THE SPECTRUM QUILT ❤️

This gorgeous Spectrum Quilt is designed by Alison Glass and it's one of my fav❤️rite quilts.  The colors are vibrant and the combination of batik and chambray fabrics give it a richness to its feel.  

I had wanted to purchase this as a kit but Alison no longer had any left on her site, she only had the pattern for sale.  I wrote her and she was kind enough to cut yardage from her Handcrafted Patchwork line for me from her shop.  I find that quilters are always the kindest of people! Then I was able to find the Andover Chambray fabric from various online sources to replicate the original quilt that she had made.  

I intended on making a queen size quilt but directly after ordering the pattern and fabrics I purchased my very own BERNINA Q24 longarm. At first, I was going to get a 12 foot longarm but then I decided to get a 9 foot.  The upside to getting a 9 foot was that the longarm fit into our room without cutting out the wall.  The downside was that I can't fit a queen size quilt onto a 9 foot frame.  I was able to cut this quilt down to a throw size but I still waited to put it on the longarm until I had some practice under my belt because I really loved this quilt and I wanted to gift it to my son and his wife for Christmas.

For the queen size quilt I had ordered 3/4 yardage of each of the fabrics but for the throw I only needed 1/2 yard cuts.  This meant I had extra fabric but it turned out to be a good thing because instead of just cutting out squares and then dividing them in fourths to make the triangles I was able to make a triangle template and fussy cut each triangle separately and get a much cooler look!  Most of the fabrics have huge vibrant designs on them and fussy cutting them was fun. If you're reading this and you're not a quilter, fussy cutting just means that you take your template and put it exactly over the part of the design that you want to cut out instead of getting the random parts and pieces that you would get if you just cut your square into triangles.  

I prewashed my fabrics.  First I tested all the batik fabric by rubbing the corner of each color with a white cloth dipped in hot water.  If the fabric had transferred color to this cloth I would have pretreated it with Retayne.  None of the colors rubbed off of the fabric so I washed all the batik fabrics in Synthrapol.  Using Synthrapol removes the extra wax and dye from the fabric.  I used a delicate cycle on warm and then put them in the dryer on a low temperature and took them out while still damp and hung them up to dry.  Then I ironed them and used Best Press to give them back their shape and feel.  If you have precut strips or squares you have to skip the prewashing step because the fabric will shrink too much and you might not have the amount that you need for your pattern.  Ask me how I know this?  

Stitching the quilt top was a dream.  Have you ever worked with chambray before?  I love, love chambray!  Not only is it a joy to work with but it has a very masculine feel and look to it.  I felt like with the chambray and the batik together that the look of the quilt worked well for both my son and his wife.

The pieced top laying on the loft floor in the sun.

Next I loaded it onto the longarm.  My favOrite part!  I used ruler work for the entire quilt.  I loaded it with the sashings going horizontal so that it would be easier to quilt each sashing in one pass.  I also cut my backing so that the seam down the middle would load horizontal.  

I used three different threads to stitch this quilt with.  First I used Superior Threads MicroQuilter thread #7007 in Silver.  It's a 100 weight thread so that when you stitch across multiple colors the silver actually reflects those colors and blends in.  It doesn't quite blend in as much on the darkest colors but it works pretty well.  The only problem with a 100 weight thread is that you don't see the quilting as much.  With this quilt, however,  that wasn't a problem because I wanted the vibrant color patchwork to be the star and not the quilting. In the sashing though, I used a 40 weight Isacord thread in Light Sage.  This gave the plain sashing some character because the quilting stands out with a 40 weight. In the bobbin I used Superior Threads Bottom Line which is a 60 weight and is designed for use in the bobbin and pairs well with the MicroQuilter thread.  

Threaded through the first and second normal guides
and then through the back guide on the other side.

My problem with the Bottom Line thread was getting it wound onto a bobbin.  No matter what speed I tried the bobbin was loose and mushy. It wouldn't even register on the TOWA gage.  I've read about this same problem on my FaceBook longarm group but no one had any solutions for it.  I finally ran the thread through a third thread guide and it came out much better. I think doing this just gave the thread more tension as it loaded onto the bobbin.

My favorite part of having a quilt loaded on the frame
is when the backing starts to show on the take up bar.

I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting.  This batting is made from a blend of bamboo, silk and cotton. The Orient batting makes the quilt so soft and pliable.  It's my favorite batting so far for quilts that will actually be used to snuggle up with.  It reminds me of my Grandma's quilts because she used flannel instead of batting in hers and that's how they feel.

This is my favorite quilt so far!  I just fell in love with the colors when I first saw it on Alison Glass's website.  I knew then that I wanted to make it for my son and his wife.  Here are some pictures of the quilt being enjoyed on Christmas Day! 

Merry Christmas!  And remember to pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️

THE ORANGE 🍊 PEEL PRACTICE QUILT

I was in my local quilt shop one day and saw a packet of hand painted Bali Batik 10" square medallion fabrics.  It just happened to be a sale day so I thought I would grab them up.  I thought these would be perfect to stitch up as a quick practice quilt and then I could use my rulers in each square and teach myself how to make orange peels. 

The quilt went together quickly, but as things go, the pieced top sat there on the guest bed for quite some time as other quilts took precedent.  Finally, I got around to sitting down and marking the quilt out for the ruler work. Marking a quilt is my least favorite part of quilting. During this time I saw and followed a link that someone had put up on the FaceBook longarm group page to a stencil company that sold stencils and pounce.  I have never used pounce before but it seemed like an incredibly quick way to mark a quilt.  So, I quit marking my quilt the old fashioned way and waited for my package to arrive. It finally came and I followed all the directions and got the pounce into the pounce pad and was all ready to go. I have to say the pounce does go on quick, BUT and this is a big BUT, the pounce comes off just as quickly when you turn the longarm on.  It seems that the vibration of the longarm bounces it right off. Not only does it bounce right off but it bounces UP AND INTO your lungs.  I swear my lungs hurt for an entire day.  The package directions tell you that if you have this problem you need to spray the pounce with hair spray.  Hmmmm, no thanks. I just didn't want to spray the quilt and me and the longarm with hairspray, so, off the stencils and pounce and pounce pad went to EBay and they are now in someone else's home wreaking havoc to someone else's lungs.  So, then I ordered a marking ruler that had one inch slots. This also sounded great and a much quicker solution than just measuring things out using a traditional ruler.  The marking ruler arrived in the mail and I tried it.  It said that most marking pens and chalk pencils worked with it. I have to say the going was slow as the marking pen fit well except for the very ends of the slots where the slots got slightly tighter for some reason.  And when I had to switch to chalk for the darker fabrics the chalk broke off on those slightly tighter ends. So, after marking two rows of the quilt and going through chalk like crazy, since it kept breaking, I thought there has to be an easier way.  It's just math. Right? Why not do it on the longarm without marking the quilt beforehand and just figure it out as I go.  So, that's what I did.  I just used my little sewing ruler that I still have from seventh and eighth grade sewing class and started my circle a precise 1/4 inch from the bottom and side of my block and kept using my little ruler to measure (not quilt with) as I went and it worked perfectly!  I didn't need pounce, or hairspray, or marking rulers or markers or chalk or a visit to the doctor for pounce inhalation.  Yay!

I also learned, after doing 250 orange peels how to fudge them to fit perfectly into each square.  Each square was supposed to be 10 inches square but (blame the piecer) each square was slightly different. Some were the magic ten inches and some were 1/8 of an inch or so off. In my defense, when I stitched up the quilt I wasn't being that precise because I knew this would be a practice quilt, so I just zipped through it. Actually, now that it happened I'm kinda glad it did because it made me learn the "art of fudging".  All the "art of fudging" requires is a slight turn of the ruler "here" and a slight turn back "there" but you have to know just where and how in order to keep that next circle on track. When "fudged" the circles get a tiny bit elongated, but not that you can tell.  And if you didn't correct them then the line of stitching for the circle would extend out into that black sashing and show like crazy. When you look at the quilt when it's done your eye just sees perfectly fit in circles.  But if you hadn't fudged and the light color thread was in the black sashing the eye would pick that up right away.  Hence, the "art of fudging" is required.

You know, I often think I want a Q-Matic.  Especially at times like this when it takes forever to do ruler work for 250 orange peels.  But then it hit me, if I had positioned a Q-Matic orange peel computer design into my slightly off squares then the stitching would have gone into the sashing because the Q-Matic doesn't "fudge".  Well, unless you go in and work wonders with the program.  So, I think I'm happy without having Q-Matic.  It makes me become a better quilter because I have to learn how to quilt the things I want and not depend on a computer to do it for me. AND it saved me $13,000.00.

Can you tell it's Christmastime?  I decorated
my longarm! That's Max, the Longarm Elf❣️

I also learned something else with this practice quilt.  Black thread is cRaZy wicked to work with.  It goes along just fine and then, BAM, the machine just doesn't like it.  I looked it up and they say that the problem is that black thread has the most amount of dye in it than any other color thread and gets read differently by the machine.  It also requires a different tension. So, I had to change my bobbin tension each time I switched out to the black thread.  It makes no sense to me because on my regular sewing machine black thread sews just fine, thank you. But on the longarm it would sew for hours just fine and then go all bonky. Even though bonky is not a word, I think bonky describes it. So, I learned a useful lesson for when I use black thread in a quilt that matters.  

This is the second quilt that I've buried my threads in.  I know, I know, it was a practice quilt ... so why on earth did I bother to bury my threads? Well, because I was practicing burying my threads, that's why!  I had used a Spiral Eye needle on the quilt before this (I haven't blogged that quilt yet because it's a present that hasn't been gifted yet.) and I really loved using it. The other self-threading needles I had tried just frustrated me to no end.  With the Spiral Eye the thread wraps right into a slot in the side of the needle and works like a charm. The only problem I had was using it where there were a lot of seams together.  I was using the SE-24C, which is recommended on the Spiral Eye site for burying threads, so, I wrote and asked the inventor of the needle, Pam Turner, if she could recommend a slightly smaller and sharper needle for that.  She suggested her favorite needle, which is the SE-6, so I ordered that. When it came in the mail, Pam had graciously sent me a few other sizes to try out too.  I used the SE-8 for binding the quilt and that worked great.  And I used the SE-6 on the quilt for burying threads and it just slid through every seam.  It's very difficult for me to see to thread a needle, so, I love this product!

The Spiral Eye Needle SE-6 can be
purchased at spiraleyeneedles.com

The only other problem I encountered with this quilt was caused by user error.  I took the quilt off the frame and laid it out to see the back and realized that I had skipped half a square of orange peels. Makes you wonder how that happened, doesn't it?  I did half and then what? Wandered off?  So, I had to put it back on the longarm and fix it.  Yet another valuable lesson learned ... I will go back and check each row or portion of the quilt that I work on from now on to make sure it's all quilted before moving on next time. 

I tried a different batting on this quilt.  I used Quilter's Dream 'Dream Blend' which is 70% cotton and 30% polyester.  Since this was a practice quilt I thought I'd try a different batting in it and see how it washed up.  I had not pre-washed any of my fabric to begin with. The quilt was 57.5" X 57.5" before washing and 56" X 55.5" after washing. Does anyone know why a quilt loses more on one side than the other? There must be a technical reason for it.  

Not quilted versus quilted.

I liked the batting and I'll probably use it again. I try to use batting according to how the quilt will be used and how I want the quilting to look.  If it's a snuggly quilt I'll use Quilter's Dream Orient which drapes like a blanket.  And if I want the quilting to not get all crunched up from washing then I'll use Quilter's Dream polyester and not cotton.  I used the Quilter's Dream cotton once and didn't like the amount of shrinkage.  It was way more then the 1 to 3 percent that they stated on the package and that was with pre-washed fabric.  So, I'm trying out the cotton blends now to see if I like them better.  

I used Isacord thread in four different colors, Midnight, Starfish, Tropicana and some sort of soft blue (the label fell off so I don't know its cutesy name).  I love stitching with Isacord.  It's 40 weight so it shows off the quilting and it pairs well in the bobbin.  Since this was a practice quilt I tried an experiment with the thread.  I used matching bobbin thread instead of just one blendable color for the backing.  So, one row is pink on the back, the next is blue and the next is peach with the sashing done in black.  I wanted to see what that would look like on the backing.  I have to say, as the backing started coming up and over the take up bar I winced and thought to myself, "Good thing this is a practice quilt!"  But actually, when I took it off the frame it looked kinda nice when you saw it in it's entirety.  Of course, the black shows every tiny mistake against the peach backing, but I actually was pretty good at getting all the lines and points to bat up to one another.  I'm not sure I would do it again, using black, but maybe with the softer colors. 

The ruler I used was the tiniest circle from the BERNINA longarm rulers ... 1.5 inches.  I used it for the 250 orange peels and also the design in the sashing.  If I don't use it for awhile, I can't say I'll miss it.  That's one tiny little ruler to hold on to for hours on end.  

The hand painted batik medallions look like snowflakes to me and wouldn't you know it we got a snowstorm as I was quilting this.  It was that heavy, wet, what I call - heart attack, snow.  So, for the first time in over forty years I shoveled snow ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ and then came in and quilted snowflakes.  

Where, oh where, do practice quilts go?  Well, although I like the individual medallions on this quilt, I don't really like the medallions when they are pieced all together.  Honestly, these colors are just not my thing, so, I'm just gonna drop this little practice quilt in the garage.  Our moving blankets from the moving truck that brought us here ten years ago have slowly and magically disappeared so this quilt will get plenty of use as a working blanket out there, under cars, on the grass, things like that.  It will be much appreciated by my husband. 

This little quilt gave me lots of practice.  I can truthfully say I mastered the art of the orange peel 🍊 AND the art of fudging.
Remember to pick up a needle and thread and quilt some love into your world❣️

TINY, TINY QUILTS ❣️

Would you like to know why I haven’t written a new blog in awhile? Well,  I’m currently working on lots of different quilts, and they are all at different stages, but they’re also all gifts so I can’t write about them until I give them away.  Instead, I thought I’d do a blast from the past blog and show you what I did during all those years when I stopped quilting.  See, I didn’t REALLY stop quilting, I just made TINY, TINY quilts.  

For years I made little 8 inch Waldorf dolls stuffed with lamb’s wool with a tiny sachet filled with all sorts of dried flowers tucked inside.  I designed them as little girls, little fairies, little butterflies, little bumblebees and little sparkling mermaids.  I even had a lady hand dye some lambs wool into a beautiful variegated turquoise yarn for the mermaid hair. They had reversible clothing, all hand sewn and tiny, tiny matching quilts.  Some were gifted in little baskets and some in back pack bags quilted to look like sunflowers.  Unfortunately, I only have one picture to show you on here but there’s a very good reason for that.  You see all of my boxes and boxes of photographs are in my upstairs closet and, in order to fit into that room, my new longarm was built right in front of that closet so I can no longer get into it.  Oh well. Someday, I'll move the longarm and get them out to share.

After making dozens of Waldorf dolls I moved on to making doll clothes for Corolle dolls. This started when I bought Bella, who is my great niece and Godbaby, a Corolle Vanilla Doll from France for her third birthday.  These gorgeous little baby dolls smell like vanilla.  Bella is now thirteen and she says her doll still smells like vanilla.  

These beautiful little dolls are smaller than American Girl Dolls and there are no  dress patterns available in their size so I thought how hard can it be to design doll clothes?  Well, it's not exactly easy but I did it. I made all sorts of little outfits each one fitted to the doll and then hand sewn. 

Then I made some matching outfits for Bella.

And then I bought an American Girl Doll chest and made quilted inserts for the lid and for the top tray and a matching quilt for the doll. I also made a little music box pillow and matching outfits for the doll's tiny little bear.  What started out as just the doll for a gift turned into quite the project.  I really had fun doing this though!

I haven't made a doll or doll clothes in years now. Maybe I will again when I have grandchildren.  I hope so!  And maybe, I'll get into my closet again someday and show you some more pictures!  In the meantime, pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️