A Finished Picnic/Whirlygig Quilt!

It's done!!  The Whirlygig Quilt is done! (Except for a quick wash and dry.  That part's easy.)

I decided to keep going with the circular theme and do spirals starting at the center of each pinwheel.

I then filled in between the spirals, copying the curves and getting smaller until the space was filled.

At the edge I also mimicked the spiral to fill in the space, so it looks like little curved pyramids.

The giant center pinwheel.  It was a little tricky quilting this one, at one point I had about 3/4 of the quilt in the throat of my machine. (And I have a Bernina 1008 - not a big throat!)

The pinwheels:

Pink - I love these fabrics.  The watermelon seeds and the pink hexagons! 

Supposed to be yellow - didn't find any bright yellows I liked at the store (the binding was bought later) .  Love the darker pattern, though, circles that make diamonds.

Purple - Love the contrast with the hard lines of the darker purple and the organic lines/seeds of the lighter.

Orange - Again, very geometric lighter and more organic dark pattern

Green - love the light, the random almost scribbled cross hatch.

Red - probably my favorite fabric is the light red.  I don't know why, but red is the hardest color to shop for.  It took forever to find ones that I felt were really red (and not maroon or what not) and not just polka dot or gingham.  Why is it so hard?

But look how pretty the flowers are! I know it's mostly white.  But it's my favorite. 

Blue - The darker pattern was probably a little too large for this, but it was the best color, so it worked out just fine!

This was supposed to be a slightly greener yellow - I love the lighter pattern.

Sneak peak at the back!

TA DAH! This pattern was so cool to me, and I didn't have a lot of green on the front and it's meant to be a picnic quilt, so it's good to be green - grass stains will be slightly less noticeable!  I just think the pattern's so cool.  From far away it looks more like flowers...

But closer in it looks more like interconnected rings.  So fun!  And yes, I took a picture of where my quilting was poorly done, because I'm ok with it!  It's the trouble with doing spirals.  This is where the two spirals met and so the fabric was being pulled in opposite directions.  Live and learn!

The spiral from the back.  I just used white quilting thread on the back. 

And then it was bound - I used the same fabric as the dark orange in the giant center pin, except I did it in bright yellow.  I thought in the sea of blue the quilt needed a hard, wide binding.  It's a double folded binding that I cut at 4", so the finished width is just a little under one inch.  And it's cut on the bias as well, so it could go around the curve.

I machine stitched the binding onto the front with the lovely walking foot my husband got me for my birthday.  And then my brain exploded and I decided I wanted to hand stitch the binding on the back.  It went quicker than I thought.  A few hours on Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning while my husband was out of town.  Not bad for approximately 18 feet of bias binding. 

This is also a gift, so the H is us, the B is the recipients, because we like them a lot!

I just love the circles/flowers!  And I love that I'm done!  I hope you love this quilt.  I do.

See you soon!

(...with another quilt project?)

I live!!! And I Quilt!!!

I know, you probably thought I died.  Looking at my arm, I think it's starting to die!  I match my pj's at least!  That's 2 days after a little blood draw.  Not donating, just some regular small vial of blood for testing.  I guess I'm just very delicate.

sad bruised arm

But really I'm just super excited!!!!!!  So I had a take home test due on Thursday and I spent practically the entire week working with complex numbers.  Whee!  This weekend, however, I finally did it.  I touched my sewing machine again (and not just to move it out of the way to do math).  I sewed on it.  Not just sewing either.  Quilting!  I am finally quilting my gillywhig quilt!   (Ever notice that quilt and guilt look very similar?  Do I feel guilty for quilting?  NO!)

wonky wiggly spirals

I've got 5 of the smaller pinwheels quilted.  I'm doing spirals starting at the center and moving out.  Normally you would think of doing this quilting pattern with a walking foot.  I don't have one, though, so I'm doing it with my darning foot.  And it is hysterical.  The purple one is my best so far and you can see it's still got fun wiggles and jumps.  It's also a little squarish because I am not marking it in any way.  I'm being free and loving it!

spiral quilting on pinwheel quilt

It's my first free-motion quilting and I'm letting myself be totally free about it.  I am still contemplating.  I wanted to do spirals after I saw this awesome quilt from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  (Go see it, I love it!!!!)

I love where the spirals cross over each other in her quilting.  My problem is for mine to cross over, I'm off the edge of the quilt.  So I will quilt the rest, stopping at the edges, and then decide if I should quilt partial circles to get the cross overs or just do roundish triangles to fill in the blank sections.  Or just leave totally as is.  We shall see!  I'll show you when I've finished all the pinwheels to get your advice! I'm so excited!  Off to more sewing (because I have 2 days of no hw! YAY!)

See you soon...

(with a hopefully less bruised arm.  It just feels weird)

I'm Working it Out (aka I need your help!!!) GillyWhig Quilt

It's sewn and basted!

I'm so excited by it!

Don't worry, that long edge (the hypotenuse, you could say) is not supposed to be straight.  It's for the edge, which will be trimmed into a circle.

All my huge chunks sewn together.  I decided to go for the random color wheel.  I found that when I had it in a rainbow formation, the orange/red/yellow side was really heavy.  The huge orange sun-gig in the center probably doesn't help!  So I went more random and I think it's much more balanced now.

All sewn together.  Officially a flimsy!  Also definitely more of an octagon right now.  

So how do you get a circle?  Make your own compass out of string, a safety pin and a pen.  I tied a length of string onto the end of a safety pin and pinned it to the center of the quilt (on the wrong side).

I then measured out how long I could make radius of the circle and marked it on the string.  (As you can see, I had to shorten it a few times because I started on a longer side I guess.  I had given myself extra room, so it was ok.)

I proceeded to mark lines as I slowly moved the 'compass' around the quilt.  The hardest part was maintaining consistent pull on the string (since it was embroidery floss, it had some give to it and the fabric easily pulled up off the floor).

But I finally got all the way around and ended in just about the right spot.  Not too shabby, eh?

Then just cut on the dotted line!

And you get this beauty!  It looks so awesome as a circle!!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited by it!?)  It's not a perfect circle, I'm sure, but I didn't measure, so in my heart it's perfect.

I just finished basting it (though I have a small section on the back to smooth out.)  AAAAAHH! I don't have any pictures of the back!  Next time, I promise!

So now, the quilting question.  I was thinking of doing spirals coming from all the pinwheels and overlapping a little in the blue around the center gig.  Do I use one neutral thread color or do a thread to match each whirligig?  What do you think?  HELP!!  Does the decision making ever end??   (Though I do already have the binding bought, cut and pressed, so that is one done deal.)

See you soon!

(...with some great quilting ideas?)

I Broke a Rule...because I like my things to be Something!

When I got into this love of quilting, I set rules for myself.  I could see that other quilters tended to fall into certain habits or have similar struggles and I wanted to save myself from that.  So I made rules.  Very simple rules. 

1)  I only work on one quilt at a time.  ( I can do other sewing and creative things, but only one quilt)

2)  I don't buy fabric for a new quilt until the last quilt I worked on is complete.  Completely complete.  (I haven't done any hand quilting or hand binding yet.  If I ever do, that will be an exception because I have tendonitis issues and I wouldn't want to stress my hands out just to hurry to get to the next quilt).

3) I don't buy fabric unless it's for the quilt I am working on.  (I just found a local quilt store and I suddenly understood why quilters just buy a yard of this, a fat quarter of that.  There are amazing fabrics and I want to use them.  But I'll just have to plan a quilt around them and put it in line!)

4) I don't make a quilt unless it has a purpose.  (Lately those purposes have been gifts for family and friends.  At some point I may run out of people to gift to and I might try selling them on etsy but for now, I want it to be more personal)

I love my rules.  It helps me not spend all of my time and money on quilting (which I probably would if I didn't have rules because I come up with new quilt ideas almost every other day.  It doesn't help that I'm in math classes with graph paper so if I get a little day dreamy I can sketch out my hearts content of Half Square Triangles).  It helps me focus on one thing and have the awesome feeling of accomplishing something and be excited to move onto the next instead of looking at the list of unfinished things to be done.  

So now to the rule breaking.  I have a really good reason (said everyone who has ever broken a rule).  The GillyWhig quilt is sitting in my craft room, backing pieced and batting preshrunk and everything ready to baste for quilting.  But I reeeeeaaally want to free motion quilt it.  I have this awesome idea of clouds and swirly lines representing wind (to blow the whirlygigs).  However!...I have never done free motion quilting.  I need to practice on something.  And for some reason I'm having a hard time just taking extra fabric and batting and practicing.  I still want my practice to be Something, not just a throw away.  Is that crazy?  It sounds like it when I say it, but in my heart, I feel like it's not.  Because I'm a maker and I want my practice to still make something.  (This is me, I kept the first cable swatch I knit - using a pencil because I didn't have a cable hook or stitch holder - and I used it for the handle of a purse I made from an old ski hat around a year later.  So I think it's just part of who I am.)

I started another quilt.  And here come some more excuses.  

A-it's not a full quilt, it's only a wall hanging, probably around 2 feet square

B-it's something I'm going to love for more than one reason (and I don't like making things I don't love)

C-the piecing is a trial run for an idea I had for another larger quilt  (see?  I like my practice stuff to still be Something!)

D-all the fabric I've used for it has been scraps so far (impressive since I buy just a few inches more of what I need, typically (I'm on a budget!) and I only have scraps from 2 quilts)

These are my stacks of 1" cut squares.  Yep, they're going to be 1/2" finished.  Mini is so adorable.  I love them!  I sort of want to be surrounded by towers of 1" squares of fabric.  How can I add this into the decor???

Of course, now that I've started this quilt, I don't want to mess it up with a first attempt at free motion.  So I'm back to my old problem.  My sister said just practice on some big square that can be turned into potholders.  So something along those lines.  Maybe a cute bag or something instead, though.  Potholders never held much interest in my mind.  And I only make what I love, so a bag would work, yeah?  What are your ideas?

See you soon!

(with a look at how I'm making my illegal wall hanging!)

GillyWhig's Everywhere! a WiP Quilt

This is my GillyWhig Quilt.  I would have called it the WhirlyGig Quilt, but my husband couldn't remember that name.  GillyWhig is what came to his mind.  So GillyWhig it will be called!  (Though he just called it something new - Squirlywiggle. Excuse me, I've been notified that it should be two separate words - Squirly Wiggle.  I like this one a lot.  Looks like I might need to make another quilt!)

It's a round quilt, because I couldn't get those darn 90 degree corners to work!  Well, that's not the only reason, but it's a nice thing to think about!

My husband suggested a pinwheel quilt and I decided I liked the idea, so I found the pinwheel block and created my own design from there.  I like the above pinwheel though, where the lighter color is 2x as large, as opposed to the ones where they're the same size.  This is more like the real whirligiggles.

I/my husband also thought that the wigglewirls were way too pointy, so I used that fancy plate tool to curve off the corners. (Not the ones that met in the center, just at the top of the light triangles.)

I then had to sew curves!! First ever, from what I recall. I used the curved pinwheel as a template for the blue triangle piece.  (It would have been a lot quicker if I had made a real template.  Each one was a little different (darn those plates), so I had to trace each individual blade of the whiggywhirls.  Took much longer.  But it ended eventually!)

Sew those curves! I didn't bother pinning.  There was lots of haphazarding going on, so I was ok w/o pinning and just squaring things up in the end.

The blue end seems a little wonky, just ending in the middle of the side, but with the 1/4 inch seam when I sew it to the blue background, it'll curve nicely into the seam, no odd endings.  I love my rainbow of girlywhigs.

Husband likes the blue and green and purple.  I love the dark orange, red and pink.  (Sorry for the off colors, I'm photographing inside under a yellow bulb at night.)  But that's why there are so many!  So everyone can have a favorite!

I love my pretty rainbow.

What I don't love are blisters.  Like the following blister I got from steam!! Evil steam.

Never have your fingers close to the top of a pot of cooking rice as you take off the lid!  Your finger will blister up and get all shiny and painful!

The only thing I had in the freezer that wouldn't defrost and get all nasty as I sat through a concert that night was a bag of chocolate chips.  They didn't help a great deal with the pain, but they were a tasty treat while I listened to the orchestra!  Chocolate cures everything!

See you soon!

(with fewer injuries, I hope!)