echo quilting - marking a quilt top

I started quilting my postage stamp quilt. I spent a bit of time thinking about how I wanted to quilt this one. I've done a lot of meandering quilting in the past and wanted to try something different. I was looking at a couple of my quilt books (the 100 patterns kind) and noticed some of the patterns used on the antique quilts highlighted in the book. One that I really liked was this clamshell pattern. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try that on a bigger quilt. I also noticed a lot of quilts with overall echo quilting. These seemed to match what I was looking for for this top.

I decided to do a giant X though the center of the top and then echo each section with V's. I tried a couple different ways to mark the top. If anyone has other ideas, let me know. I have mixed feelings on the methods I tried.

Method 1: Painters Tape. To use this method, you lay the tape on your top and then using it as a guideline as you sew. Since I was doing 2" intervals, I used my ruler to lay the tape down.

Pros: I didn't have to use the stupid marking tools (see below). It was also pretty fast to lay the tape down for long lines without having to measure all the time.

Cons: I found it to come up a bit when I sewed, or sometimes I would hit it with the needle. The biggest con was that I found it hard to mark where I wanted to sew - I would have to offset the tape from the sew line a bit so that I didn't sew on the tape.

Method 2: Marking Tools.  These are pretty easy to use. They are pens or pencils made for sewing and quilting. I used a blue wash out pencil (shown in the first picture) and a disappearing ink pen (second picture). I would lay out my ruler and use it as an edge to mark the cloth.

Pros: I liked sewing over the links much better. I could mark exactly where I wanted to sew and then sew on top of it. It also was easy to mark and note the piviot while sewing with the marks.

Cons: Both tools I used were very light and I had to work to get a mark I could see. I found the marker was easier to use but also vanished within a few hours of using, making it impossible to mark the whole top before sewing (unless I wanted to quilt the whole thing in one day!).

Blue pencil - pretty easy to see once marked.

You can hardly see the marker!

Despite how much of a pain marking this top is, I really like how the sections are turning out! I have half of the top done now and plan to finish it up over the week.

tetris week 5

The tetris adventure continues... da da da!!

That this point there is only one more block left in this QAL. It seems to be good timing, since next week (the week the last block posts!) is the last week I have off before starting my new job! I'm pretty excited to have a full time "real" job (not to say adjunct teaching isn't a job, it just pays really, really poorly for the amount of education and work it requires). The time line also gives me a good week to finish the quilt for my friend's birthday on the 26th.

This week I had to go off grid a little more than normal to get the blocks in. I have good carryover into Block 6 for next week. This will be a fun one to get finished and quilted!

quilting on a grid

I quilted my Red and White Snapshots Quilt. This pattern is in Elizabeth Hartman's excellent book The Practical Guide to Patchwork. This quilt was a little different because I decided to do a pieced back (like a real one, not just sewing hunks together like I usually do!).

I did straight line quilting on the white diagonals. I saw a this pattern quilted this way on Flickr and loved how the quilting frames each of the print blocks.

I used a walking foot to do the quilting and decreased the foot pressure a little bit to get nicer stitches. This quilt isn't too big so I didn't have problems feeding it through my Brother (1500S) while managing the bulk in the neck area. I've been working on a larger top over the weekend and I've had to be more careful with thinking about where the bulk would end up as I sewed.

I love this quilt. It reminds me of the holidays but not in a super obvious way.

The front!

The back!

I have to find some fabric in the stash to use for the binding.  I'm thinking red but who knows!

polaroid block

For August Beejeebers, Lindsay requested we all make her a Polaroid block. I had seen this block  bit in the couple of weeks prior to her posting it, so I was excited to try something new by making this block.

First, I framed all of my sweet fussy cuts in white.

Then I trimmed them down. Be sure to do this - I see blocks that miss this step in the instructions! The block looks much better when the white is trimmed before adding the background.

Once trimmed, I framed each in Kona Coal. Then I realized I had two different dye lots going on :(

Then I trimmed them to 4.5" square. I posted here about how to get the tilts going how you want them.

Arrange as you like them....

Then you have a really sweet looking block! I shipped this out the other day - I can't wait to see this quilt finished!

tetris week 4

This week for the Tetris QAL (hosted by Happy Quilting) I kept thinking "and the adventure continues!"

The blocks this week created very few challenges for my marker placing skills. I started by working in the blocks from the block 2 carry over. Once I got to the top of the block, I considered seeing if I could work the Block 3 top left carry over into Block 4. As you can see from the X's and redirects, this didn't work out.

I did manage to get some good placement into Block 6.

Here is the finished block:

 It is a very pink and orange block this week. I put all the blocks together and it is BIG! I don't have space to lay it out for a good photo so I'll have to update when the time comes!

sparkle punch

I finished my Sparkle Punch quilt.

I love it.

getting fussy tilts right

I'm not sure what the actual term is, but I have always had a hard time figuring out how to lay down my ruler when trimming blocks so that they "tilt" to one side or the other. I was working on my Beejeebers block for Lindsay and figured out a method that works great!

She picked out a very fun block - Polaroid Pictures - and wanted boy themed prints with Kona Coal background. I found enough prints by the skin of my pants (I'm not a fan of novelty prints!) and got to work. As I started to trim the blocks, I realized I needed to pay more attention to the way the block "tipped."

Let's keep those tilts orderly!

I spent a little time thinking about it and realized a very easy way to manage these tilts.

 First, I laid the block down in the position I wanted it to finish at. Here, you can see I want the right side of my mushroom to be "up" and the left to be "down."

 I then positioned my 5x5 ruler. I was cutting these to 4.5" square, so I noted where that line was as I laid out my ruler. I put the ruler down straight with the cutting mat. That is important because it will give you the right "tilt" when finished!

Trim the top and right side. If you are left handed, you might do this the other way around.

In this horrible picture, you can see I trimmed mine.

 Rotate the block around, align the ruler with the freshly cut edge, and trim the other two sides.

 Ta da! My block is trimmed and tipping the way I want it to. EXCELLENT.

Once you are done, you can trim all your blocks. Then they will look super nice once you get your block together!