One Piece at a Time

A Little About My Design Process

Heads up Quilters!!! In 2010 I am planning on doing two (not one but TWO) Block of the Months on this blog. One will be completely appliquéd (well, maybe a little piecing in the sashing) The other will have two options, one completely pieced and one combining piecing and appliqué. Lucky for me my friend Debbie is going to sew the completely pieced one in her special Debbie colors. I’m going the combo quilt.

Speaking of that, I was working on the design for the center medallion the other day and I thought I would show you a little of my process. I knew that I wanted to have a center flower with other flowers radiating out. I have designed many different flowers for quilts so I started with a few of my favorites. After fiddling with the flowers I draw ¼ of the quilt. (This only works if you have a symmetrical design)

Then I go to my local Kinkos and use the large format copier to make 4 copies. Paste those together and Ta Da

A Little Christmas Appliqué

 

As promised here is a picture of my little Christmas quilt with all the appliqué pieces glue basted on. My favorite method for appliqué is sometimes called the starch and press method. I wrote about it in a previous post that can be found here. The great thing about this method is that all your shapes are made first. After that it is simply a matter of placing them and glue basting them down. I’ve tried a couple types of fabric glue but Roxanne’s Glue is my favorite. It doesn’t get so hard that it’s difficult to sew through which can be a problem with some glues.

Here is a picture of the appliqué pieces all made.

Here is a picture of all my favorite appliqué tools.

1.       Glasses: sadly the magnification is getting larger every year

2.       Blunt tip scissors: I can’t be trusted with the sharp tips on most days

3.       John James Gold N’Glide needles: sharps number 10

4.       Applique turner: that’s the funny looking wood thing

5.       Thread Heaven: keeps the thread from tangling

6.       Thimble pads: all the protection of a thimble without the bulk

7.       Metler 60wt. thread in matching colors

Now, as soon as I can bribe one of my kids I will have pictures of the stitching. I just haven’t perfected the art of sewing and photographing at the same time.

OUCH!

Today’s Quilt Lab entry has nothing to do with actual quilting but more personal maintenance. A few years ago I had a job making very small detectors for a company. It was a very hand intensive task. I had to do a ton of crimping with a pair of side cutters and my left hand really started to hurt. It turns out I have developed arthritis in my left hand. This seemed really odd to me since I am right handed so I started noticing what kinds of tasks my left hand did. Last weekend I was sewing quilt bindings on some table runners I made for my Etsy shop (coming soon) when my hand really started to hurt, it dawned on me that I use my left hand to hold things still so I can do things to them with my right hand. Not only do I hold things but I hold them with a pretty tight grip. Luckily there are hand exercises that can really help this so if you find this happening to you go here and do these. I definitely want to keep my hands in shape because I have so many more quilts to make.

Quilt Lab: Flying Geese Ruler

For all you quilters out there today I am introducing a new category called Quilt Lab. In this section I hope to show you some of the tricks I have learned over the years and some of the gadgets I have found that make quilting easier. Today’s topic is the Quilt-in-a-Day Flying Geese ruler. For those of you who have struggled with cutting off the points in your Flying Geese units this ruler is for you. It has somewhat complicated directions but in the end you will have flying geese with perfect ¼” allowances so no more lopped off point. So, here we go.

For each size Flying Goose unit you will cut two squares of different sizes (follow package directions for your particular size) Center the smaller square on the large square, right sides together, and draw a diagonal line.

 

Sew a ¼” seam on each side of this drawn line.

Cut the unit in two along your drawn line.

Press the seams toward the larger triangle.

Now, take two of these units and line them up as shown. Draw a diagonal line and sew a ¼” seam on either side of this line.

 

 

Cut the unit apart along the drawn line.

Clip the seam allowance of the most recent seam between the other two seams as shown.

Press so that the large triangle open and flat.

Each ruler has the ability to make two different sizes of flying geese. Here I am making the smaller size. Use the triangle marked on the ruler to cut the top and first size of the unit.

Turn the cut unit over and align the ruler to cut the bottom and second side.

Viola, a perfect Flying Goose.

The Quilt with No Name

I think I should rename this post Appliqué for people with OCD (I actually haven’t been diagnosed but I have my suspicions).

My favorite method for appliqué is the starch and press method. In this method you make a template out of some heat resistant plastic such as templar or Mylar and turn under all the seam allowances before you even sew. This method works great for any very precise, intricate pattern like, say, the ones I usually design.

Here is my pattern, which I haven’t named yet so if anyone has any ideas I’m all ears. As soon as I get this all done I will put the pattern in my ETSY shop for purchase (more on this later)

Here are a couple of pictures of my tools. This quilt I’m trying a new glue called Appli-Glue which you can get from jilillystudio.com. This glue comes with a no-clog tip which is heavenly.

Here I am making a petal with my template.

Here I am making a circle. I use these heat resistant Mylar circles that you can get from karenkaybuckley.com. To get perfect circles you can just stitch around the edges, pull and press with starch.

 

 

I then place my pattern behind the background fabric and glue everything on…

TA DA

 

All ready to go and no pins to get your thread all tangled in.

Thanks to my daughter for taking the action (ha!) shots.

Making the Sri Yantra Quilt: Some things to know

Making the Sri Yantra quilt is truly an exercise in EXTREME PIECING so I thought I would put up a little preliminary information for those of you brave enough to try it.

First: Paper Piecing

This quilt is almost entirely paper pieced. If you want to learn this technique I highly recommend “Show Me How to Paper Piece” by Carol Doak. Look for it at your local quilt store or you can find it here. If you already know how to paper piece, the difficulty in this quilt will be joining all your paper backed pieces together. Don’t worry I will show you all my tricks.

Second: Circular Construction

Once we are done piecing the center and the outer triangles together it’s a little tricky getting things to line up. The appliqué petals around the center serve as our coping strips (if you’re new to this term think fudge factor for quilters) so it’s best to leave that part for last.

Third: Fabric Choices

Part of what gives this quilt the effect of dimension is the variety of shades of the triangles spiraling toward the center. When I made the first Sri Yantra I literally spent weeks searching for shadings of golden brown. This time I’m planning on using a gradation set by Janet A. Smith from textileart.com. I’m hoping that this cuts down on the frustration. My advice is: if you are not going to use a gradation set pick a color that is easy to find. Color in fabric goes in and out of style so go to your local quilt shop and look for what is in style in the tone on tone solid category.

Fourth: Special Paper

There are literally hundreds of four triangle units that will need to be sewn together in this project. To make this easier in the sewing and tracing department I used this paper

Which I bought here. This is freezer paper that you can use with a copier. Believe me it will save you a ton of time if you can copy your patterns with a copier.

Fifth: Color Selection

My method for coming up with a color scheme for my first Sri Yantra and this one was to start with a multi colored batik. The first one I made as a commission (I know, I know, CRAZY) so I told my friends to pick out a batik they loved; that’s the fabric in the border and the petals. This one is going to be almost the opposite side of the color wheel and I am starting with the purple,blue and green sunflower batik you see in the picture. These are my go to colors when doing an analogous colorway.

So, that’s all for now, pick fabric you love because you will be spending a lot of time with it

ART+MATH=X

This is a link to an articale on math and art that features the Sri Yantra Quilt

ART+MATH=X Shared via AddThis

Sri Yantra Quilt

I made this quilt back in 2004-2005 and people still ask me about it. I did all the design and construction myself and Lois Hagar Knight did the very intense quilting. It was featured in a Quilt show in Boulder that featured quilts that combined Art and Math. It was also juried into the International Quilt Festival in 2005 and the American Quilter's Society Paducah Quilt show (Lucky me). Since I actually made this quilt for friends I don't currently have it but have always thought I should make my own smaller version. SO here's the deal, I'm going to make the quilt and Blog the quilt here at my new site. How's that for hi tech!

I hope I can remember how I sewed all those triangles together.