Virtual Retreat 2016

[lorra]

Dorothy, I love your idea to do a jelly roll quilt and use that for practice! I have plenty of random jelly roll strips I can probably use to do just that!

Here are pictures of the finished baby quilt -- it is not perfect in the least, but she loved it and didn't care. I'm mildly horrified still at some of the "oh that is not straight at all!" parts, but she absolutely LOVED it and did not bat an eye, at all. Yes, she looked closely, too! LOL!

I outlined the C (fused applique, with blanket stitch around it, then outline quilting via FMQing, free hand)(which is imperfect); outlined the butterflies via FMQing (which came out very well), did little hearts in the corner on the square with the C and on the corners of the large border (which I'm pleased with, though the ribbon lines in the border are not super perfect), and straight lines around the edges (which were wobbly and I redid most of them with the walking foot, and learned -- *Do the walking foot quilting FIRST, silly!*)









On the other hand, I'm proud of the parts that came out right and I did redo the parts that weren't straight, *that I could fix.*

Then this weekend I detoured with this little project just for me, and today is my busy out of the house day, but tomorrow is time to assemble my son's graduation quilt. Five weeks remaining......oye. I have to assemble the rows, assemble the top, *cut and piece the borders*, add those, then baste, quilt, bind.......it can be done, as long as I quit distracting myself.



For this, I was inspired by the HMQS theme of "Memorable Moments" and wanted to do something. After/during making, I decided I won't submit it (because I really want it as a triptych, and it doesn't "read" as "one cohesive quilt"), but I couldn't shake the idea to make this -- the concept is, each of my boys at the beach, through time. The first panel is my oldest, around age 10-ish, on the beach alone, and framed with photos of himself, alone, on the beach at all different ages before and after that point. The second panel is my middle son around age 10, with his older brother along as well, likewise framed by photos of himself either alone or with his older brother. The last panel is in color, to represent present day (the 1st 2 are in sepia tone to represent aged photos/past) and is my youngest at age 10 (he is just newly turned 11), with his older brothers alongside, and then framed with past photos of youngest son, or youngest with older brothers along, in various combinations. Concept being.....present repeats the past....and these commonplace moments, just a boy building a sand castle on a beach....become magical & memorable when we view them through the lens of the past.

I pieced the backgrounds with improv curved piecing, then used printed photos on cardstock to make templates to cut out the applique pieces and did raw edge applique (using fabric glue stick to hold each piece in place first). I may go in and add details particularly to the hair, and possibly to create some shadows, but for now I am pleased with them. I left the edges unfinished because I plan to frame them and hang them in my sewing room, instead of binding them. They are roughly 8x10 sized, and I'm planning to pick up some simple gold tone frames for them.

[lorra]

Heather I LOVE your mini quilts of the boys!!! What a great idea!!!!
I am getting LOTS of practice on my jelly roll quilt :cheer: I'm having to look at Leah Days website to come up with new ideas hmy: really lots of fun though, and since it is only one section, if I don't like it particularly, I just won't repeat it :blink:

Dorothy

[genevacarroll]

Hey, I was wondering about something and thought I'd ask my favorite experts.

I am working with antique silk kimono fabric which I am fusing to a lightweight stabilizer. It's working great. I will be adding dupioni silk to the mix. Shall I fuse the stabilizer to the dupioni also?

Thanks!

geneva

[rehak]

Hi Geneva -

I would fuse the silk. That'll help control the fraying and make the silk easier to work with.

Nancy

[idaho]

Question...What stabilizer works best?? Have a little project down the road !

[rehak]

I haven't pieced my silks yet. I've just done wholecloths, which I've zigzagged the edges rather than stabilizing. But when I do get around to piecing my silks. I'll probably try something lightweight like a fusible tricot.

[rehak]

Hi Marilyn,
I have three stabilizers that I like working with, depending on what type project I'm working on. For a raw edge appliqued picture type project I love Steam A Seam, (not the lite). If I want a lighter hand I will use Wonder Under or Misty Fuse, especially on delicate fabrics.

[idaho]

Thanks, Cindy....Nancy...I will try the tricot...but haven't had the best luck with the fabric types...trouble with them
separating unevenly later after construction ! looked bad ! Sample, sample sample !

[genevacarroll]

I'm using Pellon 931TD. I also bought the next heavier up from that for other projects. But the 931TD is perfect. Just enough body but not stiff at all. I use a medium warm iron and my Goddess sheet. When I sew little pieces together, I don't get clumps of fabric/stabilizer that won't lay flat.

Thanks Nancy, I will stabilize the Dupioni just like I did the kimono silks.

geneva

[she-quilts]

Oh dear Heather, your mini quilts turned out great!! I don't know the guidelines for what you started to do but I'm glad you did this anyway. Great idea to frame them for your sewing area!!

[she-quilts]

I have stabilized silk dupioni with a lightweight fusible interfacing. Maybe I missed it that you are using this for appliqué, hence the need for steam a seam.

[twiglet]

Heather your mini quilts are special. Lovely idea

[ajclapp]

I cut all of my leftover red and white fabrics into 6" x 21" strips, getting ready to use my Studio 2 fabric cutter this weekend to cut them into 5" pinked squares for some giveaways at an Open House for my retreat center that I hope to have next month. This will be my first time to use the cutter that I've had since last September. I hope I like it. I feel kind of wasteful as 1" of every strip will be wasted (that's 6" out of every yard of fabric!) and I could probably cut them almost as fast with a rotary cutter, but I want the pinked edges and the pinked rotary cutter blade from my past experience doesn't cut through many layers, gets dull quickly, and damages the edge of the ruler.

I used the 24" x 36" Quilter's Select cutting mat and it still looks good after cutting all of those strips. I wanted to say I liked everything about it, but that's not the case. It seems all of those 1/8" markings on all of the lines are very distracting. Kind of like when you are trying to read a news article and a video is talking at the same time. And the numbers are quite small. I would prefer they were larger so I would spend less time looking for the one I need. It did cut nicely though and when cutting batting it didn't leave fuzz in the cuts as some mats do. I will save it for my retreaters to try and get a different one for my upstairs sewing room. The gray doesn't look that good in the room so I will probably go with white. I'm leaning toward the Big-Mat by Sew Easy Products. Still trying to make up my mind. In the meantime I have a green one that's still in good shape.

[ajclapp]

Hi Annis, fun to hear what's happening your way. Sounds like you've been busy, I think pinked edge give-a-ways sound perfect even if you cut a 1" waste every strip, I bet you'll find a use for the 1" wasted strips.

Interesting to hear your thoughts regarding the cutting mats. I agree 1/8" marks on every line would be distracting I prefer measurement markings on the outside line only.

Barb :-)

[genevacarroll]

Hello everyone,

I took Sybil in to spend some quality time with Mr Fix it last week. We are traveling and I don't like to leave Sybil alone as she might encourage the other appliances to revolt. What a mess that would be!

I'll be back at the end of April.

Hold down the fort while I'm gone!

Geneva