My Amish Quilt

My husband and I recently traveled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for our son's wedding, and while in Amish country, we perused a couple of quilt shops.  My husband wanted to purchase a quilt for a full bed in our back bedroom.  He was drawn to a beautiful cream and white applique quilt, but I had to remind him of our dog.  Then we debated over a fantastic Tumbling Blocks quilt.  After much deliberation, we agreed on purchasing this one:

This is a Curvy Log Cabin by Rachel Lantz.  We purchased it from Village Quilts at Kitchen Kettle Village in the small town of Intercourse, PA.  Yes, it was very expensive, but handmade, heirloom quality quilts often increase in value with age, so we're considering it an investment.

I normally prefer bright colors.  My husband and I have learned that we each see colors differently.  What I see as yellow, he sees as white.  What I see as orange, he sees as red.  The two colors that have the strongest saturation for me are teal and purple, so I love those two colors together.  I gravitate toward them.  We had seen a purple and teal quilt in another shop, but it was king sized and appeared to be mostly machine sewn.  Most of the quilts available at the second shop we visited had subtle, more neutral color schemes, but this one caught my eye because of its use of batik fabrics.  There were small sections of teal and purple that jumped out at me.

When I first started quilting nearly 30 years ago, I loved the batik fabrics, but could not afford to buy them.  When I first saw this Curvy Log Cabin quilt, it was hanging on a rack.  Linda Wenzler spread it out for us on a bed and it really popped.  I couldn't take my eyes off it.  Every time I look at it, I see something else I hadn't seen before.  Even the white portion has different fabrics of varying whites and off-whites, some solids, some patterns, adding to the dimension.  Just the complexity of the design is awe-inspiring.

I learned so much from Linda.  Her shop sells one-of-a-kind quilts.  Nothing is mass produced.  They may carry quilts of the same pattern, but there is always some variation.  The artists sometimes have small groups of quilters help them piece and quilt the bedspreads together, but the quilts are mostly hand-sewn.  You can view their quilts online.  I had mine shipped to me to avoid finding room for it in our suitcase.  It arrived in a special case with care instructions.

We took a quick spin around the countryside on our way to the airport and came upon many horse drawn carriages, as well as men and horses plowing fields.

The wedding was beautiful.  Now that we are home, I've been getting my ducks in a row to prepare for my total hip replacement surgery.  My daughter is here helping keep things running smoothly around the ranch while I'm off my anti-inflammatory medication in the week before the surgery.  The surgeon promises that I will feel much better soon.  He said that the damage from my arthritis is severe.  While that's not a good thing, it was nice to hear a doctor finally acknowledge all the pain I've been in these past few years.

It's been hard having people ask me to do simple things, and me having to stave off panic attacks knowing how painful doing that one task is going to be for me.  I've actually spent the past couple of years of my life trying to keep people at arm's length so that they won't ask me to do anything outside of my normal routine.  Every little thing has been a big deal for me.  It will be nice to get back to some normalcy and not have to think twice about every action I take.

Current Projects

For years I have been collecting quilting patterns that involve kitchen related graphics like cups and saucers with the intention of making a wall hanging for my kitchen or a table runner.

I have never done paper piecing like this before.  I have to make two copies of a pattern, cutting one into pieces, laying the pieces onto fabrics, and cutting with a seam allowance around each piece.  Then I lay the pieces in the specified order onto the back on the other pattern copy and sew right through the paper along the edges.

When I am all done with the piecing and sewing and turn the paper over, this is what I get...

It's a crazy looking block.  I obviously did a better job matching up seams on the right side.  This was just my test piece.  It took me several weeks to construct it because I've been so busy doing other things.  I don't know if I'll be able to use it.  I might just consider the effort practice for bigger and better things.

The other project I've had on my To Do List is to recreate my favorite top from scratch.  I've worn this knit top for years, but now the material is very thin and the seams are coming apart.  I haven't been able to find anything like this top, and I was having a hard time letting it go, so I shopped around in fabric shops looking for a knit fabric that would be fun to wear.  I picked out the black scrolls with pink flowers on white background with black trim.

I have never sewn clothing from a knit before, and am already having trouble getting straight cuts because the edges curl.  Since knits stretch, I suspect that sewing will be a challenge too.  I am definitely not a fashion designer, but I'll call it a learning experience.

Done!

I finally finished my brother's Grateful Dead quilt. Here's the front...

And the back...

I tend to just use whatever material I have available to make the backing, and since I was short on time, this backing is very simple.

My long-arm quilting machine gave me fits with changing tension each time I had to swap out the bobbin thread, so there were some places where the stitching was loose and messy. I tried going over those spots with my reliable Singer Heavy Duty short arm machine, but found that without having the quilt on the rack, I couldn't create circles. Instead I just hand-stitched in the places that needed repair. Now I'm off to find a box to ship the quilt in.

My Life Story

See that bobbin sitting on my quilt?  That's how close I was to the end of this quilting project before the bobbin thread ran out.  Oh, I don't mind winding the bobbin with fresh thread, but I hate having to spend what feels like hours adjusting and readjusting the top and bottom thread tension once I put a new, full bobbin into the machine.  Had the old thread held out until the end of the project, I could have been done quilting in literally two minutes.  Instead it took me two hours to get through this last row and a half of stitches.  That's my life story.  I'm the runner who trips over her own shoelaces just seconds before she's about the cross the finish line.

To make matters worse, when I did finally finish those two rows, I accidentally stitched the quilt to the leader fabric on the quilt rack, so now I get to spend hours ripping out the last row to free my quilt from the rack, and then I will have to re-sew the last row off the rack on another machine.  The last few steps are always the hardest, even though you have all that experience behind you.  Oh well, at least I will be able to dismantle my quilt rack soon and put it back in its box.   I know that if I were retired or a professional quilter, I'd be doing this activity more often and be more aware of the potential hazards, and therefore be able avoid such pitfalls, but so is life.

Struggles with Machine Quilting

I decided to try to hurry and sandwich together my brother's quilt, machine sew it, and mail it off to him before I move out of state. I wanted to use the quilt rack one last time before tearing it down.

I managed to recall how to connect everything from memory. Usually, when a few years pass between quilts, I have to view the tutorial tape, which is on VHS, and our tape player is broken.

I forgot how fussy my Brother quilting machine can be. The only thing about it that is easy is winding the bobbin. However trying to pick up the bobbin thread is another deal. It usually takes several attempts of readjusting the location of the bobbin thread tail before the top thread can pick it up.

Then when you start quilting, there is always this deep thump, thump, thump, which is a telltale sign that the thread is getting bunched up underneath the quilt. You have to rip everything out, pull all the excess thread off the bobbin, and start over.

I spend a good half hour just adjusting and readjusting the thread tension on both the bobbin case and the machine before I can get a decent stitch. Unfortunately, because half of my backing is black and half of my backing is white, and I'm using black thread, I couldn't see that the tension was way too loose until I looked underneath the quilt rack at the black on white thread.

Now I remember why I've been spending the past year hand-quilting my Storm at Sea quilt, because I hate using that machine.  I also know why it takes a whole village to sew an extra large bed quilt.  I just hope I finish the hand-quilting project before I die.

My brother's quilt is a complete mess, but because I have to tear down the quilt rack and box it up to move, I don't have the time to rip all the thread out, buy a new spool and start over. My brother is not picky. I'll just apologize for my lack of talent, I guess. It's the thought that counts, right?  When it comes to quilting, I'm just happy if I can complete a single project.

The First Stitch

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.