Finished tea towel owl quilt

This little quilt has been done for a little while, but I have had some trouble finding a good spot to photograph it. How do you take photos of your finished quilts?

The lovely Helen hand quilted around the owls for me after I had a nervous breakdown trying to do it myself. And, my mom did the binding because I was too busy. I had hoped to bring it along to the show in Hamilton, but did not quite get there.

The quilt is destined for the wall - the vintage tea towel in the center was a splurge and I suspect the colors will fade with washing. It was started when Sophie organised a tea towel challenge at the beginning of the year.

You can see more posts on this project here.

WIP round-up

I was thinking the other day how I have long-term WIPs (I still refuse to call them UFOs) and then other projects that spring up like weeds, grow quickly, and are fully grown and out the door in a flash. What is it about some projects that cause them to languish in the back of the closet for weeks, months, and dare I say years? Are they somehow flawed and are filed in the 'too hard' basket or is it simply that they have lost momentum and need some fertilizer to get growing again?

I hate not finishing things and it pains me to think about lost hours of investment on works that are yet to be completed. I know that I have some good excuses recently - selling 2 houses, getting ready to move, a death in the family, a menagerie of pesky pets...

A few years ago after finding many UFOs in my closet (some more than a decade old) I set my mind to getting them all finished in a year. I was successful and so pleased with myself. But back then I was not involved with block swaps, groups, challenges, blogging, and so on. And I wonder if some of these distractions are stopping me from moving forward on these older projects. Or perhaps these fun virtual exchanges are an easy excuse for not tackling the big jobs.

Two of these lingering projects are still appealing and occasionally call me back. These are the green HST quilt and the blue snowflake quilt. Either one would reach full-flimsy stage if I dedicated a weekend to each cause.

The third is the butterfly hearts quilt which is a disaster and needs to be reworked. This was a case of me taking one step forward, not liking it, and then carrying on for another 100 steps before I came to terms with the fact that I really didn't like it. I should have trusted my instincts. Now I am faced with unpicking lots of machine satin stitch applique - not pretty.

My more recent projects are moving forward. The wedding quilt is 2 blocks shy of a quorum (I need 41 all together) and after coming up short (4 inches) and mis-purchasing a few fabrics for the sashing I have decided to use the fabric that I picked up for the back - luckily I purchased an extra yard. I have 3 weekends to get this one finished.

My tea towel challenge which was on track to finish this month has stalled. It's taken me weeks to attempt hand quilting (I needed a thimble and a hoop). My attempt last weekend was so demoralizing, I'm already thinking of alternative quilting ideas for the center panel. I just cannot hand quilt. It's uneven, it's crooked, and it takes me about 20 tries to take one stitch. Based on my calculations it will take me 59 years to complete at this pace. I don't have that kind of time.

Meanwhile, the round robin that I'm involved with is progressing. I just received the last round - a little flimsy in need of sandwiching, quilting, and binding. It just arrived this week and I haven't given it much attention yet. It will definitely have to wait.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

WIPs and more

As usual I have a few things on the go. Although I have condensed my workspace and been away, I still seem to get things done.

I've continued to make blocks each month for the Block Lotto. This year's modern modular blocks have been great (although I have not won any yet) - I continue to be inspired by them. In fact, my latest quilt is made from blocks that we did in December 2012. I liked these so much and I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this pattern.

Some friends are getting married in June and I intended to make them a quilt to celebrate the event. Unfortunately, I am off to a late start and was having difficulty determining what to do for them. I had asked about colors and styles, but that's not always easy for a non-quilter to answer. Finally, I had a chance to speak to the bride-to-be and show her some fabrics from my stash to get inspiration. So, my design brief is: neutrals, green-blues (or is it blue-greens?), and traditional blocks.

I've ordered some new fabrics, but have made two blocks from my stash to get started. The narrow strips will be made with jade/peacock/teal and also some darker grays to mix it up. The block finishes at 8 inches, I'm not sure how big the quilt will be - I suspect it will be as big as it gets when I run out of time!

My tea towel quilt is progressing along (more here). I decided to do mostly stitch-in-the-ditch around the piecing and added some semicircles to the white border to echo the pieced semicircles on the first border. I am planning to hand quilt the center panel (my tea towel), but have not managed to get started on that.

The Monday Modern group that I belong to is doing a block lotto as well. Originally, we did bee blocks making them for each member using her own fabric and specifications. These blocks are specified by someone each month, made using fabric from our stashes, and then we draw names for a winner. So far, we have done three including these for May (eek, May almost).

I have also had another stab at my green HST quilt. I've made 32/36 of the blocks plus 8/24 of the 2-square-wide edge rectangles. This is taking me a long time (a really long, long time) but I am motivated to get it put together. More about this one from some old posts - the first one dated July 2011 (really?)

I'll be linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced when it turns Wednesday in her neck of the woods.

Tea towel progress report

I finally decided to add a white border to the outside of my tea towel quilt. It is plain but my plan is to mirror the half circles from the inner border using quilting. I did a lot of calculations to figure out how wide to make it based on the potential size of the half circle motif. And, after all that I realized that I only had enough fabric to cut a 3 inch border.

While away this weekend, I found some wool thread by Madeira. I've never used this before and I thought it might be interesting to use for the hand quilting on the center tea towel panel - the colors were perfect.

I also thought I'd try to use a polyester batting - I hear that my usual thin cotton batting can be hard to hand sew through. I bought some that was prepackaged because for some reason all of the batting in the store was wrapped up in plastic and I could not feel any of them. I thought I picked a thinner one, but once I pulled it out it seemed very dense. So far, not so good. My next mistake was using a basting spray - also something I never do. After spraying half the can onto the quilt, it did not stick at all. What a waste! So, back to old school pinning.

Now that it's finally basted, I'm not sure how to attack. I think I should machine quilt the inner border first to keep everything in place. I also don't seem to have a hoop or a thimble to do the hand quilting (I think I packed them away). I confess that this is not the first time I've planned to hand quilt, but I have never succeeded. I guess I'm just looking for excuses...

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced.

Tea towel quilt top finished (maybe?)

I finally got my sewing machine back and set it up yesterday. I had cut out the equilateral triangles for the (maybe) last border over a week ago, so it was nice to get it sewn together. I love how the triangles look like pennants hanging off the pink skinny border.

I wasn't sure what to do with the corners, I was left with a 30-degree empty wedge. I debated removing the last triangle on each side and creating a 120-degree piece but decided that it would be too large a chunk of one fabric. So, I chose to put in pink wedges which were a little tricky because of the tight y-seam. Still, I managed well enough and am satisfied with them.

Now I need to decide if I am done or if I want to add a white border. I am imagining a white border quilted with owl silhouettes in pink-orange-teal veriegated thread. Crazy talk, I know. As a compromise, maybe a thinner white border and then the orange binding. I just feel like there's a lot of white in the center and none in the outer borders. I'm also wondering if I want it bigger. Currently it's 42x48 - I can't decide if it will be a wall hanging or a throw quilt. Any opinions?

More owl progress and some lilies

I finished making the crosses to echo the owl feet in my tea towel. At first I was going to put them all side by side, but found that the secondary pattern that appeared when the orange/pink crosses touched each other diffused the 'crossiness' of the blocks. So I added a 1-inch border on each one to give those crosses some breathing room. I like the two rows that I made, but think that they are very dark compared to the half circles and the tea towel center. This means that I'll need to lighten up the final border to balance things out.

Right now, the quilt is 35 x 39. Although I planned a small wall hanging quilt, I'm starting think that the scale of the owl design needs big and bold around it. Maybe the next border will be 6 inches bringing the quilt up to 47 x 51 which is more lap-sized than wall hanging.

I definitely want to do some triangles - probably equilaterals to reference the little triangle beaks. I do have two problems:

• I probably don't have enough fabric for a big border.
• The math is a bit tricky at 35 and 39 - there's no common denominator except for 1. I might need another narrow border - maybe 1/2" to bring it to 36 x 40 which are both easily divisible by 4. But, what color?

Neither problem is insurmountable. Although this challenge is supposed to run until March, I am keen to get as much done now as I can.

I am also working on a piece that my mother started and has asked me to finish. It's done with iron on pieces that are appliqued and quilted in one go to make a wall hanging. I admit that it's giving me some grief - there are some spots with multiple layers of fabric that have been ironed on and they are thick and hard to sew through. I am using a brand new reinforced needle on my Juki TL-98 which can sew through anything. Even still, it's hard to maintain even stitches and maintain good tension...

As always, I have concluded that even if each individual stitch or line is not perfect, the overall look is good. Let's call it organic. I have the quilting finished and am trying to decide on the biniding. The only thing I have on hand is the fabric I used for the backing that matches the stamens. Although I could use it, it detracts from the design. I think I'd prefer a more subtle color.

Earlier this week I saw some really inspiring quilts at Monday Moderns. I am trying very hard to keep myself from starting anything new. I have quite a few small things on the go including a round robin center block that I should see in the next week or two.

From 13 February, I will be down in Christchurch as a vendor at the Craft and Quilt show. This show has not been to the south island since the earthquake, so I am hoping that there is a good turnout. Poor hubby will be driving down from Auckland - I will be flying down.

Owl tea towel progress

I have made a start on my tea towel challenge. My first task was to stabilize the tea towel since it is made of a looser weave linen than the usual quilting fabric. I decided to baste some light weight interfacing to it rather than use iron-on. I've had some bad luck with iron-on stuff lately.

My plan is to use shapes from the tea towel design, so I drafted a half circle block to go around the first orange border.

This morning I made a prototype of a cross block that will be a top and bottom border - this should square it up a bit more. This is a fiddly block that I drafted to match the shape of the owl feet. I have to cut it "old school" using a template because of the odd angles. These will take a while to cut, but they go together quickly like a crooked 9 patch.

I will probably make one more pieced border, no specific plan yet. The beaks are equilateral triangles and I might take my inspiration from them.

One of the parameters of this challenge is to do something that I've never done before. I guess everything I do is somewhat new since I rarely use patterns or do the same thing twice. But, that seems a little weak.

I have been pondering the ultimate "thing I never do" - hand quilt (EEEEK!). It seems appropriate for a little retro quilt like this. I am envisioning chunky stitches in bright colors...hmmm...

Tea towel challenge

My online quilting friend, Sophie, is organising a challenge for the early part of 2014. The challenge is to use a tea towel (new or vintage) and design and create a quilt with it. When Sophie did one last year I was really keen to give it a go - so of course I'm signing up for her challenge.



Originally I thought I'd go for a New Zealand theme - there is a tradition here (and in other parts of the commonwealth) to buy tea towels as souvenirs. But, I really couldn't find a vintage one that caught my eye and I didn't fancy buying a new one.

I found some inspiration on Etsy and have purchased two vintage towels online. I'm not sure which one I will use (maybe I'll do two), it depends on how I go with colour matching. Sometimes vintage colours can be hard to match.

One tea towel has a Christmas theme and I thought it would be fun to make a wall hanging that could come out each year. The other has fantastic colours and owls. Both are a bit kitschy and have bright bold graphics. I can't wait until they arrive so I can have a close look and start shopping for fabrics.