My favorite sewing machine is in for repair, so I was looking around for a project that doesn’t require any special stitching/feet/fooling around. I found this foundation paper pieced pattern I had cut from a magazine long ago.

This is enlarged 150% from the original, and I used David Sirota’s method of making just one foundation and then using glue rather than sewing through the paper. If you need instruction, go to his website.

The blocks finished about 12 x 16 inches, so I added 3″ borders when I had made all the blocks I cared to make. And incidentally, all the plants and pots were made from scraps. The background was yardage, but left over from another project.

Then I searched the stash and consulted the oracle (oops, I mean husband) and selected red fabric for the sashing and border.

These little quilts I’ve been fooling with are small enough that I may quilt them myself. However, I remain less ambitious in that area than some of my friends, so the bigger ones will still go OUT to be quilted!

What do YOU do when your favorite machine is not available?

Ha! You opened this because of the chocolate, didn’t you?

A few months ago I posted about some minor modifications I use to make hanging sleeves more easily. Most of my quilts are bed or throw size, so I don’t include the sleeve in the top binding as would be done for a wall hanging.  I attach a hanging sleeve only if a quilt is going to a show or if I’m taking pictures of it.

This baby quilt, 50″ x 50″, is about as small as my usual quilts get

I make up hanging sleeves from leftover backing fabric and have the finished tubes ready to be cut to the needed length so there’s no time crunch when I want to hang a quilt. If the quilt is going to a show I sew the sleeve on, often with rather large stitches because it’s temporary.

However, if the sleeve is going to be on the quilt only long enough for me to take photos, I’ve found that straight pins work just fine to attach the sleeve! I put the pins fairly close together along the top of the sleeve and space them out a bit more along the bottom edge. On both edges I bury the tips of the pins–you know why!

This seems to be working, so I’ll probably pin the sleeve on for future photos.

This bar is from Tony’s Chocolonely, a Dutch brand of fair trade chocolate

And now, I discovered a quilt block design in a chocolate bar last week. Obviously this company understands that chocolate and quilting go hand-in-hand!

As mentioned previously, I’ve been participating in Tara Faughnan’s Block Studies class. The blocks were mostly nothing special, though her video instruction was excellent for people who might not know how to make them. And seeing what others made with the combination of Tara’s blocks and her color palettes has been wonderful!

So I combined blocks made from several studies that were part of the class, plus a few I just made up for fun, and made a quilt top.

I’ll square it up and then we’ll see. To be continued. And if you’re thinking of taking a class with Tara, I do recommend her.

 Of course there’s a never-ending debate regarding whether to prewash fabric and I’ve been back and forth several times over the years. I usually resume prewashing when something fades and runs in a finished quilt, but I mostly don’t prewash. My theory is that most (not all!) modern fabrics are colorfast. Of course cotton fabric shrinks, but most people expect quilts to be crinkly due to cotton batting, so it doesn’t really matter if the fabric shrinks, too.

Here’s a quilt in which cotton batting produced even crinkles

Enter my class with Tara Faughnan, which I’ve found very useful. Tara advised prewashing because different colors of fabric shrink different amounts! She also noted that prewashing then starching makes the different weaves on the market (think Kona solids vs Cotton Couture solids) behave similarly when you get around to sewing them.

I just said ho-hum and went on my way. Then this happened:

Yikes!

Well! Those are 2″ squares, so the amount of shrinking in that middle one is kind of alarming. Furthermore, it appears that warp and weft shrink differently, which is not actually a surprise. The cause of the shrinkage in this case was just ironing with water spray.

So I got out all my solids to pre-wash. I washed in color-coordinated loads, with color catchers. There was a little bit of fading with the reds, but otherwise nothing faded. I didn’t try to evaluate shrinkage.

So I’m back in the pre-wash camp. Where are you this week?

One of my current goals is better photos for my blog and for submitting to shows. I’ve tried numerous set-ups over the years. The very best was when I could hang them in front of the barn. I had a hanger that was easy to put up and take down, and the outdoor light was perfect. That was years ago, and the barn was sold with the house.

A blogging friend recommended a photo backdrop stand. I got the specific one she suggested, but it hasn’t been sturdy enough to suit me. It seems the quilts always wobble.

There are many chandelier quilt patterns out there, but this one was free on the Free Spirit website

Sometimes the finished quilt will cling to my flannel design wall. It’s not perfect, because the flannel is free floating, so the bottom of the quilt waves with the flannel, but it sure is easy.  It does work well for small quilts.

And then there’s the time-honored tradition of having the husband hold the quilt. Mine eventually got tired of holding them out the window, so I had to quit. I did like having the outside light and the house backdrop while it lasted!

I’ve even hung quilts in various settings for “glamour shots”, but they’re only for fun, not for submitting to shows.

Quilt on a chair

Quilt on a woodpile

Quilt in the bushes!

I’m still searching for a way (preferably an easy way) to take nice square, straight-on photos of quilts. All of which is to say I’m trying another way to hang and photograph quilts.

Somewhere I found out about the Hang It Dang It quilt hanger, so I got my local quilt shop to order it for me. My husband had some concern about needing a small nail to hang it on, but he got it figured out and the system works just fine! It is easier than previous methods and it does, indeed, hang the quilt level.

In the example above, you can see that I stood on a stool to hang it, but sure enough I could do it all by myself! I will need to de-clutter around the area to take pictures for submissions, but it’s looking like an improvement so far.

Now I need to get out the tripod and the fancy camera so I can align the shot correctly, and maybe I’ll be ready to go on better pictures.

In line with my resolution to play more, rather than just producing, I decided it was time to use this interesting fabric. I got it who-knows-where with the idea that it would make a good print to mix with solids in an art quilt.

I had about1/3 yard of this fabric and wanted to make small pieces, so I split it in half with the idea of making two quilts with different moods.

For the first quilt, I chose colors that matched or coordinated with the inspiration fabric, plus a little orange for a pop. I cut rectangular blocks and tried many different arrangements. Here’s the final layout.

After I quilted it, I still wasn’t satisfied that it had much zip. Also, I was tired of making facing for quilts and hoped to do something more interesting to finish it.

I finally found some large rick-rack in my stash and thought it might be good a good edge finish. After a couple of experiments, I did a narrow zigzag all around the edge of the quilt…

…then applied the rick-rack with a straight stitch.

I’m not crazy about this, but I’m not required to love every experiment, just to try it.

Quilt Stats

Name: Just Add Orange

Finished size: 18″ x 24.5″

Designed and made by: me

Why: Just for Fun

I’ve been a fan of Lyric Kinard for years. Her work is amazing, and she is constantly supporting other artists through her newsletter, classes, and example. So when she offered a low cost online workshop to help artists clarify goals for the coming year, I signed up! (She was doing this abbreviated workshop at low cost to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.) Here are a few of my take-aways.

The first session of the workshop was on clarifying one’s goals as an artist, specifically for the coming year. After working through the exercises, I decided I need to play more. Somehow I’ve gotten into the habit of judging my day by how much I produce rather than how much I learned. I enjoy trying new things, so that doesn’t make sense.

Then the question is what to do with the quilts I make just for fun. I have some fun quilts that I like, but I’ve never submitted them anywhere. Here’s one, just because this post needs some photos!

Trees, 9.5″ x 9.5″, done just for fun

So I decided I need to submit to more shows. I set a goal of getting more rejections! Because that means I at least tried.

Lyric’s second session was about principles of design, and of course I realized I know this. But what do I do with it?

Then Lyric continued with an explanation of how to critique an art work in light of these principles. She used my quilt for critique in one session because I was the only person present who had submitted something (in response to her request). Here’s the piece I submitted.

Lyric explained that her version of critique describes how the principles of design are exemplified in a particular quilt (or other work of art). It specifically does not include giving an opinion about whether you like or dislike each element; it’s just a description.

So what did I learn from this critique? I noted the importance of each element of design in my quilt and learned that the solid line at the top stops the movement created by the green triangles.

Most revealing was Lyric’s request that anyone in the class say what they think of when they see the quilt, and people said things like “zoom!” That let me know that my quilt gets its message across.

Overall, Lyric’s workshop was helpful in getting me to commit to submitting my work more often. Her idea of critique and her example were very useful in helping me look at my work. Yes, I did take a basic design class years ago, but I haven’t been consciously using design principles to analyze my work.

Lyric has taught her version of art critique for years, but she now has a new book on the topic. I’m linking to her site, where you can find that and her other books. Looks like the critique book is electronic only at present, but I believe there’s to be a hard copy soon. Also, if you get a chance to take a class with Lyric, I recommend it!

And finally, I have already submitted something! The picture below is of a postcard I made for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show fundraiser, and submitted in response to their call for entries!

House Card, 4″ x 6″

This started as an art quilt in 2014 because I had some fabrics that were translucent and had a sheen. I thought they would make great fish.

I pieced strip sets and then joined them with curved seams to make the background. I inserted some gold streaks to represent sunlight in the water.

Then I appliqued the fish onto the background, and decided it wasn’t good enough. Who knows why?

My original plan was to add lots of beads for bling, but when I found this during my studio de-clutter, I decided against that. It’s going to be a donation quilt and I expect some kid will like it just fine. No beads on kid quilts, so it’s good to go.

Gotta know when to keep going on a project and when to move on to the next one. I just took a class with Lyric Kinard to focus on what comes next. You’ll be among the first to know!