Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

And Blocks 10, 11, and 12:

 

[freedombecki]

Today I havta clean up the sewing room and put different colors of fabrics back in their respective bins.

I hate work. It's zero fun.

 

[freedombecki]

Found a nice braided quilt with instructions entitled "Narrabeen Braid" by Marianne Roberts:



The instructions are falling-off-a-log easy, and were found right here: Into Craft - share with the craft community Website.

You just use 2" strips cut to 6.5" lengths, put them in light and dark stacks, and sew them end to side until you have a long row the desired size:



I'm going to go to the quilt room soon and start sewing!

I hope someone else finds the instruction page as wonderful as I did. I've been thinking about making a braid quilt for ages. I can't wait to get started!

 

[Mr. H.]

Interesting that the front and back are so different.
Is that often the case?

 

[freedombecki]

Interesting that the front and back are so different.
Is that often the case?

It is often since a famous quilter wrote a book called "back art" describing quilt backs made from the scraps left over from the front of the quilt by some quilters arranged as the pieces fit best, and many of them look like a piece of modern art. The title of this conservative technique became "Back Art" after the book which I have somewhere. I want to say that Barbara Brackman wrote it, but I can't find it in my search engine today or on amazon. I hope I find it soon, because it's a wonderful quilt book and no other book deals with it as comprehensively as the book "Back Art"

 

[freedombecki]

Until I'm sure I can finish this one in under a week, It's going to be called an "experiment." Today, I'm really tired for some reason (again) and am needing more rest than usual. Here's the paltry offering from my spacey couple of hours spent at the sewing machine this morning.

I'll just show one of the untrimmed and both of the trimmed scans, because I'm about to drop I'm so tired today:

And I'm headed to my therapy bed for a nap!

 

[freedombecki]

Well, a few more strips were sewn on to make one 42x6" strip. There are 5 strips cut out. At least 6 will be needed, maybe 7 or 8. This quilt is not as expected, but it's ok. I knew it was going to be work when I declared it an experiment, which it still is.

3 more scans of what was done this morning:

 

[freedombecki]

There was this really gorgeous green braid quilt with a start of these strips, which at first were thought to be a GORGEOUS braid quilt, all-over green scraps:

However, later on the scraps were used to create quite another very pretty quilt:

Wow, it took her a whole month. I don't want to spend a whole month on a charity quilt. I just want to spend a couple of days. !yikes!

Her blog is here and her instructional page is here for braids. You'll love it. It's ten times easier than sewing onto a foundation, which I chose for my first braid "experiment". I'm still not sure If I want to do this yet. Nothing like being consistent, is there!

 

[Sunshine]

I've been having this quirky love affair with op art, Sunshine, since I read the book "Masters of Deception--Escher, Dali and the Artists of Optical Illusion."

​

In my shop were all the latest optical art fabrics, which went over like a lead balloon in the West, where people are still trying to eke a living out of a hostile arctic desert--one of the drawbacks of being raised in the city but spending one's adult years on the literal frontier of America's badlands, which became a most fond place in my heart forever.

I had lots of customers with your exact feeling on the subject, until I started making wall-hangings that made the fabrics viable as borders, frames, and a little something to add pizzazz to a humdrum theme. Then they got it, and whatever fabric I displayed as such was sold quickly. Only trouble was, I had thousands of bolts I couldn't possibly show each and every delicious opportunity but just hoped for good teachers to drop by and make some good waves with our offerings. Didn't happen. As a consequence, that's why I came home to TX when I retired with at least a hundred unfinished projects, with me hopping between teaching machine instructions, free classes, charity sewing sessions with free instructions and materials, etc., to make quilts for soldiers, the homeless, those whose homes burned, the hospice, squad car quilts for cops, and 2 day care centers--one at a junior college for student moms, and one handicapped day care center that had been started in our church and grew into a full-child care facility for working families who had a severely disabled child and couldn't leave them to support the family. We just did what we could for whoever needed it. People moved to Wyoming who had no idea what 40 degrees below zero is in high winds that send the chill factor down 60 more degrees or more. Some came to the state in summertime with no more than sweaters to keep warm with. <gong!> One cold night cured them of that nonsense.

Have never been to Wyoming. It's still on my Bucket List.

When we were kids we used to write to the Chamber of Commerce in the state capitols asking for brochures. They always sent them. Wyoming is one place I wrote to.

 

[freedombecki]

When you go to Wyoming, you'll see a whole lot of nothing nestled between bits of heaven. When you live there, a 1/4" desert weed in bloom becomes a small luxury of beauty when it's in bloom. You learn appreciation for the little things there. But if you'd rather be overwhelmed, go to Jackson Hole, rent a car there, and drive up to the south entrance of Yellowstone Park. You'll pass Mt. Moran and the majestic Tetons, Jenny Lake where you'll want to stop, and scenery that seems too good to be true in the summer. Hopefully, you'll stop a few places where there are overlooks to the Snake River and Belle Fouche (sp?) If you drive up from Casper, it's a 5 hour drive or so, and you'll see the continental divide in 5 places, the favored of which could be the fabulous Togwatee Pass. (Toe-giddy, 3 syllables) Not far from the Eastern entrance is Two-Ocean lake, once thought to empty into tributaries going to both the Pacific and the Atlantic, but now that's not known for sure. Sometimes, the old-time trappers knew more about where the water went than seismologists, and it could be there was a swelling over the years in a critical place that changed things, I don't know. Anyway, it's pretty, but wear bells on your toes to alert the bears of your presence so they can hustle their cubs out of there before you become a surprise target. Always make noise in bear country, even if you only have a key chain on you. Rattle it when you are on the move. You may not get to see a moose, but you will be safer from the bears than if you do nothing and frighten a new bear mommy.

You will see elk, deer, moose, antelopes, etc., though, and if you go through buffalo country do not approach a buffalo for any reason whatever, and avoid any idiot who does. Just sayin'.

Flowers at floor of Teton range:

 

[freedombecki]

The Green Braid experiment just got joined. A discovery was that the tree tops point up at the bottom. Fortunately, the dark fabric COULD BE a night sky.

Scan 7 (now the top), Scan 8, and Scan 9:

 

[freedombecki]

Scans 10 and 11, Rows 1 and 2 of the Green Braid Experiment that just keeps getting weirder and weirder. At the bottom (formerly the top) where row 1 and 2 were joined, there are 2 common fabrics that appear on both row 1 and row 2, except they are reversed on the dark fabrics. That was not supposed to happen. In the middle, I had ripped out several pieces that went curving off the runner's path so to speak, and one just didn't fit anymore, so had to be replaced by a new one in the stack. When I got to the last piece, the weird piece fit just right. Well, it was already in row 1 at the old top, now the bottom, plus I found a piece that had fallen on the floor I didn't realize I'd used in row 1 two days before (no photographic memory here). Those are the two pieces that are perfect reverses, which is something I generally avoid. I am so amused at my silly mistakes, though, I have to leave them, because it was SUCH A FLUKE it would never happen again in a million years.

Following scans 10 and 11, is a picture showing the clever organization of strips for the autumn quilt (a few posts earlier).

It has fully sunk in that the advantages of not using a foundation of percale is ten times faster, and I will be doing this one for another few days, unless I get persistent. That would take a miracle lately.

 

[Sunshine]

OK, I finished all the design on the quilt blocks. 27 of them still need the borders done but it is not as labor intensive as the design. It is just a little awkward due to being so close to the edge of the blocks. I don't know how long this will take. But one a night would still have it all done before I retire.

I'm studying that tablecloth. That is going to be a smaller project, but definitely different. The design is more precise than the quilt design and smaller too. I learned a lot from doing the quilt, and yes, there are things to be learned from 6 months of stitching Xs on blocks of cloth. LOL. No doubt I will learn from the table cloth as well. Sometimes the main thing I learn from a project is not to try somthing that stupid again! LOL

 

[Sunshine]

When you go to Wyoming, you'll see a whole lot of nothing nestled between bits of heaven. When you live there, a 1/4" desert weed in bloom becomes a small luxury of beauty when it's in bloom. You learn appreciation for the little things there. But if you'd rather be overwhelmed, go to Jackson Hole, rent a car there, and drive up to the south entrance of Yellowstone Park. You'll pass Mt. Moran and the majestic Tetons, Jenny Lake where you'll want to stop, and scenery that seems too good to be true in the summer. Hopefully, you'll stop a few places where there are overlooks to the Snake River and Belle Fouche (sp?) If you drive up from Casper, it's a 5 hour drive or so, and you'll see the continental divide in 5 places, the favored of which could be the fabulous Togwatee Pass. (Toe-giddy, 3 syllables) Not far from the Eastern entrance is Two-Ocean lake, once thought to empty into tributaries going to both the Pacific and the Atlantic, but now that's not known for sure. Sometimes, the old-time trappers knew more about where the water went than seismologists, and it could be there was a swelling over the years in a critical place that changed things, I don't know. Anyway, it's pretty, but wear bells on your toes to alert the bears of your presence so they can hustle their cubs out of there before you become a surprise target. Always make noise in bear country, even if you only have a key chain on you. Rattle it when you are on the move. You may not get to see a moose, but you will be safer from the bears than if you do nothing and frighten a new bear mommy.

You will see elk, deer, moose, antelopes, etc., though, and if you go through buffalo country do not approach a buffalo for any reason whatever, and avoid any idiot who does. Just sayin'.

Flowers at floor of Teton range:

Yellowstone and the Tetons are on my list. One day I'm going to just take out in the car and go where I go.

I'll heed the warnings. We don't have bear and moose here, but we do have elk. I've seen them in the wild, but not many times. Still we have several places with 'elk 'in the name, Elk Creek, etc. We have bobcats and panthers, which could just be black bobcats, but we call them panthers. My grandfather called them 'pant'ers.' Long A. Like painter.

 

[freedombecki]

OK, I finished all the design on the quilt blocks. 27 of them still need the borders done but it is not as labor intensive as the design. It is just a little awkward due to being so close to the edge of the blocks. I don't know how long this will take. But one a night would still have it all done before I retire.

I'm studying that tablecloth. That is going to be a smaller project, but definitely different. The design is more precise than the quilt design and smaller too. I learned a lot from doing the quilt, and yes, there are things to be learned from 6 months of stitching Xs on blocks of cloth. LOL. No doubt I will learn from the table cloth as well. Sometimes the main thing I learn from a project is not to try somthing that stupid again! LOL

Oh, Sunshine, you have done wonderful work and now the heavy lifting is behind you.

 

[freedombecki]

Last night, I got trapped on a thread and handed out all reps and stayed up past the midnight hour cutting long rectangles for the experimental green braid quilt. (sounds like an army hero, no? - "Greed Brrraids") Well, it's great thinking of all our American heroes now and then even if it is while sewing a green quilt for a shelter child to its completion. This had to have been started a week ago, seems like a month, and it is not half finished yet. There are 3 braids of 6 sewn and 2 founded sashings sewn this morning to separate the foundation braided strips that are quite the anathema. It takes a quilter awhile to go from one type of piecing to another or even to foundation work from simply sewing pieces together freely.

Here are some of the results:

Scans 12, 13, and 14:

 

[freedombecki]

It's been difficult making the transition to foundation work, but half way through this I'm finding it's a lot of work, but it's fun work, and at the end of the quilting process, it will be just a little bit warmer than otherwise it might have been. Anyway, here's some more progress, and it's been hard getting to the sewing room over the Easter weekend for some reason.

It was fun. It's time to get back in the groove, though, and for the first time in several weeks, my medicines are acting like they're supposed to act.

Scans 15, 16, and 17:

The bright green floral sashing has added some fun to this little project, too. Just saw it this morning and something said, "Eureka! That's the one!"

Hope a special kid at the shelter gets this one.

 

[freedombecki]

You have to click the two foundation thumbnails to see the thread that attaches the strips that make up the braids. One shows that the long sashes between braids have also been placed on a foundation so that all the parts come out equally sturdy. A sturdy quilt feels so good to touch or to hold.

This quilt has a loving feel of strength and durability, and it's not even finished much less quilted yet.

 

[freedombecki]

Finished one more row, just one to go on the mean, lean, green, braid quilt, and then a small border, backed with percale. <huff, puff>

 

[freedombecki]

The green quilt inspired by Alan1 who loves greens of the Redwood forest is done. It's small, 42x48", but is possibly the sturdiest quilt I've ever made due to putting the foundation behind even the separator sashes and borders of the quilt, not to mention the diagonal "redwood branches" and background lights, all sewn to a foundation, piece by overlapped piece.

I'd like to thank Alan for his skeletal knowledge found often at the coffee shop and his choice of green like one sees on redwoods when he guessed my bones were those of a hammerhead shark.

It's all good fun, and the Charity Bees get a quilt to give someone who needs it the most!