Downtime, Coloring Books and Sketchbooks!

I recently had knee surgery, and it took a little longer in the recovery than I expected.  But in those long days of ice and anti-inflammatories, I had lots of time to scour the Internet, reading blogs and checking out photos of quilting designs.  I even took several online classes at Craftsy.com, and watched tutorials and used my down time wisely.  It was like summer school!

One of the most useful new things I explored was creating for myself a design sketch book.  I have been scribbling quilting designs, doodling, and sample drawing for years on every scrap piece of paper close at hand, but I had never officially started a sketch book.  

I thought that practicing designs I was learning or about to use in a quilt was enough.  I'm no artist, and an official 'sketchbook' was a little intimidating.  But as I've grown in my free motion skills, I've started to think of my own designs instead of copying those of my teachers and ideas I saw from other talented quilters.  I've actually started sketching quilt design maps for projects I'm working on instead of either quilting as I go (letting ideas and the fabrics and piecing inspire me) or just laying out each quilt as I load it on the quilter.  

Additionally, as I decide on a theme for a project, I've used the sketchbook to try variations for the designs I plan to use.  Recently I made a Batik table runner I called "Sea Change" since I used colors of the ocean and sea glass.  I wanted each different quilt area to be 'oceanic' in design theme, but needed several different types of designs, two borders, and three areas of Batik negative space that didn't fight with the print of the fabric.  It was so fun letting my creative process find a voice, and I can use a lot of the ideas I sketched that I ruled out for this application, on projects in the future.

The other advantage that I never thought I would need, is the record making part of a sketchbook.  I now have the drawings to go back to in an organized way, as a reference for future use.  I have pages dedicated to border designs I've used and liked, and I've made notes in margins and kept track of where these have worked best.  

And the another fun aspect of this process has been the discovery of the Adult Coloring Book craze to use motifs and line drawings as inspiration for free motion quilting designs!  No crayons necessary!  The Dover graphic design work books and collection books have long been a part of my publishing library, and now I can adapt those for free motion quilting elements as well!!  Inspiration sources from my other creative endeavors are finally starting to 'cross train' and speak to each other.  This is a pretty exciting break through for my process, and I'm going to be a little sad when I go back to work shortly and have to limit my playing with coloring books!  

I didn't have to be an artist or have special training to find a way to make my sketches clear and organized, and to use the sketchbook to log and develop my ideas.  I'm having the best time!  I hope you are way ahead of me, or perhaps use my success to inspire you to try one of your own!  Pass the colored markers, please...

Happy Sketching!

QUITLING Samples and Shrinkage Fun!

For the last few weeks, I've had deadlines and traveling commitments and no time for quilting just for fun...
So now that I'm home and settled back in, I've been experimenting with some small quilting samples and trapunto and raw edge appliqué.

I recently made an Internet Faux Pas...bought an entire bolt of bleached muslin advertised as cotton, but wrinkle resistant...and it arrived with the content being mostly polyester.  ;(  

I wanted to try it to see how much shrinkage I could get before using it as backing on some larger projects.  I've now decided not to use it at all in the future for quilting, but the results were a good experiment to see how much the cotton batting and binding and dense quilting could actually impact the shrinkage even when the fabric was not going to shrink much on its own.

This sample is the mystery muslin top and bottom.  Dense quilting with poly thread #40 weight So Fine from Superior and Hobbs 80/20 Heirloom batting.  So again, mixed materials.  Poly thread, and 20% poly batting.  The binding is 100% cotton Kona jelly roll.
Interesting results:  before laundering

This has an added layer of Hobbs 80/20 under the Shamrock, which I cut away before the McTavishing.  Then threw it in the washer.

These are close ups of the quilting after washing and drying on regular perma press settings.

Then I moved on to two samples with the mystery muslin as backing and regular high quality quilters cotton as the quilt top. 

The quilting is traditional McTavishing.  Same 80/20 batting and So Fine #40 poly thread.  Binding is still 100% cotton as well.  The finished sample before laundry.

Then I threw it in perma press washer and dryer and experienced this shrinkage and puckering (which I LOVE).

And the last sample is a seafoam design, waves and bubbles.  Similar products as above.  First pictures before laundry.

And then I threw it into the washer and dryer with this result.

I would say the quilt top fabric is significant in the shrinkage, and the mystery muslin when used as top and backing did not shrink enough for the vintage "grandma made it" look I like.  But it's good to have as a potential alternative if the quilting needs to stay more formal and flat.

I just love that I can noodle around in my studio and have the fantastic APQS Millie as an essential tool to save time and make high impact design ideas a reality.

Stay tuned...next samples will be Dupioni Silk!!

More Batiks with finished Free Motion Quilting

Love the modern aesthetic...less piecing (not always, but considered acceptable), lots of solids and negative space, and an agreement that artsy free motion quilting, sketching with thread, doodling with a needle...all are part of the package.

Here are a couple more just off the long arm:

When all else fails...add more filler and keep on stitching!!  

;)

Beth

INSULBRIGHT: Demystified!

Getting to know my new APQS Millennium, I've wanted each project to teach me something new about either the quilter, thread, buttons, attachments, functions, techniques, or products that make quilting easier.

This week, as I finish a gorgeous custom quilt, I have picked backing fabric that is much wider than my project, and loaded extra wide batting also so I have a whole side margin in which to practice on smaller projects.  I load little pieced table mats, baby quilts, and am now working on a series of 'hot pads' using up favorite fabrics from my stash.

On the quilter, I already have the neutral backing fabric loaded and on top of that is Hobbs 80/20 (80% cotton, 20% poly) heirloom batting.  To make the pads heat proof, or at least heat resistant, I added this fantastic product:

InsulBright Heat Resistant Batting

Above, you can see in the first photo, that the polyester batting in the InsulBright is needlepunched around a thin and plyable foil layer which is the reflective heat resistant part.  The batting can be used on its own as the only batting layer, but I like the added thickness and padding that the regular batting allows.  

So our sandwich is four layers:  Backing, batting, InsulBright, topping fabric.

This makes my sandwich nice and thick and puffy, so I chose an all over meander to match the fun cowboy rope in this western style calico.  It will match a western/cowboy themed table topper I'm also quilting in my margin area, but this set of hot pads will have the heat resistant extra layer needed for hot bakeware, taking things from oven to table, and use as a trivet for serving.

The quilting in progress, and then a closer look.


The product and others like it, are available at your chain fabric stores, and stocked at most quilt shops, as well as online at fabric websites and even Amazon.com.  

Add this awesome product to your arsenal for great sewing projects that need to be heat resistant, like oven mitts, trivets, table runners, hot pads, and BBQ accessories.  A cute set of hot pads are a fun hostess gift when you add a candle, or a pretty pie plate or serving bowl to the gift.  

Make something this weekend!!  xo
Beth

Batty for Batiks

Special Fabrics from Indonesian and Beyond!  I am having a blast working with gorgeous color and print on these one-of-a-kind luscious fabrics.  The biggest problem I'm facing is actually cutting them apart.  I gathered an assortment to use in some masculine holiday throw quilts gifts, and I just couldn't do it.  I just couldn't cut them up...

So instead, I devised a great way to keep most of the fabric integral, by just adding some solid fabric stripes.

I ended up making several versions and a .pdf tutorial (available at my Etsy store).  And I may even get up the nerve to actually cut the remnants into blocks for the original project...

There are some aspects to working with these gorgeous fabrics that require a little extra care (see my quick tips in a short video on my YouTube Channel) but they are just so beautiful and fun to work with, please don't hesitate to jump in.  I'll follow up with my finished project if I ever get up the nerve to make small bits out of this gorgeous stuff.  Meantime, let's quilt!!!

APQS MILLIE IS HERE!!!

Okay, I'm a pretty emotional shopper.  I see something I love, and if I can afford it and/or it doesn't cause hardship...I buy it!  But I'm fairly smart about it too, and in the case of a sewing machine, I have decades of experience as a textile artist buying them, using them up, upgrading, trading them in, and moving up to the next greatest thing.  In fact, I have three set up at work stations in my studio right now, with three other specialty machines standing by for use.  But this time, somehow, I got talked into buying before I should have.  In short order I found myself limited and disappointed by my very expensive mid-arm quilting system, and after three different repairmen and my very clever husband were stumped by my electronics problem, I knew I had to upgrade.  And I knew I wouldn't make the same mistakes again.

Priorities:
1.  Customer service and support!!  (NOT the kind where they're awesome until you leave the store, and then don't help you with issues or education, don't have a website, don't have a repairman, and pass the buck to second tier suppliers for any problems you might have, don't have a forum of other users, and when you finally get someone on the phone, IF they speak English, they make promises they don't keep, don't forward messages, won't transfer you to support or repair and leave you spinning that you spent as much as you would on a car for a device that only works 1/3 of the time.)

**upside, it made me a really good quilter on a limited use machine!**

2.  Education!!  Online access to videos, forums, email help, phone help, tech support, and follow through.  And even classes available to use YOUR SPECIFIC KIND OF MACHINE for all kinds of other techniques.

3.  Testamonials!!  Evidence that other users are happy, supported, and encouraged in their use of the equipment, and that they even upgrade to newer models or add on computers to the machines they have BECAUSE THEY LOVE THEM!

4.  And AFTER those first three, the physical improvements and upgrades I was looking for to make my quilting experience easier and to take me to the professional level I thought I bought into before.

Few purchases in my life have been as researched and thought out as my new quilter!!  I've spent months now scouring the internet, talking to other long arm quilters, communicating with others selling and buying new and used systems.  I've traveled hundreds of miles to 'test drive' the finalists on my short list.  I've made priorities, eliminated contenders, set a budget.  I've explored selling my old machine, re-arranging my studio for a larger system, watched every YouTube video available by manufacturers and by celebrity quilters.  I've looked into buying new, buying used, I've even emailed and FaceBooked folks using long arms for business and for pleasure to see what they love, hate and want.  I decided on APQS and spent another round online shopping used models.  Then watched for sales, promotions, and options for purchasing my dream machine.

Finally, a demo sale was too good to pass up with a lifetime warranty and all the bells and whistles I had dreamed of.  And today, the boxes are in my hall waiting for the installer tomorrow to "have me quilting by evening!"

Read what they print on the box!  These guys are awesome!!  And they love to make quilters happy.

Seriously?  They even put a red bow around the sewing machine inside the box.  More like Christmas every step I get to powering up!!

And Dave Binnquist who is the APQS dealer for California arrives tomorrow to put it all together and give me my first lesson.  I'm so excited, and so encouraged, and so glad to be back to work!!

Let's quilt!!!

Midnight Improv Lesson

What do you do when the family's out of town and you just finish binge-watching the last episode of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and you just can't sleep?

Hit the scraps.  Even in the middle of the night...

I leave a basket by my cutting mat and drop in bits as I cut pieces for other quilt tops.  Then when I feel like sewing but don't have time for a new major project, this passes the time, uses up scraps and leaves me with cute little stocking stuffers or hostess gifts.  I add a little mat to a candle or vase or serving bowl as a one-of-a-kind homemade touch.

Easy as sew and slice.  I start with a few similar sized scraps and sew them together.  (right sides together, 1/4 " seams, just like any other quilt construction)  It works best if each seam is a straight line, not curved or wavy.  

Then I press them with the seams open, and square up my new block a bit.

And then it's time to slice.  I cut at an angle across the block and insert another scrap in the opening.  Sew both sides to the new insert piece, see photos.

Press and repeat.  You can add strips of other pieced sections instead of a solid piece of fabric.  Continue to press seams open and square the block as you go.  It doesn't have to be perfect, but have an idea of how large you want your mat to be and work in that direction.  Great for placemats, trivets, hot pads, and table runners.

When you have your mat the size you want, square it accurately and make a quilt sandwich with backing face down, batting in the middle, and pieced mat on top, face up.  If you're using this as a hot mat, you can add or substitute regular batting with heat resistant batting (like Insul-Bright brand) and quilt as desired.  Then square again, cutting off extra batting and backing, and bind as desired.  I like folded binding with 2 1/2" strips.

Quick, satisfying project that can be made with theme scraps (like Christmas colors) for all kinds of occasions.  

Give it a try and post a pic when you're done!!

Happy Quilting,

Beth  ;)