Borders

I decided to piece Piano Key borders for my DNP quilt and my Spiral Log Cabin quilt. After all, I just straightened up my sewing room and cleaned off all horizontal surfaces. Isn't that when you are supposed to drag out boxes of various size strips, none of which are sorted in any kind of order, so that you can make a huge mess again.

These are 3 of the 5 boxes I dragged out. They are sorted in boxes of  1 1/2 or  2 inch wide strips but they are all different lengths. the boxes say light or dark but it looks to me like there are more medium value strips than light or dark in the boxes. that really doesn't matter to me for these borders as  I am just putting strips together randomly. I am trying to sew strip sets that I can cut into 2 or 3 - 6 1/2 inch lengths.  I want 4 or 5 strips before I cut them into the smaller segments and then I will add some of the short strips  in between the units when I put them together. I am  mixing up the widths randomly also. That way when I make them fit the quilt I will only have  to take up one  or two seams instead  of a bunch of them.



6 1/2 inch segments

Strip Sets

 

This is the other thing I have been playing with. I bought this round papier mache box a long time ago (maybe more than 10 years ago). It is 10 inches high and it is 9 inches in diameter. I painted it off white and I planned to do something to decorate it but I can't even remember what that was. I stored some seasonal  decorations in it I came across it when I cleaned a  closet last week and  decided I need the space more than I needed what I  was storing.  It sat on a table in my sewing room and it struck me that maybe I could doodle all over it. I had been practicing some of the things from a book and things I saw on line. I did the top first and realised that it would not be so easy as my drawing tablets to work  on as it is  not nice and smooth like paper. Nevertheless I like the top. I also found out that I was not so good at drawing on a curved surface, especially a not so smooth one. I decided to go with one design. I'm still working on it. Like every other part of my body, my eyes get tired and I  have to give them a rest.

Finally....A day to sew

I finally got a day to sew. It isn't often that I have so many non sewing days in a row by. I had a great grandson birthday present to shop for and then a birthday party to go to. Monday we spent the day getting a mattress board for my side of the bed. When I changed the sheets Jack thought it was a good time to turn the mattress then he decided that we should get a board for my side of the bed because I have been having some back problems that keep me awake at night. Tuesday I washed things that get done once in a while, quilts, shower curtains and that sort of thing. 

Tuesday night I crawled around on the floor and layered up the quilt that I thought the backs didn't fit. It was close but when I pinned it to the carpet I could see that it would work. I got the body of it quilted this morning and I will quilt the borders and add them. Here it is spread out on my bed so I could remove all the pins. It is a completely scrappy Disappearing Ninepatch. 



Close up

I quilted in the ditch around the blocks and then across the blocks with the serpentine stitch in primary colored variegated thread.

I need to get some more Fairfield 80/20 batting for the Picket fence borders. I want it to be the same as the inner part of the quilt. I couldn't remember what I used because it was different from what I usually use but I found the bag it came in. I like Warm and Natural for wall hangings and table  runners but I really like this 80/20 batting because it is so drapable and soft. I may use this for bed quilts from now on. I think it was easier to push it through the arm of my machine too; anything that makes that easier is a winner.

Wednesday morning I went to Bible Study and Wednesdy afternoon I took a nap and I was good for nothing the rest of the day. Crawling around on the floor pinning my quilt Tuesday night was not the smartest thing I have done. I have been walking like an old woman for 2 days now.

I  played some more with this stuff and I think it is becoming an addiction. the one on the left is on cloth and I have it layered and ready to quilt. the one on the right is the original sketch and I like it better but when I copied it on fabric I drew  some of the dividing lines a little off so some of the sections were not sized to draw the same elements in them.

These circles are about 5 1/2 inches. I think I would like to make a cluster of 3 slightly larger circles so that some of the elements would be easier to stitch;those small curves drive me crazy.

I  hope we can set up another date for a play day soon. I want to see what other people have been doing with their doodling.

Not on the list

I though my list would help me to focus on finishing some things but I have been playing with the Zentangle inspired stuff.

When we were at our retreat I started a heart that I fused with black and white fabric patches on a doodle looking background. I put the border on it at the retreat and I quilted it when I got home. Then I doodled another heart the same size and shape and I am ready to put the borders on it and quilt it.

But..... first I drew some circles on paper then I copied one on cloth. This one is just on paper and has a lot of pencil lines that I redrew in ink. I think I will redo this on cloth and cut around it and fuse it to a black background. I find that when I do a practice piece on paper, if I try to copy it exactly, I get something too large or too small or out of balance. From now on I am going to work  mostly on cloth and just do rough sketches or practice new motifs on paper.
I took some more photos of the other circles I did but my computer balked at downloading the pictures and my camera told me that my memory card is defective. This is no surprise as ever since I started using it I have been having problems. I will try again with a different memory card. What I am surprised about it how much I like working in black and white because color is really important to me. On the other hand I have made a lot of black and white quilts and a lot of quilts with black backgrounds. They usually live in my closet or cedar chest because they don't really work well with everything else in the house. However I have to really like them or I would not put myself through the frustration of working on black with my old eyes.

Zen Doodle Fish

After I finished my BOM sampler I played a little more with the Zen tangle  inspired doodling. My friend Kim asked me why I scanned my sketches (my hands) and then printed it on fabric instead of drawing on the fabric. My reason was that all of my sketches were so messy from erasing that I thought I would have a big mess if I drew on the fabric. Well....I am out of printer fabric so I decided to go ahead and draw directly on the fabric. If it turned out to be  a mess, so what? It is only 10 x 12 not much to lose.

I like it.
 All of the long outline lines are quilted. I stitched very slowly so I could stay right on the lines. For the seaweed I used a rayon thread that is one strand each of black and white  twisted together and I like the effect very much.  I left the Timtex out of this one and I fused the fabric to the batting with Wonder Under. I think next time with will just use fusible batting or get some basting spray. I was not enchanted with fusing to the batting with Wonder Under. The whole thing kind of rippled in one area,  I think I pressed it too much. It did quilt out however. * big sigh of relief*  I am learning a few things as I go  along. I wonder what tomorrow will  bring.    I hope it brings my Derwent Inktense pencils that I ordered. Then I can play with them and learn something else.

Spider Iris Doodle

This is what I have been working on while I think about the borders for my spiral log cabin quilt. It is one of my doodles that I think looks like an iris, a spider iris (like a spider mum). Never heard of a spider iris, well here it is! 



Spider Iris ready for binding



 I enhanced the color a little to show the correct color of the iris but the background shows up with too much yellow; it is  more like a soft chartreuse. It is 12 x 12 and has a layer of batting and a layer of Timtex. I was winging it experimenting all the way with this one. I  I fused the flower and then layered the top with a layer of Warm and white batting and did the satin stitching and the French knots.

I didn't know if I liked it or not so I let it rest a few days. I decided that I liked it well enough to keep working on it and then I was afraid to mess it up with machine quilting. It is small so I decided I could do a little hand quilting with embroidery floss and "big stitch". I used 2 strands of purple and 1 strand of lavender to add a little something to the flower. I thought about switching to machine quilting at that point but decided to keep going with the hand stitching. For the first round of echo quilting I used 1 stand of darker green and 2 stands of chartreuse and then switched to 2 stands of chartreuse for the rest of the quilting. 

The back of the batting layer.



When I finished the echo quilting I layered it up with the Timtex and the chartreuse fabric for the backing and machine quilted to outline each petal. I used the same  thread as the satin stitching and stitched very very close to the satin stitching.  It took a long time; I was going v e r r r y slow but I think it looks good. Now it is all squared up and ready for the binding. I love that all the mess on the back of the batting layer is inside and will never show.

 Now that I like it I am once again worried that I will mess it up. We''ll see what  tomorrow brings.