Gettin' 'em done

A few years ago I figured my quilting skills had progressed enought that I could make quilted projects for Christmas presents for my coworkers.  So I made each one a table topper.  One block each, pretty simple, one-day projects.  They came out great.  You can see them all here on my blog.  http://clkinmd.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-presents-tt-galore.html  Then the next year came and some of my coworkers had left and I had new ones, so for the new ones, it was table toppers again, but for the ones who already had table toppers I gave them their choice of quilted projects.  Now a few picked small wall hangings.  Pretty easy, done in no time.  You can see some of them here  http://clkinmd.blogspot.com/2010/01/getting-finished-part-1.html and some more of them here  http://clkinmd.blogspot.com/2010/01/getting-finished-part-2.html But two of them picked table runners and they wanted them long.  So .... when Christmas got here I had the tops done, but not quilted.  This was before I got my longarm.  So I showed them their presents at Christmas and took them back to finish them. Well, that was three years ago.  Today I finished one of them.  I am so happy and I had forgotten how cute it was and how much I liked it.   If she checks facebook, she won't be surprised, but she doesn't usually, so next week this will be on the way to her house.  Hope she still has a use for it. Here's some close ups of the cute fabric that I fussy cut in the blocks and used in the borders.  I used a chicken wire design for the quilting.  I think it came out pretty good.   Now I still have one to do, and I need to go dig it out and finish it.  If I remember right, it was the prettiest fabric I ever used.  I paid someone to quilt part of it and I think all I have left is to stitch in the ditch and bind it.  I must be getting better at the hand-sewing part of binding because I'm starting to enjoy it, and I used to dread it terribly.  It's so nice to check things off my "Get 'em done" list.

Christmas Tree Skirt in the making

For those who wondered about the tree skirt project I said I was going to try, just wanted to let you know I tried it.  And I finished it and made another and have 2 more planned and love it!  I quilted this one using a pretty dense design, and was sorry later.  The second one I did the quilting was better.  I used a sheet on the back of this and was glad I did.  It looks awesome and saved quite a bit of money.

It is as easy as it says it is.  There are no matching points so no need to pin.  The design just somehow comes out without you doing anything but sewing them together.  I tried to figure it out and gave up. Geometry was not my favorite part of math.  The hardest part is cutting the wedges, but that may just be me.  You don’t need to buy the magazine pattern.  That pattern and many others are on the wedge ruler package.  You do need to buy the wedge ruler.  9 or 10 degree 25” long is important if you want to make a tree skirt.  If you just want to make round table toppers, not so important.  It isn’t cheap ($30) but worth every penny. 

All you really do is sew strips together into panels and then cut wedges out of the panels.  Easy peasey.  The pattern calls for certain width of strips, but you can use any widths you want.  The pattern calls for 5 different fabrics, but again I think you could use however many you wanted.   The pattern calls for different amounts of fabric based on what width you were using it for but because I wasn’t sure ahead of time what placement I was going to use for the fabrics, I just bought 1 yard of each of 5 colors.  I can always use the leftovers later.  If you want to use good fabric on the bottom of the tree skirt you need about 3 ½ yards I think.  I’m just going to use a sheet – much cheaper and works just as well.  Who will see it?  I’m also going to try it with a border fabric I found that I like.  Hopefully I bought enough.  Since I paid $10 for the book, I did follow the directions this time and probably will a few more times till I perfect the process.

 It takes you a couple hours to cut all the strips (I’m slow).  It takes another couple hours to sew the strips together into 4 panels (again I’m slow) and then you need to press them.  It takes another couple hours to cut the wedges (for me this was the hardest part).  It takes another couple hours to sew all the strips together and press them.  And I suspect it’ll take me another couple hours to quilt it.  And God knows how long to bind it, since that's my least favorite part of quilting and I need to use bias binding and have never done that.  I guess you don’t need to quilt it, but I’m going to just because I have a long arm and I like to play with it.  I think you can just sew a big circle of fabric to the back and birth the quilt and it'll be awesome.  I have some awesome ideas for quilting.  But since my knee replacement, I can’t stand for more than about 40 minutes at a time and I can’t sit for more than about 40 minutes at a time, so I had to do this in stages.  Which is why I’m blogging right now, rather than finishing the quilting.  I’ll post another picture when it is all done.

The pattern calls for the widest strip to be in the center and then you match the strips in each direction. That allows you to turn the ruler upside down and keep the same design.  But on the wedge ruler package they showed you the different patterns you’ll get if you don’t keep the fabrics the same on each side.  Pretty cool.  And they show you the different patterns you get by flipping the wedge over vs. flipping the wedge upside down.  Both are very cool.  Can you tell I like this wedge ruler?  I looked on the website for the producer of this and it has some great info on other uses for this ruler.  Check it out:  http://marilyndoheny.com/  The 10 degree ruler is here:  http://www.phillipsfiberart.com/

Some things I learned.  The pattern called for you to use a large print for the widest strip.  You lose the design if the pattern is large – I don’t recommend it.  I do recommend NOT using a directional fabric.  You’ll see in my picture some of my cardinals are flying upside down and they are all cut into strips.  I don’t think it’ll be obvious under a tree but I don’t like that.  The pattern doesn’t tell you to use high contrast, but I think it looks a lot better if you do. The pattern doesn’t tell you to use a solid in there anywhere, but I think it gets too busy with all prints and the solid really stands out.  It is important that you press all the strips in the same direction on every panel you make. It makes the sewing together easier.  Although you're not locking seams like you'd expect.  The pattern doesn't tell you to make sure the ruler extends more than 1/4 inch into the strip at each end.  I didn't do that on mine and so I will not have a point between the first and second strips.  I will make sure I do that in the future. 

In this pattern you made four panels of strips (width of fabric)  -- the originator calls them strata --and you were able to cut 10 wedges (each wedge is 9 degrees) from each panel.  To make a circle you need 360 degrees, or 40 wedges of this ruler.  They also have 10 degree wedge rulers; I guess you’d just need 36 wedges.  I did buy one of those – it was cheaper and I couldn’t find the 9 degree wedge ruler anywhere-- but I found out that the 10 degree wedge is a right triangle and the 9 degree wedge is not.  Not sure how that matters other than the patterns will be different.  There are patterns on that ruler too.  I’m just trying the 9 degree one this time using the pattern from the magazine.  I think it’s pretty awesome.  I’ll probably experiment after I get a couple of these under my belt.  I have fabric picked out to make 4 more.  I’d better get busy.  You can see below what I mean about the directional and large print fabric issues and the quilting I did.
 

 

 

Almost Done

I started a 3-block project on Monday with a deadline of Friday. Really had my doubts I'd get done. The first block on Monday was a cougar paw print in gold and green to represent our local elementary school (not Carol's design); Tuesday's block was to represent my organization so it has our patch in a star (Carol's design) made with Army fabrics. Today's block was to represent the school district -- it's a 5-pointed star with an apple cut out of the corner (both Carol's patterns). My goal was to get it together and quilted today and I am happy to say I am right on schedule. I put it together with some plain blue fabric that seemed to set off all the blocks and I quilted it with a simple heart design.  I added the binding and Friday I presented it to the Principal of our local elementary school to commemorate our re-signing our partnership agreement. She loved it, as did the superintendent.  My organization provides tutors, mentors, readers and special environmental programs for the elementary classes. It's tons of fun for everyone. Feeling good that I am back to sewing.

Getting back to sewing

My favorite online quilting group started a Block of the Month Mystery in May. I was keeping up pretty well until I had a knee replacement and then I got behind. I am finally able to sew again after 5 weeks and this weekend I was able to get completely caught up to September. Normally I would wait until the end, but I am really happy with the blocks so far, so I thought I would share them here.  I got behind again and at the end of December, I made the October and November blocks and hope to get December done before January's is posted.  I'll just keep posting them here so they are all in one blog entry.  When the mystery is solved and I know how these all go together, I'll post that in a new entry.

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

Farewell Gift

The commander of the U.S. Army Environmental Command is leaving and he always complimented me on the quilts in my cubicle at work or that I've made for my coworkers so I wanted to make a quilt for him before he left. Since he is an Army Colonel, I wanted to make it Army themed, but since our jobs are all about the environment, I wanted to include that too. So the front is all Army and the back is the Lorax -- he speaks for the trees. And I quilted it in a pattern for Soldiers that says Respect, Honor and Thank You and includes patriotic pictures like the liberty bell, flag, eagle, and stars. Hope he likes it.

Gettin' things done

I used to have a stack of quilt tops needing quilting. Then my mom gave me my inheritance early in the form of a Gammill long-arm computer-guided quilting machine. Now my stack of tops needing quilting is steadily going down and my stack of quilts that need to be bound is going up. Today I finished 2 quilts that I've had for some time. One is a gift for someone else and one is a gift someone made me. Both just needed quilting and binding. Hopefully I can continue the trend and get both my stacks way down. I love gettin' things done.

My Bluebonnet Tabletopper

My favorite online quilting group celebrated its 6th anniversary / birthday and our leader, Carol Doak, designed a new block to celebrate the occasion. I didn't like the suggested colors and decided to use some bluebonnet fabric I bought last September in my quilt across Texas shop hop. I liked the block so well I decided to use it to make a table topper. It looked great. Then I specially picked a quilting design and it fit perfectly. Then I bound it in dark blue and the final product is my favorite table topper to date.