Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

C-ing Double, Square 22

C-ing Double, Square 23

C-ing Double, Square 24

I may do more to get a decent sized child's shelter quilt.

 

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C-ing Double Border.

Burnt a little midnight oil and got the C-ing Double quilt done.

 

[freedombecki]

Planning to do 12 squares using Mockingbirds from an old cotton quilt print by Northcott Fabrics of Canada. Before leaving for Texas, I took the rest of the bolt to make Texas quilts with when I got here. To my joy, surprise and delight there are gazillions of mockingbirds that visit our acreage every day fo the summer. They're real characters and it's a trip to watch their crazy antics, and just as delightful hear a male trill out a hundred calls. I found the fabric after 3 years that we've been here. It just showed up in one of my green fabric trunks. My sister threw a birthday party for me last week, and I noticed somehow, she'd gotten her hands on a yard or so of the fabric to do her kitchen curtains with. Que coincidence!
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Crazy Quilt square, 10"
Mockingbird

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[koshergrl]

This thread always trips me out and gets me all worked up!

Then I collapse.

 

[freedombecki]

This thread always trips me out and gets me all worked up!

Then I collapse.

It's okay. Having kids under the roof and a day job does that. I started quilting early on, but didn't really get into nonstop quilting until I started a quilt store from a trunkful of threads I bought at a going-out-of-business sale 200 miles down the road from where we lived. It took a few years to get going, but I spent the years making and designing quilts and learning how to write books to help students understand what I did. I was getting best of shows. These days, I'm playing toward the goal of doing 100 small quilts in a year. I just completed #73 yesterday and am working on a little crazy mocking bird work. Not sure it will be much of anything people outside the 5 states that have the Mockingbird for their state's bird, though--Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas. They're such personalities with attitude.

Back to your "progress." Don't worry. I started a counted cross stitch and picked it up from time to time for 10 years while my kids were growing up. When the last one left the nest, the first thing I found was that cross stitch, and completed it. I hated doing it, but it's one of the prettiest pieces in my dining room now, and I had it professionally framed in glass. It was from a Paragon cross stitch linen and had several alphabets, deers, early Americana motifs, and a 2-story house I made the same colors as our house in Wyoming--blue trimmed with blue and orange for my husband's college--University of Illinois at Champaign.

 

[freedombecki]

The morning's doings: Square 2. With the larger pictures of whole birds, I'm using up the scraps and partial birds on alternative squares that are basically just strip squares starting with a pretty little birdie print by Deb Strain, a designer for Moda fabrics.

 

[freedombecki]

Some of the squares in the Crazy Mockingbird/strips:

 

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And some more I did this morning:

 

[freedombecki]

Instead of 12, there were so many mockingbirds in a row, 15 total squares for the shelter quilt resulted. It was a lot of work, but it was fun doing it.

Here are some more, The gray one has two shots. One of the pretty borders that took a lot of work didn't shoe up on the first scan, so it was redone.

 

[freedombecki]

Three more...

 

[freedombecki]

The next step is to decide what to do , if anything about sashing and borders. Each of the squares is affixed to a background and the work is sewn on one piece at a time. That's why this is taking more than 3 days.

If sashes and sets are made, they will need also to be affixed to a background to make a uniform weight. I was thinking about doing something really far out in the sashes, such as also foundation piecing, but on my quilts, something that calms down and manages the crazy parts has beneficial effect on the balance of the quilt. I've done one other bird crazy quilt, but it had a lot of appliqued and machine embroidered birds. Also, it had no sets or sashes, just squares with a royal blue dominant theme but also many many colors, not just green and its color-wheel opposite.

Even more squares today...

 

[koshergrl]

As soon as I have a spare room, I will have a sewing/quilting room. It will have a table, and my sewing machine, and everything where I can get to it.

 

[freedombecki]

As soon as I have a spare room, I will have a sewing/quilting room. It will have a table, and my sewing machine, and everything where I can get to it.

You go, girl.

 

[freedombecki]

15 blocks are done on the Mockingbird quilt, but there was a slight glitch when done. There are two types of blocks, those with the large mockingbirds framed in the center and strip blocks, which were to have all pointed northwest. Unfortunately, the last strip block that was sewn had a baby's bird nest on it that was unwittingly sewn such that when placed with the left corner at northwest as planned, the bird's nest was either upside down or on its side. This is a problem when one-way fabrics are used, and the decision was made to place the baby birds' nest rightside up, with the right corner showing a northeasterly direction of the slant, in order to have the babies right in their nest. This had a serendipity to it--as the blocks were laid, they caused a "friendship star" effect, and the Texas state motto is "friendship" as is the Texas state bird, the Mockingbird. I was so happy to see this occur as the result of what seemed to be an error, but when "fixed" produced a serendipity moment. *sigh*

Here's the row that determined the direction. Also, crazy blocks were fashioned onto white Kona percale (my favorite) and sewn as per foundation method. If you've ever sashed a foundation block, the outcome is not consistent unless you also place the same weight foundation onto the back of the sashing strips that divide blocks into an album fashion of arrangement. It's a bit of a pain in the butt, a huge use of extra time, but the results bring consistency, strength, and an extra layer of warmth to your family heriloom.

 

[freedombecki]

This afternoon, work resumed on this quilt. 5 rows are now joined horizontally, and the bottom sashing and set row was placed on row 5.

The sashing is the long piece between squares, and sets are the small square pieces used to ensure an even measurement around the rows. If there is a problem, the use of sets is a way to reduce them, identify where the squares or pieces are uneven, and then sew together pleasingly.

First the front in the first picture, to note the square set and long horizontal sashes joined to the square to even things up.

Then the back to show the extra work of placing backing on the sashes and sets. Flexibility in sewing sinks to about zero when the pieces are basted together, so the use of a tape measure or better yet, plexiglass ruler with accurate markings is a huge assist to ensuring that the sash length and square length are even. Takeup varies on foundation blocks, and those that have few pieces generally are wider than those with many sewn strip areas, which adds to the confusion of basting, which becomes stay-stitching. Seldom do pieces match when you actually get to sewing them, so patience and a 2mm seam ripper are your best friend.

 

[freedombecki]

Found some pictures of quilts I made in years past from one of the little books I wrote. This one was called Aesthetics of ABC Animals and was assembled from some sketches and drawings. The pattern is available to USMB Members only when I get all of the designs together into a special Album in my profile. If you're a member, just send me a friendship request, and you can view it. All I ask in return if you use the patterns is to please send a picture of the item you made using any or all of the 44 patterns (when they're up, which will take a couple of more days of cleanup. Details in the album itself. There are no how-to instructions, the book was the result of a classroom teaching experience for beginning quilters and machine embroiderers, both of which I am certified to teach since 1987, and taught in my shop in the Equality State for many years. I've made machine embroidered quilts, a large punchwork embroidery quilt, and a smaller quilt for a baby, two of which are shown in color in the USMB Album (as well as below).

I am showing the hummingbird because people would ask for that one, would I please sell just one pattern instead of the whole book? hahahaha. There's just one other thing--the little broken lines that appear on these designs are shading for 1-color rayon machine embroidery thread guidelines and are not quilting stitches, just to let you know. If you do free motion machine embroidery thread and have since the 80s, you probably already knew that.

 

[freedombecki]

For the past couple of days, I've been working on another star quilt, this one in green colors. I really loved everything about this little quilt. It was a total joy to do. I have 9 scans, still no camera or way of getting it here except to ask friends to photo it with their cell phones when I see them. It's 3 weeks to a meeting, and by then, the quilts are already taken to the Charity bees closet and farmed out to different people for quilting.

a, Monkey Lime Star Center
b, Monkey Lime Star Corner Points
c, Monkey Lime Star Points

 

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d. Monkey Lime Star Postage Stamp Border Top

e. Monkey Lime Star Postage Stamp Border, Bottom

f. Monkey Lime Star Postage Stamp Border, Side

 

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g. Monkey Lime Star Top Corner Border

h. Monkey Lime Star Opposite side Border

i. Monkey Lime Star Bottom Corner Border

 

[freedombecki]

Finished a quilt top started around 1996. I needed a start to bring up the total of charity quilts given, and this one only needed a green border to go with my other green quilts in this lot. This makes 3 greens. The mockingbird sits, unfinished. All those layers...

Anyway, "Red Sky at Summer Night," scans 1, 2, and 3: