I'm doing a happy dance today because after two three (!) years, I have a finish: My Lake Michigan Quilt, or as we say in all of our state's ads about things we like, MI Lake Michigan Quilt. I was under the MIstaken (get it?) impression that it took me two years until I looked up my old posts this week and found out that I started it in MId-October 2015. It's as old as one of MI grandsons. I won't put all the links in here of posts along the way, but if you'd like to read them, click on the Lake Michigan quilt label on the right side bar or at the bottom of this post.
I followed the techniques of Karen Eckmeier for making Accidental Landscapes. I've made tiny ones in the past, like this ornament for my daughter and son-in-law. It's maybe about 3 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches.
But when my daughter (MI daughter? Ok, I'll quit now) mentioned that she wanted a wall quilt for her office, I decided to supersize the technique. The new quilt is 30 by 42 inches.
Nearly all the fabrics are scraps. I did buy a piece of Grunge for the back, appropriately when I was on vacation near Lake Michigan. The batting is a leftover piece of Quilter's Dream Cotton Select.
There's no reason that this quilt should have taken as long as it did. It wasn't difficult. Most of the delay was lack of confidence. I built the layers slowly in between other projects. I'd put some strips up on the wall and spend a few days months letting them percolate (marinate? stew?), and then I'd sew them down. I started with the water. After doing a bit of sand, I built the sky up toward the top. Most of the sky is pieced with regular seams rather than layered.
Then I layered the foreground, slowly, slowly.
I like the bits of embroidery that add detail and depth on Accidental Landscapes. I thought it would be a simple task. But I hadn't thought of it that a quilt this size would need larger scale embroidery to be proportionate. That stymied me. Before starting the embroidery I quilted the project with my walking foot. To plan the placement of the beach grass I laid paper strips on the quilt and took a photo to refer to as I stitched.
I started with a few stems of grass
and then gradually built them up until I was satisfied. I used 4 strands of floss for the longest stems, and reduced the bulk to 3 or 2 strands for smaller stems or those closer to the water. I used a modified stem stitch, bringing the needle up closer to the starting point than is common, to make the stitch as thick as possible. I took the quilt with me on several road trips. It was an easy take-along project.
A few weeks ago, when I was Gramma nesting while waiting for our new grandson, I suddenly realized that I was almost done. It was a perfect project to work on at a time when I didn't want to start a new mess. In just a couple of days, I completed the stitching, or at least stopped myself from getting carried away with it.
After we arrived home from cuddling our little grandson (and his big brother who was born right after I started the quilt!), I chose a sandy colored fabric from my stash for the binding.
I took it out for a photo shoot on our garage.
I thought I was truly finished, but then I remembered that I have a wonderful supply of ceramic buttons (by artist Sandra Lance--you can find her work under images online, but I think she has suspended her business for now) that I like to use on art quilts. I found two that looked good among the dunes. (I usually try to use three, but these looked the best.)
Closer
And closer
So now it is truly done.
This quilt will be living at my daughter and son-in-law's house. As I said earlier, it was meant for my daughter's office, but by now she has found something else to fill the space there, and I know her family will enjoy it at home. (And I can visit it, too.) I was almost hoping she didn't want it anymore, but hey, now that I know I can do this, I could make another one for me in less than three years! Maybe in solids?
The best thing I learned from making this quilt is that the technique does work for large scale quilts. Really, all that is needed is a good supply of fabrics to choose from. The embroidery is fun and works very well after quilting, even with building up fairly dense stitches.
Let's look at that finish one more time!
I'm linking up today with crazy mom quilts for Finish it up Friday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.
Happy Quilting and Happy Finishing! And if you live anywhere within driving distance of Lake Michigan, Yea for MI Lake MI!
My calendar says it's winter, the temperatures outside say it's spring--trending toward summer (very strange in my part of the world; we had our bedroom window open last night)--and my quilting life has definitely been autumn this week. But that's okay. I've seen a lot of holiday quilting (looking at you, Lorna, and anyone quilting along with you) and summer quilting (at least for where I live--looking at you again, Lorna). Anyway, I have an autumn quilt finish!!
I started this quilt in late August 2015. I pieced it in just a few weeks but then decided to hand quilt it. It became my travel project, taking much longer than it needed to--and in recent weeks, my evening obsession.
I think I've done about 10 posts on this one in addition to some Instagrams. If you'd like to see the posts, click on the Fall Maple Quilt label on the right sidebar.
This quilt has seen a lot. It's traveled to northern Michigan at least once, maybe two or three times. It's been to daycare at the Grands (for naptime when I didn't fall asleep myself) and on several train trips, one to Colorado. It has a small smudge on the back from one of those train trips and has a tiny repair where I had to patch in a piece of fabric with some fusible web where fabric along a seam started to shred while I was quilting (but with the busy fabric and dense quilting, no one will know it's there except me--and even I have trouble finding it). Most glaring to me is the wonkiness of the quilting in the border. I started out with parallel lines about 1/4 inch apart. By the time I got to the end, the lines were 3/8 inch apart and nowhere near parallel to the edge. But I don't mind. The texture looks fine. And this quilt border represents a triumph for me since I worked on it while I was pretty much incapacitated in other ways with a broken shoulder.
The best thing I learned making this quilt is that if it's too hard to see what you are doing when you're quilting, you can quilt from the backside instead. I did that on all of the blue parts of the quilt. I was using a variegated blue thread (and often poor lighting in hotels or on the train), and quilting from the back just made more sense. This worked because I had already quilted around the leaves and borders so I could see exactly what needed to be filled in.
Here are a few close ups, then I'll give you the details.
Here are the details:
Pattern: From Ruth B. McDowell in her book Piecing Workshop
Technique: Freezer paper piecing, which I learned from Ruth's book, not to be confused with foundation paper piecing
Front Fabrics: All scraps from my stash.
Batting: Mountain Mist polyester
Backing: Moda Bella Solids in Feather
Quilting thread: Blue variegated (#570, Little Prince) Treasure Cotton Hand Quilting thread from Superior Threads; other various colors of random hand quilting threads from my stash
Binding: 1/4 inch batik (cut 2 inches wide) from my stash. I usually use 3/8 inch binding, but I didn't want this one to show much. I thought of using colorful scraps, but decided that I wanted the leaves to stay in the spotlight. My quilt edges are often just a bit ripply even though I really try to keep everything straight. This time I measured my binding each time I turned a corner and made sure that it matched the measurement for the length of the quilt side as determined by the diameter through the center of the quilt. I think I did better, and blocking may take out any irregularity that remains.
Embellishment: 5 ceramic buttons from a collection I bought a few years ago from Sandra Lance, a ceramic artist who was living in Vermont at the time. I love how they blend in with the fabrics but shine like little gems.
Size: 28 1/4 inches by 36 1/2 inches. I don't plan to wash this, so that's the finished size.
I'm looking forward to hanging this quilt next fall. Not that I want that time to come any time soon. I want to enjoy each day until then just as it comes. No wishing time away.
Oh no, I just realized that I have no hand project to work on now. I may need to do something about that. I do have 2 WIPs to finish--my hexies quilt and the ever-with-me Lake Michigan quilt. That lake quilt always gets pushed to the bottom of the WIPs for some reason--maybe it's a confidence problem? It's near the top now. No where else to go! I do have another quilt that's been muddling around in my mind. I suppose I should also call that a WIP because now there are fabric bits scattered all over the guest bed, too. The muddling is not just in my mind anymore. More on that next week.
Have a lovely weekend, no matter what season or pseudo-season you are in right now in this wonderful seasonal mash-up!
I'm linking up this week with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap!
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Now that there's a tinge of color on our burning bushes and crapapple trees, it's time to put up my fall quilt. I made this quilt in February 2013--it seems I always make seasonal quilts at very off times--using a pattern in Ruth B. McDowell's Piecing Workshop. She is one of my favorite quilt artists. I had designed and made quilts using her techniques before, but decided that it would be a good idea to make one directly from her pattern to practice a variety of techniques (Y seams, curved seams, insets, teeny slices, etc). I challenged myself to use only fabrics, batting and thread from my stash. Here's the result:
It's about 24 1/2 by 30 inches, all scraps, with a polyester batting--I think maybe Quilt Light by Mountain Mist. I used very old cotton thread that I've been hoarding for hand quilting. It's Suisse Quilting by the American Thread Company that I bought when I first started quilting many years ago. Sadly, it's no longer made. The back is leftover yardage from another project--nothing special.
But here's the cool part: Last fall my husband and I took a trip to Vermont to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. One day we met a couple in a parking lot while we were getting ready to hike a bit of the Long Trail. They invited us to hike a side trail that we would never have known about to a beautiful little lake. As we were hiking Sandra introduced herself as a ceramic artist and we talked a bit about her work. That night I found her website on the internet and found out that she lived just a little way from the cabin we were staying at. I contacted her about buying some of her work, and she invited us to see her studio. While we were there, she mentioned that she was closing out her line of buttons, and I ended up buying what she had left. Anyway, some of those buttons were just the right color and texture to embellish my quilt, so now my fall quilt has become a memory quilt of our trip and the gracious couple who invited us to see a hidden gem on a hike. I used seven of the buttons on the quilt, and have lots more to use. Lately, I've been making quilts for babies who can't have buttons on them, but I have some quilts started that will be perfect for some embellishment.
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If you are interested in seeing some of Sandra's beautiful work click here. She also has an Etsy site with whimsical ornaments.
