The Wishing Tree Quilt

On the western Caribbean quilting cruise in February, I took a workshop from Millie Kaiser, owner of Appletree Quilting in Columbia MO, starting the project from a kit.

We squared up our panels and started adding the borders. The ship's personnel brought in all the irons and ironing boards for each classroom as we weren't allowed to bring any of that on board with us. The ironing boards were brand new, still in the packaging, and were chevron printed in various colors. I staked out a green one near to the machine where I was sewing and noticed something pretty cool as I was pressing:

I was intrigued by the way the chevron pattern shadowed through the panel and decided to incorporate that in the quilting. My friend Carol Tarras had given me a gridded plastic transparent sheet that I wanted to use to put over the quilt top and be able to draw quilting designs with dry erase markers. Better in theory than in execution -- I loved the effect, but......

.... even after a week weighted down with my big cutting rulers all over it, it just wouldn't lay flat. So I took Cindy Needham's advice**and bought 54" wide vinyl and taped the edges with painters tape. This stays flat!

I left the rulers on the gridded mat and draped the vinyl over it, then started drawing in my orientation lines: outer edges, tree, enough of the leaves to still get an idea of the design once I remove the quilt from under the marked vinyl. My thoughts are not to necessarily draw out a whole design and then trace it, but rather to audition ideas without having to stitch them out.

Using the grid for reference, I drew in some chevrons spaced similarly to the ones on the ironing board, then added in a few more lines and a fill design just to see what it would look like.

Some very cool things about this process: 1) Decided I liked the chevrons and the spacing between them. 2) Discovered that in order to most easily stitch this on my quilt, I can mark a 1-1/2" grid on my quilt top with water soluble marker, then just use one of my quilting rulers to stitch from point to point. This is way easier than I thought it would be; seeing the big picture was helpful. 3) Nice to be able to try a fill stitch pattern knowing that I'm not locked into it; I can just erase it and try others.

A big thing to keep in mind here is that the smaller/heavier the fill quilting between those chevrons, the smaller/heavier the quilting has to be everywhere else, including the borders, in order not to get ripply edges and a wavy quilt bottom. To help me determine the light/medium/heavy thing (what I call density when I teach machine quilting), I'm going to stitch the tree and the leaves first, then take a look and decide if I'm happy with the amount of quilting in those areas or if I want to subdivide those leaves to make the quilting heavier. It's always easy to add more; not so easy to take out!

If I want it heavier, I'll add some veining to the leaves and a lot of detail in the background fill; if I'm happy with the quilting as it is at that point, I won't add anything extra to the leaves and maybe not put any stitching between the chevrons when I do the background stitching.

Now to construct the quilt back -- I like to use all my scraps from a quilt on the back and then buy additional fabric as needed. I also had a quilt block from Millie from another project she taught on the cruise and I wanted to incorporate that into the quilt back to make this quilt a great quilting cruise memory! I'll be teaching a quilting design class featuring this quilt at Appletree in July, so Millie and Wendy maybe will sign it then?

Above is what I made yesterday and then added more this morning:

This measures 47" wide by about 38" long, so it's wide enough, but I need about 1-1/2 yards of a coordinating fabric to add to the length. I'd love to find a cream/green/blue batik to pull it all together, so off to my LQS, Bolts in the Bathtub, this afternoon!

**In my search for vinyl to use for project planning, I found that there are at least five different thicknesses available from 4 to 20 gauge. So I emailed Cindy to see what she used; she replied that she was still laughing at the question because she really didn't have an answer! She just went to the store and felt them all until she found the one that was just right! Of course, her answer made me laugh all the way to the store so that I could do my own impression of Goldilocks.....

I purchased 8 gauge and will see how it holds up. 4 was way too thin, 16 and 20 too thick, so it was down to 8 or 12. Either would probably work just fine.

It's All About the Gadgets!

Seems like I'm always buying new tools to make things a little easier around the quilting rooms, especially this time of year when I know I'm going to be home more than usual during the summer. My teaching seasons are definitely spring and fall, but I often start working in early January and work until the second weekend of December, so don't get a long winter break. No spring break, but I'm generally done around Memorial Day and then have sporadic work until after Labor Day. So I guess you could say I have a similar schedule to public/private elementary/middle/high school teachers!

While I have all that great sewing time, I keep my eyes open for gadgets and I also get them in my subscription boxes, such as Sew Sampler, Quilty Box and Stash Builder Box, although SBB is more about the fabric than the things that go with it. I'll have to remember to do a post about my latest Stash Builder Box; I was delighted when I opened it!

This was my latest gadget acquisition; I had a bright green one right next to the sewing machine and wanted one for the other room. Bordeaux is a new color - I like wine - my house is decorated in a wine grape theme in bordeaux, gold and green - seemed like this would work in the "big" room. My big room has two 30 inch wide by 8 foot long tables, the Mettler thread fixtures, batting fixtures, some bookcases and my ironing board with a 6 foot long rectangular top.

Have to show off my Mettler fixtures again!

I know a lot of quilters like to have everything within reach so they can pin, sew and press without getting out of their chair. I like to get up a lot and walk from room to room; gets my steps in and I don't get achy all over from staying in one position for a long time. So I'll do a bunch of chain piecing, then take them to the big room to iron.

Once I get the blocks made, I do most of the row pinning on the tables and then take them into the smaller room where the sewing machine is to do the sewing. Then back to the big room to unpin and press. Same with the borders, so I thought it would be helpful to have a pin caddy both by the machine for the quick pin/unpin thing and on the tables for the more major efforts.

It's pretty and useful -- all good! I bought this at my local quilt store, but since it is made by Clover, it should be readily available in the bordeaux color, a bright green and at least two other colors that I've seen.

Now back to sewing!

Playing Around with a New Gadget

One of the new (to me, at least) items in the Sew Sampler box is the Press Perfect by Joan Hawley for Clover. I've been keeping a tool next to my machine called the Wooden Iron, a wooden cylinder with a slanted bottom for coaxing seams open and getting them flat. I usually used it for the diagonal seam when joining a binding -- I'm way too lazy to drag the whole quilt to an iron or bring the iron to it!

However, my little wooden iron tool seems to have disappeared, so looks like the Press Perfect arrived at the perfect time!

So of course I had to try it out on a 4 patch I just pieced:

Looks pretty good from the back...

And here's the front! I think this tool just earned its place in my quilting toolbox!

Have you ever used this? What is your favorite quick press item?

When I'm piecing a quilt, I normally press seams to one side, not open like my binding seams. So let's give Press Perfect a try:

What do you think?

My Second Sew Sampler Box

The May Sew Sampler box was waiting for me when I got home from my Springfield/St. Louis/Tulsa trip last Wednesday. Opened it Friday and today I'm looking at everything and deciding how to use it. 

What I like the very best about the Sew Sampler box is that it always contains a project -- this one is this cute flying geese quilt. The pattern, print fabrics and ruler are in the kit; all I have to shop for is the background fabric to make this 48"x60" quilt. I know, shopping for fabric is such a chore....

And there are always a few notions -- since I do my straight stitch quilting with a ruler, I most likely will not use the Tiger Tape for its intended purpose. But I can see keeping it on hand to mark places on fabric or rulers and I really like that it's reusable.

My little "wooden iron" that I used to press seams right at the machine seems to have vanished into thin air (or the great abyss that my sewing rooms have become!) so this Roll & Press tool should come in handy.

And I really liked the pink carry case. It's not big enough for my 60mm rotary cutter, but it's the perfect size for all the markers I cart around to use and explain in my quilting classes.

There was also a card with the instructions for the second block in a basket block series. I'll give that to my friend Dawna because she loves basket quilts and I'm pretty indifferent to them.

I love this box even more than the first one!!

Catching Up with Quilt Market Photos

If you haven't heard already, this picture will probably clue you in that Quilt Market was in St. Louis last week. Michelle is my partner in crime in the Mettler threads booth; in fact, she's the primary person at these events and I'm the tagalong. She knows everything about the cabinets, pricing and all the nitty gritty that dealers need to know to place orders; I help by explaining thread usages, weights and other facts to help them make their choices.

I also get to sew in the booth -- thank you, Cristen Jones of Quilt Sampler in Springfield MO and Tulsa OK -- for loaning me a Brother machine! Oh, and your car to haul it and myself all around both those states! I taught Ruler Play classes in both store locations on this trip, Springfield first, then Quilt Market, then Tulsa.

Even got to see the Mississippi River from my room on the 8th floor of the hotel!

As usual, I focused on the quilting rather than all the fabrics and notions and was happy to see some beautiful samples in the booths:

The Patrick Lose booth was so colorful with all the bright solids; I especially liked the quilting on the chevron quilt in the top photo on the right hand side. Interesting motifs scattered about and a lot of ribbon candy quilting in the stripes.

This was intriguing in the way that the space was divided up with the straight line quilting before the fill stitching was added. Very striking!

Totally straight line quilting; interesting how the quilting was deliberately done off-center in each block.

This was a fun surprise! I had already taken a picture of the quilt and then leaned in to read about it and found that my friend Sam Hunter of Hunter Design Studio had made it! I think if I were to do this circle quilting, I would use the Circles on Quilts rulers that I have from Westalee Designs. It's one of the templates I teach in my Ruler Play 2 class and gives me the best circles I've ever stitched.

I thought the quilting was spectacular on this modern quilt -- lots of negative space as a canvas and Cathy did a great creative job on it. She and I have taught at a couple of conferences at the same time before, but I've never met her -- love love love her work!

This quilt from In the Beginning caught my eye also, an interesting piecing design that drew me in to analyze the construction.

Another example of show quality quilting with a lot of tiny fills.

This cute applique quilt was made by Leonie West, designer of the Westalee rulers. She did her ruler work on the background fabric with applique fabric on top, then trimmed and fused. Is this so adorable or what? I think she told me she'd made it for her granddaughter -- what a great gift for a child's wall!

St. Louis was fun and inspiring and, of course, there were always good meals with friends, good wine to share and great quilts to check out!

Quilt Sampler, Springfield MO

Teaching two days of ruler work at the Quilt Sampler has been a lot of fun! Several of the students have embellished their samples....

...or come up with something totally different than the sample I did, adding to the various ways you can use them. I always learn something cool -- the hardest thing about the design above is that we were all trying to figure out how she did it!

Had over 20 people in class, so great energy! I got to do all my demonstrations on the Bernina Q-20, a machine I dearly love (it's that dual stitch regulator thing that got me hooked).

I taught at both Quilt Sampler stores (there's also one in Tulsa OK where I'll be teaching next week after Quilt Market) about four years ago and I got to work with Shannon. She's the cute blonde in the turquoise shirt. Shannon will be teaching the Quilt as You Go 8 month quilt project here in Springfield as a followup series to the Ruler Play class I taught yesterday. She's witty and snarky and just fun to be around!

So look at this wall -- can you tell what I bought???

A couple of interesting things about the Quilt Sampler -- one, they were one of the featured stores in Quilt Sampler Magazine last year; two: Cristen Jones, the owner, is a beekeeper and that is why that quilt on the right was the featured quilt from this store in the magazine. Take a good look -- it's a great quilt!

Tomorrow morning I head out for a three hour drive to St. Louis for Quilt Market where I'll work in the Mettler thread booth with my friend Michelle Urbach. If you're going to Market, please stop by the booth and say Hi!

P.S. -- When you looked on the wall, did you guess that I bought the glow in the dark skeleton panel? Oh, yeah! They were 50% off, so I bought two!

Bake Something Delicious!

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What will you make this weekend??

Ann's Fabrics, Canton MA

Three times a year for the past three years, Amann-Mettler Group has conducted a drawing for stores who carry the Mettler line of thread to enter a drawing to have me come to their store and do a two day class for their customers. We make a big deal of this! Mettler sends in free thread and door prizes, dealers provide lunch, lots of space and customers who want to learn how to machine quilt. It's a ton of fun for all of us!

Ann's Fabrics was drawn at Quilt Market in Houston last year and so -- here I am! It's a great shop, I'm just loving the customers and 3 BabyLock machines found new homes today. So we're all happy!

Now to the good stuff:

There's a lot of wall space in the classroom with some great quilts. The one above was probably my favorite....

...and I love the way it was kitted! I said something to the manager (or as Andy, the owner, says "the first in charge"; I think he told me he was third...) and Cheryl said that she really doesn't like ZipLocks. That made me laugh because I bought 600 yards of purple grosgrain ribbon printed with my Batts in the Attic logo for that very same reason! So Cheryl and staff of seven are always thinking of fun ways to package kits other than in a plastic bag.

For instance, their rows in the row-by-row experience are presented differently:

Above are their last two rows.

This is the way the top one with the beachy theme was presented; on the back it says, "Contents; 100% cotton fabric, 0% water" -- Andy said that one sentence was his contribution to the whole project!

And do we love the packaging for the snail trail row? How fun is that! Again the red lettering is Andy's work....

Cheryl has been in the fabric and quilting world for a long time and we know a lot of people in common, but one person that she knows well that I'm a great admirer of is not in the sewing world at all -- Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander books. I haven't watched the series, but am a huge fan of the books, practically jumping up and down waiting for a new one to be delivered to my local Barnes & Noble. It's the kind of book that I don't want to read on my Kindle; I want to hold it in my hands and savor every single word!

Ann's has three Outlander panels.

And a whole other fixture devoted to quilt making with an Outlander theme.

I liked this panel so much I had to get a bigger better picture -- the emotion on Claire's face as she is torn between Frank and Jamie. Ah, a romance story for the ages! Can't wait for the next book!

So if you need an Outlander fix (or some other fun things to work on!) and are in the Boston area, be sure to stop by Ann's Fabrics, 235 Turnpike St., Canton MA 02021 (781-828-2201).