Three is a lovely number

Quilt Therapy, my minigroup, issued a challenge to create a small quilt by 9/19/2012 for an upcoming community show. That's what I'm working on. 

Challenge parameters:

• size: 18x18
• colors: 50% to match three paint chips, and
• theme: three. 

Paint chips, mostly randomly selected:

red-oranges, yellow-oranges, & darkest neutral purples

Fabrics to match. In keeping with the theme, I'm using a 3x3 format - aka 9-patch. 

 paired squares

The number "3" makes a great shape. I selected a font, printed it large, enlarged it further on the copier, then cropped and traced for interesting mix of related shapes and positive/negative spaces:

patterns

Then I randomly paired patterns with fabric and outlined shapes with free motion stitches. Trimmed extra layers away - a raw edge reverse applique technique.

Then the fun part - arranging the squares in a 3 x3 format. This is similar to an exercise in the June shapes workshop with Terry Jarrard-Dimond posted here and here. From the trimmed layers, I made a polar twin 3x3 and arranged it in the same order:

arrangements v1, polar twin on left

Then rearranged in a dissimilar order:

 arrangement v2, related but not twins

Rearranged again in dissimilar order with some parts traded:

arrangement v3, traded parts

I really enjoy this design-play part of the process and could go on forever. Play more? or go with one of these? I've gotta put it together soon and get quilting. That deadline is looming!

Succumb to fmq practice

I thought free motion quilting was for others, not for me, but I've changed my tune. Admittedly I'd resisted for a long time. How to get there without so much work?! Now that I've succumbed to daily fmq practice, I'll get there eventually. Here's proof that it has ruled my studio time.

You'd think a simple change in direction to create a checkerboard effect would be easy. It was.Until I spaced out and discovered many squares later they didn't alternate properly anymore. Then it got ugly. In the few tedious hours it took to un-stitch several squares, I could've finished them all! Thenceforth I marked the direction of each square and quilted in one direction only. Thus avoiding or aborting further mishaps. It's now ready for binding:

fmq'd mini whole cloth with trapunto

This Ohio Star would make a good pillow:

fmq'd Ohio Star

The pink one just needs a filler around the perimeter . . .

waiting for fmq around perimeter

. . . or maybe not. 

Now is a good time to get moving on a group challenge due in mid-September. An opportunity for design-play once again plus another opportunity for fmq, of course. 

Really good news: the machine quilting workshop with Sandy Ciolino is a go! Yay! This also means a get together with a Michigan friend for a trip to Toronto! Yay for that too!

FMQ habit

I've fmq'd every single day since 7/7/2012! It has become an(other) obsession.

I've continued with Leah Day's beginner-intermediate filler designs, designs I learned about in last month's machine quilting class with Jill Schumacher and played with my own variations as well.

beginner-intermediate filler samples & more

Here's what the mini trapunto whole cloth  looks like now:

mini trapunto whole cloth in progress

Not much progress but many trial samples. On the left are the designs I'll use: from top to bottom, Jill's Waffles in the middle, Martha's Marshmallows in the hearts and Seven Treasures of Buddha around the outside.

And here's the Ohio Star:

Ohio Star in progress

Though Jill had advised me to quilt a simple border pattern because any fancy quilting won't show up, I saw it as an ideal opportunity to practice spirals and hide any wobbles. Those samples to the left are more spirals which I'll quilt in the solid blue and white areas around the star. The design is Leah Day's Swirling Water. It took multiple attempts to get this intermediate level (woot!) design right.

Since these two projects are stalled waiting for thread, I am working on this one:

pink mini whole cloth in progress

I'd barely started this one in a long-ago workshop with Sue Nickels and had shown it here, before I'd removed all the straight stitches. Not too much thinking needed since I'll quilt it similarly to this practice one:

practice for the pink one

All this practice has certainly helped my stitch quality but I'm still clueless about quilting my own improvisational work.

In mid-October I am going to the Crow Barn in Ohio for a machine quilting workshop and further fmq education from Sandy Ciolino. Check out Sandy's website and read what good things Kathy Loomis and Annette Guerrero say about her.

If you want to quilt your own non-traditional projects and improve your fmq, then you really must join me there. A great environment. We'll laugh, eat well, and learn lots too!

First Friday favorite photo - August

After three weeks & three days

I've fmq'd every day for three weeks. Then this weekend, three days more fmq in a workshop with Jill Schumacher, Quiltmaker to the Queen. These are accomplishment from that workshop:

Ohio Star fmq'd in the ditch with monofilament thread

two continuous fmq motifs

another version of feathered wreath

mini whole cloth quilt with trapunto

stitched sample of new filler design, an adaptation of a sashiko pattern

This workshop has a more traditional quilting perspective. Nevertheless, I've learned a lot though I'm still unsure how to quilt my own work.

I've gained two new ufos. The above filler pattern, 7 Treasures of Buddha, may be used in the gridded areas of the trapunto quilt. I prefer to not mark quilts nor use stencils, so I'm looking at Leah Day's 365 filler designs to finish the Ohio Star.

These additional hours of practice practice practice have given me dose of fmq confidence, though I won't become quiltmaker to any royalty any time soon.

Note: For another perspective on Sandy Ciolino's machine quilting workshop, see this post by Annette Guerrero. Annette was already an accomplished quilter when she took Sandy's workshop. What could be better than endorsement from another quilter?!

Audience with the Queen

Not Elizabeth. Not Latifah. I'm off to see the Queen of Quilting, Jill Schumacher!

Tomorrow is the beginning of a three-day quilting retreat at a not-so-local quilt shop, Always Quilting, a 45-minute drive away (In commute traffic?! Don't count on it!). They're providing breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I'll be machine quilting all day and into the night. The machine quilting gods should grant me better stitches after this!

Meanwhile I am not putting all my faith in the gods, I am continuing on my own fmq quest. Not only have I been making samples of Leah Day's beginner-intermediate fillers, I am fmq'ing two fillers onto this ufo.

12x12 ufo from machine quilting workshop

One filler, Leah Day's Matrix, in three samples.

three Matrix samples

The top one in turquoise is from a couple of years ago. The other two just recently. 


I cheated on the larger scaled one by stitching each line from back to front. Result: smoother stitches. It's really tempting to turn a piece and very easy for small ones. 


The smaller scaled one provides a more honest appraisal. No turning. Result: wobbly lines. Really shows I need more practice stitching in other directions. Still it's an improvement from the very first sample. So it is true . . . practice practice practice! 


The second filler is the popular pebbling pattern. 

pebbling sample

I took an hour to stitch this. Of course Leah's was faster and more beautiful. 


Here's the UFO stitched with the two fillers plus a bonus. 

quilted ufo

I went micro! Those small tight spaces screamed for tiny stitches. You can see how much smaller I quilted in this side by side comparison.

samples with quilted ufo

It was good practice for this next UFO. 

18x18 ufo from machine quilting workshop

The markings are barely visible. It's essentially the same pattern with additional long feathers on each side. And better fabric instead of muslin. 


I'll quilt this later. Right now I am getting ready to meet the Queen.