My Own Worst Enemy

It's been quite a week...In the last post I had completed the basting on the quilt using Plume fabrics. I spent that evening deciding on, and drawing out, the quilting motifs I would use on the quilt. Something kept nagging at me in the back of my mind though and when I got up in the morning, I knew what I had to do. I removed the plain backing fabric (yes, I UNBASTED it!) and ordered some more of the gorgeous Plume. Fussy is as fussy does. I got this flashy royal and gold swirl from Quilting B and More in Charlottetown. Owner Suzanne Lane does great mail order service, and the fabric arrived in my mailbox the next day. Can't beat that.
As much as I dislike having to rebaste the quilt, it is much easier to remove those pins than to rip out the stitching, and I knew I would not be happy otherwise. Sigh... In the meantime, I heard myself say "yes" to another commission, with a very tight deadline. It took awhile to sketch it out and get the lines of the Gothic arch of the window frame even, (and I think I've been to Dayle's 5 times in the last two days for fabric!) but today it's ready to stitch.
C'mon finish line...Mama needs new shoes *-)

On The Flip Side

Today was basting day. Groan...I don't like basting. Before the fun could begin however, I needed to find a fabric to back my quilt. I've heard lots of folks say they put any old thing on the back because no one sees it anyway (especially for a wallhanging, which is what this will be) but it's been my experience that the first thing folks do when they look at your quilt is flip it over to see the back. Embroiderers will tell you the back of your work needs to be as neat as the front and this is a good maxim to apply to quilting also. Personally, I like to see the backs of quilts; that's where the pretty stitching shows up, especially on a plain fabric. Since there was nothing suitable in my stash, I headed to Dayle's Department Store. With Doreen's help, I chose a plain royal blue cotton. It picks up the blues in the Plume fabrics beautifully. Even though it will only be next to the binding fabric, they all play nicely together and it pleases my eye. I also chose two spools of blue cotton thread in a shade to match. This will be bottom thread only, as I am planning to use a metallic thread for the quilting. Since Polly's arrival in the household, basting has turned into a bit of a blood sport. She has made a frustrating process even more so. I waited until I was sure she was settled down for her long afternoon siesta before I laid out the fabric.
I followed the same method I've shown in past posts, securing the fabric to the floor using masking tape.
Over this I spread two layers of wool batting.
A good hour later, the quilt is well basted and ready to receive some stabilizing stitching. Then the real fun begins.

The Quantum Mechanics of Basting

Basting is by far my least favourite part of the quilting process. Over the years I've tried a myriad of different ways to approach basting but honestly...I dislike all of them. I hear from many quilters that they are unsure about the basting process as many send their tops out to the long-armer, or for hand quilting, and are lacking experience in this area.
An area where I am lacking is an understanding of physics and although that hasn't held me back so far in life, I find it an intriguing subject and one I wish I had studied in school. That and Latin. Reading recently an article on quantum mechanics, I found my mind drifting to apply the words to quilting. "... quantum mechanics theory ordains that the more closely one pins down one measure , the less precise another measurement pertaining to the same particle must become." (Clearly this means if you put too many safety pins in one area, another area becomes unstable). It's also true about quilting: the density of the stitches must be evenly distributed over the surface of the quilt or the sides will ripple. Physics aside, there is another easy way to prevent some of that ripple. After the quilt top is pieced and before it is layered, it's important to stitch around the outside perimeter about an 1/8" of an inch from the edge. It serves a dual purpose: in this case, it secures the ends of the patchwork seams from coming apart but also stay-stitches the edge of the quilt to prevent distortion. I stitch around all of my quilt edges before layering, even if there is a plain border in place. It helps your quilt stay true.
Starch is another key aspect of successful quilt basting, and I mixed a fresh batch before beginning.
I spray it liberally on the back of the fabric and press dry. Not only does it smooth out any wrinkles on your fabric, it creates more surface tension to allow the quilt to glide smoothly over your machine bed.
Because I don't have a table large enough to spread out the quilt, I use the floor. Two cardboard cutting tables are placed side by side. You can see they've been in use for many years. The pressed backing fabric is folded in half and placed at the junction of the boards. This is an easy way to mark the centre of the fabric.Then it's folded out and strips of masking tape secure one end to the floor. Working from the opposite end, I begin at the centre and work to the outside, pulling the fabric smooth and taut.
After both ends are done, I move on to one side, and then the next.
The batting is rolled out on top of the backing, smoothed out, but not taped. This is a polyester batting I am using; it was taken out of the package the night before and spread flat on a spare bed to let any folds and wrinkles relax. Had there been any remaining, a few minutes in the dryer on "fluff" (no heat) would remove the rest.
The pieced top goes over the batting, with the centre seam of the patchwork lined up with the centre of the cardboard. The sides are masking-taped in the same fashion as the backing fabric. "...a measurement which pins down one property of one of the particles will instantaneously pin down the same or another property of its entangled twin, regardless of the distance separating them..." Obviously this means since the layers are well-taped, we don't have to begin the pinning in the middle - we can start anywhere. Pins are placed 4-6" apart, and left open at this point.
I should mention that the moment I lined up the backing fabric on the cardboard to find the centre, Polly made a flying leap into the middle of it all. "... the act of measuring the first property necessarily introduces additional energy into the micro-system being studied, thereby perturbing that system. " The introduction of Polly's additional energy definitely perturbed the system and she was shut out of the room. (I'm really making good use of this physics stuff, huh? :)
Once the pins are all in, I remove the tape and turn the quilt over to survey the back. If I am satisfied that there are no puckers in the fabric, I turn it back over and close the pins. Then the fun of quilting starts!

Log Cabin X

Now that the dust has settled from graduation and the surprise quilt has been gifted, I can show the Log Cabin quilt made for youngest son. When eldest headed off to university, he went with a Log Cabin quilt pieced in his school's colours of red and blue. His quilt was 6 blocks across x 8 down, in a barn raising setting. I tried to stick to that formula as closely as possible (fair and equal) and have only changed the colours and block arrangement. The X setting has significance to youngest's chosen school.
This all needed to be done on the QT so hubby helped me baste quickly early one morning.
As luck would have it, we discovered this beautiful fence not far from town which I knew would be the perfect spot to photograph the quilt. Thanks to the Rolfes for allowing me use of their fence. I wish I had know it was there when I was doing the photography for the book two years ago.
The fabrics were a combination of scraps leftover from other projects as well as some purchased specifically for this quilt. It's almost an "eye spy" of his childhood as I've used hockey prints, cats, scraps from his pirate quilt made when he was 2, and some bee prints (the green strip near the centre).
When long arm quilter Jacquieline Pohl of The Vintage Quiltery came to visit a couple of weeks' ago I asked her advice on the quilting. I had intended to do a large feather in the blue. Jacquie advised moving the feather to the white section and stippling around it, as well as stitching the blue logs in the ditch. So I did, and am very happy with the results. I've also quilted his name and date in one of the logs.
I expect the white will not remain white very long...I wonder who chose those colours for a university? Give me garnet and gold any day :)

Quilting Weather Persists

The rain has actually stopped, but it's still too wet outside to do any gardening. The lawn is desperately needing to be cut but the grass has to dry off a bit. In the meantime, I have finished another sample for my workshops for Fibre Arts Festival and worked out the class description and supply list. It will be posted to the website shortly.
I dug out another "flimsy" to quilt, this one from a few year's back. Originally this was to be a nursery wallhanging, a companion piece to a baby quilt featured in a Quilter's Newsletter special issue. However, the editor decided there was only room for the quilt instructions so we went with just that. This got tossed in the huge pile of tops in the closet. With the addition of a couple of borders, it is now crib sized and ready to finish.The stash yielded a piece of flannelette the right size and colour. Now for the dreaded basting. If only there was a way to skip this part...

Out of Seasonal Sync

As I basted pastel fabrics for a spring quilt...... the Christmas cactus bloomed brilliantly in the background, a reminder that a different season is upon us. Outside everything is white from last night's snow.
It would be nice to think that I'm way ahead of myself but alas the opposite is true...!

Basting

Today I am basting on the livingroom floor (I remembered to put the cat out first...). This is just a small piece, so no moving of furniture involved. Hubby will pick up my sewing machine tomorrow, it's been in the shop for a couple of weeks. In the interim, I have been piecing on my Mom's very reliable Kenmore (thanks, Mom :)