shell quilt...

Alright, I'm off to my studio to get those borders attached to my bear paw quilt!  Have a great day, and happy stitching!

Today I'm linking up with:

·       Let’s Bee Social at http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/

·       Midweek Makers at http://quiltfabrication.blogspot.com/

·       WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

Got to Be Seen Green: Emerald Fabric Faves for 2013

I posted here recently about how much I love Pantone's Color of the Year for 2013, Emerald Green.  I really do want to challege myself to do something with emerald green in a quilt this year, so I browsed one of my favorite online quilt shops, equilter.com, and this is what I came up with.  From top to bottom, left to right: "Bursting With Color Jeweled Abstract," Emerald, by Hoffman; "Color Weave," Dark Green, P & B Textiles; "Deco Delight Waterfall Abstract," Shamrock Green, Fabric Freedom; "Marble Faux Hand Dye," Emerald Green, Quilter's Choice; "Pacifica Paua," Bottle Green, New Zealand Import; "Solid Sateen," Emerald, Kaufman; "Floral Legacy Lavish Petals," Dark Green, Kona Bay; "Geometrix Stylized Stars," Bamboo, Fabric Freedom; "Floral Legacy Lavish Petals," Hunter Green, Kona Bay; "Marbled Blender," Emerald Green, Choice Fabrics.

I didn't order any of these yet because I have SEVERAL projects lined up that I need to finish (some not even started yet) before I can start playing with emerald green.  So, if you decide to add some of my emerald green fabric picks to your own stash, please leave some for me!

First Block Sewn for Lars's Drunken Dragons Quilt

First Block of Lars's Drunken Dragons Quilt (and yes, I know these are not dragons)

Ta-da!  This is the first block of Lars's new Drunkard's Path quilt.  This is my first-ever block with a curved seam, and although I was nervous about it I am pleased to report that the finished block is 7 1/2" square on the first try, just as it should be.  Yay! 

Elsa's 7" Drunkard's Path Templates

WhileI was at the beach this summer I found these oversized Drunkard's Path acrylic templates at a quilt shop in Murrells Inlet, SC and knew right away that they would be perfect for this project.  The finished size of the blocks is 7" x 7", and I'm guessing that starting out with bigger curves is easier than starting out with smaller blocks, since smaller blocks would have tighter curves.  You'll see in a minute what the big deal is with curved patchwork.  The other reason I liked this big Drunkard's Path block is that my son picked out a couple of large-scale dragon fabrics for his quilt, and I needed to do something with big enough patches of fabric that we would still be able to tell they were dragons after we cut up the fabric.  Finally, I have been promising to make this quilt for Lars for THREE YEARS.  Large blocks consisting of only two pieces of fabric and one seam per block should sew up pretty quickly, so there is actually hope of Lars getting to sleep under his dragon quilt before he heads off to college in eight or nine years.  So yes, I know it's inappropriate for Lars's dragons to be drunken, but every quilter knows exactly what block design I'm using when I say Drunkard's Path, no matter what Crazy Curves nonsense the template maker calls them.  By the way, you can get these templates on Amazon here, and if you want to make the quilt shown in the photo on the package you have to buy both the 7" and the 3 1/2" sizes.  So far I just bought the 7" because there is a very strong possibility that I already own templates for the smaller size.  Just like there is a very strong possibility that there is actually carpeting in my sewing studio, buried deep beneath the mountain ranges of fabric.  Shhh...

The Drunkard's Path block pattern can form several different overall quilt designs depending on how you lay out the individual blocks before sewing them together into the quilt block.  My quilt probably won't be much like the photo on the template package.  Maybe I'll add some circle appliques, or maybe I'll arrange my blocks completely differently. 

Drunkard's Path variation by Kate Sharaf of Needle and Spatula

I just stumbled upon Kate Sharaf's blog a moment ago and was delighted to see that she just did a post showing different layout possibilities with these blocks, so instead of hunting for images to show you, I'm just going to send you on over to Drunkard's Path Block Design Ideas at Needle and Spatula.  Go ahead - click away and check out the lovely possibilities.  I'll be waiting right here when you're finished.

So, I probably won't be doing any kind of layout that ends up looking like big happy flowers for Lars, but some of the others could be interesting.  Maybe I'll even let Lars help lay out the finished blocks, if he's interested.

I know someone is going to ask about size.  This quilt is going on a twin bed with a ridiculously thick mattress, but there is storage built into the platform of the bed and I don't want the quilt to hang down too far.  I decided I want the finished quilt to be about 70" wide by 105" long, or 10 blocks by 15 blocks, and I actually measured the bed to come up with this.  I was generous with my measurements because quilts shrink a little when they are quilted, even if the fabrics are prewashed and/or preshrunk (mine are). 

In my studio, every quilt starts with a mess!  I've strewn all of the fabrics from my stash that I might possibly want to use for this quilt all over my cutting table.  Here's what that looks like:

I ordered some more fabric from eQuilter that hasn't come in yet.  A good fabric stash is like the biggest, bestest box of crayons.  There's no way I'm going to use ALL of them in the same quilt, but I like having lots of options to choose from.  Lars's bedroom has sort of a chambray blue wall color, and he has vivid, shocking ORANGE wallpaper in his bathroom.  You can see Lars's bedroom here.  So I want his quilt to be predominantly blues and oranges to tie these two spaces together, with some purples and other colors mixed in to keep it interesting.  Lars is excited about the dragons, but my goal is for the dragons to be something he can appreciate up close, not something we see from the hallway before entering his room.

"tatsu" dragon fabric from Alexander Henry Fabrics

This is the fabric that inspired the whole dragon thing.  I love the colors: that bold orange against cool purples and blues, and because they are sort of Asian dragons instead of childish cartoon dragons, I don't think Lars will outgrow this fabric.  Another plus is that, once I cut this up, the large scale dragons are going to be less obvious on the finished quilt.

Here you can see that I've started cutting fabric (and the other, smaller scale dragon fabric at bottom left).  I'm using a 45 mm rotary cutter for the straight edges, and a 28 mm rotary cutter on the curves.  This is another first for me, cutting curves instead of straight lines with my rotary cutters -- it feels really weird but I'm starting to get the hang of it.  I'm "fussy cutting" my dragon fabrics as well as some scraps of a lizard print fabric that I used in Anders' last quilt.  "Fussy cutting" means I'm cutting through one layer of fabric at a time so I can center exactly the part of the pattern that I want beneath my clear acrylic templates.  For the other fabrics I'm going to cut through four layers at once to save time.

Before we start sewing, a word about machine setup.  Before I start a new quilt, I clean every speck of lint out of my sewbaby and give her a drop of oil.  I put in a new size 70 Schmetz quilting needle and switch to my 1/4" patchwork footsie, which is Footsie 37 on a Bernina.  This foot gives me a perfect scant 1/4" seam allowance just by lining the cut edge of my fabric up with the edge of the presser foot.  I also switch to my straight stitch throat plate, because its smaller needle hole gives better support for straight stitching and greatly reduces the annoying problem of your sewing machine trying to eat the little patchwork pieces you're working with.  I use 50 weight 100% cotton thread, usually Mettler or Gutermann, and a stitch length of 2.0.  I engage the needle stop down function on my machine, and yes, damnit -- I sew over pins (slowly!) despite the dire warnings from the owner's manual telling me not to.

Now you can see why curved seams are scary!  You have to match up a concave curve to a convex curve, and ease it in so that hopefully you get a nice, smooth curve without nasty pleats when you press the seam open.  I consulted several different books in my personal library, and each one gave different advice about sewing this type of block.  One book said Drunkard's Path blocks should be hand sewn.  Another suggested clipping the curves, but I didn't want to weaken the seam if I didn't have to, since this quilt is going to see a lot of wear and washing.  I went with the advice in The Quilter's Ultimate Visual Guide: From A to Z -- Hundreds of Tips and Techniques for Successful Quiltmaking. 

Okay, here we go -- let's start sewing!  Because I know I'm more likely to have a severe oops on the first try, I deliberately did NOT select one of Lars's favorite dragon pieces for the first block.  Instead, I'm using a leftover fabric from a previous quilt for Anders.  I remembered that Lars was very wistful about these lizards at the time, and I like working fabrics from past quilts into current projects whenever I can. 

I'm sewing very slowly, and despite all of my pins, these opposite curved edges still try to creep away from one another. 

See how easy it is to line the cut edge of the fabric up with the edge of Foot 37 to maintain a perfect seam allowance?  By the way, I'm using a medium brownish-beige thread for all of my piecing on this quilt.  It would be way too inconvenient to have to stop and change thread color constantly, so I've chosen a neutral thread color that will disappear into my bold, bright fabrics.

This is the finished block.  I pressed the seam allowance toward the lizard fabric, since it's the darker of the two in this case.  Not bad, for all my fear and hesitation, huh?  My block measures exactly 7 1/2" square, just as it should, and I got a nice, smooth curve and a flat finished block on the first try.  I had my seam ripper handy, but I didn't even need it (this time).  Wahoo!  I only have about 149 more blocks to go...

By the way, I deliberately did NOT cut out all the pieces for 150 blocks before I started sewing.  I want to be able to lay things out and adjust my fabric choices mid-stream.  I cut out about 15 of each shape so far, just enough to get me started.  Once my additional fabrics come in from eQuilter, I can make semi-final decisions about which fabrics are in, which ones are out, and sort them by value to ensure I get the balance I want for my mix.  Stay tuned! 

Happy Super Stash Sunday! I Win, As Usual!

This year marked a big step in my journey towards becoming a sports fan!  Instead of hiding out in my office, taking advantage of the Big Football Distraction on TV so I could shop my heart out online, I brought my nifty iPad into the living room and did my fabric shopping in the same room as the Superbowl, right under my husband's nose.  He was too busy whooping and hollering at the television to notice.  I even glanced up at the screen during the commercials.  I know what color outfits the teams were wearing, and I'm pretty sure the half-time show was supposed to be a joke but no one got it.  I'm like, THIS close to becoming a professional sportscaster, don't you think?

Meanwhile, I have ordered lots of goodies to energize my quilting fabric stash.  Nevermind that I don't have enough room for all of the fabric I already own, or that I don't have enough time to make all the quilts that take shape in my mind.  Eventually, there will be time to quilt again, and my stash will be ready to inspire me!

I was shopping at eQuilter, one of my favorite online quilt shops, and these are some of the goodies that found their way into my shopping cart:

 I love batiks.  They can be stiff and difficult to hand quilt, but I'm planning to hone up on my machine quilting skills anyway.  Also, several of them are hand dyed so they will need to be prewashed and tested for color fastness.

Then there were a few other fabrics I couldn't live without because they were just so darned cute:

I'm not usually a big floral person when it comes to my quilt fabrics, but this one was just really interesting.  Are they blooms, fruit, or both?

It's la Tour Eiffel!  And it's RED!  That's all you need to know.

Don't ask what I'm going to do with this one.  It just reminded me of the best kind of children's book illustrations; very Jan Brett with the bright colors and rich textile details.  I'll use it for something eventually.

This is just a smattering of what I bought last night.  I can't post everything because my husband reads my blog, and he gets alarmed -- he doesn't realize that I only got a half-yard piece of each of these, and he also doesn't realize that quilting fabric is WAY less expensive than the designer drapery fabrics I use in my work.

Also, it's possible that Bernie may still be mad at me for ruining the end of the Superbowl for him.  I didn't realize that he had recorded the game and was watching it about 20 minutes behind, so when the New York Times news alert "Green Bay Packers Win World Series" popped up on my iPad, I read it out loud, thinking the game must be over and it must be replays or something on the screen.  Oops...