Julie's quilt

I really did stay busy this summer. Too busy sometimes. I was asked, very sweetly, to quilt a quilt for our only granddaughter. She had been given a vintage top, it only needed a simple panto....HA!
Unfortunately it was stained so they washed it before sending it to me. Oh dear, parts shrank way more than other parts, and no, I didn't take a before picture. I decided to take it apart and resew it. After it was apart I decided it would be easier to replace the fabric. Luckily for me I couldn't get 2 shades of turquoise so I got to eliminate the 4-patches in the corner stones and simplify the quilt.

 Here is my eq7 version of the original. The applique blocks are not very accurate, but they are tulips, there are 3 of them in each block, and they are bright colors.
This is the computer version of what I changed it to:

I think I improved it. Softened the colors somewhat and eliminated the 4-patch (I couldn't find 2 shades of turquoise.) Then I HAD to custom quilt it.

This still has the markings on it but I outlined the tulips then did a double square in the background and a simple meander.

 I used a large plate to trace a partial circle, then I used a cup and a can to trace different size circles in an arc in the border. I quilted an apple blossom in each small circle, the did a simple meander in the background. The bottom of the quilt got her name; Julie Grace.

My son designed the name on the computer in 5 inch high letters. I glued them to freezer paper and cut them out. After ironing them on the border I traced around each letter, then removed the freezer paper. Then I quilted around each letter twice, added some flowers and meandering and finished;

Here you can see the backing fabric and one of the 2 pillowcases I made her.
I LOVED the way it turned out!

Fall

It is almost fall, if you don't have a quilt done for fall you still have time if you do nothing else. My Mother had her fall quilts out when I visited 2 weeks ago. She loved one of my quilts...this one;

So she improved it and created this:

Appliqued pumpkins, brown instead of black and hand quilted. I love it. In person it kind of glows.
One year when she was visiting I taught her how to do half square triangles and we made leaf blocks.
Here are my maple leaf blocks, I was holding out for time to make more;

And here are hers;

a maple leaf table topper, hand quilted with squirrels and FINISHED! It looked so nice on her table that I want table toppers now.

snowman quilt

Sometimes I get a quilt to do that is just plain FUN to quilt. This snowman sampler/exchange was one of them.

 This is one of the first ones I quilted. Isn't that a lovely snowman?

I love this. Really gives me incentive to get some of MY sets of blocks together.

The back is minky, so this quilt will be quite snuggly on the couch every winter.

Wool quilt

I have been working on a wool quilt for grandson #8. I just finished it.

This is made out of thrift store wool sweaters. When I get them home I wash them in hot water and dry them. These are not felted a lot, but enough that the edges didn't fray when I cut them. For years I have seen in magazines and on-line the occasional wool sweater quilts and they all seemed to have bulky, puckered seams. I knew that I did not want that look so decided to butt the seams instead of the standard seam. Each place I started and stopped the feather stitching I knotted the threads and hid them on the back. (Bette White shows a cool technique that I might try next time :))
Once I chose the 3 sweaters I thought I could get to work together I over-dyed the yellow sweater with a stronger, brighter yellow. (It started out a very pale yellow.) I decided on the size based on the pockets in the lighter blue sweater and cut as many 6 inch squares as I could then I cut 3" squares then 1.5 inch squares. After laying them out I figured out what and how many yellows I needed. I also used the scraps to practice my seams and made a couple of postcards with them:

(I used all of the blue sweaters but have the back left of the yellow.)

The sweater squares kept creeping forward when stitching. First I tried a spray adhesive, it still moved. So I tried basting each piece down:

It still moved and those stitches were a pain to remove. So I used strips of steam a seam 2 under each seam, ironing it to a very thin interfacing, then stitched. It worked much better. After getting each block made I laid them out on the guest room bed.and rearranged it, and rearranged it, and played with it some more.

Then I went to EQ7 ( I love EQ7.)

 Then I sewed it together. THEN I tried to figure out how to bind it and quilt it. I thought maybe satin blanket binding.....NO that looked horrible. I even considered knitting my own binding....I went to Painted Pony 'n Quilts (a great quilt shop) and Tonya helped me select the only fabric even close to the right colors, a plaid.

 I decided to back it with thin-wale corduroy (since nothing else looked good- although now I think the plaid would have been fine). I tried to find a flannel but didn't. (now I've found a quilt shop that carries more flannel; Quilters Emporium in Stafford, TX)

 I added a border of yellow and cut the interfacing out from behind the blocks. So the back of the top looks like this:

In trying to figure out how to quilt this the pockets kept getting in the way so I got my magnifying light out and managed to pick them off. I gave the pockets to a friend to monogram the baby's last initial (no first name has been decided on) and the year of birth; '15. (Then after all the quilting I sewed them back on-the hardest part of the whole quilt!)

I would have liked to quilt a design that would allow the quilt to drape better but since I'm unsure of the strength of those butted seams I went with a tight baptist fan. The pin-wale corduroy on the back feels wonderful but the quilt is a little stiff. Next time maybe I'll leave the batting out.

This will be used for years. Unlike the baby quilts I've made in the past this will have a place on their couch every winter, at least as long as they live in a cold climate.
I LOVED trying something new and using some of my bin of wool....now to make one out of cashmere.....
When I asked for one more picture my son did this:

You CAN still see the quilt.....

Tulip quilt pattern

Hanging in my front entry is one of my favorite spring quilts. It was an exchange I did over 20 years ago. I finished the quilt as a baby quilt for our 5th child, born in 1995. (This is one of 5 quilts I made him- I had a broken foot and had to stay off of it.) Turns out he was a boy and this quilt did not get used much. I get it out every spring and drape it somewhere. This year it got the place of honor since it is small and the dog can't reach it. (That is not true he could reach it if he wanted to I just hope he doesn't want to.)

 Here is my EQ7 version:

I love this quilt. This is the block as we sewed it. The background is different white on white fabrics. We were told to use pastel prints on the tulip, a solid in the center and a soft green print on the leaves. It is a 6" block:

 This is how I would do it now:

Here is how I grouped them. I made them into 12 inch blocks, needed 12 12"blocks....that's 48 6" blocks.

I quilted it on my domestic machine with a stipple all over, except in the border and in the tulips. I remember getting so bored with the quilting that I started hiding letters and a few pictures in the stippling. I did the whole alphabet and #5. The pictures were very simple like a sail boat, a canoe and a flower. When the light is just right you can find them.My 9 year old loved looking for them and telling everyone else to look for them.
EQ7 is so much fun to play with. I moved the blocks around here:

 and here:

They are all pretty. Wouldn't Kaffe fabrics look great in those tulips?

I've had fun playing with EQ today...and yesterday when I wasn't sleeping. A fever really knocks you out but I'm recovering...at least enough to play EQ.

Labels for my Quilts

I feel strongly that quilts need to be labeled. I took on the project of labeling the quilts my mother made, and the one's in her possession and have been making labels for 25 years. In the past I've written about my favorite hand stitch for making labels, here and here. I have done a couple of counted cross-stitch labels on 50th wedding anniversary quilts....but that is very time consuming. My new favorite way is to have a friends embroider them on her machine....like this:

This is the label I sewed on today...I wasn't sure when I almost finished this quilt but I did have a record that put the exchange in 1992; that's close enough for me. I generally make labels and get them on the quilt, somehow this one was skipped. (Because although I've been using it and have it bound I don't have the quilting actually finished...before it can be washed the border has to be quilted.)
Here is a label I made in 1989 using permanent pen;

I wrote it directly on the back of the quilt and you can see that the ink is fading. In 21 years the label faded a lot. This is a quilt that was seldom washed, since it was on the back of the couch during December only. When I took the quilt to add quilting to it I made this;

I added additional quilting on my long arm and made a new label.  So don't use ink for the label!
Here's another ink label, I remember making this one with freezer paper behind the yellow fabric and ironing it well to make it permanent; it has been washed once;

Redoing labels is never fun.
Here I had looked at the back of a speaker's quilt and she had labeled hers with the pigma marker on the hanging sleeve. So if you are in a hurry and don't have a label yet this will let you know when you finished it. But eventually it will need to be replaced with an embroidered one.

Here is a quilt where the label is part of the front, it has never been washed and the ink is fine...I will embroider on top of the ink before washing this quilt or maybe I can get away with photographing it and re-inking it after washing;

Here is another way I made a couple labels years ago;

I used a photo of the maker of the quilt; Lizzie Caughey, my Great-Great Grandmother. It has held up well but the label has never been washed.
Then I went through a stage where I made labels using my sewing machine;

It's very hard to read here, but still in good shape. Here's another;

This one has been washed a lot.The label has held up well.
Now I usually frame the label like the one on top of this post or like this one;

Often the frame is left over pieces of the quilt;

 This one was embroidered by machine and attached before I quilted it.

(the bottom one has an added little label I had made to indicate that it has wool batting in it.)

Once I incorporated the label as part of the back of the quilt before it was quilted like this;

This has space for the grandkids to sign when they get to sleep under the quilt.
Finally another way I labeled a quilt that was not very successful. I painted it. White acrylic paint on a blue background..

It's barely readable and clearly needs to be remade. This quilt actually has 2 labels with different information on each:

Here you can see it better. I finished this in 1994. In 20 years the label has faded a lot. This quilt has been just lightly used and has not been washed very much, maybe 4 times?

Clearly labels need to be made with care and with a method that will hold up over time. Ink and paint is out. Embroidery is much better. Take the time to make a label that will last.