Quilts in 2011

I'm very pleased that all three quilts I posted in my Etsy shop last year were sold by the end of the year. That's a pretty gratifying way to end the year.

In 2011 I also made a quilt for my mother and another one that was a commission.

And I made a pair of quilted table runners for Christmas presents.

Not a bad year at all. But now it's 2012, and what have I done lately? Back to the quilt mines!

Sweet Dreams, Baby Girl!

I just finished this little crib quilt for the newest member of my husband's side of the family, Molly Claire.



I've been working on this quilt on and off for a couple of months. The pattern, one from a circa 1996 quilting magazine, combines pinwheel, half square triangle, and Irish chain blocks. It's the first time I've done an Irish chain and it came out better than I thought possible. The smallest squares in the Irish chain measure 1.5" finished and I don't think I'll attempt making them any smaller!

But it wasn't the little squares that threw me off on this quilt. No, it was the flannel backing. Even though I used a walking foot on my sewing machine and had basted the quilt well, it was plagued by a myriad of little pleats and puckers when I quilted it. Every single line had two or three annoying little pleats! First I threw the quilt down and swore at it. Then I debated ripping out all the quilting seams and redoing it, but then decided against that. There was no assurance that it wouldn't just do it again if I redid it, so I decided to take out sections of the seams and then re-quilt those sections while trying to ease out the pleats the best I could.

And ya know? It worked. I was able to remove most of the pleats and puckers and I'm largely satisfied with the backing now.

I was afraid that the pretty pink and purple flower pattern in the binding would be lost against all the other pinks, so I added a pale green border with the pink corner blocks to the original design. I think it helps set off the pink squares and relieves some of the intensity of those hot pinks. 

There's always a moment when I question how I've designed and made a quilt. Those seams aren't straight, those squares don't measure up, I've got pleats on the back, and I'm not sure about those colors. Thankfully much about a quilt seems to improve after it's been washed and dried. I felt much happier about how this one turned out the moment I took it out of the dryer and held it up to see it.

I hope Molly Claire enjoys her new quilt. In fact, I hope it's completely stained and bedraggled by the time she goes off to first grade, 'cause that's how you know a quilt has been really loved by a baby girl.

A Quilt for Mother's Day

It's taken me forever, but I finally finished a quilt that's been a work in progress for quite some time.



When I first started quilting I wanted very much to do a half-square triangle block quilt. I also had some linen fabric that I wanted to use, so I began making half-square triangle blocks with it. I used a solid sage green and a floral print with sage green, yellow, and natural linen. Both fabrics were taken from recycled linen clothing I found at my local thrift store.

Anyone who's worked with half-square triangle blocks and/or linen is probably shaking their heads right now. Half-square triangles can be tricky for a novice, and linen...well, linen tends to stretch out of shape when you work with it. Especially if you're making half-square triangles out of it without any regard to the fabric's bias.

I knew the linen seemed to warp easily as I made my half-square triangle blocks, but I decided to forge ahead and see what I could make out of it. Pinwheel blocks!, I thought in blissful ignorance. Because if half-square triangle blocks made of linen seem a get a little out of shape a little too easily, you should realize that linen pinwheel blocks are downright finicky.

But I kept at it, making those half-square triangle blocks and then the pinwheel blocks. Then I realized that not all of my pinwheel blocks were turning in the same direction. I had assembled half of them turning clockwise and the other half turning counter clockwise. I really didn't want to rip the seams out to remake all the blocks turning in the same direction, but I didn't have enough solid sage green material left over to make additional blocks.

That's when I set the whole project aside for half a year. Then last fall I realized that I could make some blocks using the floral print linen with some oatmeal-colored linen that I had on hand. I made up the half-square triangle blocks, but never got around to assembling them into pinwheel blocks before the holidays.

Fast forward to late winter. I decided it was time to get this quilt finished. I laid out the blocks that I had assembled and then realized that I didn't really have enough of the floral print/oatmeal half-triangle squares completed to make enough pinwheel blocks. I threw my hands up in the air and set the project aside once more.

Finally, the week after Mother's Day, I forced myself to re-evaluate this project and find some way to complete it. This time the stars came into alignment and I quickly found an arrangement of blocks that 1) I liked, and 2) didn't require any addition block assembly. I set the clockwise-turning pinwheels on the left and the counter-clockwise turning pinwheels on the right. In the center I alternated the oatmeal and floral print half-square triangles in a flying goose pyramid and a divided triangle pattern. I used solid oatmeal-colored linen on the sides to make the throw-sized quilt a decent size and then assembled my quilt top. I used an old flannel sheet for batting, and for the backing, I decided to use a spectacular vintage 1970s cotton-poly blend sheet.

There's a story behind this sheet. My grandmother, my mom's mom, loved the color yellow. And she adored butterflies and plants. When I found this particular bedsheet with yellow and orange butterflies and ferns, I immediately thought of Memaw. It was a perfect backing for a Mother's Day quilt for my mom (even at that point it was well past Mother's Day and I hadn't even finished assembling it yet) and the colors were a nice counterpoint to the sage greens on the front of the quilt.

So there I was, congratulating myself on wrapping up an unfinished project when it occurred to me that I had not even considered how I was going to bind this quilt. We were leaving to visit my parents the day after the next and there really wasn't enough time to make a binding, quilt the quilt, and attach the binding before we were going to leave. That's when I decided to cheat a little. I layered the quilt so that I could stitch all around except for about a 5 inch gap, then flip it inside out and close the seam with a ladder stitch. Voila! A self-seamed quilt. I ran a top stitch all around the inside edge of the quilt, then stitched in the ditch around each half-square triangle block. Not the most sophisticated quilting, but it finished the quilt nicely in the amount of time I had left. I popped the quilt in the washer and then dried it while I rushed around packing for our upcoming trip.

See that butterfly applique on the top of the quilt? When I took the quilt out of the dryer I saw that the seams had separated in one place on the quilt top. One half-square triangle block had really stretched beyond my seam allowance. No matter at this point in the game! I cut out a butterfly from a remnant of the backing fabric and appliqued it to the front to cover the popped seam. I use Steam-A-Seam for my appliques, which adheres really well. I also ran a machine stitch around the outside of the applique for good measure. The sheet fabric will fray up some with time, but it still suits this particular quilt.

I made a label for the quilt and then I was done! One less UFO (UnFinished Object) in my work-in-progress pile!

I'm not really happy with the way my labels look, but I still would like to write them by hand. I'd like something a little neater, but my indelible pens seem to skip and drag on the fabric when I write on it. I think I'm going to try putting the fabric on a piece of sandpaper before writing my next label. Hopefully that will hold the fabric in place and allow me to write more smoothly.

And of course my mom loved the quilt when I gave it to her, even with its quirky flaws. One of the first things she said was, "I think your grandmother had those sheets."

Sometimes it's the quilt that you mess up that teaches you the most.

April Showers Quilt Top

Quilt in progress...

Modern Linen Charm, Spring Chickens, and Stars, Oh My!

Finally we had a nice day outside to finish taking photos of my Modern Linen Charm quilt.


This is truly an eco-friendly quilt! The top of the quilt is made from upcycled linen and linen-blend clothes. The backing is an upcycled organic cotton sheet and the batting is an upcycled flannel cotton sheet. I used a linen/linen-blend material purchased at a garage sale for the binding.





The top of the quilt features 6” squares of solids colors and floral prints. The prints are either a neutral tone on black or black on a khaki background. The solid colors include a range of natural browns, sage green, mushroom, black, rusty red, and a brighter red. Some of the blocks were cut to include seams from the original piece of clothing for added interest. Some of the solid squares have been appliquéd with smaller squares of neutral tan and black. These are raw edged appliqués, left to fray naturally for texture. The binding is also a natural tan color. The back of the quilt is a darker khaki brown cotton.





The quilt is approximately 48 by 60 inches, a good size to use as a sofa throw, a crib quilt, or for wrapping around yourself while rocking in the porch swing on a fall evening. The flannel batting provides warmth and a “blanket” weight to the quilt, but isn’t so heavy that you won’t reach for it on a summer night.


One of the things I like the most about this quilt is the grid pattern the quilting made at the intersection of the charm blocks.














And in other news...the spring chickens have come home to roost!





These ornaments are made from felted wool sweaters, scrap trim repurposed from clothes, and black glass bead eyes. They're firmly stuffed with felted wool scraps. Each one is approximately 5 inches long and about 3 inches tall.








As almost always with my felt crafts, no two are exactly alike.





Also new, I've begun making patriotic star ornaments for the Fourth of July.





They're made of cotton and cotton-blend fabric stuffed with elted wool scraps. One side is navy blue with stars and the other side is a white with red ticking stripes. I've sewn a pearly white button in the center of the blue side and made a hanger from a shimmery gold organdy ribbon. Each star measures approximately 5 inches wide by 5 inches tall.


PS-See that gadget window in the upper right corner? The empty white rectangle that's titled "New River Quilt Works on Etsy"? Check back on Friday afternoon, when my Etsy shop officially opens, to see more of my work!

Modern Linen Charm Sneak Peek!

It took me longer than I expected, but I finished my Modern Linen Charm quilt yesterday.

I used my new walking foot on this quilt.  I didn't have any problem with little tiny pinch pleats forming on the back while quilting, but finding the right tension for the thread with this foot took some effort.  In fact, I ripped out the stitching the first time I quilted it because I wasn't happy with the way it looked and I knew it would annoy me forever unless I did it right.  In retrospect I should have spent more time testing out the thread tension with scraps before rushing into the quilting.  

Anyhoo, it's quilted now and I'm pleased with the results.  I'll post more pictures soon when the wind dies down outside...it's pretty gusty out there today.