Adjustments

My quilt is taking another detour even as I’m getting the hang of sewing accurate seam allowances. A few of the blocks are off an 1/8” but I’m not wearing out the seam ripper as all of the fabric strips were cut on the crosswise grain and along with that comes some built in stretch. Welcome compensation for any of my cutting, sewing, or pressing gaffes.

I love the blast of colors. However, in no way do they represent the Little Red Riding Hood pillow. Click-happy on Fabric.com, I introduced several other colors not found in my pillow. If the cotton prints didn’t have spaceships or ducks, and the price was reduced to six dollars or less a yard, I considered adding it to my cart. That is how the oranges, purples and pinks got invited. I know my fabrics do not coordinate. It was intentional.

I’m to the point where I need to consider how to join the blocks so they can be easily quilted. First off, there is a serious size change. Eventually the entire quilt gets sewn together on the machine. Struggling with a king-size quilt while learning a new technique is perhaps overly ambitious. So the plan has changed from king-size to a twin and its gonna be okay.

Yes. Better, thank you.

Glad I tried again. Two things made the difference. One, I caved and purchased a generic Bernina quilting foot, #57, from eBay. I tried to find a real Bernina #57, but no luck. This one works just fine. Take a look at the right side of the foot. See that little guide? It helps to keep the seam consistent. Moving the needle to the right one notch was the other important adjustment.

Since I stitched the test block, I have been thinking about how the quilt might look. No doubt, there are many ways to audition a quilt pattern. I let Microsoft Excel guide me. I changed the cells in the worksheet to be 30 pixels wide and 30 pixels tall. Using each cell for one inch, I colored in the cells, replicating the log cabin strips. Then it was just a matter of copy and paste to see the whole quilt.

Viewing Kaffe Fasset’s Target Log Cabin Quilt pattern on the Excel screen in bright colors was dizzying and not in a good way. Way too busy. I removed the sashing strips and liked it much better. So, that is what I’m going with. Oh, and another big change – I decided I wanted all of the strips to be random. No rings of color. Just random…and without regard for light and dark. The strip that gets used for the next row is the strip I grab from the pile, unless, of course, that fabric is already represented in the block.

I am utilizing very simple piecing as I know I need practice getting the seam allowances correct. Also, I'm squaring-up each round, not waiting until the block is complete. It matters.

While cutting the 1 ½” strips, I noticed a few of the prints were printed off-grain. I chose to use them anyway. Eh, I’ll leave them for now and see if they still bug me when I get closer to quilting.

So far, all that has been purchased specifically for this project, other than the fabric, batting and thread, is the 12 ½” square-up ruler and the quilting foot. If I tried, I probably could manage without either but I do like having them.

I have to tell you there is an incredible amount of interesting quilting out there. I stumbled across this Sandra Bruce interview and can’t get her quilt out of my head: http://www.13woodhouseroad.com/2012/10/inspiring-quilters-sandra-bruce.html#.UPySYGdICvO. Amazing. I want to try this. Not today and not tomorrow, but this technique is calling my name.

For the record, I sewed another pair of the Style Arc Linda pants. This time in a black stretch cotton mixed with some stretchy mystery fiber. Nice fabric, just don't know what it is. I absolutely love this pattern. Perfectly comfortable. Hope this pattern company sticks around.

Block Testing

The backing fabric hasn’t made it here yet. Not a problem as I decided a test block and sashing needed to happen before I start layering and machine quilting.

Take a look and you can see testing was a wise choice as the block, as sewn, does not fill out the 12 ½” square-up quilting ruler (see below). Using the edge of the Bernina 000 straight/zig-zag presser foot for a seam guide wasn’t clever, especially when you consider that I’d read in more than one place the importance of the scant ¼” quilting seam allowance…

Before I drop in on eBay for a proper quilting foot, I want to try moving the needle from the center just a hair. Whatever method I end up using, I need to get the block to 12 ½” before I move forward. Otherwise, those sashing pieces aren’t going to fit…

Inspiration

My mother gave me this Little Red Riding Hood pillow many years ago. My paternal grandmother put it together and I have always  loved it. It’s a no-brainer to say that this pillow influenced my choices while visiting Fabric.com this week. Yes, the prints are random, and that was on purpose. Nothing too matchy-matchy for this one, thank you very much. Other prints will come later as I find them.

Since I’m going to quilt as I go, I realized that I cannot put off purchasing the backing fabric until the end. That meant another trip to Fabric.com and many yards of a green floral print purchased – haven’t received it yet.

I also purchased the cotton batting (at Joann’s and 50% off, yeppers!) and ordered two quilting books from Amazon.com. One is Machine Quilting in Sections, by Marti Michell. I’m hoping it will provide sound advice for this quilt-as-you-go deal. The other is a used copy of Glorious Patchwork: More Than 25Glorious Quilt Designs, written by Kaffe Fassett with Liza Prior Lucy. I’m looking forward to receiving them. And thread... can't forget thread. I got two cones of 100% cotton machine quilting thread from Wawak.com. Everywhere I read that one should use a cotton/polyester thread for machine quilting.  However, everything else is my quilt is cotton. I'd like the thread to be cotton too. But maybe it will need some polyester strength. We'll see...

In choosing a pattern for the quilt, I’m leaning towards a modified Stamps and Money from Kaffee Fasset’s book mentioned above or the Target Log Cabin from his Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts book (borrowed from the library).  

Make it a wonderful week!

Yeah, This was Fun…

A few days after Christmas, I signed up for the free Craftsy Block of the Month 2012 class. Curious about Craftsy but with no intention of sewing the quilt, I let the lessons play one after the other as I packed up Christmas. When the instructor, Amy Gibson, mentioned free motion quilting, I had to find out more and bounced around the internet looking for information. The biggest contradiction involved sewing with the feed dogs up or with the feed dogs down. 

I’d never tried free motion quilting before and couldn’t let it rest. I pulled out my box of cotton fabric, cut two squares and found a piece of batting to sandwich in between. Next, I attached the darning foot to the Bernina and (gasp!) left the feed dogs up. It worked just fine! No special thread. No special machine settings. No special anything…

Now don’t be critical of my sample. I spent about twenty minutes from start to finish which included the binding technique from the class. This free motion quilting is scribbling with thread. Addicting, I tell you…Why haven't I tried this before?

I want to make a quilt. One that is sewn and quilted in sections and entirely by machine. No hand sewing if I can help it…I have no idea of how I want it to look. The only requirement is that it fit my bed.

By the way, I have been sewing clothing. Just hate taking hanger shots. More TNT and much needed.

Admit it - you want to make a quilt too….

Style Arc Susan with Amy Cowl

With DD#1 married and moved, I've realized I don't need as much space and I'm not really interested in the upkeep of a house. So, I moved. I am now living in a 900+ square foot apartment. That means no grass to water and mow but also no yard. The little dog loves the balcony and is adjusting. For me, the biggest change is my daily commute. It is so much easier now and once I get the sewing space settled (below), I think this is going to work just fine!

Naturally, I’ve spent the last few weeks getting organized. Still much to do, but I’m tired of the whole process and needed a break. I pulled out the Style Arc Susan and Amy top patterns and decided to merge them. For my experiment, I used the leftovers from a dress I had sewn in the summer, a FabricMart.com ITY. There was just enough to cut ¾ length sleeves. Usually, it takes about an hour and a half for me to complete a t-shirt. This one took at least two hours.

My goal was for a slightly different neck finish than the original Amy cowl. To get there, I removed five inches from the cowl to make it fit into my tweaked neckline. I folded the traced cowl pattern piece at center front and sewed a 1/2" seam, taking up one inch. Another inch was taken from each of the remaining notches. I could have taken the scissors to it and found some tape, but this was easy. What can I say?

The collar ended up about two inches less than the neck opening and just about perfect. Oh, I also raised the neckline on the back a bit to encourage the collar to stand up. I guessed as to the amount. Mostly on the sides and a small amount (maybe a 1/4"?) at the center back. It worked...

While I was at it, I went ahead and cut out two pairs of pants and a few tops. Hope to show them soon!

Three Patterns Tested

Once this sparkly and heathered ITY knit from Fabric Mart showed up, I questioned what caused me to choose it. Could it be the $1.00/yard price? Well, yes, price indeed was the factor that compelled me to purchase 10 yards. Based on other ITY knits I've sewn, I was expecting more stretch, but at $1.00/yard, I've nothing ugly to say. Not perfect, but plenty good enough for assessing new patterns. By the way, this purple above is more indicative of the fabric color than the other photos.

I've had the Style Arc Creative Cate pattern for awhile and had hopes that it would be wonderful. It almost is. Notice the horizontal line at the bust point. I believe that means more fabric is needed there. I never ever need a FBA (full bust adjustment). Ever.

Though the bust measurement of the dress form is the same as mine, the horizontal line doesn't show up when I'm wearing the top. So, if I use a stretchier knit, will the top then be too loose? Looks like I'll be digging another knit out of the stack to find out...I like this style. A lot. The horizontal line? Not so much.

Next, I tweaked the measurements on the Bernina My Label t-shirt. I serged one shoulder (with clear elastic, of course) and switched to the coverstitch. The self-fabric strip refused to cooperate with the binder despite given several opportunities. Eventually, it was replaced with a cotton knit from the scrap box. Can't say that this is my favorite combination, but I was able to finish the project.

This version is too wide across the upper front and there is something odd with the bust at the side seams. While wearing this top, I notice that the fabric wants to make a bust dart - see the wrinkles on the right. On me, I get one large fold. There is too much fabric, but I don't know what measurement/s to change to make it go away. Do you? I suppose I should compare the measurements to my original pattern and that would tell the story. No matter; I'll revert to my older BML t-shirt pattern.

Even if this one isn't a great fit and is a bit strange, I'm gonna wear it anyway. Yep, I am...

The third pattern sampled is this oldie but goodie Burda 1-2006-131. Burda being Burda, I knew better and yet didn't bother to raise the neckline. However, I did skip the center back seam. To avoid using the binder for the neck finish, I added 1/4" seam allowance and serged the self-fabric strip, right sides together, to the top. Then, I folded the strip up and over the seam allowance and coverstitched to secure the back side of the strip to the top. I prefer to use the binder, but I sure did not want another purple top with peachy/orange binding. One is quite enough, thank you.

I chose ivory thread for the contrast top-stitching (coverstitched) as the purple blended with the fabric and the seams disappeared. This pattern will be better once the neckline has been adjusted to a Tammyriffic level (I'm guessing about an inch to an inch and a half).

Burda 1-2006-131

Okay, of the three, the Creative Cate is my favorite. I'm gonna pass on the BML tweaked version as the older one is better. The Burda pick is worth fine-tuning the neckline.

There are still yards of this fabric left...