I still love my medallion quilts. But after focusing on them for most of a year, I’m itching to do a few new things.
For the next few days I’ll be mostly offline. While I’m gone, I thought I’d share some ideas, drawn up in EQ7. Please comment! Let me know what you think, what colors you’d use, what layout you might try, how you’d change it to suit you. I promise to respond when I’m back online.
I call the first one “Sisters and Friends,” since it uses a friendship star and a variation on the Sister’s Choice block. It’s drawn as a 5×5 grid of 10″ blocks. It finishes as a 50″ square quilt. I’ve shown it in only three colors, but I think it’s well suited for scrappy blocks, even if the background is all one. Would you keep it in red, white and blue? Switch it up to gold, orange, and grey? Teal and olive on pale green?
Here we are almost at the end of the month, the quarter, even! As I look back at what I accomplished, I feel both proud and frustrated. I have projects in progress I thought would be long since done. In January I came roaring out of the gate and finished three quilts. February and March have been much slower with one finish each.
You can see all my finishes so far this year in my Gallery 2014.
But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy, with both quilting and real-world stuff. Including this one, since the beginning of the year I’ve published 44 blog posts here at Catbird Quilts, and another 14 at Our View From Iowa, the blog I share with Jim. I’ve been working on a two-hour presentation I’ll give in a few days on the Underground Railroad Quilt Code. And I’ve committed to teaching a five-session class at a local quilt shop on medallion improv, designing medallion quilts as you go.
And I have been more deliberate in experimenting. The other day my friend Beth came over to play with me, and I did something I’ve wanted to try for a long time. It isn’t worthy of photos, but I felt successful in my attempt.
Besides all that, I have a quilt on the frame that’s been going very slowly. I’m using a technique new to me, along with wool batting. I love the way wool feels, but it really works differently and takes more care to manage during quilting. Here’s a little preview of the quilting.
You can see the long pins I’ve used to corral the wool batting. If I didn’t do that, it would bunch up into the area where I’m quilting.
A table runner is quilted but not bound. It’s on the same muslin backing fabric as the quilt above, so until I have it off the frame, I can’t get to the table runner, either.
Next up is to quilt a top I made in March. I showed you the colors in this teaser post. And for another little tease, here is a part of the top.
By now I should know to be patient. Still, I feel like I coulda/shoulda gotten more done. As I look into next quarter, it’s hard to imagine what’s next. April’s calendar is full with projects, events, and appointments. Perhaps it’s better if I have few expectations, and then just be pleased with what gets done.
How did your first quarter go? Did you get everything marked off your list?
Today I bought a new roll of batting. Lots of you have your favorites for various reasons, and so do I. I like the loft and weight of a flat polyester batting, like The Warm Company’s Soft & Bright. It’s easy to work with, washes well with no shrinkage, and it’s inexpensive, to boot. That’s especially true during a half-off sale, like today!
I’ve used other battings, too, including Warm’s Warm & Natural and Warm & White cottons, Hobb’s 80/20, and Hobbs Washable Wool, among others. The evidence is in my studio closet, in the chunks and pieces left over after quilting numerous projects.
Occasionally I join batting pieces together to create one large enough for a given project. But when my last roll ran out at the end of the year, I decided it was time to get serious and use up some of the remnants. Today I have a few simple tips for piecing them together.
First, make sure you are using two (or more) pieces of the same kind. Mixing fibers could cause issues in washing. Cotton batting typically shrinks some, while polyester batting does not. A quilt with a mixture will experience uneven shrinkage.
Second, make sure your pieces are both “right side up” when you join them. Did you know there is an “up” and a “down” in most battings? The direction has an impact on how much bearding occurs when you quilt through the layers. This post from APQS explains.
Once you’ve found pieces of the same type you wish to join, you have choices. There is fusible joint tape you can buy, which is probably useful sometimes. Since I am frugal and avoid buying products I don’t need, I haven’t used it so can’t provide any feedback on it.
Depending on your project and the batting, you may be able to simply overlap pieces of batting a little. Once basted through and quilted, you might not be able to find the join. I did that for the quilt here. If I feel for it, I can find the strip where they overlap, but it isn’t visible and didn’t leave a ridge. The batting here was a cheap, mid-loft polyester, which is part of why it worked. The layers are thin but spongy, so they melded against each other easily.
For flat battings like the Warm cotton products, Warm Soft & Bright, and Hobbs 80/20, zigzag along two butted edges. Here is a great video from the Gourmet Quilter to show how.
Wool batting is a special treat to work with, but it requires some different strategies than cotton or polyester. It is lofty, spongy, and elastic. For my current quilting project, I needed to join two remnants of wool. Butt-joining them by machine would crush the loft at the joint. Overlapping wouldn’t work, in my opinion, because of the spongy loft. Lori in South Dakota, a fellow Stashbuster, suggested whip-stitching it.
Before loading the quilt on my long-arm frame, I made sure the edges to join were evenly cut. I waited until I advanced the quilt far enough to “run out” of the first piece of batting. Then I laid down the second piece, butting the edges, and whip-stitched the length of it.
The scissors are hiding to show you where the two batting pieces are butted next to each other. The quilt top is pushed out of the way.
Here you can see my big stitches. They don’t have to be neat or fancy. They just have to hold the pieces next to each other AND not go through the backing fabric underneath. I used a curved needle to make it easier.
If the thread will show through, of course be sure you use white thread. I used tan thread for contrast so you can see it.
Do you have other tips or tricks for piecing batting? Are there other ways you use batting remnants? I’d love to hear about them.
Astronaut Karen Nyberg has invited all of us to join her in making a quilt! From NASA’s press release in October:
International Space Station Expedition 37 Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA, a lifelong lover of sewing, is inviting fellow crafters to join her in stitching together a global community space quilt.
Nyberg, who is in the final weeks of her mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, recently shared a star-themed quilt block she was able to complete during her limited free time in space. She is now inviting quilters from the public to create their own star-themed quilt blocks to help celebrate her mission and passion for the quilting arts.
“Now that I’ve tried my hand sewing in space, I can say one thing with certainty: it’s tricky,” Nyberg said in a video sent down from the space station. “This is what I’ve made. It’s far from being a masterpiece, but it was made in space. I’m inviting all of you to create your own star-themed quilt block. We’ll be combining them with my block to create a quilt for next year’s 40th anniversary International Quilt Festival in Houston. I can’t wait to see what we make together.”
I am a great planner and always have been. Sometimes plans work out; sometimes they don’t.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
~ Lao Tzu
At this stage of my life, I have the luxury of time. While deadlines do crop up occasionally, most of my schedule is self-imposed. And for the most part, I’ve become comfortable with changing that schedule, since no bad thing will happen if I don’t finish project X by week Y.
First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. ~ Napoleon Hill
Because I design my own quilts, the planning is key. With no pattern, no color scheme suggested by others, I pull from my experience and from my inspirations.
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
A pattern isn’t enough for me. The thought process helps me deal with problems before they arise.
Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment. ~ Horace
But I always want to temper that with room for the unexpected, and for play. Often the greatest visual success comes from the element of surprise.
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
The key, though, isn’t just in the plan, or even in the impromptu moment. It’s in the execution. If I don’t do it, it won’t get done.
Depending on your project and the batting, you may be able to simply overlap pieces of batting a little. Once basted through and quilted, you might not be able to find the join. I did that for the quilt here. If I feel for it, I can find the strip where they overlap, but it isn’t visible and didn’t leave a ridge. The batting here was a cheap, mid-loft polyester, which is part of why it worked. The layers are thin but spongy, so they melded against each other easily.
Catbird Quilt Studio 