sharing space

 

after months of not wanting to work on her quilt whenever i mentioned it, the quilting bug bit and d5 decided she wanted to get to work on it again.

that thrills me. the only problem was her timing. i was hard at work getting some sewing of my own done on the machine across from hers. if she was piecing, it would have been fine. but she was quilting, so the bulk of her quilt would be coming through the harp space and right at me where i was.

at some point, we may have two tables to work on, but for now there just isn't room and our machines are in pretty tight quarters with each other.

i just had to laugh every time it came sliding across my extended quilting table, headed for my piecing work, and roll it to the side out of the way.

really, it was quite fun to be working together at the same time. we could comment to each other on what we were doing or how things were going. i got to show her when my piecing matched up perfectly ... and when it didn't. she'd congratulate me or laugh, as was appropriate. and, like before, she'd periodically bliss out and tell me how much she enjoyed the sewing.

and despite the invasion, i was able to complete my blocks.

i hope this becomes a more regular thing for us.

we'll be working on her binding shortly, and then moving on to her next quilt. she already has ideas for that, and one pattern & fabric pull pairing waiting. so it seems my odds of more companion quilting in tight quarters are pretty high.

the pleasantest thing

this little lady is sewing her first quilt!

d5, youngest of my 5 daughters, has been helping me sew quilts since she could place her pudgy baby hands on mine and push fabric through the machine. now she's nine and ready to do her own quilting.

it all started with this beloved book - the swing by robert louis stevenson, illustrated by julie morstad - which is a beautifully pictured version of this sweet peom. a few years ago, about when she was five, d5 memorized this poem as part of our homeschool curriculum. we always loved how there was a patchwork quilt in one of the illustrations and said someday we should make that very quilt.

a few weeks ago when she was showing interest in quilting, we stopped talking and got planning.

we decided on 8" finished squares to give us a size we liked (48"x64"). i made a little grid to represent the quilt as pictured in the book (6x8), then we identified kona cotton solid colors that we thought best represented the colors in the illustration, picking a color for each square. 

the book quilt almost follows a pattern of every-other-square being a warm, spice brown color, but on some of those squares, the illustrator colored over the brown with a blue. d5 picked kona 1075 cinnamon for her background brown. i thought it was a little deep-toned, but i let her make the final decision. we chose kona 1058 cadet for the blue-grey washed over alternate background squares.

the other squares were a variety of colors that in some cases appeared to be tones of the same color. i let her make the call about which colors she wanted to use for the squares where it was questionable which shade was most accurate. some of the squares were very light, almost white, but we wanted color not white for them, so d5 picked shell for those. (in case you're looking closely and wondering - i don't have color chips for shell, goldfish, or watermelon, which are more colors we used. we used the most current kona color card to pick our colors.) 

there is one square very close to the little girl's skirt in the illustration that is more pink than all the other shell pink squares. we chose kona 143 petal for this one square as a special accent.

then we went shopping.

i meant to do all the maths before we went to the store so i could get the right amounts of yardage for each color, but i didn't get that done ahead of time. i don't mind having more solid colors hanging around, so i opted to get 2 yards of cinnamon (background color), 1 yard cadet (2dnary background and binding) and 1/2 yards of everything else. this was generous sizing as some of the colors only appear 2 or 3 times.

here is our color palette, left to right:

1075 cinnamon (main/background color)

474 goldfish

143 petal

1064 carribean

1846 lemon ice

1483 salmon

1058 cadet

1384 watermelon

1271 shell

we got cutting and stitching on a lovely, lazy, stay-in-jammies kind of weekend afternoon. she'd press the color and i'd cut the squares, then she'd lay them out on a piece of batting on the floor. (my design walls are currently all covered and this is my preferred method when wall space isn't available.)

when only the first 3 squares were laid out, she excitedly exclaimed, "mom, look! it's so beautiful!"

once the cutting was done, the stitching began. i'd pick up a row and then hand her pairs of squares to join, having her chain piece as i snipped them apart for her. after a while she said, "you're doing all the hard work. i'm just stitching." haha! i told her the stitching was the most important at the moment and i sure wished i had someone to cut my fabric or stand next to me and hand me all my pieces when i was sewing quilts. 

i had her sewing on the turtle setting for speed (juki's lowest setting). after a few rows, she asked to speed up. i told her as it was her very first quilt i thought she should continue on the turtle to get used to sewing straight even though she was doing a really good job. she complied for a few more squares and then i could hear the machine working at a faster pace. a few squares in she moved back down to turtle and said in a resigned voice, "sorry i doubted you, mom. you were right. i should have trusted your experience. kids just don't like to be told what to do." 

she was supposed to be backstitching over the seam junctures when sewing the rows together. i like to do this for reinforcement. every now and then she'd forget. one of the times she forgot, she said, "well, that was horrifying. it broke my heart." i have a bit of a perfectionist on my hands here. there was something else i told her to do that she questioned and i told her, "well, ou need to do it if you care about accuracy." her reply, "which i do. if you think i don't, you don't know me very well."

i showed her how to press the seams as we completed each row. conquering seam pressing is more difficult than stitching, and harder for me to be patient about with the learner. but we managed. we pinned rows together and she did a great job sewing those, too. the majority of her points match up perfectly and the others are barely off. (pinning doesn't work any better for me, either.)  i really am impressed how accurate her 1/4" seams turned out. she seems born to quilt.

we had to stop for dinner, but she wanted to push through and finish the whole top. she genuinely enjoyed the stitching. while sewing away she would randomly make exclamations like, "i love sewing!" it was a real joy to work alongside her and watch her develop this new skill.

 

by bedtime, we had a completed quilt top - her very first. she's so happy with it and i'm so happy with her. the way the colors are laid out isn't exactly how i would have placed them if i were choosing for myself, but it is a faithful reproduction of the quilt in the illustration. we love it. it feels like something you'd find in an old farmhouse that your great-grandma made from scraps. we call it "the pleasantest thing" which comes from a line on the same page as the quilt illustration in the book.

backing, quilting, and binding coming up.

and then we have plans for more quilts inspired by the book! there aren't anymore quilts in the pictures, but each page is an absolute delight in color palette and layout, so we've got lots of ideas for a series to represent each illustration. 

i can't think of anything more pleasant to do with this girl.

covid quarantine era quilting

My goodness, the world has certainly turned upside down since I was last in this space. For a lot of people, quarantine in the Covid Era seems to have meant lots of project time and profuse productivity. Not for me. But I have had a few bouts of quilting time over the last few months. Here’s the update on my quilting during Covid so far. 

I finally got myself into gear and unpicked a lot of tension-issue problems on this Étoile de Patisserie quilt for my 2nd daughter. That was a nasty chore that had me avoiding a finish for several months. Once I got the messy stuff removed, I was able to requilt those areas. Soooo much knot burying. Glad that’s behind me!

Then I finally quilted this other Stella Grande quilt called Guys and Dolls. More Aurifil 12wt chunky big stitch machine quilting for this one. 

While my husband spent some time camping with our youngest daughter in early June, I got to spend some quilting time at home with D4. She pieced her first project in a long time - her first baby quilt in a basic 4 square pattern. We enjoyed working in tandem after I rearranged my sewing area to accommodate a second machine.

I was on a quilting roll at this point and got Cheery (Easter) quilt echo quilted around all the boxes. I’d like to add some handquilting to this one, too. 

This Fall Log Cabin quilt also got some quick, zippy straightline quilting In chunky Aurifil 12wt. I chose Brass (top color), of course, because it seems to go with everything. 

My coins quilt, which I’ve named “Collins” after the design inspiration Megan Collins, was a quick and easy quilting finish in modern loops. Oh, I do love this one.

D4 had so much fun working on that baby quilt that we took advantage of a sale at our local shop and got her some more fabric for another baby quilt and a few stash items. I’m happy to see this girl sewing again. She used to be my quilt buddy, always helping me with anything she could do. Her interest waned for a while and her younger sister stepped in as my quilting companion. It’s nice to have her around the sewing room again. 

Once I got quilting, there wasn’t any stopping me. I knocked out a bunch of straightline quilting for my Guys and Dolls Improv quilt, adding my 5th quilt to the Ready To Bind Pile. I used several colors of thread on this quilt, which shows up nicely and makes for interesting effects in person. If you look closely, you can see a thread I laid out on top of the blue and pink squares on the left; same thread, different look depending on the color its with. And on the right you might notice the white thread that shows up clearly on the navy square but basically disappears in the stripes. It worked that way over the whole quilt which adds so much visual interest, I think.

Would you believe that I trimmed all 5 of these quilts in 24 hours? Once I had the cutting mat set on the floor, I just kept at it until these were all trimmed. That was quite satisfying! I think I like batch processing multiple quilts at the same time. 

On to batch binding next. 

I was a very good girl and pushed through all those chores towards several finishes, but that didn’t stop me from starting one more new project. I was inspired by a couple of yellow-and-low-volume-HST projects on IG. I’m making a simple Flying Geese layout for my 4.5” HSTs.

Putting all this together in one place makes it look as if my quarantine time was quite productive after all. That’s not really true when it comes to my quilt life, but I’ll take it. 

some candy striped binding

in 2016, my middle daughter (d3), then 10 years old, wanted to make a christmas quilt. she picked out 12 fat quarters and we planned to make an enlarged version of my six and one half dozen quilt pattern, which i'm calling two dozen, please, because it involves 2 dozen blocks of fabrics. it was her first quilt, and even at 10 she had no problems putting it together. i photographed her making the top so we could create a tutorial for the beginner-friendly pattern.

from the time we purchased the fabrics, she knew it wouldn't get done in time for that first christmas. that was an understanding we came to when she was picking them out. we were getting a jump start for next christmas, and that was fine with everyone.

and while she did get the top completed quite quickly, the rest took a lot longer to complete. like, a few years. we've worked on it sporadically in chunks about every 6-9 months.

here we are 3 years later and she has been begging to not go another christmas without her christmas quilt complete. i've actualy been thinking about it as the christmas season approached. my sewing room was such a wreck for most of october and november that we couldn't even get in there to do any sewing until i had some time to clear off surfaces.

i've had her do almost every single bit of the process: piecing, backing, quilting. now we've finally got the binding made, and she will be handbinding the quilt herself.

the binding was actually part of the hold up for quite a while. we had no idea where the binding fabric we had picked out went! she would pester me every few months to work on the quilt, but i couldn't find the binding.

and, honestly, in seasons when i'm not fitting in much quitling time or if i'm deep into a project of my own, i'm quite selfish about giving time to a kid project that needs monitoring or handholding from me. sad, but true.

a few weeks ago i was fabric shopping and picked out some new binding fabrics for the quilt. i got 4 different stripes in the colors of her quilt top. i figured she could choose one or all of them for a scrappy look. she went scrappy.

and now that we have the binding made and attached to the front, d3 is learning how to handbind! she's actually enjoying the process and is quite content to do it on her own. i've been working on some of my binding right alongside her. usually, we put an audible program on to listen to as we stitch.

i really enjoy this time together and am so pleased with how she's taken to handwork. admittedly, her stitching is not too sightly just yet. that's alright. i think it will get there as she practices. and if she wants to redo it at some future date, that's easy enough to do.

i didn't want this quilt to be perfect - i wanted it to be hers.

she's already got a few other quilts she'd like to make in mind. i hope she gets more independent with the process so i don't slow her down as much next time around!

quicky trick or treat tote

my 8 yr old, d4, decided she was in need of a new trick or treat bag, so we cobbled one together this afternoon. there are bag tutorials aplenty out there, but i chose to just wing it. not necessarily the smartest move, but i find when i'm making something fairly simple - a square with two straps - it can be instructive to figure out the construction myself.

we made a very basic, unlined bag for her to gather her halloween night treasures in. i'm sure some interfacing would have stiffened things up nicely, but we were going for really simple and quick. a lining would have been a bit more professional, too, but again, not absolutely necessary for our purposes.

halfway thru the making process, i remembered there was a pattern for a similar bag that s2 made for his sisters several christmases ago. its in the lovely book "sewing for children" by emma hardy (bn or amazon). that bag was lined (slightly more complicated) and used thick grosgrain ribbons for the handles (easier). if we hadn't already been half done, i would have used that pattern again.

 we started with a fat quarter and 2 jelly roll (2.5" x 42") strips of orange. d4 wanted a bag that hung to her hips, otherwise we could have used shorter strips.

 first we folded the fat quarter in half, wrong sides together, and cut a 12" x 12" square. this size was selected based on eyeballing what we wanted and adding a bit more for seam allowances. i will note that d4 did not think it would hold enough candy, but mom is sure it will hold plenty.

at this point, i remembered to press the fabrics. if we'd wanted a more durable bag, prewashing would have been essential.

 to create a clean line on the top of the bag, we hemmed it. first, mark a 1/2" along the top of the bag on the wrong side of the fabric. we used a hera marker to make a crease. a washable marker or pencil works, too.

 fold the fabric along the line and fingerpress in place.

 then iron smooth.

 fold over and fingerpress again.

 iron smooth once more.

and this is where i should have inserted the straps into the seam allowance of the hem, but forgot to. it worked out fine, but it did involve some seamripping later on.

 i had d4 sew a 1/4" seam using the seam guide foot.

 but i decided we wanted that flap of the hem closed more fully, so i had her do it again at a scant 1/2" seam, putting the stitching right on the edge of the fold. so now it's reinforced and she got some more sewing practice.

 then we folded the body of the bag in half, right sides together, pinned it in a few spots, and made a 1/2" seam along the side and bottom. because we cut the body fabric while it was folded in half, we didn't have a third seam along the other side.

when the body seams are done, turn the bag inside out and press flat.

 to make the straps, fold in half along the length, press flat, and sew with a 1/4" seam. (you can see in the photo that d4 accidentally sewed along the folded side first time around. no worries: sew the correct side and get cozy with the seam ripper.)

once the strap is sewn, turn it inside out. i used a combination of the safetypin and pencil method.

our straps were 42" long, a bit more than we needed. i simply draped them across d4"s shoulder to determine where she wanted the bag to fall, and trimmed there (with a bit more for seam allowance). i think we took off about 8".

 this is when i realized i should have done the straps at the beginning for a cleaner look. to correct my mistake, i simply seamripped a gap where i wanted to place the handles. if you're making a really quick bag you don't intend to keep or use much, and aesthetics aren't a big deal, you can simply attach the handles to the inside of the bag without inserting them into the hem.

but i seamripped where i wanted the handle placed, with a few stitches wiggle room on each side, and inserted the strap end, pinning in place.

 then i sewed over it a few times to secure, and to secure the ends of the hem where i'd seamripped. fortunately, the fabric we were using hid all the sewing pretty well. it blended right in.

then i folded the strap up, away from the bag and sewed close to the top, to help the strap lie flat against the hem, and backtracked to make it a bit more secure.

 not very pretty sewing, but at this point d4 had moved on and i was scrunched up at her little (pink) brother machine, on a very short table, trying to see well enough to backstitch. it came out rather slanted. not that i cared too much. it's her loss for abandoning me!

i attached the straps on the very outside corners of each side of the bag, and made sure to fold them in a u-shape when i sewed the second side of each strap on. this helps the straps lay nicely on the shoulder when wearing them.

if i hadn't been letting an 8 yr old do most of the sewing, and had to deal with various other interruptions, it could have easily been completed in under an hour. as it is, it took more than that. but who's counting?

despite the fact that we did this quickly without lots of the nicer finishing touches like interfacing or lining, d4 is very happy with it and declared "this looks like a bag from the store!" i supose compared to the first tote she made all by herself, with no hemming and christmas fabric, this bag did turn out a bit more professionally.

now all we need do is wait out the week until we can fill it with candy.

fancy stitching

 d1 has taken interest in her puppy park bricks quilt again. after she completed the required hours for her english paper, she moved on to other projects for a while. but recently she decided to get back at it. with the new year, our sunday church services have moved to earlier in the day so that we meet from 8 to 11am. this gives us basically the whole day at home after church as opposed to when we met in the middle of the day (and slept in until it was time to get ready). suddenly we find ourselves with a stretch of time wide open for things like creativity and cooking. sunday is a family day for us, where we don't go anywhere else or participate in outside activities, unless they are extended family gatherings. so we are using some of the time to make stuff together.

 d1 happened to be wearing her fancy "sweet 16" birthday ensemble when she sat down to piece her quilt. i thought it made for an interesting photo op. "why, yes, we sew in our nicest clothes. don't you?" i'm happy her interest in sewing has been renewed. she's even expressed the desire to make dresses. i hope we can find the time to dive into that together. how exciting!

while she was piecing, i was nearby to give advice when needed. i kept my hands busy with block trimming for my arrow check quilt. almost all done with these. and, yes, we do tend to stay in our church clothes all day long. but, no, they are not always as dressy as this particular sunday was. however, we had to take pictures of us sewing while we looked spiffy to balance out the plethora of sewing-in-our-pajamas-and-not-showered photos that grace this space.

whatever you're wearing, happy sewing!

Gee's Bend inspiration

if you've read anything about american quilting and it's recent history, especially the modern quilting movement, you've probably come across the term "gee's bend quilt." i enjoy reading about quilting history almost as much as i enjoy actually making my own quilts, so after coming across the term a few times, i looked into it. i found not only a book for myself, gee's bend: the architecture of the quilt, but a children's picture book, stitchin' and pullin': a gee's bend quilt by patricia mckissack, which follows along as a young "bender" girl describes her journey from baby playing under the quilt frame to making her first quilt. there's quite a bit of african-american history woven into the story. best of all, the young narrator describes how she makes fabric selections for her quilt from scrap clothing and fabrics; every piece has a meaning.

yesterday, the two littlest school girls and i enjoyed exploring the picture book and then looking at photos of some of the real quilts from my grown-up book. today we took that one step further when i had the girls pull scraps for their own mini quilts, built around a theme. getting them to stick to a theme and not just pull fabrics they liked took gentle reminding, but they managed pretty well. they also have a few other themes in mind to explore in the future.

 d4 picked "camping with dad" for her theme. she snuck a lot of "wildflower" prints in, but kept pretty close as i reminded what she was doing. her bits represent:

• the paisley - lots of flowers
• the brown spot - a hole i found that one time, probably a snake hole
• pink oval elements - keeping dad's rules, because this one is in order like all his rules
• burnt orange scroll - dad
• purple flowers - flowers i find and trees; i find lots of flowers
• blue - Jesus because i think of him sometimes when i'm lying in the tent or feel him when we are at the campfire
• brown ditsy floral - dirt
• navy blue solid - the river
• green flannel - grass because it's green and fuzzy
• white spots - marshmallows
• orange - camp fire
• green with circles - trees

she also picked some for pinecones, the tent, hot cocoa, and then started getting one for each person that goes camping with her.

 that prompted her to dig deep in the scraps saying, "where am i in this basket?! i need one for me."

 d3 settled on finding scraps to represent people in her life. if she tries to pick one for each and every relative, it's going to be quite a quilt since her extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins is near 100 people. then again, she's enamored of very tiny pieces, so we'll see.

 as they worked on their gee's bend memory quilts, i worked on my memory book - project life. i'm so far behind! probably even farther behind than i am on quilting. there are just never enough hours in a day or lifetime to do all the things i'd like to.