Quilt Re-Do. . . What I learned.

This is my quilt I called "12 Tribes" - a BOM pattern designed by Erin Russek.  I used a technique that Kelli from Dont Look Now blog described in this applique quilt.  Her work is always so absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and so I had to learn how to do it.   

  It is a free-motion, raw edge fusible applique.  It is still to this DAY my favorite method to do applique.  However, I do things very differently these days.   I don't know how Kelli does it . . I don't know if she doesn't wash her quilts or what. . but after I washed this quilt 20 times, the applique pieces started coming apart at the edges.  

the way she did it made it looks so "neat and tidy" .    she would stitch a straight-line right at the edge of each applique piece.  and she did her stitching with a free-motion/quilting/darning foot, which makes it VERY easy and fast!   

Can you see in these photos?  here is a section where the pieces are coming apart.  Now, I HAVE washed this quilt ALOT. .  and maybe it's because I used a very lightweight fusible product.  I know that Steam-A-Seam is usually a little bit stronger.  

 After I discovered the issues with this quilt, I changed my raw-edge applique WAYS.   There are many different options, and I use different ones depending on the particular project.  Some good methods are:
Using a buttonhole stitch, zigzag stitch, or satin stitch with a regular sewing machine foot.  ( a clear foot works best.)
But what I usually do is use the #5 setting on my Janome and use my darning foot. The #5 is a narrow zig-zag. So basically you need to catch at LEAST an 1/8" of the fabric with your thread.  And the great thing about using the darning foot is that you don't have to keep turning your machine constantly.  Which is great for big quilts like this ;c)

So, moral of the story, if you don't want to have to redo your whole quilt, than make sure you secure your applique pieces at FIRST.   and I wouldn't even CARE really, if I were still just using it and washing it.  BUT, I decided to hang this quilt up and "retire" it from use. . so I wanted to make sure to fix all the problems first.  ;c)

Almost THERE and Wonderfil Win

I am finishing up the binding on Jaime's BIG BED quilt. . WHICH I will be using as a QAYG tutorial. The tutorial, as a matter of fact, is almost finished as well! I am SO excited. I have worked VERY hard on this tutorial. I have tried my best to explain in detail the method in which I do quilt-as-you-go. I should have the tute up tomorrow . . . if all goes as planned ;c)

Next item on the agenda I wanted to discuss. . lol:

The WONDERFIL FAN OF THE MONTH CONTEST

This is the 2nd month Wonderfil has hosted the contest, and the winner gets a thread package!! I love love love love love Wonderfil. . . their thread is amazing . . . but what's even more amazing is their customer service. They're also very interactive with their fans/customers on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/wonderfil?ref=ts

If you're a fan of Wonderfil threads i.e., Invisifil, Tutti, Spagetti, etc., GO NOW to their facebook page. Go to the tab titled "Fan of the Month" You can see a dorky photo of me (lol) and read how you can enter the contest and win a thread package!!!

Okay. . stay tuned and good luck!!!

HE IS RISEN

**Yawn** I just woke up from the most wonderful nap. I rarely am able to take naps, it always seems like there's too much to do... indeed. My spontaneous napping was probably induced after consuming a large portion of Mom's Cooking. ; ) Church was awesome and we woke up in plenty of time thanks to a beautiful, and very loud, thunderstorm. Through church and up until now the weather has been a breezy perfect temperature but it looks like another storm is building AWS.

A few things I've been working on ~

I just finished a quilt for my long-time friend Amanda. I know her from my church camp days at Asbury Woods, a methodist camp, where I was a camper from grade school and a counselor in high school. She asked if I could make her a Hot Wheels quilt for her son. I scoured the web for inspiration but only one artist really struck me. The focus fabric print that she and her son picked out was a striped (border) print. I found it especially difficult incorporating this print in the design. The boy's father made it known that he wanted nothing "girly" so I made a special attempt to keep things "manly" for this quilt. I used alot of black, maybe even TOO much, but I think the black will be able to grow with him. Who knows, the quilt might even be kinda 'cool' as he's reaching his teens. . . . that is my hope, and was my goal.

Of course I did this QAYG because it was a large, bed quilt. I quilted the center all at once, but added the borders afterwards. I ordered 108"-wide quilt backing from fabric.com, but they shorted me half a yard. They were out of the green swirl print and they were sending a replacement of a dark mottled blue. I didn't like this nearly as much as the green swirl, but it was the only thing I saw they carried that wasn't. .. "girly." I was waiting for them to send me a replacement, but I got impatient and went ahead and used what I had of the green swirl. I wanted to get the quilt finished. I WAS too short. . so I added a bit of the striped border hotwheels print fabric to TWO sides of the border . .. I got lucky I was only short that little bit of fabric. I like the way the back looks so maybe it was meant to be?! =cD
And a few shots of the back. . .

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been trying to sew garments. Well, let me just say that I have absolutely been SO BLESSED in my sewing endeavors!! I have found an absolutely WONDERFUL lady who has taken the time to help me. .. step-by-step and answer all my stupid questions. I don't know why garment sewing is so difficult for me. One would think that quilting skills could really be beneficial when learning to sew garments. I can tell you first hand. . the skills are NON-Transferable. lol ;c)
Although I have a warehouse full of quilting cottons now-a-days, I am now exploring unknown territory. I have recently ordered ... KNITS! < gasp >

Knits, stretchy fabrics, rayon, linen, garment patterns (ugh!) zippers, buttons, alterations, tailoring, darts, tucks, are all things that were once foreign to me. ; c) Thanks to my sewing Teacher, who is teaching me out of the kindness of her heart, via the web, I am learning more now than I could have ever learned from a teacher locally, if I paid her. Just another reason I am so blessed and thankful!!!
Besides learning how to sew garments, I have a few quilts that I have to finish soon.

1) Remember Megan's Signature quilt? She has commissioned me to make another one for her! I love her quilts, they force me to be creative because each of her quilts are totally designed by me, and from no pattern. They come from an idea. . from Megan, her family, and me. . . and that idea is then transfered to fabric and a quilt. This one has been particularly interesting. . . Poppies and Daisies and signatures ; ) Since the quilts I make for Megan are small, wall-hanging size, I have the opportunity to really get in there and play with embellishment and thread painting. This go around, I might try to add a little Trapunto, Sharon Schamber style.

2) Jaime has requested another quilt from me. This time she wants a queen-sized charm quilt. Together we went to Joanns and picked out a bunch of fabrics and FQs for her quilt. (I told her since she didn't want to order from a quilt shop, that I would just have to quilt it to death due to the cheap nature of the fabrics.) I will be starting this quilt early next month. I'm hoping to use HER quilt, for my QAYG tutorial I have promised everyone.

UNTIL THEN! =cD

What's everyone working on?

Photos of Floribunda

"BALTIMORE BACKYARD"

I washed all my finished quilts today.. one of them being the Floribunda BOM. Here's a few photos of the finished project.

3 New Polls

Please take a moment to look at the 3 new polls I have added to the right of the blog. QAYG, Fabric-dyeing, and Stack-N-Whack. Thanks!

Tee shirt Quilt/s

Right now I'm finishing up two tee-shirt quilts. The first, for my dear sweet husband for his birthday. This man has collected so many grateful dead shirts over the years and he has definitely got his money's worth out of them. They're stained, stretched, hole-y, and FABULOUS! I have all but two "blocks" quilted on his quilt and still need to bind it . . More on his quilt later....

I put DH's quilt on hold because my dear sweet friend from high school Julie requested a tee shirt quilt made of all her husband's old shirts. They were in excellent, like-new condition. . compared to my husband's shirts. . I could barely tell they have been worn! They were in such good condition in fact, that I was able to use the back of all the tee shirts for the backing.
The style of tee shirt quilt she chose is what I refer to as a "tetris" style tee shirt quilt. Instead of the usual blocked quilt with the posibility of sashing, the main logos or screenprints of the shirts are cut-out and arranged in a haphazard fashion. If you haven't made a quilt like thsi . . it's actually interesting. It brings an element of puzzle-ish fun into the mix. I really dig it!
Here's a shot of the front and back.





If anyone would like for me to make a tee shirt quilt for you. Feel free to contact me at Krati@aol.com For a 64" x 84" quilt, or big enough to cover just the top of a queen sized bed, I charge $150.

As soon as I get this quilt of my husband's complete (should be tomorrow) I"ll be sure to share some photos.

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Okay Okay, better late than never. ;c) Here's the photos of the front and back of my husband's grateful dead tee-shirt quilt. I quilted it with big loop-d-loops with my free-motion foot. The back is just some colorful "trippy" fabrics that were in my stash. I also tied the corners with some thick variegrated yarn.

Thread Holder

Check out this awesomeness!!!

I think it's supposed to be for jewelry.. .but isn't it perfect for thread? It has space for all my new Essentials thread from Connecting Threads! I'm studying it and I think we could make one! When I get around to it, I'm going to try to make one...and of course I"ll take photos along the way and I'll try to provide a tutorial. =cDDDD

Today I re-arranged my sewing space. See where my sewing tables are? This is where the couch was before. I brought this table in from the back and it fits perfectly in that cubbyhole. The cubbyhole is perfect for all my fabric and whatnot because it's shaded from the sun. yay!

I went to my LQS WV Quilts and found this perfect Sashing Fabric for my Floribunda blocks. I'm doing QAYG (surprise surprise) and here I've marked my quilting lines for the sashing. I'md doing a half feather-type of deal. Awwwwwww Beautiful!

A finish: "Poppies"

This would make my 2nd finished quilt of 2010. This was my 1st quarter finish for stashbuster's "use your own book" challenge. The block, Poppies, was from the book "Grandma's best quilt blocks." I paired the blocks with 4 patches in jewel tones. This was made totally from scraps. I did have some pretty big yardage of Kona black so I used this for the sashing and binding. The sashing on the back is a grey floral.
I appliqued the poppies on the quilt sandwich, then echo quilted around it. I used the QAYG method, which I'm absolutely LOVING right now. It's just hard on this lady's back bending and scrunching a whole quilt sandwich through my DSM. I love QAYG and if I possibly CAN, I WILL use it for sure. I have several links I could give you that I find helpful when using the QAYG (quilt as you go) method. The one I seem to always refer back to is this: