Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

The Froggie Fabric was found, and the Lime Mortar Green Brick and Froggies Quilt is done. Yay!

 

[freedombecki]

Yesterday, two more yards came from an ebay supplier of the monkey fabric. It's going to be so much fun to plan a quilt around it, I spread oranges, golds, greens, and bought a bevy of deep turquoise fabrics the last visit to Bryan's Lone Star Quilt shop. I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but oh, it's so much fun to put bits of color together to round out a main fabric for a child, and I've loved every millisecond of working with the colors on Anne Kelle's gorgeous fabric. (pictured below as on p. 38 on this thread)

There's a Biography on Ann Kelle at the Robert Kaufman's website, and a page on Ann's Urban Zoologie fabrics, almost any of which would be a totally awesome enhancement of any child quilt or naive work. I hope you visit both links. She is a young artist, but imho, her work is phenomenal to put it mildly.


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[freedombecki]

Ever get on a street going the wrong way and wish you hadn't? Well, I picked up this quilt brochure from a second-hand place, and found a quilt that looked easy enough, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I thought, "what a great way to use up a little of this and that I have left over in greens."

Well, the jury is out as to whether I did okay or not, but here is the quilt, and I thought, "Oh, my goodness. there are puffies along the stitch lines or something. What did she do to her quilt to get that?" Then I read it was in flannel, (my least favorite cotton to work with by itself) and thought that that must be it.

Even so, it nagged at me I should do a sample row, so I did. <<<<gong>>>>

I should have known there was a reason for that puffy look, too, except my puffy look was in spades because I was using regular quilter's cottons and not flanellette plaids. It could be my machine has a funny stitch, but I had to actually stretch one piece over another to make them match. The angles are on a 45 degree bias, but with warp very tight and weft loose, that may be the rub. This quilt did not cotton to being sewn together after the strips were sewn together, and I have 16x16=246 to go. And the foundation pieces? There a lesson in fabric that does not play well together due tome cutting them as to warp and weft, while the rest of the warp-weft ratios are lulu.

See ya in a year or a couple of agonizing days. Here is the fiasco below, with a picture of how cute the quilt is in plaid flannels and my sad little effort that looks almost as horrible as it was under the needle.

There really is an easier way to get this quilt to lie flat: half square triangles, but it would take 492 pieces to do that. Maybe that would be smarter, and it's not yet out of the question, although it will not look quite the same. I hate sewing work that puckers.

 

[freedombecki]

Think I'm going to fill in the blank triangles and make the above "quilt" into a pillow for a senior. I really can't take it, all that puckering, and the model showed puckering, too, in the book. The way to go on triangles like that one are to use the reverse freezer paper applique method, which requires hand stitching. I don't do hand stitching unless I have to do it. Just saying

 

[freedombecki]

This morning, I just needed a break from green and have sewn the 8 strips of 6 pieces to make a "Country Charm Rail Fence" Sorry the squares are 12 inches, but here's as much as I could cram under the scanner. Also, the pink whited out for some reason, so I just filled it in with pink in paint, and of course, got out of line because my picture paint is so primitive it doesn't do all it could if I would shell out the big bucks for more options. That's what I get for pinching pennies.

This time, I went to an "old favorites book" which is "Quilts, Quilts, Quilts" by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes, their 1988 smash best seller on the Complete Guide to Quiltmaking that I have loved since then. Gosh, I went into business in 1987, the book was printed in 1988, 24 years ago. It has gotten to be a real classic!

So here's a picture of their quilt, and one of my blocks. I used fabric that arrived in the mail two or three months ago that had really pretty fabrics from back in the mid 80s up to last year sometime. The lady said it was the family stash, so I don't know if that means the fabrics were turned loose because of someone having to move to a retirement home or if she herself got arthritis and can no longer do sewing. For whatever reason, I was thrilled. I even found a classic Benartex fabric, but it doesn't show well on the print due to my lousy scan job and not being able to darken anything. Well, at least, I was able to make do by scribbling some pink stuff over the general area of the pink strip that turned out very blotchy. Pastels do that sometimes. Although the pale pink was scribbled over just to help it show up, it actually has little white bows on it.

Scan 1: McClun and Nownes' Rail Fence picture:

Scan 2: Country Charm Rail Fence block completed this morning after all strip sets were sewn:

 

[freedombecki]

Worked all day and got it done!

This time, for some reason, I didn't have to fix the pink. It just picked it up. I still can't see the little white bows on it though. Well, I needed a printer, didn't have much money to invest in one. So I just made do.

Country Charm quilt border. Size is around 45 by 57 inches. I always say it's larger, because the new gal at the closet doesn't cut her backs big enough yet. They have to be bigger or you end up doing a lot of unnecessary work on some quilts. She will learn. Someday.

 

[freedombecki]

The other day when I was looking for something else, I ran across little windmill/propeller squares that had been left over from a quilt sometime last winter, and from time to time this year, I'd added a square now and then. Three of them were so horrible and squelched, because I forgot about using 5" squares cut on the diagonal to make the body between the propellers and the outside border (which had not been thought of yet). So I have one bazillion green strips cut and decided to use some of the inch and a half ones for borders, and as of a couple of hours ago, 20 blocks were done.

I will publish them below, but I promise you, I am nodding off as we speak and may have to continue this little transfer from my scanner to here until tomorrow, though I will try to finish most of them.

 

[freedombecki]

Those were squares 4, 5, and 6. I posted squares 1, 2, and 3 at the coffee shop a few minutes ago, I like to say hello to pals on days like this when my fibro symptoms are acting up.

 

[freedombecki]

10, 11, and 12

 

[freedombecki]

Propellers 13, 14, and 15

 

[freedombecki]

Props 16, 17, and 18.

 

[copsnrobbers]

The world needs more Becki's!


cops

 

[freedombecki]

Green sashed scrap propeller quilt

19 and 20.

I'll see if I can find a similar quilt online, only I already know I'm likely not to find it. *sigh* But if you see a picture at the end, well, I found one somewhere...
I did find one by "Rose Marie" and the credits are here. And the blogger added this paragraph:

Rose Marie, after her big display last month, even toned it down a little. But here she is with her Propeller Quilt. She says she’s going to finish it and use it in her kitchen, maybe as a table topper, because she says it’s nice kitchen colors. It IS nice kitchen colors. I’m busting to make a quilt like this. Must . . . Resist . . . Urge . . .

It's simple, it's not on point, her squares are large, and it makes me wonder, why do I work my butt off making these itsy bitsy complex quilts? Ah, dunno, don't care. I just know when I'm sitting in front of my Bernina, Pfaff, or Brother machines, I'm in seventh heaven.

Although, a little too much of heaven lately, darn that chronic fatigue syndrome that came with my fibromyalgia autoimmune stuff.

 

[freedombecki]

The world needs more Becki's!


cops

Aw, thanks, copsnrobbers.

 

[copsnrobbers]

The world needs more Becki's!


cops

Aw, thanks, copsnrobbers.

 

[freedombecki]

The Green Sashed Propeller Quilt

Today, this top is finished! It's goin' to the pile. This morning, all 20 squares were joined, a white with sage stippled floral border, then 2" squares were used all around edged by plan darkest forest green Kona solid cotton. I spent 7 hours doing it. Miss Music got most of my breakfast, because I just didn't want to eat till it was done, not knowing how much work was ahead. (Ignorance is bliss!) For some reason, 5 am was when it was started, and it was finished around 20 minutes ago.

It's always a great day when you finish a quilt top.

I have 9 pictures, 4 corners, 2 sides, top, bottom, and a scan of one of the junctions of the 20 propeller blocks shown yesterday. I loved every minute of working on this quilt, except I did have to add 1 inch pieces at the edges of the fourpatch block upper rows. I was short a whole inch, and a 1 inch piece with 1/4" seam allowances on both sides show as 1/2" finished pieces. So it has a little wonk about it, but scrap quilts are all about wonk. One of the pictures has possibly the oldest piece of fabric used on this quilt which appears to me to be 50s-ish. It's hard to tell, but I was young in the 50s, and the piece could've come right out of Aunt Emma's apron.

I'll let you guess which is which, or you can scroll your mouse over, look in the lower address bar, and there's a pretty good description there. You can see some but not all of the prints. The very light ones are the most disappointing because I used truly fabulous prints, but my $29 scanner doesn't pick them up well in the morning light. Oh, my gosh, there went the blue heron, flying to the shallow end of the lake where he can fish for yummies. I have no idea what draws them out there. It's ten times more fun sitting at the computer by the bay window overlooking the lake than the sewing machine overlooking the front yard and field out front, just for the bird show.

 

[freedombecki]

More pictures of 4th corner and 2 sides

 

[freedombecki]

Top, bottom, and a junction of 4 of the propeller squares, just shoved under the scanner lid without paying much attention:

 

[freedombecki]

I'm soooooo done with The Green Sashed Propeller Quilt!

 

[freedombecki]

In order to make a new design, an exact copy of something I've seen or know about doesn't hurt the process. Our internet is a marvelous item, and just in an example, here's something that flits about a lot in the spring here and elsewhere--sulphur-winged butterflies. So from:

Picture 1, a picture of a sulphur winged butterfly

You may get a love for the way they flit about willy-nilly, over the grass tops, find a specie with wings the size of your little pinkie fingernail, recall seeing your dog as a puppy being fascinated and zeroing in on chasing one across the field, only to be eluded and confused as to what happened to the little creature you saw dart upward and away from puppykin's freaky little cold wet nose, or just anything that jazzes you about seeing a small but precious little creature, the sulphur wing butterfly of which there must be a bazillion different types, most of them a couple of inches across, but such a hot color of yellow, chromium yellow or cadmium yellow they stand out like a lightening bolt against the spring's field floor in your memory.

Artistic license is knowing the subject and making subtle (or not so subtle) changes. There is one thing that nagged me about the sulphur wing. That is, how can such a joyous gadabout have such a plain shape of wings that in no way reflect the creature's attributes--curiosity, joie de vivre, and happy willy-nilly-ness? In my view, its dull roundish shape doesn't reflect anything about its light-hearted soulfulness, so this morning, I worked on shapes with my favorite paintbrush--a pair of scissors. That's right, from a small sketch slathered over notes I wrote to myself last week or last month, I often pencil- or pen- out a shape, then just cut it out. When I finally come up with something that's perceptually pleasing, I pull out the scissors, trace, and clip the tracing out. Then I place the cuttings onto a piece of cardstock--in this case yellow, and without using a pencil, cut a larger shape in the size that will become my applique pattern. So here's all that:

Picture II Process of getting from subjective shapes to subjective enjoyment of new shape. Note the bright Yellow picked for the inspiration that was before my scissors went about their dervish revisionism.

And finally, a rough shape.

Picture III Rough-out of design onto 8.5" background.

You May note there is an issue with placement onto the background, which is why I do rough-outs. It showed me my propensity to misplace items according to the contest of any given-sized background is alive and present. To compensate for placement oversights, I have learned to get a ruler and fix things that merely creasing the paper down the center didn't do. In this case, it was a top-to-bottom disaster, which means I will have to find a center line, crease and gently press crease marks into my square background blocks, then place Revised Sulphur onto it. Nothing looks worse than an applique block finished without paying attention to centering, from one who has a knack for it.

So to fix the problem on my rough-out, I actually traced a line with a straight-edged ruler, marked 1-6 inches, on both east and west sides of the drawing. Where the 3 is is close to center. One side top to bottom measures six inches, the other five and a half. It is easy to place the asymmetrical templates in an oddball fashion. In this case, that's not really all that bad in one view--you can't teach a sulphurwing to be still when you are trying to catch him.