Picture Frame Quilt Blocks

Our local cultural arts foundation has a thrift sale every spring. Last spring, I purchased this pretty frame.

I thought it would be fun to make some tiny quilt blocks to display. It was in my basket of things I should do something with, but I had forgotten all about it until I saw an advertisement for this year's thrift sale. Better use last year's purchase before venturing out for new treasures this year.

I pulled out my bin of unsorted scraps to see what inspired me. Originally, I thought I would try to stick with solids for this project, but then I saw the Kaffe floral print that is laying across my notebook in the above photo. It is one of my favorites and only continues to exist as 2" wide scraps in my bin. With such tiny blocks, these flowers would work great as fussy cut pieces for my blocks.

The smallest square in the frame is only 1 3/4" so that certainly limited the number of pieces I could work with in each block. The nine-patch block finishes at three inches square. I ended up with a square in a square,

a fussy cut flower,

a nine-patch (the photo is blurry but I thought it was fun that you can see my reflection taking the picture),

a rail fence block,

and a quarter dresden.

Here they are all together. I thought I would have to work hard to get them to stay in place in the frame, but they were easy to lay directly on the glass. The frame back holds them perfectly.

I love how projects like this evolve. This looks nothing like I had sketched in my notebook, but I am just as happy with the end result. What a nice way to spend an afternoon sewing.

Old Family Quilts

There aren't very many quilts in my family. My mom is one of three girls so the quilts were divided among them when my grandmother passed away. I'm very fortunate to have two of them, though I'm not even sure who made them. It was either my grandmother, Ruby Frances, or my great grandmother, Eunice. It could have even been both of them; my grandfather died young and my grandmother and great grandmother shared a home throughout my life. Neither had a love for quilting though. These were made out of need. Anytime I would try to ask my grandmother about quilting she wouldn't have much to say. She was a very shy and quiet woman who would always dismiss any suggestion that something she made was good or beautiful.

The pink quilt appears to have enjoyed a full life with a daily dose of sunshine on the bottom right quadrant. That whole area of the quilt is very faded.

Today, this quilt spends its days in this cradle that was made by my father-in-law. He was a fantastic wood worker and this is one of his best and most treasured pieces. The Raggedy Andy belongs to my husband. 

I am sure the majority of the fabric in this quilt is from clothing worn over the years. My guess is that both of these quilts were made in the 1970s.

The blue quilt now spends its days on my bed. I love the colors and construction. I love the weight of it, too. It's a little on the small side for a queen size bed, though.

One of the projects on my list this year is to make a larger, more contemporary version of this quilt so that my bed will be fully covered and both can live there together, complementing each other.

The solid fabrics that are thrown in here and there really add to the sparkle of this quilt.

I am honored and thankful that these quilts have been entrusted to my care. Their history and beauty inspire me everyday.

Faith, Family, and Friends

Recently, I started a quilt that had lots of raw edge fusible applique (see that work in progress here). At first, I thought that the scraps from that project would just go in the trash. They couldn't go back in my regular stash since there was sticky fusible on the back side of each piece. But as the scraps piled up, I decided there must be something I could do with the leftovers. And that's how this project started.

I had seen a sign on Pinterest that said, "Faith Family Friends". I liked the sentiment and the reminder of what is important in life. The project was added to my wish list of new projects for 2013. Using these scraps for this project was the perfect combination of making something new out of something that *almost* went in the trash.

The first step was to decide on a font. My daughter, Erica, helped me with that, since she has a "thing" about fonts and collects copyright free fonts. This font is called "return to sender". Do fonts get named by the same folks that name paint colors? We blew it up to a good size, printed it, and then traced the letters onto two-sided fusible, which, as a reminder, should always be traced in reverse. Not that I forgot that...again...ahem.

Using a water soluble marker, a rectangle was drawn on the background to frame the letters. A second rectangle was drawn two-inches outside the first one. This formed a boundary, or frame, for the scraps.

I used a method often called "snippets". The paper from the fusible is peeled off the back of the fabric scraps and small pieces are cut at random and scattered within the borders of the frame.

I tried to relax and let the pieces fall where they may, but there was some manipulation needed to make them line up around the borders correctly. I did not iron the letters down until after the frame was complete.

Once the frame was filled with fabric, the whole piece went to the ironing board to get it all fused down.

Here's a close up of all those little scraps. It makes it look like a whole new fabric.

To quilt this, I sewed around the letters using a straight stitch with matching thread. Then, with cream thread, I outlined the frame with a quarter-inch inside and outside the frame. For the last quilting step, with a variegated thread, I used a free motion back and forth stitch, covering all of the frame, just to make sure none of those scraps decide to loosen up and escape over time.

When I first showed these to my family, the first comment was, "Don't let anyone see the back!".

Which means that I absolutely have to show you. These are some Martha Negley prints that were in my stash. I knew I wasn't likely to use them in a project, and they do make cute backs...even if they are sideways. Who's gonna know? The back will be up against the wall, so I'm okay with crazy backs...and crazy family members who worry about such things.

The wall these will go on has always been kind of bare, with just a small project or clock hanging in its center. It was screaming for something more.

And now, this wall makes a great statement. This was such a fun project to make, and I'm happy for another finish for the year.

A Lovely Year of Finishes: February

After posting recently about all of my unfinished projects, I found a great way to make some progress. A couple of blogging gals put together "2013: A Lovely Year of Finishes". It's fun to be part of an encouraging group of folks all focused on the same goal...finishing one project each month. And even better, for each successful finish, there is a chance to win some fabulous prizes. It's a win-win, right?

 

Here's my project for February. Doesn't it look finished? I made this sample in a hurry when Marti Michell came to the shop to teach this class, way back in 2008 I think. It is pieced; it is layered; the edges are finished, but there's NO quilting. Not a stitch. It never bothered me until I started focusing on improving my quilting. Now it looks so empty, so blank. This is the month it will be finished. And it isn't just going to get a little quilting; it's going to get a lot of quilting.

A big flower in the center of each block, some pebbles all over the header, and something yet to be determined in the bands around each block. I used fusible batting when I put it together, so I'm hoping the layers are smooth and stable enough so that I don't get much shifting and puckering. They even have a cool button that I've added over on the left side of my blog.

Even though I already had a loose plan to make some progress on all those unfinished projects, this is going to be just the thing to make 2013 "A Lovely Year of Finishes".

Quilting Practice - Leaves

Quilting practice continues with an attempt to quilt leaves. The quilting designs are getting more challenging as I go. This one was mostly a challenge of memory motor skills. Some of the leaves would develop with ease while others evolved with many awkward starts and stops as I figured out where I wanted to go.

I enjoyed practicing on this block since there was lots of quilting real estate. I was able to both intentionally and unintentionally play around with the size of my leaves. There isn't a "real" project lined up for this quilting design yet. This one will require a little more practice before fully diving in.
 

Three of the twenty blocks I made last year as part of Craftsy's block of the month class are now quilted. My plan is to bind them separately and hang them as a group. I have a vision of all twenty blocks hanging together to make the appearance of a "quilt" while they remain as twenty separate pieces. The vision and the reality don't always come together, and we'll just have to see how this one evolves.

Paisleys are next on the practice list. They are similar to the leaves except they don't have points. They just *might* be a little easier.

Unfinished Project Inventory

I am a finisher. Really, I am. And yes, I'm being defensive. You'll understand why in just a second. These are my unfinished projects in their bins.

And here they are out of their bins. They aren't all pictured here. There are 37 in all. 37!!! Most of them are unfinished tops that hung in my now closed quilt shop. When the shop was open, there was a constant need to promote new fabric, a new book, or a new pattern. A quilt top was usually enough to get the message across, and that's how this stack accumulated.

I want to finish them, and will finish them, and then will probably put them up for sale in my etsy shop once they are done. On the positive side, there won't be a shortage of projects to use for quilting practice for a long, long time. My thought is that I should go on an every other project plan. Make a new project; finish an older one, though the new projects seem to grab hold of me before I decide on an older one. At least there are lots of styles and options to choose from.

This one was made while I was teaching a class based on Debbie Caffrey's patterns.

This one was made to show off a new Moda fabric group and a new book about quilting with Jelly Rolls.

This cute baby quilt top was appliqued by my friend, Holley, and was made to show off Kaffe Fassett fabric and a new book.

This bold, festive, Christmas quilt, was made to showcase Michael Miller fabrics.

And this was made from batik fabrics from a book full of charm square quilts.

Looking through these quilts is like a walk down memory lane. There are a lot of things I miss about the quilt shop, but I am happy that I can spend my sewing time doing my own thing these days. While my days as a retail shop owner are done, there's still a quilting career in my future somewhere. It's nice to explore and ponder those possibilities. It's a winding path that is bound to eventually lead to another fun adventure. Until then, I'm going to see what I can do to subtract a few from the unfinished inventory.

Work In Progress - Circular Reasoning

After dropping some really big hints, Santa kindly left this pattern in my stocking.

Pattern by Emily Cier of Carolina Patchwork

I am especially drawn to quilts with words and letters and this one definitely caught my eye. I don't purchase many patterns, preferring to do my own thing most of the time, but when I saw this version on Emily's blog, I was hooked.

From the blog of Emily Cier, Carolina Patchwork

This quilt will look fantastic in my office, and is something I will not tire of quickly. Her rainbow example is made with scraps, which I love, but am not willing to invest quite that much time to make. My version will use Kaffe Fassett prints instead. As with most projects, things have to get a little messy in the beginning.

I auditioned just about every Kaffe Fassett print I own and made lots of changes before being happy with my choices. One thing I really liked about Emily's rainbow example is the way the light and dark fabrics are arranged. It give the quilt a dimensional feel.

I mimicked that as best I could, knowing there would likely be more substitutions along the way.

It really makes a difference going from blobs of fabric to the actual letters. I'm liking it so far. The letters are temporarily pinned to the background. I'm not quite ready to commit to fusing them to the background just yet.

There's no rush on this project. I'm sure it will be picked up and put down many times along the way. Once I fuse the letters down, I plan to stitch around each one. I'm not sure if I'll blanket stitch or straight stitch yet. And this one will be fun to quilt, too. It might take a while, but I'll keep you posted as this work in progress continues.