More Fabric Choices

This past week I haven't had much time in my sewing room.  Work  has been keeping me really busy, and my son wanted help with his hallowe'en costume.  So the little bit of time I had for sewing was spent making a shirt for a Mime costume.  Shirt's done, and received approval from the Mime himself.  So this weekend is mine.  Back to quilting :)

I'm still hunting for fabric for my next quilt.  I was hoping for 100% stash for this one, but apparently gold is not a colour I have in my stash.  I think this blue is better than the last, but the center still isn't right.

And the next one is too yellow.  Also, notice that I still haven't found a replace for the pink or orange.  Each colour is fine, but I think I'd like a bit more definition between the two of them.

Guess I'll have to hit a fabric store and see if I can pick up a couple of fat quarters that work in this quilt. 

Looks like the Quilt-for-an-Hour starts on Monday, so I'd better get shopping.

Fabric Choices

I've decided to participate in Judy L's latest Quilt for an Hour project.  Judy always makes such beautiful quilts, and she is kind enough to share them with her readers.   In this case, I hope to make a smaller version of Judy's quilt, since I don't have enough stash for the full size.

Choosing fabrics is always the hardest part of quilting for me (closely followed by choosing a quilting design to finish the top).  So I thought I would post my potential fabric choices here. And if I still like them in a few days, I'm all set.  If I hate them (or I get a lot of "what the heck are you thinking" comments) then I'll try again :)

So, here they are.  Roughly laid out in the positions they'll have in the finished product.  At this point, I'm thinking the pink & orange are a bit too close in tone, so I'll probably look for an alternative for one or the other of them.

So, anyone care to venture an opinion?  Be kind (please) but be honest.  It's a whole lot easier to change my colour scheme now than it will be later :)   I think the colours are a bit washed out here - the green is fairly vibrant in person.

Progress and Improvements

Let's start with my design wall.  There is less on it this week than usual - which is a good sign.   It means more pieces have made their way onto the bargello quilt.  About 1/2 done now.  It is certainly slow going, but it's starting to come together.

I took a break after that, and quilted another small quilt on my new frame.  This one went much better than the last!  I increased the length of my leaders and gave myself some extra length on the backing, so that I could reach the whole quilt without adjusting the attachment points at the end.  I had much more quilting room at the end of this one, despite the quilt being slightly larger (about 40" square, rather than 30" as the last one was).  So the lighter fabric makes a really big difference.

I just had one minor goof-up.  I cut slightly more than half of my backing fabric, to allow the extra distance I needed to the (short) leader for the backing.  And then as I shuffled stuff around the room to get setup, I grabbed the closest piece of backing and loaded it up.  I'm sure you can see this coming - I picked up the wrong piece of backing!  I didn't even notice until after I started quilting. So I crossed my fingers and continued.   Luck was with me - the backing was just long enough for the quilt.  I did have to get creative to reach the last 6 inches of the quilt, but it worked out.

I still have some learning to do, to figure this contraption out.  I had a few issues with the quilt top puckering - not sure why, but I hope to figure that out soon.  I suppose some practice pieces would be a good plan to get the hang of this.  In any case, I'm feeling better about the time I invested in building this thing, and I think I'm going to enjoy this new table.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Stash Report - Oct 25

Not much change in my stash report this week.  Lots of work on quilts already in progress, but that didn't use much fabric.  I did manage 1.5 yards used for backing for 1 quilt.

So this week:

0 in; 1.5 yards out

Total for this year:
Used YTD: 41yards
Added YTD: 30.25 yards
Net: 10.75 yards out this year


Check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else it up to this week.

Experiments

I was so excited!   I found (bought) plans on-line to build a machine quilting frame.  I've never really enjoyed trying to quilt on my little machine.  Especially bigger quilts - struggling to maneuver the whole thing around on the sewing table.  Bits always fall off, the quilt gets caught on corners, and it's darn heavy!  So when I saw this, I thought it was perfect.  Use my current machine, setup a quilting frame, and I'd be set to go!  And for much less than a store bought frame was going to set me back.

I measured everything, and rearranged my (small) sewing room to make sapce for this.  It could work, although space would be tight.  I bought the necessary parts, and set to work a couple weeks ago.  I was going to do a 10 foot frame, but decided against it after seeing the table in the room.

I cut a foot off and made it 9 feet long - still plenty long enough for my quilts, as 80-85 inches is about the max I do for a queen-size.  The first thing I noticed is how wonder it was to have a table behind my sewing table.  Putting borders on a quilt was suddenly easier, as the quilt sat happily on the extra table instead of falling to the floor.  On Saturday, I completed the rest of the frame, including the roller bars, and set it all up!

I've been saving my quilts to do on this new table, so I immediately dug one out and loaded it up on the machine.   Sweet!  No pinning, no basting, no trying to find enough floor space to lay out a quilt and then crawling around on my knees with pins.

I knew that using my standard sewing machine was going to result in a relatively small quilting path, but I measured and calculated and decided it would be about 4-5 inches, which wasn't too bad (and is about what I have with my shove & push method anyway).  I even reduced the size of the roller bars, to ensure I had as much leaway as possible.

So, I started in on a baby quilt - about 30 inches square.   Things started great - but by the time I got to the end of that 30 inches, I was down to about a 2 inch quilting area :(  I had not expected to lose space so quickly as the quilt progressed.  There is no way I can use this for any reasonably sized quilt. 

I did realize later that the quilt I chose was made with a much heavier fabric than usual - so that accounts for some of the excess.   I will probably give this another chance, with a more traditional set of quilt fabrics, to see how much difference that makes.  But I'm pretty sure at this point that nothing over about 40" is going to be possible with this setup.   Very disappointing, unfortunately.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 19

More interesting than what's on my design wall this week is what is NOT on it.  There is a gap in bargello now - that's because I've started to put it together, and those strips are now in the quilt.

Also off my design wall, for those who saw my post on Friday, is my second quilty.   Made a decision on the blocks, and put it together over the weekend.  Just have to hand-stitch the binding now.

So, does this quilty count as November's donation since I already finished October?  I think I'll still aim to make one in the actual month of November, but keep this extra in my pocket for a month when things don't come together so smoothly :)

Time, I think, to finish some quilts.  I have 4 tops waiting to be quilted, so I should be able to keep busy over the next few weeks.  Then I won't feel so guilty when I go out and buy the fabric for the next quilt on my list.  Although there are still at least 3 partial tops waiting for attention - maybe I should pull out my finishing list and see exactly where I do stand.

Head over to Judy's blog to see what other quilters are up to this week.

Stash Report - Oct 18

I used 1.25 yards of fleece for batting in my disappearing 9-patch quilty (which is now complete).   Soft and comfy, and got rid of some horrible stuff I've had on my shelf for 15 years.   Remember those flourescent colours from the early 90's?  Neon green polar fleece - what was I thinking?  But it's gone now, and I have plan for it's pink and yellow friends, too.

Used this week - 3.25 yard for another quilty (top + batting + backing + binding), plus 1/4 yard for the binding on the last one

Bought this week - None.  I tried hard though.  Went to a quilt store with a friend, fully intending to buy fabric for a new quilt for my son.  But I left the pattern at home :(  So that will have to wait for another week.

Total for this year:
Used YTD: 39.5 yards
Added YTD: 30.25 yards
Net: 9.25 yards out this year

Check out Judy's blog to see how other quilters are progressing in their stash-busting.