Wednesday, November 28, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Pebbles Fail

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on how I should quilt the marbles section of my Hungry Caterpillar quilt. Had I been smart, I would have taken your suggestions and gone with a simple meandering pattern. Instead, I decided on on pebbling. I felt that the marbles required a round quilting motif.


My inexperience is painfully obvious. Have I totally destroyed this quilt?!  Some of you commented that the stitching wouldn't be that visible. Now that you see my stitching, do you still think that? I don't think I have the patience or heart to rip it out.


The WIP Wednesday List

Done
Nada, nothing, no finishes this week
In Progress
Curious Nature quilt - no progress
Sew Intertwined quilt -no progress
Flora Charm Quilt - no progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - I'm on block 17 now
Hungry Caterpillar Quilt - quilting 3/4 done
We Bee Learning December block

Hibernating projects
Levi's Growth Chart - no progress
NY Beauty QAL - no progress
We Bee Learning Bee/Levi's Bed Quilt - No progress

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network. Head on over to see what everyone else is working on.

Monday, November 26, 2012

More or Less?

I've been working away at my Hungry Caterpillar quilt and I'm nearing the end of the quilting phase.  I did straight line quilting around the red border and loops in the blue border. My free motion quilting steadily improved and I'm excited to continue to practice this new skill!


I chose stitch an outline of the leaf, butterfly and caterpillar and then I boxed the white space around it with straight line quilting.


Here's my dilemma. There's a fair bit of unquilted space surrounding the pictures. I don't want to add any quilting to the white space around each picture if I can avoid it. I do think that I'll need to do some quilting in the coloured marbles section though. It's just too much unquilted fabric and I think that from a structural perspective, I need to quilt there. The question is, what should I quilt? I feel like I should do something circular to highlight the marbles, but pebble quilting takes so long to do and uses a lot of thread. 

So I throw it out to you - what would you do?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Quilting for Kids

When I saw that my We Bee Learning bee mate Nita was collecting blocks through the Quilting for Kids group on Flickr, I knew I'd be adding my name to the list of contributors. I'd just finished her November block and hadn't mailed it yet so the timing was perfect. This is the third quilt I've donated a block to through this group. The group is run by Sara and we make quilts for kids in foster care. These children often bounce from home to home with little in the way of personal belongings. These quilts not only bring them warmth, but are something they can call their own.

Nita asked for a Reverse Starburst block, using this tutorial from Diary of a Flutter.Kat. The block is a big one; it's 17.5 inches unfinished!  I love how mine turned out.  I can see making an entire quilt using this block in rainbow colours, or even making a lap quilt out of one large block.


It's been a long time since my last WIP Wednesday post. I've been working away at my Farmer's Wife blocks. I've been hand piecing them so progress is extremely slow. I finally got caught up on my bee blocks and am quilting a baby gift for a dear friend, also very slowly. I hope to finish the quilting over the weekend, although that is probably unrealistic. I should just aim to get it done before the end of 2012!

The WIP Wednesday List

Done
We Bee Learning Bee blocks for October and November
Quilting for Kids block for Nita
Curves mini-quilt
 
In Progress
Curious Nature quilt - no progress
Sew Intertwined quilt -no progress
Flora Charm Quilt - no progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - I'm on block 17 now
Hungry Caterpillar Quilt - quilting is a third complete

Hibernating projects
Levi's Growth Chart - no progress
NY Beauty QAL - no progress
We Bee Learning Bee/Levi's Bed Quilt - No progress

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network. Head on over to see what everyone else is working on.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

A Year of Blocks: A We Bee Learning Bee Retrospective

I have just finished my final two blocks for the We Bee Learning Bee.  This was the first online quilting bee I joined, and I learned a lot through the process. But, before I get into that, let's take a look at my October and November blocks!

I lost my sewing mojo in October and knew early on that my block would not be done on time. Luckily, Josie was very gracious and said to take my time and make the block when I was ready. She gave us three star block options and I went for the simplest one, a Sawtooth Star.  She asked for a red and blue on a neutral background.


Nita asked for a Converging Corners block with a fussy cut centre in greens, with a little yellow or orange if we needed variety. My centre square ended up being rather large, so I was only able to get in two rounds of corners, but I really like the end result. I'd like to make an entire quilt using this block. It would be fun for an i-spy quilt.


As I said, I learned a lot from participating in this bee, but it wasn't the type of learning that I anticipated. I can't really say that my quilting skills improved or that I learned new techniques, although I did try blocks that I wouldn't have chosen myself. The things I learned were actually about my personal preferences and hangups, and they aren't all pretty.
  1. I am totally anal when it comes to quilting. I need my seams to line up as perfectly as possible.  I have a hard time saying "it's good enough." This perfectionism does not make me well suited to participating in bees.  See, many people ARE able to say "it's good enough" and that's great! I applaud them.  But, I might not end up using all of the blocks I receive and that makes me feel badly, because I know the ladies who made them worked hard on them and I don't want people to feel hurt. 
  2. I am a perfectionist (see point #1). Bees that are open to anyone result in a wide variety of skill levels. This was a beginner bee, and I WAS a beginner. But, since I'm a perfectionist, I think I'd be better off participating in private bees where I know the participants, their style and their work.
  3. I am a fabric snob. I purchase, use and prefer designer fabrics. I haven't shopped at Fabricland (the Canadian version of JoAnns) since I first began sewing. In bees you don't have control over what other people use.
  4. Colour choice is critical for me. I've learned that one person's aqua is another person's light blue is another person's sea green. I've also learned that even when you think you are being very specific, you can't control how people interpret your request. For example, you might request a white background and someone may use a white on white print instead. Technically, the background is white, but the block probably isn't useable if you were hoping for all of the background fabrics to blend together. For my month, I selected primary colours on a black background in an effort to ensure uniformity!
Now lest you think that I am a horrible, judgmental person who thinks terrible things of the ladies I swapped with, please believe me when I say that I really enjoyed this bee! The women involved were kind and supportive. Best of all, the participants were chatty! I love being part of Flickr groups where people post comments on each other's photos.


I haven't started constructing my quilt using the blocks I received because I need to add at least another four, if not eight, blocks and I'm not keen on trimming all those HSTs. But Levi is quickly approaching the end of his crib days which means his bed quilt will need finishing.

While I don't intend to join a year long bee again in 2013, I will join another round of the 3x6 bee at some point next year. I have collected 12 chartreuse and plum blocks (but only 10 are useable) and would like a few more to make a larger quilt top.

What about you? Have you had good experiences with online bees? I'd love to hear the good, bad and ugly in the comments!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

I Suppose I've Done Some Sewing After All

The past few weeks have been a bit of a slog for me. I've been feeling blue and so. very. tired. Picking Levi up from daycare has become a daily battle and an exercise in patience (which I have always lacked).  For whatever reason, he rages against putting on his jacket and getting into the stroller. It's not just when leaving daycare, it's in the morning as well, which is weird because he loves arriving at daycare (breakfast! toys! playmates!). By the time he's in bed, I'm bagged and I just want to sit on the couch and do nothing at all.

Okay, fine. I haven't done absolutely nothing. I've managed to watch the entire season of Call the Midwife, which if you haven't seen you simply must download as soon as you can. I bought the season's pass from iTunes. I've also been working on my Farmer's Wife blocks, because I love to hand sew while watching television.


Okay, and I did begin a baby quilt for a dear friend after learning that my Mom was attending her shower this coming weekend. Since my folks were visiting us, I'd hoped to power through and finish the quilt, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.  I used a panel I bought last year of The Hungry Caterpillar and kept the piecing as simple as can be, but the free motion quilting did me in.  I don't have a lot of experience with FMQ. It took awhile to get my tension right and to find a rhythm. Also, I kept breaking my needle! I think I was sewing too slowly and moving the quilt sandwich too quickly. I was getting terribly frustrated and did I mention I've been oh. so. tired? So I took a break and have yet to return to the machine. 



Luckily, the baby isn't due until the new year, so I'll just ship it to my friend once it's done.  Looking at the quilting now, I realize it actually looks quite nice. I plan to finish the loopy FMQ in the blue border and straight line quilt the red border (with cross-hatching in the corners). For the panel, I'm going to outline the leaf, butterfly and caterpillar and pebble quilt the circles. I haven't decided on a binding fabric yet.  The quilt is backed with the softest flannel and a pattern of ducks.