Frazzle Frenzy

At Least Someone is Making Use of the Quilt

2011-11-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

Since the king-sized Storm at Sea quilt was too big to machine quilt on my rack, I've been hand-quilting it in a hoop. Scrappy likes to burrow under the hoop and snooze.

Sandwich Phase

2011-06-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the last 16 Storm at Sea blocks needed to get the top of my king-sized bed quilt to a comparable size to the backing. The backing is still 6 to 8 inches longer around the edges, but that's okay, because I'm planning on using that extra backing fabric for a border.

There's just one problem...

The entire quilt is wider than my quilt rack. Here you can see fabric overflowing down the side of the quilt rack. Normally, I would pin the backing and quilt top to muslin leaders and roll them up on rods, but that won't work in this case.

Plan B?

Put the sewing machine away and hand quilt, just using the rack as a place to drape the fabric. I'll probably start by tying the backing, the batting and the top together just to keep it stable, and then I will use a wooden hoop to draw sections of fabric taut for more intricate hand-quilting. Any guesses on how many more years this phase will take?

TOWN FOR THE TREES by Justin Evans

2011-04-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Though this is my quilting blog, I felt it was appropriate to post my review of a poetry book. Read on and you'll see why...

I had the pleasure of reading Town for the Trees, a book of poems by Justin Evans. Mr. Evans holds a Master's Degree in Literacy Studies, and this latest book contains a collection of poems that were mostly set in Springville, Utah, a place that comes across in his poems as being a peaceful, quiet space where one has room to think. Mountains, valleys, a creek and the moon hold special meaning here.

It has been a while since I've read poetry that has inspired me. I admit I am partial to poems that immerse the reader into nature since I am currently surrounded by sirens, construction workers, and honking car horns in my home environment. I moved to Northern Nevada 22 years ago from a big city, and back then my Nevada home was in what was called a rural community in which everyone owned livestock and kept quiet and still enough that one could hear nothing other than cows mooing softly, birds chirping, and frogs singing. Some days I could swear that I heard butterfly wings flapping, but those days are gone now. I have to turn to poetry to commune with nature.

Lines like "The letters N E W S were derived / from the four winds..." and "the past is a thief / escaping on the wings of blackbirds" are stated succinctly, yet contain enough power to make me pause. You know you are reading fine poetry when you give each line a few extra seconds to sink in before moving to the next.

In the poem "Pre-Dawn: Three Sisters", Evans writes the following stanza:

Whenever I come back to this place

after years of absence, it is the mountains

which startle me the most, their size

always shrinking in my mind

like the old memory of a broken arm.

I know how haunting it can be to return to the place of one's childhood, as I am about to embark on one such journey myself to settle my mother's estate after her passing. The environment seems alien, yet still contains triggers to memories we thought were long gone. Having broken my arm, along many other injuries, I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can be in so much pain one day, and barely remember the agony the next. The intensity of life fades, and comparing that to how mountains shrink within our memory is divine.

Though Evans grew up in Utah, he now lives in Nevada and having studied and worked with Nevada poets for much of my adult life, I do see how some of his peers have influenced his writing. It didn't surprise me when he included an epigraph from one of Gary Short's poems, as Short is one of my favorite poets and I could see similarities between their works.

I think my favorite stanza comes through in the poem "Song":

Infinite stars

piercing the deep blue of night

like needles wielded by my grandmother

to a make a quilt.

This stanza offers such a strong sense of time. Obviously, time plays a huge role in the study of astronomy. Scientists are always searching for clues to how long stars live, how long they have been in existence. Being a quilter myself, I know the time and patience that is required to piece together fabric and quilt by hand. Sewing machines speed up the process probably ten-fold or more, and I can tell you that I have been machine-piecing a bed quilt for over two years now. It feels like there is no end in sight. Drawing the similarity between stars and not just needles, but needles used in quilting by his grandmother -- perfect in so many ways. Perhaps the night sky is a quilt being made just for him.

In today's frantic, fast-paced society, it is rare to find moments of solitude where one can reflect on where life has taken us, how a river has changed its course, how an entire summer "evaporated in a single breath." If you need a break, I recommend that you sit down and pick up Town for the Trees. It will help you learn to breathe again.

For more information on this book, visit the author's website.

The Photography Studio Window Coverings are Complete

2011-02-04T12:29:00.000-08:00

My goal with this project was functionality, not beauty. I didn't bother to try to hide the liner behind the sheer fabric. Everything is uneven, but I'm just happy that I was able to use all my fabric and still get it to cover the windows and sliding glass doors. Because of the amount of fabric I had, and the dimensions I needed to cut creating a minimum number of seams, the windows ended up with less draping than the sliding glass doors. I looked for some neutral gray or silver fabric to sew around the edges as a border to allow more top to bottom coverage as well as side-to-side draping, but I was unable to find any fabric that would work with the one I already had.

Here's an example of what it looks like with both the sheer fabric and liners together, blocking out all the light...

Here are a couple of examples showing one side of the window having both the block out liner and fabric together and the other side of the window just having the sheer fabric covering...

You can see that the extra draping over the door lets in less light. Since the rings on the rods are clip-ons, I can just rearrange the fabric how I want to let in more or less light through the sheer fabric.

Here are a couple of examples of one side of the window having both coverings pulled aside, letting in full light while leaving the sheer fabric over the other side of the window...

As you can see, there are a lot of options for lighting, especially when you add in the strobe lights, the reflective umbrella, the soft box, and the camera flash to the variations in natural lighting.

The Nicest Surprise

2011-01-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

My window covering project for my photography studio is coming along, though somewhat slowly. It's amazing how long it takes to blind stitch one hem for drapery. This was my first attempt at the blind stitch and I made a lot of mistakes on the first round. I started out placing the guide right smack on the edge of the fold of the fabric, and the needle didn't pick up the fold in several sections. I corrected that by placing the guide onto the fold.

I managed to break two needles while sewing the blackout liner at the corner where several layers of the fabric were folded. Once all the blackout liners were sewn and hung, I started on the sheer white fabric curtains. Normally, you sew the liner into the drapery fabric, but I wanted to have the option of either blocking the light all together with the blackout liner or giving the room a softbox effect by just hanging the sheer white fabric over the windows. In the picture below, I have both the sheer fabric and the blackout liner hanging together.

The curtains seemed easy enough since they were short, but the draperies for the sliding glass doors were awkward and bulky to handle.

During this project I must have cursed more times than usual, because yesterday I found this big box on my doorstep. Inside was a gift from my husband: A Singer Heavy Duty 4411 sewing machine.

He said he wanted me to have a simple mechanical machine with no bells and whistles that is less likely to break down and give me headaches. I must have oiled, adjusted the tension, and re-threaded my old machine dozens of times during this project because the thread kept getting tangled. Looking at the new Singer machine, the first thing I noticed was that the spindle for the thread was horizontal instead of vertical.

I instantly knew this would solve the number one problem I have with my old machine, and that is the thread getting wrapped around the spindle underneath the spool, and then breaking. This horizontal spindle allows for the thread to be pulled off the spool without getting hung up on the spindle. The next thing I noticed were all the diagram markings directly on the machine showing you how to thread it. I thought this was brilliant, because with my old machine, I always had to consult the manual when too much time passed between me using it.

The next thing I noticed was the top loading bobbin case. No more removing the toolbox to get underneath the machine each time I need to adjust the bobbin.

Sewing machines have come a long way in solving some of their inherent problems. If you have an old machine that gives you trouble, I suggest looking into getting a new one. I was worried about the cost, but it turns out that sewing machines are very affordable at the moment. I even found a portable mini machine for $20 on the Internet. Many basic sewing machines are around $100. I also found this new step stool in the market on sale for $6 today. No more tripping over the bars on the chair I'd been standing on to hang the curtains. Yippee!

Lessons Learned Installing Curtain and Drapery Rods

2011-01-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have begun a project that involves hanging curtains over two windows and drapes over two sliding glass doors in my photography studio. I bought some Levlor rods at JoAnn Fabrics. The instructions on the box were very simple and any instructions you may find on the Internet appear to be simple as well, but don't let it fool you. There is nothing easy about installing curtain and drapery rods.

It looks like you might be able to get them all installed in an hour, but this project took me all day. It took all morning to install the rods over the two windows, and all afternoon to install the rods over the two sliding glass doors. Believe me when I tell you that I made every mistake in the book, and if anything at all could go wrong, it did. When all was said and done, I had a bad case of tennis elbow.

First off, if you install them into wood, you just use the screws. If you install them into drywall, you use the plastic anchors and the screws. You are supposed to drill a hole the size of the anchor, hammer the anchor into the wall, place the bracket over the anchor, and drill in the screw. However, that didn't work for me. It turned out the majority of the wall was drywall, but the last quarter inch was solid wood. It's impossible to hammer a plastic anchor into hard wood.

So, I had to improvise. I placed the bracket against the wall first, hammered in the plastic anchor as far as it would go, and then drilled in the screw. The brackets ended up being a bit unstable, but if worse comes to worse, there's always Super Glue. You can see in the picture below, how the plastic anchor refused to push past the wood, and the screw wouldn't go in all the way either, because the drill stripped the head before I could get it in further.

My biggest mistake was that one window required that I install the brackets into wood. I had been so intent on installing the plastic anchors into the drywall, that I drilled for the size of the plastic anchors into the wood. The anchors are much larger than the screws, so by the time I realized my mistake, the holes were too big for the screws and there was no room on either side of the strip of wood to drill new holes. I was essentially drilling into a trellis.

I ended up having to force the plastic anchors into those bigger holes, which isn't easy, and I almost split the wood. I recommend planning everything out on paper before laying a hand on your tools.

My next big mystery was that despite measuring exactly three inches above the window and one inch above the window frame, the rods were uneven. I could clearly see that they were lower on one side than the other. In the picture below, the rod is lower on the left than on the right.

After paying closer attention to the rod itself, I realized that had I studied the rod ahead of time, I might I have noticed that one side of the rod is thinner than the other side. That's how they get one side to slide inside of the other side with metal rods. So, if you are installing metal rods, I recommend that you install one bracket an eighth of an inch higher than the bracket on the far end. Better yet, get solid wood rods.

Lastly, for some reason, I was provided with four brackets. I wondered why, because you can't slide the rings past the brackets. I only installed three of the brackets, one on each end and one in the middle where the curtains and draperies meet, but had I mindlessly installed all four brackets spaced out evenly for the sake of stability, I would have regretted it. I suppose I could have placed two brackets side-by-side in the middle, but what's the point?

As you can tell, I'm not a carpenter. In upcoming posts, I'll share my experiences in constructing homemade curtains and drapes.

Scrappy Lives Up To His Name

2010-11-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Scrappy found a pile of fabric scraps I pulled out and tossed on a chair. I've never seen a dog who likes to nest as much as this boy. Being short-haired and originally from Northern California, I suspect he's going to need a lot of blankets this winter. I'm thinking of putting the king-sized bed quilt I've been making for the past several years on hold in order to make a quilt just for Scrappy. I think he'd appreciate it.

Backing Finished, But...

2010-08-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

I finished piecing together the backing to my Storm at Sea king-sized bed quilt, and was able to finally put the ironing board away. No more freezer paper! Whoopie!

I laid it over my bed and was a bit shocked by it's length and width. I added a few inches when I took my measurements last year, because I wanted to fold the edges over and use the backing for the border to speed things up.

However, my measurements of the top must have been way off, because when I laid the Storm at Sea top over the wave backing, the backing was way wider than the top. The length is workable, but I'm going to have to make 16 more Storm at Sea blocks to get a better match in size. Of course, I could just cut the excess off the back, but that would make my scrap stash unmanageable and I actually would like the quilt to be wider and drape over the edges of the bed.

So, I doubt I will meet my goal of getting this quilt done before this winter. I may have to give myself another year. If I didn't have two jobs, I wouldn't need an entire year, but spare time is something that comes around so rarely for me. The only reason why I was able to finish the backing this week is because I'm on vacation.

Hit a Snag

2010-08-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's my unintentional M.O. to get down to the wire on a big project and then have some freak problem that sets me so far back that I lose my enthusiasm and either put the project on the back burner for a while (since it causes me too much aggravation) or abandon it all together.

The backing to my Storm at Sea quilt was supposed to just be rows of waves deepening in darker hues toward the bottom. However, now that I'm close to finishing the bottom, I discovered that I cut the last few rows two-feet too short. At first I thought, "No problem. I'll just sew on two more feet of each fabric."

However, upon surveying my stash, I discovered that I didn't have any more of these fabrics. I would have to use something different. I then came up with the creative idea of making an island with a lagoon way out in the ocean and tack those fabrics onto the missing two feet of ocean.

I didn't want to shape the island and lagoon like a real island and lagoon would look, but I wanted to keep it abstract like the rest of the quilt. I decided to install it in blocks instead of curves. Unfortunately, I put the second section of the island on the opposite end of the row from where it should have been and had to correct it by cutting off the existing seam and resewing it on the other side. That resulted in the island's seam not lining up with the lagoon's seam, so now this island is going to turn out even more abstract than I had planned...

I'm at a point where I don't care anymore. I just want a nice, new warm quilt for my bed this winter. Since this is the back of the quilt, we probably won't look at it much anyway.

Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and say, "Oh well."

Still Chipping Away at My Waves

2010-07-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

I'm still chipping away at making my waves for my Storm at Sea quilt backing.

I have six more rows to go.

Once this is done, I can sandwich the batting between the quilt top and the backing, quilt it together, and apply the border.

This project has taken so long that I don't think I'm going to get fancy with the border. I'll just pick a fabric, scallop the edges, wrap it around the sides and sew it on. I think I might actually get this quilt done by this winter. One year overdue isn't too bad.

On a Roll Now

2010-01-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Now that I have finally figured out the engineering aspects of how to create the backing I envisioned, I'm on a roll. I fold the seam over freezer paper, iron it all down, and pin it to the piece I want to overlap.

Then I sew it on using an over-edge stretch stitch. I felt that if I just used a straight stitch, I'd probably not catch the entire length of seam. Plus this wider stitch allows me to cover up the points where I would rather there be curves. If I don't clip the curve just right, it comes out as a point, but I figure I've spent too many years working on this quilt to be a perfectionist now. I just want something warm on my bed that hasn't been shredded by our dog's toenails.

Next I tear the freezer paper off. I have never worked with freezer paper before, and am pleased with its ease of use. It's easy to cut, easy to iron on, easy to sew through, and easy to tear off.

Once that layer is done, I start all over with the next strip of fabric to make beach waves overlapping other beach waves.

By George - I Think I've Got It!

2010-01-03T16:26:00.000-08:00

I gave my attempt at creating waves on the backing one last try. Since the shape of the waves had already been cut out of the fabric, I had to cut the freezer paper along the seam, leaving room to fold the fabric over. I had to pin the freezer paper on as I cut it, and then lay the monstrosity on the ironing board.

The first thing I noticed was that the seam wouldn't fold over unless I cut slits in the hills and dales. The next thing I noticed was that right where the seam folded over at the slits, the hills came out pointed. Perhaps I should cut a V shape instead of just a slit for better results. However, I wasn't too concerned, as I can sew over the points to create curves with the thread.

I also learned that I should remove the pins before ironing each section, because if I barely touch a plastic pinhead with the iron, it melts.

It's all a learning process.

More on How Not To Make Curves

2010-01-03T11:34:00.001-08:00

I'm down to my last day of my holiday vacations and still haven't had the time, energy or inspiration to quilt. However, I knew if I didn't do SOMETHING, I'd feel very disappointed in myself. Finishing this Storm at Sea bed quilt has been on my To Do List for well over two years. Every year I say I'll do it over my winter break, since I'm usually busy working with my horses whenever I have time off in the other three seasons. However, I've been sick with a series of health problems throughout most of my time off. Today, the last day of my time off, was the first day I started feeling 100%.

I didn't have the time to deal with freezer paper, pins, and pressing, so I tried sewing the waves onto the beach freestyle, turning down the seam of the curves as I sew. It didn't work. The fabric is still puckered. Once I rip the thread out, I'm going to have to resign myself to reading my quilting books on the subject of quilting curves, using that freezer paper and pins, and pressing a lot. If I hadn't already cut the strips for the waves, I'd abandon this design and just do something simple with a straight-stitch for the backing.

We need a new bed quilt. The dogs have managed to shred all of our old bed quilts with their toenails. Plus I'm cold at night. I've had chills off and on and am constantly shivering in the bedroom. I can't seem to get warm enough despite piling many layers of blankets and quilts on top of me.

If I abandon the curvy wave design for the backing, I won't take my quilting to the next level. I want to be able to do more with fabric and can't let a lack of time constantly be forcing me to take the easy route. I think I'll just have to take my time with the project and shoot for having it on our bed next winter.

On another note, there's something to be said about having your own space to quilt. I've got a husband and two kids home for winter break, and even when I put the ironing board in the corner of the family room, I've still got people and dogs tripping over me. The hassle of always having to shift here and shift there to make room for other bodies while I'm working on a large quilt causes me to lose my enthusiasm for the craft. Ultimately, winter break is not a good time for me to plan to quilt. Neither are weekends. I'll either have to take a vacation at a time when no one else is home and it's warm enough to put the dogs outside, or I'll have to just wait until I retire to get serious about quilting.

I had my time to quilt when the kids were young and I was able to stay at home with them. Until I can stop working full-time to pay the bills, my fabrics will probably remain on the shelf collecting dust. There. I said it. Now I just have to accept it.

How Not to Make Curves

2009-12-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

So much time has passed since I completed the top to my king-sized Storm at Sea quilt. I had originally hoped to have the quilt done by Christmas of 2008, and here we are two days away from Christmas of 2009, and I still don't have the backing pieced together. I blame my real job, the one that brings home the bacon. It has been sucking up 10 to 16 hours a day of my time this past year, leaving me very little time to finish quilting projects.

However, now that I have a few days off from work, I had hoped to at least finish piecing the back before returning to the office. I put together what I thought was a simple pattern of curvy waves, however once I started sewing from memory, I realized that it wasn't as simple as it seemed.

I was taught to sew when I was in middle school, 30-some years ago. I remember my teacher having us put the right sides of the fabric together, double-stitching the seams, and then cutting out notches her 1/2 inch, like this:

However, what I forgot was that we were making pillows at the time, not quilts. When I tried to turn the fabric with the right-side up, I found that no amount of ironing would get this curve to sit flat. It's great if I want a bumpy quilt with 3-dimensional waves that actually stick out with stuffing, but that might be uncomfortable to lie on.

So, out came the quilting books that discuss the art of sewing curves into flat quilts. I know it's not rocket science, but I still don't get it just looking at the pictures and diagrams. I'm actually going to have to take some time to read these books. I have so many other things to do this week that having to give up time to read through some books seems so daunting right now.

From what I can tell, it looks like I'll need to use freezer paper, iron over the seams and do some top stitching like with applique. This project is going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. What do you think? Should I abandon this project temporarily and shoot for finishing it for Christmas of 2010?

Forming Waves

2009-09-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

I'm embarrassed to say that it took me ten months to start on the backing for that Storm at Sea quilt I've been constructing for our California King-sized bed. The majority of that time was just spent hashing over ideas on what to do. I don't like to just slap a few solid pieces of fabric together for backing. I want to do something creative, but not as time-consuming as it took to make the front of the quilt.

I thought waves would be appropriate, but am worrying that I may not be able to sew curves together without any puckering. If I have a hesitation over any part of a project, everything comes to a standstill until I wait for a better idea to come along. I tired of waiting after ten months and started tackling large pieces of previously used fabric to cut them down into rectangles. These pieces had odd shapes since I had cut out smaller pieces for the top using templates. I worked with two layers of fabric at a time, pinning them together. I then divided the rectangles into three strips.

Then next step will be to sew the three strips of each fabric end to end to span the width of the quilt. I will then pin two strips of different fabrics together and cut out a wave shape. At that point, I suspect I will thoroughly consult some of my quilting books on curves, then begin sewing. Hopefully, all the strips will add up to the length of the quilt once they are sewn together in waves. If not, I'll add a sandy beach.

I'm planning on making the backing several inches wider and longer than the top, so that I can wrap the borders over from the back to the front. That way the border will have waves too.

Knit One, Purl Two

2009-03-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've taken a break from the Storm at Sea quilt. You might say I have quilter's block. First, I couldn't make up my mind on how to piece the back. My daughter suggested I connect the blue fabrics in strips with curves to make it look like undulating water. I like that idea, but haven't been in the mood to work with such large pieces of fabric. The mere bulk of the project has discouraged me. We definitely need a new bed quilt before next winter, though, as the two quilts we've been using are both falling apart at the seams.

In the meantime, I still needed to do something with my hands while watching TV. I can't do embroidery, cross-stitch, or needlepoint while watching TV, because I have to keep my eye on the pattern. Cross-stitch, in particular, requires a tremendous amount of concentration, because you have to keep count of your rows and placement of colors. At least with needlepoint I can follow a color pattern that is stamped onto the canvas. Embroidery can be difficult because I have to cross-reference with the instruction booklet as to which colors, stitches, and number of strands I should be using.

For me, the ideal solution for a simple, mindless craft project that isn't too bulky, is knitting.

I have had this basket of yarns sitting around the house for years. I think I collected the yarns for art projects when I was homeschooling my kids. However, my oldest is now in college and my youngest in high school, and somehow we never used up all that yarn. I felt it was about time that I pick up the knitting needles and put all that yarn to use.

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was very little. I remember getting frustrated learning how to cast on, so my grandmother had to do the first row for me, and I did the rest until it was time to cast off. Then Grandma came to the rescue again.

The problem is that was so long ago and I didn't remember the first thing about knitting. I saw that a bookseller had a knitting kit that included a book, yarn, needles, felt, and ribbon for sale at a very affordable price, so I ordered it. At first I was completely baffled by the book. It showed so many different types of knitting techniques, and I just wanted to remember the one that my Grandmother taught me. I ended up searching the Internet for knitting videos, which are much easier to follow than illustrations in a book.

I first learned how to cast on using the long-tail technique. I think I had to watch the video six times before it clicked. I'd do a row, be dissatisfied, unravel it, start over... However, the hardest part was that second row. My cast ons were so tight that I couldn't get a needle up through the loops. I finally figured out that the knitting technique my Grandmother taught me was the English knit method. Once I did six rows of that, I worked on learning the English purl method. Now I have three techniques under my belt and can start getting more creative.

I'm relieved that I was able to relearn it on my own, because I really didn't want to have to start taking classes in town. I don't need one more appointment on my already very busy calendar. I know what you are thinking: If I have time to knit, how busy can I be? Well, believe it or not, I am outrageously busy and I watch TV just before bed as a way to relax. However, I'm still too hyper to just sit there, so I have to be doing something with my hands. Thanks to these bamboo needles, I now can watch TV and use my hands to create something without actually having to look at what I'm doing.

Storm at Sea Piecing is Complete

2008-11-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

I finally finished piecing the top of our king-sized Storm at Sea bed quilt. I laid it over our bed to get an idea of the coverage. Each block was 12"x12". I put it together 6 blocks by 8 blocks, and pieced it randomly. I tried to keep the same fabrics away from each other, but couldn't avoid it in a couple of instances.

The hardest part was getting all the points and edges to meet while sewing it together. Because I pieced it over a period of about a year, it was hard to stay consistent with my seam allowances. If you don't cut each piece exactly like the other, and don't use the exact same seam allowance, there will be variations that result in points and edges not matching up.

The next step will be to assemble a backing and patch some batting together to make it wide and long enough to cover the dimensions of the quilt, and then sandwich it all together on my quilt rack.

I made sure that the quilt will hang well over the sides of our bed, because my husband and I tend to fight over the covers. This length will allow us each more than enough material to keep us warm.

48 Blocks Later

2008-10-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the 48 Storm at Sea blocks I needed to put together a king-sized quilt. The stack is 7-inches thick.

Let me introduce you to one of my sewing machines: My old New Home. Now let me introduce you to my worst enemy:

The bobbin casing. For some reason I can never get the bobbin case to pop into its socket. I have to push and push while moving the needle up and down and maybe after five minutes of struggling it decides to go in. For that reason, I dislike it when I run out of bobbin thread.

I'm very unlucky in the sewing department. I'm surprised that I've worked in the field of fabric art for as long as I have, because Murphy's Law is in full effect when I am sewing. I got down to the last few stitches on the last block, and the bobbin thread ran out. Had that extra few inches of thread been there, I could have been done for the night. Instead I had to tack another half hour onto my sewing time while I prepared half a dozen bobbins with thread and then fussed to get that bobbin case to pop in.

Why do half a dozen bobbins need to be threaded? Because it saves me the trouble of having to unthread and then rethread the top thread each time I need to wind another bobbin. Once I get that tension set, I don't want to mess around with the threading.

Now all I've got to do is make a decision on how to join those blocks together. I was thinking of blending dark to light based upon the darkest hue in the block, but realized that some blocks might fit or match the seams better than whichever shade is next in line. I'm thinking I should join them up in a semi-random fashion, the only two deciding factors being if the seams match well and that the greens are spread out. The majority of the quilt is black, white, blue, and purple, but there is some green to make it pop. Since the green stands out, it has to be placed in a balanced manner.

Most Recent Storm at Sea Blocks

2008-08-11T20:26:00.001-07:00

Yes, I'm still working on that king-sized Storm at Sea quilt. Here are some recent blocks I created. It will be a while yet before I piece all the blocks together. Winter is always a better season for quilting, since it is too cold and wet to be outside working with my horses.

Skull & Skeleton Fabrics

2008-07-19T17:16:00.001-07:00

I know. I'm weird. Who in the world would buy fabrics with skulls and skeletons on them? Well, I have a brother who could probably use a quilt. I don't know what he's sleeping on now, but if it isn't a cardboard box or the floor, it's most likely a couch. He has very cold winters and can't afford to buy most things that a lot of us take for granted.

In his heyday, he was a Deadhead. That's a fan of the music band called "The Grateful Dead". I thought he might tolerate me making him a quilt if it reminded him of Jerry Garcia.

I have no idea how I am going to piece these fabrics yet. They don't exactly match. The orange batik fabric is a bit out of place, but so beautiful that I couldn't pass it up.

Teapot Potholders

2008-05-27T18:44:00.001-07:00

On my other blog site, Nuzzling Muzzles, I held a contest to see who could guess the date that came closest to when my new hay tarp developed its first rip. The winner of the contest won quilted potholders made by me. I decided on potholders because they are small, and I thought I could make them quickly. However, I found this project to be quite difficult, as the piecing wasn't coming together as nicely as I would have liked. I used my seam ripper in equal proportion to how much time I actually spent sewing, so the fabric ended up being worn and ragged. I had to secure it by quilting cross-hatched lines close together, which resulted in the potholders being stiff.

I took this pattern from "Cups and Saucers Paper-Pieced Kitchen Designs" by Maaike Bakker. This book includes patterns for cups on saucers, dishes, mugs, pitchers, plates and bowls in addition to the tea kettle.

Fortunately, I did some research before making the potholders and discovered that you have to use cotton batting, because polyester absorbs heat and can catch fire. You also should use a layer of Insul-Bright needled insulated lining to protect the hands from being burned while using the potholders.

Insul-Bright lining can be used for hot pads, oven mitts, tea cozies, casserole warmers, beverage holders, baby warmers, lunch bags, place mats, table runners, picnic baskets, shades, draperies, door draft stoppers, fire place covers, water heater covers, comforters, quilts, sleeping bags, water bed covers, coats and jackets, vests, ski apparel, gloves and mittens, hats, slippers, ironing board covers, and outdoor stadium cushions.

It took me about two weeks in the month of May, 2008 to complete these. My quilted items ended up being big enough (9x9") that they can be used as hot pads as well as potholders. Hopefully, the winner of my contest will get some good use out them.

Storm at Sea Progress

2008-05-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Because there is such a long blog pause between completing each of my quilts, I thought I'd post on my progress. Here are some Storm at Sea blocks that I recently completed. I'm making a quilt big enough to cover the top and sides of a California King mattress, so I have to make A LOT of these.

To help me out, my daughter gave these fabrics to me as a gift for Mother's Day:

She has shopped fabric stores with me often enough that she understands that I am not just looking for blue, teal, and green fabrics, but I am looking for fabrics that have movement that either mimics water or could be construed as water in an abstract sense. She did a good job in picking these out.

Sunburst

2008-04-17T12:53:00.001-07:00

"Sunburst" was my thirteenth project, a lap quilt with an irregular shaped border. I once again used the stack-n-whack (Bethany S. Reynolds) / kaleidoscope (Paula Nadelstern) method of rotary cutting and piecing. Each flower is stuffed to give it a 3-D effect of blooming or bursting forth. The entire quilt was machine sewn, though I don't recommend that puff quilts be quilted by machine. It was very difficult to quilt stitches around each puff on the rack, because the bulk and irregularity did not roll up evenly, causing different tensions on the material. Despite readjusting the thread tension repeatedly, the top thread still broke often and the bobbin thread got tangled beneath the sandwich.

I think this quilt was started some time in early 2007 and completed April 17, 2008. Though it is not a large quilt, it was a thorn in my side, which is why it took so long to complete. Even when I was sewing on the thin yellow border to cover the raw edges, I ran out of bobbin thread just inches before completion. I have knack for getting down the the last inch or last few seconds of a project only to have some complication fly out of left field at me. My celebratory mood gets deflated, and the process of reaching completion always take longer than anticipated.

This quilt has a yellow background and flower puffs of pink, purple, orange, yellow, and green. I grouped similar colors together to bring out a gradual blending effect. The irregular border blends from color to color as well. I did not position all the flowers before sewing, so I ended up with one row that looks straight, and as each flower was added, I discovered that I could not fit them in rows due to the irregular border. Therefore, the flowers start in a row and end up random. People have commented that it looks like a mistake. I lie and tell them I did it on purpose.

Crazy Quilt Conundrum

2008-01-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

"Crazy Quilt Conundrum" is a quilt that has no beginning and has no end. I've had it around the house for years and keep seeing some blank space where I can add more embellishments. It speaks for itself.

Stained Glass Sierra

2008-01-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

"Stained Glass Sierra" is a wall hanging that was completed in June of 2006. I created a custom design using Electric Quilt 5 software and printed out portions of the template onto 8.5x11 sheets of paper. I then pieced the sheets of paper together like a puzzle with tape. The paper templates were pinned to the fabric and the fabric was cut out, then sewn together by machine. I then pinned and sewed black bias tape along the seams where different color fabrics were joined together, giving the illusion of stained glass. Most of the fabrics were specifically for stained glass quilts, but I took the liberty to adding in flower prints with thick outlines to echo the thick bias tape. The design includes two rows of flowers in front of a meadow and a pine tree, which are in front of Job's Peak, Lake Tahoe, and the setting sun. The sky displays variations of a sunset. We could not find a way to hang it due to its irregular shape, which is a rectangle with a rounded top -- like a church window, so I taped the edges to the wall with packing tape.

Jungle Luscious

2008-01-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

"Jungle Luscious" is a lap quilt with an irregular shaped edge and zebra stripes for a border. The main colors are a plant leaf green and orange. A jungle fabric was used that contained animals, plants and flowers cut and pieced into a kaleidoscope (Paula Nadelstern) / stack-n-whack (Bethany S. Reynolds) pattern with six 60-degree triangles. Quilted with a long arm machine on a rack, which was challenging because the needle couldn't penetrate the center where six pieces met, so I had to swing around the centers. Since there was such a radical change in thickness of fabric based on how many pieces met at the seams, the sewing machine kept jumping and the stitches came out sloppy and uneven. There was one corner where the backing and the binding didn't meet. The quilt is interesting to look at from a distance, but the stitching is horrendous. It took one or two years to complete the quilt, because I was so busy. I finished it in August of 2005.

World Without End

2008-01-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

"World Without End" was my tenth quilt, created on impulse after being inspired by the "World Without End" pattern found in "The Big Book of Quilting" by Cassia B. Farkas. I had been wanting to construct a "Storm at Sea" pattern, which is very complicated, and the "World Without End" pattern looked like a good stepping stone toward "Storm at Sea." For coloring, I chose light and dark greens alternating with light and dark purples. Much white was used for the lighter pieces to assure definite contrast. Many different pictures can be seen within the rotating patterns including stars, fish and spaceships. The backing is dark purple and was folded over to be used as binding around the edges. The quilt turned out to be about the size needed for a twin bed. I believe I began constructing it while between jobs in 2003 or 2004 and finished it while between jobs in August of 2005.

Chicken Prints

2008-01-05T19:39:00.001-08:00

"Chicken Prints" was a set of place mats constructed from Moda's "All Cooped Up" fabrics. One side is a motif of chickens surrounded by chicken footprints. The other side is a motif of chicken coop wire surrounded by chicken footprints. The colors are primarily off-white, black and burgundy. I used a chicken coop wire motif for the quilt stitches. This was a gift for my mother's 72nd birthday, and it took two days to make; completed in August of 2005. I used temporary basting glue to help keep the seams of the binding turned under as I pinned it.

Star Garden

2008-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

"Star Garden" was my eighth quilt, a piano bench cover with an irregular shaped border. This quilt is reversible with stars made out of jungle flower print fabric and greens on one side, and stars made out of a multi-colored striped straw-like geometric print fabric and yellow and purple on the other side. I used the stack-n-whack (Bethany S. Reynolds) / kaleidoscope (Paula Nadelstern) method of rotary cutting and piecing. The entire quilt was machine sewn. The quilting consisted of following the 60-degree triangle borders on one side, which results in the thread not matching the seams on the other side. Sloppy, sloppy, but interesting.

Always in Bloom

2008-01-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

"Always in Bloom" was my seventh quilt, a gift for my mother's 70th birthday. It was started in June of 2002 and finished in July of 2002. It was an experimental effort that was a cross between kaleidoscope (Paula Nadelstern) / stack-n-whack (Bethany S. Reynolds) and puff quilt methodology. The same fabric triangle was cut 6 times, and then the wedges were sewn together for a kaleidoscope effect. The fabric used was a bright medium print with a variety of colors, flowers, and leaves. I returned to the fabric store 3 times to purchase more of this fabric in order to have 6 repeats available to make enough patches for a twin-sized bed quilt. In all my fabric quests, I had never found a bolt that lends itself more to this type of project. The variety of hexagonal blocks that could be created from this particular fabric seemed endless. Some blocks ended up being primarily green, some white, some pink, some red, some blue, and some purple. I bought a bolt of leafy green solid Wal-Mart special for $2.00 a yard to use as the background, backing, and binding. I appliquéd each hexagon block onto the background and stuffed it before closing. This gave each block a 3-dimensional effect of a blooming kaleidoscope of flowers. I machine quilted around each hexagon to attach the top, the batting, and the backing. Because the blocks were stuffed, it was impossible to sew the background and backing taut without having a professional setup.

Fuzzy Rag

2008-01-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

"Fuzzy Rag" was my sixth quilt, started in December of 2001 and completed in January 2002. It was pieced together in squares from flannel fabrics that were given to me as a gift from my husband on our 13th wedding anniversary. (Fabric is always a great gift for quilters on any occasion.) This quilt was modeled after several rag throws I spotted hanging in various fabric shops. It was stitched with wrong sides together, and the seams became the fuzzy part by cutting them into tassels and washing. The flannel fabrics display a fall theme with fall colors and leaf motifs. This lap quilt is just as warm as double-layered quilts with batting, only without the bulk. If you want a fast project, this is the way to go.

A Pocketful O' Friends

2008-01-05T18:28:00.001-08:00

"A Pocketful O' Friends" includes two wall hangings with quilted pockets for the purpose of storing Beanie Babies and other stuffed animals. The design was based on the "Signs & Symbols" wall hanging on page 79 of "Scrap Quilts Fast and Fun", edited by Patricia Wilens. My daughter helped trace and cut out the shapes that were placed in the center of each pocket, including circles, squares, triangles, diamonds, hearts and stars. The fabrics were bright, high contrast colors, and black and white stripes, checks, polka dots and swirls. My son's quilt background was a fluorescent blue, and my daughter's was a fluorescent green. Both the background and pockets were quilted with a scribble pattern using black thread and a walking foot. Though no borders were created and the edges ended up jagged, I considered these two quilts an opportunity to practice quilting. My daughter and I decided that the more mistakes I make -- the better, since we wanted the quilts to look as if a child had slapped them together. The quilts were started around July 2001 and finished just before Christmas 2001.

Waves of Memories

2008-01-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

"Waves of Memories" was my third quilt, constructed from the clothes my son wore between the ages of 2 and 7. It is a twin-sized bed spread that my son has been using for the past 7 years. It was pieced from a "Charmed Ogee" template with attempts at alternating light and dark blocks. The border is green broadcloth with burgundy binding. The backing was pieced with green, burgundy, and dusty blue broadcloth. A tulip template was followed for quilting in the corners. Otherwise, the rest of the quilting involved stitching in the curvy ditches. This quilt was started around January of 2001 and completed around June of 2001, and given to my son as a gift.

Lessons learned: Use safety pins for basting, not thread, and always start quilting from the center. Be careful when piecing different fabric types. This quilt involved attaching cotton to spandex to flannel to polyester...

Sunflower Setting

2008-01-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

"Sunflower Setting" was my second quilt. This is just a small portion of it. In my frazzle frenzy, I've managed to wear it down so much that many of the seams are ripped and patiently waiting for repair. Since then I have learned to allow bigger seams and double stitch to prevent ripping. It sports hand-designed sunflowers and leaves pieced from a variety of fabrics and laid upon a sunset background. The sunset includes lavender, deep purple, electric blue, and a black night sky print with white stars. Sections of the sunset include a 3-color pattern called "Evening at the Lily Pond." The borders are two forest green prints with golden sunflowers, lined with lavender and deep purple oblong triangles. The majority was hand-sewn, but the time pressure to complete the quilt by Christmas led to the borders, rough appliquéd sunflowers and backing to be machine sewn. There was not enough of one broadcloth color to cover all the backing, so I cut four broadcloth colors (lavender, deep purple, light green, and forest green) into large triangles and machine-pieced them together. I had made several trips to the fabric department to acquire more broadcloth, but the hues of each bolt were drastically different. I'm sloppy about doing the math BEFORE I start a project, and often suffer the consequences later. This quilt was originally planned to be a wall hanging, however it grew into a monstrosity that ended up being a queen-sized bed cover. Gold metallic thread was used to tack down the sunflower petals, and at the same time quilt a satin stitch through the three layers, which created sunflower outlines on the back. Green thread outlined the large leaves in the leaf stitch. It was started around July of 2000 and completed by Christmas of 2000.

First Child

2008-01-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

My first quilt was called "First Child." It is a twin-sized bed spread constructed from the clothes that my daughter wore between the ages of 2 and 8. Children's clothes are loaded with interesting patterns and color schemes. The quilt is composed of 9 rows of 6 "Dutchman's Wheels," 8-inch blocks separated by mauve, rose, and rust borders. "Flying Geese" line the outside border. The backing is a dusty-blue rose print. The pieces were rotary cut and hand-sewn. The layers were tied together with triple French knots originally, but they easily broke since my daughter has kept the quilt on her bed for 7 years now. I quilted a train of elephants on it to hold it together years later. The quilt was started around January of 2000 and completed around August of 2000. It was given to my daughter shortly after she turned 10-years-old.

My Design Wall

2008-01-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

The is the king-sized Storm at Sea bed quilt I am currently working on. I hung a fuzzy, cream colored blanket over a dowel, and pin my blocks to it as I complete each of them. Once I have all the blocks, I can move them around on this design wall to see which color combinations work best together both close up and from a distance. It sure beats having to vacuum the floor before laying them down, and then having the dogs walk all over them!

The First Stitch

2008-01-05T14:34:00.001-08:00

I vividly remember the day I decided to start quilting. I had been working 60 to 80 hours a week as a software tester and desperately needed to relieve some stress. Though out of character for me, I left my computer to take a long walk and ended up in the stationary aisle of a supermarket. There on the cover of a quilting magazine was the most extraordinary design of pieced fabric I had ever seen. Just looking at it relaxed me, so I bought it and kept the magazine on my desk at the office until I finally found the time to pick up some quilting supplies of my own.

I soon found myself hand-piecing various quilts in my recliner each evening before bed, and slept much better after all that sewing. The meditative quality of pushing and pulling a needle and thread was just what I needed to lower my blood pressure and gather my wits at the end of each day. Shopping for fabric for current and future projects became a favorite past-time, and I found that I was most attracted to vivid colors, mostly purples and greens. After a while I had to balance out my stash with other colors and varying shades of lights, mediums, and darks.

I have an old New Home sewing machine that has served me well. However, as I became more ambitious with my quilting, I needed a long-arm machine in order to sew my bed quilts. So, I bought a long-arm Brother sewing machine and quilting rack to rein in all those layers of fabric and batting. My quilting frame usually has a quilt on it, and is the first thing that people see when they enter my home. I am often asked if I sell my quilts, and my answer is always that I hope to someday, but I can't seem to let go of the ones I've already made.

My fabric stash: All the blues are missing, because I am in the middle of piecing a king-sized Storm at Sea bed quilt.