Winter Quilt

I had planned to be a sewing whiz this weekend, completing all of my unfinished quilts. Great plan but I got side tracked a bit when I slightly threw my back out, (from lifting up Molasses)... she may be short in height, but she is long in body... and 45 pounds of wiggly Molasses may be good for my soul but not for my back. All I can say is thank goodness for heating pads, pain killers and Mo's sweet face!


I was determined to get something done though and did finish this quilt. It looks very nice against the bare robin's egg blue walls of our dining room, which need a little something, so I plan on hanging it there. I especially like the big F & M , (do you see it?) on one of the feedsack strips. Hubby and I got married in the F & M College chapel, so the quilt has a bit of personal symbolism in it, which makes me happy!


The colors in the quilt remind me of winter, so that's what I am calling it.


Here's the back side. You can better see the various quilting stitches I used all over the piece... zig-zags, wiggles and straight stitches. (Wiggles... now there's a very technical term!) xo

String Study and Quilting Questions

Another small scrap quilt exploring line, color and texture.


This String Study Art Quilt measures 8 1/4" x 15 3/4" and is available here.

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I have been receiving questions lately as to whether or not I quilt my pieces on a longarm machine, (A special sewing machine that is attached to a long quilting frame. The quilter controls the machine standing up, holding onto the machines handle bars. The machine glides back and forth across the quilt. It is possible to quilt an entire king size bed quilt in a matter of hours with one of these babies!)


... The answer is No!
I, at this time can neither afford one, (even the poor man's version) nor do I have any room to set one up in my pretty cramped abode. (Just ask my poor neglected beautiful floor loom, sitting alone and unused, folded up in a cramped section of our cold... very, very cold, basement. If there's no room for her, there's no room for a longarm!) I do all of my sewing and quilting on my trusty 12 year old Bernina. A discontinued, (but once top of the line) model #1630, which in my humble opinion was the best model they ever made, and I love her dearly!

I have also been asked what quilting stitch I used on this quilt. Well, on my machine it is simply referred to as "Practical stitch #4". When set to it's standard stitch length of 1/4 and stitch width of 5, it is basically a close zigzag stitch made up of lots of small stitches. (Sorry I don't have a picture of that. I just happened to take these photos last week. As I type this it is night time and I am too tired to try and get a decent shot of what "Practical stitch #4" normally looks like.)


Anyway, for this quilt, the stitch length was switched to a 2 and stitch width kept at a 5. This minor adjustment made a completely new stitch. Now of course your machine is likely different then mine, but I would encourage you to play around with different stitches, and variations on the width and length settings and see what you come up with.

By the way, I used a walking foot when quilting this. Anytime I do any standard machine quilting... (other then free-motion quilting which is when you use a darning foot, set the stitch length to zero, drop your feed dogs and go baby go!) ... where the fabric travels in a straight line under the presser foot and above the feed dogs like in regular sewing, I use a walking foot. They run about $100.00 for a Bernina. (Bernina attachments ain't cheap!) The investment is worth every penny though, as a walking foot enables all 3 layers of the quilt; top, batting and backing, to be fed evenly through the machine. If I were to use a regular presser foot, the layers would feed unevenly, causing a sloppy quilting job, with puckers and folds.

Hope that helps!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Shades of Pink and Coral

This is my latest piece.
I find it very calming and decided to call it "Early Sunday Morning".
Sunday mornings around my home are generally very low key and easy going. Early in the morning there's a feeling of tranquility which even seems to translate into the light that shines in through the windows. I get the same feeling from these gentle shades of coral and pink.


I love how the quilting turned out. It was one of those splendid accidents. I had just oiled my machine and was sewing a piece of scrap fabric through, something I always do after an oiling... it helps to get all of the oil distributed... and my hand accidently hit on a stitch that I never use, and as I moved my hand away I wound up accidently swiping the stitch length control. Because I was just doing maintenance, I went ahead and started stitching on the scrap fabric... And to my delight I loved what I saw being stitched! Amazing what a little adjustment in stitch length and width can do. Note to self: Explore more stitches and variations of the stitches on sewing machine.


I am putting this one in my functional art quilts category, because I think it works equally well on the wall and on the table.


Early Sunday Morning-Modern Functional Art Quilt measures 23.5" x 36.5" and is available in my
Silly BooDilly shop.

Note: This quilt has been sold.

Building an Improvised Quilt

Last month, when I finally got to see the quilts of Gee's Bend up close and in person, I was most delighted and energized to see how freely the quilts had been built. The Gee's Bend Ladies sometimes compare constructing a quilt to building a house. Lots of the quilts began with a square or rectangular piece of fabric. This would be the base, or foundation of the house. Strips, (like walls) are added to all of the sides. And from there more is added... a bit of this and a bit of that... building the quilt up... no pattern... everything improvised.


This made perfect sense to me, because I never work from a pattern, they completely confuse, and I admit, bore me! (At times, when working with different publishers, I have had to create patterns for pieces that I have already made, drawing up diagrams and writing step by step directions on how to make one of my pieces. This always makes me feel a bit awkward because it is so contrary to how my mind actually works.)


Keeping those Gee's Bend quilts in mind, (specifically the one's which started with a basic squarish shape) I began to construct this Flower Garden Art Quilt. I decided to only use scraps of fabric which were left over from some previous projects, and made a pact with myself that once the scraps were used up, I would stop... and that's just what I did!


I started with the center square, next added on the strips, and just kept building and adding until my scraps were used up.


I also noticed upon observing the Gee's Bend quilts, that the hand quilting on the pieces were often done in arcs. I decided to also quilt this piece in arc shapes, but used machine quilting, as that's what I perfer.


This is the back of the quilt. You can really see the quilting here. I just use my regular sewing machine and a walking foot, (a special foot that helps all of the layers feed evenly through the feed dogs.)

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I would absolutely love to see the creativity that could come from every sewer if patterns were thrown out! Just imagine the wonderful array of originality in design and construction that would be unleashed on the world!

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NOTE: As I was writing up this blog post, Jacquie over at TallGrass Prairie Studio was on a similar train of thought and had already posted the day before about her great idea Project Improv, a quilting collaboration that shares in and supports the efforts, process and results of those wanting to make improvised quilts of any size! Each participant is encouraged to make a project for themselves and to also make and send in a 12.5" improvised log cabin block from one of 3 selected color combos. The individual blocks are to be sewn into quilts and donated to charity. I think this project is a great idea, and I will be participating in the challenge and donating a block in Orange and Pink. I encourage anyone else who is interested to go to Jacquie's blog and join in on the fun! (Last I checked I believe she already had over 70 people respond to her post!)

In Search of Warmth

One kind word can warm three winter months.
~Japanese Proverb


The weather has turned wintery and blustery. We've even had a bit of snow over the last few days. Just like every year when the winter starts creeping in, my mind becomes consumed with how I can stay warm. This usually manifests in a compulsion to make scarves.

Years ago I use to weave them. (My beautiful floor loom sits lonely and unused these days in my basement, someday I will get back to her.) As the kids were growing up I use to crochet them, (the scarves, not the kids.) A few times I tried my hand at knitting them, but it always made me tense and I would start looking at the knitting needles more as torture devices then creative tools.


This year it occurred to me to try quilting some, (duh... seems obvious, with me being a quilter but the thought never occurred to me before.)


Here's my first one. I was very happy with how it came out, and decided to put it in my shop here. I am working on several more, and will eventually pick one to wrap around my own neck!

Sneak Peek

Here's a little sneak peak at what I am working on. The quilting is all done, but I still need to attach the binding and machine wash it. I like machine washing these functional art quilts as a final step in their creation. I like how washing changes the hand of it, making it softer and bringing out the natural puckering and texture that makes quilts so appealing.


For this quilt I decided to just do closely spaced rows of vertical stitching. I love how the lines of stitching look, but I still am not achieving the varied colored overlay stripped look that I am going for with the stitching. Here, I alternated grouped rows of yellow thread with grouped rows of pink thread, but they wound up blending in a bit more then I had hoped, (although I still think it looks good.) I think I either need to use thread colors that contrast very strongly with the fabric color, or use a heavier thread. Sulky makes a really lovely heavy machine quilt thread, but at about $5.50 a spool... caa-ching, caa-ching!... that really adds up! I'll be posting pics of the whole quilt once I get her finished.

Also, continued thanks for all of the good wishes for Mo. I am so happy and grateful to say that she has been having some really good days, and has even started playing with her toys again. I think all of the extra love and attention she is receiving, plus the kind wishes sent her way, is doing her wonders, and I am so thankful for each good day that she has.

Work in Progress

No chance yet to delve into the new fabrics... I am practicing restraint until I finish up some previously started projects! Here are some close up shots of one of the quilts which I am currently working on. Lots of machine quilting on this one! (By the way, my camera was behaving very wacky-doodle-lee, and so the color is off on all of these pictures. The quilt is actually a rich dark brown and lovely deep aqua).


Quilting on the machine.


Front side of quilt showing some sections quilted, and some not yet done. (Click on the photo to see close up detail).


Back side of quilt showing the detail of the machine quilting.