Oh Canada! Quilting Details

Considering that I am heavy into some heavy quilting these days (no rest, no new starts!) I thought it only appropriate to share some details from my Oh Canada! quilting. These details got washed out in the photography when shooting a white background on a snowy day. Hopefully you get the idea here.

Love the way the Aurifil 50W in white made such tiny stitches on that white background. The quilting pattern was completely inspired by Carolyn Friedlander and her intense machine quilting. It was perfect for filling the space around the maple leaf and not difficult to do at all.

The leaves were done with an outline - that also held down the edge of the appliqued leaf - then echoed inside the leaf. The sides of each flag were stitched in the ditch and then covered with wavy lines.

Totally intense and worth every minute of effort.

From the back you can get some idea of the stitching too. I intentionally picked this favourite fabric in hopes that it would hide the changes in thread colour. You see it if you're looking for it, but otherwise things just look quite nice and textured on the back too.

The pattern for Oh Canada! is going to print this week. PDF patterns available shortly. In the meantime, locals can sign up for a class on how to make the block.

June 20, 2013
6:30-9:30 pm
Traditional Pastimes

Clear the Decks

So, remember that WIP list? It grew. I couldn't help myself! But the more I talked about that list the more embarrassed I was. Not so much overwhelmed, but shamed by it. Was I that incapable of finishing something? What was I avoiding by constantly giving in to my impulse to create new things? (Oh the therapy required...) Really, though, I just get excited by new ideas and put all things aside to create. I know I'm not alone in that.

I also know that I was putting off quilting a very large quilt. The literal elephant in my sewing room was my anniversary quilt. King sized, already basted, thread in hand, and the dread of quilting that on my home machine. Totally doable, but daunting in thought. I also knew that finishing it would be freeing, not to mention kind of me since this was an anniversary present for our anniversary last year.

So I grabbed my specially purchased pink thread. (Thank-you Andrea for helping me pick it.) I loaded up my bobbins and some Downton Abbey. And I also cleaned off my design wall and packed away the WIPs I've been playing with. No distractions! I think that was the hardest part. And the most necessary.

So, this morning, after a few hours of quilting I don't feel like I made much of a dent in the quilting, but I started. And I'm not even sitting at the table to type this. I am not taking that quilt off the table until it is done. I swear. No new projects until the label is on this thing and it graces our bed.

Hold me to it.

Machine Quilting Options (Weekend Reads)

Phew.

I made that massive list of WIPs and UFOs a few weeks ago. Then I set to cleaning and purging. My mom was in town and she is so good for the push to get stuff organized and done. At least when it comes to my cupboards and the corners of my house. The day she left my MIL arrived, with intentions to help us get set up in the finished basement. Not surprisingly, we weren't ready for that. And with all the cleaning done we needed a change of plans for her visit.  So she took care of the kids, including preschool volunteering, while I sewed and caught up with a bit of work.

Let the record state that both my Mom and my Mother-in-Law are awesome.

Let the record also state that I uncovered 2 more WIPs.

Needless to say that it felt good to get a quilt top finished and 3 tops basted the other day. So, so good. I'm hoping to get at least two of those quilted this coming week, even though there is no extra help in the house. Late nights ahead!

This morning I pulled out my machine quilting books to browse for ideas.

Free Motion Quilting by Angela Walters is a most excellent resource. Prep work, design considerations for the modern quilt, and line drawings with very clear instructions. I've turned to this book, and Angela, more than once for guidance, inspiration, and quilting.

Modern Quilting Designs by Bethany Pease, Mindful Meandering byLaura Lee Fritz, and One Line At a Time by Charlotte Warr Anderson are all in regular flip through rotation for me as well. Sometimes it can feel like there is only one way to stipple an all over free motion quilt design. Pulling out these books gives me a chance to explore some other options, ones I may not have thought of before. It can be repetitive, at times, between all these books, but they do offer unique options as well. All of them are for the quilter who has done at least a little free motion quilting before, and therefore knows the basic technique. Generally, they consist of line drawings. Literally, hundreds of options.

I'm not entirely sure where I've landed when it comes to quilting these quilts yet, but I sure and enjoying the hunt for a good idea!

Dream Big

I made a quilt. It's taken me almost a year. It was very intense to make. Both in terms of the effort in the quilting and the emotions it brought up. It's finally been delivered to the recipients.

Last August Jennie's husband died quite suddenly. He was helping his daughter on her bike on the streets of Brooklyn when he collapsed. Jennie was only someone I knew through her blog, tweets, and the occasional email. But I, like many others, needed to rally around her in a mass of support for this unexpected loss of the love of her life. We made pie, we sent notes, we read her posts about the grief. And I, well I did what I do, I sewed.

I think it was the fact that Jennie could have been me. Two young girls, a vibrant writing career, and a relationship with a great husband. Her story was tragic and life-altering and it could just as easily have happened to me. I've never met Jennie and so embarking on a queen sized quilt seemed overly generous to people I know. But it felt like the right thing to do - for me, yes, but for Jennie and her girls.

Grief can be all consuming and very lonely. It matters to know that people are thinking about you. And even though it wasn't my intention to take so long to finish, it is nice to have these gestures after the fact, when the initial support has gone away. I hope to meet Jennie one day, give her a hug, and watch our girls feel each other out then walk in front of us, hand in hand in their coordinating Saltwater Sandals. For now, I can only encourage her on her journey to Dream Big.

Dream Big

Approximately 80'' by 90"

Scrappy letters in low-volume fabrics, pieced then fused

Machine quilted at home with Aurifil 50wt

Fabric contributed by Jen Yu