Final Layout

I have been working on my center kaleidoscope (TY, Ricky Tims, for the inspiration), and am loving how it's turning out!

It's really big, and I had planned on having it set on point in the quilt center.  But then I would have to add REALLY HUGE setting triangles to make the corners, and I think that added too much "dead space."  True, I could quilt something fun in those corners, but I just didn't like how it looked.  So I went back to the design board (EQ7) and jiggled the layouts, and came up with this one:

This ends up at 82" square, used 16 of my 20 blocks, which is a good thing.  There are 4 blocks that I won't use, and I have some that I don't like, and can easily find 4 to remove from the lineup!  My sashing can be a little wider now and I think the whole thing looks more balanced.  I like this layout a lot, and have decided, THIS IS IT!  I have tried so many possibilities in EQ7, I'm not sure which is which anymore!  So I can start sewing again, and stop fiddling with "how would it look IF...!"  This quilt should be ready by Christmas!

Kaleidoscope Medallion

Well, I TOLD you I was intrigued with Ricky Tims's kaleidoscope quilts, now I will SHOW you just how intrigued I was!  I've decided to make one of these as a center for my Block of the Month quilt with the quilt guild blocks.  I played with the layout in EQ7, here's my final (?) version.

I think this layout is a lot more interesting than my other two choices, which were:

Soooooooo!  Guess what I did!?  Yep!  I made a medallion kaleidoscope!  At first I didn't know what I was doing (mirror images always confuse and befuddle me!)  but I followed the directions, and it all came together as I went along.  Just like Ricky Tims said,  "Trust the process!"  It works!  

Here is my medallion, in each of its five stages, first the layers of strata, then the stars.

Round 1:  

 

Round 2:  

  

Round 3:  

  

Round 4:  

  

Round 5:  

  

So, there it is! I have to say that Round 5 didn't go as planned in the directions.  I wanted to use the blue focus fabric in the kaleidoscope but didn't have much left.  Not even a 2" strip! I pre-cut my borders at the very beginning while I still had long strips so I didn't have to piece the border more than once per side.  I didn't want to use those  or cut into them even a little!  So all I have left were small pieces, so I FUDGED the last strip.  I sewed the 3 rows, but then figured out where the point would come and put my scrap of fabric there on each half of the strata and sewed.  I aligned my template and cut, making sure there would be seam allowance all around.  It looked like this:

I'm not sure how it will all sew together, the layers didn't have that tight "fit" that the other strata did.  More "fudging" may be in the works as I sew these pieces together.  But I had enough scraps to make it work and I think it looks great!  I'm not sure what the final quilt will look like exactly.  EQ7 shows the final quilt as finishing off at about 90" x 90" with a 36" medallion set on point,  six 12" blocks with 1.5" sashing per side, and a 4" final border.    I could put the medallion square on too instead of on point but the quilt would be smaller and I wouldn't be able to use all the blocks.  So I will play with these things after the medallion is done.  

Stay tuned!

Papermate to the Rescue

I mentioned earlier about how my cutting mat was filled with fibers.  I went shopping but could not find an artist's gummy eraser.  But I found these "Black Pearls" by Papermate in the office supply dept. of our local variety store.  "Clean erase, minimal residue" is what it says on the package.  I thought I'd give it a try.  Guess what!  It worked like a charm!  With hardly any effort on my part, it pulled out the fibers, not a lot of eraser crumbs, and my mat is clean and smooth again.  I'm very pleased with my Black Pearls!

Here is the before and after pics:

  

Miracle Workers!

Ricky Tims

I have recently found a new Textile Artist (ie. Quilter) that I have become intrigued with.  His name is Ricky Tims, and I got a couple of his books from the Library.  He is known for his convergence quilts and for his medallion kaleidoscope quilts. I saw samples of both these kinds of quilts at the quilt show, both in Madison and here in Darlington.  These kinds of quilts definitely fall under the category of "art quilts."  They tend to be smaller and more abstract.  Nothing traditional at all!  Still, I am intrigued by his gorgeous quilts and the process which he lays out for you in each of these books.

I know I will have to give both those kinds of quilts a try sooner or later!  Here are the books I borrowed:

  

Fuzz!

After trimming my Bucky quilt to square it for binding, I found this mess IN  my cutting mat!  All these fibers are embedded in the cuts!  I tried washing it out, but they are stuck in really good.  I read that an artist's rubber eraser works good on rubbing these fibers out of the cracks.  I'm gonna need one of those!  For now, I just turned my mat upside down so I don't get fuzz on other fabrics.  Oh, and by the way, I had to clean fuzz out of my bobbin case every time I changed the bobbin.  Fleece may be easy to work with, but it is very messy and leaves lint and fibers EVERYWHERE!

Ruler Work

One of the challenges I faced in quilting the Bucky quilt was in the outer border.  I wanted to make parallel lines, in pairs.  I have seen this in other quilts and I liked it a lot.  Nothing like a simple, masculine-looking touch to finish off the quilting.  Only it turned out to not be so simple.  I tried to free-motion quilt the parallel lines. Problems:  1)  They have to be PARALLEL to each other and all the rest of the lines.  2)  They have to be PERPENDICULAR to the edge and the border.  3)  They have to be STRAIGHT!  4)  They have to be the same width apart.

This was harder to achieve than I thought.  I consider myself to be a fairly good free-motion quilter.  I have done a lot of it.  But I found this very hard to do.  Lines were slanty, lines were crooked or wobbly.  Same width wasn't too tricky, I can measure.  I ripped out, a lot!  I remember something called "ruler work", whereby you free motion quilt using a ruler next to your pressure foot.  There are special, extra-thick rulers for this, and also a special thick pressure foot.  Neither of which I have in my possession.  Hmmm.  Still, I tried it with a regular ruler, and my free-motion foot, and, after a few bobbles, I had fairly good success.  Not perfect, but WAY BETTER than what I had done previously.  One helpful thing was my stripe was just 1 inch wide, so I lined it up between two one-inch marks on the ruler, and presto!  Instant Perpendicular.  Also, I learned to wait until my needle was in the red stripe to change hand positions.  There always seems to be this little "jog" in my lines when I change hand positions, so using red thread and stopping the needle in the red stripe, the jog (if there is one) isn't so noticeable.  I also added sandpaper gripping dots to the bottom of the ruler so it didn't slip on the fabric.  It really helped move the fabric and ruler at the same time.  Consistent pressure on the ruler was also very important.  There was a definite learning curve to this process, and as I went around the quilt adding sets of parallel lines, I got better and better.  I know I will be using this process in the future.  I might even invest in an extra thick ruler and pressure foot!!

  

Bucky is DONE!

I think I have set a new speed record for a full size quilt in less than 3 weeks!  From buying fabric to binding on.  It was a simple pattern, and there is no fancy quilting, mostly stitch in the ditch.  Still it is finished and I can move on to new horizons!  I took it for Show and Tell at the Quilt Guild meeting tonight.  Here it is:

Bucky Progress

The Bucky quilt is coming along nicely.  I am almost done with the top, just one border to go.  I have made the border, but was very sloppy with my seam allowance, and my 9.5" width turned out to be only 9" wide.  The cornerstone star block that will fit in the corner is way too wide.  I will have to rip the pieced border apart and resew it with skimpy-er seams.  Grrrrrrrrr!  What was I thinking!??  It seems I have done a lot of ripping out of this quilt!  I changed the background of the cornerstone stars from white to black,  I think it looks a lot better that way.  But I had to rip apart one of the stars so I could rotate the "Y" sections so the black is in the background position, and resew the block.  Very time consuming, but luckily I only had to do one that way.  Anyway, here are the 3 seams on the quilt that DO fit nicely!

I have decided to bind the quilt in the black/white herringbone fabric (looks gray in the picture.)  I think I will have enough to do it.  (Fingers crossed.)