Quilt Basting Tutorial and Comedy of Errors

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Hello!  No quilty pictures unfortunately (too busy basting to get involved with photography, which is why I will likely never be a rich and famous blogger because they have to be excellent photographers too).

I made my quilt sandwich twice.  Once following a dunce-torial of my own devising, the second time following Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial here.

The dunce-torial goes something like this.  Decide that you will "cheat" and use basting spray, but do it outside where the vapours won't kill you and your loved ones.  (Dire warnings on the label advise a well-ventilated area.)  Be busy with other things until just before dusk then sweep off the deck and lay out a sheet to protect the quilt. Get it mostly flat.  Then lay out the quilt backing, spray it so it's sticky, then try to get it mostly flat.  Curse the sticky stuff and the sheet that won't stop wiggling underneath.  Then, carefully, lay out the batting.  Lose your mind when it's the wrong size.  Futilely blame a misfiled package on the shelf at the quilt store, but realize that either way, it doesn't matter.  Don't think about what you will do with the batting at home sized 12" x 104" - presumably when you are a much better, more experienced quilter, legions of possibilities will present themselves.  (It can't be returned due to some regrettable trimming and bits of leaf sticking to it.)  Dash off to a sewing store and hope that they have something suitable.  Buy it, and relish the small victory that it is on sale.  Dash home and rue the fact that it is now dark and a chilly November wind has whistled up.  Turn on the outside light and wish that it cast a better light on the sorry situation.  Lay out the batting, and try to aim the the flaps and flings of the quilt top to catch the wind so that it helps rather than hinders the laying out process.  Carefully smooth it out (see - I learned not to spray it first!).  Now spray it and carefully lay out the top, smoothing and patting as you go.  This is harder than it sounds, wearing a bulky coat and trying to do it in the dark.  Wonder why it seemed easier at your mother's house and assume that it was because she did it and it was summer and vacation time.  Not pitch dark and November.  Get the whole sorry mess (minus the various bits of leaf and pine needle) inside, and inspect it.  Try not to mind when your vision of a perfectly sandwiched quilt poised to be quilted turns out to be a Festival of Wrinkles.  What could have gone wrong?  

Well, I have conducted a quilt sandwich post mortem to find out what went wrong:  everything, but mainly that I began without revisiting some instructions and assuming I could remember the important steps.

Today, I reviewed the excellent tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman here, when I could finally face the sandwich again.  I realized that the key problem was not securing the base layer.  Also, another key problem was deciding that inside wasn't well ventilated enough.  I have decided that it is sufficiently ventilated to do limited spray basting on a very occasional basis.  I followed Elizabeth's method, on the basement floor, adding in some judicious spray basting with supplemental pins to hold the whole thing together.  I am now about to embark on the next step of quilting it together.  I am forcing myself to do a practice sandwich.  I am normally inclined to plunge right in and expect perfection (please hold back your gasps of amazement), so I am forcing myself to be more strategic and learn from the wisdom of others, rather (I hope) than from my own mistakes.  Wish me luck!

PS  In the course of the preparations to begin quilting, I rootled out the manual for the sewing machine, handed down to me by my mother a few years ago when she got her sewing equivalent of the Starship Enterprise.  My hand-me-down is a Janome Memory 7, purchased November 14, 1981.  Inside the front cover it begins by saying, "Dear Customer, You are now the owner of the most advanced sewing machine ever built and we welcome you to a new world of sewing pleasure."   I would also add that this machine weighs approximately 75 lbs and caused my local sewing machine tuner-upper to boggle at its vintage.  We'll see how she fares as we embark together on our voyage to a new world of sewing pleasure.

PPS  I have decided that this blog post needs some pictures, so I have included a couple of nice shots from our visit last night to Upper Canada Village for the Alight the Night festival.  Upper Canada Village is an interactive pioneer museum nearby, down on the St. Lawrence River.  There was a nice sing-along of Christmas carols in the church and we all had a good time with that, as well as the horse drawn wagon ride, and playing in the big field of fresh snow.  All three generations (my family, my parents and my brother's family) all had a wonderful time.

Mod Sampler Quilt Back

Hello!  Happy Thanksgiving!  What a glorious weekend here, just perfect for being outside enjoying the bright blue sky and blazing leaves.

Here's the finished back panel for my Mod Sampler quilt (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman here).  I used some additional blocks that weren't in the front.  The main reason was I didn't read the pattern carefully enough and I thought I would have to make new blocks for the back.  In fact, you just make 30, and use 6 for the back.  I planned the solid panels to go with two fabrics that didn't appear on the front because I was saving them for the back (having not read the instructions closely enough).  So I had to whip up a couple of extra blocks for the back to bring it all together.  That's ok, it's still the same collection of fabric and the back is moodier than the front anyway.  The instructions were quite clear - the fault lies entirely with me and my haste to get going on the project.  I'm sure that's never happened to anyone else before!

Now it's just a matter of basting the sandwich together then taking the plunge and quilting it!  Wish me luck!

By the way, that's a picture of the maple trees in our back yard (still green) and the ash in the neighbour's yard. I love the bright yellow that the ashes turn, and ours in the front yard has lost all its leaves.

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet!

Mod Sampler in Turquoise and Chartreuse

Hello!  I'm making good progress on this quilt, my version of Elizabeth Hartman's Mod Sampler (click here for the pattern).  My mother gave me a package of fat quarters (Rhythm & Blues collection, Red Rooster) to start a quilt.  The patterns are funky, modern flowers and swirls, in turquoise, black, gray and white.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to bring in some bright green, sort of lime/chartreuse.  I needed a bridging fabric then, which turquoise, green and white.  I made a trip to one of my local quilt stores and found just the thing, a lovely floral in a modern line art, and a turquoise-lime polka dot.  I also got some solids (Kona, Peapod and Putty, I think, and maybe Lagoon???) as the pattern said six patterns and six solids.  I had some patterns that read as solids, so I used those in place of some of the solids since there were some patterns that I just couldn't do without.  I chose a white for the sashing.  As you can see, I chose the layout option that has the same block pattern across each row.

This seems to be the point in the quilt where you feel "almost done", sort of like when you paint a room, and feel "almost done" when you have the walls done.  Never mind that you still have the finicky baseboards and trim, putting back all the furniture and rehanging pictures.  I think I am almost at the point of having the walls almost done so you can stand back and think, wow, I like that.  But there's a whole lot left to do that doesn't seem nearly as much fun.  I will have to keep going, though, and get it done because I have  a lot of quilts in my mental queue, and I recklessly promised the husband that I would only have one or two projects on the go at a time.   (I know, I know.  Don't tell me how stupid I was to do that!  It was a rookie mistake.  Kind of like in my stamping life, when I used to think a person could get by (and even do just fine) with only one kind of black ink.  I have learned a valuable lesson about reckless promises though.  Never again!)

I am keen to do the back.  This pattern also has a pieced back, which is quite lovely on the pattern.  I will be doing the back in two of the Kona solids, and a row of sampler blocks.  You make six of each pair of fabrics, but only use five on the front.  I didn't read the pattern properly though in advance (speaking of rookie mistakes) and saved some of my favourite fabrics from the collection for the back.  Which I won't be using if I follow the pattern.  It's my first quilt, so I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to go rogue like that.  We'll see....

Stay tuned!

My first quilted project

Hello!  Welcome to my brand new quilting blog.  I have a stamping blog here, but I wanted a separate blog for my quilting endeavours.  I thought it might be fun to look back on at some time in the future when I have either (a) gotten really good at quilting and want a chuckle about the early days or (b) abandoned the whole thing in frustration and want a reminder about why I quit.

At this point, I am quite smitten with the whole thing.  When I was home this summer for a visit, I went to my mother's quilt guild's quilt show (say that five times fast!) and was so inspired by their work.  I let myself get talked into buying a couple of kits.  Then my mother walked me through the process and the result was my first quilted project, a table runner (see picture below)!  I was hooked.  I came back to Ottawa and have been lurking on quilt blogs, developed a pash for Oh, Fransson! and reserved a ton of quilt books from the library, and have been prowling around on-line and local fabric stores like a woman possessed.  

The downside to all of this is that I have to show some restraint and only have two projects on the go at a time.  (A local quilting store owner boggled at that promise and her tone questioned my sanity at having made it in the first place.)

Here's the table runner I made, using the Divided by 3 pattern by Mountainpeek Creations.

Thank you for stopping by!