Quilt It Wright - Part III The Quilting Part

Quilt It Wright
Part III - The Quilting Part
My improv quilt inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright
Part I HERE
Part II HERE

I still pin baste - although a lot of quilters now spray baste, for quilts I'm a pinner.  I've had some shifting happen with spray and anytime I'm quilting a quilt that I think I may enter in a show I feel more confident with pinning.  Pins are reusable and spray isn't. (I also don't like to think of spray on my carpet or floor).  I do use spray on some minis, so I'm not totally against the spray.



I used two layers of black Hobbs batting on this quilt.  I went with the darker batting as the top was mostly gray.  This is only the second time I've used the dark batting and it worked well in this quilt.  

My chosen quilting threads, the green spools are 40 wt Aurifil and the gray spools are 28 wt Aurifil.  I like the 28 wt, its denser and I think the quilting pops more with the heavier wt.  I don't have ALL the colors yet in 28 wt, so I had to use some 40 wt I had on hand.

I went with the matchstick style quilting, but I did not go as close as I sometimes do - this one I kept the quilting lines about 1/4" apart vs I sometimes have 1/8" apart.  With the double layer of batting I couldn't go as close, and I thought the quilting looked fine 1/4" apart.  I added vertical quilting as well as horizontal.

Getting to the edge of the quilt requires a quilt scarf to be made.
At this point the quilt was super heavy and I couldn't hold on to it, so I rolled it and threw it over my shoulder

I would stop some of the quilting lines and cut the threads, then just going back to the edge of the quilt without having to give it a 180. Or I would spend some time turning the quilt when I would get to the end of a line.  Turning was definitely more difficult and I would get frustrated.  I preferred to turn not wanting to cut all the little left over threads afterwards, but I also couldn't man handle the quilt but so much before wanting to discard the whole idea of quilting two different directions.  It was worth it in the end, as I knew it would be - just very trying while it was happening. 

Next up - squaring.  I did some cutting and got the quilt close to square, I just had to pull at a few areas.  Squaring is new to me, I used to just square off the corners with a ruler and a rotary.  After one show when I had a comment about the quilt not laying flat, I started to be more careful and work on this aspect.  You are always learning something new in quilting.  There is always another step.
(white towels are under the quilt to soak up the water)

Next time - I try faced binding and my struggle with the name

Part IV HERE Faced Binding

Game of Quilts

I signed up to participate in a fun quilt challenge sponsored by Bad Ass Quilters Society. There were two color ways to chose from and I chose Blood, Bone, Steel & Fire, these were the only fabrics we could use in our mini quilt.

Sorry this is on its side!  These are the fabrics.

The theme (in case you haven't figured) was Game of Thrones. I wanted to focus on the Starks of Winterfell and their Sigil or shield, the grey Dire Wolf.

The Starks have not had a good run, so one of the themes for my mini quilt is the horrific turn in the scene called
 'The Red Wedding' 

The Dire Wolf and blood are lightly fused, the flying geese are pieced and I traced the quote (by Jon Snow, the bastard Stark) with a light box and I will fill in the letters with quilting. 

Under the quote and the Sigil is an extra layer of batting to add dimension. I quilted around the Sigil and blood before trimming the batting around the dire wolf head. 

This could be the beginning of a mini quilt wall of all the Game of Thrones families. 

'Starks of Winterfell'
18"x 18" mini quilt
Aurifil thread for quilting, a bit of metallic thread thrown in

**Edited - I feel I should explain for avid Game of Thrones fans, I realize the quote I have used is from the Nights Watch, not the Stark family.  However, Jon Snow is a Stark (although a bastard member) and a member of the Nights Watch.  This is an interpretation of the Starks, there is no blood on the Sigil of the Stark family, and their motto is "Winter is Coming".  I imagined Jon Snow's feelings finding out that his family had been brutally murdered, and unable to avenge them due to his duty to the Watch.  I wanted to include Jon in my interpretation of the family.  

Journey

I named this quilt Journey for a few reasons - and after trying for almost a week to photograph it, I almost wanted to call it 'Journey of rain, weeds, poison ivy, too sunny, and unavailable tall quilt holders'

I don't have many progress photos on this one, they were taken late at night, with my phone, and look crappy, so I'm not even going to bother with those.  You just get to see the finished project!

I'm a big fan of the Chambray collection by Andover Fabrics, and the background on this one is printed Chambray by Alison Glass, from the Ex Libris collection.  I found the background color difficult to photograph, the color wanted to blend into any outdoor setting. 

I did a little journeying around to find a couple of spots I thought the quilt would fit into.

Journey measures 84" x 71" - I needed to very tall holders.  Luckily, my son and future son in law are well over 6' (they come in handy and usually are good sports about these shoots).  Although the poison ivy and possibility of snakes in this area had them watching their toes.

I wanted to talk about my journey with quilting, but I am still putting together my thoughts.  I will post again with a narrative of why I wanted to name this quilt, with a few close up photos of the quilting, those didn't happen today.  I was lucky to get these guys after work with enough light and no rain for these photos. 

The printed fabric is Handcrafted by Alison Glass, the first collection.  There will be a new collection of Handcrafted coming out soon.

Quilted with Aurifil #2975 Brass in 28 wt, bobbin thread Aurifil #2600 Dove (my favorite color) in 50 wt.  The quilt top was 88" x 74"  after quilting it is now 84" x 71"  who knows what will happen after washing!

Sunprint Quilt

I am so happy to finally be able to show the entire quilt I made using Alison Glass Sunprint 2015 Collection.  I used a piece of each fabric in the collection.  The background fabric is Andover Fabrics Chambray in Grey.  

'Fruit Flavors'

The block I used is a paper pieced block called Fractal Block by Patty Solanger and is available for download in her Craftsy shop. 

Progress photos can be found here

The background Chambray Grey is quilted with Aurifil thread - #1133 Bright Orange and #2240 Rusty Orange.  Each color block was quilted with Aurifil 40 wt in a matching color.  

I used Sunprint Ink in Paper color (white with black dots) for the binding, I used a machine binding technique for the binding. 

The quilting is termed 'matchstick quilting'.  The quilting lines are densely sewn - 1/8" or closer.  (Thank you to Leanne of She Can Quilt for introducing me to this style of quilting!)

'Fruit Flavors' finished up at 46" x 65" before washing

It was pretty windy while trying to get these photos done - my thanks to Shelley (@brookquilt1) for helping out

Mary

Fractal Quilt Block

I find so much inspiration on Instagram - I still go to Flickr occasionally, but IG is full of new ideas and swaps.  I just take a screenshot, and I can scroll through my photos later to pick a new pattern or fabric line or something to discuss with other sewists.  

And I found this one day

And I went straight to Craftsy to purchase this pattern.

There are two sizes you can make your block 12" or 16" - for my first one I went with the 16" size, as I wanted to make it into a mini quilt wallhanging.

Using Indelible and a few solids.  

This was one of my favorite lines that came out earlier in 2014

This is a paper pieced pattern, which sometimes creates road blocks when you can't quite figure out how large that next piece of fabric should be

Over two nights I completed the block - I just did not have a lot of sewing time available

I love how this one turned out!

I used two layers of batting in this one, I wanted the quilting to pop off the top.  Aurifil 40 wt was used in the quilting.  

Sadly (for me) this mini is off to it's new home as a swap gift.

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary 

The One When I Met Mr. Aurifil

Me:  I'm going to be driving to Richmond for a lecture next week.

Him:  Where?

Me:  A quilt shop

Him:  What's it about?

Me: Thread

Him:  Thread?  Just thread?  

Me:  Thread

Him:  I don't get you

Me:  The lecture is being given by the Italian Product Manager

Him:  An Italian man?

Me:  Yes

Him:  NOW I'm beginning to get you

Another quilter and I drove a couple hours to a nice quilt shop Quilters Corner to hear 

Mr. Alex Veronelli give a lecture on Aurifil thread.

Italians talk with their hands, all of my photos have movement

Mr. Veronelli gave a presentation on the process of producing Aurifil. I have been sewing with Aurifil for awhile and I know it is superior thread to work with, now I understand some of the 'why' it is superior.

Mr. Veronelli discussed the cotton, the twist, the weight, and the dying processes.  I gained an appreciation of what goes into the making of a spool of Aurifil thread.

One kilo of thread

Mr. Veronelli had several quilts with him that were made using Aurifil - 

including this one by Luke Haynes

Mr. Aurifil was not that bad to look at either, and I never pass on a photo op with an Italian man

A little bit of swag - my favorite piecing color in Aurifil, #2600.  I had the color card already, and I had Mr. Aurifil sign it for me

All in all a good quilting related day

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary