Brag Sheet: 2013

I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands.
Hope I get the chance to travel the world,-
But I don't have any plans.
–Wake Me Up, written by Tim Bergling, Aloe Blacc and Mike Einziger, performed by Avicci

I wasn't going to do a post about all of my 2013 projects because it didn't really seem like there were many. But I've enjoyed the other 2013 posts, so I looked over my index page and was surprised that even though it seemed like slow going, I got a nice bit of sewing done this year.

First are the projects I put together using Pat Bravo's Indie fabric line. I made two Stitchy Kits, designed by Lori Holt {pattern here}. I gave one away and kept one for myself. And I made a folded fabric star and put it on a tote bag. Somehow, Pat sussed me out and invited me to enter her Instagram contest, which I won. I received a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street as my prize {by the way, I still need a sewcation} and Pat used the photo of my folded fabric star as the header on her Flickr page. The post of the finished fold star tote bag is my most popular post of all time, with 9,822 9,823 9,826 visits to date.

I put together a few other non-quilty things this year: two Christmas ornaments in January, stragglers from Christmas 2012; a Christmas table runner for a lady I know whose birthday is on December 24^th; a new reversible ironing board cover; a Magicka Wizard's robe for Grasshopper's Halloween costume; and two little booklet holders.

Although this has nothing to do with sewing, I was inspired by Shay, who included her travels in her 2013 wrap-up post, and thought I'd throw in our family vacation with a few days at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, a few days at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming and a quick drive-by of Grand Tetons, Wyoming. Fun stuff! More family travel is definitely in our future.

And finally, even though it didn't feel like it, I got a few quilts done; a Drunkard's Path, Ripples, for a friend for her birthday; a 4" square mini for LadyBug's report on Pennsylvania {which is where the Amish live and the Amish are famous for quilting} and which ended up as a quilt for her Guard Lizard, Gilbert; a scrappy baby quilt, Little Boy Blue, for a friend's new baby; a framed Double Wedding Ring, Echoes of Eternity, for a wedding gift in the bride's colors; a zig-zag quilt, Miss Butterfly's Flower Garden, for my niece, Miss Butterfly, to use on her bed; a batik quilt, Sea Glass, for a friend for her birthday; and even though I didn't make the quilt top, I'm counting the quilting I did for P. on her String Ring Dresden as a finish for me as well. At 75" x 95", it is the biggest quilt I've done.

I'm excited for 2014. My goal for this year is not to over commit. I have loads of Ph.D quilts that I want to work on and I've made out a mental list of things I want to work on, but I'm leaving it open to see what inspires me.

Today's post brought to you by:

Ripples

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. –Buddha

I am excited to share the finished Drunkard's Path quilt, which I finally decided to simply call Ripples. I love how it turned out.

This quilt has always been for my friend, Kim. From the moment I cut it out, I knew it was for her. In it's raw form, I knew it was for her. Sitting in a drawer for three years, it was always for her. When the timing was finally right, and especially in this layout, it is for her. When she opened it out, she said that these were the colors in her bedroom and that it was going on her bed.

But to be honest, if this quilt hadn't had someone else's name stitched into the back, I would have kept it for myself. While we're being honest, I'm still not sold on the name, Ripples. I almost called it Reaping {Galatians 6:7 — for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap}, but the layout and the colors and the theme all pointed me towards ripples on the water. And because I wasn't sure if the layout and name of the quilt quite conveyed the sentiment behind the quilt {because I know this wonderful woman sacrifices a lot to serve her family and so that her husband can serve others both in his work and his volunteer church assignment and I wanted to show my love and appreciation} I embroidered the Edward Markham poem around the edge of the label.

There is a destiny which makes us brothers;
None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

I knew it would be a big job, so I debated about leaving the poem off. I filled in the details first, and then showed Mr. Bug my template, with the poem around the outer edge. He said it looked cool and that I should do it. I used my tiniest embroidery needle, a size 12, and a single strand of floss. When I was finished, Mr. Bug was able to read it {although the lighting here makes it kind of hard; I did tweak the contrast a bit to hopefully make it easier to see} and I'm really glad I put it on.

I hadn't originally planned to put a border on this quilt. It should have finished at 56" x 56", but due to a little bit of shifting when I ran the fabrics through the Go! Cutter, I needed to square up all of my blocks. I only lost 2" total, but the quilt seemed a bit small so I improvised {not really my strong suit}. I didn't have enough left of either the tan or the off-white to make a complete stop border {and didn't really have the time to make a fabric store run}, so I used them both and threw in some of the chocolate brown at the corners for good measure. Mr. Bug, who I often use as a sounding board, wasn't sure about them. He said I should just do the dark brown border. I was almost convinced, but decided to leave the stop border in and am glad I did. I love to get Mr. Bug's opinion. I don't always go with his suggestions, but he helps me to figure out what I really want to do.

Sometimes, it takes a village to make a quilt. I want to thank everyone who left comments with opinions and encouragement as I worked through the assembly process {I'm so happy with the formerly-diagonal-vertically-striped-bias-binding!}. I appreciated the help and it meant a lot that you would take the time to leave a note for me! I'd also like to thank Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting for her quick needle. The quilting is amazing! And thanks to her, I was able to deliver the quilt to the birthday girl on her actual birthday.

Today's post brought to you by:

More about this quilt:
First layout and a call out for name suggestions
Backing selected
Allusion to working on the assembly
Ready to assemble and request for name suggestions
The complexities of stripey binding
Binding decided, lessons in quilting and a sneak peek of the finished quilting

The Galloping Horse Method

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. –Abraham Lincoln

I am slightly OCD. Obsessive Creative. Obsessive Compulsive. Potato, potahto, right? I tend to get wrapped up in the details and rather than seeing the big picture, I focus on all the tiny imperfections. I guess you could say I'm an imperfectionist. And I let myself be limited by all the things I can't to. I've been thinking about this on and off for a while now. Yesterday, as I was pondering the complexities of stripey binding, my sister reminded me that shifting your perspective opens up a lot of previously unexplored possibilities. She said, I don't know much about binding, but I think I'd take the longer lasting way even if it doesn't lay perfectly straight. Use the galloping horse method to determine how picky you're going to be.

And what is the galloping horse method, you ask? The story goes like this. I took a beginning machine quilting class in February of 2010. The teacher talked about how to determine if you're going to unpick. She said that if you were to pass by the quilt on a galloping horse and you could see the mistake, then unpick.

Several thoughts sprouted from this reminder.

1. Just do your best and let the stitches fall where they may.
2. Not every quilt has to be a show quilt.
3. Focus on what you can do and not on what you can't.

Do your best and let the stitches fall where they may.
I can do bias binding. I know it. I love it. So that's what I did. And I'm pretty darn excited about those formerly diagonal vertical stripeys. It's not perfect. Some of my seams matched up better than others. It might turn out a tiny bit ripply, as my bindings always do. But then again, it might not. In order to get enough binding out of the piece of fabric I had, I made it 2⅛" wide instead of 2¼". Perhaps being a fraction of an inch narrower will give it more fill once it is turned and might, just might, solve the pucker problem.

Not every quilt has to be a show quilt.
As a matter of personal preference, I like quilts that are "custom." I always have. When I piece a quilt, I pick the design because I like it and I want all that work to be shown off to its best advantage by the quilting. I think edge-to-edge tends to mask the piecing. But with no small amount of internal debate, I took this quilt and the one before it to the quilt fairy to be done edge-to-edge. Having them done in time to give as birthday gifts outweighs spending weeks on quilting the perfect design in them. These quilts are meant to be snuggled under and dragged around and picnicked on at washed and used and loved. Masterpiece quilting doesn't quite fit the bill, here.

Focus on what you can do and not on what you can't.
I kind of like having a quilt fairy. It means there are a lot of things I can do instead of making myself crazy trying to cram 40 hours of quilting into an already packed week. While my quilt is being professionally quilted {with a stitch regulator!}, I can spend time helping the Not-So-Little Bugs with homework and projects. I can catch up on the laundry. And the dusting. And the bathrooms. I can cook actual dinners instead of sentencing the family to cold cereal and ramen for a week straight. I can go to bed at a decent time. And I can be completely wowed by an edge-to-edge quilting design. Here's a peek.

You'll be even more wowed when I show you the whole quilt. With stripey binding. And a completely awesome embroidered quilt label. It's one of my best, if I do say so myself.

Directional

Aye, the compass doesn't point north, but we're not trying to find north, are we? –Mr. Gibbs, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

I finished my Drunkard's Path quilt top. I didn't take pictures because I was in a rush to drop it off for quilting. It pretty much looks like this. Only all sewn together. With a couple of borders. Which may or may not work.

The top is made from Kona Solids {don't ask which colors} and coordinates from Marcus Brother's Metro Blue fabric line. It is an old print {2006, reprinted in 2009} but I really love the colors and I think it still looks pretty modern. Ish. I saved the best print for the binding.

Stripey fabrics are meant to be used as bindings. I always do bias-binding {bias is so fancy}, which means that the stripeys come out diagonally. Unless the stripeys are already printed on the diagonal. Which these are. The question is, then, do I do a regular old cut-on-the-grain binding so that the stripeys stay diagonal? Or do I do a bias binding, which would make the stripes come out vertically along on the edge of the quilt? I've seen a lot of cute vertically striped bindings lately.

The cons are these:
On-grain binding:
• Since the binding is cut along the grain, the fold creates more stress in the fabric and after only a few washings the binding starts to turn white along the folded edge. After years of use, the fabric can split open at the fold because the stress is put on a narrow, continuous area of the fabric's weave.
• Piecing seven separate diagonal seams to make a piece of binding long enough to go around the quilt.

Bias Binding:
• I can never get a bias binding to lay perfectly flat and smooth, no matter how carefully I watch my 45° degree angle or how much pressing and pinning I do. It always lies a little puckered.

The pros are these:
On-grain binding:
• Super cute diagonal stripes around the border.

Bias Binding:
• Fast and easy continuous piecing.
• The stress of the fold is distributed diagonally across the weave of the fabric, prolonging the wear of the binding.
• Super cute horizontal stripes around the border.

The quilt is finished and ready for pick-up. I'm excited to see how the quilting came out. I'll either go get it tonight, if Melissa has time, or tomorrow morning. This means it is time to decide how to cut my binding. Suggestions welcome and appreciated!

This Quilt Needs A Name

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is . . . the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. –Mark Twain

I've been puttering around off and on with an old Ph.D Quilt for the last several weeks whenever I wanted to avoid what I should really be doing. I cut the fabric almost exactly three years ago, not long after I won my Go! Fabric Cutter, using the large Drunkard's Path die. Recently, I sewed the curved pieces to their corners, squared them all up, laid them out and then stacked them row by row to be put away until I don't have so many other projects going on all at once. They've been sitting in my sewing area for over a week.

Before I can put my little stacks away, I need some help with a name for the quilt. How about a little back-story to go with that request? Yes? Great. Early in 2010, I bought half-yard cuts of six of the prints from a line of fabric called Metro Blue to make a wedding gift for a neighbor using her wedding colors and left over fabric from her wedding dress.

The framed Double Wedding Ring only took a little bit of the fabric, and the rest just seemed perfect for a Drunkard's Path quilt. And the fabrics and colors seemed perfect for a particular friend and neighbor. Her birthday is coming up in mid-November and I want to try and finish this quilt in time for that. I'll be calling on Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting to help with the machine quilting again. If I get on the ball and finish Grasshopper's Halloween costume, I can get it to Melissa early enough to avoid a rush fee and still leave myself plenty of time to bind it. {And we're all rolling our eyes and shaking our head here, me most of all, because I'm imposing another crazy deadline on myself.}. Anway, I saved the stripey print for the binding {because stripey and binding go together like peanut butter and jelly} and cut the rest into enough pieces to make a nice throw-size quilt.

But, let's face it. That layout is a bit of a snooze-fest. It's not every very pretty. And it does not inspire a name. At all. I've been thinking about it every now and again for the past three years and I've got nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Not even the name of the fabric line, Metro Blue, works. So I tried something different.

The name of this Drunkard's Path design is Love Rings. But Love Rings isn't a name for a friendship quilt. I want the name to reflect the kind of person this friend is. She is kind to everyone, thoughtful, considerate and one of those people who quietly serves and never asks for thanks or recognition. Her husband's job takes him on frequent business trips. In addition, he has quite a busy volunteer job at church. While the work he does is of huge benefit to many, many people, I know it is hard for her to not have him there sometimes. I wanted to do a little something special for her to let her know that I appreciate everything she does and am grateful to have her as a friend. When I think of her, I think of this little poem by Edwin Markham:

There is a destiny which makes us brothers;
None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

But I'm having a hard time fitting all that into a single word or phrase that will fit nicely on a little embroidered label for the back of the quilt. I've thought of a few names, like Reciprocity, but the sentiment "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" really isn't right. Calling the quilt What Goes Around Comes Around isn't really much better, and I don't believe in Karma, per se, although I do believe that every action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction. I thought about Ripples, which seems to work a bit better than the others. The quilt kind of looks like water rippling out. But I'm not sure about that either. I'm just about ready to call it Quilt With No Name, but I've been humming that song by America and a quilt name that inspires incessant humming of a melancholy tune from the 1972 just doesn't cut it, in my book.

If you've got a suggestion for what to call this quilt, I'd love to hear it! And while you're at it, I'd love to hear opinions on what panto to have Melissa quilt in it. I've got my eye on Belly Bop, Loops and Swirls, Van Gogh, Swirls, Rose Leaves and Retro Leaves.

Decisions, decisions.

Seeing Spots

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
–Calvin Coolidge

Today was beautifully overcast; lovely weather for photographing quilts outdoors. I'm so excited to have this polka-dot quilt finished! It is inspired by SewSara {Dots Crazy and Mini Dots}, Amber {Dot-to-Dot} and American Quilting {Connect the Dots, no longer available} and is called Seeing Spots.

I started thinking about ideas for a polka-dot quilt in November of 2010. I got the large Drunkard's Path die when I won my Go! Fabric Cutter. I used some Christmas money to get the small Drunkard's Path die so I could use them together to make a fun, spotty quilt. I pulled all the dotty fabrics from my stash. Then I borrowed, begged and swapped for dots {special thanks to: Annelise, Iris, Jerri Lynn, Michelle, P., Sara and Wanda for feeding my obsession}. By May of 2011, I had all my fabrics assembled and started cutting out dots. I've worked on it here and there since then. I'd planned to finish this in January, but sometimes things don't go as planned. There are 110 different dotted and spotted fabrics, with no repeats {editor's note: fabrics from the same line — like Moda Essential Dots — in different colors don't count as repeats} in this quilt. I love how the red binding frames the quilt.

I like to put a little something fun in the seams between the larger pieces of the quilt back. I put a line of four “floating dots” up the back, one of which is an embroidered label {which says I finished this in January, so it must be true} and one you can't see because it is folded over the back of the chair. I used water-soluble thread to baste the quilt. I like the stability that stitching in the ditch provides, but I didn't want my finished quilt to be broken up with lines that intersected each of the circles. The water-soluble thread takes quite a soaking to dissolve it, but it washed away cleanly and served its purpose. I did everything free-motion; swirls in the circles and then a connected, swirly sort of coil in the background.

As most of my projects do, this one took on a life of its own. I ended up with enough dotted fabric to make four quilts; I gave two kits away in January and am working on a quilt for myself. This one is a gift for a very special aunt {I may have mentioned this } who did me a solid and I'll be dropping it in the mail this week. I wanted to finish this quilt in January for several reasons. First it is a long over-due thank you. Second, I wanted to have a finished sample of what I was giving away. And finally, I wanted to link up to Vicki's awesome Focus On Free-Motion challenge for the month. She had some really great prizes. Sometimes, that's how life goes, though. And as they say, slow and steady wins the race. I'm off to work on some more dots.

Today's post brought to you by:




Read more about this quilt:
A bit about the background fabric
Sneak peek at the polka-dots
Kit giveaways and top in progress
Finished flimsy
Kit giveaway winners
Basted with water-soluble thread
Peek at the quilting in the circles
Peek at the quilting on the background

Polka-Dot Quilt at A Snail's Pace

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground.
–Unknown

I really wanted to have a whole quilt to show off today. I'm not quite done with the quilting, so instead, you get a tiny sneak peek of the swirlies I'm doing in between all the circles.

I ♥ polka-dots. The first polka-dot quilt is a gift for a special aunt {I may have mentioned this already}. And I'm making one to keep at Bug Cottage for snuggling up under while reading or watching TV. I've got half the quarter-circle blocks sewn together, and I'm determined to finish this quilt before I get distracted by anything else. I kind of have to because I've embroidered “March 2012” into the quilt label. Nothing like a deadline to keep you motivated.

Going ‘Round in Circles

Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him. –Lord Chesterfield

I've been doing a little quilting. I've been going ‘round and ‘round in circles. I've got all the little dots done.

And a handful of the big dots. I wanted everything about this quilt to be circles and dots and spots. The quilting inside the spots is inspired by Amber's Dot-to-Dot quilt. Don't look too closely. It is a little bit wonky. The big dots are trickier than the small ones.

I love polka-dots so much that I'm making two polka-dotted quilts. The one above, which I'm calling Seeing Spots, is a gift for a very special aunt. And I'm making one for myself. I had a few minutes to fill, so I worked on the label for that quilt and I can't wait to start putting it together.

I'm off to quilt more circles. My goal is to get this finished by the end of the week and in the mail.

[P.S. Shay, the dohickeys on the pins are Grip Covers {you can only see one in this post in the 2^nd photo above}. They don't make basing more accurate, but they do make the pins easier to handle.]

Friday Night Sew-In

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves. –William Arthur Ward

I haven't done Friday Night Sew-In for ages. Not that I haven't been sewing on Friday nights, because I usually am. But I don't usually think to link up. I had big plans for last night. I did the ditch quilting on the polka-dot quilt.

I used water soluble thread because I really like the stability that ditch quilting provides, but I don't want this particular quilt divided up by that stitching when it is done. After I finish the decorative quilting and run it through the wash, the stitches in the ditch will disappear. But while I'm quilting they will keep the quilt nice and stable. Hooray! I'm excited to finally be quilting this quilt. And now that the ditch work is done, I can start with the fun stuff. I'm actually off to work on that now.

Today's post brought to you by:

A Week of Giveaways: Winners' Roll-Call

I nod to a passing stranger, and the stranger nods back, and two human beings go off, feeling a little less anonymous.
–Robert Brault

I've had so much fun the last couple of weeks and I think my week of giveaways was a huge success. I started planning in about March of last year and am so happy with how it all came together. I enjoyed reading each and every comment, even though due to time constraints I wasn't able to reply. Thank you all so much for reading, commenting and sharing!

And now it is time to reveal the winners. It is always a little sad for me because only one person gets to win each prize. Honestly, I wish I could pick you all as winners, but there can only be one. You all knew that when you signed up, right? I had Mr. Bug and the Little Bugs help me with the random draw. Based on the number of entrants for each giveaway, I gave them a range of numbers and let them pick one. I didn't tell them which giveaway they were doing or coach them in any way to pick the winners. It was completely fair and absolutely random.

• Embroidery Gift Pack Winner:

Drawn by LadyBug

Congratulations to
Mommarock
of Run to Momma


who said: I'm at that point where I'm no longer happy that it is my birthday, but I'm happy that it is yours .

• Backyard Baby Fat Quarter Bundle Winner:

Drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Priya


who said: Love the colors .... would love to win.

• $50 Long-Arm Machine Quilting Gift Certificate Winner
Drawn by Mr. Bug

Congratulations to
P.
of The Way I Sew It
who said: I blogged about your giveaways, so here is my extra entry!

• Project Polka-Dot Quilt Kit Winners

Drawn by LadyBug

Congratulations to
Christine
of MacDonald's Patch

who said: Please count me in. I just love all those dots. I can't believe there's 112 different dotty fabrics! Thanks for the chance.

Drawn by Grasshopper
Congratulations to
Janet
of Caribou Crossing Chronicles
who said: Oh wow! Lovely giveaway. Thanks for entering me.

• Machine Quilting Tools Gift Pack Winner

Drawn by Mr. Bug

Congratulations to
Martina
of Sunshine Quilting


who said: I want to try machine quilting this year, so those items would be just perfect! Thanks again, this was a fun week. Hope you have a wonderful birthday too! Be blessed

Thank you, again, to all who entered and to my sponsors, Angie of 5 Little Monkeys Quilting and the Fat Quarter Shop.

To my winners, I would love to see what you make, so please send photos or a link to your blog posts!