Assemblying in rows ...

five columns .... ten columns
Next job: ironing the seams!

Slow moving ...

So I've begun assembling the 160 squares that will make up this quilt and it's sloooooow going, partially because at the end of a long day, I am simply shattered and can't seem to find my mojo. Which is a shame because once I have spent even a little while sewing, I feel so much better.

What's also holding me back is that the above looks notably different from the below:

I had originally whizzed through laying out the squares, trying not to over-think it. And I thought I had been really diligent about pinning and taking down. Looking at the photos again, I already noticed a few boo boos.

So this is what I will work on tonight.

Helena the Great, part 1

This quilt is for my older daughter's bestest friend in the whole wide world, Helena. About 2 years ago, I made an Emergency Quilt for her little sister and it only seemed right that Helena should have one too. Her favourite colour is purple, the colour of kings and queens.

I spent two evenings watching telly and breaking in my Accuquilt GO! Baby to cut 180 squares measuring 4,25 inches. Tonight was spent on all fours trying to arrange them in a "meaningful way" ... Initially, I had planned on 10 by 18 squares. But something didn't go according to plan and I ended up with 10 by 16. Which doesn't look as long and narrow as 10 by 18 might have. And the arrangement was relatively pleasing. So here we are. With 160 squares laid out on wadding. I will have to pin them in place. And then I will have to attach them to each other ...

Deadline is 10 April 2012. Rock on ...

Twoo Hoot: First finished top of 2012

To get out of my sewing funk, I went straight to my newest purchase of 3 charm packs of an owl-ey fabric .. all different colours, all different motifs, all the same size.

Usually, I then set about planning and pinning on my design wall to make sure that colour distribution is just so and drive myself crazy in the process. This time, I divided the charms into three piles by value: dark, medium, light and then counted. Drats, some large, some small piles ... so I divvied up the medium and ended up with two similar ones and then paired a light and a dark one each. Making strips of eight charms each, always beginning with light, then dark, then light ... I then attached the strips, one row starting with light, the next with dark. I paid very little attention to which pairs went where, only taking care to not have the same design in the same direction neighbouring each other.

That was way out of my controller comfort zone. But it was fun and fast. Now I am auditioning binding in a bid to avoid looking for backing in my stash ...

Getting out of my sewing funk

Whenever I finish something, I have a head full of ideas and can't seem to choose the right one to pick up and run with so ...

88 ... 8*8=64 and 88-64=24 - and 24/3=8 so 8 wide and 8+3 tall ...
and 2 left over ...

We shall see! twooo hooot!

Progress II

So I spend all evening on the floor with this:


only to turn it over ...

to find that I had scrimped too much ...

and now having to spend more time fixing my cheapskateness ...

Progress

I am very happy with my progress on the Big Zig quilt. With wadding on the way from my favourite quilt shopkeeper, it's time for me to crack on and finish this one:



Now that I decided on the border, there's only the batting to fret about and I might consider a pieced back but am not entirely sure yet. Another thing to ponder is the quilting. I'm not very seasoned at free motion / stippling and zigging along the zigzags may be a good way to accentuate the pattern.

Ok, off to the sewing machine!

Auditioning Borders ...

Given that I never really "plan" a quilt, I oftentimes come to a point where I feel the assembled top is too small. This one's currently 100 X 140 cm which strikes me as a bit twee for a grown man's lap / nap quilt.

I wondered wether I could remedy this by adding borders but that's a bit tricky given the bold pattern. My initial thought was to first add a solid border and then squares the same height as the zigs.


Hm ... not happy with that .... too blocky-bold-weird ... so off to Flickr I went and came across this:


Originally uploaded by Ms Alleycat
Hence the new action plan: Add as many blocks as the dark blue scraps will allow, then add borders similar in style to those shown by the smart Ms Alleycat!

Now off to order wadding!

"Two-Timing"

With two quilts due in April, I find myself going back and forth between projects, which I am quite enjoying. The top one has been in the works for about two years and by the looks of it I took my merry time. It's a simple hand quilt job and perfect for my Stitch'n'Bitch or evenings on the sofa in front of the telly.

The other one is shaping up nicely too ...



I finished auditioning blocks for the bottom two rows (with what is now the bottom row moving up and the other one moving down ...) so the top should be finished by the end of next week. That leaves me time to ponder the quilting. While I would have liked some straight line quilting, I think that will distract from the zig-zag.

Details of stripes and shirts ...

I am making good progress with my big zig quilt and am particularly enarmoured with the stripes here ... I like that they are all going in the same direction, a minor detail, but I like it all the same.

Also, unlike previous projects, I have been diligently cutting to size and ironing as well.

It pays to have a think before you cut!

and in other news, water is wet!

My dad has been dropping hints as big as concrete bolders that he wants a quilt. It's actually really nice to be asked for such a personal and somewhat womanly gift by a definite alpha male. Now, the recipient is a physicist with a distinct taste for the no-frill. He's also very traditional in the sense that he appreciates heirlooms and such. But which pattern?

At first I pondered the Maths quilt pattern. But it's square and my dad is tall, making this a huge monster. Then I was clueless ... and finally I settled on a scrappy zig quilt.

So off I went to audition my blue fabric ...



... and found it all very bland ...



... only to find that I probably had enough of the darker blue solid:



... but then couldn't bring myself to start cutting. I dislike this step of the process, I find it fiddly and tiresome. Also I'm cheap when it comes to blades and that's not really helping either. And my cutting table was stacked mile-high with unfinished projects - see New Year's resolution: more finishes!

This turned out to be a good thing because my fabric selection is just this side of scrappy and I can use Amanda Jean's very nifty Zig Zag quilt without the pesky triangles tutorial. This will save me a lot of time and tediousness and I am quite pleased with myself, seeing how my procrastinating paid off.

That leaves me with so much more time to ponder a title.

Auditioning the backing for a Night on the Tiles

I admit that I have been stalling ... again. The main reason is that I wasn't happy with the backing I had planned earlier.



While it is nice in its simplicity and "drama", I don't think it goes at all with the front or the planned quilting. But I didn't know how to remedy the situation ... that is until I realised that I had well over 5 yards of Victorian-esque cream coloured from an online shopping spree about 18 months ago. And as you can see in the top image, it goes well with the rest of the quilt. I don't mind that it is darker than the front. And I am hoping that a simple backing will show off the hand quilting to (relative) perfection.

Now, will I get it done in time for this year's quilt retreat? I'm not too sure about that!

A bowl of HST: you want process, you get process

It all started out with a stack of charms from Tula Pink's Neptune range, that I didn't really know what to do with. Since I really don't have any other projects planed - ahem - and I saw lots of quilters making lots of lovely HST quilts, I thought I'd just give it a whirl.

And so the process began ... with me wanting the triangles to gradually chance colour from bottom left to top right and thinking at a white stripe, achieved with a change of direction of the triangles, would add a nice break.



... and maybe a red stripe



... nope, didn't like it ... add some blue maybe ...



again, no.



I might even drop the white stripe altogether ...

Oh, the fretting one can do ...

over what was meant to be a quick project! Things have ground to a halt because I realised that my cunning plan for quilting will actually not work with the design.

I meant to free-form doodle a circle around the larger blooms but that will probably look very weird with so little actual background ... so now I'm thinking I might free-form trace the smaller blossoms to accentuate their shape.

All about the process, no?

Process Pledge

I've been noticing these "I've taken the Process Pledge" badges recently and wondered what that was all about. At the same time, I was feeling a bit silly documenting my meagre exploits in my blog for all to see. There are so many quilters out there who are better or more technically adept than me. But I enjoy posting about the process and reliving it as well.

So without further ado:
I, Dorothee, pledge to keep on talking about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.