Royal Mendhi Crystals

I'm going to try something different here .... along with this blog, I have vanity website, "The Dread Pirate Rodgers".  This blog is relatively new; the website has been around for a while.  I use it as a virtual scrapbook for the quilts that I make.  (And as a way to keep the details of those quilts until such a time as I get around to making a physical scrapbook.  Maybe.  Sometime.)

In the past, when I have created a new webpage for a quilt, I briefly talk about it here, on the blog, and then beseechingly entreat you, Dear Readers, to click on the provided link and read about the quilt on the webpage.  Why?  Well, I can make the webpage as long as I want to, include all the pictures I want and generally just ramble on and on and on ... moreso than I do on the blog.  :-)

But it's annoying to me to write up a teaser *here* and hope that people actually *do* click to the webpage.  Therefore, I am going to just copy the webpage here on the blog and hope that the pictures fit nicely! Warning! Get yourself a beverage, isolate yourself from interruptions ... this is going to be a LONG blog entry! 

Without further ado ... I present "Royal Mendhi Crystals", a quilt I pieced in April 2010 and finally quilted in December 2010.  The quilt is 53" x 73".

Let me start by saying that I hardly, ever, *ever* buy pre-cuts. The are a relatively new phenomenon and I don't have any patterns that specifically use them. When a pattern calls for X yardage, it's difficult to translate that into pre-cut units, so although I may admire them, I pass them by.

Until the Auburn quilt show of 2010. It was a dismal, misty day as we traveled from our house to the show, about a 2 hour drive. The trip was pleasant and due to the inclement weather, there weren't a whole lot of people .. bad for the show, but wonderful for us viewers. :-)

The Vendor building was small; there weren't too many businesses represented. I sure didn't need any more fabric, supplies, magazines, toys, threads, needles, templates ... or really anything at all ... but I made the rounds of the vendors anyway. I was actually rather pleased when I wasn't severely tempted by anything. It made resisting so much easier. :-)

After the vendor building, I viewed the quilts. Such awesome work! Dang, but we quilters are talented! After looking at all the quilts, I gave Mr. Pirate a call on his cellphone that I was ready to be picked up. Mr. Pirate doesn't do quilt shows and finds other ways to occupy his time. This time, he had found an ol' timey watering-hole where all the geezers congregate. He was having a wonderful time. :-)

While I waited for him to pick me up, I wandered into the vendor building, one more time. I was just going to do a quick circuit to pass the time. Since it was so close to closing time, the vendors were just marking time before closing up shop. So, instead of a fly-by, I was able to spend quite a bit of that time chatting with one of the vendors. She seemed happy to spend the time talking about "anything". Another late quilter wandered in and looked at the pre-cuts, selected one and bought it. It was a drop-dead, *gorgeous* selection of turquoises and I said as much. The vendor commented that there was only one more of that pre-cut left.

Well, that was all I needed .. I grabbed up that lonely, solitary pre-cut package for my very own. Good salesmanship, huh? :-)

Back at the homefront, I began to do some research on how best to use this pre-cut. One such website was Hoffman Fabrics and there was a perfect pattern on their free download page. Mendhi Crystals is offered in two colorways: a multi-color and a neutral. (Both of those links will give you a PDF to download and save.) I thought the pattern would be suitable for my pre-cut, although I did end up altering the layout to accommodate the fabrics that I had. I augmented the pre-cut with some of my own turquoise fabrics and a highlight of sparkling yellow.

The pattern went together without a hitch, even with my alteration and the top was quickly completed. And sat in my pile of Tops to Quilt. For a long time.

Why? Well ... True Confessions time: piecing is easy for me. I love to piece. I get on a roll and just churn out the tops. Pretty soon, I have a stack of tops that need quilting and I know I need to work on them soon otherwise, I'm going to forget details of how I made the quilt. Usually, I create a notefile for the quilt as I'm working on it so I don't have to keep all the pertinent details stuffed in my head, but sometimes I forget about the notefile. So, anyway, I wasn't in a mood to quilt .. I wanted to work on tops .. so I did.

There was a small mishap on backing: I had *yards* of vintage flannel from Mom's stash, it was a soft, butter yellow. There was more than enough for the backing and I was pleased to be able to use it. I needed to cut it 100" long, 2 sections at WOF. I measured. I measured twice. I cut once. I fluffed it out and thought ... 'that looks kinda short'. Then realized that I *forgot to double the fabric over* at the 100" mark. I had used the 50" mark instead. duh. (Obviously, I had intended on unfolding it at the 50" mark to have one piece at 100" .. then double it at *that* mark to get two 100" sections.) So instead of having two 100" long pieces, I had two 50" long pieces. aaarrrggghhh.

I still had enough for the backing (since I cut it overly long) but now I would have nasty, nasty horizontal seamline in the middle. Yuck, yuck, yuck! To help disguise it, I inserted a coordinating piece of woven cotton (since I had no flannel that would be suitable). ::sigh:: What a doofus. But, such is life and I'll call myself lucky if that is kind of bad luck I have.

It was much later that year (fortunately, it *was* the still same year!) that The Guilts finally got to me. That and I had attended Pacific International Quilt Festival and purchased some nifty new quilting templates. :-)

From Quilter's Rule booth, I found a template for Nested Mini-circles (1" - 4"). You know how, when you are following a circular template on a longarm, you can stitch about 3/4's the way around before your arm physically gets in the way? Then you need to stop your machine, make sure it *stays put*, reposition your hand/arm and restart the stitching ... and try not to have a bobble at the re-start. Sometimes you don't always succeed.

Well, the strategy of these templates is that you can stitch the circle on the INSIDE the template so that your hand never gets in the way and you never need to reposition it on the template to complete the circle! Awesome! Sold!

As part of the sales technique, we were shown how to do a String of Pearls quilting design easily ... oh. my. gosh. Awesome! Sold! (In this picture, you can see the chalk guideline I put down to help me center all the circles).

Then ... Oh. My. Gosh. There was a cable template. I love, love, love the look of cables. But how on earth do you do them as continuous stitching? That mystery was way beyond what my poor one brain cell could contemplate. But Nancy Johnson, who obviously has more than one brain cell, HAS figured it out with this exceedingly clever 5 line cable template. The template has a bunch of removeable pieces which allow you to stitch the cable, for as long as you need it to be, in *one continuous line*. Yes, there is a small amount of back-tracking, but the template helps you stay on track with that part.

Being the idiot that I am, I didn't practice beforehand. Oh noooo ... that would be too simple!

I just jumped right in and use the template for the first time on this quilt. I found out that I had misjudged my guideline and the resultant cable (which looked FANTASTIC!) wasn't centered properly on the border. Eh ... ::shrug:: .... minor problem.

Subsequent stitchings were exceedingly well done and I pat myself on the back. :-)

I can't wax enthusiastic enough about both of these templates! I'm sure that these quilting motifs could certainly be done without a template but for it to *look* good, I need the help of templates. I'm sure glad that I have them!

The quilting in the center part of the quilt was a pantograph by Lorien Quilting, "Halcyon". It's a very nice curvilinear design that I thought would soften the very angular look of the piecing.

By using blue painters' tape to mark where the edges of the center medallion was, I was able to do this pantograph *just in the center* of the quilt.

Mostly, I was pretty doggone good about being able to keep the pantograph stitching within the center but there were a couple of places where the stitching snuck into the border. Heh .. it's not easy to stitch a pantograph and not be able to go off the edges! :-)

The Flying Geese got a Carla Barrett quilting treatment. I just love, *love*, LOVE Carla's quilting and she is most generous with tutorials. Carla has this wonderful design that allows you to quilt a perfectly suited motif for a string of Geese. I love how the design flows so wonderfully from block to block ... it's an extremely easy design to free motion.

As far a labels go, I have a 'standard' pirate label I put on my quilts. She's my alter-ego and how I really view myself .. no matter WHAT the mirror might actually reflect. [grin] I like to hand write the verbage on the label, along with my signature; I think it lends a personal touch.

But, I also own an embroidery machine. I have lots and lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of designs that are quite suitable for quilt labels. I decided, as an on-going effort, I would put a *second*, machine embroidered, decorative label on my quilts ... just because I can. I found a wonderful Embroider This! snowflake design, (appropriate because,of course, a snowflake is a crystal) and used that in the corner of the decorative label. It'll be interesting to see how long I keep up this embroidered label effort. :-)

Here's how the quilt looks after it was laundered.

I have to admit, once again, that although I always prewash my fabrics, I don't always shrink the batting before using it. It only stands to reason that the batting is going to shrink to some degree. When the quilt is on the frame and the quilting is *so* crisp, defined and clean, it looks simply fantastic.

A lot of people like the old, timey wrinkled look, but I'm not a overwhelming fan about it. I'd love it if my quilting could stay as crisp as it looks on the frame, but that's not gonna happen.

And what quilt would be complete with a *thorough* inspection for Quality Control?

What a bum! ;-)

Current Forever Project: Dress Me Up ... addendum

Dang .. I hate it when I hit "publish" and then I discover that I haven't posted all the pictures that I wanted to!

This time it's the cat.  Again. 

This cat, an old tortoiseshell, likes to keep me company when I'm in my sewing studio.  I have no problem with that.  I have several "tuffets" for her to sit on ... a very lovely, soft cushion in the corner window; Mr. Pirate even broke down and bought her a cat hide-away that has a hammock top; and then I let her sit on the reverse of a placemat .. which I move to different spots on the cutting table to wherever she wants to sit.

All of that is just to let you know that she has LOTS OF PLACES to sit, lie down or otherwise repose.

So, here I am, working on Dress Me Up, dress #8.  It's in the spring embroidery hoop and I get up from the cutting table, where I am working, to go to the adjacent kitchen to get myself a beverage.

This is what I return to.  Please note that the red arrow is pointing to something.

Care to hazard a guess as to WHAT that object is?

Yep.  The embroidery hoop.  The ONLY spot in the ENTIRE room that she wants to occupy.  ::sigh::

It is BARELY big enough to contain her ... fluffiness. :-)


Yes, she *was* disgruntled when I moved her. :-)

Current Forever Project: Dress Me Up, dresses 7 & 8

I've done a few previous posts about what my Forever Project ™ concept is all about.  To recap: it's a hand-work project that I can take with me to keep busy and be productive when I am not in my sewing studio.  My current Forever Project is "Dress Me Up", a series of 12 hand-embroidered dresses, circa 1950s, created by Bobby Sox Studio.

I've talked about the dresses that I've already completed: dresses 1 & 2,  dress 3, dresses 4 & 5, and dress 6.   Whew ... that should bring us up to snuff.

Well, I have now finally finished dresses 7 & 8, taken appropriate pictures and am now remembering to BLOG about them!

Dress 7 is  a classic 1950 image ... a blouse and the poodle circle skirt, accessorized with a neck scarf and belt.

The neck scarf, skirt outline and "leash" for the poodle were done in a light purple, the blouse is outlined in black. 

The belt has a 'gold' buckle.

I procrastinated finishing this dress ... I stitched the poodle in a single ply of floss.  Oh. My. Goodness.  '

It took *ages* to stitch all the tiny curves to depict the fluffy cut of the poodle.

close-ups of the neck scarf and poodle:

 And then there's Dress 8.  I'm not quite sure what kind of collar this is .. it's kinda like a Bertha, but squared-off.

There's a cute little bow at the center front and the dress "fabric" is an all-over print of daisy flowers.

The mannequin features a very lovely turned, spiral stand.

New to me is DMC's metallic floss.  I discovered it rather late in the game .. I ran out of black and in the course of replenishing my supply, I saw this nifty "new" floss on the shelf.  In purple.  Two shades.  How could I possibly resist it?

So I didn't.  :-)

I should have realized that the metallic part of the floss would result in a rather wirey feel. 

This floss is very stiff to work with and likes to twist, tangle and knot around itself.  You need to talk nicely to it, so it will behave for you.

I put a single French knot in the center of the lazy daisy flowers.  The lazy daisies were done with 2 ply of the metallic; the French knots were done with 1 ply and 1 wrap.

I rather like the look of the turned spiral stand.

Twice as Nice?

EDIT, 2/9/11:  "Meandering Magic" has sold!  Although the rest of you lost out on this fantastic deal, you can find this book elsewhere.  You won't regret buying it.


I'm sure you know that if you practice something over and over, you become more proficient at it.  In quilting, repetition is good ... doing multiple copies of a design builds muscle memory and expertise.

When is a multiple not necessarily a good thing?  When you have TWO copies of the SAME book.  Oh yes, doofus me thought "Meandering Magic" by Suzanne Earley was soooooo good, that I bought two copies.  But not at the same time ... *that* would have been excusable.  Oh no .. *I* bought them at different times because the book is Just That Good.  ::sigh::

From the blurb:

What is Suzanne's technique?  It all starts with a meander -- and then you add all kinds of different "magic."  

Suzanne includes lots of illustrations AND the designs may be used by anyone who can machine quilt.  While the techniques was developed on a longarm, with just a few adjustments any machine quilter will be able to enjoy the rewards of "Meandering Magic".  Feathers are addressed, but it's not just about feathers as Suzanne shares ideas for using hearts, stars, ferns, leaves and more.

49 pages. Laminated color cover; the book is beautifully wire-spiral bound for ease in reading while you are working on your project.  It's clearly written and easy to understand.  Suzanne uses a text font that is larger than most books and very easy to see and follow.  Some color and LOTS of clean and professionally prepared illustrations.

So .. I'm selling my extra copy.  This is a *pristine* book .. like new.   You will never, ever look at a simple meander and be satisfied again.  So simple that even a caveman a beginner could do it and look fantastic in the process!  :-)    sold, sold, sold!  :-)

Interested?  email me with your snailmail and we can do business. :-)

[Also listed on the Little Shoppe of Goodies page.]

Swiss Cheese Memory ™

I swear, if my head wasn't permanently connected to my body, I'd probably forget that too.  ::sigh::

I had meant to add this to my previous post but when I realized I had omitted it, I figured that I just might as well make a new mini-entry.  ::sigh::

It's certainly not earth-shattering news, but I did want to announce it ...  two more books have been entered in my Pirate's Little Shoppe of Goodies page.  You can also get to that page via the tab at the top of this page. 

The books are shown on that page under the "Added on 1/30/11" heading and are:

sold Weekend Log Cabin Quilts

Seminole Patchwork with Glenda Frost.  A Lothian Australian Craft Series.  Create Spectacular clothes and home decorations.  If nothing else, the photography in this book is phenomenal. Very inspirational!
Condition: used - like new.  Price: $8.00

Please see the Little Shoppe of Goodies page for transaction details, if you are interested.

What's Been Going On

Ya know what's annoying?  I can't figure out how to quilt and blog at the same time.  I love quilting and crafting and creating; I love sharing what I've been doing via this blog.  BUT, they are mutually exclusive activities!  If I'm quilting, I'm not blogging.  If I'm blogging, I'm not quilting.  Each is labor intensive and the more time I spend on one, the less I do of the other.  It's annoying.

In any case, I've not been a slacker .. I *have* been busy.

A pillow contest!

Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Color is hosting a "Bloggers Pillow Party"!
Per her blog,

"Spruce up your nest with the pillow of your dreams.  Then share it here!  Each month you can enter one pillow to win Fabric and the Honor of our judges.  Your pillow can be sewn, knit, crocheted - so long as you made it." (within the past 3 months)

So ... I'm kinda proud of the felt flower pillow that I made in early January and am entering it in her February contest.  This verbage qualifies as my "new post" (since I had already talked about it earlier and didn't want to repeat it).  But if you haven't read the former blog post, please do so ... it has all the details about how I came about to make this pillow!





Underground Railroad quilt

First up .. a completed quilt!  It's name is "Underground Railroad" and was inspired by the Elm Creek Quilt books by Jennifer Chiaverini.  I had quite a few hand-pieced 4-patches leftover from a previous project and this quilt used up a good amount of them.  I love how the light and dark columns are created by use of the color of the setting triangles.  I don't have a picture of the entire quilt just yet (I always seem to finish my quilts at o-dark-thirty, which isn't a good time to take pictures) but here's a photo of the quilt on my sewing table, just about to be squared up.

This is a detail of the quilting I did in the dark columns.










Diamond Pillows

I also continued to work on the throw pillow covers with Sizzix die cuts that I talked about in a previous entry .  I made 4 covers .. 3 with dark borders and later, one with a light border.  I knew that I was going to machine applique the Sizzix die cuts to the diamond background but thought, for a change, I would quilt the cover *first*, then do the applique.  In so doing, I would have a more substantial foundation for the machine applique.  Since the 3 dark border covers were like mini-quilts, I decided to quilt them on Lizzie.  I used a single backing fabric for all three and was able to use up smaller pieces of batting.  Because they were so small, quilting was a snap!  It was finished almost before I started.  :-)

I like the look of continuous curve quilting, so that is what I did on all three of the dark border pillow covers. 


Because I made the light border cover afterwards, it wasn't available to be quilted with the other three.  For this cover, I did the "normal" sequence of construction ... the machine applique has been done on the unquilted background fabric.  The quilting will come later on.

I'm not entirely pleased with the arrangements of Sizzix die cuts on any of them.  Some people have a flair for that sort of artistic arrangement ... I don't.  To me, what I've done is kinda .... blah.  I think I will eventually put some hand-embroidered elements on them.  Maybe that will make them look better.

As you can see, I only have pictures of 2 of the dark border pillows ... that's because I haven't done the third one yet.  :-)

Jane Austin mock-up

I'm probably the last person in the quilting world to find out that author Jane Austen (along with her sister and mother) made a quilt.  Dear Daughter #2, who is an English major and adores Jane Austen, fell in love with the Jane Austen quilt.  Because I'm Such A Good Mom, I said I would make her one ... in purple (as that is her favorite color and, in her opinion, the Only Color :-)  )

There isn't a pattern, per se, for it, so I made a baby-sized mock-up just to see how it would go together.  Jane's quilt doesn't have the slab-o-borders, as I have done here, but I was unwilling to do the small pieced border of her quilt for this baby one.  I still need to put an applique "something" in the center diamond and quilt it.


And *that's* what I've been up to lately.

Pirate's "Little Shoppe of Goodies"

I've created a new page ... it's on the top, right above the date of the latest post.  It's labeled "Little Shoppe of Goodies" and that's where I am going to list items I have for sale.

Right now, there are a bunch of books listed ... quilting, embroidery, sewing, history .. both softback and hardbound.  I have *SO MANY* books, magazines and patterns that even if I live past all human expectancy, I will never, ever use these resources.  So, I'm giving YOU the opportunity to have them.

Gosh, aren't I generous?  :-)

In the future, I may list surplus fabric from my stash or even quilts that I've made ... but I haven't made my mind up about those items just yet.

Although I have looked at these books and admired them greatly, I haven't actually used any of them.  The insides of all the books are in pristine condition although the outer edges of the covers and/or pages may have minimal shelf wear.

There are a couple of books that I'd like to bring to your attention, simply because they are unusual or I know the author is highly regarded:

* Plain & Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1700-1850 by Susan Burrows Swan.   This is a historic telling of the social history of women and the evolution of stitchery.  More than 150 photographs and illustrations.  Price: $5.00

* Patchwork Puzzle Balls by Jinny Beyer.  These are delightful soft, perfectly round 'grab' balls suitable for indoor play, decorative accents, holiday ornaments, baby toys or stress balls.  Nine fast, easy patterns and 4 challenge patterns.  These balls require only basic sewing skills; no math!  If nothing else, the photography is exquisite.  Price:     $6.00

* Civil War Women: Their Quilts, Their Roles, Activities for Re-Enactors by Barbara Brackman
Price:     $17.00

* The Art of Machine Piecing by Sally Collins.  Sally is the MASTER of miniature piecing.  I've seen her quilts up close and personal.  They are AMAZING.  This book has patterns for 49 traditional blocks in 3", 4" and 6" sizes.  There are instructions for making a sampler quilt from all 49 blocks.  If you like miniatures or want to learn how to perfectly piece miniatures, then this book is for you.  Price:     $15.00

* Start Quilting with Alex Anderson: Six Projects for First-Time Quilters, 2nd Edition.  Are you just starting out?  Or do you know someone who is?  Alex Anderson is one of the BEST teachers and this book will get you started on the right foot.  Price:     $2.50

* Artful Applique: The Easy Way by Jane Townswick.  Do you like applique?  This book gives detailed, step by step instructions for 16 gorgeous 9" blocks of flowers, birds, leaves, wreaths and vines.  Instructions for appliqueing points, curves, narrow stems & vines.  Price:     $6.50

There are many other books that are extremely inexpensive.   All of them are nifty. :-)

Bias Giveaway Results

I have to admit that I am amused. :-)   There were a grand total of 3, count 'em, THREE comments from readers who wanted a chance at the 1.5" bias.  Each of them had a 33.3% chance of winning.  Pretty good odds!

I used random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 3 (inclusive) for me.  Heh ... seems kinda silly, doesn't it?  But, everyone can rest assured that a true random number *was* produced. :-)

Without further ado .... Mimi!  You are number 3!   I'll send you an email to let you know (if you don't read it here) that you won.  Would you please send *me* an email with your snailmail?  (pirate AT value DOT net) Do *not* post it in a comment!  I don't want your address to be visible all across the internet!

And then there's Quiet Quilter & Peach Rainbow .. dang ... it's so disappointing when you lose.  BUT ... I have a consolation prize for both of you, if you are interested.   I have two other bias bundles (smaller amounts); one is 1.25 inches and the other is 1 inch. 

Conceivably, the 1.25 inch bias could be used for very, very TINY bindings .. wider if you use it as a single fold binding.  The 1 inch bias could be used as single fold binding OR (as I used it) for a decorative, accent flap right next to the binding.

So, QuietQuilter and Peach Rainbow ... do let me know if you are interested in one of the other bundles by email and, if so, please include your snailmail.  :-)

As for a 'normal' blog entry .. yeah .. I gotta get back to doing that.  I have some tops that I've finished that would be good fodder for a blog.  :-)

Oh! a give-away!

I like making bias to use for my double fold binding for my quilts.  A bias binding, especially double fold, is absolutely the most durable edge treatment you can put on a quilt.

I have a tutorial on how to easily make yards and yards of bias, all neatly diagonally seamed, in one continuous strip.  It's just amazing how convenient this technique is.  I sure didn't invent it but happily pass my tutorial along to the sewing community.  (and just FYI, that last seam?  where you join the two tails of your binding?  I have a SUPER easy tutorial to get it correct every doggone time!  That seam will be FLAT and indistinguishable from any other seam in the binding.  I grin to myself every time ... it's just that clever. :-)  )

However, this blog entry is not about my tutorials ... although they *are* awesome.  :-)

THIS entry is about the bias I've made.  Because it's just so danged easy to make bias (with my tutorial!), I always make my own bias, whether for binding or for piping or inserts or whatever.  Generally speaking, I end up making more bias than I need .. which is better than not having enough.  All of the leftover bias gets rolled up and put in to a cubby.  I have vague ideas of using it for Celtic knotwork, applique designs, crazy quilts, anything and everything. 

But have I actually gone back and USED any of it?  Rarely.  Those rolls of bias sure do look pretty, though. :-)

Well, one of my quilting associates mentioned that she is facing the arduous task of making bias to finish off her charity quilts.  I had a Light Bulb Moment ™!   If she wanted them, I could send her my 2-1/4" & 2" bias for her charity quilts!  She does, so I am.  I'm happy they are finally going to be used up.

However, I still have quite a collection of bias of other widths and this is where the subject of today's blog is ... a giveaway.    I sorted all my bias into whatever widths they were and this is the pile of 1-1/2" bias. 

I know realize that I am never, *never*, NEVER going to get around and use all this bias.  It's just not going to happen.  So .... I would like to give them away to someone who actually has a use for them.

This pile is mostly custom-made bias by me.  Some of it is still flat.  Some has already been folded and pressed in half lengthwise, so it's ready for being used as double-fold binding.  There's even some "vintage" store-bought bias, purchased before I knew how to make my own.

What can you use it for?  Well .. *really* narrow quilt binding for one.  Make bias tubes for Celtic knotwork or applique work.  Accents for quilt blocks.  Use your imagination.

If you would like a chance at winning this collection of 1-1/2" wide bias, leave a comment.  I'll pick a winner on Monday morning, January 24th.

Any takers? :-)

Just fussin' around

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about a throw pillow I had made from felt circles.  The background for that pillow was a scrappy combination of neutral diamonds.  It turned out that the neutrals that I chose were *really* close in value and after I put them all together, you just couldn't see any difference at all!  What showed up was the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.  Attractive, but not quite what I had in mind.

So, I pulled out the next bin in my stash and cut more diamonds from gold-toned fabrics.  Still neutral but with more color.  Since I was just messing around, I didn't want to commit any *real* yardage, so I just cut as many diamonds from the appropriately colored scraps as I could.  Some colors had more diamonds than others.

I must admit I have a real problem doing "random".  My mind (as chaotic as Mr. Pirate claims that it is) doesn't DO random.  So, I fell back to an orderly, columnar arrangement, which is where I ran into problems.  Because I didn't have a LOT of a variety of colors, what I ended up with was a long, skinny rectangle ... good for a wall-hanging, but not what I wanted.

Then it occurred to me .. what DID I want?  And ya know?  I didn't know.   LOL!  :-)  More messin' around ensued and I decided that I would make throw pillows out of what I had. 

Here are the works-in-progress ... 2 mostly square pillow tops and one rectangular pillow top (just for variety).    Gosh, one of these days, I just might get *really* wild and do a circular pillow!

I still need to put "something in the middle" ... applique, embroidery .. something .. but I haven't decided yet.  I'm thinking this would be an excellent opportunity to play around with my Sizzix die cuts.

I own the original Sizzix, which has a limit to the size of the dies it will accept. 

BUT, I fortunately have a neighbor who is into scrapbooking and making greeting cards BIG TIME.  She has the Sizzix Big Shot Express, which is the *electric* version.  Wowsers, it's awesome having the die cut machine move the dies for you!  :-)  She lets me use her Big Shot Express when I need it, as well as any of her dies that I find interesting.  In return, I have purchased some dies for use with the Big Shot that I *hope* will be suitable for applique and she will certainly be able to use my dies.

And I'll wait until Joann's has a sale on pillow inserts before I get them, since I don't "need" these pillows for any particular occasion or any specific person.

More Finishes.

Here's the bare bones of the situation: I made a Gone With The Wind quilt top (only .. not quilted yet) as a present.  I had thought that the recipient would love it, as she is simply in love with the whole genre.  I used the free pattern from Quilting Treasures for the center medallion but created my own pieced border.  The pictures came from Quilting Treasures' GWTW line of fabric issued to commemorate the 70th anniversary of GWTW.  I thought it came out rather nicely.

However, the reception was quite different than what I expected.  Graciously received but not liked.  After some discussion, we determined that it just wasn't liked (one specific reason and a couple of general ones).  Curiously, I was not unhappy eventhough I had thought it would be a real hit.  The one specific reason was the picture I had put in the center ... but even with it's removal, the top was still not liked.  (I've blanked out the center image in the above photo.)

Upon ruminating, I have decided that I *will* finish the top and put it up for sale.  I hope I will be able to connect with a buyer.

During the construction, I accumulated a LOT of half-square triangles, as all of the blocks with pictures are made snowball-style.  The half-square triangles were of a sufficiently decent size that there was now way I could toss them.  :-)   I was left with ANOTHER unintended project: use up the half-square triangles.

This entailed an internet search and ended in my good friend Marcia Hohn's "Quilters' Cache" website.  I swear, if her site doesn't have a block, it doesn't exist anywhere!  I found "Carpenter's Wheel" and was able to make THREE blocks from the surplus half-square triangles.  A quick trip to Joann's and I obtained some more of the necessary fabric for a fourth block ... luckily, both fabrics are a standard on the calico wall.

I used Electric Quilt to come up with a design to use the four Carpenter's Wheel blocks.  Eventhough the blocks are 24", that isn't enough to result in a quilt the size I wanted.  So, in went some sashings and some sawtooth borders.  This created a square top.  I don't care too much for square quilts so back to Electric Quilt for some top and bottom borders.  I discovered that Electric Quilt has applique designs!  Who knew??  :-)  I used their design as-is.  The top finished out at 61" x 90".  A little on the odd size but better too long than too short. :-)

All the applique was needle-turn.  Since I found a technique for needle-turn applique that I like (from Pacific Rim Quilt Company's two fabric quilt line of patterns), I no longer avoid applique. I am a happy camper when it comes to applique.  [You can see the first project I made from their pattern here.  The technique is AWESOME.] 

Eventually, the applique was finished and I pinned the first border to the center medallion of Carpenter's Wheel blocks.  Then I hung it up on my design wall to admire. 

And it looked weird ... but in a good way.  It was different from my EQ graphic  ... how? 

Oh silly me .. I had inadvertently pinned the border *upside down*!  The EQ version has the cluster of green diamonds next to the sawtooth border.  My pinned border has that cluster at the very top & bottom of the quilt.  I never realized that the EQ version bothered me in a subliminal way until I saw the actual quilt with the upside down border.

The problem with EQ version?  When the cluster of green diamonds is next to the sawtooth border, there is a lot of empty space between the sawtooth blocks and the swirly applique.  This simply did not register with me.

But look at the physical quilt above (yes, the quilt is too long for my design wall, so the bottom border is dragging on the floor).  You can see that the empty space is now at the outer edges of the borders, which is more visually pleasing ... at least to me.  Since it's my quilt, that is what matters. :-)

This Carpenter's Wheel top will now join its sibling tops in the pile of Quilts to be Quilted.  ::sigh::  There are quite a few of them.

I really gotta get back to Lizzie to restart quilting.  :-)

Felt circle overload

To refresh your memory, I made a Christmas tree felt pillow, copying one I saw in an upscale home dec & dust collector store.   The Christmas tree is made from circles of felt.

Because I was a doofus and didn't really realize that I did not HAVE to cut ALL the circles on the Sizzix die (I could cut a piece of felt & position it on the *one* size of circle that I wanted ... knowledge comes late in life, ya know?), I had a whole MESSLOAD of different sized green felt circles.  What could I possibly DO with them?  I didn't want to make another Christmas tree.  BTDT.

Well, I thought a stylized topiary would be kinda cute.  And why not put it on a fabric background, rather than a felt pillow cover?

 And then mid-stream, I switched gears.  I haven't a clue why, but I did.  Instead of topiary, which would USE UP my already cut green circles, why not make flower posies of different colored felt?  It just didn't matter that I didn't HAVE any color of felt besides the leftover green ... that's what Joann's is for!

 A trip to Joann's provided an entire rainbow supply of felt squares.  I spent the better part of one evening using Sizzix to cut out the circles I needed (just the one size, this time!).

As for the fabric pillow cover, instead of using just a single piece of fabric, let's create a pieced background!  Oh why not ... we can simply forget that there is a huge pile of tops waiting to be quilted.  :-)   So, I made some strip sets of a bunch of neutrals and cut a whole bunch of 60° diamond strips.  Sewing those together gave me my background fabric.  I sandwiched that and stitched in the ditch along all seam lines to quilt everything down,   I didn't want a pattern, which might distract you from the flowers.

I drew circles on the pieced background ... these would be the shapes I would fill with my felt circles in the same way I created the Christmas tree.  I free-form cut out some stems and machine stitched them down with one of my buttonhole stitches.  I used my Leaves Galore ruler (since I have one) to cut out the leaves and they were stitched down also.

All the circles were filled with the felt circles, creating a 3D flower "posey".  The circles were attached with a bar tack.

As I was finishing the posies, it occurred to me that a colorful piping to match the flower colors would be nifty. I love putting piping in seams; it's  a terrific detail that doesn't take much time to do.  You get a lot of bang for your buck. And as long as we were being colorful, why not edge the pillow in different colored Prairie Points?  I like making Prairie Points.  :-)

Normally, I like to put an inconspicuous zipper on the back of the pillow cover, at the bottom, so the cover can be removed for laundering.  However, the seam allowance where the zipper would be sewn to was hugely bulky:  the pieced background fabric (3 layers), the piping (2 layers), all the Prairie Points (4 layers each Point and the Points overlap).  I didn't think I would be able to get a nicely applied zipper to that seam.

So, I simply sliced the backing fabric in two, about 3" from the bottom, just so I would have a seam to put the zipper in there.  That worked out just dandy.



All the bulk in the seams was graded (cut to different levels so the bulk would taper off gradually instead of being a "cliff"), a slit was cut into the corners to the corner seam allowances could be lapped to make a better pillow corner.

Also, please note ... my square pillow is *square*.  Why is this significant?  Well, most of the pillows I have seen (both retail and home-made) have dog-ear pillows ...  (see picture at left).  See how the edges of the pillow curve from corner to corner?  That's not a good pillow.  This happens because the pillow pattern is *square*.  You need to alter the corners of the pattern to create an optical illusion of square corners.

 It's an easy enough problem to fix though ... on your pillow pattern you simply remove part of each corner and curve the cutting line to the new corner.  On the pattern, the new corner definitely curves *inward* and looks wrong.  BUT, once you've inserted your pillow form (or stuffing the cover), those corners will be nice and square!




 I'm rather pleased with the final result.  :-)  And I still want to make the topiary pillow from all those GREEN circles!  :-)

Edited on 2/1/11 to add Rachel Hauser's "Blogger's Pillow Party" contest link -

Quilting Endeavors of 2010

What exactly was accomplished, quiltwise, during 2010?  (Oh, and a small disclaimer, the software that I used to create these montage pictures apparently has cropped some of the longer pictures so that all of the pictures could fit into a nice little pigeon hole.  None of the quilts shown are really cut off, as depicted by the thumbnail!)

 Well, I finished and delivered 15 charity quilts. You can read about them on my Charity Quilts page.

I finished 5 more charity tops, but they still need to be quilted.

The bottom 2 are oriented as they are supposed to be .. the stripes really do go horizontal on one and vertical on another!

No pages to read about them because they haven't been finished yet.

On the personal quilting front, i.e. quilts that I kept for myself or given away as gifts, I completed 18.  They are all different sized, ranging from placemats to throw-sized to queen-sized.  I am very pleased to see that my longarm quilting really HAS gotten much better than from when I first started.  :-)  You only see 11 pictures here because the 2nd picture in the 3rd row is actually 8 quilts folded up (they are thick, quilted cage liners for my vet's office).

You can read about these quilts on my Quilting Page, just scroll on down, down, down to the 2010 section. 

Oh wait .. that's not exactly correct ... I haven't updated that index page to reflect all of the quilts shown here.  I have thumbnails of the quilts but not all the finished quilts have a page written for them yet!

For me, finishing the quilt is only PART of the process ... I still like to take pictures and document the process so that I can write a web page for each quilt.  Goodness .. that's a whole other project in and of itself!

And finally, there are the quilt tops that I finished piecing but haven't gotten around to quilting.  There are 7 of them. 

And in fact, although the picture is cropped,  the last one truly is a "work-in-progress" and the top border is still being appliqued and the matching bottom border hasn't even been started yet! 

That makes 33 completed quilts (charity & personals) and 12 completed tops waiting to be quilted.

And finally, I quilted 4 quilts for commission!  woo hoo! 

But wait .. you see only 3 quilts here!  What's with that?  Well, I did two of the ladybug quilts, each with different quilting motifs.  It was very interesting to see the difference that quilting makes.  One of the ladybug quilts had highly customized designs and the other ladybug quilt was an edge-to-edge.

You can't see any of the quilting in these small thumbnails but they are quilted!  :-)  And no, pages for these quilts haven't been done either.  I *told* you that making pages is a completely separate project!  :-)