Molly thinking about what she can make from these fabric strings

Took a few days off from sewing.  I could say it was spring break, but it was more like a bad case of spring fever!

The weather here in the Upper Peninsula has been unseasonably spring-like, with temperatures reaching into the 50’s nearly every day this past week.  The snow is melting fast, leaving behind icky-looking piles of dirt and leaves on the sidewalks and streets.  I’m almost ready for it to snow again to cover up the mess.

I found myself at loose ends for a few days.  With all the warm weather, what I really wanted to do was to go out and start working in the yard, cutting brush and  cleaning up for spring.  But since there’s still over a foot of snow on the ground,  it’s just not possible yet.

I wanted to start a new project, but couldn’t seem to settle on what to do.  Somebody on the Heartstrings Yahoo Group had suggested looking at these Project Improv quilts on Flickr.  Project Improv is a charity quilt project started by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio over a year ago.

These strip quilts are bright and snappy, as well as being inspiring.  In fact, they’ve inspired me to sort out my fabric strips by color, and also by value–lights, mediums, and darks.  So far I’ve done the 2″ and the 2-1/2″ strips.  Tomorrow I need to continue with the 1-1/2″ strips and also the five or six bags of crumbs that have been lurking in the closet for years.  The picture shows Molly surrounded by fabric strips.  Actually she curled up in a box and went to sleep while I was sorting strips, which was probably a good thing.

This sorting project has been very enlightening.  I thought I didn’t have very many lights, but I discovered that I had a lot more than I had thought!  A lot of the mediums could go either light or dark, too, depending on whether I pair them with lights or darks.

So I’m starting to get jazzed about my next project.  Instead of a scrappy look, my focus will be on just two or three colors at a time.

I’m also considering donating finished tops, and letting someone with a long-arm do the quilting.  Machine quilting is hard on my wrists, so I’d rather avoid it when I can.

It’s been said that a messy studio is a sign of a creative mind.  Think I qualify?  Ah well, things will be tidied up tomorrow.

My latest strip quilt

Time for another change in direction!  Making strip quilts to donate is fun, and I’m really enjoying it.  It’s been a challenge to come up with a way to make them quickly, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

Here’s a picture of the strip quilt I finished yesterday.  It went together very quickly, even though I got a little arty with piecing the back.  That was fun to do, though.

There’s no binding either.  I layered the quilt, backing, and batting and sewed them together, leaving an opening to turn the quilt along one edge.  I whipstitched the opening closed after turning it, and then pin-basted to keep the layers from shifting while it was machine quilted.

Pieced back of strip quilt

The quilting is long wavy lines along the long axis of the quilt. The quilting only took about an hour. Not bad!

This kind of strip quilt is very easy to do, and it’s fast.  By varying the width of the long pieced strips, getting a slightly different look is easy, too.

This quilt is about 39″ by 47″.  Haven’t washed it yet, but it will probably shrink up a couple of inches.  I’ll have to remember to measure it once it comes out of the dryer.

OK, so one challenge down.  Looks like I’ll be able to do some serious stashbusting this year, especially if I can make two or three strip quilts a month!

So what’s next? One of my other goals for the year was to develop my own style as a quilt artist. I got off to a pretty good start with “Winter Journey,” shown here.

"Winter Journey," my first AAQI Priority Quilt!

This quilt definitely was a stretch for me.  I had never done anything like this before.  Maybe that’s why I haven’t done another.  It did take a lot of time and effort.

But good stuff doesn’t come easy, does it?

So my new goal is to spend two or three mornings a week working on art quilts.  This includes dyeing fabric and playing around with new techniques.  I have some ideas that I want to explore.

I’ve also decided to join the Studio Art Quilt Associates.  According to their webpage, “SAQA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation.”

I’d been tossing around the idea of joining, but kept putting it off because I didn’t think I was enough of an artist yet.  But Leni Weiner had a great post on her blog about why people should join SAQA, and she convinced me.  So I signed up earlier this evening.

I’m also thinking of entering Fabrications 2, a show open to quilt artists in the Upper Peninsula.  It’s being run in conjunction with a SAQA show, Points Of View, which will be on display this summer down in Escanaba.  Having never had the nerve to enter a show before, this is a big step for me!  So first, I need to make some quilts to enter, and second, we’ll see if I get through the jurying process!  Whatever happens, this is bound to be a learning experience.

Strip quilt made in quilt-as-you-go style

Here are the quilt pictures I promised yesterday. The first picture is the front of the quilt-as-you-go strip quilt I finished on Saturday. It came out pretty well, I think. It seemed like it took forever to make it though. I think I’ll save the quilt-as-you-go technique to join wider and longer strips together, instead of to join individual blocks.

Back of strip quilt

The back does look cute, though.  It could almost stand alone on its own as a quilt.  So this probably makes this quilt reversible, which is a handy thing for a baby quilt. This one will be donated to the local women’s shelter.

Diagonal strip quilt

The next quilt is a long over-due picture of the diagonal strip quilt I made for the ALS Hopes and Dreams Challenge. I really like the back of it. I saw some quilts for sale online that remind me of this quilt backing design.  They were going for an amazing price.  Maybe I should be focusing on quilt backing designs instead! 

Back of diagonal strip quilt

Now that this quilt is finally washed and dried, I’ll be packing it up tomorrow with my other two ALS quilts, and getting them mailed off.  About time, huh?

I finally got my two AAQI Priority Challenge Quilts in the mail today.  Now I can think about doing some more.

It got above freezing today, but it was still pretty cold outside.  My poor little hands got cold taking pictures of my quilts.  Just think, someday the snow will melt, and I won’t have to wear snowshoes for my quilt photography!

Spent most of the day sewing today.  I finished the long strips for my next quilt.  Tomorrow I’ll join them with sashing.  This time I’m going to dispense with binding by sewing the top, batting, and backing together as a sandwich.  Then I’ll turn it right side out, sew the opening closed, and machine quilt it after it’s turned.  I’ve done this in the past, and it works well.  Don’t know why I didn’t remember it til now.

So if all goes well, I may finish up another baby quilt for the women’s shelter tomorrow.

By the way, my city of Marquette, MI, WON the 2010 Dozen Distinctive Destination Contest!  This is really great news, and everyone here is pretty jazzed up about it.  Hopefully it will mean an increase in tourism for the area in the coming year.  There’s always something going on around here, even in the middle of winter!

Our house was built in the early ’50’s, so all of our electrical outlets downstairs were of the old ungrounded two-prong variety.  We wanted to upgrade the wiring so we could stop using those annoying little adapters to plug in stuff like computers and TVs.  Not to mention the safety issues, of course.

So the electrician was here all day yesterday and most of today.

We learned that whoever originally wired the house was very creative as far as circuits went.  One circuit in particular had the refrigerator, the coffeemaker, the microwave, AND the washing machine on it.  The electrician was amazed that I had never tripped the breaker, even though I regularly used three out of four of these appliances at the same time.  Another circuit runs all over the house, and took some detective work to figure it out.  All I can say is that this guy earned his money.  For a while I thought he might be a permanent guest, but he did manage to finish the job today.

So in between the electrician turning the power on and off and working all over the house, I did manage to work on the quilt-as-you-go strip quilt I started the other day.  I finished the blocks yesterday, and joined them today.

So what do I think of quilt-as-you-go?  Well, it’s definitely not a time-saver.  I had to resort to pinning to keep the quilt batting and backing from shifting when sewing down my strips.  Kinda fiddly.  But the blocks did look good when they were done.

What about joining them?  Easy, but mindless and time-consuming.  It takes five seams to join each block.  See this qayg tutorial for the details.  I thought I would NEVER get done sewing the 30 blocks into six rows of five each.  It does go faster when you’re sewing the rows together, though.

That said, though, I can see where this joining technique would be very handy when making larger quilts.  I think my next project will be made in panels, instead of individual blocks.  If I made four 10-inch wide panels that were 45 inches long, it would be a lot faster to join them instead of the individual blocks.  Perhaps like a Chinese coin pattern.   I could also piece blocks as I normally do, join them into segments, machine quilt the segments, and then join them, like the mile-a-minute quilts.

The upside:  I’m using up strips and making quilts to donate, too!  Stashbusting is a good way to use up old fabric that’s been hanging around far too long.

I have to say that the back of the quilt looks really cute, with the sashing outlining the individual blocks.  Pictures will follow in a day or two.

This is the green from mixing a little black into the yellow dye. It's really a much nicer-looking green, not this washed-out gray!

Here are the results of my dyeing escapade the other day. Putting the heating pad under the fabric did seem to help set the dye, as very little dye ran off when I washed and rinsed the fabric. I’m somewhat annoyed with my camera, as its not showing the colors correctly. Probably operator error!

These aren't as blotchy as they look in the picture; but the colors are pretty close to reality.

For some reason, my camera decided this was pink, but it's really red-brown instead!

This was my attempt at color mixing. These are pretty close to how they really look.

Cat House Block!

Just visited Bumble Bean’s blog.  She has the cutest house block someone sent her with a sock monkey peeking out the window.  I love it!

Of course, not to be outdone, here’s my Cat House block.  It really is square.  I can’t seem to take a picture straight on for some reason.

There’s a story behind this.  Years ago when I lived in KY, I worked at the animal shelter, and also at the vet’s office.  Because I couldn’t resist a kitty in need, I wound up with seven cats!  The vet I worked for said I had the best little cat house in west KY.  So here’s to my kitty friends from many years ago!

The next two pictures are of my newest AAQI quilt!  Actually, I finished this one the day before yesterday.  This started out as a free piecing experiment.  I just sat down and started playing with scraps, sewing and cutting, and re-sewing.

AAQI Priority Quilt

Back of AAQI Priority Quilt

The finished quilt measures 9″ by 10.5″, and it’s machine quilted.

When I uploaded the pictures, it occurred to me that I need to come up with a name for it!  Any suggestions?

The Heartstrings Quilt Project is a group that makes and donates string quilts to local charitable organizations.  I joined because I’m definitely into string quilts right now!  For my first  Heartstrings project, I decided to try a quilt-as-you-go crib quilt to donate to the local women’s shelter.

First six quilt-as-you-go blocks

Ten-inch blocks seemed a little big for a crib quilt, so mine are seven inches instead.  I’ll need 30 blocks, which will hopefully result in a quilt that will be 35″ by 42″.

I thought it would be a total pain to cut out batting and backing squares, but it didn’t take very long to cut them out at all.

Here are the six blocks I finished this afternoon.  It’s pretty easy to sew the strips down to the batting and backing.  The blocks came out really well, and knowing that they’re already quilted is a nice plus.

Of course, they still have to be joined together, but that process doesn’t look too difficult.

Probably won’t get any sewing done tomorrow.  We need to go to the VA in Iron Mountain again, for a dental appointment, so that pretty much takes up the day.  Then in the evening, we’ll be going to see the start of the UP 200 Sled Dog Race.  Hey, we’ve gotta take advantage of all that snow!

What my backyard looks like. Only there's more snow now! And the sun is definitely NOT out today.

Well, we didn’t have much snow for a while, but it looks like the Upper Peninsula is going to live up to it’s wintry reputation this week.  It’s been snowing since Sunday.  I went out and cleared the driveway yesterday, but it’s pretty much filled back in already.  Plus the city plow left a BIG pile at the end of the drive.  Oh well.  Nobody here has to go anywhere today, which is probably a good thing.

Poor Andrew had oral surgery yesterday.  He wasn’t a very happy camper last night, but he’s feeling somewhat better today.  Having had oral surgery myself some years back,  I’d rather shovel the driveway with a teaspoon than to go through that!  But at least it’s over now, and he can focus on recovering.  I’m taking good care of him, and feeding him lots of soft food.

Enough with the non-quilting stuff.  Finally finished the diagonal strip quilt yesterday.  All I had to do was to bind it, but one corner just wouldn’t cooperate, so it took a bit longer than I thought it would.  But the quilt and I finally came to an agreement, and it’s now sporting a cheerful yellow binding.  A picture will follow after it’s washed.  Then I WILL mail those three quilts off to the ALS Quilt Challenge this week!

Today I want to make another block for the BASICS Home Gather that V is doing right now.  Plus I started a small free-pieced quilt the other day.  Just sat down and playing around with sewing scraps and strips together.  I want to finish that today, and get it quilted and add it to the pile for the AAQI.  Once I get three done, I’ll register them and send them off.

Plus I’m thinking about my next donation quilt.  I’ve joined the Heartstrings Yahoo Group, which is a group that makes string quilts to donate.  You can send them completed blocks, tops, quilts, or fabric, or you can make quilts and donate them locally.  I’m going to take the second route, since I obviously have a problem with mailing things off.  (Actually it’s hard to get to the post office.  Parking is impossible.  It’s easier to walk than to drive, but it’s too cold to walk down there right now, especially with a large box.)

My plans include making crib and child-sized quilts for the local women’s center, and maybe some 60″ by 80″ quilts for the Salvation Army, too.  So I’m thinking about doing the 20″ wide strips mentioned in Mile-A-Minute-Quilts by Sharon Hultgren.  Or I may just do individual strip blocks and quilt-as-you-go.

Why you don't go out on the breakwater during a storm...

This is a picture from last fall.  There’s a sign warning people to stay off the breakwater during storms because people have been swept away in the past.  Andrew was standing right at the beginning of it, but I was so nervous about him being there that he didn’t stay there very long, thank goodness.

Enough of this.  I’m off to sew!

Strip quilt ready for quilting!

Here’s the stashbusting strip quilt I’ve been working on this week. I meant it to be a crib-sized quilt, but it came out about 46″ by 48″, so I think I’ll donate it to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  I STILL haven’t mailed off the two quilts I’ve completed, so I guess I may as well wait another day or two to finish this one before I mail them all off.

I meant to practice quilt-as-you-go with this quilt, but it didn’t happen, mostly because of the bias edges on the outside of the quilt.  I was afraid they would stretch, and they did.  I hurried up and sewed borders on to contain the ever-growing edges, and they seem to have done the trick.

Tomorrow I’ll get the backing done, and get it basted.  If I’m feeling really ambitious, I may even start quilting it.  It should go pretty fast, as I’m not going to mess around and do anything fancy.  Straight-line quilting is the only way to go!

House block with kitty

V over at Bumble Beans is collecting house blocks to make quilts for BASICS, a group that helps homeless people in NYC.  She’s asking for 10.5″ house blocks; click on the link for the pattern and directions if you’re interested in making a block or two for her!

I decided to take a break from the string quilt and make a house block this morning.  V said you could applique a heart on the house, but what’s a home without a cat?

I cut the kitty out of some fabric I had on hand, and fused it down.  Then I went around it with an outline stitch just to be sure he doesn’t go anywhere!  I love that grin.  Wonder what he’s thinking about getting into?

This block really is square.  My photography skills aren’t the greatest, I’m afraid!

Ice mountains along the Lake Superior shore

Went for a walk yesterday.  It was COLD out there!  The north wind definitely had teeth in it.

The constant wind has been blowing the ice up against the shoreline.  This area is usually open water, but you can see how the ice has built up.  The waves are breaking against the ice, which is way out from shore.

Snow drifts across the bike path

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the snowdrifts on the bike path!  The wind comes in off the lake and dumps the snow right on the pathway.  There’s always an adventure around here.

Don’t forget to vote for Marquette in the Dozen Distinctive Destinations at the National Trust for Historic Preservation!  Right now Marquette is in first place!  Woo hoo!  But that could change, so we need to keep voting.

The beginning of my hand-dyed fabric collection!

Here are the fruits of my dyeing labors on Saturday!  It’s hard to see the yellow, but you can see a little mottling on the left.  The light blue and green are solid, and the dark blue and the fuschia are both mottled.  I’m really pleased with how well it came out.

I’m planning on trying my hand at batiking the yellow fabric with gel glue.  You paint your designs with the glue, and then dye the fabric again.  Then you wash the glue out, which leaves the designs in yellow.  I think I’m going to cut the yellow in two.  On one half I want to do spirals, and on the other little fish.  I think I’ll dye the spiral one orange or peach, and the fishy one green or blue.  But who knows what inspiration will strike down in my basement!

This fabric was white, with a white print. It's more purple than this. I wanted to show both sides of it.

The second picture is some white material that was printed with a white figure.  I never used it cuz I like colors, so I decided to try dyeing it.  Sorry the picture is blurry.  I turned off the flash so it wouldn’t wash out the color, but for some reason, turning off the flash makes it hard to take a clear picture.  It’s really a lot more purple than pink.  I really like how this came out.  I have lots more of this fabric, so it’ll be fun dyeing it different colors.

My first attempt at quilt-as-you-go!

The third picture shows another stashbuster I started working on yesterday.  This strippy baby quilt surprised me by coming out as a square!  I think it will finish around 40 inches on each side.  I didn’t really know where I was going with this design, but I’m pretty happy with it.

The center section (four strips) is sewed together.  I need to finish sewing the two triangular side pieces together.  I’m trimming the sides as I join the strips.  I’m not real happy with all the bias edges on the outside, but I stay-stitched them very carefully, which will hopefully keep them from stretching until I can do the quilting.

I’ll quilt the three sections individually, and then join them together, using the tutorial at Quilting Twin.

The next time I make this quilt, I’ll use a long strip instead of the squares, so there’ll be less sewing to do.  But I still have oodles of pink squares left, so I wanted to use a few up!  I  may modify the design so that it’s a rectangle, too.

Working out this design took a little time, but I think it will go a lot faster the next time I make it, especially if I’m not dealing with all those squares.

Barn Dance, finished!

Finally got around to taking some pictures yesterday.  Here’s my “Barn Dance” quilt hanging on the clothesline.  It was a bear to quilt, but it’s finished!  I have to say that I’m quite pleased with how it came out.

The next picture is of my “Rail Fence” quilt.  I like how the lights and darks zig across the surface.  It’s quite a lively quilt, with a lot of movement.  Not bad for just sitting down and sewing a pile of strips together!

I’ll get them packed up this weekend, and in the mail to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS on Monday.

Rail Fence Scrap Quilt

I went up to Alley Kat’s Quilt Shop yesterday.  All the fabrics were 30% off, including white PFD (prepared for dyeing) mercerized cotton.  Such a deal!  I got five yards for less than $18, including sales tax.   Ben Franklin is having a sale this weekend, too.  I have a 40% off coupon, so I think I’ll run over there this morning, and get another quilt batting.  With all the quilting I’m doing right now, it’s nice to be able to save a few bucks on batting.

Now that I have some white fabric to play with, I may do some dyeing today.  Fabric Dyeing 101 has lots of great tips for dyeing fabric.  I especially like her directions for making batik-like fabrics with gel glue.  I’ve dyed a lot of yarn, and even tried my hand at some socks last fall, but haven’t done any fabric yet.  Since I already have the pro mx dyes, soda ash, and everything else I need, I’m ready to go!

I also took a look at Fusing Fun!  Fast Fearless Art Quilts by Laura Wasilowski yesterday afternoon.  I am hooked!  What a fun book.  I even have an idea for my first fused quilt, once I get a few fabrics dyed.  I need to pick up some fusible web while I’m out today, too.  I have some Wonder Under around here someplace, but since I don’t want to tear into my closet, I’ll just buy some more and wait for it to surface, which it will, eventually.

Haven’t done any sewing the past couple of days, and don’t know if I’ll get any done today, but hopefully I’ll get back to it tomorrow for a bit.  Right now my brain is so full of stuff that I feel like I may explode.

Thill's Fish House, at the Lower Harbor in Marquette, MI

One last thing:  Marquette, MI,  my hometown, is one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2010.  Here’s what it’s all about:  “Since 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Dozen Distinctive Destination program has recognized cities and towns that offer an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, cultural diversity, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a strong commitment to historic preservation, sustainability and revitalization. In each community, residents have joined together and taken action to protect their town’s character.”

Between now and February 28,  anyone over 18 can vote for their favorite, as often as they want.  Marquette is trailing behind Rockland, Maine, and we can’t let that happen!  So please click the link, register (they just want your name and email) and vote for Marquette, MI!  Vote early and vote often!

Moon peeking through the tree branches. Andrew took this one, don't know where or when.

My last post was about new beginnings.  Well, a new beginning is in progress around here.  No, I’m not pregnant!   I’m 55, and my baby days are through.  However, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts…

Machine quilting, at least with my current set-up, sucks!  No kidding, huh?  After spending three fun-filled days machine quilting “Barn Dance” and “Rail Fence,” change is definitely in the air.

First, crawling around on the floor pin-basting a quilt has got to be a recipe for a trip to the chiropractor.  When I’m done, either my knees hurt, or my back hurts,or my wrists hurt, or my neck hurts.  Or all of the above.  Plus I’m going to rip up that nasty old carpet next summer, and put in laminate flooring, so there won’t be anything to pin the quilts to in a few months.

Second, repeatedly horsing forty inches of quilt, batting, and backing through an eight-inch opening on a sewing machine  is REALLY not fun.  Also, it makes it very hard to have any semblance of control over the quilting, even if  your quilting is composed mostly of what is supposed to be reasonably straight lines.  I doubt my sewing machine enjoys this process much, either.  After all, this isn’t what she was built for.

Third, if my goal this year is stashbusting, I gotta get a lot faster at making these quilts.  Selling them is my eventual goal, but if they’re time sinks, making a living is impossible.

So, what are my options?  Investing in a machine quilting system?  I have considered this, but most of those systems are pretty pricey, and they’re geared towards people who want to do it as a business.

Paying someone to machine quilt donation quilts doesn’t seem too cost-effective, does it?

Soooo, what’s the answer?  Quilt-as-you-go, also known as QAYG.  This involves sewing the strips or pieces directly to the batting and backing that’s already cut into block-sized pieces.  I’ve tried this in the past, but having to join the blocks by hand is a long and time-consuming process.

I should have known that someone would come up with a way to join the blocks by machine.  Here is an excellent tutorial detailing how to do this.  Quick and easy!  I can’t wait to get started.

Most of the QAYG blocks I’ve seen involve strips.  This is good, but I want to do something different.  There will be a joining strip in between the blocks, so I need to take this into account and use it as a design feature.  I’ve been mulling this over, and I think I have come up with a design that will utilize some of the the nearly 200 four-inch squares I’ve got on hand.  I’m pretty excited to get started on this.

My fisherman is heading home today! I sure have missed my sweetie. (If you want to know, I think that's a king salmon on the left, a lake trout in the middle, and a coho salmon on the right.)

My big news is that my honey is on his way home today!  He may make it home tonight, if he feels up to driving through.  Today is a good travel day, as there’s nothing major on the radar between here and TN.

It’ll be good to have him home.  I’ve kept busy, so the week has passed reasonably quickly, but I’m ready for him to come home.