Autumn Chains is in The Final Issue of QQ

For the past few years, I have been fortunate to write an article called "Does It Work?" for the Quilting Quarterly which is the member magazine for the National Quilting Association.  In addition, two of my quilt patterns have been featured.

Recently, the NQA announced that it is disbanding, so the Fall 2015 issue is the final one to be published.

For the first couple of years, the "Does It Work?" articles featured products that I tested and reported the results of the test.  It was fun and I learned a lot.  The last two years, I have worked with a panel of 6 quilters from across the United States to do the testing, reporting their results to me. Then I compiled the results of the 6 testers into an article combining the comments from the testers.  Some times they agreed and sometimes they did not which made it very interesting. It was fun to work with these 6 quilters and get to know them through our correspondence as I had only met one of them in person.

Barbara Polston, a talented quilter in her own right has been the editor of the QQ for several years and was a delight to work with. Click on her name to go to her web site and see the exciting things she is doing.

The final issue of the magazine contains the last "Does It Work?" article. Our testers reported on basting glues.

This final issue also features my pattern Autumn Chains.  This quilt is a scrap quilt as most of mine are and is based on Single Irish Chain, a traditional block.  This past weekend, Autumn Chains started living on my bed for the next couple of months for that Fall feeling in the room.

You may remember that I began this quilt at one of the mini retreats at my friend's cottage in the woods a while back. You can see some of the progress here.  You may notice a glimpse of the quilting here.  The back is pieced and I shared that with you here.

The blocks are on point, so the setting triangles to complete each row are made up of half blocks giving the illusion of a border before the final border.  It is a huge quilt -- 100" x 100" and was quilted on my Bernina.  Huge quilts seem to be my default and are not easy to quilt on a domestic machine!

This photo was taken when the quilt was on the guest room bed.

While I am sad to see the end of the National Quilting Association and the opportunity to write articles for the Quilting Quarterly, it does mean that I can pursue other avenues of quilting and writing.  I do plan to start sharing with you some "Does It Work?" articles.  Some may be things I've already tested and I'm thinking of some other products that I might like to test and report on to you.

It is finally cooler in Arizona this week, meaning it's under 100 degrees, so let the Autumn begin even if it's later than the rest of the country!

Until Next Time

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Quilt Backs Can Be Beautiful Too!

There have been no idle hands in my house.  It seems there is always something waiting to be done.  In between painting about 150 clothespins for "birdie" legs and cutting out 220  birdies and 220 birdie wings. (Yes, I'll show you the final project one of these days.) I've been busy machine quilting.

I can only show you the back for now, but after it is published, I'll show you the front, too.

 

You have seen this back before it was quilted.  The bobbin thread is just a neutral ecru color since there were so many different pieces and colors of fabric in the back.  They do not match up with the blocks on the front so neutral was the way to go.  You can see the quilting better on the darker fabrics.

 

 

But I do like the relief you can see on the light sections, as well.

 

What I do not like is the border.  It is the rolling part you see on the lower edge of the above photo.  I think it is going to come out.  I know!  Hours of quilting, but before I put the stippling that was planned in, I need to be happy with what will be highlighted when the stippling recedes and the curves "pop".

 

What would you do?  Leave something you don't like or spend more hours picking it out?

 

 

You may see part of the problem with the border looking at this closer up photo of the dark blocks.  The border quilting is too small a scale now that the center is done.  I'm also not happy with the quality of the quilting in the border.  The border was quilted first because I thought it was what I wanted and I was still undecided on the interior.

 

Once the interior was finished, I decided the border just didn't cut it at all.

 

Can you see why now that you are looking at it again?  Yep, just not the right scale.  Sigh!  Where is that seam ripper?  I'd better get started.  Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike "unstitching" something?  It's my least favorite, but it's necessary sometimes.

Hope you are all beginning to experience some Fall weather.  Unfortunately it's still 104 degrees here today.  Won't be needing to use a quilt for a while yet!  Have an absolutely fabulous day!

 

Until next time!

 

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

 

 

 

Back Art Revisited

My mother often used a sheet as the back of a quilt.  At that time, there was no fabric 108" wide specifically made for quilt backs. She bought the sheets because she thought they were less expensive and they were big enough for the back.  I really don't know her little fingers could quilt through the layers as a sheet is quite dense and my mother always hand quilted her quilts.

When I started quilting, I was advised to always buy either 7 yards of fabric or 3 yards because with 7 yards, you could always use it for a back and 3 yards was enough for borders.  I followed that advise for a lot of years.  The result?  A huge stash of fabric!  After moving the stash across country a couple of times, I decided to ditch that advice.  I started buying only fat quarters except when I knew exactly what the fabric would be used for.  In fact, I called a moratorium on fabric purchases 5 years ago and with rare exceptions, have bought very little.  However, in the meantime, I've made several quilt tops from the stash trying to use a lot of it up!

For backs, I decided to follow my friend, Joyce's example and start piecing fabric together to make the back.  I've done it various ways, but here is how I did the latest back for a quilt I am making. You can see a couple of other backs I made here.

For this back, I looked to the fabric to guide me.  I had some pieces that had been cut from the back of a previous quilt and they were about 6" wide.  I also found some pieces that were 9" wide and cut rectangles from these pieces.  The rest of the fabric was wide enough to cut 10" strips or rectangles from them.

Next, I started laying the pieces out on the floor in the loft as the back needed to measure 106" inches approximately which is way bigger than my design board.  I laid out all the pieces before I started sewing the rectangles together into rows.  I measured, but not precisely each strip as it was sewn.  When joining the strips together, I just made sure that the top edges were even.  Since the back is quite a bit larger than the quilt top, the uneven edges can be trimmed as I square the quilt.

Part of the fun is using those fabrics that are sort of unique.  The horse fabric above was actually bought when I needed to applique some "hair" on angels and all the manes worked great for that.  There were a few pieces left, so they were incorporated into the back for the autumn colored quilt top.

Pardon the telescope effect from taking the photo from this angle.  I could not back up any further or stand any higher.  I was already on the top step of the step stool and there wasn't enough room for the 6 ft ladder so I could get higher.

This is the back completely stitched together.  You can see that all of the strips were not precisely 106" long, but they are close.

Do you piece your backs or do you buy fabric especially for the back of your quilts?  I figure I get two for one if I piece the back as the back is more interesting than boring plain fabric.  Let me know what you think!

Hope you have an amazing weekend!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

Back Art

Most of my quilts have one fabric backs, but there are a few that there just wasn't enough fabric in my stash to make the whole back from one piece of yardage so I put simple stripes of a coordinating fabric either lenthwise or widthwise which ever was short.  Sometimes both would be necessary.  On the other hand, my friend Joyce has been putting back art on her quilts for many years.  The last couple of quilts I've made, I've done the same for a couple of reasons.

• It makes a more interesting back.
• The closest fabric or quilt shop is about 30 miles away.  This probably should be number 1!
• I have a LOT of stash fabaric that needs to be used not necessarily on the front of a quilt.

This is the back of Blue Skies and Sunshine from the last post.

Here are a couple of close up views of the pieces inserted in the back.  These are left over units from the front of Blue Skies and Sunshine.

Once in a while -- well once so far -- a fabric just doesn't work in the back.  While making the back art for Jeff's quilt, I noticed one of the seams lucked "puckery" which really bothered me.  It needed to be taken apart and resewn taking care not to stretch either of the fabrics.  Muck to my surprise, the solid black fabric tore as easily as tissue paper.  Unfortunately, I had jused a LOT of the solid black as it had been left from making 34 capes several years ago for a local high school.  Apparently, it wasn't the best fabric or it was just plain old so ALL the black had to be removed from the sections I already had sewn.

See all the other black that has yet to be removed?  It's in the upper left and right corners as well as in the lower left corner and a few places in the middle.  Unsewing is my least favorite thing to do!

There were lots of smaller pieces to be removed too.  Here is a detail of that.  Did I mention that I hate to unsew fabric?

At last all the old was removed.  Remember the 30 miles to a fabric store?  Buying more wasn't an option, so it was back to the stash drawers to see if I had any fabric that would work.  Fortunately, there was a large piece of polished apple black so a trip to the store was not necessary.

Here is most of the back art.  It is too long for the design wall so the bottom is laying on the floor.  It is also as wide as the design board and I cannot get far enough away to photograph the entire back, but you get the idea.  Part of the right side is sort of missing in this photo.

The fabrics used on the back were a lot of fun.  Here are a few detail shots of the fabrics.

Don't you just love these faces?

How about a sea horse or two?

I absolutely love the wolves.  I only had this small strip. I think I bought it to use the fur for applique hair.  I also love the "menswear" tweed looking fabric above it.  Oh, stash backs can be so much fun to design using those "oddball" pieces.

So, that's the back art story on two quilts.  Do you do back art?  Next quilt you do, try it.  It's a lot of fun.  I think the back of Jeff's quilt takes on a decidedly oriental feel even with all the fun fabrics.  He may even like the back better than the front.

Next time I show you Jeff's quilt, it will be quilted.

I'm off to the National Quilting Association show tomorrow.  Hope I'll see you there!

Until next time,

Lois