awayuq

small saga, beginning of part 3.

Part 3 will go on for a long time.

A week ago Joe Basic Quilting hoop arrived and I was eager to get started. I started near the center of the quilt, but not at the center, because I hoped my stitches would improve and I want the center to have good stitches, not first learning stitches. There is a lot of improvement to be had. Here's the first block I tried.

It looks almost ok from a distance, but take a look up close.

Sigh. In my handsewing, I strive for small stitches and even stitches. Two pieces of calico, no problem. Quilt sandwich? BIG problem. This first block took me hours! Between trying to get a reasonable motion, not catching enough fabric on the back of the quilt, getting used to a ridge on the top of my thimble, manouvering the whole hot quilt on my lap, and trying to stitch in four different directions...

At this point, I am thinking: I love patchwork, yes. The quilting part, not so much.

Maybe it's just practice? Here's another couple of blocks and sashings completed.

I changed the quilting pattern to crosshatching for a purely practical (or lazy) reason--I found it easier to quilt in open spaces away from seams. The extra thickness of the seams is farther away and it makes it more comfortable and easier (sometimes) to get small stitches. I like the texture, but the stitches are so uneven! They wiggle all over and they are all different lengths. I despair. You can see them clearly here

The small block is 2" square, so you can also see that they are not very small. Several things occur to me at this point.

1. Maybe it takes practice. After all I've only quilted a total of 5 or 6 squares. In my entire life. Instead of being frustrated, I can look on this as a learning experience and use this as a quilt to learn quilting. It is made of scraps. There is no need for spectacular stitching on my first quilt, even if it would be nice.

2. It is still better than trying to manipulate the whole blinking thing under the arm of my ordinary everyday dressmaking sewing machine with no walking foot.

3. Even uneven stitches work to hold the pieces together.

4. At least I am catching the back of the sandwich in too!

5. Process, not product.

6. I am good at lots of things in life. It's ok not to be good at handquilting. Besides, I might improve, back to #1.

7. It's all relative...

here is a picture of one of my favorite quilts. Maybe my all time very favorite.

It was on my bed when I was a child, and I loved tracing the circular designs and examining all the different prints. It is very worn in places

I would love to make a quilt similar to this one. It is a perfect complement to a summer bedroom, and I love the circles against squares effect, and the combination of a bunch of disparate prints. Also I love pink. This quilt has been with me for many years and I treasure it even though I don't know who made it or when or why. It works, and it cheers me up. I thought I might learn something from it, so I started to study the stitching.

Well. Those stitches aren't all that even. Here's a knot or two, right on the top

Clearly I love this quilt for its character, not its perfection. This doesn't mean I don't want to improve my quilting, but I feel a little bit of relief. Each time I pick up the needle and try again to make small, even quilting stitches I can feel my jaw tighten and my neck get strained. After studying my favorite old quilt I think--is it such a bad thing if there is a little bit of crookedness and a certain flexibility in the stich lengths? I want something functional and pretty. I don't need more pressure in my life. I'll continue to practice and if I survive this quilt, there will be another to improve on. Maybe someday...

or maybe not. I don't have to be good at everything. Or even anything!

Thank you everybody for your nice comments on the quilt top. I have been dipping into the world of quilt blogs and am utterly stupefied and awed by what is out there. Since picking up the hexes again it seems that I have run across hexes every which way, in all sorts of configurations. And so many other interesting things! My fabric lust quotient is way high right now.

Happy summer! oh and... that last bit of advice I reported in my previous post, about it being hot to quilt in summertime? Absolutely dead on correct. The back of my knees start to drip when the patch beastie is piled on my lap. The things we do for love of fiber.

small saga, part 2.

I thought that once the layout was completed, sewing all the blocks and sashing together would go quickly. Much more quickly than making the blocks.

Was I ever wrong. It seemed to take forever! My living room was impassible for days. First all the seams going one way, then long seams the other way... at one point I tried to figure it out: ten blocks wide, with sashing, means 20 seams in each row, and there are eleven rows, so that's 220 little seams, and then eleven rows with sashing between means... whatever. I ran out of bobbin thread at least four times. I ran out of entire spools of thread. A big quilt is, well, much bigger than I realized. But finally, with perseverance, it was done.

Not so bad. It has a title: I am calling it my "State of the Studio" quilt for 2007. Some piecing is pretty good

Yep, I can live with that. Other places, not so good

What happened there? I ripped it out and fixed it.

Next step, sandwiching with backing and batting. (In real time there was an interval here while I waited for ordered backing fabric and cotton batting to arrive.) I rolled up the living room carpet and spread out the backing. Masking tape helps when there is only one pair of hands.

On top of that, the batting, then the patchwork.

I spent an entire morning--4-5 hours--scooting around on the floor basting the thing together. Talk about backache. Also a critical reason why crafters need clean feet. As you can see in the picture, there was an issue with one corner, since my living room floor was not big enough to contain the whole thing! Once almost all of it was together I rolled up part of it and finished that corner. Here is a bit of it, you can see the backing with the patchwork. It's not the most perfect choice, but this is a learning quilt. It wasn't in fact my first choice, but on second thought this may be better, because the other fabric I had in mind was darker and less busy and I'm going to quilt with natural colored thread. I hope the uneven stitches will show less on this backing.

There it sits. Still on my living room floor. (The rug is back in place now). Next step, quilting. At some point in my life I had a quilting hoop. Can't find it anywhere. Not in the linen closet, not in the studio, not in the basement storage area. Hmm. So I did a web search and it turns out there are are plenty of people out there that quilt with no hoop or frame. Ok, I thought, I can do that. It's just running stitch, right? Wrong. I've done a few blocks around the edges, but when I tried more than about 8 inches in from the outside, I couldn't figure how to keep tension on the sandwich and make small stitches and not prick my fingers raw. Yes, I know you are supposed to start quilting from the middle. It was a test. I think a hoop would be good for me, so I am now in another waiting period while joe basic quilting hoop is shipped to me. Meanwhile, I have been looking everywhere for information on how to hand quilt. It seems there is some kind of trick to it--I can remember trying to quilt before, and getting so absolutely frustrated. It's kind of funny in a way--so many fiber things I seem to pick up pretty well, but the quilting stitch! On one of my searches I found this tv clip. It is amazing--first of all, because it is so midwest. The accents, the clothes, everything. Did I used to talk like that? Do I still? I am not sure whether to laugh, cry, or just shake my head. Watch that woman quilt. It's at about minute 13 of the video. It's magic, I swear. Unbelieveable. I want to quilt like that.

I'll let you know what happens when I get a hoop. Meanwhile, on with hexagons. Oh, and a funny thing: one of the many quilting books I've been getting out of the library has this piece of advice:

Handquilting can be a very warm activity especially if your quilt is large. You will find it very uncomfortable to quilt during the summer months. Never start quilting your first bed-sized quilt in June.

Shrug.

small saga, part 1.

I will admit that I can be, at times, a little... obsessive? Especially if there is something that I am trying to avoid dealing with or a significant source of stress in my life. One way to look at this is that by procrastinating, I get a lot done (just not the things I "should" be doing). First, an update on the hexagons. I went shopping and got some green fabrics for the paths between flowers and cut a bunch of hexagons

Rotary cutters rock. Here is a close up of the prints

I adore the one in the front with little yellow and white flowers. Should have bought yards and yards of it. My plan is to mix up the path hexes and create a kind of mosaic around the rosettes. I won't get there for a while; I need about 80 flowers and so far I think I have completed 18. It is definitely a slow, savoring project.

But I've been stressed. And I've been checking quilt books out of the library. Rotary cutting quilt books. One of those books had a tip that went something like: before you cut into a new piece of fabric, cut a 2.5 inch strip off one end and set it aside. Pretty soon you'll have a stash of strips to make... and went on to describe some of the many things you can do with strips. Hey, I thought. I have a room full of cuts of fabric. What if I brought out some of the yardage I've been collecting over the past few years and took just a little bit off the end of each one? I always buy extra, so it wouldn't affect any planned project. Fun way to start a collection of fabric strips, while the rotary cutting mat is out.

I won't tell you how long the rotary cutter and mat stayed out. (two weeks? three?) Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the pile of strips I cut. Impressive. At one point I think there were over 90. Yes, that's a lot of cutting and a lot of fabric. I did cut two strips from most pieces, but it's still a lot of fabric. Using basic strip piecing instructions, over the next few weeks I transformed strips of fabric into stacks of nine-patch squares like this

and this

and this

Each block has a pair which has the same fabrics, but with positions reversed. Every fabric is in more than one pair of blocks, but there are no pairs with exactly the same combination of prints. Kind of a nice mathematical puzzle, if you have time to figure it out. I ended up with 111 blocks--should have been 112, but one set I cut to the wrong size at some stage so it turned out wrong. That's ok, because 112 is an awkward number to set together. The blocks are 6 inches square, and 10x11 seemed it might make a good size. Then came the fun of laying it out on the floor...

The little floating squares between each block were leftovers from the cutting, I decided to use them to expand the quilt a little bit and add sashing.

Staying true to the scrap nature of this quilt, I used a length of muslin from my bolt for the sashing. (Must replace the bolt soon. Might be only 5 yards or so left. Bolts of muslin are very handy to have around). The sashing used up a lot of yardage--almost 3 yards! Good thing to know.