Little Spools Wall Hanging

"Mending the Bishop's Buttons"  21 x 21 inch wall hanging

The Proper Bostonian Quilt Guild runs a Summer Challenge every year.  It's a project to keep everyone sewing in the summer months when the guild doesn't meet!  And it's a contest.

This year there were two options for the Summer Challenge quilts.  Both options must be based on a specific inspiration which can be explained in a sentence. 

1. A small quilt, 24 x 24 inches or smaller using the Pantone Color of the Year for 2014, Radiant Orchid (Kona cotton's Cerise).  We were required to use all of a Fat 1/16  (a piece of fabric 9.5 x 11 inches) which was provided at the last meeting in June. It had to incorporate 3-5 Modern Quilting Design Characteristics. ( A list of 11 characteristics was included.  You can see the list if click on the link above and then on the link for the Summer Challenge Instructions). 
2. A quilt 36 x 36 inches but less than not larger than 72 x 72 inches.  It must incorporate 3 to 5 Modern Quilting Design Characteristics.  

The Purple family is not a slice of the Color Wheel I would typical use as a color for a focus fabric. I'm more likely to add a magenta or purple as an accent.  So this challenge definitely pushed me right out of my comfort zone. 

I took one look at that rectangle of Kona Cerise fabric and thought, "That looks like the color a Bishop's clerical shirt."  Turns out that Bishop's shirts come in 2 colors--Red Purple similar to Radiant Orchid and Blue Purple.  Awesome.  That added another color and interest for the quilt!

This idea didn't totally come out of left field.  I have 2 great friends who are married.  Our friendship goes back to our days when we were college age. He's grown up to become an Anglican Bishop.  She loves to sew and does some quilting.

I had just finished my Jumbled Spools Quilt.  A friend in the Guild saw that quilt and told me that years ago she made a Spool Quilt with little spools.   So I took the color inspiration from the Bishop's colors and the idea of a quilt of Little Spools and designed the wall having above.

It meets the Modern Quilt criteria by having an asymmetric pattern, texture from dense linear quilting, lots of negative space and no borders. 

I thought it would be fun with some button  to add some visual accents.  Hence the title, "Mending the Bishop's Buttons."

When I quilted it, I quilted the spools so that the thread on some of the spools dangling. More than once I've run my hand across this little quilt to brush off the loose threads!   Except they aren't loose--it's the quilting!  Too funny!

Detail of Spools.  The spool upper right is Kona Cerise, the lower Right is a Blue Purple

This year all the PBQ Summer Challenge quilts will be in a show at the library in West Roxbury, MA, November 13-15. 2014. 

Our first meeting of the fall is tonight.  Can't wait to see what everyone as created for this Summer Challenge!

Dog Training Apron: Cotton + Steel

Dog Training Apron Cotton + Steel "Tiger Stripes"

Here's the first of my completed September projects, a new dog training apron.  

I used the Cotton + Steel canvas (home dec weight) fabric for the body of the apron.  It's lined with "Stampede" a soft cotton, also from Cotton + Steel.

I hadn't made a dog training apron for several months. so I used my tutorial.  I ended up with the soft lining material on the back of the apron instead of peeking out of the pockets per the directions. The canvas is a bit scratchy so it's better to have the soft fabric on the back of the apron. 

Cotton + Steel fabrics: "Tiger Stripes"  cotton canvas body, "Stampede" cotton lining

I got a good chuckle when I realized my roll of bags was the same color as the fabrics!  

Apple Picking Time quilt top.  A Quilters Club of America Mystery Quilt. The apple border is my design.

Update on my other September projects:

• I took my apple quilt up to the attic on Wednesday to quilt it on my mid-arm.  It's too wide for the rails!  A Queen is as big as I can quilt on my frame.  Guess this quilt is a generous queen.  Looks like I need to take a trip to Pelham, NH to rent a long-arm for a day at Bits 'n Pieces Quilt and Fabric Shoppe.  That's always great fun.
• I've ADDED the first of 2 Improv Log Cabin quilts (see my last post) to my stack of UFOs waiting to be quilted.  Now there are 5 quilts in the stack!  Is this progress or not?   (Probably)!
• I spent some time doing a home dec project on Saturday.  I picked up some cute patterned sheer curtains with a modern tree and bird pattern at IKEA.  They were 98" long.  I really liked the long look with the bunched up fabric on the floor. But with 3 dogs, that is seriously not practical.  They now 63 inches, well off the floor.  Much better!

This Wednesday is the first meeting of the fall for the Proper Bostonian Quilt Guild. Our Summer Challenge had 2 options.  One was to make a quilt 24 inches or smaller and the other was to make a quilt 36 inches or larger but no larger than 72 inches. Both need to have 3-5 characteristics of Modern Quilts. It's a contest…so I can't show you my entries yet. But I'll post my small entry on Wednesday and my larger entry on Friday.  The Pantone Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid will be included.  Stay tuned!  Can't wait to show you what I've made. 

Improv Log Cabin Quilt #1 Top

Improv Log Cabin #1    50 x 50 inches

Here's my Improv Log Cabin #1 quilt top.  This has been my "take along" project this summer. I've kept all the fabric and completed blocks in a bag.  If I'm going over to a friend's house to sew, I've been able to grab the bag and my sewing machine and head out the door. It's been nice not to have to think about which project to take or needing to gather up the necessary components for a project.

I originally thought I was going to make a bed size quilt. But this is a busy quilt. Very busy!  So i've decided to make 2 smaller quilts.  I think they'd be great for floor time play for a baby.  Lots of interest and visual stimulation!  

This is Improv Log Cabin #1.  The construction of the log cabin blocks in this quilt is somewhat  traditional. The yellow square (there is one in every block) is mostly near the center of these blocks and the block has been built around it.   Improv Log Cabin #2 has log cabin blocks with longer strips.  I haven't put it on the design wall yet, but I think it will have a different feel. 

September projects: what I'm working on

Back in the winter months, I declared February "Finish it February" and spent the month completing most of my UFOs.  I thought of a catchy title for September, but now 7 months later,  I once again have a stack of UFOs that need to be finished!  Two are bed size quilts, one is a large lap quilt with a wool batting and the fourth a lap sized quilt.  Even with the air conditioner on in the sewing room, those larger quilts and the quilt with the wool batt weren't quilting projects I wanted to tackle during the summer!  

Who else has a stack like this?

African Wax Fabrics

Also on the agenda is making another African Village Quilt.  This time I'm going to primarily use African Wax fabrics and the Diamond variation of the pattern.  I'm looking forward to seeing it come together.

Cotton + Steel Fabrics

 I'm wearing my Dog Training Apron all day long most days. It doesn't take long for it to start looking grubby from contact with the dogs and from stashing their treats in one of the side pockets.  I need another one!  I found this great Cotton + Steel fabric at JP Knit & Stitch last week.  The colors are great and it tickles my funny bone to put cats (tigers by fabric name, but they look more cat than tiger to me) on my dog apron!

Snowball Hydrangea

And I have a great idea for a quilt based on this photo.  This beautiful snowball hydrangea is in my neighbor's yard but it leans over our shared fence and graces my yard too.  Here are the fabrics I have collected to make that quilt. 

This list will definitely keep me busy through September...and probably well into the Fall!

Make Modern, a new digital modern quilt magazine from Australia

Make Modern is a new on-line magazine coming from Australia.  In fact, it's Australia's first modern quilting magazine.  It's a gem!

The first issue release date is September 1, 2014.   Living on the East Coast of the United States, the message that the magazine was ready for download dropped into my e-mail mid-morning, yesterday, August 31!  It felt like I'd gotten a bonus day!

This magazine is awesome.  It includes 14 projects and I could happily make most of them.  There are fabulous foundation patterns, patterns for pre-cuts and an appliqué pattern and a quilt sampler of star blocks, designed by Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts,  to make over the course of the year (6 issues).  And they are also including one project each month to teach children (or absolute beginners) to sew-- I think that is brilliant!

The quilt, "Pavement Puddles", on the magazine cover is hexagonal pattern designed by Melissa Gottliebsen.  I about fell off my chair when I looked at the pattern directions and saw that it's a jelly roll quilt!   A 2.5 inch strip quilt that doesn't look like one--Finally!!   I have a couple of rolls languishing in my stash due to lack of enthusiasm about any of the patterns I have.  There is about to be one less roll in my bin!

All of their contributors are making beautiful quilts.   

Kristy Lea designs beautiful, intricate paper pieced patterns.  Here's a link to her free paper pieced pattern for the word "Create."   She blogs at QuietPlay.

I really enjoyed the article about the quilt "Memory Cats".  Jo King, using Elizabeth Hartman's The Cat pattern, is making a record of all the quilts she has made.  She makes a cat with scraps from each of the quilts!  She says she is still a few blocks shy of having a whole quilt!

There is also a great article about the ins and outs of using Instagram to connect with other quilters.  In fact, Instagram is the reason I know about this magazine.  I've posted quilts on IG with the tag #modernquilts and the magazine started following me. Of course I had to check them out!  

There are blog and website links for all the contributors, both at the beginning of the magazine and at the end of each article.  Start reading and clicking and you might never be able to put your tablet down!  

The magazine is 110 pages.  A single issue costs $10 Australian (the Australian dollar exchange rate is nearly equal to a US dollar, give or take a few cents difference).  You may also buy a subscription for 6 months (3 issues) or a year (6 issues).  The year subscription is $50.  That may seem expensive for a magazine.  However, I would have happily paid $10 for the "Pavement Puddles" pattern. If each issue is a packed with great ideas as this one, it will definitely worth it.  Subscriptions you buy now will start with the November issue.  But you can purchase single issues and Issue One is available now.  

Not ready to commit to a subscription?   Check out their Face Book page and the Make Modern Blog.   During the month of September, Make Modern's blog is hosting a blog hop where you'll get to meet the their contributors.  Looks like a lot of fun! 

Check out Make Modern Magazine!  You'll be glad you did. 

Note: I don't have any financial affiliation with Make Modern Magazine.  I'm just a throughly delighted reader!!

Designing Notes: Contrast

Medallion quilt with gazelle WIP  Version 3, partially quilted

This Medallion quilt which I designed on the computer in EQ7 has turned out to be an interesting study in value, contrast and saturation of colors. I like the quilt above…but it's Version 3.  

Quick review:

• Value is how dark or light a color is.  The closer the color is to looking black, the higher value while pastel is low value.
• Contrast is the difference in value between to colors (or fabrics in our case). A very dark color with a very pastel color or white has high contrast.
• Saturation is the purity of a color.  The pure color (the true hue)  is vibrant at full saturation, pale at low saturation. 

The focus fabric in this quilt is Cotton and Steel Gazelle from Sarah Watts' August collection.  The two fabrics I picked out to co-ordinate with that are from Art Gallery's Winged Collection. 

Art Gallery Winged, Cotton and Steel Gazelle, Art Gallery Winged.

As you can see, all three fabrics share shades of brown and two have soft oranges.  The contrast among three fabrics is on the low side.  They almost blend together. 

The background fabric of the quilt is Robert Kaufman's Cotton Linen in Mist which coordinates very well with the aqua in the Winged fabric on the right above.

I added a very high saturation red orange to compliment the soft oranges in the focus fabrics and a high saturation yellow green to go with the green in the final fabric, Rowan's Free Spirit Charleston Farmhouse in the middle crosses.

I knew I needed high contrast in the Dutchman's Puzzle central block, but I thought the low contrast of the blocks around the center medallion was fine.  The fabrics looked great together in the store and the pieces looked fine while I sewing the blocks. 

And then I put the finished top on the Design Wall to get a good look a it.  Here is Version 2.

Medallion quilt with Gazelle Version 2

My immediate thought: the center of the quilt looks like a guy's jacket from the 1940s.  It is just dull.  What to do?  

I wanted to stay with the fabrics I had collected for this quilt.  Putting the red orange in the bar blocks was just too close to the central pinwheel and was distracting.  My other high contrast, high saturation fabric was the yellow green.  

When I auditioned the green in the place of the fabric with the small brown birds I suddenly had a very different quilt.  The block with the parallel bars that just looked dull and "same"  in Version 2 instantly revealed its asymmetry and movement with the high saturation green.  That asymmetry actually seems to give central red orange pinwheel a spin!

The one other thing I might have done differently in this quilt would be to replace the inner crosses with the small brown birds with a solid fabric in the same shade of brown.  I think the higher contrast of a solid color cross would add another pop to the quilt.

Here is the computerized pattern with another color way.  Seeing the Cotton and Steel Gazelle fabric in the store changed my original plan!

 There is moderate contrast in the bar block in this design but there is not a high enough contrast between the 2 blues to create the visual movement from the asymmetry.

Medallion Quilt Designed in EQ7  Version 1

I have to say this project really surprised me. I thought Version 2 with the fabrics was fine until I saw it all together. But this quilt pattern really needs the contrast to make it shine.  

Designing is a fascinating process!  

Skills: Quilting circles

One of my goals this summer is to learn to quilt circles.  It's been an elusive goal until recently.

I started with quilting concentric patterns.  My Modern Hexagon Quilt was my first success. I started in a block with a single hexagon and quilted a hexagon pattern starting there and extending it across the entire quilt.  That was fairly easy because the hexagon sides are straight lines so I could just follow along with my walking foot. Just for fun, I went around each of the appliquéd hexagons rather than going across them. When I showed the quilt at the August Boston Modern Quilt Guild meeting and they picked right up on detail and thought that was great. 

Hexagonal quilting

That worked out so I decided to try circles on my Portholes quilt. I started with the walking foot but kept getting off course because I couldn't figure out how to align the foot with the circle after quilting the first ring.  I did a bit of unsewing and then tried again using free motion.  That was a disaster. More unsewing!   Since I knew I could quilt free motion spirals, I just went with deliberately wavy spirals. It worked, but it hadn't achieved my goal of quilting perfect circles. 

Wavy free motion quilting

About this time, I saw Judy Durant's  "Filtered Sunlight", her Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Fabric Challenge quilt.  Wow!  What a beautiful quilt.  Her perfect spiral quilting is amazing. Judy's great quilting encouraged me to continue my quest to learn to quilt in circles.  Click the link (the quilt's name) and look at her quilt posted on Amy Friend's DuringQuietTime blog.  Isn't Judy's quilt beautiful?

I figured it was time for a lesson, so I signed up for Jacquie Gering's "Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot."  Her teaching style is lots of fun.   I picked up some good tips from her. 

1. Do what you need to get the job done. (She's used a paperclip to make a guide for walking foot that didn't come with one)!  
2. Go slow.  
3. Let the walking foot and sewing machine feed dogs do the work. No pushing or pulling!

I also looked around for tutorials and found Karen Anderson-Abraham's great Quilting Concentric Circles Tutorial on her Blooming Poppies: Modern Designs blog.  From her I learned that it's best to start quilting a larger circle and move outward using a walking foot.  She recommends using a free motion quilting for the little inner circles.  She uses the bowl of her food processor to mark the first circle!   It's a good size and you can see your center starting mark through the hole in the center of the bowl.  Ingenious!  She recommends using the edge of the walking foot or the guide bar to follow the circles. 

With all this good information, I sat down with a sandwich of 2 pieces of felt. This is a great technique. It mimicks a quilt sandwich without needing fabric or batting. (I don't know where I read about this so I don't know who to credit. But thanks!).   I drew a circle using a pottery bowl and tailor's chalk.  I used that circle as my first circle and followed the marked circle with my machine's needle.  I used that quilted circle as the guide for the second circle.  I kept my eye on the side of the free motion foot to align to the initial circle.  It works!

Test quilting with sandwich of 2 pieces of felt

I realized it would be easier if I marked the spot on the walking foot to help my eye focus.  Like Jacquie said, "Do what you need to do."  I used a felt maker to put a red spot on my walking foot.  I keep the red mark on the walking foot aligned with the stitching on the previous circle. It really does help. 

Red mark on the left edge of walking foot.

Here are some other tips:

1. Set the sewing machine's speed at the half-way point or whatever speeds feels comfortable for you.
2. Use the needle down position for turning if your machine has that option. 
3. Overlap the stitches at the end of each circle to lock them.  Each circle has to be quilted separately.  I recommend that you bury the cut threads for the best appearance. If you use a self-theading needle it's easy and quick.   If you don't want to stop with each circle, quilt a spiral pattern like the one on Judy Durant's quilt.  Both ways look fabulous!

Here's a couple second video of using the walking foot to quilt circles. (FYI-The video links shown at end of the clip were added by YouTube. The price of free video clips I guess).

Jacquie Gering sent me a message in the Craftsy class forum telling me that I would be able to master circular quilting.  She was right-- mission accomplished!   Admittedly the quilting I'm doing on the Bull's Eye quilt isn't covering the entire quilt, but I know I could if I want to.

More about the Bull's Eye Quilt in an upcoming post!

Wall Hanging--Girls Jumping Rope Completed

Here's my completed wall hanging "Jumpers" designed/pattern by Jeffie Johnson.  See my post August 20, 2014 with information about sources for the African wax fabrics and the pattern for "Jumpers".

Here's a detail of the girls' faces, jump rope quilted using a utilitarian stitch (#8 on my Bernina 440) on my sewing machine.  There are stars in the free motion quilting at the top but not in the lower part of the quilting.  The earrings and decorations on their shoes are buttons and the jump rope handle is a bead. 

Detail of quilting

I really enjoyed working on this project.  The designs and colors of the African wax fabrics are amazing.  And of course I love this delightful appliqué pattern!

Book Review: Savor Each Stitch by Carolyn Friedlander

 When I purchased a copy of Savor Each Stitch--Studio Quilting and Mindful Design a couple of weeks ago I didn't know Carolyn Friedlander's name.  But I have been intrigued by her fabric for the past year.  I had  been wondering who was designing fabrics with graph paper in the background and fabric that has a blue print look.  

In the first chapter, "Finding your Passion" Carolyn discussing her path from architecture school to fabric design and quilting.  As soon as I read that, I totally got that these intriguing fabrics were hers!  Not only did I have a collection of them in my stash, I had just made 2 quilts using her fabrics!

A quick look through my stash found these fabrics from her 2 lines, Architextures and Botanics. 

Carolyn Friedlander fabrics from the Architexture and Botanics collections

I really appreciate her low volume fabrics and love her fine linear designs. 

Like many modern quilters, Carolyn sees patterns in her neighborhood (Florida orange grove country) and turns them into quilts.  She has quilts in this book based on the orange groves,  lattice work and even a screen door. 

She is interested in design and color.  She had made multiples of each quilt in the book to compare how using various fabrics, texture and colors change the look of the quilt. 

Her quilts range the gamut--hand appliqué, piecing and foundation piecing. (The book includes a take out sheet with templates). Carolyn did a workshop at Gather Here, a quilt shop in Cambridge Massachusetts, this past June.  Many of the quilts in the book are on display on the shop's wall.  You can see them on her blog post about that workshop.  I particularly like her Bulls Eye quilts and the small quartet of aqua blue crazy quilt blocks.

I read the whole book.  While I liked her quilts, my initial thought was that there was no way I was going to make any of them. And then I headed off to my stash to find fabrics to make the hand appliquéd Bull's Eye quilt!  It's a WIP at the moment…more about it in a future post.

Savor Each Stitch may not be the book you grab when you are looking for a pattern for a quick quilt but if you are interested in design and color, you'll be fascinated by Carolyn Freidlander's book.  She is an excellent writer and takes you with her on her explorations of line, contrast, scale, color, emphasis, volume and texture.  I loved reading her book!

Oh…those monolithic looking brown objects on the cover?  When I looked a the book cover on-line they totally puzzled me. What are they??  They are (really) old ironing boards. I'm no spring chicken but I've never seen a wooden ironing board frame.  Now I know how kids feel when they see a dial phone!  

Wall Hanging--Girls Jumping Rope WIP

The dogs are all at Day School today so the cat and I have the house to ourselves.  My tasks for the day were to sandwich and pin paste 2 quilts tops. 

I got distracted. 

The African Village quilt was such a big hit with my dog trainers that I got a commission to make another.  I usually only want to make one copy of a quilt.  But I wanted to make the African Village Quilt with the diamond variation.  So this time I was happy to make another.  The 2 other trainers who aren't getting a quilt looked crestfallen.  I want to do something about for all of them because they have all been so great!

I decided to predominantly use real African batiks in my Diamond African Village.  It turns out that while the fabrics are all designed in Africa, a lot of the production occurs in Holland.  I went online and looked around.  I finally decided to purchase my fabrics from the Tambo Collection on Etsy.com.  I found a great selection of fabrics and also the appliqué pattern shown above.

The pattern for the girls jumping rope is called  "Jumpers", copyright 2007 by Jeffie Johnson. It is distributed by Sew Fabulous. I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it. 

One of the 4 dog trainers I work with has 4 daughters.  I figured there has been a lot of jumping rope at his home over the years!  So I decided to make it for him.  

I cut it out yesterday and used Heat-n-Bond  lite to fuse the pieces to the background fabric.  

I struggle with reversing designs.  I thought that since I was attaching the bonding material to the back of the fabric I was all set.  Not so.  My appliqué design is a mirror image of the pattern I purchased!   Oops.   

But I decided that it doesn't matter.  The picture is just as cute and I didn't want to waste any of these special fabrics re-doing it. 

Here's what I've done so far.  It's still a WIP. The jump rope is quilting, using the #8 utilitarian stitch on my Bernina, with the width narrowed to 3.  With the Sulky 12 wt variegated thread, it makes a fine jump rope!

I still need to come up with something for the fourth trainer who's particularly fond of my dog Taffy.

African Village Quilt--Completed.

Here's my completed African Village Quilt.  It measures 40 x 57 inches. 

African Village Quilt

I recently took Jacquie Gering's Craftsy course, "Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot."  She had some great tips and suggestions about using the walking foot for quilting.  I used echoing in, radiating designs and straight quilting using a variety of specialty stitches on my domestic sewing machine. It was lots of fun to use her techniques.  

The echoing in stitching is in the setting triangles in the upper strip of diamonds. 

Here is a detail of radiating quilting on a roof. 

Radiating quilting done with walking foot on the hut roof,  Free motion quilting used to create grasses and heat swirls. 

I used Jacquie's suggestion of using the Bernina specialty stitch #4, the serpentine stitch, to make the current in the river blocks. She said that this stitch is intended for use in garment construction making lingerie which needs to stretch!  Doesn't it make a lovely river current?

Bernina Stitch #4 to make the waves in the river blocks.  Free motion quilting to make the stream pebbles and swirls around the women.

I also used the serpentine stitch to make the smoke coming out of the chimney in the central hut. 

Central hut showing serpentine stitch for smoke.  Also note the straight stitching done on the focus fabric blocks adjacent to the block and on the hut walls.

There are also lots of straight stitching using the walking foot throughout the quilting. 

Straight stitching with the walking foot and 2 decorative stitches in the outer quilt border.

You'll also see free motion quilting on this quilt.  I used it to make heat currents, pebbles and grasses and other vegetation. 

This quilt was a lot of fun to make and to quilt.  

Note 2021: For those of you returning to the post, the free pattern no longer is available. I wrote it so long along that the files weren’t intact and no longer secure.

Thanks to everyone who did use the old pattern to make a quilt! I hope you enjoyed the process.

African Village Step 6--making the back and label

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

The top of the African Village Quilt is done!   Great job.  Now it's time to make the back. 

Back of the African Village quilt

I had left over triangles from the setting blocks and corner blocks from the diamond strips on the front of the quilt.  I also had some triangles which I cut for the quilt and then decided that I liked other fabric better.  So I decided to make a strip back for my quilt. 

You will need a backing that measures at least 48 x 65 inches.  This will give you a 3 1/2-4 inch overhang.  If you plan to send it out to a long-arm quilter you may need it a bit larger.

I used fabrics for the strips that are in the quilt top and I varied the width of the solid color strips  to make the back more interesting.  I also made a few more half square triangles for the strips.  You'll note in the photo above that the half square triangle strips were extended with a piece of background fabric.   If you wanted to, you could just use a couple left over half square triangles and make the strip long enough with other fabrics. 

However you do it, it's all good! 

I really like this back.  It could stand on it's own as a quilt in its own right!

Once you finish the backing, layer sandwich your quilt with top, quilt batting and the bottom. I used a cotton baby quilt batting which measured 46 x 60 inches.

Quilt as desired or send it out to your favorite quilter!   Add a binding once it is all quilted.

And finally make a label.  Here is my label before I wrote on it. I used some selvages from the fabric in the quilt along with a strip from my focus fabric.  It adds a bit more information about the quilt and it's fun!

Selvage label for the quilt

Next post…my finished quilt!

Please leave me a comment to let me know how you are doing! 

African Village Quilt Step 5

Completed Top African Village Quilt

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

We will be able to finish the quilt top today. 

One last bit of cutting to do first. 

For the blocks on either side of the African Hut blocks:

Cut 4 squares of your Focus Fabric 9.5 x 9.5 inches.

Now you should have all the components of the quilt completed.  So let's assemble the rest the quilt.

The quilt is assembled in strips.  Starting at the top here are the strips with the African Huts and Focus fabric. 

1. Sew the African Hut 2 B (door facing right)  to one of the 9.5 inch squares of Focus Fabric. Then sew African Hut 1 B (door facing left)  to the other side of the 9.5 inch Focus Fabric square.

2. For the middle strip, sew a 9.5 inch square of Focus Fabric to each side of African Hut 3.

3. For the bottom row sew African Hut 1 A (door facing right) to a 9.5 inch square of Focus Fabric.  Then sew African Hut 2 A (door facing left) to the other side.  Now you have all the strips completed. 

4.  Sew them together in this order:   Top Hut strip, first diamond strip, Middle Hut Strip, 2nd diamond strip, Bottom Hut strip.  Great!  The center of your quilt will all the blocks is done.

Borders

For the Inner Border:

Step A:

Lay your quilt top on a flat surface.  Measure the middle of the quilt from top to bottom.  Then measure from side to side in the middle of the quilt and ADD 5 inches to this measurement. 

Add the length and width of the quilt and multiple by 2 to get the total length of fabric you need for the first border.  Divide this number by 40 to get the number of WOF (wide of fabric) strips you need to cut.  

Cut:

2.5 wide inch strips x WOF  for your first border.  I needed to cut 4.  
Sew this 4 strips together end to end, either with a bias seam or a straight seam, whichever you prefer. 

Sew the first border on to your quilt top.

For the Outer Border:

 Repeat Step A and measure your quilt top again with the first set of borders attached. 

Cut:

5.5 inch wide strips x WOF to obtain the length you need.  (I needed 4 strips).  Sew the 5.5 inch strips together.

Sew the 2nd border to the quilt top. 

Congratulations!  Your African Village Quilt top is complete!

I will blog about the backing for the quilt on Friday, August 15, 2014.

Did you have fun making this quilt top?  Please leave me a comment! Thanks!  I can't wait to hear how you did. 

African Village Quilt Step 4

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

We are in week 2 and up to Step 4 of the African Village Quilt!   You have sewn all the paper pieced huts for the quilt.  The rest of the quilt will all be rotary cut pieces with regular 1/4 inch piecing.

Today we are going the make the 2 diamond panels in the quilt. 

If you have a directional ethnic fabric like the one I am using, you will probably want to fussy cut the diamond shaped pieces.   

For the Diamonds:

Cut 6  Diamond pieces.   These are squares set on point.   If you fussy cut them like I did, that will mean all 4 edges of your square will be on the bias.  I highly recommend that you starch your fabric before your cut and again after you cut the pieces out to avoid warping when you sew the pieces together. 

The diamonds are 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 square.  

For the setting triangles:

All the setting triangles and the corner triangles have bias edges, so make sure you starch these fabrics and handle them carefully too.

For 8 setting triangles:

Cut (2) squares 10 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches.  Then cut each square again diagonally both ways. One square will give you 4 setting triangles. You need a total of 8 for the quilt.

Setting triangles cut

For the corner triangles:

For 8 corner triangles:

Cut (4) squares 5 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches.  Then cut each squrre diagonally 1 way to give you 2 corner triangles.

Corner Triangles cut  (these triangles are smaller than the setting triangle above) 

Sewing Instructions:

First sew the setting triangles to the on-point squares.  You will do this in sections.  See photo below.

1. Sew a setting triangle to the lower right side of your first diamond. Start sewing from the squared edge.  The point of the triangle will extend beyond the edge of the diamond. 

2. Sew a setting triangle to the upper left side of the middle diamond and then another one to the lower right side of the middle diamond.

3. Sew a setting triangle to the upper left side of the 3rd diamond.

4.  Attach the corner triangles on each end. It helps if you fold the setting triangle in half to mark the middle of the long side of the piece. Match that fold to the middle of you diamond piece.

Sewing the triangles to the diamonds

That's Step 4!  

Design Variation Option:

I used squares of the focus fabric between my African Village Quilt.  But it would also look great if you want to used diamond blocks instead of the squares.  Here's what it will look like:

African Village quilt Variation with all Diamond blocks

If you wish to use diamond blocks:

1.  Cut 4 more 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 inch squares set on point

2.  Cut 16 corner triangles from (8) 5 3/8 x 5 3/8 inch squares

Sew 2 corner triangles on opposites sides of each diamond.  Press.  Then sew the remaining 2 corner triangles to each diamond.

I'll post the next step on Wednesday, August 13, 2014.  

Please post a comment!  I'd love to hear how you are doing!

African Village Quilt Step 3

African Village Hut 3

We are up to Step 3 of my African Village Quilt.  Here is the 3rd hut.  It is a little more complex to paper piece than Hut 1 and Hut 2 but it's really not hard to sew.

The two corners of the roof extend beyond the hut walls and are on separate pattern pieces.  I recommend that before you cut out these 2 pieces (D and E of the pattern)  that you draw an arrow on the pattern to indicate which way is up.  That will just make it a bit easier to know which way they attach to the roof when you are sewing all the pieces together.

Here is a photo of D and E ready to be attached to the hut roof.

Pieces D and E of the Hut 3 Pattern ready to be attached to the roof

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

This is the final hut needed for the Village and it is the last of the paper pieced blocks for this quilt.  

Next Monday, August 11, 2014, I'll post Step 4 for my African Village Quilt.  We'll be sewing the 2 diamond strips then. 

Please do leave me a comment. I'd love to know what you are doing if you are sewing along with me. Thanks!

African Village Quilt Step 2

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

Here are the next two African Huts for my African Village Quilt.  Once again, the 2 huts are the same design but the doors face slightly different directions.  The doorway on the hut on the left looks different but that due to the pattern of the fabric. The door really is just a rectangle.

This design is slightly harder to make than Hut 1 due to the slight narrowing of the hut walls as they go upward. Make sure when you are cutting fabric for those background wedges that you check to make sure you have enough fabric to cover the top of the pattern piece when you flip to over after sewing the seam.  It's such a small angle change so it shouldn't a problem.

I'll post the pattern for Hut 2 on Friday, August 8, 2014.  The rest of the pattern will follow next week so you have lots of time if you need to find fabric and for sewing the first 4 blocks of this quilt.   

Please post a comment to let me know if you are making this quilt and any comments you have about this pattern.  Thanks!

African Village Quilt Step 1

The dog trainers I work with are all of African American descent.  One of them collects ethnic art work and she also adores babies. Every time a baby comes in to the training center with a parent (and dog), my trainer lights up.  So when I found this un-named pattern, house brand ethnic fabric at Jo-ann's Fabric and Craft Store I knew I had to make an African Village quilt for her.  

Jo-ann's Fabric and Craft Store Ethnic print

Isn't this fabric delightful?

I decided I wanted to have a village and a river since some of the women are carrying water jugs on their heads. 

Here is the design I created on my computer with the program EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7).  I scanned and imported the ethnic print fabric and the batik I'm using for the river. The other fabrics are in EQ7's stock fabric library and are close approximations of what I plan to use.

African Village Quilt Design 41 x 58 inches

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

I'm working on this quilt this week and will post new blocks and PDF patterns for them on Wednesday, August 6 and Friday, August 8.

Here are links to the PDF paper piecing patterns for African Hut 1 A and 1 B.  The huts are the same but the door face slightly different directions.  Print out 2 copies of step B, one for each hut.  The 1/4 inch seams are very faint on these PDF files.  Make sure you allow for the 1/4 inch seams around the outer edge of each section.  The unfinished block measures 9.5 x 9.5 inches and will finish at 9 inches square.

This is a great quilt for using your scraps.  If you wish to purchase fabric, here is the estimated yardage.

3/4 yard of the Focus ethnic print fabric

1/2 yard inner red border 

1 yard outer orange border

1 yard tan background fabric for the paper pieced hut blocks

1/2 yard various yellow or similar color for thatched roofs

5 Fat Quarters (Fat Eights should do if you have them) or scraps for the 5 hut walls if you want the all the huts to be different

1 1/4 yards various greens, I recommend getting 1/2 yard pieces if you get more than 1 green

1/4 yard for blue in the river

1/4 yard for the brown in the river section

1 3/4 yards backing IF you have a full usable 42+ inch width and don't mind tight margins OR    2 2/3 yards if you wish to piece the backing if you need wider margins for quilting

Binding 1/2 yard

Let me know if you plan to make this quilt too so I set up a link or place to share your work. I hope you'll join me!

Portholes Quilt Completed

Here's my completed Portholes quilt.  As expected, the quilting on this piece was a challenge.  
I Googled "ripples in water" and found photos of perfectly symmetrical circular ripples and then wavy broken ripples.  Clearly the perfect ones where either taken in a controlled environment or on a mill pond.  The latter where taken outdoors where there was a breeze.

Initially I tried to quilt perfect concentric circles, first with my walking foot and then with free motion quilting.  Neither method produced a perfect circle so I ripped them out attempts.  Fortunately for me, sailboats need wind to move so the irregular circles were actually more appropriate for this quilt.  I rather like the rippled circles around the boats.

I tried doing concentric circles again around the sun after I had done all the other quilting. This time I marked the circles out with dots using tailor's chalk.  Then, with the speed of my sewing machine turned down, and using free motion quilting, I slowly went around the sun twice.  It was much better than my first 2 attempts, but still not perfect.

Here's the back of the quilt.  Looks like a very busy regatta!

Back of Porthole Quilt

This quilt is going to my brother who is a sailor.  Every time I give him a quilt, he asks, "May I take it to the boat?"  And my answer is always an emphatic "No!"  because my usual batting is cotton.  This time I used 100% polyester batting--much more boat worthy.

However, that doesn't mean that I still am not worried about the quilt being on the boat.  What if it blows overboard?  With that in mind, I sewed a ribbon loop on each top corner of the quilt and I put a carabiner into one of the loops.  Now he can run a line through the carabiner attached to either ribbon loop to secure the quilt to the boat.  (Or that's my hope)!.

Ribbon loop with carabiner

This isn't a perfect quilt.  But it was a lot of fun to make and I know it will be used and enjoyed.

Portholes: Using Reverse Circles in a quilt design

I had a really interesting time doing the concentric hexagon quilting on my Modern Hexagon Quilt.  So I've been wanting to try concentric quilting again, this time with concentric circles.   I thought, what better than to make a water theme quilt?

In my stash I found a very traditional fabric collection, "Gone Sailing" by Wilmington Prints.  The sailboats on the cream print fabric are spaced widely enough to easily fussy cut it.  I decided to make it Modern by putting in the sailboats into a quilt top with lots of Negative Space using Cheryl Arkinson's Reverse Circle technique.  She has a great course, "Inset Circles and Applique by Machine" on Craftsy which explains how to do Reverse Circle which I highly recommend.  You may also learn how to use her Reverse Circles technique in her chapter in the new book, Essential Guild to Modern Quilt Making published by Lucky Spools. 

I've used Cheryl's Reverse Circle on several projects.  This time I found that the block with the double circles finished about 1/4 inch smaller than the original cut and it  slightly irregular.  I had cut 10.5 inch square unfinished blocks for this quilt.  But they ended up 10 inches square after I squared up the blocks with the circles.  Next time I'll cut the blocks with the Revere Circles larger than needed! 

The fabric I chose for the quilt top is Robert Kaufman's "Quilter's Linen".  This is great fabric--cotton with a linen like print on it.  One note of caution:  It seems to be a fairly loose weave and ravels easily.  

I made 4 Reverse Circles in the quilt top for sailboats and a double reverse circle for the sun.  

Porthole Quilt top with Reverse Circles

Here's the back of a boat reverse circle.

Back side of  single Reverse Circle

The sun block is made with 2 different fabrics.  The yellow fabric with the gulls and bubbles came from a bandana that Whitney, Taffy's groomer, put on her after a "day of beauty".  (This shop cuts up fabric to make bandanas).  I really liked the fabric in this particular bandana.  I immediately took it off Taffy, ran it through the wash, and then added to my stash!

Double Reverse Circle Sun

Back side of a Reverse Circle embedded in a larger Reverse Circle

The quilt is sandwiched and basted.  I am off to my sewing room to try quilting multiple concentric circles! 

On the Move!

The SleepingDogQuilts Blog is Under Construction!

I've moved over to the Squarespace web platform from Blogger and will be using a new, simpler URL. The bones of this new site are here but I'm still working on adding back all the information that was available here on Blogger.

The Squarespace platform will be cleaner, load faster, be more mobile friendly and has lots of room for me to grow SleepingDogQuilts. 

One of the new features on the site is a Gallery of my quilts.  I'm in the process of posting photos of some the quilts I have made.  It won't be my total collection but there should be a fun selection for you to look at.

Here is the new URL.  Leave me a message and let me know how you like the new space!

SleepingDogQuilts.com

Hope you enjoy the new look!