Finished! -- The Comic Strip Quilt

Here it is!! My first ever bed sized quilt, and I made a full size (measures approx. 88" x 98").

"...and Read All Over"
88" x 98"
Original Design, by Heather/The Reader at Quilting on a Whim
hand pieced/machine pieced
machine quilted on domestic machine

This quilt started as a way to showcase a comic strip my oldest son began writing when he was about 10 yrs old. I saw an idea on Pinterest to do a photo collage of children's artwork, rather than keep every.single.individual. piece.  I thought that was brilliant, and thought, "oooh! How 'bout a quilt?!?!"

My boys were not incredibly excited by the idea, until I mentioned, "...or we could use your Mt. Neverest comics...." at which point the author of same perked up and said, "That might be cool...." in his best nonchalant but really interested voice (moms of teenagers, especially teen sons, you will know exactly the voice I mean.....). 

shown on his bed

I got to work planning immediately. I knew I wanted black, white & red -- the comic strip/newspaper connection was just too strong, I couldn't resist. Thus the actual name of the quilt: "...and Read All Over."  Sorry, it had to be done.

I browsed ideas for inspiration and came across a quilt (Which is Which, by Mamacjt on flickr) that I knew was the inspiration.  I didn't want to flat out copy her design, and I had already started buying up random fat quarters of black & white prints -- some black with white, some white with black -- for the quilt, including some yardage of the  most interesting prints, so I thought about blocks to use. (side note: once I had a firm idea, I wrote to Mamacjt explaining my project, and did she mind if I used her idea for inspiration, for a personal use only quilt for my son; she generously said it was no problem at all)

Luckily for me, I talked with my quilting mentor who suggested oversized blocks to speed production, and so we landed on rail fence blocks that would finish at 12 inches. This was for the black section and the white section. For the middle section, I got on my handy EQ7 searched the block library for frame blocks. My son chose a twisted frame, I tweaked the measurements so that the blocks would also finish at 12" when done, and printed the templates/cutting instructions and got to work.

I also used the EQ7 to figure out the borders; I knew I wanted a morse code message so I looked that up, adapted it some (sorry, no 7 spaces between words....) and then painstakingly colored the border in EQ7 so that I had a "map" of sorts to follow when piecing the borders. This was a life saver, or at least huge time saver!, when cutting and piecing the borders -- EQ7 told me how many of each color I needed to cut, and I could follow the printout to be sure I got placement just right. Instead of centering the message in the EQ version, I just started with the message and then set aside the correct number of gray pieces to add to each end -- since I knew the total number of strips I needed, I could easily get to the end of the message and then just divide out the extras. Easy, thanks to the software!

side view, showing the borders

I primarily hand pieced the quilt, as I started this before I had a sewing machine, and then quilted it on my home machine, a Janome Magnolia. I did free motion quilting around the comic strips, to frame them and outline some of the mountains, and then did straight line quilting over the rest. I used a decorative stitch in the black and white sections, although it really doesn't show up unless you are nose-to-nose with the quilt.

close up of the quilting

the other side of the quilting

It's not perfect, but it's done, and my son loves it, which is the only thing that matters. And, honestly, I am quite proud of myself, imperfections and all. I had so much fun designing and making this quilt, and it is an absolute thrill to see it finished. Wow!

Wordless Wednesday: FMQ is Done!!!

this was a spontaneous & rather serendipitous addition
not bad for a first effort at Free Motion Quilting!
and the boy is delighted, which is the only part that matters :)

a pair from last time and this time

one more close-up...not perfect, but that's okay!

Quilting on a Home Machine...

Well, I'm making progress. Yay!!

It's not been without its challenges, that is for sure. Yesterday while quilting I had my Free Motion Quilting foot break, then ran out of thread and the only other thread I have in the right color is on a cone, not a spool. My little machine is a horizontally loading machine, not a vertical loading/threading. Hmm.

I had my husband super-glue the FMQ foot, while I tried other feet to no avail.  I tried doing a bit of quilting with the foot in the up position, only to have loose stitches and such. My quilting mentor explained that when the foot is raised, the thread is not on the tension discs. That explained the sloppy stitching. Drat. I was thus forced to take a break while the glue dried on my foot, and then hope it held well enough that I could keep going.

Meanwhile, I hopped on-line to figure out how I could use my cone of thread with my non-cone-ready machine. Most of the suggestions I found were for vertically-loading machines, and I wasn't sure if they'd work or not on my machine.

I finally found a suggestion for a machine almost identical to mine --- put an empty small spool of thread (the skinny 100 meter size spool) on the extra little spool holder, the one that is mostly used for holding the thread with which you wind the bobbin. Then put the cone down over the empty spool and thread like normal; the empty spool helps hold the cone.  I've quilted two more blocks with it threaded this way, and it seems to be working. Whew!  The now dry FMQ foot seems to be holding up, too, so I'm back in business. Thank goodness!!

working on the quilt....

After I had figured this out, I received an email from my quilting mentor about this problem; to adapt the common suggestion of "place the cone of thread in a coffee mug and set it behind your machine, then thread like normal..." to work for machines with horizontal spool holders, she suggested taping a closed safety pin to the top of my machine, next to the spool holder. Place the safety pin so that the hole is facing towards the cone-in-a-cup, then when I bring the thread up from the cone, thread it first through the hole in the safety pin and then thread as normal. Genius! If I start having thread issues, I'll switch to this method. So glad to have another option, just in case!

Despite these bumps in the road, I still got a lot done yesterday. I had already done the vertical stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, and two rows of the horizontal ditch work. Yesterday morning I finished all the horizontal rows of stitch-in-the-ditch and then -gulp!- started the hard part --- free motion quilting in the center panels, to outline the comic strips that are the star of the quilt.

the best one (also, the first one)
I am just doing lines around the outside of each comic, and across the page breaks
and when the comic is large enough, like this one, outlining the mountain as well.

It was both harder and easier than I thought.  Harder, because I keep forgetting how much more difficult it is to move a huge bed quilt around under the needle vs. a small little baby quilt or a pot holder or something. This quilt is heavy, and with all of that bulk everywhere, it's not so easy to push it and pull it to and fro. Front to back is easy enough, but sideways, especially when pulling left to right (thus creating more bulk in the small neck of the machine, which is already rather full with nearly half the quilt shoved in there....) was difficult. Near the end I decided I could do zig zags, which were actually much easier than just dragging a straight line. I'll be doing that more and more on the remaining comic strip squares, I'm sure.

next-best. this smaller one wound up a bit more poofy
.....and a few squiggles and wiggles and bumps....

On the other hand, it was easier than I thought. My only foray into FMQ'ing prior to this was trying to do cute, decorative, scrolly hearts. FMQ'ing straight(ish) lines is much easier. Much. Not that my lines stayed straight, at all, but then since I'm going to use decorative stitches for the main quilting, I'm hoping the lack of straightness won't be a huge deal. I hope.

took this one at an angle, sorry; this shows the zig-zags.
Much easier to do. Much. 

Forced breaks and all, I managed to finish 7 of the 14 comic strip blocks. Wow!! I feel like I am making really good progress on this quilt, and I'm excited and more confident now that I have those blocks done. Instead of dreading the rest, I'm now looking forward to it. Yay! Maybe a finished quilt by the weekend, depending on whether or not life allows me sewing time this week.

Can't wait to show off the finished quilt!

No More Stalling: Ready to Quilt!

I spent a lot of time over the weekend stalling, working on any & every small project I could think of. Not because I was in the mood to sew, but because I was scared out of my mind to start quilting The Comic Strip Quilt.

For one thing, it's the biggest project I've ever done. Until now, I've only quilted a baby quilt and a Christmas tree skirt. And now I'm trying a queen sized bed quilt. On my little home machine, with bare-bones features. And I thought I'd have to use my tiny table, which you can see in the photo, but luckily my husband is a generous and understanding guy and has agreed to let me use the big dining table (seen in the earlier denim place mats post) and we'll eat on the small table until the quilt is done. Whew!

Small projects finished, table arranged, quilt plan figured out --- it's time. No more stalling. Time to start quilting.

So, over the weekend I laid it all out, pieced the backing fabric together, pieced the batting together, shoved all the furniture out of the way and spread out the top. I got things as smooth as I could, probably still not smooth enough, and pinned and pinned and pinned until I ran out of pins. I hope it holds together long enough to get the stabilizing stitches in. I seriously need to invest in more pins, and the right kind for this job. Or spray basting stuff. Or something.

all laid out, ready to go

I had a slight moment of almost panic, seeing it all laid out like that. It is huge. Seriously gigantic. I didn't measure it after I put the last borders on, but it winds up around 82" x 92" or so. Wow. Still, I'm finally to a point where I'm excited to get going and finish it, rather than overwhelmed by the idea. It's something amazing, seeing a quilt I designed getting so near to completion. Wow.

The plan is this:

1. Stitch in the ditch along all the vertical seams, then all the horizontal seams, to stabilize the quilt. By "all" I mean the ones between sections, not necessarily each individual seam in the rail fence blocks.
2. Using my FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) foot and feed dogs down, outline the comic strips. This is just straight lines, but with feed dogs down I can move the quilt instead of having to pivot and wrestle the thing through the neck of the sewing machine. 
3. Still using FMQ, and a switch to red thread in the top, echo quilt inside the red frame pieces. Again, straight lines, but using FMQ so that I can move the quilt without pivoting. 
4. Turn the quilt horizontal and go back to the walking foot to straight line quilt it, edge to edge. In the black section I will use one stitch type and in the white section a different stitch type, to emphasize the interlocking aspect of the design. When I say edge to edge, I am excluding the borders. 
5. Border quilting. I am not 100% sure what I'll do here. In the pieced portion of the border, I'll just do straight lines that echo the edge of the quilt, but in the narrow "solid" borders on either side of the pieced border, I'm not sure if I'll do that or something more interesting. I'll figure that part out when I get there, unless someone has suggestions. Ideas? Anyone? 
6. If needed, I will then do any fill-in work around the comics. I'm not sure if it will need it or not, and won't know until I see how densely the rest of the quilt gets quilted, etc. We'll see. 

Whew. Sounds like a lot, but breaking it down into steps really helps me feel less overwhelmed. One step at a time, and it will be done. I can't wait to come back and show you pictures of the finished product! I hope you'll come back to see it when it's done. 

Almost There!! Comic Strip Quilt Update....

I've made some more progress, and I just have to show it off!

Over this past week, I got all the pairs of comics joined into one section for the Comic Strip Quilt, then got all three sections (black on the left, comics in the middle, white on the right) joined into one quilt top. Wow. So much work!!

Then I pieced together an insanely long strip of 2.5" wide grays and blacks, of varying lengths, until I had more than enough to become the inner and outer borders for the quilt top. I separated the blacks from the grays, but did no other planning than that. Then I just picked up one gray strip, grabbed a black strip from the other pile, joined them diagonally, and just kept repeating that black, gray, black, gray until I had all the strips joined and one massively long strip.

To make the borders, then, I measured across in three places in each direction to come up with the length I needed, then marked that length off on the floor, unrolled my strip of black & gray scrappiness, and cut to length. Two of each length, one for each side of the quilt. I will do this again when I'm ready for the outer borders.

Once cut, I laid out the whole quilt top, took the two side border strips and pinned each one in place. Lots and lots of pins. Then I rolled one edge in towards the other, carried my rolled quilt and set about attaching the borders to the quilt top.  Not having a proper sewing table, I make do by draping the quilt over my shoulder....if anyone has tips for some other method that might work, let me know! This is my first time piecing such a long/large quilt by machine, so I'm still figuring out what works and what doesn't.

yes, this really is my sewing space....hopefully will shop for a table, soon.
see the lovely "shoulder drape method"? anyone have tips for better ways to do this???

close-up showing how I guide the heavy part of the quilt with my outside hand,
and use my inside hand to keep the border & quilt top raw edges lined up as best I can.
I still had to go over three spots (total, from all four sides) where one or the other had shifted and the stitches hadn't caught the bottom layer. Oops. Tips for that????

Once I had the side borders on, I repeated the process for the top & bottom inner border, sewed, then laid out the quilt again so I can measure for the pieced border which will go on next. I've got to do some additional piecing on those before I can put them on, but doesn't it look great so far?! I'm still amazed it is actually turning out like the picture...the picture I designed & drew. Crazy!!!

quilt top & inner border, ready for measuring
I love how on 3 of the 4 corners, the fabrics lined up to look like it was on purpose.
It wasn't. The fabrics that seem to turn the corner, total accident.
A happy one, but an accident just the same :) 

How do you handle large projects? Have any tips for this newbie? 

Coming Together!

I am so excited about this project! It's not done yet, but it is getting closer and closer by the day! I hope to have a finished quilt top by Friday of this week. -squeee!-  We'll see how my week goes; juggling mom duties, home school duties, household duties and sewing can sometimes be challenging. I've made some serious progress today, though, so taking a break to show you!

If you are just jumping in here, you can follow the tags for "comic strip quilt" and read more about how this idea came to be.

This weekend, I *finally* had the time, desire, charged camera batteries and decent outdoor lighting to go ahead and print the comics onto the fabric sheets. I have really been stalling about this part, because it's very much a point of no return. I live in S. America, and these 10 sheets of printable fabric were roughly $50 when I bought them in the US a while ago. If anything had gone wrong while printing these.....I'd be stuck. I have never seen printables for sale here where I live. So, I stalled.

However, I now have enough of the rest of the quilt done that I had no more excuses. The black section is done. The white section is done. The strips are cut that will be the inner & outer narrow borders. Three of the four sides of the pieced border (left, top, and right) are done. The frame pieces are sewn, waiting for squares of comic strip to frame. See, out of excuses.

my EQ7 design for this quilt

Friday I took the pictures and edited them from hastily snapped photos of pencil drawings into dramatic looking comic strip collages. I increased the contrast & saturation, turned them all black & white except for one (because I had turquoise picnic table showing in some of the corners...), added a comic strip effect & a HDMR-ish (or something like that) effect, and then made them each into a collage so that even the single-frame sheets would have a black frame around the edges. Whew! Once I got the first comic edited, the rest were easy as I just repeated the process, using the same settings for each one. Thank goodness for free editing software!

close-up of a few of the comic collages

This weekend I began the oh-so-lovely dance of printing the comics. My ancient printer did not so much enjoy printing on "just like paper" printable fabric; the sheets kept wanting to get stuck just at the top of the printer rollers, and then that would make my printer stop talking to my computer and it was a huge, nerve-wracking pain in the rear. I may have shed some tears as I threw my hands up in frustration when, three comics left to print, all the tricks stopped working and the printer just would.not.take. another fabric sheet.

the comics, on fabric, ready to go

This morning, though, I was determined. I looked up tips & cheats and discovered that if you cut off the corners, it can sometimes trick your printer into taking the sheet. I tried, and with only a little further persuasion, it worked. The last three comics printed, I finally -- finally! -- began sewing the frames on.

all the pieces, nice & organized

first pair done, only 4 more pair (8 more frames) to go.
Yes, a new sewing table IS on my wish list, why do you ask??

Now, you should know something here. I am very much NOT a perfectionist. The blocks are meant to finish at 12" square; the center square inside the frame, then, is 9 inches.  Except, printer paper is 8.5" x 11", which means that my comics are 8.5" square, unfinished, instead of 9.25" or 9.5" like they should be. Which means that my middle section will be a bit off from my outside sections, but I am not thinking that far in advance yet. Since I am not a perfectionist, I figure things can be trimmed, or red sashing added, or something. I'll figure it out.

see how the top "blank" squares are larger? And you can't tell,
but that pair is folded over at the seam so it looks the right size. It's not.
Somehow, shrinking the squares made the pairs only a little shorter but a LOT narrower.

Now, even though I'm not a perfectionist, I'm also not totally crazy, so I've paired the comics but not sewn the rows together yet. I will figure out the necessary math so that the middle winds up closer to right, then I'll figure out a solution, and then I'll sew. Disclaimers aside, here's the top-in-progress, all laid out, ready (almost) to go.

Black section is complete. White section is complete. Pieced borders shown are complete.
Middle section is just separate rows of pairs (and lacks one row; the B & W each have 1 row tucked under for the photo)
Still, not much left to go! Looks surprisingly close to the EQ7 print-out!!! Wow!!

Worth every ounce of frustration, wouldn't you say?

And now, for some fabric....

The day I took my machine to the machine doctor, I also got to pick out some quilt fabric as my Mother's Day surprise. I wasn't expecting The Chemist to pay for my selections, so I was a bit more conservative than I might have been otherwise.....maybe that was his plan all along!

I got a few "just for fun" fat quarters (small pieces of fabric that are a quarter-yard, cut wide instead of long) (or something like that....), but the fabric I'm going to show you today I got meters and meters of!

First, I chose this for the back of The Writer's quilt -- perfectly fun & funky for a teenage boy, I think, and busy enough to hide what I'm sure will be imperfect quilting stitches when I reach that stage of things.

The Writer loves it.
Said it reminds him of puzzle pieces. Which makes him think of Lego. Which makes him think of Minecraft.
Which all makes me smile, because my brain makes the same seemingly random jumps & connections.

And then....then I saw this. My eyes nearly popped, my jaw hit the floor, and I knew I had to have it.

The sidewalks of Brazil, in fabric.
Which just so happens to be what inspired my entire "coming soon" Brazil quilt.
The sidewalks, I mean, not this fabric.
Match made in heaven, I tell you. 

This, my friends, is a rendering in fabric of the sidewalk pattern that is so famous here and seen alongside nearly every street I've ever walked in all of Brazil.

This, my friends, is the exact pattern that inspired my Brazil Quilt design. This, my friends, is serendipity at its finest, the perfect fabric to back my Brazil Quilt, when it ever gets its turn to be made.

I will likely tea (or more likely, coffee) dye it so that it becomes off-white/beige/tan instead of stark white, but other than that it is absolutely perfect. I was, am, so excited to find this! My crafty-sewing-quilting friends will get it; I hope all of you understand.

Have you ever found something that you knew you "just had to have"? What was it? How did you know? 

Christmas in May

Some people who love me (they know who they are) sent me a package last week. I knew the package was coming, and what was in it, and I was anxious for it to arrive. When it did, I disappeared into the computer for a few days, coming out only to feed and clothe my family (or so they tell me) while I played with my new gift.

Two days later I remembered to call the gift-givers and let them know the package arrived safely and I was having fun with it. Not the most prompt thank you ever given, but it's not my fault I was distracted.

What did they send me? Only the most amazing quilt designing software ever, called EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7).

This software is amazing. Let me just say that again -- Amazing. Basically, this program takes all the math and technical aspect out of the equation and just lets me create. I can even draw my own blocks and designs, with never a care to "If I make this piece this big, then what size does this need to be?" and so forth and so on. No maddening graph paper and pencil and calculations. Just drawing, and pointing and clicking. From my heart and head to the computer, in a few clicks. And from there, all the information I need to go from drawing to sewing, all the fabric calculations done for me. Amazing.

To put it another way, it lets me do this:

...And Read All Over
the final layout for The Writer's comic strip quilt
(except the red parts of the border will be centered...)

Flora and Fauna
a design I played with for a website challenge

and, last but not least, The Brazil Quilt
I'm not 100% sure of the final coloring, but this is the quilt I've been drawing for ages,
based on the cobblestone sidewalk designs here.

Like I said, amazing. I've never been so happy to receive a Christmas gift seven months early. Thanks again to the gift givers!

One-third + one-sixth + one-half = Progress!

I'm working on three different quilt projects right now, and I'm at a good progress point for updating on all three. yay!

The first is the still on-going Diary Quilt; I'm busy adding what are called setting triangles to all the blocks I finished earlier. What that means is I take each small square and put a triangle on each side so that each block becomes a square within a square. I of course do not have pictures of this yet, because my camera batteries are, as ever, dead. But, I'm done with half the blocks! Yay!!!

The second is the Comic Strip Quilt for The Writer. He created this hilarious comic strip, Mt. NeverRest, when he was quite young; maybe 9 years old? I forget. Simple but so funny. In an effort to preserve his comics for him, I decided to turn them into a quilt. I bought printable fabric and will photograph several of his comic strips, print on the fabric and they'll make up the middle of the quilt.

The outside of the quilt will be in all blacks (on the left) and all white (on the right). The middle two columns (it will be 6 columns total) will alternate white and black, so that the overall look is interlocking teeth, similar to this design:

Which is Which quilt, by Mamacjt
originally seen on Pinterest, traced back to
this Flickr photostream (though not that page)
The maker of this quilt knows I'm inspired by hers and making my own, altered, version.

Today I finished assembling all the black squares. Hooray! That's one-third of the blocks, ready to go. They aren't joined yet but just having the blocks done is a big accomplishment for me. Each block is roughly 12x12, just to give you an idea of size.

for the Comic Strip Quilt
this will be the left third of the quilt when done

The third project is the Argyle Baby Quilt; I showed you recently the first column full of triangle pairs. I've finished another column's worth of triangle pairs since then. Woot! Making progress! It's a fun little project to work on, as the little triangles go together quickly.

I'm debating how to back it -- I originally bought enough of the lavender dot fabric to be the backing, but over the weekend I saw a lavender microfiber/microplush baby blanket that is the right size & color to serve as backing if I want. I'm researching how hard or easy it would be to use that, and thinking it over. On the one hand, it might make it more likely to be used, which is a good thing. On the other hand, I'm reading that it can be finicky fabric to work with, which is not so good. So, mulling it over. Anyone have thoughts on that? I believe it will behave similar to minky fabric, if that helps you. 

Today I'll be starting the white squares for the Comic Strip Quilt. Cold weather has arrived with a vengeance here, and I'd hoped to have the quilt done for The Writer at least before the end of our winter. Must get moving! The Diary Quilt has no deadline whatsoever, as it's just for me, and the Argyle Baby Quilt doesn't need to be finished until September-ish or maybe August, so I'm bumping the Comic Strip Quilt up in the line and working full speed ahead on getting that finished for my boy. Wish me luck! I do so want it to be done in time for him to enjoy it this winter!

Time to get to work! Happy Thursday, everyone!

Quick Quilting Update

My project list is far greater than my skill level, amount of available time, or fabric budget. In fact, my project list is probably greater than all three of those other things combined. I have very clear ideas, visions, in my head of what each of these future quilts ought to look like, and very little idea of how to get them from my head onto paper and into fabric.  Luckily for me, people who love me are sending a present my way that should help with that part. (thanks, guys!)

Because part of my problem is fear which causes me to procrastinate and not start on stuff, I'm going to briefly (ha!) outline each one of the projects here. This way, I have to start them sooner or later. And you guys can pester me for updates to make sure I do.

In no particular order, the stuff in my "to make some day" idea folder....

The Brazil Quilt -- this one is completely my design, and will be based on the cobblestone mosaic patterns of the sidewalks in Brazil. The center will be a typical flower design, with the side borders (there is no top/bottom border) being the famous wave pattern. There will also be a bird or two, and probably some little favela in the corner. It will divide on the diagonal, top left to bottom right; the left/bottom will be in the colors of the sidewalks -- blacks, beiges, creams, tans. The right/top will be in the colors of nature -- blues for the waves, bright tropical colors in the flower, etc.  So far I have a rough sketch and have bought all the fabric for the quilt top.

The Writer's Quilt -- this will be the one I work on first, and is in fact already started. We'll highlight some of his own work (a comic strip he created), printed on fabric sheets that are 8 x 11. Each of those will be framed out in red, and the rest of the quilt will be black & white, with a pieced border in grays. The design will be oversized rail fence blocks; one side in all blacks, the other side in all whites, but the sides will interlock. The middle 2 columns will showcase the comic strip, and the seams where the halves interlock will be outlined in red. I was inspired by this quilt and then adapted it to fit. So far I have 5 of the black rail fence blocks done.

black rail fence blocks; laid out, not sewn
this is what 4 blocks will look like put together; each block is around 12 x 12

what the white ones will look like
same as above, not sewn yet, just laid out, 4 blocks, each 12x12

The Storybook Quilt -- this is way way way down the list, but it's going to be amazing when I ever get to do it. Simple rows, straight across like a bookshelf. The bottom row -- scenes from children's books, things like Goodnight Moon and that sort of thing. The top row -- scenes from grown-up books, like Lord of the Rings. Along the way, we'll visit Harry Potter, Narnia, the If You Give a.... series, and I'm really not sure what all else. I'm sure Pooh will be there somewhere. And probably a Mockingjay. At the bottom left I'll have a tiny caterpillar, cut from the trademarked Eric Carle Hungry Caterpillar fabric; at the top right, the butterfly from same. He'll munch his way through the books; a Books quilt block will separate each scene. I've got a few rough sketches of this, but I'm sure it will change and grow as my boys discover old favorites and introduce me to new ones. I have no idea how to execute this quilt, which is why it's in perpetual last on my list of quilts to make.

The Artist's T-Shirt Quilt -- The Artist gets attached to his shirts, particularly souvenir type shirts. He hates outgrowing them, because they have to be removed from his closet. So I told him about t-shirt quilts, and a pile is growing in the sewing room. When there are enough shirts there, I'll make this quilt for him using Jules' favorite t-shirt quilt pattern.

The Argyle Baby Quilt -- I've designed a baby quilt, inspired by a pair of socks, and prompted by a baby quilt contest. Only, I couldn't bear to spend the money on fabrics for a quilt with no recipient in mind so I am not entering the contest. Still, I'm excited by the design and just waiting for a family member to find out what she's having so I can go buy either pinks or blues. The quilt will be pieced, and more detailed than this drawing, but here's a basic drawing I did in paint. Colors subject to change depending on baby's gender. Quilters, I plan to do this by strip piecing and then cutting the strips into diamond shapes (or, squares but turned on the diagonal). The argyle fine line in the main feature will be either ribbon or rick-rack, depending if said family member is having a girl or a boy.

background will be a soft pink, not dull yellow
not sure the color for the ribbon/rick-rack
and if relative is having a boy, will be a soft green with dark blue & green.
Something like that. Will not be solid, but pieced from a few fabrics in the background color.

Some kind of Quilt for The Adventurer -- I want to do a quilt for each boy, but The Adventurer has no idea and neither do I. Maybe something Nintendo themed. Or fish/swimming themed. We'll see. Since we've neither one of us got any idea, his will come after The Writer's and The Artist's.

The Artist's Main Quilt -- I know I already said about the Artist's t-shirt quilt, but that's a years-later thing; I also want to do him a now quilt, probably cat themed or a simpler adaptation of the storybook quilt. He asked for something based on Warriors, a cat-themed book series, so I'm brainstorming and trying to come up with something he'll like yet not quite so specific to one particular book. He's my little bookworm, so hoping to talk him into something broader. We'll see. He is also the cat lover of the family, so cats work well for him too. His will be after The Writer's quilt, and maybe after The Brazil Quilt depending on if I figure out what The Artist wants before then or not.

A Songs series -- I made a small wall hanging as a gift for someone, based on a song that I love. I'd like to make a 2nd version of that for myself, and am debating doing this as a series of wall hangings based on other songs as well, or as blocks to fit into the border of the Diary Quilt, or as a separate lap quilt in & of itself. Still toying with that idea; we'll see what shape it takes.

And I still have to finish the Diary Quilt. Blocks are done, which I need to finish showcasing here, and I'm adding the setting triangles to turn them into the right size for the quilt size I want. I'll be finishing this one by hand, so it's easy to work on between other projects.

That's my list, so far. My goal is to have The Writer's quilt done by our winter -- June-ish. I'm not sure I'll make it, but we'll see. The blocks go together quickly, it's the finishing up that worries me. I've still never quilted a quilt before, so.....wish me luck. And keep asking how things are going. I need the accountability if I'm ever going to get any of these done.

Stroke of Genius

First let me say I've been spending some time over at Pinterest.  Are you familiar with this? It's a virtual bulletin board, so that you can pin things that you want to remember instead of loading up your favorites or bookmarks. This is especially helpful for those things that are more just good ideas, not necessarily a whole website you want to bookmark.

You can also search through other boards and get ideas that way.

I've been using mine trying to find decorating ideas for the new house, and quilting ideas. Yesterday I spent a large portion of the day shopping my favorite  on-line fabric store (the Fat Quarter Shop) for fabrics that will work for the 4 or 5 quilt ideas I have rattling around in my brain. I made a separate board at Pinterest for each quilt idea, sort of a virtual design board so I can preview what all the fabrics will look like together, before I buy them. Will they work? Do the colors or patterns clash? Is it a harmonious grouping? Now I can answer that without buying the fabric, without leaving my chair. Then I can use the board, open in one tab, to fill my shopping cart in another tab. Beautiful.

Last night I made The Chemist look at all of the fabric finds. He was not quite as excited as I was, for some reason. But he did talk with me about the ideas, this quilt for that person, etc. and give me some direction on what project to start next.  Next being "after I finally ever finish the Diary Quilt" sometime next year.

And then I had it. The stroke of genius.

I've seen on Pinterest this great idea for saving kids' artwork --- take a photo of each drawing you want to save. Use your photo editing software or on-line photo ordering service to turn the photos into a large (poster sized if you like) photo collage, showcasing all the drawings in one piece to display. Brilliant.

example of collages of artwork
taken from my Pinterest board

I've also seen loads of printing on fabric, or iron-on image transfers, and beautiful quilts using these techniques.

example of printing on fabric
taken from Pinterest search results

Are you following me? Do you see where my mind went? I mean, it's obvious, right? Take the photos. Print them onto sheets of fabric (original size if you like, since you'll be making a bed sized quilt from it) or iron-ons. Assemble the fabric prints of your child's original artwork into a quilt.

something a little bit like this, but bed sized
image from Pinterest search results

I mean, it's genius, right??

The Writer has a whole stack of cartoons he's drawn, so those will become his quilt. He's even thinking about drawing new ones just for the quilt.  The Artist will be given the choice between an artwork quilt, a t-shirt quilt, some other random quilt, or any combination of the two (bunk beds....I feel compelled to make him 2 quilts for his room.....). The Adventurer will likely get a Mario themed quilt, with some of his Mario drawings mixed in. I can hardly wait to get started.

Now I just have to figure out the best way to get photos onto fabric....

(oh, and we move soon. We'll probably lose internet for at least a little while after that; hopefully not as long as last time. I'll post when we're back on-line.....)