QuilterGeek

New home

2010-01-22T15:23:00.001-07:00

I've gone all "official" and moved my quilting blog to its own domain name. You can find new posts at QuilterGeek.com!

Another new project

2010-01-12T14:47:00.003-07:00

I really need to learn to work on one project at a time! As much as I love the aforementioned jelly roll colors, I'm not sure I want to make that quilt just yet. Instead, I think I'll be trying my hand at a Night & Day quilt with white and dark turquoise fabrics.

To-do

2010-01-10T12:08:00.005-07:00

Now that I'm almost finished with the Tennessee Waltz quilt, it's time to get a new project or two started up.
The first is a pattern using charm squares I bought from Connecting Threads using their "Impressions of Kyoto" line. I haven't gotten it put into Electric Quilt yet, but I'll be taking "in progress" pictures soon.

The second project is a bit more ambiguous, as I don't have a pattern yet. I spent an hour and a half wandering around the fabric store without any sort of inspiration, until I discovered a few "jelly rolls"* sitting around in a hidden corner of the store. The set is made up of assorted blue and green batik fabrics, so I figure I'll do something scrappy with them, probably along these lines:

I haven't seen a whole lot of good jelly roll patterns on the Internet, so I imagine I'll write up a step-by-step tutorial for this one as I work my way along the pattern.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm newly unemployed, so I've got a lot of spare time for sewing (when I'm not busy updating my resumé and searching for leads). I haven't had a lot of time for quilting as of late since I've been busy with life in World of Warcraft, but now I'll have plenty of time to catch up on the projects I've been hoping to start for a while.

A quilt for Dad

2010-01-10T12:04:00.002-07:00

I've been working on a "Tennesee Waltz" quilt for my Dad, and I'd been feeling rather unmotivated to work on it after assembling all the blocks. Luckily, this one stayed out of the UFO pile this week: I lost my job and decided to use my spare time to visit my parents in Washington state. What an opportunity to spare myself the dangers of shipping a quilt across the country! I got my butt in gear and the quilt is nearly finished; all that's left is putting on the binding, which I think I will do today.

Edit: all finished, and I think it turned out well!

Work in progress

2009-11-21T11:27:00.001-07:00

Tennessee Waltz: work in progress

2009-11-12T18:27:00.002-07:00

I'm working on a Tennessee Waltz quilt using Sue Bouchard's Quilt in a Day book, and so far I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.

I love the colors and the fabric, especially since I didn't have to pick them myself! The lovely employees at my LQS saw how lost I was, pointed me towards the batiks (which I've actually never used before), had me pick out one piece that I liked, and helped me coordinate everything else around it. The top fabric, the dark blue with swirly teal bits, was the first one I chose, and I think everything else goes with it very nicely.

My new toy for this project was the Quilt in a Day "Triangle in a Square" ruler set. I've done several projects from this series, all using the same star design, and used flimsy plastic cutouts to trim the star points; having a heavy ruler I can cut around helps a lot! Definitely a good investment, even if I was silly and forgot my half-off coupon when I went to the craft store.

Thus far, I've got all the components for the star blocks ready to go, so now I just need to sew all of the nine-patches together and square them off. Once those are done, I'll be about halfway finished with the top, though probably closer to 3/4 of way done with the piecing time. I'm really excited to be working on it, likely because it's coming along so well, and can't wait to see the finished product.

Next project

2009-11-01T10:59:00.003-07:00

Everybody in my immediate family except my dad has a quilt of their own, so guess what I'm working on?

I'm using navy blue and beige instead of this color scheme, and I think I should have the top done relatively quickly; the pattern is just a bunch of four-patches and half-square triangles.

Viola's Scrap Basket-- blocks

2009-10-08T13:25:00.003-07:00

I finally finished the blocks using my package of 1930's charm squares, and I really like the overall effect (save that lone yellow block in the middle). I've decided to call it "Viola's Scrap Basket" after my great-grandma, who was an amazing and prolific quilter; I figure she would have used a lot of prints like these during her sewing career.

Repro pinwheels

2009-10-03T11:33:00.002-07:00

I finally decided what to do with my reproduction fat quarters. I'm about halfway done with the blocks, and I really like the way it's turning out so far.

A tentative design

2009-08-30T11:22:00.003-07:00

Prior to buying the set of charm squares, I'd considered doing a flying geese quilt and picked up a ruler to do so. Lo and behold, I just remembered that you can make four flying geese at 2" x 4" using a 5.5" square of colored material and a larger square in white. Perfect!
So after a bit of playing around, I think I'm going to do something along these lines, though with more "scrappiness" in the geese. (I was lazy with EQ and only used four colors for the blocks, but I'm going to have far more than that in my packet of fabric.) I tried it without sashing, but the effect was too busy, so I think that I'll be doing 8" blocks with 2" sashing. The finished result should look something like this:

Design process: potential reproduction patterns

2009-08-29T19:10:00.003-07:00

I've been looking at lots of antique quilts and playing with EQ for a bit and I've come up with a few ideas for my 1930s fabrics. Lots of bright fabrics on white backgrounds, and plenty of applique-- which is a pity, because my applique skills are nonexistant and I'm not sure I'd want to practice on this project.
Here are a few ideas, mostly cataloged for my own reference.

I like the colors in this quilt, and the pattern doesn't look too crazy:

Design: Fairly quick and dirty, 9-patch blocks alternated with four-triangle pieces. Blocks would be 6" square, so it'd probably have more blocks than this when finished... assuming I've done the math right and I'd have enough fabric!

Or I could skip the setting triangles altogether and go for the straight "postage stamp" look:

I'm not sure what this pattern's called, but it'd be easy enough to whip up!

My version: I could whack each of the 6" squares in half and trim them to 5.5" finished blocks, I'm sure it'd go quickly.

I really like this block, though I wonder if I'd have enough fabric for it. Maybe if I used two colors in each block, I could make it fairly large?

Unsurprisingly, the final product turns out very busy, even when set off with sashing. Not sure how much I like this.

Simple would be better. And I'm seeing a lot of very simple nine-patch quilts put on point, so I'd have the authenticity going for me. I'd like something with piecing that'll keep me busy for a while, but I suppose something like this would give me a place to practice my machine quilting. (White on white so my mistakes aren't so obvious!)

Finally, inspiration strikes!

2009-08-29T09:43:00.005-07:00

...Well, sort of. I've wanted to do something with 1930's reproduction fabrics for a long time now, and even though I'm still not sure what to do with it, I just ordered a whole bunch of fabric. 50 different 6" charm squares should be headed my way soon!

I know I'd like to do something traditional (obviously), and I'm sort of thinking about bowties set on point, or maybe pinwheels? I need to sit down with EQ and start making some "sketches" to see what I can come up with. I really like this disappearing nine-patch pattern, maybe I'll give that one a shot.
I've got a big quilt using similar fabrics made by my great-grandma (who made something ridiculous like 700 quilts in her lifetime) hanging on the wall of my sewing room. I'm wondering if I can do a bowtie pattern without set-in seams like this and set it on-point, rather than having that staggered sashing that would require even MORE Y-seams!

One down, what next?

2009-08-15T23:18:00.018-07:00

The Morse code quilt is officially bound off and finished! I'll be mailing it off for photography ASAP, and with any luck it'll photograph better with a pro doing it as opposed to my quick shot on the living-room floor.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I do wish the borders were a little bit wider, and the corners aren't terribly straight, plus there's a pucker or two in the backing fabric... but overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Besides, it certainly turned out a lot better than the last secret-message quilt I made, craftsmanship-wise!

I'm not sure what to do for my next project. I'm just not "feeling it" with the basket of FQs I bought lately, but I don't have any inspiration for a new project. None of my quilt books have projects I'd like to do right now, and I don't have the energy to try the paper-pieced Escher quilt I've been thinking about (re-) doing for quite some time now. I spent several hours wandering around the fabric store, and still don't have any grand ideas.
I did fall in love with this kitty-print fabric, though, and I'm sure I'll come up with something out of it. (The striped fabric says "Goldfish <3 tunafish <3 any fish <3" and is absolutely adorable!) Time to go poke around Quilter's Cache and see what I can find!

scrappy pinwheels

2009-08-09T22:35:00.002-07:00

Spent a couple of hours today playing with a couple of FQ's from the bundle I purchased last weekend and came up with this. Not sure what I think of it, but since it's going to be a small top (36" square before borders), I think I might as well assemble the whole thing just to have it done.

Up next

2009-08-08T17:55:00.003-07:00

It never fails: I'm working on one quilt, and already have ideas for two or three of my next projects. Here's what's up the ramp once the morse code quilt is bound off:

I picked up a basket of fat quarters last weekend, and I'll be starting off with a Fun With Bricks pattern from Quiltville. I picked six quarters, 3 blue and 3 brown, for the strip blocks and I'll use some plain beige fabric for the solid blocks.

Also, I picked up Bargello Quilts With a Twist today, and I'd love to make something out of there. Much more complicated than they look! I'm thinking of something like this, but with a red-and-white color scheme.

Crazy cabin quilt blocks

2009-07-31T17:43:00.003-07:00

I dug into my scrap box and tried making a few blocks using a crazy-quilt ruler I picked up a few weeks ago. It's a five-sided shape, and the goal is to add various-sized strips around it, log-cabin-style.
I think I like the effect, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to go ahead and make a whole quilt out of it. Maybe if I added more strips and made 12" blocks instead of these 9" ones, it'd look better? Or maybe if I set it on black sashing?
I'm not entirely sure where to go with it, but I do know that I really like the colors!

Morse code 2: finished top

2009-07-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

The top is finally pieced, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out. It ended up a lot bigger than I'd planned, since I made the decision to space out the horizontal rows, but at least it's very nearly twin-sized now. Unlike my first quilt in this style, it actually lays flat with no puckers, wrinkles, or wonkyness, probably because I used much bigger pieces. Overall, I'm really happy with the way it's turning out.

Starting over

2009-07-11T17:35:00.002-07:00

Well, my second attempt at the morse code quilt ended up failing.
First try, the squares kept falling off the fusible web, which was a bit of a disaster.
Second try, I salvaged the fabric and tried to sew squares together one-by-one; sadly, I neither have the time nor the patience to tackle things that way.
So instead, it's back to strip piecing (a la the first time I made this kind of quilt), and with a new color scheme. Isn't it fun to start things over?

Morse code 2: problems in progress

2009-07-03T12:03:00.002-07:00

I'm quickly becoming very grateful for gridded fusible web; I was able to lay out all of the seemingly-random squares before sewing, making sure that they'd all end up aligned correctly. Unfortunately, I learned the importance of making sure EVERY SINGLE PIECE is solidly fused to the web. Three rows in (out of thirteen), I've got pieces falling off and coming loose!

Luckily, I wrote which color goes on which bit of grid using magic marker, so it's not too difficult to make sure the right bit of fabric ends up back in the correct spot. However, it's quickly becoming tedious to double-check that all of the pieces are in each row before I begin sewing!

Morse code quilt 2

2009-07-01T14:24:00.005-07:00

I think I'm going to make another Morse code quilt, this one (potentially!) for publication. I picked an Albert Einstein quote: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
Translated into quilt form, it should come out something like this:

Approx. finished size (using 2.5" finished squares) before borders should be something around 33" x 65", so if I get creative with the borders, I could probably stretch it out to approximately twin size. Maybe set one border around it, then "Albert" and "Einstein" in vertical strips on each side to widen it out a bit?

I think I'm going to stick to the blue/green color scheme. I picked it because the colors were right next to each other in MS paint, but I really like the effect on a white background.

Next step: counting blocks and figuring out how much fabric to buy! Sounds like a monsoon storm is headed my way, so I can't go out for supplies today, but at least I can be well-prepared for a shopping trip tomorrow.

Double helix quilt

2009-06-30T12:07:00.005-07:00

It's time to work on something geeky again, which means putting aside the quilt-block-of-the-month project I've been working on and starting in on a new pattern of some sort.
This one has been bouncing around in my head for a while now; it's a fairly simple design, with paper-pieced blocks set on point. I don't really like the spacing between the strands, though, and would rather see them staggered a bit. All things considered, though, it's a neat effect that would probably work up fairly quickly.
The gene sequence is completely random right now... I'm halfway tempted to pick a 'real' genome and see if I could color-code that into the quilt as well.

Or maybe with something in the background, like this:

Garden-window shutters

2009-05-03T02:37:00.001-07:00

Back in December, I finished a "stack and whack" pinwheel quilt as a college-graduation gift for my mother. She's been using it almost like a security blanket, and since she's making her first trip overseas this coming week, she's been frantic trying to find a way to fit the whole darn thing into a suitcase.
Luckily, I had about a yard of the original fabric left over, and I spent two days putting this piece together. I was very lucky that the yardage left over was parallel to the selvage, so I was able to get a good set of pattern repeats!

The blocks don't look QUITE as busy in person, but there's still definitely a lot going on. (I've been having a very hard time finding the "right" print for a stack-and-whack, and this pattern didn't quite do it.) Overall, though, I think it's darn good for about two days' work, and the design turned out very different from the original quilt!

Catching up

2009-05-02T14:22:00.004-07:00

Long time, no post! Here's a summary of the quilts I've finished since I blogged last:

"Pineapple Punch," done with part of a fat quarter pack (Moda's "Nest" line) and following instructions from Quiltville.com.

A graduation quilt done for my little sister, using the other half of the aforementioned FQ pack. The pattern is called "Country Gal."

"Don't Stop Believin'," the result of a charm pack and a set of panels. (Another Moda collection, I can't recall the name off the top of my head.) Kind of obnoxious, but I think it's pretty fun!

WoW quilt, part 1

2009-05-02T14:21:00.001-07:00

So I've decided to try my hand at a World of Warcraft quilt, using all of the little icons for skills/items/etc. as the quilt blocks. Since I haven't done appliqué before, I decided to start with something easy and only a few colors.
Block number 1: Mutilate! Original icon:

My block (cut out, yet unsewn):

Not too shabby, if I say so myself! I think that in the end, I'll try to do one icon per class and maybe a few random items (potions, food, etc.) in there, too. I imagine I'll be working on it for a while, one piece at a time, but I think the end result will be very cool!

Quick stripe quilt

2009-05-02T09:37:00.003-07:00

An LJ friend is learning to quilt and was interested in a pattern sort of like this:

So I've taken the basic idea and made it into a beginner-friendly pattern that will end up something like this (black lines indicate seams):

Colors are just for instructional purposes, feel free to change them!

SHOPPING AND CUTTING LIST:

MIDDLE

1/3 yard of blue
cut 4 strips 2.5" wide

1/4 yard of green
cut 3 strips 2.5" wide

1/4 yard purple
cut 1 strip 6.5"

1/4 yard orange
cut 1 strip 4.5" wide

INNER BORDER

1/4 yard red
cut 2 strips 2.5" wide

OUTER BORDER
3/4 yard white
cut 4 strips 6.5" wide

BACKING
2 yards any color
Do not cut!

== MIDDLE ==

Cut each strip in half and then trim so that each are 20.5" long.

To make the "half-green" strips, trim...
two green pieces to 12.5"
two blue pieces to 8.5"
Stitch end-to-end.

Stitch the rows in order (like in the trip around the world) as follows:

blue
green
purple
blue
half-green (blue on left side)
blue
orange
half-green (blue on right side)
blue
purple
blue

Press that piece flat so that all seams point in the same direction.

== INNER BORDER ==

From the red, cut two strips (44" long) that are 2.5" wide.

Stitch one piece to each of the long sides of the center-- there will be a lot of extra, trim it off.

Now stitch the remaining pieces of red to the short sides of the piece, making a full border around the middle.

== OUTER BORDER ==

From the white, cut four strips (44" long) that are 6.5" wide.

You'll be making outer border in the same way as the red one, but "backwards."

Start by sewing a strip to each of the short sides from edge to edge. Trim off the extra.

Take the two "extra" pieces and attach one to the end of each remaining strip.

Now stitch each of these strips to the long sides of the piece.

Voila! You're done!

Pinwheels of Doom

2008-12-12T13:38:00.001-07:00

My first attempt at a "stack and whack" pattern. I'm still not sure what I think about the color scheme, but it's a neat pattern, and I'd like to try another one soon.

Baby Blocks

2008-12-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yeesh, it's been a long time since I've posted anything! I got myself caught up in some fairly hardcore raiding in WoW, but I took a break fairly recently and now I have time to sew again.

I finished this project about two months ago for a co-worker who gave birth to her first kid. I took the new mom shopping for fabric, and she found three reproduction prints in both pink and blue that she really liked. While I had one design in mind at the quilt store, I ended up doing something *completely* different... funny how that happens sometimes!

The quilt was fairly straightforward to make, especially considering that I made it up as I went along!

Abby's Baby Blocks

Finished size: approx. 35" x 43"

Fabric:

1.5 yards background (white)
.25 yard each of six colors (three blue and three pink)
1.5 yards backing
.5 yard binding

* I used quarter-yard cuts for the blue and pink fabrics, since this was done with strip piecing, but it could be easily done using fat quarters!

Cut:

White:
2 X 2.5" strips
~16 x 1.5" strips
Colors (each):
1 x 2.5" strips
3 x 1.5" strips (2 for blocks, 1 for border)

1. For center/sides, sew two outer and one inner strip together. Press seams to center and cut 2.5" pieces. You'll have 42 pieces with white borders (7 per color) and 7 blocks with white centers and each color on the outside.

2. Chain-piece these against a strip of the outer color. Clip and repeat on the other side. Press seams towards the middle.

3. Lay out blocks and stitch top together one column at a time, leaving connecting threads between rows.

4. For the border, alternate remaining 1.5" strips of colored fabric with 1.5" background strips. Press to one side and cut into 1.5" strips.

5. Stitch this piece to another 1.5" strip on each side. Press seams outward.

6. Attach border to quilt, trimming border and adding corner squares as necessary.

7. Sandwich the quilt and finish (tie, quilt) as desired. I used a non-pre-shrunk cotton batting and stitched a medium-sized meander in white thread. Not only did the quilting go quickly, but the batting's shrinkage after washing gave a neat effect.

New project: Grandmother's Flower Garden

2008-06-28T11:50:00.002-07:00

Now that my morse-code quilt is all finished up and successfully delivered to my little brother (who just happens to be at the FBLA national tournament this weekend and apparently doing really well!), it's time to start another project!
I've still got a few other "side projects" that need to be finished by the end of the summer most likely:
* a wall quilt using a "Daydreams" charm pack for my sister that's almost ready for quilting
* a baby quilt for a boy-- I'm thinking about something with jungle animals and bright colors
* a baby quilt for a baby of yet-unknown gender, though probably a girl, in which case I'll probably go for pastels and butterflies
Thank goodness baby quilts go fast, though! My last one was done over about four days, so as long as I stick with uncomplicated patterns, I'll have no problem.
The BIG new project, though, is for my mom's college graduation gift. After ~25 years, she's been taking classes online to finish up the last few credits she needs and she'll be done at Christmas!! I want to make a really special graduation present, so even though I stand little to no chance of finishing this by Christmas, I plan on doing a king-size bed quilt with this pattern:

It's entirely paper-pieced, which I can do reasonably well, but there are about 4,000 pieces involved (28 yards of fabric for the top alone!) and it's going to take a looooooong time. But on the plus side, I can do it in chunks, one color at a time, and it'll probably be done before I know it!

Morse code quilt pattern

2008-05-29T00:23:00.003-07:00

I'll be the first to admit that my morse-code quilt was quite an undertaking, and there are certainly aspects of it that could have turned out better. That being said, it's not nearly as complicated as it looks-- it just takes a bit of planning and a lot of strip-piecing!

For a roughly twin-sized quilt, you'll need:
* ~6 yards background color and binding
* 4 x 1/2 yd pieces in different colors for the "letters"
* ~6 yards for the backing
* batting of your choice
* plenty of graph paper (you can print some out here
* several colored pens/pencils/crayons/etc.
* a Morse code chart

Step 1: figure out your quilt size and message length
- decide on a finished size for your quilt
- subtract the width of your borders all around; for a 4" border, subtract 8" from the width and length
- divide the length by 2 (for 2" blocks) and the width by 3 (for 2" blocks plus 1" sashing)
- multiply those numbers to determine the number of squares in your "grid"

So for a twin quilt with 4" borders:
63 x 87 - (8 x 8) = 55 x 71
divide length by 2 = 36 (rounding up)
divide width by 3 = 24 (ditto)
36 x 24 2" blocks with 1" lengthwise sashing = 864 squares

To figure out how many letters you'll have, we're going to assume that one letter takes up about 6 spaces, using one square for a dot, three for a dash, and one square space between them. Divide your total grid size by 6 to get a rough estimate of how many letters you can use-- in my example, you might get around 144 characters.

Step 2: compose your message
- start scratching out your secret message and counting the characters, including spaces. You might want to try a few versions of differing lengths, just in case.
- convert the text into code, either by hand or with an online translator

Step3: get the message to fit
Prepare for some trial and error here! This part took the longest of any of the planning steps.
- grab your graph paper and mark out an area that matches what your quilt top will contain.
- start marking out your message on the graph paper, using the morse code chart as a reference. Use one space between characters, and three between words (if you like).
- rather than just shading in squares, start by writing the letter inside each square.
- mark each letter with a different color. Not only does it make things more colorful, but it helps to distinguish characters when they "break" to a new line in the quilt.

You should end up with something like this-- keep rearranging things until you have the entire grid filled, which may take a while!

This will be your piecing reference, so you may want to enlarge it. I found white tagboard with an "invisible" 1" grid at the $1 store, and transferred my final layout in magic marker.

"Secret Messages" morse-code quilt

2008-05-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

My little brother graduates from high school next week, so naturally I made him a quilt. He's a bit of a geek (planning to do computer engineering in college), so I wanted to make him something that's geeky without being so ridiculous that he wouldn't use it. So this quilt has some hidden geek messages in it, you just can't tell at first glance!

It may look like squares and stripes, but if you look at it sideways, it actually spells out messages in Morse code:
Remember all semicolons
Document as you go
Do (Mt.) Dew, not drugs
Change passwords and underwear often
Fight for great justice

Additionally, if you read the width of the pieces i(1 3 4 1 3 5 4 1 3 4 3 1) on the border as degrees of a Cm musical scale, you get the main riff to "Smoke on the Water." (My little brother plays bass in a rock band.)

It was a fun quilt to make, but had a LOT of pieces... so let's just say that the top isn't quite as rectangular as it should be. I think it turned out okay, though, and it was certainly fun to make :)

Pink Rings

2008-03-01T22:27:00.002-07:00

I put this one together in Electric Quilt a while ago, and I'd like to get around to it someday-- who knows when that's going to be, right? I like the way it seems to have circles in it, thanks to the long diamonds in the sashing blocks. It'd probably be easier to do with a simpler nine-patch block, but I do like the way it looks as-is!

Baby Bargello*

2008-02-27T23:03:00.004-07:00

One of the managers at my office is expecting kid #3 in a few weeks, so I put this together last weekend-- literally! I got the fabric at about 8:00 on Friday and washed it that night, then started sewing at 11 on Saturday and had the top assembled by about 4:00. Trimming, sandwiching, and quilting took a few hours on Sunday, so this one definitely came together in less than 10 hours.

Good things:
• I've never done the tube-piecing method, and I was surprised by how easy it really was. Normally, I have a hard time getting my seams to match up (don't we all!), but I was surprised that so many of the block corners ended up dead-on!
• I really like the color scheme for this, which is kind of surprising since I tend to use much brighter colors. I've gotten lots better at coordinating colors and prints since I made my first quilt several years ago.
• This top lies much flatter than any other one I've done! I used fusible batting and actually blocked the damp top directly to it with my steam iron, then marked off the edges so the corners were square and trimmed it so it was even. Success: no wrinkly edges!!

Things to work on:
• My free-motion speed is still a bit uneven, especially in my first ten minutes of sewing or so. The tension on the back is a bit off in a few spots, so I have to remember to take it slow and steady!
• I tried using single-fold binding (I usually make double-fold), and I had a very hard time getting the corners to miter correctly. I sewed the binding to the front and folded it back, but I suspect it'd work better if I tried it the opposite way.

Overall, I really like the pattern, and I think it turned out very well for something that got sewn up so fast!

--
*Yeah, I didn't notice how weird that name sounds until now. Unfortunately, I'm downright terrible at naming quilts, so this will have to stand.

Strip Twist

2008-02-21T20:40:00.003-07:00

Since I've got tons of brightly-colored scraps sitting around, I tried the strip twist pattern at quiltville with dizzying results! I think is looks crazy, but in an organized way, and it looks very happy.

I think I did a pretty good job on the binding for this quilt; rather than tacking it to the back by hand, I finished it with a zig-zag in extra-fine invisible nylon thread. The corners aren't the best, but I figure that's okay in the big picture. If Amish quilters can have one deliberate flaw in their quilts (since only God is perfect, so we shouldn't bother trying), I figure that wonky corners aren't all that bad :)

Baby Quilt #1

2008-02-15T22:54:00.002-07:00

I've recently discovered that two of my friends will be having babies in October, which means I get the fun job of making baby quilts! This is a sketch of the one that will be for the lady I work with, though she doesn't know what colors (beyond "pastels" she wants). This is a fun and easy pattern, and I'm sure I'll have lots of fun with it!

EDIT: sadly, this project will be put on hold for a while :(

How to make a Tetris Quilt

2008-02-09T18:33:00.007-07:00

Want to make your own Tetris quilt? I'm working on a "fancy" version of the pattern in PDF, but until then, here are the basics :)

Materials:
I hope you have a big stash, access to lots of FQs, and/or very patient cutting-table ladies at your local quilt shop, because you're going to need a LOT of different pieces of fabric! You'll need sets of fabric in red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, green, and purple; for each color, get one quarter-yards each (FQ or yardage, either one works) in five gradiating shades. Small prints work best, though larger tone-on-tone patterns are fine if that's all you can find.

If you have difficulty finding enough pieces at once, break your fabric shopping and sewing into separate sessions. I ended up working on these blocks one color at a time, as fabric discoveries (and the cash to purchase them) permitted.
With so many fabrics to deal with, I found it was helpful to glue a scrap of each to a piece of tagboard and mark the color number with a sharpie.

Block Construction:
In order to get the 3-d effect, each 4" colored block is made as a nine-patch with the five different colors; for reference, 1 is the lightest, and 5 is the darkest.
For one block, you'll need the following:
Color 1, 2, 4, and 5: one strip, 2.5" x 1.5"; one 2" square, cut across the diagonal
Color 3: one 2.5" square
You will also need a stack of 4.5" squares in a black tone-on-tone print.

Color Counts
For this layout, make:
12 red
20 orange
18 yellow
18 green
18 light blue
12 dark blue
13 blue
39 non-pieced black

1. Assemble the cornerstones:
for each block, you'll need:
1 and 4
1 and 2
5 and 4
5 and 2

If you need more than one block of a particular color, layer the two squares together, draw down the diagonal with a marker (sharpie is okay, since the ink will be inside the seam allowance) and sew 1/4" from each side of the line.

TIP: use a 4.5" square quilting ruler to trim each block when you're finished sewing and pressing. With so many small blocks, it's important that everything be square!

2. Assemble each row:
Following the diagram above, attach one corner to each side of the middle strip for the top and bottom rows. The middle segment can be speed-pieced with two 1.5" strips and one 2.5" strip, which is then cut into 2.5" slices.

3. Assemble three rows into one block, pressing seams towards the center.

Top Construction

Following the layout above, assemble the top, chain-piecing the first two columns of each row together without clipping the threads, Do this for each column, and then fold the rows together to finish the horizontal seams. Having the blocks connected helps to line up all of the seams!

For this top, I finished with long-horizontal grey borders measuring 2" wide, a 6" border of small, multicolored dots on a black background, and another 2" border in bright red to tie all the colors together.

Quilting
An easy way to machine-quilt the top would be to simply stitch in the ditch between each block and outline the borders.
Alternately, you can freehand an all-over pattern in either single-color or variegated thread. A meander pattern would work well, though for my top, I used angles instead of curves for a neat effect.

Finishing
Finish the quilt with a red binding and make sure to add a tag. Congratulations! Now you can play too much Tetris, dream about it, and have it decorate your bed, too!

If you make one of these on your own, I'd love to see it! Send me a pic, and I can start a gaming-quilt gallery! :)

Tetris Quilt

2008-01-14T18:49:00.001-07:00

It's finally finished, after six months of off-and-on piecing and a year and a half sitting in the closet, waiting for the sandwich to be finished:
"Quiltris," in a "Tetris DS/ Tetris Worlds" color scheme.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. It's far from perfect, but the overall effect is really great, especially with the 3-d shading.

I'm still practicing my machine quilting, but I really like this freehand design. I approached it like a curvy meander, but turned 90-degree angles instead. I was a bit wary of using the variegated thread, since any wonky quilting would show up very clearly on the back fabric, but I really like the way it turned out.

Since the quilt's gotten such a positive response, I'll probably be putting together an instruction sheet in the near future. While I doubt I'd be able to actually publish it, I'd like to share with other geek quilters out there!

Chocobo pixel quilt

2008-01-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

This one has been sitting in my closet for quite a while now, but I'll be picking it up soon. I wanted to do a video-game sprite, but wasn't sure how to manage all the little pieces. The solution: fusible grid! I cut 1" squares that will end up at .5" by the time all of the seams are put together, so the finished project should be small enough for a wallhanging.
At the moment, the rows are sewn together and I still need to trim the seam allowances before the columns are pieced.

EDIT:
After sewing the columns together, I tried to sew the rows, but I think the seam allowances are going to be more than I can handle; for each 1" cut square, I'll have .5" of seam and .5" of block! Next time, I'll do this with 2" fusible grid and end up with 1.5" blocks instead. Maybe it'll be a chocobo, maybe it'll be a Yoshi, who knows?

Diamond Pinwheels

2008-01-13T18:59:00.001-07:00

I had originally planned to donate this to a charity raffle at work, but my sewing machine died the night before the fundraiser and the quilt didn't get finished in time. Fortunately, I got a new machine, finished up the project, and sent it off to a friend.

I finished this one with a wide meander pattern. I used a cotton batting, which shrunk a bit and gave the quilt a very neat texture!

The pattern came from an Eleanor Burns book and came together very quickly. I'd definitely recommend the book and the pattern both!

Stars and Four-Patches

2008-01-12T19:24:00.001-07:00

I started this one a year and a half ago with the intent of donating it to a breast-cancer fundraiser. I pushed myself to try and hand-quilt the entire thing (despite a total lack of hand-quilting experience), only to burn out and put it on the shelf.
A few weeks ago, I pulled it back out and cut out all of the hand-quilting, which covered about half of the thing in (very uneven) stitches. I'll be re-sandwiching it again soon and doing some quick machine quilting, though I'm not sure how complicated of a pattern I'll do.

Dissertation Blues

2008-01-12T19:04:00.002-07:00

I made this lap-sized quilt as a gift for a friend who finished his dissertation last spring. I had lots of random yardage in different blue shades, so I used them to put together a modified log cabin block in two color schemes; I believe this pattern is called "friendship knot," though the block is a lot like a log cabin.

The background was put together with more yardage and scraps. I pieced together a long strip of pieces 22" wide, then cut that into sections and attached them to the sides to make a funky color-block pattern. This was the first time I tried a meander pattern, and I think it turned out very well!

Log cabin star

2008-01-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Yet another quilt made for a friend who defended her dissertation and now works as a professor of sociology in Texas. She asked for subdued colors, since her house is decorated in beige and light green, and I think the light blue and bright red squares work very well.

I ended up doing a fair bit of straight-line quilting on this one; my walking foot certainly got some exercise here! It doesn't show up very well in the original picture, but it adds to the clean lines of the quilt.

Scrap Basket Surprise

2008-01-10T19:10:00.001-07:00

The first of three quilts made for friends' graduation gifts. I needed a way to use up all of the brightly-colored scraps from my Tetris quilt, and this did a good job of it without being overwhelming.

The pattern is Chunky Churndashes from Quiltville, which has lots of great scrap patterns!

Anniversary gift

2008-01-09T19:18:00.001-07:00

I put together this small gift as an anniversary present to my parents. I used one FQ of each color, and the finished quilt measured about 24" square. The picture doesn't show it, but it was finished with a chocolate-brown binding.

Bright Boxes

2008-01-08T19:19:00.001-07:00

This was my first foray into the world of paper-piecing, and I think it turned out very well! Having lots of scraps made the fabric-selection process easier than it could have been!

The pattern, "stacked boxes," came from eQuilt Patterns. I really like the site because you can buy PDF files of the patterns and print them straight onto foundation paper, which makes the piecing go much faster!

Irish Chain

2008-01-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

This was my first project after leaving for graduate school. With my then-fiancé (now-husband) a thousand miles away while he finished his BS, I had plenty of spare time to occupy myself behind the sewing machine!