Pounce Powder

For quilting Bailey's quilt, I bought some Pounce Powder and a Pounce pad and a wildlife stencil.  This is the first time I ever used this product and there is a definite learning curve.  My advice would be to play with it a little ( a lot?) before taking it right to the quilt.  Especially if it's a brand new Pounce Pad, like mine was.  It takes a little bit of time for the Pounce Powder to work it's way through the Pad, if it's never been used before.  I poured in some powder, placed the stencil an the quilt, and proceeded to wipe the (powderless) new pad across the lines.  No chalk powder showed on the quilt.  I continued to wipe, tap, slap, POUND the pounce pad, and a little chalk trickled through, but not enough to see the entire pattern.  I repeated the wipe tap slap pound and mumbled something like "this doesn't work, what a waste!"  I decided to go ahead and free hand motion the design as best I could from what I could see,  It was a little wobbly and vague, but I winged it.  I ended up tearing out some of the quilting meanders, and decided I wouldn't use the stencil exactly as it was made.

On my second round of quilting with the pounce powder, the pad now had enough residual powder in it to produce a decent chalk line, and I was able to free motion a much better looking design.  I originally wanted to use the stencil over the entire quilt, but have now decided to just use it in certain parts, and the outside border.  The stencils are somewhat expensive, but there is a YouTube video on how to make your own stencils.  I might try that sometime.  I have a couple of stencils for feathers, but I am trying to learn to do them on my own.

Anyway, here is the pattern I am using for Bailey's quilt:

  

As you can see, the chalk doesn't show up that well on the lighter fabric.  They make a blue pounce powder too.  I have some, and I might try that.   The deal is, the white is iron off.  The blue is wipe/wash off.  I'll have to think about this!  I'd hate to have big blue smears on the quilt!!  I'll have to try a sample on a scrap first ...   Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving

Giving thanks is a natural thing for me, I do it everyday.  But I love Thanksgiving day for the family time and good food too!  Today we went to Luke's for the Gathering, and as always, there was plenty of fabulous foods, family, grandkids, and friends.  I  chose this day to give the Memory Quilts to Maggie and Becky.  It will have been the first Thanksgiving Day for them (for all of us) without their Mother at the Gathering.  I knew it would be emotional for them.  She was always a big part of the food preparations, and there were more than one "Mom Moment."

Since Maggie had originally requested the quilts, she had more than an inkling what was in the gift bags I carried in, but for Becky it was a complete surprise.  There were tears aplenty as they ooohed and ahhhed  over their quilts, all while recognizing fabrics in the quilt blocks and remembering the clothes their Mom had worn.  It was a poignant moment. 

Maggie and her Memory Quilt

Becky with her Memory Quilt

Happy Sisters

Bottled Rainbows

Now with Bailey's quilt off the design board and under the needle, my design board is bare again!  You know what that means!!  Yep, start a new quilt!  That's the sign of a serious quilter, you know!   Two projects going at the same time.  Or more than two...!  or three.... or four....

I found Bottled Rainbows awhile ago, and knew I HAD TO MAKE ONE!  It's a rainbow quilt done in a technique called "ticker tape" or also known as "confetti."  If you Google images for "Bottled Rainbow quilt" you will see all kinds of beautiful examples.  I found this quilt in a magazine and here is the link to the article:  http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2011/02/bottled-rainbows-ticker-tape-quilt.html

This is a "quilt as you go" quilt,  based on the color scheme shown below.  (although you can change this, of course.)  Next to the color scheme is a sample quilt made by someone else to show you what it might look like.  A "tray" is made for each color, and smaller "scraps" are placed in the tray, arranged, and sewn with raw edges on the confetti pieces.  Sewing on these smaller pieces is what quilts your sandwich.  It sounds really easy, and especially fun!!  You can arrange the pieces in a mosaic picture if you are so inclined too!

 

Here are my chosen fabrics (mostly batiks):

The border and background fabrics are cut.

Auditioning fabrics for the "confetti."

I am excited about making this quilt.  I have to decide what backing fabric to use.  I have a couple of choices that I think would work.  One is a black with white spots.  The other is also black but with colorful circles.  What do you think?

I have some time to make a decision on this as I want to finish quilting Bailey's Christmas deer quilt first. Also, I have to sew the borders to the background fabric to make the confetti trays too.  But since this is a "quilt as you go" quilt, I have to decide before I add the confetti!  Oh, decisions, decisions!  Don't we love it!?

Progress Report

I have finished piecing Bailey's quilt, and it is also pinned now.  I am currently in the process of quilting it.

 

Pinning the quilt was a lot easier this time.  We recently threw out a big rug in our dining room that was getting too old and disintegrating.  So I only had to move a table and 4 chairs, and I had this huge space to pin!!  Bailey's quilt is a good size, 88 x  76 and I still had plenty of room for moving around.  Also, Bob bought me some knee pads: 

These are the same kind that construction workers use and are very comfortable to wear.  You can crawl across the quilt and if you kneel on a pin, no pain!  They are a little large, I might have to sew the velcro straps a little shorter.  I highly recommend these knee-savers if you have achy or arthritic knees.  Thanks Bob for the new additions to my sewing paraphernalia!

One tricky thing to make note of while I laid out this quilt for pinning.  Originally, I thought this quilt would end up at around 80" long.  I bought 5 yards (for 2 panels, each 90 inches long) of directional fleece for the backing.  It is a woodsy scene with deer in it and fall colors.  I thought that would be plenty, it was 58" wide.  There was PLENTY of width (116 inches for what turned out to  be 76 inches wide.)  But the LENGTH!!!!!   Ohhhhhhhh!  My quilt turned out to be 88 inches long, so I have an INCH to spare on top and bottom.  That's cutting it tooooo close for comfort!  I am praying nothing stretches as I quilt it!  I can't place the quilt sideways on the backing (well, yes, I COULD, but like I said, it's directional, and I don't want the trees to be sideways...)  Worse case scenerio:  My 6 inch border will turn out to be 5 inches.  I guess this is acceptable.  Could always be worse!  Lesson learned:  Don't "guesstimate" on the short side!  Always get more fabric than you think you'll need!

Estate Sale

I got a phone call from a friend today with a "HOT TIP!"  Seems like there is an estate sale nearby and one of  the many items listed for sale was "quilting fabric."  Evidently,  this lady was an avid quilter and had quite a lot of sewing items in the sale.  This indeed sounded intriguing, so Bob and I decided to go take a look-see!  This Hot Tip turned out to be valid, and our trip to the sale was worthwhile.

I spent $40.25.  I got a large quilting hoop for a dollar.  Even if I never use it to hand quilt a quilt, it's a cool thing to hang in my sewing room.  I bought a beautiful hand stitched wall hanging of a Dresden plate for $5.  The amazing thing about this is the FRAME it was in!  That frame would cost a LOT no doubt.  It's beautiful polished hardwood, inset with "Keyhole" grooves in the back to hang it.  I was more interested in that frame than the stitchery.

Of course I bought fabric.  What a stash!  I think a lot of fabric had already been sold before I got there-- there were no batiks, no red, blue, or black fabrics.  The fabric was heaped upon 2 large tables, each fabric in a ziplock baggie.  Several bags had smaller pieces of fabric grouped by color.  The lady said they figured it was about a dollar a yard.  But I found their measurements to be very generous, and one bag labeled as "1/2 yard" was actually very close to a yard.  I bought a whole box full of fabric:

When I got home, I laid out my new stash according to color.  All in all, there were 81 different pieces of fabric.  Most pieces were at least a half yard, the biggest piece was "2 yards"  but closer to 2 and a half when I measured it at home.  Most of the pieces I bought were about a yard.  A few of the pieces in the "scrap bags" were smaller, but still very usable.   Take a look:

Yes, I got a little carried away with the Christmas fabrics, but 'tis the season to be jolly!  Greens, oranges and yellows also were on the heavy side.  Some white-on-white, they don't show very well in the picture.  Some misc. seasonal fabrics, like Easter eggs and Shamrocks.  And like I said earlier, there were no blacks, reds, or blues to be found.  That's ok, I'm still a happy camper today!!

I'm gonna be on the lookout now for more Estate Sales!  Wheeeeeeee!

Show and Tell

I took Maggie's Memory Quilt and Becky's Throw to the quilt guild meeting tonight for show and tell.  I want to give these quilt to Maggie and Becky on Thanksgiving Day.  We go down to Luke's for dinner every year, and Kay has always been there too.  This year, no Kay.  I know these memory quilts will evoke tears from Mags and Becky, but hopefully tears of joy as well.  It will be a poignant moment.  Thanksgiving seems a better time to give the quilts, better than Christmas.  There's a whole different feeling at Thanksgiving than Christmas.  Christmas has become too commercialized, too "expected."  Thanksgiving will be more serious.

Anyway, here are the 2 finished Memory quilts:

Maggie's Quilt, 98" x 98"

Becky's Throw, 62" x 62"

Empty Design Board

I have finished Becky's throw, and although I still have to quilt Maggie's quilt, I have nothing up on my design board!  So..... I pulled out a bunch of Nature fabrics, and my deer panels and wildlife fabrics, and started Bailey's quilt.  I really HAVE to finish Maggie's quilt first, but I like having more than one project in the works at a time!  I haven't done much with this except audition fabrics.  I really have a lot of fabrics to choose from.   That seems to be a problem for me!  Too many choices! I have a hard time deciding! Anyway, I decided on a few colors, and cut a few triangles to test them out, and I like what I chose.  I want the basic color scheme to be lighter in the center, and then go off darker as you get to the edges, so it looks like a spotlight on the deer.  We'll see how that works.  At least my design board isn't bare any more, AND I can think about how I want to change up the design of the quilt pattern!

Harvest Skinnies

I have been working this past month on making Skinnies.  I have made 4 Harvest skinnies now (and 2 for Halloween.) I still want to do two more harvest skinnies, and have most of the fabric cut.  The 4 that I have finished have been sent to 4 FaceBook friends who joined my "Pay it Forward" initiative last January.  Sometime during the year, I would send them a surprise, and they agreed to Pay it Forward, and send a surprise to 4 of their friends to continue the cycle.  Make the world a better place, one friend (or 4) at a time.  One Harvest Skinny went to Florida, one to Arizona, one to Oregon, and one stayed here in WI.  Here is one of the Harvest Skinnies:

I really enjoy making these skinnies, and I want to make one of these for myself and for Linda.  One for EACH season of the year, and then just switch them out as the appropriate new season descends upon us.  These are a nice size, 14 x 28, so not too small, but then again, not too big.  Just right!  It only takes a few days to make one of these.