Holy Cow I Finished!

November 12, 2012March 19, 201317 Comments

I finished quilting my Busy Hands quilt this weekend. I feel like it was quite an accomplishment because I quilted the heck out of it! This quilt is my first official “Modern Quilt” and I have to say, I enjoyed it immensely.

(My poor little chevron blocks are just piled up in the corner, patiently waiting their turn on the design wall so they can get turned into my next modern quilt.)

I tend to be a little more “organized” with my piecing rather than embracing the “wonkiness” that is also a hallmark of this quilt genre. But I love modern quilts because of their bright, clear colors, bold geometric shapes and clean lines, with lots of negative space for machine quilting.

My favorite part about this quilt is all of the different free-motion designs that I tried. I originally was going to stick to one background fill but after quilting a few blocks I got bored very quickly.

One of the things I love about modern quilting is that there are no hard and fast rules, so I was free to switch up the designs whenever I felt like it. I can’t tell you how liberating that was! I didn’t plan them ahead of time but quilted them serendipitously. I counted a total of 53 different quilting designs when all was said and done!

I still have to soak the quilt to remove all of the blue lines around the hands, then block it and bind it. I’m really toying around with the idea of trying to enter it at QuiltCon if I can complete these final steps in time. It’s a juried show and they are accepting entries through November 30th. I’ve never entered a quilt in a “big show” before so I don’t even know if it would get in, but what the heck – I might as well try. It can’t hurt, right??

UFO Weekend

October 29, 2012March 19, 20136 Comments

This weekend was the first time in awhile that I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything but sew! (And take care of the kids and do laundry and clean the house and cook and work…)

I didn’t finish anything, but I worked a little bit on a bunch of projects I have going on right now so I feel very accomplished!

I finished a couple more paper-pieced units from my Deb Karasik workshop:

I sewed together all of my half-square triangles for my Charming Chevrons quilt tutorial later this week:

I hand-sewed (yes-by hand!) another chunk of my Winding Ways quilt:

And I machine quilted a couple more squares of my Busy Hands quilt.

All in all, it was a productive weekend!

Bungle Jungle Quilt – Making Progress

August 27, 2012March 19, 201315 Comments

I am slowly but surely making progress quilting my Bungle Jungle quilt. This is my first attempt at a modern quilt. I discovered the whole modern quilting movement just a few months ago and have truly been smitten!

I started with just one Bungle Jungle charm pack and surrounded the charms with lots of “negative” space so I could practice my free-motion quilting skills. I used Kona Cotton Solids in white for the background.

I love how the pebbling turned out and I’m now learning how to quilt some swirling vines. My vines look a little more like hooks, but it’s still fun to vary the motifs.

I like the textural element that quilting gives to a quilt!

At first I thought I would surround the little hands entirely with just one quilting motif, little curlie-cue’s.

However, after I quilted a few squares, that got old very quickly!

So to keep things fun, I’m switching quilting motifs throughout the quilt. Not only will every charm square be quilted differently, the background fills will change, too.

I’ve only finished about 4 rows of quilting so far (out of 15!) but I am enjoying the process. The key is not to rush it. I only quilt a couple of squares per day. This gives me daily FQM practice so I won’t get bored. This will be a long-term process and I won’t even attempt to record how many hours the quilting takes. But I am having fun and that’s what’s important!

I think I will call this quilt “Busy Hands” not only for the cute little quilted hands, but because I am keeping my hands quite busy quilting this baby!

What Was I Thinking???!!

July 25, 2012March 19, 201318 Comments

What was I thinking? I’m trying to have a zen experience with my quilting by breaking up the negative space in my Modern Quilt with lots of different quilting designs. But I think I went a little overboard with all the small scale background fillers!

I actually do like the texture the quilting is adding to the quilt, but when you see how little of the quilt I’ve actually finished compared to how much is left to quilt, you’ll start to pity me…

The picture below shows about 1/4 of the quilt finished. I’m adding larger scale textures in each of the charm squares and a smaller scale background around each of the hands. I’ve quilted 12 out of 42 charm blocks which represents about 5-6 hours of solid quilting so far.

I am having fun quilting different designs in the blocks though. I’ve outlined some elephants, practiced my pebbles and grids and even quilted the alphabet on the lined paper fabric! Here are a couple more closeups, just for fun!

I’m linking this blog post to the Free-Motion Quilting Project and WIP Wednesdays so I can share the insanity!!! This will definitely be a long term project. But if I quilt 1 block a day, I can finish it in under a month!

I used a clean toothbrush dipped in water to erase the blue pen marks once I quilted them.

For those of you interested in what materials I used, I started with 1 charm pack of Moda’s Bungle Jungle by Tim and Beck, and 2 1/2 yards of White Kona Cotton Solid. I sewed together a layer cake for the backing.

I am doing all the quilting with 60 weight polyester thread in a light gray. I chose Superior Threads bottom line in both the top and bobbin. It breaks too easily in the top thread for my taste – but it is very fine and blends beautifully. My batting is wool which gives a nice faux trapunto look to the little hands.

I hope I get more done by next week! I think I’d better go work on my jelly roll quilt now…..

Bungle Jungle Charm Quilt Week 4 – Ditch Quilting

July 18, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

I didn’t make a ton of progress on my Bungle Jungle modern quilt this week, mostly because I was packing up to go on our family vacation and getting all my ducks in a row ahead of time.

(They are quacking nicely now!)

But, I did get all of my stitch in the ditch quilting done so I’m ready for the best part, the free motion quilting next week!

I think my plan will be to quilt a different motif in each charm square, to practice a bunch of free-motion quilting designs.

I want to add tons more quilting. By pressing the seams open, stitching in the ditch in between the charm squares was a breeze. It created a grid over the surface of the quilt which you can see on the back side of the quilt. Click for closeups.

I used an acrylic ruler and a blue washout pen to mark straight lines where needed to complete the grid.

The quilt is now anchored so I can remove the rest of my basting pins and it’s ready for more quilting!

Be sure to join me tomorrow as I launch my new tutorial series: Do It Yourself Quilts!

Bungle Jungle Week 3 – Layer Cake Back Art and Basting

July 12, 2012March 19, 20137 Comments

This week I marked and basted my Bungle Jungle charm pack quilt. I will start quilting it next week. You can read about last week’s progress here.

When I finished marking the top, I couldn’t decide on the backing. Then it hit me – why not use a Bungle Jungle layer cake and make back art for my modern quilt?

(The back is probably even more modern than the front since I threw the blocks together totally randomly!)

Each layer cake square is precut to 10 inches, so when you sew them together into 7 rows of 6 blocks each, the finished size is 57″ x 66.5″. My quilt top measures approximately 52″ x 60″ so that was perfect! It took me less than 2 hours to stitch all the backing squares together, including pinning and pressing the seams open.

Using a stencil, I drew little hands in the white spaces randomly over the surface of the quilt. This is going to be cute!

I marked all the hands before basting, using an inexpensive water soluble blue pen. I’m going to join the hands with loopy quilting so I can quilt them continuously.

I still haven’t decided what I’m going to quilt in the charm squares, so I left those unmarked for now. Any ideas??

Finally, I basted the quilt using about 150 Pinmoors. This is the 3rd quilt I’ve basted using Pinmoors and I’ve decided they are awesome! It’s a little spendy to buy enough of them for a big quilt, but they are totally worth it. It made basting a breeze and they are super easy to take out when quilting. I don’t even worry about pinning over my marked lines. The rule of thumb is to baste about a hand-width apart. That was easy for this quilt!

I’ve been following quilting blogs like The Free-Motion Quilting Project, WIP Wednesdays, Moda’s Bakeshop and the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge for quite some time. I have so thoroughly enjoyed these projects that I have now been inspired to start my own sew along called Do-It-Yourself-Quilts!

I want to share step-by-step tutorials on how easy and fun it is to make your own quilts completely, including piecing and quilting. Then you can truly say you made it yourself!

Be sure to follow my blog for the official announcement about that on Thursday, July 19th, along with a sneak peak of my first project and a supply list if you’d like to join in!

Bungle Jungle Charm Pack Quilt – Week 2

July 3, 2012March 19, 20134 Comments

I finished my version of a modern quilt top this week:

Using one Bungle Jungle charm pack and 2 1/2 yards of White Solid , I whipped this puppy up in just a few days! I started working on this quilt last week.

I started off by making a total of 42 blocks since there are 42 charms in a pack.

I arranged them on my design wall randomly, turning each block in a different position.

While I like this arrangement, I didn’t love it, so I tried laying out all the blocks in the same orientation. I liked that better.

It must be my OCD kicking in!

Next, it was a simple feat to sew the blocks into pairs and then join the pairs into rows to complete the top.

Each row had 6 blocks (or 3 pairs), and I sewed a total of 7 rows. I pressed all of my seams open so it will be easier to quilt and fabric won’t shadow through the white.

Once I finished sewing all the blocks together, I realized I needed to add a strip of white to the left of the quilt top and one across the bottom to balance the design.

This would create a continuous border of white all around the quilt with plenty of negative space for creative quilting.

Instead of cutting one long strip for each border, I cut 13 rectangles, 4″ x 8″ each and made 2 pieced borders. The left border required 7 rectangles and the bottom row needed 6 plus a 4 inch square for the corner.

I’m pleased with the quilt top and will start machine quilting it next week. It will finish around 52″ x 61″ which will make a nice sized baby-throw.

I have a few ideas that I’m going to think about over the next several days before I begin quilting. I really want to incorporate this hand stencil in the white areas:

I’m thinking I might randomly quilt the hands in the white areas, joining them together with loopy stippling designs. I’d like to quilt something fun in the charm squares too, like perhaps a different shape in each block. If you’ve got any suggestions, please send them my way!

Bungle Jungle Modern Quilt – Week 1

June 27, 2012March 19, 20136 Comments

Before I’ve even finished my current project, the Little Rascals baby quilt, I’ve already started on my next charm pack design! I was inspired by Leah Day’s modern quilt on her free-motion quilting blog. However, I’m making mine a little more uniform and less wonky.

I started with one charm pack of Bungle Jungle – a set of 42 precut squares that measure 5 inches. That means the finished size of each square is4 1/2″. I wanted to surround the squares with lots of open space for quilting, so I grabbed 2 yards of of Kona Cotton Solids in white.

I cut fifteen 4″ wide strips of white and sub-cut them into 42 pieces that measure 4″ x 5″ for the short side of the blocks and and 42 pieces of 4″ x 8 1/2″ for the long side of the blocks.

I stacked the pieces up next to my sewing machine in order so they were all ready to sew. Some of the prints are directional, but I won’t worry about that as I sew this quilt together. That will add to the “charm!”

To help with quilting later, I pressed all of the seams open. This helps reduce bulk and prevents shadowing of the seams. I will sew a total of 42 blocks, one for every charm square.

This week I will work on arranging the blocks into a pleasing setting. I’m loving it already!

The Modern Quilt aesthetic really appeals to me with lots of negative space and clean lines. One of the hallmarks of this design style is to use lots of solid fabric and crisp, clear colors.

If you’d like to follow along, grab 1 charm pack of your choice and 2 yards of background fabric, then sew a total of 42 blocks like those shown above. (I’ve only finished 12 blocks so far.) I’ll continue to blog about this project until it’s done, including quilting and binding.