You may remember my first foray into Fabric Collage/Landscape quilting.  I have realized that I never posted a finished photo.

Winter Sunrise of Bayne's Sound facing south from HMCS Quadra

I am now venturing again into this technique that will definitely get your creative juices flowing. And mine are certainly doing that. I’ve taken a break from the Anniversary Quilt, and decided to start working on “The Quadra Quilt”.

A little history. I am an Officer in the Canadian Navy, in the Cadet Instructors Cadre component. In a nut shell we are specifically trained to work with youth in the Canadian Cadet Program, in my case, the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. One of the aspects of the Cadet experience is attending a Summer Training Centre. I was also a cadet in my youth, and attended HMCS Quadra. I also served for four summers aboard as an Officer.

Okay, now a little history on the making of this quilt. While attending my second or third summer, I wanted to make a quilt about the life at Quadra. I started putting my ideas down on paper, and even played a little with EQ5 (which is what I had at the time).

Quadra Memories Quilt Design in progress

Maybe I’ll go back and work on this project, but I feel my skills are not significant enough to tackle this project.

About a year ago, I started thinking of a quilt for a dear friend of my husband and I. I wanted to make her a quilt to commemorate her service at HMCS Quadra. She also started as a cadet, and served to become Commanding Officer. Her tenure as Commanding Officer is now over.

The design(s).

I originally thought that having T-shirts from the different Trades (courses) would be a very nifty quilt. Wasn’t sure what else I was going to do. I sat with a pad of paper and a pencil, and started to sketch. There were certain elements I knew I wanted:

• An aerial view of HMCS Quadra (fabric collage/landscape technique); one, two, three, four
• Years of service (1980 – 2008)
• The Ships Crest
• Trades (Two Week General Training, Boatswain, Music, Sail, Gunnery, Marine Engineering, Shipwright)
• Quotes/Sayings: “Good Morning, Quadra!”, “I pressed on taking fresh trouble for granted.”

But how to get it all together.

Design Sketch 1

Design Sketch 2

I eventually decided that I could make it “Quadra” like without duplicating (ship’s badge), or using items (trade badges, t-shirts) that are of Quadra. To be honest, I started to realize my skills were going to become a factor, so I started to employ the KISS principle, with the following sketch the final draft (maybe) of the project. There are elements missing, at this point, because one, I do not draw well, and two, they are not needed at this stage in the design.

Design Sketch 3 - possibly final

And now for the process.  I decided I was going to document the process of this quilt. It will incorporate several techniques I have not used, or at least I have very little experience in doing.

My supply/equipment list:

• Fabric – to represent landscape elements/colour
  

  Fabric colour palette to begin with

• Image/photo supplied by Google Earth

• 

  HMCS Quadra from Google Earth

• Ships Crest

HMCS Quadra Ship's Crest

• Glue stick – washable, non-acid
• Toothpicks
• Foundation fabric – muslin
• Scissors
• Damp cloth (for wiping off sticky fingers from the glue)

I cut the foundation piece a little larger than twice the size of the image I printed off. The idea behind fabric collage/landscape is a representation of a photo/image, not an accurate duplication. I found several photos of HMCS Quadra, which were not quite the angles I was looking for. The image I decided to use as a guide was actually from Google Earth. It is a neat application, as you can rotate your view, to get something close to what you want.  I chose to use the blue/green fabric for the water, using creative license… the “green” from the satellite image just does not work well for me.

Then its time to start placing the elements of the design. I started with a large size of fabric to represent the water, and then snipped around the edges so it would not be a straight edge. Then it was time to “shred” the fabric. It is difficult to describe this process… except just cutting the fabric in thin strips, which are angular, jagged. The strips do not have to be very long, somewhere between ½” – 2” is what I was using. We cannot blend fabric like we can with paint; smaller pieces work better to blend the colour of the fabric together.

Fabric before shredding

Shredded Fabric

The pieces are applied to using a bit of glue from the glue stick and the toothpick. To help with shading and blending, I have also used the “wrong” side of the fabric. I have added strips on the large piece of water fabric, to give the area dimension.

Beginning the process

To get a nice blend between the fabrics, I used a door peeper. If something didn’t look right, I’d add another piece, until it did.  At times the lighter blue/green/yellow fabric was just to glaring. When you look at paintings, you do not view it from a few inches away. A peeper allows you to be close to the project, but still view it from a distance.

Taking Shape

Closeup of process

As I progress with this project, I’ll explain the different processes I’ll be doing. I know you are going to ask… “How are you going to hold all those little bits of fabric down”? I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to wait until I get to that part to explain it.

I can’t describe the feelings I have about this project. I am so elated right now, I’ll admit. As I mentioned to the recipient’s husband, the feelings are from several aspects, the reason for the project, the recipient, the Quadra experience, and I think the ability to be creative, and just let it happen.

I’m very happy with my choices so far, and how this piece is coming along. I’ll be posting my progress, can’t promise how often that will be, but be sure to check back, and feel free to leave a comment.

How have you stretched your creative mind, and what was your result?

-Alice

I first introduced the Anniversary Quilt in my post on Colour Value.   I knew that this quilt would come together quickly.  And I knew the challenge for this quilt would be the pieced setting triangles.   With the help and advice of some of my quilting friends online and in person, I worked through the challenge.

The challenge was the bias edges that would be on the edges of the top.  Putting my design on point, caused the setting triangles to have the bias edges on the outside, instead of nicely stitched into the body of the quilt top.   I used foundation (paper) piecing, to piece all the triangles, and used my Easy Angle ruler to cut the angles as needed.  I had very little waste, which I am quite happy about.

As I was piecing the main units, I was starting to wonder if 50 units was going to be too many.  I laid out the blocks I had, on the bed on point.  I left to go get the camera, and was distracted for a moment or two, and when I came back… well this is what I found.

I realized that the blocks were going to be enough… and this is going to be a large quilt!  This past weekend, I was able to devote an entire day to stitching.  I’m scheduled to go back to work next week, and wasn’t sure, when I’d get time to work on it.  Sunday was a very productive day.

Half done!   You would think that I would bring the camera in with me, and take the photo.  I’m sure she knows when I’m taking photos.   Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to work on the other half.  It’s nice to have the time to work on it.  I really didn’t think I would get this much done in so few days.

I wanted to take a photo of the progress, and laid out both halves on the bed to take a photo.  Didn’t know if I’d get more done or not.  As it was, I did.  I really wasn’t sure about the orange/pink, and the background fabrics, but the more I work with this quilt, the more I’m liking it.   I am very fond of the burgundy and the pink (which will be in the second border).

I had to measure the quilt top, to add the first border, and laid it out on my bed to do so.  I also wanted to see how the small border would look.

And no, I didn’t have the camera before Tazzie checked the progress.  I actually went to get the camera and the green border fabric.   The hair on her leg (right hind quarter) is really starting to come back in.

I’m hoping to have the last green border pieces added tonight, then it is off to figure out the pieced border. I had a different experience when measuring the borders.  Typically I measure down the centre of the quilt, then cut the border to that length.  Find the centre of the quilt top, and the border strip, line them up, pin, pin the ends, and ease in as required.  As I was about to pin the border, I noticed there was an excess of 3″ on one end.  I double checked the centre.  Check.  Double checked the length of the border strip.  Check.  Double checked the quilt top. Check.  It just wasn’t matching up.  There was no way I could ease in 3″ of fabric on either end of the quilt.   So I measured the edge of the quilt top.  It is actually smaller than the centre.   I was so concerned with the bias stretching on the edges, and the paper piecing helped stabilize it, that there was some stretch in the centre of the quilt.  I’m hoping that the borders will help ease the fabric back into shape.

I really don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to add a pieced border.  Well, I did, but I’m questioning my motives now!  LOL.  To be honest this quilt did go together quite quickly, so I’m actually not grumbling about the pieced border.

The quilting on the other hand, although I know I’m a ways a way from that, will cause me some grumbling.

-Alice

For about a year now, I’ve been working on a quilt design for my Sister-in-law and her husband for their 25th Wedding Anniversary.  I wanted a design that would have something interlocking and that would evoke the images of longevity, union, joining together, bond, marriage.   None of those terms quite match what I have in my head, but I hope it conveys what I’m trying to envision.   I’m happy to say, I have a design.  That being said, I’m still tweaking it.  Changing colour arrangement and such.

Version I went shopping with.

Last week I was visiting an out-of-town Quilt Shop, looking for fabrics.  I knew I wanted a burgundy (dark red), a medium pink,  a light pink (dusty rose), and a light brown for the background.   I didn’t find anything that jumped out and said “I’m the one you want”.  I was getting rather discouraged, here I was thinking buying the fabric for this particular project would be easy, because I knew what I was looking for.   As I said, I was getting discouraged… their anniversary is 4 months away, and I need to get started on the quilt.

Version with the green added.

You may be thinking “gasp, only 4 months”.    And you will probably gasp again when I mention that it will be a queen size quilt.   Are you still with me?  Take a few deep breaths, you and I will both be okay.  The main design of the quilt top, is fairly easy to put together, and goes together quite quickly.   The borders on the other hand, may give me some headaches.  I’ve only just started piecing my borders, getting away from the “long” borders.

I have been using EQ6 to help with the design, although, when I originally designed the unit (four units required to make the block), I did use graph paper and pencil.    I need to use EQ6 more, so I will be more comfortable with it.  I find it odd, that a computer person such as myself, has not mastered this program yet, and I’ve had it for 2 years!

I had made a lap quilt from the design, and have yet to quilt it, but it worked out well.   I considered doing the same thing, but making a queen size quilt for my Sister-in-law.   But then an idea struck me (carried over from my Fast Scrappy Quilt), what if I put the blocks on point.  And I’m really liking the design now.

Okay, so where am I.  My brain is jumping to “right now”, when I really need to write about what led up to “right now.

Design – check

Fabric – check

Oh.  Okay, I know where I am now.  While getting discouraged about not finding the fabric I want, or at least in the colour way I want, I noticed the shop’s selection of batiks.  Hmmm… the Burgundy works.  Oh, a very pretty pink.   Now for a background… there isn’t anything in the light tan/beige variety, but there is a bolt with the burgundy and pink on it… and it has a bit of dark green, and the main colour of the background is a pale green.  Hmmm… I don’t know… I really want the tan/beige.  Oh, I found some dark green, that really goes with the burgundy and pink.    There isn’t anything else to use for the background.  *frown*.   Okay… if I had this bolt here, which has more orange in it, but it has the same colour as the other colour in the burgundy print.    Hey, I think I’m onto something here.  Not so sure about that background, but as other customers are walking by, they are all commenting on the fabulous colour choices I have.    The pink isn’t going with the background print… but the other two fabric choices are.    The green I’m definitely adding… it’s just adding that little extra zip I was looking for, but didn’t know how to fit in.  Do now, I’m happy to say!  I had mentioned to my daughter who was with me, I wish I had brought my camera, so I could take a black and white, to see if I have enough contrast.

This is my fabric choices.  Look pretty good don’t they?  The fabrics were washed, dried and pressed… ready to be cut.  I really wanted to use that pink, but something wasn’t quite right with it, and the background.  I decided to take some black and whites, and I started having a hunch on what was going on… or wasn’t.   I decided to rule it out, and make two test blocks.  One with the pink, and one with the orange.

Test Blocks - orange vs pink.

Doesn’t the pink and the burgundy blend nicely together.  And the orange and the burgundy.  But what is it with the block on the right?  A quick switch to black and white mode on the camera, and the answer becomes blazingly obvious.

Contrast is an issue here.

That is what my eye was seeing (or not).  The pink and the background fabrics have the same value.   Value can be defined as “in painting and drawing, the lightness or darkness of a colour”.   As much as I wanted to pair the pink and the burgundy, there was no fabric available that was lighter in value than the pink and the background fabric I chose.   When two fabrics have the same value, they can disappear into each other.  This could be the desired effect, but with my design, I need the contrast, to make the pattern evident.    Sometimes I forget to use value, but in some cases, you may not want a lot of contrast.   Just over a year ago, I attended a one-day workshop on colour, and I learned a lot, and I know I still have much to learn.  Our instructor was Ionne McCauley who co-authored the book “Color for the Terrified Quilter” with Sharon Pederson.   It’s a great reference book, it has lessons and projects if you wish to learn more about colour.

Don’t feel to badly for the pink, I have a plan for it… it will be used in the border.  And yes, since I have bought the fabric, I have recoloured the border, trying different colour layouts.

Now its time to start cutting the fabric.   The unit is 10″ finished, and it takes 4 to create the interlocking squares.  (I haven’t come up with a name for this design, so I revert back to what it looks like).  When I made the test blocks I cut all the strips at 2½”.   The unit uses squares and rectangles.  Remember when I mentioned, my mind was in the “right now”… this was the thought I had up there.  I think my design would lend itself quite nicely to those jelly rolls that are out there.  Perhaps have each interlocking square a different colour.   I think that would be a neat design to play with in EQ.  But not right now… I need to share more!

I started thinking, that if I cut all the strips at 2½” that I would need to cut extra strips so I would have an even number of pieces, and to have complete finished units, with out “extras”.  I decided that cutting the fabric to the rectangle length, and then when stitched, I would then cross-cut to the 2½”.  This worked very well with the strip piecing.  And the blocks came together quite quickly.  I was able to make 17 units from the width of fabric (WOF) strip.  My husband was so amazed that I had those units done so quickly.   I have 32 more to do, and then I need to tackle the corner and side triangles.   The nice thing about EQ, it gives cutting instructions, to help make it easier.  We’ll see how that goes!

Here are the 18 blocks I have thus far.

The first set of blocks

The background fabric is really growing on me… and I know that I’ll be using that very pretty pink in the borders.  And the green is just going to make everything pop!  My focus for the next several months will be this quilt.  I have no idea how I am going to quilt it… I’ll wait until the top is done.

I mentioned the workshop on Colour, it was that workshop that I truly learned the value of my camera.    When working on bargello quilts, where a colour way from light to dark is required, the black and white feature on your camera is invaluable.   My West Coast Sunset bargello, the value of my fabrics didn’t quite match the pattern, I changed two of them, and it worked out much better.  I’m glad I found that out, before I started cutting, I don’t think I would have been very happy.

On your next quilt project, if you really want the design to be noticed, check out the contrast between your fabrics.   Take a black and white of your fabrics.  Arrange the fabrics how they would be in your project.   I’m sure you’ll be amazed with your results.  I’d like to hear about your experiences using colour value in your projects.

-Alice

I was visiting one blog, which lead me to another, which lead me to another… don’t you love it when that happens.  You never know where you’ll end up, and there is so much inspiration, creativity and talent out there.

Well Thearica at PigTale & Quilts is having a Give-away.  Now this is the first time I have posted about another’s give-away… but I really like the reason behind hers.  Her daughter is celebrating her 30th birthday, and Thearica is giving away 30 FQs.   Check out her blog entry for all the details.

She has had lots of comments already, but you just never know… what would you do with 30 FQs?

-Alice

I was visiting with a quilter who is new to our area.  We got to talking about this and that, and I mentioned the Shiva Art Paintstiks.  She said she had some, but didn’t know what to do with them.   I told her about my Stencilling and Painting workshop that I attended.  We both decided that we would like to pursue using the paintstiks.

While visiting at another Quilter’s a few day’s later, the topic of the paintstiks came up, and it was decided the three of us would set a date, and we would spend it playing.   What a day we had!

Nina brought some hand-dyes she didn’t much like.  With a few stencils, and home-made rubbing plates, she made some very pretty pieces.

I forgot my camera, so wasn’t able to take photos!  I was going to bring it, but didn’t have it ready to go, and completely forgot about it, when it was time to leave for the play date.

Shawn got very creative with the paints and the rubbing plates.

It was hard at first, just “letting” go, and allowing oneself to “play”.    Once I got used to the idea, of just trying this or that, without having an end in mind, it was much easier.  The day was meant to see what the paints could do, and what we could do with them.

I took three Fat Quarters with me – a yellow tonal, a blue tonal and a pink tonal.

I started with the yellow fabric.

I used one of the rubbing sheets that was in the package with the paintstiks when I bought it.  I learned several things on this day.  The first… be sure to press your fabric before painting, because you cannot do it until much later after the paint dries which could be up to 7 days, depending on how heavy it is applies.

I used the yellow iridescent paintstick first.  I rubbed the paintstick across the fabric which was on the rubbing plate.  I liked the definition it added to the fabric.  I then used the orange iridescent paintstik.  I used a stencil brush before I did the rubbing, and I liked the way it softened things.

I did the same thing with the red… except for the last rubbing on the right.  I didn’t like the way the red turned out.  The last piece I rubbed and then used the stencil brush, and I like the definition of the way it turned out.  (Or I have this completely backwards, and I rubbed and then stenciled on the orange and the first 2 red).

The next piece of fabric I played with was the blue.

Three of these techniques are rubbings, and one is painting.  The top one is using a rubbing plate.  I tried to stencil a small dog over it, but I think waiting until the first layer dried (which takes 24 hours), would have been best, or a larger stencil.

The second technique is using a ripped piece of pressboard (cereal box).  It is then moved along, and different colours of paint are applied, to get an overlapping soft effect.  I quite like this effect, and will probably use it on a larger piece of fabric to add dimension to it.

The third (orange, yellow red) paint, is using a home-made rubbing plate.  Nina had provided a few.  This particular one was made with craft foam.  It reminded me of tiger stripes, so I played with several colours to see what I would get.

The last one is another home-made rubbing plate.  It is craft sticks (match sticks) glued onto a piece of bristol board.  I used two shades of green for a different effect.

The last piece of fabric, the pink one… I really experimented on.

One of the neat rubbings we discovered was decking samples.   A small piece of wood, painted with deck paint.  It gave a really neat effect.  Not so much on my pink piece, the paintstik had begun to dry over, so I ended up with little knobbies of paint.  I also tried one of the decorative leaves I had brought (the brown smudge on the upper left).  The leaf did not have enough dimension to rub through.  I then tried a colour experiment.  The centre and right rubbings on the top are of the same rubbing plate, but with two different colours of pink paintstik.   In real light, they look like a brown and a beige.  I then used a plastic stencil and stenciled the meandering flower over top.

The middle section was a lot of fun.  You may need to click on the photo to see the detail of the rubbing.  This was made from an 8″ piece of cording.  I taped either end, and laid it down.  Rubbed with one of three blue paints or a white.  I would then lift an end of the cording, and rearrange it.  I think this would be a really neat look with a longer piece of cording and a larger piece of fabric to work with.

The last third of the fabric was more playing.  The yellow dots were from a piece of embellishment that had rhinestones.  I turned it over to see if I could get some of the detail, but all I got was dots from both sides.  It seems that I have chopped off some of the photo, well it was chopped off at time of the photo, not the editing after.

I used an orange and rubbed over a chain.  It didn’t really show up too well.  The “brown” shape just under the blue is the rubbing of the chain.  The chain kept moving under the fabric as I rubbed, so some of the detail is smudged.

The lower right hand corner is a rubbing of fern leaves.  I added some red and yellow to highlight the spines of the leaves.  This was an experiment to use several colours to bring out an image.

Now I have to wait several days to use the fabric.  After the first 24 hours, the fabric is dry to touch, but the paint requires anywhere from 3 to 7 days to cure (depending on the thickness of the paint).   Then it requires heat setting.  To do this, I will use a Press cloth, and just press with a dry iron.  Then it will be ready to be used in some project or other.  Maybe I’ll just sandwich it, and use it for quilting practice!  *Grin*

If you have a piece of fabric that just isn’t doing it for you anymore, why not play a little with the Shiva Art Paintstiks and add some dimension to it.   Before you apply paint to a finished project, or to a piece of fabric you want to use in a project, play and test it first with your rubbings.  I also suggest try your rubbings with paper and pencil.   If I had used that theory, I wouldn’t have ended up with a brown smudge on my fabric…. but that’s okay… I was learning and playing.

I have since visited one of our discount stores and have stocked up on all sorts of things to create rubbings and/or stencils with.  My goal is to create a useable piece of fabric and to use it in a project!

My challenge to you, is to try using a different medium on a project or fabric, and see if you like the results.   Take the time to play… let every thought escape, and just do it!

-Alice

As you can tell from the previous posts, I am using my Fast Scrappy Quilt as a learning process. Well, why not, I am all about learning.

I have decided to piece one of the borders. To make a flying geese border in fact.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are many ways to make flying geese. I have used rectangle and 2 squares technique.   I also did another little thing. I’m making ½ square triangles in the process… who knows… it could become a “free quilt”.

Are you intrigued? Okay… this blog will be more of a photo blog.

Many books and quilters will mark a line from corner to corner on the squares.  I chose to press, and use that line to stitch on.  If you find it difficult to see the crease while stitching, I recommend marking.

Here are a number of the squares pressed in half.

Some people will pin.  I haven’t.  You can just make out the creases or stitch line.

Here I am stitching along the crease/fold.  I also chain piece.  I like to piece from the outside corner to the centre edge.   I do about 6 before I snip them off to cut and press.  Coming up, I’ll explain why I only do a small amount.

Now to trim off the unnecessary parts.  I line the 1/4″ mark of my ruler along the stitch line, and trim off.

When you are making  flying geese, you will get a lot of unneccessary bits.  Keep reading to find my solution to all these bits.

In making flying geese using the rectangle and 2 squares technique, you always end up with 4 triangle pieces left over. In some cases they are quite small to try and stitch together. Well, I wasn’t about to toss them out.  I can’t remember when or even where, I read about this.  Instead of just trimming off those extra bits, and having them sit around, add another seam 1/2″ away from the first, to create a pre-stitched half square triangle.  I estimated where the 1/2″ was.  It does need to be 1/2″, as you will cut 1/4″ away from the stitching line to cut 1/4″ seams on both your flying geese piece and the half square triangle piece.   Free pieces for making a free quilt.

You can premark both stitching lines.  After marking one to demonstrate, I’m thinking this would be faster than pressing 400+ squares for the flying geese.

These pieces have the double stitched seams.

I’ve aligned the 1/4″ mark on the long stitch line, and cut.   Admittedly not all my half square triangles have perfect 1/4″ seams, as I have “eyeballed” the distance between seams.

The pressed open beginning of a flying geese block and a half square triangle.  Remember I mentioned only doing about 6 at a time.   Can you imagine having to press 20+  flying geese open, and then pressing open 40+ half square triangles?   Little bits in moderation!  I’m not saying it can’t be done, but with my back the way its been, sitting and standing for any length of time is not a happy thing, so I do little bits here and there.

Laying out the second square.

Again, I like to stitch from the corner to the centre.

Two pieces with the second square double seamed stitched.  How odd that sounds.

Trimming the second half square triangles away.

Two flying geese and two half square triangles.  Remember… for each flying geese (goose), you will have two half square triangles.  If I was careful with the measurement of the 1/2″ between the seams,  I might have been able to get a bit larger square.  As it is, most are trimmed down to 1 3/4″ squares.

So what to do with all those half square triangles?  Originally all the pieces were put into a bag, for my DD#2 to perhaps do something with… or me, when I was ready to work out another scrappy type quilt.   Then another idea struck me, and yes, I am okay!

I made a comfy critter (another blog about that soon – or check out my blurb about it at AllPeopleQuilt.com).   As they are made from large patchwork panels, I thought that colour coordinating some of the half square triangles and arranging them in different ways, would be a great way to make more of these critters.   I’m not sure about the all the black, but it does set off some of the colours quite nicely.  It is something I’m working on.

Then I started thinking, as I was laying out the half square triangles for the photo shoot for this blog, that perhaps, I could just colour coordinate and make blocks, then stitch all the blocks together… and perhaps a free quilt!  Gotta love that idea.

Purple and pinks coordinated.   Stitched up this particular arrangement would make a block approximately 6″ in size.  Remember… I did say, I was going to end up with 400+ half square triangles… no, I haven’t calculated how big ti would end up!  LOL.  Of course, the pieces could be re-arranged to create any number of design combinations.  Or perhaps other things could be made from them… pot holders, trivets, doll blankets… the possibilities are endless.

Then I started thinking… and re-arranged the squares.

Remember, this was on the fly, and the corner pieces would have to be something else… but I could always use these pieces for a border.  Not on this quilt, but on another.  Just some ideas.

It is going to take me some time to finish my flying geese.  I am in no rush.   It may be sometime before I get the next step done for this quilt.  But I when I make some progress, I’ll be sure to let you know.

I’ve asked you what you do with your scraps.  Now what do you do with the left-over bits.   If you’ve been tossing those triangle bits, perhaps rethink that… and save them and use them for another quilt.  You may find you have a free quilt, you didn’t even know you had!

-Alice

I decided to make a quilt from some of the blocks. You can get an amazing amount of scrappy blocks in no time at all, then the fun part is putting them together. I decided to put the blocks on point, and to add sashings and cornerstones. To be honest, piecing all those odd seams together in one big piece was a bit overwhelming. Although, I may just have to try that anyway, just to see what kind of a quilt it would become!

So onto the sashings and borders… and colour choices. When fabric is cut into smaller pieces it is amazing what goes together. I think that is the charm of scrappy quilts. What colour or colours was I going to choose for the sashings and borders. Why not black and red? And a vibrant red at that! Remember, this is a learning experience.

So I started cutting the black into 2½” strips, and then cutting pieces 2½” x 8½”.. I used two different black fabrics, to encourage the scrappy look. I also cut 2½” squares from the red fabric. I decided to make the setting triangles and corner triangles the black fabric as well. Cutting those blocks didn’t appeal to me either. And I’m thinking, that perhaps this will encourage the blocks to float… something I had only just read/heard about.

Here is a photo of the blocks hung on my design wall, with the sashing, cornerstones, and setting triangles.

I also added a small black border.

This is the top so far all pieced together.  Notice how somebody got herself in the photo!  That Tazzie!

Now to decide on the next border. Remember, this is a learning experience, so I’m going to go outside of the typical (for me) straight borders. I’m going to try my hand at piecing something. But what. FLYING GEESE! Don’t know why, but it is something I wanted to try. I want to make the geese the vibrant red, and use the black. I don’t have enough of the red… but I’m sure I can find some vibrant red somewhere… and I did at Galena Bay Novelty Fabrics. Fortunately for me, she is local, and I made arrangements to go up and see what she has. She has really nice fabrics, do check out her online store!

In the meantime, my thinking is changing about this quilt. I’m starting to feel, that the geese in black and red will overpower the quilt. I still want to do the flying geese… hold your horses… why not make scrappy geese! And that is what I did.

I did go and see Lainey, and bought some oriental fabrics – for another project yet to be started. And I have decided on a colour scheme for my SIL and her husband for their 25^th wedding anniversary. Although my plans to visit Lainey changed, it was still a good shopping trip.

I’m going to create another blog on the Flying Geese Border. There are many ways of creating flying geese, and as I had several 2½” strips of various scraps, I decided to use the more traditional way (I suppose its traditional).

What have you done lately to jazz up an experimental learning quilt? Have you made one? Share it with me!

-Alice

Well, that may not be entirely true.  To be honest, I do not have a large scrap collection, at least I don’t think so.   I have them sorted as miscellaneous size and shape, strips (sorted again by width), squares (sorted by size), and pieced scraps (left overs from making blocks or trimmings of borders and such).  Each “category” fits into a bin which is about 17″x12″x6½”.  That is MY scraps.

My DD#2 on the other hand has been receiving bags of scraps from guild members.   To be honest, her scraps fit into a box that 10 reams of paper fit in.  But we haven’t completely sorted them yet.

How did I acquire these scraps?

It began with making quilts. A piece here, a piece there. Strip piecing leftovers. Trimming of half square triangles. All these bits of fabric, and haven’t even mentioned the strips and squares that have accumulated. What to do with them? Sort them of course. Strips sorted by side, 1”, 1½”, 2”, 2¼, 2½”, etc. Okay, now sort through the squares. Wow, still a lot of fabric bits. Okay, all the “dogs ears” and other various triangle bits. What am I going to do with the left over “pieced” bits, another bin for them.

Somehow, guild members thought DD#2 was into scraps (maybe she is, but you would never know it, trying to get her to do some quilting with me these days, is like pulling teeth, oh well, she’ll do it when she’s ready). So now, bags and bags of scraps!

One of the guild members suggested that DD#2 use the scraps using the mile-a-minute technique to make quilts. After a search on the internet, I found out how to make mile-a-minute quilts. The following are a couple of links that are “how-to’s” to make Mile-a-minute quilts.  Do a search on Google, and you can find photos and more.

• Crumb Chaos
• Mile a Minute blog entry
• Another Mile A minute Blog entry

They are sort of like log-cabins, but not really. I started off with some scraps, and started cutting and sewing strips. I soon realized some of my strips, were not in fact strips, but chunks. Smaller than 22” long. They still worked for the beginning of the mile-a-minute quilts.  I kept on sewing, and adding strips, in some cases sewing some of the chunks together (pieced on the diagonal for interest), and using them as strips. I kept sewing and pressing until the blocks were larger than 12” square, okay admittedly most were not square, but they were larger than 12” on either side.

Then trimmed down to 8½”. I used my 12½” square ruler, and tilted it, to get some very interesting results.

These are some of the finished trimmed blocks.

Egad, I was running out of strips, I didn’t really want to cut into my stash, what was I to do. As I was trimming the blocks I noticed a new pile of scraps accumulating. I’ll never have enough strips to add to these new blocks. Wait a minute, hold on, what if I take this pieced scrap, and sewed it to this pieced scrap… Hey, look at this.

Now I know what to do with that bin of leftover pieced pieces. I’ll just add them to what I have here. As I started this, I took a break, and looked up scrappy quilts on the internet. Apparently all those itty bitty pieces, are called “crumbs”. Very cool! So now I’m making some really crumby quilts.

I haven’t started it yet, but I can sew some of those triangle bits together to make wonky half square triangles… doesn’t matter if they match or not, and then sew them together to make a 4-patch block. Ohhh, the possibilities are endless.

I’m planning to use the blocks to make some quilts for the house, and possibly even a few for charity. I know I’ll have lots of scraps to make lots of blocks to make lots of quilts.

I’ve been teaching a dear friend how to sew and quilt. I think I’ll get her going on sewing some of these pieces and blocks together, will give her great practice on working on her ¼” seam. OH!, Speaking of ¼” seams… I was using mine, but I’m thinking, you don’t need to. Who cares if the seam is a tad more here or there? And for thread… I have a few bobbins (correction, “had”) of thread that were left over from other projects, and well, I used them up. Now I’m going through my thread, and using up left-over spools that were for other sewing projects.

What do you do with your scraps?  Do you organize them?  Perhaps give the mile-a-minute or crumb blocks a try, its a great way to take a break from larger projects.

-Alice

I can’t believe how quickly time goes by.    Lesson 4 of the online Beading Class was just posted on Friday, and I haven’t even written about Lesson 2.  So here goes.

Lesson 2, I was so excited over.  Well, truth be known, I’ve been excited each week, when the next lesson has been posted.  I practice some of the techniques on my sampler, and I have even added a few to my Beading Experiment project.  (Sorry no photos of that, until after our quilt show – a surprise for my fellow guild members).

Lesson 2 had several “neat” things.  Fringes, a barnacle, stacks, and beading with sequins.   I made my barnacle into a rose.  Perhaps not the expected use of this technique, but it leant itself to it.

The barnacle is made by stitching 7 stacks (3 beads largest to smallest on top of each other), and then threading the top (stop) beads and pulling taut.  The stacks pull inwards.  With my Barnacle rose, I used 2 different green sequins as the “bud leaves” under each stack.

The stem is using a couched stitch.  The sun is a largish sequin with seed beads and bugles making up the sun rays.

These photos are side views of the barnacle.

Then it was on to fringes.  These were so much fun.  You can “end” the fringe in any bead design you like.  The last fringe is called “double fringe”.  You thread a number of beads, add your stopper bead, and then go back up the fringe, by adding 3 or 4 beads, then going back to a bead, then adding more beads, and going back, all the way up, until you reach the beginning of the fringe.  I used two colours to really show this technique off.  If you play with the beads a little, you can make them look like they are spiralling up the long fringe.

As you can see in the photo, fringes have to be somewhat “long”, or they do not hang well.  The 4th gold coloured one does not hang very well at all.  The “starburst” or “fireworks” beads, are fringes, with the stop bead stitched down to the fabric.  Spiders on Crazy quilting are sometimes made using this technique.

My last part of Lesson 2, was somewhat straight forward, and also a little frustrating.

The stacked beads went well.  I even added a sequin here and there to jazz it up.  The couching around a larger sequin did not go very well for me.  My beads “bubbled” up, which was probably because my tension was to taut.  My photo is a little fuzzy at this end.  And on top of everything, my larger sequin ended up situated much too close to a stacked bead.

Working with the sequins was a lot of fun, but at this point, I don’t see a use for them in my quilting projects.   But I am not going to say never.  A year ago, I didn’t think beading would ever become part of my quilting.  You just never know what happens.

Not all quilts are meant for quilting.  If you make wall-hangings or art quilts, consider adding a little beading.  Not sure if the colours of the beads go with the quilt.  Scatter a few over it.

Consider going up.  What if you started with a larger bead, then added another, slightly smaller, and another even smaller?  Instead of using a bugle, how would a square bead change the look.

As you are beading, be sure to take a little back stitch on the back or within the “sandwich”, just in case the thread weakens and breaks, rebeading 20 beads  is much better than having to rebead 200.

Our guild has a library, with all sorts of books.  One of them is Beading Basics – 30 Embellishing Techniques for Quilters by Mary Stori.  The cover of the book is great!  Beads around buttons.  Fringes and so much more.  If you are not able to take a class on Beading, I highly recommend this book.  Even if you do take a class, I would still recommend it.

One of our guild members leant me a few of her books.  One of them I had found on the internet, while I was looking for information.  I thought it would be a great addition to our guild library.   If you are looking for a book that has projects to do, as well as some gorgeous photos of beaded items, then Beaded Embellishment by Amy C. Clarke and Robin Atkins (Amazon has a neat feature, where you can see actual pages from a book) would be the one you are looking for.  It does have a technique section, but for a beginner beader, this book may be a little too much.

Two absolutely beautiful books come to us from the UK.    Bead Embroidery by Valerie Campbell-Harding and Pamela Watts, and Bead and Sequin Embroidery Stitches by Stan Levy, are absolute eye candy for beaders.  The first is primarily on clothing, but the techniques can easily be done on quilted projects.  The second book is a play-by-play.  Some basic techniques, and then different variations of those techniques.  He even discusses making one’s own designs.

The last book is by far my favourite.  Embeadery – Using Classic Embroidery Stitches in Beadwork by Margaret Ball.  It doesn’t have the glossy beautiful coloured pages like the others, but it is a technique enriched book.  I believe it allows you to choose your colours, and allows you to imagine how different colours would work.   Have you ever seen a project, and then had difficulty imagining it in any other colour?  Some books and people, I suppose are limited to just a few simple techniques.  This book takes embroidery stitches and turns them into beautiful beaded versions.   She has a section of colured pages of stitches as well as a few projects.  What I really like about this book, is it is NOT project based.  If you were to get only one book on beading, I would highly recommend this one.  It is a great beading reference book.

-Alice

I’ve been blog surfing this morning… catching up on a few of the blogs I follow, and finding a few more.

One of the quilters introduced another blog, which I would like to share with you.

Sew, Mama, Sew! – For the month of February they will be posting a Fat Quarter topic each day – tutorials, information, swaps, and much much more.  How cool is that.

I will be following along.  I have a small’ish FQ collection, but I do wonder what to do with some of the fabrics… do I call them orphan FQ’s because they don’t go with anything?

This is an older picture… a few FQ’s have come and gone, but basically, that is all I have.

Do you have a FQ collection?  What do you do with it?

-Alice