Dot Dot Dot...A Finished Quilt Top

Finally, all my appliqued circles are finished and assembled into a finished quilt top!  I used the pattern Dot Dot Dot by Laundry Basket Quilts (Edyta Sitar) and lots of small pieces from my stash to make this quilt.  Every "dot" is a different printed fabric and the background squares are a scrappy selection of off-white to ecru neutrals from my stash.  The original pattern is for a full size quilt but I "downsized" it with fewer dots to make a quilt that will fit my wall hanging space.  

This project has been in the works a long time.  I turned the edges under on my circles, though raw edge applique and fusible web is a very reasonable alternative, then machine appliqued the circles to the background squares.

When I finished the applique, I began assembling the quilt on my design panels, which I had to do in two parts because the panels are not big enough to hold the whole quilt (40" by 58" finished, with border).  There was a lot of moving pieces around and obsessing during this process to get the rainbow effect with the best balance of colors.  I wanted the greens on the outer edges because I planned to use a green border.  This will hang in my kitchen wall hanging spot and the kitchen is green and white.

Eventually I was pleased with the placement and the actual sewing together went fast.  

Now to get this quilted.  Fabric starching is underway for my next project!

How I Spent My Summer

I continued to work on UFOs this summer.  I made this block a couple of years ago then sidelined it after realizing I did not want to make a whole quilt with these blocks.  It is English paper pieced and called the Mandolin block, by Tales of Cloth.  I got this brain wave to turn the single block into a throw pillow and it was a very easy finish.  I appliqued the block to a square of fabric (it is a pale yellow and white polka dot), made a zipper closed back out of the same fabric, then used the bright pink to bind the edges, giving a piped look.  

It looks good on the slipper chair in a corner of the bedroom.  The pillow is 18" square but I used a 20" pillow form to give it a more stuffed look.

A few years ago, I began working on these circles for a quilt called Dot Dot Dot by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It can be made using any applique method you prefer.  I decided on machine applique but am kind of regretting not going with fusible web because it is a lot of work.  I cut out fabric circles as I was cutting for other projects, then every once in a while, I tackled some of my stash.  Last winter, I started basting the cut fabric circles around circles I cut from cardstock.

This summer, I began appliqueing the circles to the background fabric squares.  I use the #7 stitch on my Bernina 440Q machine, with the stitch set very short and narrow.  I'm using an off-white thread to match the background fabric and it is near invisible.  With this step nearly finished, I am almost ready to sew the blocks together.  

In July, I went on a wonderful vacation to Paris and Provence, France.  It was a group trip of eight women.  I added a couple of extra days up front in Paris by myself because I wanted to see Giverny, Claude Monet's home and gardens in Normandy where he painted the famous lily pad paintings.  It is about an hour train ride from Paris and really worth seeing.  It was quite crowded but still a great experience.  

The first "official" day of the trip, we went on a food tasting walking tour of the Left Bank area of Paris.  It was wonderful, with the best eclairs I've ever eaten!  

The next day was Bastille Day which the French celebrate with a military parade.  We watched the flyover from a bridge by Notre Dame (closed to the public while undergoing restoration from the fire) which was pretty impressive.  

Saturday, we took the train to Avignon and moved into our "villa" for the week, a six-bedroom, six bath house with a huge kitchen, living and dining rooms, outside patio dining, and a swimming pool.  A caterer brought our dinner every evening and we ate outside.  During the day, we visited little towns and villages.  The outdoor markets are a lot of fun.  It was an excellent time, very relaxing, with great company.  

I was home for 10 days then drove to Michigan to visit my mother.  My sister flew in from Boston and the three of us went "up north" to Traverse City for a few days of lakeside beach, wineries, restaurant meals, and cherries.  This area is the cherry growing capital of the US and you can get cherry everything.  It was a very good time too.  

Now, back to regular life.  I am still working on Dot Dot Dot and have a new project in mind, but more about that later.

What I've Been Working On Lately

After time spent cleaning up and re-organizing in my sewing space (you can see my destash sale fabric here), I was ready to get back to a quilting project.  Flowers for Emma was starting to take on UFO status.  I began this project about two years ago as my portable project but have not had much need for portability over the past 18 months and have focused on machine sewn quilts instead.  But only the hexie flowers are sewn by hand in this project and with them completed, it morphs into a machine project.  

I made the flowers above while watching The Flight Attendant on HBO Max and The Pursuit of Love on Amazon Prime. (Both are fairly entertaining; of the two, I preferred The Pursuit of Love.)  All of the fabric for the flowers, except the yellow centers, are from various Fig Tree Designs for Moda fabric lines.  Then it's over to the sewing machine where I use a blind stitch or tiny zigzag to applique the flowers to the pieced background.  I've been trying both stitches and think they work equally well.  You have to look very closely to see the stitches and I think they will become even less visible after quilting.

The original pattern calls for 35 blocks, set in five columns of seven blocks each.  I'd like to enlarge it but not sure yet if it will be six by eight (48 blocks) or seven by nine (63 blocks).  In the meantime, I plod along.

Starting Dot Dot Dot Quilt

Two weeks ago, Hurricane Isaias came near enough to us to take out our electrical power.  With no electricity from late Tuesday morning to early Friday evening, I had to abandon my machine sewing project and turned instead to cutting out circles for my future Dot Dot Dot quilt (from the pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts).

Earlier, I purchased a 2" circle template made out of acrylic from Paper Pieces.  It has a quarter inch seam allowance added and is handy for cutting out the fabric circles.  Thinking the cutting would be tedious and not in any hurry to complete this quilt, I planned to cut circles from fabric as I was using it for its original project.  However, being unable to use my favorite power tool, I began pulling bins of fabric from storage and cutting instead.  

The pattern requires 440 circles appliqued to the background; I have about 100 cut to date, mostly from my stash of purple (minimal), yellow (moderate) and blue (numerous) fabrics.  I want to do the rainbow arrangement like the original quilt shown on the pattern but am realizing my fabric stash is not ideal for this purpose.  First, many fabric prints don't lend themselves to this project.  Each dot needs to read as a single color so those that are multi-color prints, or two colors that aren't side-by-side on the color wheel (like red and blue), neutral colors like gray and brown, pastel or faded colors, and low volume prints won't work.  Second, I have very little purple and next to no orange in my stash.  

I'd like to participate in a fabric swap for making this quilt.  Are any of you interested?  My idea is to trade 75-100 2.5 inch squares of fabric suitable for the dots.  I have an abundant stash of blues and reds and quite a bit of yellow while I'm especially in need of orange and purple.  If three or four of us swapped together, it would increase our options for this quilt nicely, and I think this amount could be mailed conveniently in a regular business envelope.   If you'd like to participate, leave a comment here or email me.  

That brings me to another topic:  comments.  A few months ago, I was receiving so many spam comments that I switched to moderating comments so I could easily delete those that detract from the topic here.  Over the past few weeks, the spam has gotten worse.  For each legit comment from a quilting reader, I receive about 10 comments that are sexually explicit and two or three trying to sell bitcoin  or something else sure to be a scam.  Moderation allows me to delete these comments so blog readers never see them, but I'm wondering, do those of you with your own blogs have the same issue?  If yes, do you know of anything more to do about it? 

Inspiring Studio Tour

I saw a video tour of Edyta Sitar's studio on YouTube.  She is the pattern and fabric designer behind Laundry Basket Quilts and what a space she has!  

I was not only envious of her studio, I saw some quilts there that I would like to make.  So after viewing, I shifted over to her online shop and here is my haul.

I got the patterns for Wildflower, Dot Dot Dot, and Illuminate.  I was really drooling over Dot Dot Dot in the studio tour video and it is moving high up on my to-make list.  First step is to cut a circle out of nearly every piece of fabric in my stash, lol.  I don't have Edyta's stash so will allow myself to make this over a long period of time.  The first decision I need to make is machine or hand applique. I'm leaning towards hand applique and making this my portable project one I finish Flowers for Emma.  

I bought the blue floral toile for the border and will use one of the two blue mini dot prints for the binding.  The low volume fabrics are from a fabric bundle called Marshmallow Lights; they will augment my stash for the background.  

Wildflower and Illuminate will wait until "later."  

Quilting By Hand Is Slow Going

I didn't intend for such a long time to pass between blog posts.  My current project is hand quilting this butterfly appliqued top (Little Butterflies by Laundry Basket Quilts) and it is taking forever so I haven't really had anything to write about.

It did not help that after a couple of weeks of working on my initial quilting design, a grid created by vertical and horizontal lines, I decided I didn't like it and used a seam ripper to take it all out.  Then I started again with diagonal lines.  There will be a second set going in the other direction so they cross.  I like this look much better.

The blue painters tape is how I mark where to quilt.  It is very easy to follow and no markings to get rubbed out or removed later.  I'm using tape that is 3/4" wide.  I estimate I've finished about 20% of the quilting, but I hope that means this won't take all year to finish.  I just got two quilts back from my longarm quilter and they need binding.  Then, there's all the other projects I have in mind...

Little Butterflies - Project Update

I don't like to have too many quilt projects going at once so before beginning my EPP project, I thought it best to finish Little Butterflies.  In my last post on this project, I had decided to machine applique the blocks using fusible web and invisible thread (Superior Threads Mono Poly).  That decision worked out well and it didn't take long to get all 35 blocks finished. 

Here they are sewn together.  Right now, the top is 30" by 42" but I plan to add a narrow border, probably in the background color.  Then I will hand quilt it to finish.  

The original pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts has you cutting your background squares 5" but I wanted my butterflies to be a little less crowded together so cut my backgrounds 6.5" square.  When I started, I thought I might trim them before sewing together but after trying a few layouts, I decided to keep the blocks at the larger size.  

As you might have noticed, I used a variety of neutral tone-on-tone prints for the background, seven different fabrics in total from my stash.  I used a set of Bali Pop batik strips from Hoffman for the butterfly wings and a very dark brown for the body (with dark brown matching thread to applique the bodies), I drew the antennae with a permanent pen (Pigma Micron).  You don't need a jelly roll to make a quilt this size; a couple of charm packs would be enough fabric.

There is also a larger version of this pattern, with the butterflies cut from layer cake squares.  The fabrics used in the original design are from the line Sticks & Stones, which is supposed to be in stores this month.

Between this top to quilt, a finished quilt to bind, and my EPP project, I have a lot of handwork ahead!

Fourth Time is the Charm

Thank you for all the advice you left in the comments on my applique post of last week.  Clear thread - that's the answer!  I even had some on hand, bought several years ago at a quilt show.  So now I'm using Superior Thread Mono Poly and am very happy with the results.  It is a very fine, clear polyester monofilament thread.

I put the thread on my machine then played around with some different stitches, stitch lengths and widths, and thread tension, until I found the combination I like best.  I'm using the hem stitch (#7 on Bernina 440Q) with stitch width of 2 and length of 1 and I loosened the thread tension so the bobbin thread doesn't get pulled up to the front.  I have ecru Aurifil thread in the bobbin.  

So far, so good, and I'm well on my way with the blocks.  I'm on the lookout for some dark brown batik fabric for the body section and may use matching thread for that work.

Applique, Three Ways

Last fall, I bought a pattern called Little Butterflies, from Laundry Basket Quilts, along with a Bali Pop to make it with.  The pattern calls for fusible applique, but I planned to convert it to needle turn and make it my portable hand project for however long it would take to finish.

Here is my first block, hand appliqued using the needle turn method.  

Two issues:  the butterfly's body was hard to do (very small - the entire butterfly fits on a 5" square) and looks a bit wonky, and it took a long time.  Also, I have another hand project in mind and so don't need this to be my hand project of the year.  So I thought I'd give fusible a try and see how it turned out.  

Block 2, fused using Steam A Seam 2 then stitched with a small zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.

Not terrible but the stitches are visible.  Of course, with practice I could probably improve my technique.  What else can I try?

Block 3, fused, then stitched with what I call a hem stitch; #7 on my Bernina using a width of 2 and a length of 1 (very tiny).  I experimented with a variety of stitch sizes and this worked best.  A narrower stitch did not seem secure.  

The stitches are still visible but could be less so with better matching thread and improved technique.  I don't think anyone will notice the stitches after quilting and when hung on the wall, unless they are really looking for them.  I think I'll go with this one.  

For Christmas, 2015

This morning, I found a new project in my in-box.  Isn't he cute?



photo from Bunny Tales, the Bunny Hill Designs newsletter

He's the first in a series of free monthly projects from Bunny Hill Designs, all involving applique, snowmen, and hearts.  I could not resist; I already ordered the flannel needed for the snowman applique.  I have a tub full of red and green Christmas fabric.  I think I have some embroidery floss around here. 

I will just have to keep up.

DWR Update - Borders Added

I added the borders to my Double Wedding Ring top so now it's truly a finished flimsy!

 

I used the background fabric for the borders (from a Moda 3 Sisters line called Printemps).  I created a foundation 90 inches square and appliqued the double wedding ring top to the foundation.  Then I cut away the extra fabric that backed the double wedding ring portion, leaving the borders.  The cutting part was a bit nerve-wracking; I was afraid of accidently cutting the quilt top.  Fortunately, all went well.

 

 I used the blind hem stitch on my sewing machine (Bernina 440Q) to applique the top to the foundation.  Wow, it was easier and faster than I thought it would be and the stitches are nearly invisible.  That's a close-up above; you have to look really closely to see the stitches and I think they will be even less visible after quilting.  More of this machine applique will be in my future.

The next step is to get this top quilted.  I'm planning to spring for custom long-arm quilting.  Now, on to the next project!

Say Yes To The Dress is Finished!

Ta-da!

Finally done and it only took about 18 months.  To be fair to myself, I worked on it off and on, not continuously.  And there are many hours in all the hand applique and hand quilting.

Here's a closer look at the quilting.  I quilted a grid behind each dress form, which helps the dress pop off the background.

And I quilted a swirl design in the border, using a stencil I had on hand.  Even though I washed the quilt to get the markings out, a few faint pencil lines remain, fortunately hardly noticeable.  I used a Sewline pencil to mark the quilting lines in the border.  I used painters tape for the grid. 

I'm very happy with it and think it will look terrific hanging in my sewing room.  But when I showed it to Mr. Main Street, he said, "What are those?  Trees?"  Thank God, I have you, Dear Readers, for a little appreciation!  (It is highly likely that Mr. Main Street had never heard of nor seen a dress form until now.)

The pattern I used for Say Yes To The Dress is called Pretty Dresses and is in the book Quilting With My Sister, by Barbara Brandeburg and Teri Christopherson.   The book is out of print but available on Amazon.com.  And they have released the design as an individual quilt pattern. 

The original design is 16 dress blocks, set four by four and finishes at 50" by 58".  I made my version smaller by reducing the number of blocks and it is 38" by 44".  Also, the original design calls for fusible applique but I added seam allowances and used needleturn applique.

The pattern calls for small pieces of lots of different prints so it is a great user-upper of scraps and stash.  I enjoyed unleashing my inner fashionista to pick out the various dress prints!  And the only thing I had to buy for this quilt was thread to match the fabrics for the applique.  I even had a piece of batting on hand.

What's next?

 

Say YES To The Dress

I moved my Pretty Dresses quilt off the back burner and am focused on finishing the quilting.  I'm doing this one by hand, so naturally it takes some time.  However, I think it's time I finished up.  I started work on this quilt in January, 2012, and began tackling the quilting last summer while watching the Olympics on TV. 

I quilted some definition into the dresses and cross-hatched the background, which makes the dress pop off the background. 

 

I'm working on the border now and am about one-third of the way around.  I had a stencil for this spiral design that both fit the border width and fit with the design (sort of thread unwinding from a spool - well, if you imagine it really hard!). 

 

I still need to decide what to quilt in the sashing.  I'm looking forward to having this one finished and up on the wall in my sewing room.

 

 

Summertime in December - Another Finish

Back from the longarm quilter, bound, and labeled - Summertime, my Dresden Plate quilt.

Summertime is 80" square, with 16 Dresden Plate blocks.  I made my blocks with the Fat Cat ruler, a 30 degree ruler that yields a circle with 12 blades (many Dresden Plates are made with 16 or 20 blades).  I hand appliqued each block onto the background.  I used fabrics from various Fig Tree collections, except the sashing and binding fabric, which is a pindot print from the Bliss line by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. 

 

Kari Ruedisale quilted Summertime, using a floral motif in the blocks where the petals form a star in the center.  There is a vine with curlicue tendrils quilted in each of the two borders.  The squares in the pieced middle border finish at 1".

Summertime was named after this floral chintz china pattern.

The Fig Tree Harvest tab under the header at the top of this page will take you to photos of all the quilts I've made so far in my Fig Tree Harvest project (an effort to use my extensive stash of fabric from the collections by Fig Tree Quilts).