If you don’t like where a project is going, it’s okay to grab the seam ripper and start over. It’s a lesson I had to remind myself of yesterday. Sunday afternoon I started quilting on the Kona HST quilt in my WIP pile.
I had been contemplating the quilting design and decided to just move forward with it. Starting with an offset triangle and following that design around. All was well until I had to change the bobbin. Something wasn’t right after I changed it. New thread? The tension is off? Fingers crossed it isn’t something more, like the timing.
Working on the quilted triangles I started to question my original idea. After taking a few hours away from the machine, I couldn’t shake that feeling that it wasn’t right.
Yesterday some frantic texts were shared with Rachael to get a second opinion. She agreed with my assessment. It’s okay, but not exactly right. Notice those evenly spaced horizontal lines? That’s where I want this design to go.
Last night I grabbed my trusty seam ripper and started busting up the stitches. The first row was painful. As I went on taking out the quilting became satisfying. Taking out what I didn’t feel was the right design is time consuming. Ultimately, I will be happier with the finished product. For now, this sits in my sewing space waiting for me to get home from work.
Do you have any projects that you’ve taken the seam ripper to? If so, how did you feel after?
Has a concert ever left you energized and full of creative ideas? When we saw The Head and The Heart in February, it gave me the inspiration for my Creative Rockstar Challenge quilt. Prior to the concert I had received these fabrics from Riley Blake to use to create a quilt. I had been mulling over ideas since I received the fabric, but nothing was really sticking.
via BrewStitched on etsy.com
The fabrics in this line were more my style than previous challenges. There are some great basics in there.
Okay, let me get back to night of the concert and walk you through my design process. We got to the venue early and realized we had amazing seats. The whole back drop was appealing and when the lights were illuminated it was stunning. It reminded me of 80’s Miami Vice almost. During one song the quilt idea just started coming to me. I grabbed my phone and took a video so I could remember the moment.
La-la-la-la was the perfect inspiration to bring these fabrics together. As they sang I started to see the quilt come together.
Rather than the glowing orbs on stage, I was seeing stars and the word la all over. It was exhilarating and my energy was high post inspiration. After leaving the concert I was inspired and drew the idea out, then sat on it for a couple of days. After a couple of days I was still very drawn to this idea and needed to see it come together. BrewStitched had most of the Riley Blake Creative Rockstar fabric in stock.
I picked these up to round out my quilt’s idea. The black for the background and gray for the binding. Oh yeah, those leaves for something else I’m working on.
Without further ado, here is the finished quilt.
It reminds me of the backdrop and it’s pretty close to my original idea. I always wash and dry my quilts before pictures, especially if I plan to sell it later. It’s the best way to check for errors. Well, I had a few errors crop up. The heat bond didn’t stick as well on the back of the letters and stars. Rather than zig zag stitch them down, I just ironed and quilted. For longevity it needs to be more secure. Luckily, I had some embroidery floss sitting around and went back in to hand quilt the stars and la(s). It feels softer by adding the hand quilting and pretty successful for my first go round with the method. There may have been some frantic texts to a friend about how in the world to hand quilt. I got over my fear of screwing it up and just went for it.
The backing fabric really pulls all the colors together from the quilt. As I was shopping for fabric, this fabric really caught my eye, it blends all the colors I wanted to use and helped me pick gray for the binding. Guys, that is hand stitched binding too.
This is going to make a wonderful shower gift or new baby gift for someone. You can see the listing on Etsy here. SOLD
If you’ve never heard All We Ever Knew in it’s entirety, it is below. Enjoy.
Lora Waggoner, my great grandmother, was quite the quilter. I have admired her Trip Around the World quilt since I was a child. My grandma, Mary Roberts, held on to these treasures and shared them with me from a young age. She had me reciting my ABCs and 123s at a sewing machine. It’s a fond early memory I have.
I am unsure how old the blocks are, but I’m excited to share with all of you these four generation blocks. The finished product has my touch on it. If it is going to hang in my house, I needed to enjoy the process.
For the quilting I wanted it to be simple straight lines. White was the color that won. Someone suggested something bold like yellow or blue. I promise something is coming with bold quilting.
Years ago I wanted to do something with these blocks from my great grandmother. I wanted my grandma to sew two blocks together, my mom sew two, and then I would sew the four together. My grandma’s hands were not able to do as much and her health deteriorated before I could organize what I wanted. Plus, her memory was slipping and it was harder for me to visit.
In doing some research, I may have found the block pattern Lora used. Still not 100% positive and need to do further research.
The backing being from my mother in law is a nice touch. Going to add a label with all the women involved and the completed year.
Funny that I had in mind EXACTLY what I wanted to do with these Kona charm packs I picked up a while back. The vision was clear and the finished project looked amazing in my mind. As I started to lay out the charm squares for a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt I hated it. This design was not coming together like my vision.
I walked away from it and went to work on Spring Granny Squares. An idea struck to create half square triangles. Hmmm, that could work. I grabbed my Hera Marker and started marking. If you don’t have a Hera Marker, get one. Add it to your quilty items wishlist or it’s a great stocking stuffer. Every quilter should have one and it’s a time saving when marking half square triangles.
After marking everything it’s pretty easy to just sit down and chain piece. I find it therapeutic to just piece and have the machine humming along. While working on this I binged on Frankie and Grace on Netflix. Great laughs to get through pressing and trimming too.
Once the blocks were trimmed I started on layout number two. Randomly laid out half square triangles and it just wasn’t right either. During the quilt retreat one version of the V&Co HST quilt was similar to a flying geese layout. Hmm, would that work?
This layout took some shuffling around to balance it out and make it work. Each row has a couple of blocks that form more of an arrow. At this size it’s a small baby quilt, so I grabbed some solid gray from stash. It matched one of the lighter grays perfectly. The finished look is more offset which I really like.
The quilting on this has me stumped. I have had some wonderful suggestions so far. Hopefully there is time this week to just sit down and quilt. Much like the design aspect of this quilt, I’m sure there will be a couple of versions tried before I decide to keep it.
Do you have any quilting ideas for this one? Leave them in the comments.
Over the years I have contemplated what to do with these lovely blocks that my great grandmother stitched by hand. My grandma let me play with them as a child and build my sewing skills by sewing these together. Maybe I was scared or nervous that I wouldn’t do these blocks justice? How could I finish her work? Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago and then some free time over the weekend made it happen.
First, I had to rip out the stitching I had already done. The stitching was not great, it was wonky and some spots were dense, but it adds to the story of this project. As the stitches were being taken out I noticed the blocks weren’t the same size and would need to be trimmed to use in a project.
The trimmings made a lovely little pile of color.
To fully utilize the blocks, I wanted to make a wall hanging. We have a couple of spots in the living and dining room that could use some art. Until this weekend I was going to hand sew the blocks and finish with hand quilting. My thoughts were changed since that is not my style. If I’m going to create with these blocks, I need to put my touch on them.
Machine sewing and quilting.
The top is lovely. Once it’s quilted I’m going to hand wash in some blue Dawn to help take out some of the staining.
The backing from my vintage sheet collection. It’s one of my mother in law’s, so blending both families together.
I’m going to straight line quilt this and I’m stumped. Leave your feedback on thread color choices.
I say almost for one reason. There is one more row to add based on the pattern. However, I like the quilt just the way it is. I think more dark gray will change the look. When I pulled the fabrics I liked the idea. Now I want the quilt to be a bit softer in the gradient of color.
Would you add the row or just leave it?
Maybe I’m too lazy to continue? That could be part of the challenge. Paper piecing gives amazing results within a quilt, but is so much work. You can’t chain piece with this method, or I haven’t figured out a practical way to do it yet.
I have pieced the backing and now I just need to baste this quilt. Well PRESS the heck out of it with starch so it lays flat, then baste it.
While this quilt may look complex Amy makes it easy to create this wonderful piece. She has a great selection of paper pieced patterns in her book, Paper Pieced Modern: 13 Stunning Quilts. It’s a book that I recommend to any quilter to add to their collection. The technique she teaches will help you with your paper piecing as well.
You can read about the workshop the IMQG hosted with Amy back in September in this post. Basting this quilt is part of my March action items. I’ve got this, now bring on the starch!
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