Bed Runner

Ooh, ooh, ooh, a finish! I just haven't had many of those this year. At least it seems like it. I started this quilt way back in July. It's been sitting around for the past few weeks with the binding ready to sew down. I had been saving it for a take-along task, but realized this week that I could just finish it because soon I'll have a couple more take-along projects. (Yes, two other projects close to a finish. I've been a quilting machine during our early winter weather.) So, after a couple of evenings of TV watching and staying cozy while binding, here it is: our bed runner, aka Gently Down the Stream Again, from a pattern by Christina Cameli. I say Again, because it's the third quilt I've made from this pattern. (Can you tell I love it?!)

I have to say that I am more pleased with my fabric selection for this quilt than I have been for any other quilt I have ever made. Everything came together so well. I went to the biggest independent fabric store in my area and challenged myself to do a pull from just that store (in addition to four pieces I had at home.) I stood back about 10 feet from the shelves and pulled whatever I thought might work in my scheme of coral, turquoise/aqua, gold and green. 

This is pretty much the entire pull. I had an aqua print and a light coral at home. I couldn't find a turquoise I liked, but I knew I had two at home. After I got home, I deleted the aqua fat quarter you see on the lower left. I had another darker turquoise in the mix, too, but I rejected it as too dark for the quilt. The thing that thrilled me most was that each of the more complex prints had other colors from the pull in them. My favorite is that aqua paisley. This really just "happened" as these are from a lot of different fabric lines. As you can see my favorite fabrics are tone-on-tone prints, but there was just enough movement in the prints to satisfy me. For the zigzag feature in the design, I chose Kona Bone because it matched our bedspread.

This quilt is built with strip sets, and laying them out to get varied combinations took a lot of space. I ran out of room on my banquet table and had to use my couch, too. Somewhere along the way, I figured out how many combinations of three you can make from 14 fabrics. Let's just say it's A LOT. (I can't find my notes, or I'd tell you)

To keep them all together, I used bobby pins. I had recently needed a couple of bobby pins for my hair. Of course, I had to buy a bunch because that was how they came, but they came in handy for this kind of project. I pulled out a few to keep in my vanity drawer, but the rest became a sewing notion. They are in this nifty little magnetic case. I love how you can make sewing notions out of all kinds of things.

I quilted the quilt sort of as recommended in the pattern, with squiggles in the zigzag area and mostly meanders with a few kinda, sorta flowers in the colorful parts. My rule was no picking out anything unless there was a major tension issue or pleats in the fabric. So there are some wonky stitches, but I don't care because we are wonky people and this is our quilt. Free motion quilting went fast because I could go from one end to the other without stopping except to change a bobbin. (So much to love about this pattern!) I used leftover fabric in strips for the binding, first laying pieces out around the quilt edge to make sure that a particular binding fabric didn't touch the same fabric in the body of the quilt.

Here are some close-ups of the front.

And my initials and date:

I chose to use Kona Bone on the back. Not sure exactly why--maybe a thought that a color would eventually crock onto the bedspread? Probably a ridiculous idea. Oh well. I didn't seem to have that worry when it came to the binding. Anyway, now that it's done, I love the back because it shows the quilting so well. 

Here's the back on the garage:

And some close ups:

So there you have it. But wait, how about some pictures on the bed?

I love how it looks with our green walls--and it's just the pop of color we need. I have some fabric left (there are a lot of cut-off edges as well as some extra triangles), so maybe a throw pillow is in the future--but don't hold your breath waiting.

Here are the stats:

Pattern: Gently Down the Stream by Christina Cameli. The pattern was in a magazine, but I think you can purchase it from her. I made my version longer and narrower.
Fabrics:  A variety (sorry, I'm not good at keeping track of them) plus Kona Bone.

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 

Thread: Superior-- Masterpiece in Granite for piecing; King Tut in White Linen for quilting; Treasure in Old Lace for hand stitching binding.

Binding: 2 1/2 inches cut, double layer, machine sewn to front and hand stitched on back
Size: I forgot to measure (or maybe write down) the size before quilting; 83 1/4 inches by 27 5/8 inches after quilting. I don't plan to wash it until it needs it.

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer Treadle 115 for free motion quilting.

I learned one big thing with this quilt. If it's going to take a long time between start and finish, keep all notes in one good place so you can find them later when you want to write about it. Of course, that doesn't guarantee that I'll know what the notes say, as they are usually a kind of stream of consciousness/problem solving indecipherable scratch. 

We put the quilt on the bed last night. It felt good to have that extra bit of weight at the end of the bed. There is a mysterious elf at our house that often pulls our blankets off the bed--almost always on my side. Hmm. Well, that runner seemed to stay on the bed most of the night, but did slide off sometime in the wee hours. I'm blaming the elf. At least the bed looks pretty during the day.

It seems that no modern blog post would be complete without one of those swirl glamour shots, so here it is!

I'm linking up this week with Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and  Wendy of Wendy's Quilts and More for Peacock Party.

Have a good week. And if you are in the US, have fun preparing for Thanksgiving.

(I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores I'm just documenting what I used or liked.) 

Pink, I Think

As this month began, I was sure the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color was light/medium blue. You see, I had misread Angela's post last month when she said that blue is such a big color that it would take up two months. In my mind I read two consecutive months. So imagine my surprise to find that, no, this month's color is pink. I had planned to make both pink crumbs and pink butterfly parts, so I got right to work. It was a little challenging. I have a lot of old pinks. If you are roughly my age, you know that means dusty pink/mauve. I am so over those pinks. I like clear pinks now. But--and I just figured this out--I don't have many clear pinks because in my most recent quilts, I have cut my yardage so close, I have almost no modern scraps. I will admit that I had thought of buying some "scraps." But I didn't. And now that the blocks are done, they're not so bad. And I'm also thinking that to replenish my scraps with more modern bits, I should purposely buy a smidge more fabric than I need when I buy something new.

Here are my crumbs for the month:

I kept the contrast fairly low again, leaving out pale pinks and really dark ones. Here is one of the blocks with representatives from the other crumb colors.

And, of course, the butterflies. I had more flexibility with these, so lighter colors and clear prints showed up. Those pink and white prints are some of my favorites. As I was laying these out, I realized I could have sewed the upper and lower wings together. I'll catch them up next time the machine is out. I keep hoping for brown to make its appearance as the RSC color so I can stitch up those bodies. (Hint, hint, Angela)

And here they are with reps from the other colors. 

Those little blue wings are a bit lonely, but eventually they'll get their lighter blue partners.

So my July RSC is done! I didn't wait until the last day. Yippee! There is a reason. I wanted to get on to my next project. This one is for our bed. I've meant to make a runner since we painted our room a few years ago. We have green walls about the color of the greens below and a plain ivory bedspread. It needs a little color as well as a bit of extra weight when the weather's cooler (definitely not right now). I went out fabric shopping the other day, and whipped around the store grabbing whatever caught my fancy in the coral, yellow, green and teal ranges. (Unfortunately, my epiphany about buying a little extra did not occur to me until later, so there is low scrap potential from this one.)

I tried to vary the scale, but as usual, I ended up with a lot of smaller, tone-on-tone prints, but I think there's enough variation for what I'm making--Gently Down the Stream by Christina Cameli. I've made two of these before (you can see them here). Two of my fabrics are souvenirs from a trip I took up north a few years ago, and the two darker teals are from one of my grandson's baby quilts. I also bought a piece of Kona Bone for the accent strips. That's a new Kona for me. I needed something just slightly yellower than my usual Snow.

I can't wait to get started. But really I can. I have little kiddies visiting this weekend, so the sewing rooms are now the guest/play rooms. 

Okay, I'll be linking up with Angela at So Scrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. 

I hope you are having fun with projects old and new this month! Catch you later...

Replay Finish

Oh, a finish feels so good! I was very close to finishing this quilt when I posted on Wednesday. I stayed up extra late that night to complete the binding. Now it's been photographed, washed and dried, and photographed again along with it's "fraternal twin." (Just yesterday, I said that I don't often repeat a quilt, and now look what I did.)

Gray day. Sigh. Borrowing the neighbor's fence out of the breeze.

It was fun making this pattern again in a different way. You can read about the first quilt and the progress on this one here, here, here, and here. And I did stick with my plans: making it a little longer and wider so that I could make a symmetrical zigzag edge, and stepping up a bit from just meandering in my quilting. 

For the quilting, I did the same squiggles in the white parts as I did on the first quilt (as suggested in the pattern) and I did some free form flowers on the colorful fabrics based loosely on the suggested quilting design. I had read on someone's blog recently (Sorry, I can't remember who) that when you get into a tight space when quilting, just echo your way out of it. I think my quilting has more echos in it than actual flowers, but that's fine. I meant this as practice, and it was the perfect quilt for it because the fabrics are so busy that the lines don't really show up anyway, especially after washing. I did find that in paying attention to where I was going with the flowers, I didn't pay as much attention to my speed and tended to end up with more uneven and bigger stitches, but again, it's practice. 

If you look closely and enlarge, you can see some of the flowers and echos.

It was fun to try something new for me with the binding. I have never done inside angles--or outside angles bigger than 90 degrees. Looking back through my photos, I see that I've done scallops twice in the past, but other than those, all my bindings have been on straight edges.). I like the effect, but not quite as much as I thought I would. I think I would have liked it more if the scale was smaller, but that would have required smaller triangles (and more inside angles, yikes), and no, I'm not going there. 

I used a new batting (for me) with this quilt: Hobbs 80/20. It does give a different feel to the quilt. (The other quilt has Quilter's Dream White Cotton Select). It has a nice soft drape, and feels a little more spongy than the other quilt. The quilt was just over 50 by 52.75 inches before quilting. It didn't really change after quilting. After machine washing on gentle/cold and machine drying on low, it was 47.5 by 50.5 inches, roughly 5% shrinkage in each direction, which is at the upper end of what the package predicts. I really like using 100% cotton materials, but I think I would use this batting again, especially if I'm working on a quilt that has to fit a particular size bed. (The other quilt had 8% shrinkage by comparison.)

As usual, I pieced this quilt on my Singer Featherweight and FMQ'd it on my Singer 115 treadle. The quilting thread is Superior King Tut Cotton in Papyrus. 

Here's the back:

I used nearly every last scrap of the 1/2 yard cuts I had for the two quilts.

And another close up to show some of the quilting:

And a different view, courtesy of our backyard neighbor's fence: 

And one more picture of the quilts together: 

I took this picture this morning--still gray, and even flurries in the air. Enlarge to get a better sense of the colors.

To recap these quilts, they are from a pattern by Christina Cameli called Gently Down the Stream that I found in Quilter's Newletter Fat Quarter Quilts from fall 2014. The first quilt is like the pattern. The second is more scrappy, and with the zigzag edges. I like both versions of the fabric placements. (You have to look closely to see the difference.) I'm sure I'll make this quilt again. I wonder which version I'll pick--the more controlled diamond-y one or the more scrappy one. We shall see. Someday. (Which version of fabric placement do you like better?) 

I don't really think I named the first one, but I thought of the second as Replay while I was working on it. Now I think of them together as The Fraternal Twins. They'll be joining each other at my favorite quilt-gathering organization to give comfort to others in need of a quilt hug. 

I'm linking up today with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Simply Pieced for TGIFF, and Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for Free Motion Mavericks. Have a great weekend, everyone!

More on Replay

Just a quick one today. I got my Replay quilt all pieced since my last post, and I even used the leftover fabric to piece a wide strip down the back. (I'll show the back when the quilt is all done.) I really tried to use up every last piece of fabric. There are a few extra blocks that I was going to put on the back, but I decided not to. 

This week I'm quilting. I thought I might finish the whole thing, but since I'm doing a kind of fiddly binding, I think next week is more realistic. So far I'm doing the quilting the same way as the first version of this quilt with (wobbly) back and forth lines on the off-white zigzag strips. I will probably meander the rest, although I did make a stylized flower on a practice piece to check my tension today, and it went okay. So maybe...

I'm using Hobbs 80/20 batting this time instead of Quilter's Dream Cotton Select. I like quilting on it so far. I want to compare these two battings for shrinkage before deciding which I might use on a larger quilt. These twin (sort of) quilts seemed to be a good opportunity for that kind of comparison, even though this one is slightly bigger and has a zigzag edge. 

When I'm not quilting, we've been taking some little trips to see the grandkids and to check the status of spring's arrival at Lake Michigan. Here's a sample of what we've seen at the lake.

March 10 (Warren Dunes):

Those aren't the dunes, but frozen waves with sand trapped in them.

Walkin' on water

No open water

March 12 (Warren Dunes)

A bit of open water shows up

March 17 (Grand Haven Lighthouse)

Only a bit of open water. More frozen waves, but not as tall as at Warren Dunes

Okay, that's it for the travelogue. I love the many faces of Lake Michigan, though. 

I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River, for Linky Tuesday, Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday,  and Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. 

Replay

Hmm, I seem to have skipped a week blogging. Oh well. Not much was happening. Except...the weather! It's warmed up!. Well, enough, anyway so that we could go out walking again without a ton of outerwear. And I want you to know that I've taken down anything in and around my house that screams winter, so I expect that the weather will continue to get better for everyone. (You're welcome.) 

I've abandoned my big project for the time being. (It's still in consultation--long distance planning is kind of hard. Sigh.) So I have decided to make another little quilt. I don't usually make more than one quilt of a pattern, at least in recent years. I used to make tiny quilts, and I may have made some duplicates of those, as well as some Trip Around the World quilts. But I had so much fun making my last quilt, that I'm going to make another one. I have plenty of fabric left over, so the overall look will be similar to the first quilt. But it will be a bit wider and longer so that I can make symmetrical zigzag edges. (Okay, now that I've said that, I can't lose my nerve. I haven't done a fancy edge in many years.) And, instead of matching the triangles to make a diamond pattern, I'm going to put them together randomly. The off-white zigzag will still show, but the rest of the fabric will be even more scrappy looking. I've already cut the strips and triangles. Here's a sampling of the layout: 

For the last quilt, I used my long ruler and taped my pattern to it to cut the triangles. This time I bought a 60-degree triangle ruler. Surprisingly, it took me awhile to get comfortable cutting with it. I found myself cutting toward myself at times. Awkward. It also slipped a bit, so I taped some sandpaper to the back. That was much better. I also started out cutting the little points off at the top of the triangle. But I got impatient with that and decided to just leave them be. I'll trim as I sew. I used masking tape to make sure I kept the strips even as I cut. 

And here are the rest of the triangles ready to go on the design wall:

I think they look pretty with part of my florist pottery collection. Before you know it, this quilt will be done. But not this week. Right now I have some grandkiddie cuddling to do.

I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday, Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday, and Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. 

Check back tomorrow for a little throwback breath of spring. 

Flimsy Finish--I think

Whew! It's Friday, and I just finished a flimsy. At least I think I did. I'm still mulling it over. And I'm not crazy about the term flimsy, but I like how it sounds with "finish."

This is the quilt I showed pieces of earlier this week. At that time it looked like triangles put together in diamonds. Now it's more of a zig zag. The quilt pattern is Gently Down the Stream by Christina Cameli from Quilter's Newsletter Fat Quarter Quilts from Fall 2014. 

Washed out picture. The sun was shining until I finished sewing. Then it got dim in the room, so I had to use a flash. Boo!

The instructions with the pattern say to trim off half of the side triangles (diamonds) and make the edges straight. But there is another pattern in the magazine that keeps the jagged edge, and I've also seen a quilt tutorial by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts that I like, and I was seriously considering doing the jagged edge instead. 

Two problems with that idea: First, if I bind the quilt the way it is, the sides are asymmetrical, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. To make it more even, I'd need to add a row of diamonds along one side and another row to either the top or bottom. And that would be tricky because I'd have to strip piece the fabrics in a certain way to keep the fabric patterns going in each pair of triangles. (Hmm... that first problem sounds like three problems to me. Oh, well) Second, when I was doing a final pressing, I realized that all of the diamonds on the right side have the same or similar fabric in them. So much for balanced colors--and I walked by that quilt a million times when it was on the design wall and even looked at it through the "far away" end of binoculars and never noticed until it was sewn. Should have taken a photo and looked in gray scale. Chopping off the sides would help fix that problem somewhat, I guess.

Now this next paragraph is sort of just for me, so I remember what I did if I make a version of this quilt again, but feel free to read if you'd like. I know that pressing seams open is a trend in quilt making now, but I'm kind of old fashioned and am more comfortable pressing seams to one side. I like the "click" of nesting seams when I sew and I think they make my work a little more accurate than it would be if I didn't nest (but not always). When I joined the first two rows of this quilt I thought I had it figured out, but I didn't and matching all those strips was kind of challenging. So when I laid out the next two rows I really worked to figure out how to press my seams. When I did the strip piecing I had ironed all the seams away from the white strip. (You can see those strips here.) I had to change the direction of ironing on some of the triangles when I joined them. Here's what I did to figure it out:

I laid out two rows and numbered the triangles by their positions, 1, 2, 1, 2 in the first row and 3, 4, 3, 4 in the second. Then I messed around with pins and found out the following:

Triangle 1: press toward the white strip
Triangle 2: press away from the white triangle
Triangle 3: press away from the white strip
Triangle 4: press toward the white triangle

When joining triangle 1 to 2, press toward triangle 1; when joining triangle 2 to 1, press toward triangle 2. When joining triangle 3 to 4, press toward triangle 4; when joining triangle 4 to 3, press toward triangle 3. Sounds complicated, but maybe the picture helps.

Sewing worked out pretty well, but I did have to pay close attention to placement of the strips in the triangles. I became close friends with my seam ripper on one row when I chain pieced the wrong edge of the triangles. 

I'll be mulling this top over for a bit to see what I want to do with those edges. I have lots of the fabric left and am thinking of making another more scrappy version without matching fabrics in the pairs of triangles to make the diamonds. Maybe I'll make this quilt as the pattern directs and then make a jagged-edged one for the second quilt and the extra width and length. 

So there you have my finish. Here's one last little thing. I ordered some fabric this week. This is what the package looked like in my mailbox (well, except for the fabric that I took out). 

It was a pretty stuffed envelope, with 8 1/2 yards of fabric, but still. There was no note of apology from the postal service. I have no idea if it happened in transit or by a mail carrier who tried to shove it in my mailbox instead of bringing it to my door. At least the fabric was okay!

I'm linking up this week with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday, and with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

Triangles

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

But my home is so delightful,

And since I've no place to go,

Let me sew, let me sew, let me sew.

Well the sun was shining there when I took the picture on Monday, but it's still messy out and cold, cold, cold. A good day for sewing.      

While I'm waiting for a fabric order for a big project (I found half of what I needed in my local stores, but had to order the rest), I'm working on a sweet little quilt, Gently Down the Stream, by Christina Cameli from Quilter's Newsletter's Fat Quarter Quilts Fall 2014. It's an equilateral triangle quilt--my first, but I'm pretty sure not my last. 

                                                                                                                                  

The strips are all cut and sewn together.

Starting to cut triangles

If it wasn't so cold out, I'd probably go to the store and treat myself to one of those nifty 60-degree triangle templates. But I've figured out how to tape some guides to my ruler to help me cut. 

I don't  know why that picture is rotated, but you get the idea. If you look really closely, you might be able to see faint registration lines on the templates to help me line up the seams on the strips so I cut them the right way.   

Here's what the triangles will look like when sewn together:

       

Fun way to spend a snowy week. I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday and Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. Oh, and Freshly Pieced, too, for WIP Wednesday. (Wasn't sure she be here this week, but she is.)