Friday Finishes

     I made myself put up the display stand and photo two quilt finishes- the butterfly top, the denim quilted. I decided on the butterfly borders and now need to find a backing and figure out how to quilt it.

     I love everything about denim. This pattern prevents bulky seams and it quilted like a dream. I want to make a larger version. The denim really shows off quilting, and consequently, all my wobbles.

Back

Details, love how denim shows the patterns

Details, back

2 on the wall

     Yes, I have multiple projects going on at a time. Some are stalled, some are percolating in my head, and some are awaiting decisions. Two on the wall right now need some direction.
      The first one is a unexpected and glorious gift from a friend. She heard me say how much I would like to do a butterfly quilt. Her sister does embroidery that my friend turns into quilts. She gifted me with a large panel with gorgeous butterflies. I want to surround it with blocks and turn it into a twin size quilt. I thought maybe a lattice floral block would work, so I tried a few blocks to one side. Have to think about it more and make some more blocks.

     Next, is a project that keeps getting put back in a bag. I love denim. I collect old jeans to cut up. I don't like sewing denim to denim, so I use connector strips. I made some large dresden plates and sewed them to denim. I am trying to determine how to fill in the space between the corners. I thought maybe I would use pieces of denim the height of the corners and use the hand dyed fabric as divider strips. I also would like to add something top and bottom to make this quilt rectangular. So it sits there on the wall, stuck again. My math abilities to figure out sizes is not so great.

Denim Valentines

     It is always a struggle to come up with a unique card for Valentines. I don't silk screen anymore, so I have to figure out something innovative with fabric. I don't fuse either.
     I love denim and collect old jeans to make quilts. I thought of using the seams that don't normally get used in the quilts and I have loads of funky yarn when I made funky scarves. I still make some occasionally, but still have great yarn. I cut the denim and heavyweight interfacing the same size and sewed on a whole handful of yarns with a stepped zig zag on the trusty Singer 401. Never made even a cough or sputter, went through like butter. I did use a jeans needle. Then I used a blindstitch on the edges to hold the denim and interfacing together, no glue. I did use double stick tape on the cardstock. I wish I could have made more, but after 30, I wore out. All are given away, so all I have left is the photo. Super fun.

Mini Project gift

     One of my art teacher friends had a birthday and we had a lovely garden luncheon. Terri loves handmade items. I thought I would use some of my made batik fabric and make coasters (5 x 5 finished). I doubled the batting to make them more substantial. I quilted with variegated thread in a square spiral. All on the 301.
     I am still trying to experiment with denim. I was able to find a small back pocket, cut it out, sew it to card stock and add a lot of edges I trimmed off some batik fabrics going into a quilt. I folded the strips in half, tucked them in the pocket and sewed them down inside the pocket flat. The streamers can go up out of the pocket or down. She loved the card.

Six coasters

All ready to go

Front of birthday card, streamers up

Front of birthday card, streamers down

     Well, it is off to Syracuse tomorrow morning for AQS Quiltweek. Anyone reading going?

Little purse for little lady

     My granddaughter, Jolene, was looking through my cut up denim the other day and found two pockets with some bling. She said, "Grandma Linda, could you make me something?" I could not convince a three year old I am 3D sewing challenged so I said yes. I made her a little purse out of the pockets with a lining (pink of course) and a strap from a seam so it could be a cross body bag. She loved it. She keeps her little stuffed cat in it and kleenex.

Pockets right sides together, sewn

My attempt at a lining

Sewn together

Finished mini purse

Trying to integrate denim

     I love denim, especially used denim. I keep collecting jeans, cutting them up and trying to make quilts without bulky seams. I did make the denim stained glass one and and the denim lily (on display at Campbell Pottery starting next Saturday; it is on one of the slides). This one is using charm packs I got at Houston from Moda, lots of gray Kona Ash and denim. I just finished the quilting on the Nolting. I tried lots of patterns to get my practice level jacked up. I cut the binding out of a striped chambray, but it is not attached yet.

Detail

Detail

Back

Moda Figures mini charm quilt and denim

     The Moda Figures mini charm packs I got at Houston have been sewn into a lap quilt. I also added my favorite- recycled denim. Gray Kona finishes the design. Now to be quilted. I added the funky seam from the jeans just because.

Cupcake anyone?

     My beloved daughter is a Phd Organic chemist who is teaching college chemistry part time and bakes and decorates cakes part time; sometimes on the same day. Professor in labcoat and baker in apron. Well, it is her birthday tomorrow, and of course, I would not bake her a cake. So, I make her a cupcake paper pieced as her Birthday card. I found the free pattern on Craftsy. It comes in 10 and 8". This is an 8". It fit in the mailer easier along with some dark sponge candy. Hopefully, she will remember how much her dad and I love her tomorrow as we cannot be in Meadville. 
    I made my share of errors and used the seam ripper a bunch, but I got it done. I think it is cute in a good way. I know she won't see it here as my family does not read or look at my blog.

Wish would have had more time to add some buttons or beads, but it had to get there

    Also, I added a hand dyed fabric border to the denim quilt and I really like it. Waiting for the longarm to finish it. Maybe another month. What a fun quilt!

Denim again, love denim!

     I found a beautiful denim quilt on Pinterest that was from Alicia on Lucy's Quilts. She generously gave me the pattern. I cut more jeans apart and carefully pieced this together with hand dye fabric cut in 1" strips. I think it looks like stained glass. I had so much fun making this quilt. I just love it. The pattern is sheer brilliance with nesting sizes and nesting seams. I will put a border on it with hand dyed fabric, maybe about 2". It is about 56 x56 now. I just love hand dyed fabric. I don't want to make it. I just want to cut it up and sew it.

    Now, I need to cut up some more jeans. Fortunately, people gave me a bunch. I still want to make some landscape quilts with denim and hand dyed. The logistics are escaping me to get one over 36".

Sewing the units together

Finished but for the border

Modern sixteen patch

     I have been following Sarah Craig's  Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along. I had some 4 patches from making leader and enders. I love denim and had a bunch of it that I reclaimed from donated jeans. I thought I could use the denim and the 16 patch with a white background to make a modern looking 16 patch taking some liberties with Sarah's modern quilt in the post.

Now I need to quilt it, but have to wait for my longarm in March

Working away on different things

    Since I have a lot of projects going on at once, sometimes I just chip away at a variety of them. I needed a birthday card for a very good friend, so I usually make cards in a multiple of 4 because I have to drag so much stuff out. I wish I could take an entire day and make a whole supply of cards. I used batik scraps (always save them, rescue them from others) on a base of heavy interfacing sewing on my Singer 401 with YLI invisible thread, black aurifil in the bobbin. I added some novelty yarn at the edges instead of doing satin stitch zig zags.

     I have been cutting up jeans that some quilt guild friends donated to me. I am making another applique art quilt. I did not want to throw out so much, so it dawned on me that I could cut the pockets out in the shape of stockings. I got some recommendations on sewing them, like using a denim 16 needle, and hammering down the seams. I sewed two just to see if I coud do it. I used the 401, invisible YLI thread, and aurifil in the bobbin. Here are the first two. I don't want to use Christmas trim, but how can I add some things to this to make them extra special?

One side

The other side

 

 

 The landscape quilt in progress. Next step, cut denim out for each numbered template shape and start assembling on the hand dye. I am going to pin them down after applying Liquid Thread like Grace Errea showed on her applique quilts on The Quilt Show episode. They won't stick at this point, but be ironed later. The plastic overlay sheet will help me (hopefully?) position them. Then iron them down, then quilt adding the batting and backing first. Clear as mud?

The freezer paper templates

The plastic sheet line up guide on the hand dye background

The original sketch with values added

        Also, I finished quilting the leader-ender 4 patch quilt from a  previous post. All it needs is the binding. I quilted it with Glide, a USA made polyester thread, that I was dying to try. I bought some from Just Threads at the quilt show in Old Forge. A huge cone for $8.99. It is a little heavier than Isacord, but it is AWESOME quilting with it.

Another top, another idea

    I was able to finish sewing Emma's Star for a comfort quilt top this weekend. I also have done a sketch for another denim quilt like Denim Lily. It is 18 x 36. I have to mark the values in, draw this on clear plastic, trace it on freezer paper yet. I am going to put Hollis' denim idea with Grace Errea's method of using Liquid Thread, which I ordered last week. I just can't do the zig zag denim pieces method and then cut out the seams. I will show my progress, complete with errors as it goes.

Ready for backing and then quilting, 48 x 60

Sketch for new denim quilt, 18 x 36

Further Denim Lily Developments

   I have continued to work on the Denim Lily Quilt that I showed earlier. After sewing it all down with invisible thread, I used a variety of Isacord color thread. I tried using Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin, but it did not work very well. Using a neutral Isacord worked much better. I trimmed all the seams carefully but of course, did cut into the hand dye fabric in a couple of places. I will have to repair that with fusible I suppose. I think I have all the color quilting on there I need or want but will give it a couple of days on the design wall before I add the border or binding. I can add a denim border or just bind it. Not sure. Although I love, love denim, this project was difficult removing freezer paper and the ravels of the denim edges. I think it needs to be rethought on my part if I am to do it again. Once again, I based it on buying Hollis Chatelain's pattern for the instructions, design is my own. Pieced, zig zagged on the 401, quilted on the 301.

Quilt the size of a fat quarter

Denim Lily started

    When I visited Quilting by the Lake Tour Day, I saw a class by Hollis Chatelain, where she sews denim to a multicolor back fabric, quilts it, and then cuts the lines between pieces revealing the multicolor. I asked her if she had a book or video on it, but said I had to buy the pattern. I hate making an existing art pattern, but I bought it because I love denim, multicolor hand dyes, free motion quilting, and landscapes. I read it a number of times, but still am not real clear. I drew my own pattern from one of my photographs, bought some jeans at Amvets, washed and cut them up, and started. After I drew the pattern, I had to trace it in reverse and number the pieces. Then I had to trace it on freezer paper. I made sure instead of using just one color line, I drew hash lines in multiple colors to make sure I could  line up all the pieces. Thanks to a class with Pat Pauly, I was able to know to do that.
   Once the pieces were ironed to freezer paper and cut out, I had to zig zag them together side by side with invisible thread. Then all the pieces had to be zig zagged together. I used my wonderful Singer 401. The next part was awful. I had to take out the paper which of course was sewn in. In the process, a lot of the seams came apart. I would have to do that differently somehow next time. Then, I layered the denim, the multicolor hand dye, the batting and the backing together. She wrote not to spray baste, but I have no fingernails these days and could not do safety pins. So I spray basted. I thought I need to stabilize the piece, so I sewed straight stitch with invisible thread on top, Bottom Line on the bobbin around every edge at least 1/8" away from the raw zig zag edge to every piece. Now, I started to add the quilting lines and realize that I do not have enough colors, so I had to agonize deciding and place an order for some Isacord. I am waiting for the thread to continue. The pictures are my steps up to where I basted it all together. I will take some other pictures as I resume. By then, I will have calmed down from ripping paper and trying to understand the directions.

The Drawing

Reversed drawing with numbers

Pieces cut out and some sewed

Partly assembled

Sections together

Denim together pre-ripping paper