Gearing Up For a New Quilt

So after seeing all the circles in the Circle My Way Quilt I needed something different. Let's see...how about some squares :).


Of course I haven't abandon the circles - I am finishing up #3 of 3. I love the way these are turning out. Finished photos to come soon.


Have a great and productive week everyone!

Modded Brown Completed!

Binding Complete!  Modded Brown is washed, dried and ready for it's new home!  Right now it's right here but it'll probably find a home with my sister soon.


Sitting pretty in my son's room.  A front view.

Modded Brown as been a work in progress since the beginning of April.  It's been almost 2 months since the design stages of this quilt and now it could finally be called completed.  Here's a view of the full front and full back of the quilt.  Sorry about the lighting.  It's been nasty and rainy here in Northern California the last few days and I don't have a chance to get good lighting inside and not willing to get this quilt wet by going outside.  Hopefully the flash and the little bit of light coming through the window will be enough.  Most of the pictures I was able to put right next to the window for some nice shots :).

The quilt front:

I had to take some quick shots of the floor while my two sons were inching to climb on the quilt!  Haha talk about working in harsh conditions :P.


The quilt back:


Definitely did not show up will with the lighting.  I actually really really like the quilt back...maybe even more so than the front.  In person the color strips really shows and it looks really awesome against the brown.

Here's a few shots to show off the quilt a bit more :)

The back and front of the quilt together:



 Another view of the beautiful back:


Folded and ready to go:


I really enjoyed making this quilt and I think it turned out pretty darn good :).   Definitely will be trying this design with a few more color schemes.  I hope it finds a good home soon.

I'm also sharing this completed quilt on Amy's Sew-n-Tell Fridays:

Quilt Info:
Modded (Brown)
Front: 100% Cotton Print Fabrics
Batting: Warm & Natural 100% cotton
Backing: Same solids and prints as the front
Completed Dimension: ~47"x60"
Quilting Method: Free-Motion Machine Quilting
Binding: Machine Sew to Front and Hand Sew to Back

Good Old Binding & Now I'm Family Clown???

Last step in the Modded Brown Quilt - binding.

Hopefully I could get the handbinding down by... hmmm...eventually???

And apparently I am now the family clown.  Well I don't wear the silly nose or put on the clown costume but I am getting quite familiar with the balloon arts...

This is the latest creation - Flowers with very long stems.  I sometimes also fold up the stems to make leaves.  The kids love watching me make it, loves to play with them, and they're relatively cheap.  Once it goes a little flat it gets tossed.

Here's also enjoying the latest additions to our living room:

Each flower machine takes 2 long balloons.  I pump up the stem first, make a little nub for flower center.  Then with the other balloon, fold it into 5 petals and connect it to the stem. 


Took a little trial and error to get the petals to be even ... and for the balloons to stop popping.  Did I mention I have this fear for balloons popping?  Well I got over that one by this point :P.





So what have I made so far in the world of balloon art?  Not that much - hearts, different flowers, Mickey Mouse ears, chains, palm tree (that one is a bust), and the ever popular sword.  Haha just something to keep the kids entertained.

Quilting Complete!

I'm proud to say that the quilting for the Modded Brown is complete!

And the results?  Pretty nice is I do say so myself :).


Glimpse of the finished quilt:



After I complete the quilting I like to sew - with long stitches, along the quilt about 1/8 away from the raw edge.  This ensures that all the layers are down tight before I start sewing on the binding.  It's one less thing to worry about.


A quick trim with the scissors to remove all extra fabric from the edges and to make sure everything is straight:

Love the clean edge of the nearly trimmed quilt.  Gives it an automatic finished look.  It's so neat that sometimes my boys start using the quilt at this stage before I could put the binding on :P.

Now the quilt is ready for attaching the binding :).  Another Weekly Goal - COMPLETED!

Quilting Along...

Been a while since I got to do any whole blanket quilting.  It was a hard decision picking the quilting thread color for the Modded Brown quilt.

After much thought - and some trial and error - I went with a dark gray, almost black, colored thread.


The dark gray was a little shocking next to the light gray fabric when I first started to quilt, but I got used to it after a while.

How many different colors did I end up trying before settling on the final one?

1. Dark brown. There was a lot of dark brown on the quilt so I decided to match, but it didn't really go well when quilted on top of the other colors.  Even on the dark brown, it thread color just blended and didn't provide much to the quilt top.
2. Beige.  Went really well with the Red print and Olive print fabrics.  However it was too contrasting to the brown and didn't go well with the light gray at all.

Okay - 2.  I considered some other colors briefly - dark red, dark blue - but quickly decided against them.  The dark gray thread on this quilt is growing on me and now that I'm about 75% done, it is beginning to look like a good color choice :).

I don't use a quilting frame - more on that on a later post - so I had quite a task maneuvering this larger quilt time around.  But with the help of some sticky top gloves (my make-shift quilting clothes) I got it under control.

I garden a lot so I decided to get a clean pair of these gardening gloves from a local gardening center:


These are very thin so it doesn't feel clunky when quilting.  All on the front are little sticky circles and provides a very nice grip for the quilt tops.  I got this for a couple of bucks :).

I still have a little bit of quilting to finish up for this quilt.  I'm kind of sad to see the quilting ending actually ... guess I really like this part of the process.  Well here's the quilt right now waiting to be finished.

Modded Brown Chugs Along

Wow, it's been almost a month since I had a chance to work on this quilt:

This was as far as I went last time - putting the quilt top with the batting. I rolled it up and it's been sitting in my living room for almost a month.  Today I get to roll it out and make some progress...finally!

But a couple of hours of quality time and now this quilt is ready for the quilting machine - well my sewing machine with a quilting leg attachment (Juki TL-98Q).  Close enough right?  Gets the job done :).

I did the first part of the quilt sandwich last month so this time it was just the matter of finishing it up with the quilt backing.

This is all 3 layers place together and smoothed out - quilt top, batting, quilt back - all ready for basting.

Takes up most of my living room rug.  I like to (whenever possible) assemble the quilt on the rug because it's just more comfortable to work on than the hardware floor. The rug isn't on of those ultra plush rugs so there's no much give to wrinkle up the fabrics.

A closeup of the quilt sandwich:

This stage is always so scary to me - it's when all the pieces come together and you get to see if all your measuring, cutting and sewing was done correctly.  Luckily, this one was :) - all the pieces lining up just fine.

After every each of the quilt sandwich was smoothed out it is time for the safety pins to come out again.  I use a lot of pins.  I start from one end of the quilt and make my one to the other end.  For the edges I pin about 2-3 inches apart, for the interior I pin about 4-6 inches apart.

Pins, Pins, Pins:

I love the look of a neatly pinned quilt.  Here is a closeup of the pins - notice the ones on the edges are closer together than the ones in the interior.  

The quilt is now ready for some quilting.  I'm going to be doing a freestyle motion quilting.  Hopefully I could schedule this into my next week's goals.

Modded Brown Continues - Quilt Sandwich

Time to break out the roll of batting and start sandwiching.  For most of my quilts I like to use Warm & Natural 100% cotton batting.  I brought a huge roll a while back and have been chipping away at it.

A few housekeeping task - clear out the rug area (the largest open space I have in my home right now), occupy the kids with other activities or put them down for a nap (you don't want kids to be running around while doing this task - for starters it takes up the whole living room!), and drag out the huge roll of batting.

I put the batting roll on one end of the room and start rolling it out to the other.  Make sure that there is enough batting for the size, 48"x67" in this case.  Make sure there is plenty enough extra batting on all size of the quilt.  I usually leave about 3 inches on each side.  The batting should be smoothed out completely before putting on the quilt top.

 

The roll of Warm and Natural spread out and ready for sandwiching.  In this picture I didn't smooth out the batting yet - so make sure you do so before putting on the quilt top!

After the batting is smoothed I lay the quilt top on the batting - make sure to leave around 3" of batting on all sides.  When the quilt top is placed in a good spot - SMOOTH SMOOTH SMOOTH down both the layers.  This is very important - making sure that there is enough batting on ALL sides of the quilt top and make sure that there is an even, flat contact between the quilt sandwich and batting.

When I know that the batting and quilt down is as flat as possible I cut around the quilt top, leaving about 3" of batting on all sides.  The quilt top and batting sandwich is now ready for the quilt backing.

The kids were waking up at this point so I needed to give up my open space.  What I do when I don't have time to finish the quilt sandwich is to roll up the quilt top and batting sandwich together into a log to be used later.
Here's a picture of the quilt top and batting sandwich being rolled up.

I roll about a foot deep along the short side of the sandwich.  Keep rolling until the whole sandwich is nicely tucked into this roll.  

Once the sandwich is rolled up, it could be stored away safely until I am ready to assemble it with the quilt backing.  Hopefully this is sooner than later :P!

Boxed In Completed!

It's done!  It's done!  I felt like a lifetime ago, alright not quite :P, but IT IS DONE!  After nights and nights of hand-binding this lap size quilt it is now ready to be packaged up and handed off to my sister.

Here's some evidence of the completion:

A whole 41"x59" of completed quilt.  The colors don't show up all that well in this picture, but you could get a feel of the quilt.


Another view of the whole quilt.

A closeup of the front:

I have a little worried about the color scheme for the blocks, but I think it turned out pretty good.  I really like the way out sashing around the blocks went together so well with the blocks.

Here's a closer view of the top and back:

For the back I used an all white broadcloth.  I was afraid any business from the back would be a little too much for this quilt.  I went with a free motion swirls for the quilting style - about 1-1.5 inches apart.

A closer view of the binding and quilting:

The hand binding gave the quilt a very nice finish.  The binding matched the color of the inner most fabric of the blocks.  Even upon close inspection, the thread was hidden in the binding. 


My sister don't really know much about quilts.  After I completed my hand-quilted one she really wanted one of her own and I was happy to help out.  Her request?  Something with a reddish theme to use on the couch.   However after completing this quilt and working on the Modded (brown) quilt, I think she may like the Modded one more actually.  We'll see.  I'll give her a choice when both are done - she may have to wait a little longer if she decides she wants the Modded one instead.

 Quilt Info:
Boxed In (1)
Front: 100% Cotton Print Fabrics
Batting: Warm & Natural 100% cotton
Backing: White Broadcloth 100% cotton
Completed Dimension: 41"x59"
Quilting Method: Machine, Free Style - Swirls 1"-1.5" apart
Binding: Machine Sew to Front and Hand Sew to Back

Modded (Brown) Update: Assembling the Back

I'm taking a forced break from finishing the Modded quilt top - I was short 2 inches from the left and right side of the inner border.  I didn't notice until I got it all pinned - got to the end and notice that I was about 2 inches short.  I'll get those cut this weekend.  I don't like cutting during the weekdays - not enough time and it gets pretty messy with all the equipment and scraps.

So I'm going to move onto the top - until Sunday (plans with the extended family on Saturday - don't you wish you could just skip out to quilt all day instead sometimes???).  For the back of the quilt I decided to do a single patched strip using the colors I used for the inside of the blocks on the front of the quilt.

Here's a refresher of how the front looks like:

Notice the olive fabric and the red fabric on the inside of the blocks - those are the 2 I'm going to use for the back also.

The rest of the quilt back will be the same Moda mocha color as the quilt top. The basic design will look like this:

The two strips labeled 'D' is the same fabric both the 'C' panels. 'A' and 'B' represents the olive and red fabrics alternating.

 On with the work.  Here's The Stash' after the fabric was cut.  I'm always amazed by the tiny stack of fabric - it always seen so...tiny.

Getting it all ready to be pieced together.  This was cut when the quilt top was cut.  I try to do all my cutting at the same time :).

After the piecing, a quick pass on the iron.

Single strip of blocks - pressing it was easy-peasy.


Now I just need to attach those 2 big panels on either side of the block strip and I'm done with the quilt back - well after more pressing of course.  Here's the beauties lined up ready to be sewn together.

All ready for the final stage.

Wow got a lot accomplish in a short time.  What's left on the quilt?  A LOT.  Next, I need to finish the back, cut those mixing 2 pieces for the front, and start putting together the quilting sandwich.  Yes the quilting sandwich.  Ever since I got a huge roll of the Warm and Natural instead of the pre-cut pieces I've been avoiding the batting.


Here's a pretty outdated picture of the roll:

Pretty outdated picture of the Warm and Natural Batting roll.  Don't mind the mess around here - it was during the pre-cleanup stage of the sewing room. 

Pretty intimidating taking that roll out each time.  But I like it.  It give me the freedom of making the quilts in whatever size the design is.  So far I'm like the off right color of the natural batting.  I try to stay away from bleached material.  I guess if I'm working with a very light colored fabric that I don't want the color to be compromised I will consider getting a pure white batting roll.  But for now, this will work just fine - without the extra bleaching.

Back to the Machine - FINALLY!

It's been quite a while since I get to sit down at my sewing machine to get some work done.  In a previous blog I previewed the next quilt I'm working on "Modded".  I had the pieces cut for a couple of weeks now and it's been just sitting on my sewing table.  At last, I sat down today, pieced and pressed after I got off work from my 'day job'.

Here's the basic design of the quilt.

Blocks of 5x7 with a border around and binding. This design is for a lap size quilt about 47"x60" completed.


Each of the box was pieced together in 5 block strips.  Make sure that each strip alternates block colors.

Pictured is one of the strips of 5 blocks.  

Make sure you iron after each seam is made.  If you don't it'll be difficult to do so later on.  Diligent pressing creates flat surfaces for the quilt top.  Take special care of making sure all the joining seams are pressed carefully.  Here's a close-up of seams being pressed opened.

I press seams open for most of my quilts.  It creates a very clean, flat surface to quilt on.  I also adjust my stitch spacing to be closer when I do this - I use sittings 2 on my Juki.  Notice the nice perpendicular joints - very flat and pressed down very well.  Remember to press each seam after sewing.


After the 7 strips of 5 blocks are complete, I lay out all the strips to make sure everything was lined up properly - hahaha and to make sure I didn't forget any pieces :P.

Tried my best to take a picture of all the strips lined up - but didn't have the room in my hallway :(.  But you could get a good feel of the how the quilt time should look at by point. 5 blocks across, 7 blocks down, 35 blocks TOTAL.

Next?  Lining up the inner border all around the blocks.  I use the same green/olive fabric as I used for the blocks for the inner border.  I'm not quite sure how this will work out.  I first gut was to go with a different fabric for this step, but I really like the fabric and wanted to use it more than just in the blocks.  Well here's the guest and check :P.

The inner border all cut, sewed, pressed, and ready to be added around the blocks.  This is pretty much all I had time to do this evening.  Not bad progress - I THINK.

Next up? Adding up the inner border, creating the quilt backing, quilt sandwich, quilt, binding.... Lots to do to get a quilt ready.

Modded Quilt Preview

Here's a preview of the next quilt I'm working on. I'm going back to more earth tones. This next one has a lot of browns and reds. I've cut up all the pieces and now ready to piece it all together. *SIGH* and more ironing/pressing :P.


The pre-cutting phrase.

The feel that I want to achieve from this quilt is simplicity, modern, and earthy.  I don't have anyone in mind to give this quilt to.  It may be my first one that I'll put on my new Etsy site.  Most of the quilts I make I plan to put on Etsy, but it always get ear-marked or taken by family/friend even before it's finished :).