My 10th Quilt: Happily Ever After

I wish the weather had cooperated and given me one good day for taking final photos of this quilt. I feel like I was never able to capture just how beautiful it is. But mud and slush and blizzards don't make for very good photo options, so we'll make do with what I could get.

A long time ago - okay, June/July of 2012 - I started planning a quilt I was going to call Rainbow Road or Wonky Stars. The sketch started out something like this:

While I still want to make that quilt someday, over time, this quilt morphed in to something a little simpler and a lot more appropriate for A+L.

Some amazing batik rainbow tie-dye type fabric plus some black fabrics...

A lot of pre-cutting (which is a habit I should really keep up - although next time I should be smarter and make long rectangles of stripes to then cut down instead of making each square individually)...

A series of small wonky stars...

A lot of patience in building larger and larger blocks...

And I wound up with a top that hardly needed squaring - and was begging for an ideal back.

One large wonky star...

One machine stitched label - and ideal name for this quilt...

And a lot of scraps went into making that back.

Machine quilting more or less in the ditch (usually less)...

Black bias binding added with color changing thread...

A little fancy stitching outlining three of the stars (and I still wish I'd been able to do more, but not through my machine with this massive of a quilt - this would have been a great quilt for quilt as you go).

 It overlaps on every side of our king size bed - but not by much.

 A little more wrinkled after a machine wash and dry, but ready to go to a new home! It wound up just under 80 by 88 - which was what my math told me it should be...

One final glamour shot of those beautiful colors - and the shiny thread - and off we went for a celebration of love and a long weekend with family and friends!

I have absolutely no intention of taking on such a massive quilt again for a long, long time - possibly until I have a better machine quilting area or a machine that can handle such things better - but I am thrilled with the outcome on this quilt.

While A and L both seemed to appreciate the quilt, and I know L's mother knows enough about quilting to appreciate what went into it - as well as the quilt - since I may actually find the courage to share my blog address with people now that this secret project is no longer a secret, I'm going to go back to when I began debating this project and re-share my thoughts from then:

"I came across the concept of a Ring Warming Ceremony for the first time during our wedding planning. Basically, the wedding rings are passed through the guests, giving each guest a moment to say a silent prayer/blessing for the marriage before the rings are used in the ceremony. In a way, each hand made item is a bit of a Warming from me to the recipient. Even when I'm rushing to finish, I'm still trying to pour the hopes and dreams I have for the recipient into something tangible. I'm remembering the quilts I had growing up, the costumes and picnics and games they played roles in, wondering if the one I'm working on will have even a moment of being as important. I wonder if the recipient will ever touch it and know that someone spent hours thinking of them and how special they are. It's my own little Warming Ceremony, even if the recipient is unaware that's what's happened. 

It isn't really a question of to quilt or not to quilt. When I read my own reasoning for why I want to, how can I say no? Even though I'm terrified of the size and scale of the project I'm about to commit to."

And yes, this was an absolute success for me in that aspect as well. The hours spent cutting, sewing, and crawling around with a steaming hot iron were also spent hoping that A and L will have a wonderful, love-filled adventure of a lifetime together. And if the week we spent with them was any indication, then I think they are well on their way down the path of Happily Ever After.



Ultimately, even as I say I don't want to take on something this big again, I know there are other people in my life for whom I would take on something like this - hot irons, crawling, and pulling beastly piles of fabric through a tiny machine throat and all. 

Happily Ever After - Home!

While my 'it's finished' pictures are still being held hostage by my other computer, I can officially say that not only is Happily Ever After quilt officially finished, it is now officially home too!

Being a bit shy, I'd intended just to slip it in with the other gifts and not say anything - but my husband had me show it off the day before to L's mother (who cried when she saw it) and then all the mothers had me present it the next day... so it was a bigger deal than I'd anticipated... but that's okay too. It's good to have a supportive husband, even if he is a bit more outgoing than I am!

In addition to giving away HEA quilt, I've been partying (and working) my legs off.

 Even after days of wearing those heals to get them worn in, I was so not prepared to stand in them that long. Or dance in them (though anyone there could make some valid points about my preparedness to dance period). Or any of the other things I tried to do in them including aiding in the decorating (see above) and tearing down after the party. Thank goodness I had super comfortable snow boots to change back into eventually (and for hiking through the snow in the parking lot!).

Alright, more pictures to come - after I'm a bit more recovered and fight with my other machine a bit more!

HEA Progress!

I love working under pressure.

That's probably a little wrong, but I really do. I'll intentionally procrastinate just so I can really cram at the end - and I enjoy it. Not every minute of it - I mean, I do still stress over it - but enough that I keep doing it to myself. At just about every aspect of my life.

And that is why I'm honestly amazed I've already bound Happily Ever After Quilt. With one month of possible work time left, I'm a wash and a dry away from being completely done (assuming all goes well).

Yes, I wound up buying a solid black for the actual binding. I really wanted to go with the same fabric I used throughout the body, but I just could not convince myself it was sturdy enough even on the bias to be the right call for that.

Pre-wash, it matched a little better. But it smelled so strongly of dye that I knew I had to wash it. And sadly, that did impact the color a little.

Did you notice the pink thread?

It's hard to get a good picture, but I did sew on the binding with a pink/purple/aqua color change thread (the same gray in the bobbin though, so it matches the back quilting). I think it makes it a little more fun without being over the top -  though it disappears a little more than I'd hoped.

And that went so well, I got a little crazy after all...

This was my first of three (so far??) and a little rough, but I think it does add a little something to it - in a good way.

Especially on the back.

I'd still like to go through and do a few more - but it is a difficult process that requires shifting a lot of the quilt around repeatedly. It doesn't take much of that before I start getting sore.

It's amazing how something like a few feet of fabric can wear on you after an hour or two of wrestling with it! It also makes me even more nervous about how I'm going to finish those denim scrap quilts I've been putting off... Those are way heavier than this one. Guess I'm going to have to start stretching and weight lifting a little more! 

Assuming we get some light tomorrow morning, I'll recruit a couple helpers to hold it up so I can take a few pictures of the whole thing before it goes in to the wash. Since weekend plans were put off thanks to the flu (not here, thankfully), I was able to keep the sewing machine in the living room for a few more days, but I'm ready to have life here back to normal. The sooner the quilt goes through a wash/dry cycle and assures me it doesn't need any fixes, the sooner I can rearrange my house to the way it belongs!

It gives me goosebumps in the best possible way. I can't wait to give it away - though I do wish there were a way to just drop it off and run... Guess that's proof I am shy as well as an introvert!

Happily Ever After - Quilting

I was beginning to think I was going to make it through the whole month without making much progress on my major goal - quilting the Happily Ever After quilt.

After another hour of steam iron basting - this time with an extension cord, which helped - I figured it was as good as it was going to get on that front.

I had my husband help carry the sewing machine desk into the newly cleared living room, tuned in to a tv marathon of detective/cop shows, and went at it.

In the first hour, I managed four lines of quilting. That was discouraging - if I followed my plan, at that speed it would take me 16-17 more hours of work to complete the quilting. Needless to say, I began reevaluating immediately.

Straight line quilting (or something approaching straight lines, because these are more organic than ruler straight) is not my favorite thing to do. On small projects, it isn't so bad, but it's not what I'd call fun. So, after five hours when I had the opportunity to work in the other direction, I decided to cut from three straight-ish lines in the colorful fabric to one.

Considering it was approaching midnight, that's the best picture I could get.

So it's done. Ish.

What I really want to do is add some accent stitching around some of the wonky stars - either by machine or hand. Doing that kind of thing by machine is a lot more fun than lines, but dragging this huge quilt around and through the machine is not easy - my shoulder still aches from the effort the straight lines required so I'm a little scared to do anything more intense. Hand quilting it would cut down on that kind of effort but I'm not sure I want to showcase my hand skills...

And so, I may just call it done and move on to the binding aspect - which needs to happen relatively quickly before we get sick of the sewing machine in the living room and the living room in the kitchen. May I never again attempt a quilt too big to work in my usual space!

Happily Ever After Quilt: Very Scrappy Back

Do I have another blog? Or maybe I blog in my sleep? I swear I already posted this - but if I did, it was somewhere else... Or I accidentally deleted it?

Anyway!

Meet the Very Scrappy Back for my Happily Ever After Quilt:

Turns out - to no one's surprise - it's really difficult to take a photo of this project. Those light parts are made up of the leftover batik pieces so even though they look white, I promise they're the same cotton candy colors as the front of the quilt.

This shot almost shows the colors.

There's a single, large, slightly wonky star and a lot of scraps and pieces. Oh, and two leftover blocks from the front-making. But yes, mostly scraps.

I can't wait to see what they look like together (hopefully good since it's too late to do anything else) but I either have to do some machine quilting or buy some more basting pins. Or try spray basting. Hmm... decisions, decisions.


And yes, I'm still fighting with the tension on my Janome/Kenmore. Oh! I learned I've been saying it wrong; I was told this week that it's not "Jan-ohm," it's "Jan-oh-me." That might explain why the people in the sewing machine repair shop looked at me a little oddly...

Patch-y Back

Remember when I hinted that the back for the newly-named Happily Ever After Quilt was going to be the patchiest thing I've ever made?

I really wasn't kidding.

It's like nothing I've done before. It even includes a little machine applique and some stitched stars.

It's a little wild. I'm still crossing my fingers that when all the pieces are put together, it'll work out. Somehow.

It Took Long Enough...

I finally chose a name for the wedding present quilt.

Once I let go of stars and rainbows and candy, the right answer was looking me in the face.

Confession Time

This confession should shock no one who has been reading here very long...

I have no idea what I'm doing.

That goes extra for this:

I think it's the beginning of the back for the wedding present quilt.

But I have no idea what I'm doing.

Except trying to use the fabric I've already purchased.

And trying to ignore the suspicion that I'm going to have to go buy some more of the black fabric.

Completed Top

It's so good to see this top completed. And I am still absolutely loving it. 

I've lost track of the number of hours that have gone in to making this top. Let's just go with: a lot. Between forgetting to take the shortcut that could have saved a couple hours to somehow ending up with 2x2 and 2x8 blocks I could not rotate to the right orientation to attach to the rest of the quilt (which means a lot of time with a seam ripper and some re-piecing), this ate a lot of time. I thought making the tiny stars would be the time consuming part. Nope.

I'm not thrilled at the amount of light coming through some of those black blocks. I'm going to hope that's happening because it was nearer noon than any time with kind day light for photography.

It's hard to see each star - and hard for me to find a distance where I'm including the whole quilt (which is about 88x88) - but every row/column has at least one and at most three. I think I wound up with 16 stars in total, but it might just be 17... I ought to have written that down somewhere...

Obviously my seams on the batik frames don't all square up (it would hardly be something I made if they did) but I was happily surprised by how many do (or are very close). It's hard to chose a favorite part of this so far, but if pressed, I would have to say I love the way the fabric looks at those meetings. I especially love the joint shown above, with the wonkiest-star (just right of center) is the upper left of the four.

It feels great to see all I've accomplished so far - but enough drooling over the top for me. I've got a whole back to figure out - and no idea what I'm going to do.

Wedding Quilt

The unnamed Wedding Quilt top is up to being 8x8.

My seam allowance through this has been fairly consistent (as much as I know how) but I don't think that it was a quarter of an inch. I don't know... but it seems bigger than I expected. And seeing as how I have more blocks to add before I'm done... 

At the rate I'm going, I'm confident this will be the biggest quilt I've done yet. 

Which in some ways is good. 

It's just going to be more difficult to quilt. 

Assuming I ever figure out what's going on with the tension on my machine. I've tried multiple things and still no luck. At least it's not making any weird noises. But I'm about to try winding the bobbin on the other machine to see if that helps smooth out the wobbles. 

Still Unnamed Wedding Quilt Progress

I'm completely out of things to watch on Hulu (except Korean dramas, and I can't use the sewing machine and read subtitles at the same time) - and started going through the shows I own on DVD...

But I've made huge progress on this quilt top!

Getting every block framed up took longer than I thought it would - but like I said, I should have remembered the short cuts before cutting all the pieces! From here, it was a matter of piecing these blocks together into larger blocks, first by making 1x2 pieces:

then 2x2 squares:

Notice the open drawer? It's fully of my cast of trimmings, either thread or trimmings from making stars. I've never been so happy to have messed up a project! That bag was supposed to be a purse - but I fought with the lining for it until I gave up and found another use for it. It's made a huge difference in my sewing - and it's helped keep the rug under my feet a little bit cleaner (at least from thread trimmings).

The goals is to work up to four 8x8's, four 2x4's, one 2x2, and one single full row (1x10). If all goes well, that should be the building blocks to piece together the whole top (ending with a single 10x11).

I'm still absolutely loving this. It's a good thing no one is watching me quilt - and that we have no neighbors on the office/sewing room's window side. I keep shaking my arms and squealing I love it so. Which would probably look more than a little odd to anyone who could see me. Or hear me.

Time to let the kinks out of my shoulder muscles for the day, but I can't wait to finish this top. I think it's going to be amazing.

More Stars and Block Progress

Something about that title sounds almost patriotic.

I'm still seeking a name for this one, but I don't quite think Stars and Blocks fits the bill. Working with the fabric, I keep thinking of taffy or cotton candy. Not sure either of those are the right direction either.

Anyway.

I've been making some headway on both star blocks and black blocks.

A few early stars. I think I'm up to 10 now. I'm not sure when I'll stop. I don't want too many, but 10/110 seems either too many or too few. I'm leaning towards making somewhere between 15 and 20 stars, then just mixing them in randomly.

This one is one of my favorite plain blocks so far. I really like that extra dark streak of dye on the side. The random application of the various frame pieces results in some interesting blocks. Some of them aren't quite what I'd have done if I was taking the time to color match the frames, others are just delicious looking. I'm loving this. Which is good considering how many blocks I have yet to go!

The two basic blocks the quilt will be made of. I've been thinking of using either machine or hand quilting to add more stars in some of the empty blocks - but that'll be one of those if I have time and if I figure out how kinds of things. Nothing I'm tied in to doing. At least not until I see how the whole top comes together, and how much time I've got between finishing the top and the wedding.

I am, however, out of thread. I've been using up strange threads I got at a garage sale (all a quality I know, but strange amounts and colors). So far I've gone through the remains of two 300 yard-ers and one 250. So if I'm going to make progress without delving into the threads I'm saving for actual quilting, I guess I'd better head to the store and get a roll or two.

Wedding Present Stars

While I ought to be spending my time piecing together frames around black blocks, I've allowed myself to get distracted by the appeal of a few wonky star center blocks. 

Would you believe these are only my second, third and fourth wonky stars?

Okay, I'm not thrilled with the yellow-ish one (my second) but I'm short enough on fabric I'm just going to have to learn to like it. That said, I can't decide which of the other two I love more. For comparison, the center blocks of the stars are: 2", 1.25", and 1 inch. I certainly can't go any larger and still fit within the finished size of 5" square, and I'm not sure my fingers or my machine are agile enough to go any smaller.

I'm not sure how many I ought to make. Three stars out of 110 black blocks seems a bit scant, but I don't think I have enough fabric to make a star for each row.

Hmm... I wonder if the couple has a special number. I don't think we do (I should ask my husband before I say that too factually!) but some people/couples do and that might be an easy way to determine how many stars I make. Unless of course the number is greater than the amount of fabric I have to make stars with...

Wedding Present Quilt

I must really have a thing against short cuts.

I didn't remember my own handwritten note about how to make this easier for myself until after I'd already cut the fabric into smaller pieces.

Don't get me wrong - there's something very satisfying about seeing all that fabric cut and ready to go.

I just wish I'd remembered my short cut in time to use it!

I'd intended to cut the black into 5" by 20" strips, then attach the two bright 2.5" by 20" strips, then cut the 20" into four 5" blocks. This would have made adding those first two strips a little faster and easier. But instead I cut all my black into 5" square blocks before I remembered I had easier options.

Guess I'd better pick up another audio book. Or pick up a new tv series. Any recommendations?