WIP Wed - Wedding free-motion fun, and DOD AMericana Scrap Attack

My fingers are a little too cold to do precise free-motion quilting work on my domestic machine right now, so I though I'd make a WIP post.

I'm finished now with a huge load of Henry Glass projects, which will get shared in a couple of weeks, so I'm back to my normal priority and break-work routines. 

The priority is Devon and Kyle's wedding quilt. I have a good start on the initial stitch-in-the-ditch work. All the white ribbons are outlined, and all but 3 pair of the birds. My thread order arrived for the colors I didn't already have on hand, so I can attack the rings any time now.

Devon liked the motif that's traced into the centers of the rings, so I bought the digital set. The really fun part is that I could draw out her engagement ring's pattern to fit the melons very nicely, and it plays right along with the professional set. When I'm working on those parts and you can see better what I'm talking about, I'll look up the name and link for you. All the outer blue will be an organic blend of feathers, breezes, and motif uses from the digital set. That's still several weeks away, though, so I don't have to face that intimidation just yet. 

I'm not giving as much priority time to this right now as I usually do for priority finishes, though. That's because on Sunday I got working on that week's Block of the Month focus, which is the DOD Americana quilt-along that I'm using for Scott's Air Force retirement quilt for next summer. I'm using only scraps and stash, which means this happens once a month when I work on this project:

The scrap bin gets pawed through and dumped out, three McKenna Ryan left-overs boxes get opened, and potentially relevant FQs and yardages from stash get pulled into the work area. Usually it lasts only one day. This time, it stayed out because I didn't want a third row sitting around partially finished. (The last row really intimidated me when it came time to trace out those military settings for the fusible pieces and then having to find fabrics that will work for each thing. So it sat, incomplete, all this time.)

This. Drives. Me. NUTS!!!!!  I am far from a great housekeeper, preferring greatly to work on quilts than to do dishes or mop floors. And I am comfortable in a certain level of daily lived-in, yet organized "mess". This, however, is pure chaos. So I can't focus for more than an hour in a day on the wedding quilt until this project is caught up and everything is re-binned and tucked nicely into my storage room again.

Here is what I accomplished the last two days. It's 11 x 62 inches finished size, and was a super fun row to put together:

If you're familiar with this QAL, you'll see that I changed it up a bit, and I showed that in my last post. 

Here are the two previous rows that still need attention: 

The birdhouses will be simple. That row just needs some door holes, a few birds. and an Uncle Sam hat or two.  The military row - oh, boy. That one is going to be challenging and demanding. I'm going to ask Scott for a Scrap-Attack date tonight and have him help me pull out pieces that will work for the various vignettes from Bosnia, Korea, Oman, and Afghanistan. The central office one I should be able to handle on my own. By week's end I want this finished and scraps squared away! I need my peace of mind back for the FMQ intensity!  Also - other family members would be really happy to be able to use the pool table again! Can we just say: #800dollarquiltstagingtable #kindacrazy

I've finished enough older UFOs now that my scrap bin is cram-packed. So I finally started sorting the mess into divisions as I was working on the church last night. So far there's "Brown-and-Such" and "Black-and-Gray" pulled out of the main mess. I'll divide the rest into maybe 4 more sub-bins as Scott and I pull things out for his personal row. I guess I need to swing by Home Depot to get a bunch of storage bins that will work for this system, since I know I'll continue working with scraps periodically.

I hope your week is going well and your work space is happier than mine right now!!  :D

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Linking up at WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, WIPs Be Gone

Not a BOM! WIP - Semper Fi, Devon & Kyle

It's been a very long time since I've made a post that wasn't for the BOM link-up. It's not that block of the month work is all I ever do anymore. It's just that my "real" quilting work has consisted of the same two projects ever since March or so. 

Except for the week that I used the paper piecing of fireworks blocks for an emotional escape, all my Monday-Friday quilting time is devoted to two priority projects. 

First up: My priority project for finishing is Kyle's Marine Corps quilt, and I should have the quilting done on it today! (It's a large sofa size, something like 70" square.)

The seal in the center got trapunto work, so it has this fabulous dimension.

And don't you love the effect of this gold thread?

I finished the FMQ work on the red bands yesterday. I'm not good enough at feathers yet to do these completely freehand if they need a measured repeat - plus the visual field of working on a desktop machine is too limited to see what you're doing, anyway, in terms of the repeats. So I did make templates in the two border sizes I needed. I made them long enough to be able to find the best centering on each side. 

I traced the outlines, then drew in the waves and some of the feathers. I also drew in the corner treatments. Some day I'll be experienced enough with feather work to do them from just a drawn spine even when I want a uniform repeat. 

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Whenever I need to work upstairs, or want a sanity break and color change, or I'm sitting down to watch an evening show with Scott, I work on Devon and Kyle's wedding quilt top. I've never shown it as a whole yet, and people keep asking, so here it is so far:

There are 11 swallows left for hand applique work, and then I'll start the marking process for its quilting. (I'm using the back basting method on these - my favorite - and it takes me about 90 minutes to work around one bird. I take tiny stitches, and I work perhaps a little slowly as I'm watching a movie or show while doing so). 

The top is SUPER WRINKLED right now because it lives on my sofa for easy pick-up whenever a working moment arrives. You can see my hand-work bag living with it.  Oh, and the super-soft plush throw lives on the sofa, too, despite it being high summer because that successfully keeps the cat from wanting to lay on my quilt work. (And this photo is true to its colors):

I haven't yet figured out the exact quilting strategy for this quilt, but it's going to be quite detailed. I hope to have it completely finished when Devon moves out to Virginia in October. Kyle just finished his Combat Training and is at his MOS school now. That lasts until April. That unit's commander won't allow them to live in married housing (he's in one of the intelligence jobs), but doesn't mind the spouses living nearby. So she'll be boarding with a high school friend of mine out there as soon as she finishes her own school program here. I'm glad she's been living with us while his training didn't allow them to be together, instead of living all alone! 

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So that's my Mon-Fri work, the real meat of my quilting time. Weekends are for mental breaks. If I have time on Saturdays I work on a UFO, or community service sewing, or whatever floats my boat. On Sundays, I work on whichever BOM is meant for that week. Sometimes I get in 15 minutes because of fun family activities, other times I get several hours. It just all depends.  :D

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Linking up at WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, WIPs Be Gone

DWR (Double Wedding Ring) Tips

Almost there with my traditional double wedding ring quilt top!!  I only have two naked ring centers left, with the last of the joining and connection seams to go. 

I really, really love the elegance of the complete circles (without squared-off and enlarged connector diamonds), but it is definitely not a speed-piecing project!

I will never again piece a king-size all-rings DWR unless somebody pays me $35/hr to do so. And at 132 sewing hours (what it'll add up to when I finish this flimsy), nobody's going to do that! But I don't regret doing this for our 25th anniversary next summer - it's perfect for that.

I'm very pleased with how even and flat this has come out - no future quilting woes of easing in over-fullness or dealing with sucked-in spots!  So I'm recording tips for my future reference and to share with anyone else wanting to work with the tradition full-round DWR. (This is not a comprehensive tutorial - you'll still want a pattern or book.)

**Things you HAVE to be good at already to get nice results: You *have* to sew accurate quarter-inch seams. And you need to be comfortable with Y-seams, because the throw-in of the curves on the connector seams puts this task into a major on-steroids mode.

**Things you can let the DWR teach you: doing curved seams.

For pain-free pressing and to protect the integrity of the arc and melon shapes:

*Always* finger-press everything as you go along (except the connector-corner seams). Seriously. Do not let the iron touch arc pieces until they are attached to the melon slice.

On arc pieces, to make the seams lie the easy way for future seams, hold the arc with the fabric facing away from you, and the curve in the direction of a C; finger-press the seam DOWN. Every time.

When you attach the connector pieces, press that seam toward the arc segments:

And it reduces bulk in the final connector seams if you trim these corners off:

On curved seams, finger-press toward the arcs.

I very RARELY press seams open for several reasons. First of all, DWR quilts look infinitely better when the rings are stitched-in-the-ditch, and open-pressed seams cancel that possibility. (It is too weak to SID on just the sewing thread line and doesn't look as nice.) Secondly, after having several decades-old quilts appraised, I do not want increased areas for future bearding of the batting through the seams. Third, the rings look very nice with the ever-so-slight 3D effect of the float above the background created by pressing toward the arcs. Fourth, this keeps the points of the centers at the connecting corners from bulking up in that seam.

When you are joining rows of rings, you DO NOT sew the connector corners closed yet:

I didn't see why this was necessary, but in the beginning I found that the book was right - you need them to stay open until you come back to them later.  Can't remember exactly why, but I do remember having to pick seams out. So, while working your way across rows of rings, just reach right through the open connectors to finger-press each curve seam as you move along:

To press with the iron after each arc is attached:

For me, it is easiest to keep the melon from warping by pressing the first attachment from the back side. It's all finger-pressed, but still play with everything to get the seam to lie down properly without stretching the background out of shape. First press one side:

Then the other:

Then ease the middle pieces flat with the iron.

This way, any extra fullness will ease in on the inner seams while leaving the two ends nice and smooth. This is why you don't let the iron touch the arcs until they're attached.

I do starch the resulting flying saucer - it helps maintain the shape integrity with the second arc's attachment and the joining of the resulting football to the ring center. I don't starch anything else as I'm going along - it's not necessary. (Although I will probably starch the top from the backside when I press the finished flimsy in preparation for layering on the batting.)

When I iron-press the second arc, I do this from the front side. Again doing first one side, then the other, and then easing in the middle for perfect flatness.

No warped footballs!

Pinning those curves:

Always put the concave piece on top. Easiest way to stitch the curve, and the arc-segment seams will be laying the right way to just flow over the machine's feed dogs.

I keep 9 pins on hand and the most effective pinning turns out to be this:

Start on the first end, put the next pin in only 3/4" away, match the connector seams, do the mid-point, match the second connector seam, pin the last end, and then ease the curves to match and pin the gaps with 2 pins each. (Just need one pin in each gap when doing the first arc and there's no connector ends yet.)


~~~Speaking of which, a quirk in matching seams - ONLY when putting the second arc on, and ONLY when matching the connector seams, I found that if I eyeball a scant quarter-inch placement of the pin in each piece of fabric at the seam between the connector piece and the arc segment and between the arc segment and the melon piece,

I will get a perfect inside corner on the football every time. Everywhere else, eyeball an exact quarter inch spacing.

 [For a scant quarter-inch, go one thread's worth shy of an exact measurement.]



Attaching finished footballs to the ring centers:

First of all, the center does not extend all the way along the football. The connector corners hang over, so you match the quarter-inch point of the ring-center's arm point with the quarter-inch-from-the-curve-edge at the seam between the connector piece and the arc segment: [Do not sew the extending connector pieces yet, or you'll be picking those out like I had to. . . ]

Later you will have to do Y-seams at those connection points. I found that it is infinitely easier to get a perfect Y-join when you go to sew the connector seams, if, in the football-attachment seams you leave the TINIEST gap  from the exact connecting point (half a stitch-length, only). If you sew exactly to the pinning point, you have no easement room when trying to connect the final Y-seam, and with the added challenge of the previous curves, that can be a real bear. In the photo below, you can see the hole where the pin was placed in the exact match-up point, and the end of the stitching just barely shy of it:

If you leave more than that for the gap, you'll have tiny holes at the connections after you finish.
Pin the ring center on in this order and tease/shift the top fabric into alignment with the bottom curve as you go:

Pinning in that order puts in the stability, then lets you ease the curve up in an order that leaves the top bulkiness in the right position to start your sewing.

You'll need to turn-shift the top bulk backward as you sew along the curve to avoid pinches in the top fabric.

Connector Seams:

When I go back and do the connector seams, I do the first cross-over in one seam, moving from the first Y-point along the straight connector edge, across the gap (don't need to leave a lot of free thread), and to the ending Y-point. It's not necessary to do each side separately.

It IS necessary to stitch precisely from and to the connection spots this time, unlike the intentionally-created mini-gaps when you attached the footballs to the ring centers.

When pinning the second connector seam, pay attention to which way the middle seams lie most flatly at that cross seam's two endpoints and go with that for the laying-down of the seams. Sometimes they're the easy-pass-over-feed-dogs way, and sometimes not, like below:

This is the only part of the piecing process that I don't finger-press as I go along, and I find it much easier to get a flat pressing result if I do this from the back side. You can ease all the background points open and flat the way they're supposed to be and watch that you don't accidentally mess up the pressing of earlier seams in the surrounding area. And when you turn it over to look at the front, you'll have a gorgeous curved connector diamond.  :)

So..... those were all helpful details that took me several rings to figure out in the beginning, and if I ever do another traditional DWR, I don't want to waste the time doing trial-and-error all over again.


I'm excited to get this quilt top finished!!  We have company this week, so I only have an hour in the wee morning time to sew. Should take 3 more sessions is all!!

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Linking up at:

Fabric Tuesday

WOW

WIP Wednesday

Birthday Shopping!

What a fun spree!!!  Allowed to just shop my heart's content within needs and reason at the local quilt shop after a full year of new-fabric dieting. . .  Wow.  :D  Happiness!

And I hit the jackpot. Our shop gives a nice discount on your entire purchase (barring machines and previously-discounted fabrics) - including notions. So I shopped for my August NewFO Birthday Bash quilt and important quilts coming up that I can't supply from my stash.

Tools I've been waiting for - 60 degree triangle for a kit in storage I want to pull up. Jenny's ruler that I've been drooling over for a YEAR. Pattern for a quilt later referenced. Refills for my sewline marking pencil.

And Fabric - oh, fabric!!

Birthday Bash: 

I wanted something from my Pinterest yearnings, something bold and fun, and a circles concept won out. Some fun prints and mixers to go on a very pale blue background, along with some prints already in my stash. 

Found a nice gray mini-print for the backing, and I'll use the stripe for the binding as well as some circle work.  This is this month's NewFO, though I doubt I'll have time to get much more done than the fabrics washed/pressed and some templates created before month's end. Sofa size.

Backing for my Dear Jane:

 I wanted something perky and modern-ish, so I got this yardage. One of the women at the shop seemed mighty incredulous that I would buy good fabric for the backing, asking if I was going to do anything other than hang it on the wall. Even if it never gets used on my bed, SO MUCH work and heart went into this quilt top that I couldn't bear to put a cheap-o backing on it. Jane deserves the print. I probably won't use that smaller piece for the binding, but it's an option for the auditions. Generous queen size.

Important Gift for next year: 

Surprisingly, I did not have enough Christmas greens and reds for this design, and I've been hunting long and hard for a large-scale print for the border. This is not *perfectly* what I wanted, but it's super close and I'm out of time for more hunting. Plaid is for the backing. Queen size. September's NewFO. 

25th Wedding Anniversary!! 

Coming up next summer - gotta get cracking to make us a nice double wedding ring for an option on our bed. Clearly this is going to be incredibly feminine. I'll foundation-paper-piece the arcs. King size. 

And a nod to my man: 25th Anniversary Groom's Quilt. ;D  

He liked the idea. Asked about having a moose or elk somewhere on it. I have enough cream in stash and can pull cool plaids and such for the arcs. Using Jenny Pedido's Metro Rings pattern for this one. Just needed a gray and the red - lol'ing at camera changes - this is the same gray as in the sample above. Sofa size.

And *that* was more than enough shopping, for sure! I'm back on the stash-only diet until we have been able to buy a book case, window treatments, a breakfast table set and a deck table set. It will be a while!

oh! But I loved this modern sample hanging in the shop -  Hexagon Shuffle, it was called. 

Free pattern available online - 

Here's one as quilted by Natalia Bonner:

Fun way to dress up a plain back for display, too! 

Leaves cut from Bella solids and sewn into strands, tied onto a dowel.