After Ohio

Here I am in Ohio next to my quilt He Holds All Creation Together:

Okay, I will do another post on the marvelous rug show at Sauder Village later this week. But first I have to tell you what I did when I got home.

I had left my big PEACE quilt almost finished. I needed to quilt around the big letters PEACE. So I started in on that Monday morning. It all went well, EXCEPT I changed bobbins, and put a little oil on there like I always do, and then when I started back in (AND I SWEAR THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE) an oil stain appeared with the first few stitches. EEEEEEEEEK!!! I finished the quilting and was still so enthusiastic that I spent a lot of time putting on the binding. And then it was time to soak it. Oh, but first I water sprayed all the blue lines on it, which were just direction lines to remind me where I wanted to do horizontal lines or vertical lines. And then I soaked it in COLD water. But first I put a TON of Shout stain remover on that grease stain. And to be honest, I forgot about the grease stain until just now (I checked, and its gone) because when I took the huge quilt out of the washing machine, there were red and magenta stains ALL OVER IT. I mostly used commercial fabrics in this quilt, but I used just a bit of red and magenta hand dyed fabric. And this all happened in COLD water.

At that point I swore that I would NEVER AGAIN USE HAND DYED FABRIC. And then I pulled up Vickie Walsh’s EXCELLENT directions for removing dye stains from a quilt. Bless her over and over. She made me use my bath tub, because the large quilt needs to float freely in the hot water and Dawn dish detergent. I soaked it for a couple of hours, and then drained the water, put in new hot water and soaked it overnight.

And can you believe it, all the stains are GONE!!! I am so pleased with how this quilt came out. You can see the big word PEACE, and there are 12 verses that speak about peace scattered around the quilt. Here are some of my favorites:

Do all that you can to live in PEACE with everyone.

Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

Those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace.

I will try to get a rug show report up by Friday. There were so many beautiful rugs there, I might have to do two reports to share it with you.

More Finishes!

I made the sandwich for that light cross quilt, and pre-quilted a grid on it. I thought that that might make the piece look more finished  once I put the lettering on it. I actually hated the grid after I got it done (but after all the lettering was on, I liked it again.)

 

Then I began the tedious job of putting the lettering on. I actually mostly like this tedious job. It involves a bit of measuring and counting, and that appeals to my mathematical side. I measured the lines at 1 1/2 inches, and used Gwen Marston’s “thumbnail method” of marking the lines. And then I used my blue pen to actually write the lettering carefully. I used dark brown thread, and planned to go over the lettering twice to make it as visible as I intended for it to be (sometimes I don’t want the words to be as visible.) In the mark once, check twice department, halfway through the stitching, I decided I needed to check the wording against my Bible. And sure enough, I had left out an entire line!! Thank goodness I found it right BEFORE I stitched it. I just had to erase all those lines of blue lettering by spritzing it with water, and wait for it to dry, and then finish the lettering.

And then this quilt. My problem child. I did this BIG quilt quite a while ago. And then I decided that I should put a lot of kantha stitching at the bottom, indicating the world. Halfway through all that stitching, I didn’t really like it. But I stubbornly continued on. And of course, the stitching really skewed an already lopsided quilt. And THEN, where I  wanted to put the simple lettering  (GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD,) there was a purple stick of fabric that would be right in the way.

Well, I’m getting down to the deadline for this exhibit*, and so I got this quilt out ONE. MORE. TIME. I remembered that I could appliqué a patch of background color over the stick, and with the lettering over it, it wouldn’t even be noticeable. And then, with my experience of the past couple of quilts, where I have blocked them on my design wall, I was able to spray it lightly with water, and do a decent job of blocking some of the skewy-ness out of it.

Here’s where I put the patch–that purple stick of fabric continued up and would have interfered with the lettering.

*The Signature of Jesus series, and The Psalms series will be exhibited at Oak Hills Church in Folsom from February 22 through March 15.

What Happened Next

This post could be subtitled “The Extreme Value of Having a Mentor.” I have spoken frequently of my love for the work of Marianne Burr. I have mentioned occasionally that she has been a real mentor to me. 

After my last post, here is what happened next. Marianne Burr sent me an email offering her ideas to fix the little quilt, but only if I wanted it. Did I want her help??? What followed were a series of emails that ended with me actually cutting off a bit from two sides of the quilt to take the cross out of the very center of the quilt. And I added a second “circle” of hand-stitching to echo the one circle. I used a contrasting fabric for the binding. There are some other ideas that Marianne (and also Loretta, in the comments) added, and I might eventually add even more to this little quilt, but with Marianne’s encouragement, I did as much as I could before the deadline, and then actually entered it in that competition. I have no illusions that it will win, but the whole process of continuing on, re-evaluating, and refining a piece of work was extremely valuable for me.

Here is the quilt, with the changes made:

And a close-up:

Do you have a mentor?

Fixing the Middle and More Feathers

Thanks so much for the nice comments and positive response to my new blog!  To answer KC’s question–Yes, you can use the ironing board/steam method for handquilting.  After I steam the quilt sandwich, I just take it to the sewing machine  and machine baste it  in about an 8 inch grid.  I set my sewing machine on the slowest speed, and make big stitches–probably 3/4 of an inch, so its pretty easy to remove them as I go along.  I don’t use a hoop or a frame when I hand quilt, and this method keeps the layers very stable.  Most of the time I am hand quilting a larger quilt–like full or twin size.

So I thought I’d just share with you my thought process in changing something I didn’t like in a quilt.  That quilt with the concentric strips that I was quilting feathers on?  Well, my main reason for making that quilt was that I had seen a small picture of an antique quilt with concentric stripes that really intrigued me.  In the antique quilt I think the center square was probably just a four inch red block.  But I thought, why not put something more interesting in the center?  I didn’t want the center to be the focus, but I did think it would just make the quilt more interesting.  And of course I had grand ideas of making hundreds of these striped quilts, each with a different interesting center.   Ha!  Its a little monotonous making concentric stripes.  And also more and more difficult to keep squared up, as you will see in the first picture.  Anyway, I didn’t put much thought into what I chose for the center.  I like chickens, so I chose a chicken print.

When I showed it to my BFF, she said “I really like it except for the chicken center.”  Harumph.  I liked the chicken center just fine and that was all that mattered.  When I got it out almost a year later to start quilting it, I looked again, and thought the chicken center was just fine.  Then when I put the feathers around the center, and took some pictures I thought Ruh Roh.  That doesn’t look very good.  The feathers added some elegance to the concentric stripes, and that homey chicken picture didn’t fit anymore.

So I am going to replace it.  Thankfully, I didn’t quilt the chicken center.  So I will just carefully cut it out, and then applique a new center in its place.  I might use a little fusible around the edges if I think its necessary, but I don’t think I”ll have to do that.  I don’t like fusible that much.  Speaking of fusible, and this is totally off-topic, Melody Johnson is a quilter who has made a career out of making fantastic art quilts that are entirely fused, and she has a beautiful blog that I enjoy every day.  She is doing a ‘quilt along with Melody’ this month.  So far, I’ve just been watching, but I might jump in and fuse a few things.  Goodness knows, I’ve got more than my fair share of fusible web around this place.

Back to replacing my center.  I do this type of previewing quite often, as I am fond of large prints, and often try to place them in strategic places in my quilts.  I just fold the piece I am previewing to the approximate size I need it to be and place it on top of the quilt that I want to use it in.  Usually I do this on my design wall, but I was in a hurry this morning, so it is just placed on my unmade bed…

First I tried this understated oriental print.  Pretty.

My BFF liked this sunflower print because it was the most vibrant.

I am surprised at myself, but I kind of like this oriental print the best because it is understated, and the concentric stripes are still the ‘star’ of the quilt.

What do you all think?  You can tell me the truth.  As you can see from my interactions with my BFF, I still pretty much do what I want to do!

I got a new kind of thread to try today–trilobal polyester.  BFF has been using it (she is a professional long arm quilter) and she really likes the elegant sheen it adds to a quilt.  I thought it might work good on the New York Beauty quilt.  Most of that quilting I am doing in the ‘ditch’ so it doesn’t show much.  But in the arcs and wedges I will do a little quilting that shows.  On paper, I’ve drawn several possibilities for filling in the space.  One of the things I tried was filling in the space with feathers.  So I had to try out the new thread as soon as I got home.  I really like the way it looks, although these pictures don’t show the sheen of it too much.  Once you get the hang of these feathers, it is amazingly easy to fit them in almost anywhere!

 

 

So I’ll say so long for now.  There’s still a little time to take a few stitches  before going to bed!