Pinning the Graduation Quilt

As I get older, pinning a quilt on the floor is harder and nearly impossible for me.  I had my daughter pin my quilts for me in exchange for me quilting her quilts, and this suited both of us.  However, Alayna's graduation quilt has to be done before the end of May, and I will not be seeing my daughter before then.  That means I have to pin it myself.

I watched some YouTube videos.  Ya gotta LOVE YouTube!  You can learn anything there, and see it as it happens, pause the video as often as needed, try it out, watch more.  Watch, do, repeat!  I watched different videos about pinning quilts on a table top.  Using clamps.  I can do that!  So I laid out my quilt sandwich layers on my kitchen table, clamping each layer, and it was nice and tight and easy to pin. 

 

I could sit down to pin, and move easily around the table on a rolling chair!  Most of the quilt actually fit, and I could pin the remaining border sections afterwards.  For once, something went right the first time!

Inner and Outer Borders

I know that inner borders (I call them "fudge strips!") are used to frame the quilt, but also as a "spacer" so that the outer borders can fit nicely if they are pieced.  The fabric I wanted to use for my outer border was a co-coordinating fabric from the collection. Small "Pictures" within a light blue background, not actually a border print, but I wanted to use it as such.  I cut the strips apart, and sewed them end to end to reach across the top and sides of the quilt.

I don't know why it was so difficult for me to figure out how wide the inner borders should be.  I knew that I needed 13 small squares across the top and bottom, and 15 going down the sides.   I struggled (badly) with the math, and came up with the necessary width and length I would need for the inner black fudge strip.  As you can see , it didn't work out at all.  The top border strip of 13 pictures is about two inches too wide.  

Gahhhhh.  So frustrating!!!  The sides worked out a little better, but not exactly as I thought it would have.  So how do I fix this without ripping off the fudge strips and re-cutting them?  I thought about this for and came up with this plan:  There was a half-inch blue background between the pictures.  What if I decreased the distance between the pictures by sewing a teensy pleat between each picture until I decreased the width of the strip enough so that it will fit? Kind of a hit-and-miss, trial and error process.  

And so I did.  Not all of the pleats were equal, but it isn't that noticeable overall, and I can camouflage the seams with the quilting.  And it worked!

Here it is, the finished quilt top!  Next: Pinning and Quilting!

Alayna's Grad Quilt, Blocks and Problems!

The first thing I did was sew black framing strips around the saying pictures.  This should have been an easy thing.  However, I made an incorrect assumption that came back to bite me!  I ASSUMED that the panel pictures were SQUARES. I measured across, and cut all my framing strips from the black fabric.  WRONG!  The pictures are actually 1/2" taller than they are wide.  So, half of my strips were too short, and I had to cut them again.  Wasted fabric?  Maybe not, since they are 1.5" wide strips, and I can probably use them in a different project someday. However, it WAS a waste of time and energy! Lesson learned.  OK, so I adjusted the pattern. Onward.  Here is how it looks so far:

The turquoise background fabric was from a piece leftover from another project.  If I framed the block in the normal way, sides first, then top and bottom, I would not have had enough to do all four center blocks.  As it was, I had wanted the turquoise blocks to be in the corners and center, but didn't have near enough for 5 blocks, so 4 had to do.  I could only get the 4 framed turquoise blocks if I cut all the strips the same length and sew them using partial seams around the black-framed saying.  Not really a problem, but not the usual way of doing things.  It didn't take long to do the turquoise blocks.  Next, the split color blocks.  Nothing complicated here, and it didn't take long either.:

I auditioned black strips as dividers on the outer border but didn't like it.
I will use the blue background around the pictures as it is.  I will use a
black binding though.

Tomorrow: Borders go on!!

Alayna's Graduation

Last fall I stopped in at my local quilt shop, the Pins and Pieces.  There happened to be a rep there from some fabric wholesaler showing samples to Heidi.  There was a collection of fabrics that I fell in love with.  It had bright happy colors, and a panel with positive sayings.  I expressed interest in it, and Heidi ordered the collection.  It arrived this winter at the quilt store, and I was able to purchase some before the CronaVirus hit the world.  I had in mind to use those positive saying squares for a graduation banner for my granddaughter Alayna. I couldn't decide which of the positive sayings to choose for the banner, so I decided to use them all and make a quilt for her instead.  I'm not sure if there will be an actual graduation or a party, we are all under lockdown still, and social distancing is the rule.  Can't have a party if everyone has to stand 6 feet away from each other!  But I did make the quilt, and it went really fast.  I can't wait to give it to her!

These are the positive sayings:

Alayna's school colors are red and black, so I was thinking of something like this to frame the sayings:

However, the red and black just didn't fit.   Trying again, I auditioned yellows, golds, creams and then a turquoise.  

The tangerine batik was a great choice, and I chose the softer yellow with small orange dots (hard to see.)  The softer yellow reads almost as a cream and matches some of the backgrounds around the sayings.  Perfect.  And the turquoise spoke to me! (No surprise there!)  I didn't have much of the turquoise, but it was enough.  I had to sew the turquoise frames with partial seams around the black-framed sayings because I didn't have enough of the fabric to do the longer top/bottom strips.  But it WAS enough, and I only had about a 4 x 6" pieces left over at the end!

Choosing fabrics always takes me a long time.  Maybe because I have such a large stash, there are just too many choices. It took me more than a day to choose my fabrics, but once I did, The sewing went fast.

Leaders and Enders

I have fallen in love with an Irish Chain rainbow pattern (more on this later), and have decided to use this project as a "leader and ender" quilt.  What the heck is a "leader and ender" quilt?

I have used "leaders" for a long time.  For some reason, my  Brother sewing machine isn't good at grabbing the fabric when I start sewing.  I end up with a  big thread nest at the start, or worse, the fabric edge gets punched down under the feed dogs. This can happen even with a nice sharp new needle.  This is especially true if I am sewing points of triangles, or diagonals.  I have learned to use a scrap, start sewing somewhere around an inch or so from the edge, and sew to the edge. When you get to the edge of the leader scrap, you slide your real block unit under the feed dogs next to the needle at the quarter inch and continue sewing off the leader and onto your block.  The thread nest stays on your leader, and later, you just snip off the leader and use it again. This also gives you something to hold onto as you pull your quilt block unit into the needle.  And you use less thread this was as well.  Here is a picture of one of my well-used leaders, and how it is about to sew onto a block unit for a current quilt.

 

An "ender" is also a scrap that you slide under the feed dogs at the needle when you get to the end of sewing your block unit.  This ender then becomes a new leader,   I end up using the same scraps for leaders and enders over and over.  Eventually, I throw them away and begin again with a new scrap.  I have no limit to scraps for this purpose!! Here is a picture of the scrap being used as an ender:

Some people, however, use leaders and enders but don't use scraps.  They use another quilt block unit as the leader and ender. Let's say they need 600 four-patches with back and white squares for an Irish Chain quilt. They would sew 2.5" squares together to make a 2-patch unit.  If you cut the black and white squares, and kept them close to the sewing machine, you could be making 2 quilts at the same time,  using the 2.5" squares for your 2-patches as leaders and enders.  Sew a black to a white (the leader), sew your current quilt unit, cut off the leader (the now sewn 2-patch), slide another pair of black/white squares under the feed dogs as your ender.  You have just sewn two 2-patches for your Irish Chain quilt, enough for a 4-patch! All while working on your current project.   Cut them off, put them in a pile, save them up until there are enough for a quilt!  It takes a long time to get what you need, but it's a secondary project, and you're not REALLY working on it, it's your "leader and ender" quilt!  Your current project gets put together, and you end up with a pile of 4-patches, without any noticeable effort or time!

My Irish Chain Rainbow quilt will have scrappy colored squares paired with scrappy white squares as my leader and enders.  I will precut all the 2.5" squares and keep them handy. When I need a leader, I will grab a white and a color, match their edges, and sew them first.  Hmmmm.  I wonder if I will need a "leader" for my leader!

A Bucket List Quilt

One of the quilts on my bucket list is an Irish Chain quilt.  Irish Chain quilts can be "single", "double", or "triple."  Here is a sample of each kind:

Single Irish Chain

Double Irish Chain

Triple Irish Chain

 

I found a pattern for a single Irish Chain quilt that I fell in love with, and so I decided to make it, and tick off one of the quilts in my Bucket List.  It's an Irish Chain in rainbow colors, a really unique design.  It looks like this:

You can find the pattern here: (It will open in a new window.)

http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/2015/06/super-scrappy-single-irish-chain-finish.html

I have a lot of scraps, so this will use some of them up (hopefully!) I have been working on this quilt for awhile now, and the first thing I did was to "build" some blocks.  A single Irish Chain quilt block usually consists of a 9-patch unit, and a solid square the same size, which are then laid out alternating the 9-patch and solid square.  The Irish Chain Rainbow uses a variation of this with sashing, so one block looks like this: 

There will be sashing between each of the blocks as well.  I need 8 of each color (red, blue, orange green, and purple) and 9 yellow.  I have started "building" the blocks, working on using lots of different colored scraps.  It will not be as random as it looks!  Each color is hand chosen for its spot, and the white "scraps" are  also hand chosen to so no white is next to another piece of that same fabric.  Here's my start so far:

It looks a little messy, but as soon as these are sewn together, it'll be just fine!

Something for Me

I am usually so busy making quilts for others, I have not done anything for myself specifically.  I saw a pattern for a wall hanging to hold Christmas cards, and I thought, gee, I could sure use one of those!  I whipped one up in no time! 

I looks great on the wall, and was so fun to put under the Bernina Q20.  The printed border worked out perfectly, although I would have made a wider inner border to accommodate it.  Now, just have to wait for the Christmas cards to come rolling in!