Cross & Crown Completion

I finished my "snow days" project that I started in February. I bought a copy of McCall's Quilting magazine at Barnes & Noble (having allowed my subscription to lapse, deliberately, in an attempt to cut down on paper, I immediately went out and paid magazine stand prices...), and immediately fell in love with Sandra Clemons's design in the March/April 2015 issue.

I had ordered this lovely fat quarter bundle of Lakeside Gatherings by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings for Moda Fabrics during the holiday sales from Judi Madsen's site Green Fairy Quilts, and I'd been itching for the right project to cut it up. These colors are actually my daughter's choice in decor, but as much as she keeps trying to claim this quilt, it's for me and my master bedroom. Our old log cabin quilt is sad and tired.

There are only three prints in this yellow in the line, so I decided to feature them in the centers of all the grays, navy blues, beige and black. These tiny 1.5" squares were fun to cut from the three fat quarters I had in the bundle.

 I made a test block to see how long it would take me to piece the quilt. It took over an hour for one block, so I thought, "Oh, well, it'll speed up when I start chain piecing!" Shows you what I know.

I cut a huge stack of 3.25" squares to make all the quarter-square star points. It turned out I'd cut enough from my bundle (even after eliminating all the lightest fat quarters) to make my quilt, plus a lap quilt for my daughter, assuming I get around to making 20 more blocks.

This is the first quilt I've pieced from beginning to end on my "new" Featherweight, Amelia. My sweet hubby found her on Craigslist and flew me to pick her up in our airplane on an adventure one morning a couple of months ago, then tuned it up for me. It's handy being married to both a pilot and a mechanic...and all-around genius.

I chained five blocks through together, and it took about six hours. "That can't be right."

So I decided to piece twelve blocks at once...and thirteen hours later, I thought, "Why isn't this going faster?!?"

Okay, so now I'll do 28 at one time! Surely I can do that in no time...

At least we were snowed in fully, so I felt no guilt when I sewed for two days straight...in my pajamas.

Finally, I had 73 blocks sewn, so I played around with the layout, and started putting them together in rows with 1.5" lattice between them.

I have no complaints about this machine. This Featherweight is a rock star...but the operator has to be smart enough to notice when the bobbin runs out. I was so spoiled. The bobbin holds SO MUCH Aurifil thread that I felt like I sewed forever between winding a new bobbin.

I used up my extra pieces as some "leaders and enders" when I was sewing, and ended up with several nine patches, four patches, and extra parts leftover. I can't wait to see what else I make with this line of fabric. It's just so pretty and fun to sew with!

Finally got my top together! I was between customer projects (don't forget I also quilted ten customer projects in this same span of time!), so I decided to quickly slip my own quilt into the frame over the weekend...

I purchased this "Baptist Swirl" pattern a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to convince any of my clients to choose it for their projects yet, so I decided to use it on mine. I love the traditional with an edge of modern the little swirl in the center yields. It quilted up like a dream. I began quilting on Friday the 13th (because I'm not superstitious) and ended on Pi Day! I got my binding made, and ready to go, but saved that for Monday afternoon.

Okay, here's the thing. I either make WAAAAAY too much binding, or not nearly enough. It's been a long time since I pieced "not quite" enough binding. So, I cut another strip and pieced it in...but honestly...what a pain.

I prefer to topstitch my bindings now, after 23 years of hand stitching them on the back of the quilt. It seems silly to finish by hand when I've machine pieced, machine quilted and machine bound the whole thing. So now I do it all by machine, and it's that much more durable for the washing machine. I just use a few straight pins to hold everything in place as I stitch up to the pin, going about 3" at a time. My quarter inch piecing foot on the Featherweight holds things well enough. I was determined not to pull my Bernina out for even the binding on this one.

 My version of Cross & Crown finished 87x97" and was pieced with 72 9-inch Cross & Crown blocks in Lakeside Gatherings line of fabric (Moda Fabrics) on Kona Snow with Aurifil 2021. I quilted it with bamboo batting, Dit Dot Flannel on the backing, with Glide Lemon Ice thread in Baptist Swirl.

Thanks for checking out my pictures! Please feel free to follow my Facebook page at Island Time Quilting or to follow my Instagram or Twitter at lwmillsap.

Cross and Crown

I'm working on a new quilt, designed by Sandra Clemons in the March/April 2015 McCall's Quilting magazine, called "Cross & Crown." It's been great fun to chain through my Featherweight.

Tiny squares of yellow from the beautiful line of fabrics "Lakeside Gatherings" for Moda Fabrics will add the pop of color in my centers.

I'm planning to make seventy-two blocks, but apparently cut enough to make more than one hundred! I suppose it's good my daughter loves this fabric, too.

Snow days became sew days this week!

What are you sewing? 

Lori

More Quilting, Less Writing

It's so hard for me to believe how time just dashes by over my quilt frame and running around my busy life! I'm sure you have found it to be the same at your house, particularly as the holiday season launched into full swing.

October, November and December have been very busy as clients finished up presents. If you follow my Facebook page, Island Time Quilting, then you have watched lots of pretty pictures pop up as I quilted the most recent projects. Facebook is fantastic for fast updates, but you miss a lot of the "story" of each quilt. I'm going to highlight three of the most recent ones for you, and leave it to you to go see the others (and lots more pictures) at the page.

First, my good friend Chris had two beautiful Irish chain quilts that she had machine pieced but never quilted. A long-time hand piecer, the red and white quilt was her FIRST machine pieced top! It was a delight to quilt...very accurate piecing, really flat seams, and so traditional. I did a "modified" custom quilting job, which just means that I quilted each block separately, plus added a detailed border.

 First I quilted only the open white spaces, and we were initially planning a straight, ruler line in the chain to go very traditional in style, but then we saw how beautifully this block fit the pattern, and decided to quilt it in every block. So, I jumped back through the quilt with the nine-patch blocks on the second pass.

I quilted a straight leaf border to echo the leaf motif in the blocks on the long borders of this quilt. (I didn't really get a good picture of the border from the front of the quilt, I'm afraid.)

Chris liked this quilting pattern so much that we decided to do the same block on her Christmas version of this quilt, in red and green, but to dress up the border with feathers.

Both of these Irish chain quilts made me very jealous and I plan to make myself one very soon. Or two. Or ten. Just beautiful!!!

Next up, my Alpha Omicron Pi sister Alex is a modern quilter, and makes some beautiful quilts...and always picks the coolest quilting designs. This lovely quilt was made from quilting cottons plus cotton shirts that belonged to her grandfather, as a gift for her grandmother for Christmas. Alex found "Loop the Loop" on Urban Elementz, one of my favorite go-to places to buy digital designs for my computer. Loop the Loop worked GREAT on Alex's quilt, and I've used it to great effect on three other quilts since then! It's just a great pattern to stitch, and one I would have missed if Alex hadn't specifically requested it. I am always happy to download new designs at customer request, and find it helps expand my library of patterns without relying on "my taste" to pick them out. Here are a few pictures of Alex's quilt:

The back is a wonderful flannel that Alex said she purchased from Missouri Star Quilt Company. I have to say, I had flannel envy on this one...(sneaks off to buy even more fabric online...)

(Look how great Loop the Loop worked on another customer's quilt by checking out the album entitled CQ1433 Checkerboard Loop the Loop at my Facebook page!)

Finally, another "happy ending" on the frame recently is this lovely winter wonderland of a quilt that I called "Frosted Flakes," because I'm a dork and love to come up with silly names for quilts. Kelly is a repeat offender, er, client, who has made several beautiful quilts, but still considers herself a beginner. I loved her glittery winter fabrics in this one, and was so happy with the "Snow Winds" pantograph by Barbara Becker that I chose to quilt on it. It's a fantastic winter quilt!

There are several other recent finishes at the Facebook page, and a few other pictures of each of these quilts. Other activities from the last two and a half months include lots of Grams/Gingersnap time, eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new granddaughter (soon to be called "Gumdrop!"), a couple of visits to our daughter and son-in-law who have moved across the state, a roadtrip back home to Mississippi for Thanksgiving and to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary, many dates with my best friend, lots of Sugar Creek Quilters Monday nights at my house, and most of all, books read and naps taken.

Now I'm settling in to plan my 2015 calendar, which already includes two quilting training events in February and June, and several custom quilting commissions that I've undertaken...not to mention my own ever-increasing list of personal quilting projects yet to piece. A big event in March 2015 is the Greenville Quilters Guild Quilt Show March 20-21, 2015, where the guild raffle quilt will be given away. I was delighted to get to quilt our quilt, "After the Storm," this year with a simple modern quilting design to complement the gorgeous fabrics and piecing! Tickets are on sale now, so contact me if you want some!

Happy Quilting!

Lori