3G Quilts

Last week I shared some photos of the beautiful quilts in the quilt show hosted by the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild in Lexington, VA. I promised more, so here are few others from the show.

This charming little quilt was Ann Gruner’s first quilt as a serious quilter, appropriately titled A First. It took “a first” place ribbon in a hand-quilted category. What I love about this quilt are the prairie points on the inner border. The prairie points are beautifully executed and the hand-quilted grid in the outer border lines up perfectly with them. The symmetry, the simplicity, and the choice of happy colors just make me want to curl up and snuggle in it. Great job, Ann!

Fractions, by Deborah Lane, is a quietly modern quilt. I think it was the palette that drew me in with its unusual, but warm and inviting, mix of colors. Even though it’s modern it almost seems vintage. The edge to edge quilting is a pattern called “Bauhaus,” a reference to a modern art movement characterized by its unique approach to design. I guess it’s the simplicity of the design which allows the interplay of colors that kept me returning to look at this ribbon-winning quilt. Beautifully done, Deborah.

Maureen Gray’s Christmas Trees was another ribbon-winner that caught my eye. As I mentioned last week, I’m a sucker for a scrap quilt. There’s just so much yummy fabric to see in a scrap quilt. Even though her description implies its not a Christmas quilt, I agree with her husband: they really do look like Christmas trees!

I was very happy to see an art quilt in this show. Early Spring, by Jan Hammer, has a wonderful depth to it. Her use of color to create depth and the gently-curving tree limbs for movement make this a lyrical composition. Especially fun are the small daffodils that line the rail fence at the bottom of the quilt. I love the attention to detail, Jan!

Most shows don’t have a lot of wearables but this show had a rack-full on display. Nancy Epley’s ribbon-winning Saturn is a delightful homage to the 2017 eclipse of the planet Saturn. The movement and flow of the design elements immediately attracted me to this jacket. One sleeve shows the eclipse while the other has a black hole – like the ones in space, not the kind in well-worn clothes! I hope that Nancy really wears this because it’s an eye-catcher!

I hope you enjoyed this virtual mini-quilt show. It was a delight to attend and even more to participate in. If you have the opportunity, be sure to enter a local show and let others enjoy your work. Even when we quilters can find many faults in our own work, someone else will just find all the beauty. And isn’t that a good enough reason to share?

~3G

 

Last week I was on vacation at our cabin in the Shenenadoah Valley. Since I was going to be spending the week there, I decided to enter 3 of my quilts in the fair. Fun!

And guess what? I won a blue ribbon in the Domestic Machine Quilted category!

I also decided to join the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild in Lexington, VA while I was there, and was able to attend their Saturday morning meeting. We met in the space where the quilts were being displayed – what a great way to have a guild meeting. They are a friendly, welcoming bunch and I’m so glad I joined.

So without further ado, here are some of the beautiful quilts from the show.

A small quilt called Hopping All Over by Linda Puhle won Best in Show. The quilting on this small wonder is really a perfect compliment to the improv piecing that is visually exciting. Isn’t it great that an improv quilt can win Best in Show?! Lovely quilting, Linda.

Flowers Unleashed by Jan Gordon, another small quilt, was quite entrancing. I love the modern asymmetry combined with the traditional English-paper-pieced (EPP) flowers. What a great nod to the very traditional Grandma’s Flower Garden pattern. Though the quilting was all straight-line it radiated from the center and really played up the flowers. Well done, Jan!

The Quilt of Many Colors, by Gail Caldwell, was positioned right at the entrance next to the welcome table. It is a large, beautifully pieced scrap quilt with a very interesting braided pattern border with cut off corners. I couldn’t take my eyes off it all night; I’ve got a soft spot for well-done scrap quilts) Wish it had been for sale!

This small challenge quilt, The Scarlet Bomber by Susan LaRue, is just as charming as it can be. Sue made it for the guild’s challenge and it was inspired by the cardinals which attack her windows each winter. The challenge was to create a small quilt, using the quilter’s initials toss guidance: one initial for color, one for the technique, and one for the quilting. In Sue’s case, “S” is for scarlet, “A” for appliqué, and “L” for linear quilting. This was another quilt I kept coming back to inspect because the reds were so vivid and it was just a truly creative, stylized version of the cardinals we see so often in quilts.

Teri Brasz had Blue Radiance on her quilting bucket list for 35 years before she made it! I’m so envious – wish I had discovered quilting 35 years ago! Not only did this take a third place ribbon, it won in the show for Best Use of Color. I just love it to see intricate piecing, beautiful appliqué, and complimentary quilting in combination. Terri, it was worth the wait; you must be so pleased with this winner.

My Shenandoah Serenade quilt (saving the best for last) won a blue ribbon. It was so well-lit that the quilting just jumped off the surface no matter how far away you were standing. I couldn’t have been more pleased – or more surprised – to have won a blue ribbon in this show. Here’s hoping it’s the first of many more to come.

That’s all for this week. Check back next week for more quilts from the Quilt Show at the Rockbridge County Fair and updates on my red and white churn dash quilt.

Keep quilting!

~3G

A couple of years ago I decided I was ready to learn Free Motion Quilting (FMQ). I didn’t understand it exactly, nor was I sure how to achieve it, but I was willing to give it a try. It really came from a desire to have the entire finished quilt come completely from me, rather than it being a combination of my piecing with someone else’s quilting.

So just what is Free Motion Quilting? Free Motion Quilting is the process of using your domestic machine to quilt the quilt sandwich without the use of feed dogs. Here are some excellent resources that I think you’ll need as you try it out.

Videos

• Leah Day’s Free Motion Quilting Project is site packed with videos of Leah free quilting hundreds of free motion design. These are quality. videos explaining tips and techniques to make your FMQ go well. Oh, and the designs are pretty wonderful too.
• Amy Johnson’s YouTube channel is another great resource for Free Motion Quilting videos. An added bonus here is that she also shows Ruler Work on a domestic machine using the Westalee Ruler foot and rulers.

Books

• Free Motion Quilting Idea Book – Amanda Murphy
  I love this book for its multiple quilt designs for some very common quilt blocks. The progressive instruction is extremely friendly for those who are new to free motion quilting.
  BONUS: Besides the block designs, this book shows common background fills beyond meandering and stippling that make quilts so much more exciting to look at.

• Continuous Line Quilting Designs – Hari Walner
  This is my go-to book for beautiful designs that are easy to stitch. Hari also includes instructions and comparisons of batting, fabric, and thread.
  BONUS: She provides a simple chart with copier size percentages for expanding or shrinking the design to fit your quilt. It’s easy to make your own stencils from the scaled designs you can make on this copy machine.
• 1000 Great Quilting Designs – Reader’s Digest
  Don’t let the size of this little book fool you; it’s chock full of simple designs organized by shape. Use them individually or combine them to create fun new quilt designs.
  BONUS: This book also contains edge-to-edge designs you can use if you don’t want to quilt individual blocks.
• Over 150 Quilting Designs for Every Quilter – AQS Blog
  Ok, so this is not actually a book, but this page has links to more than 150 wonderful designs. This has 25 different designs for each of these blocks: Flying Geese, Ohio star, Square in a Square, Churn Dash, Hourglass, and Nine-patch blocks.
  BONUS: There are also some videos on this page from iQuilt instructors with some very useful tips.

Tools

Machinger’s Quilting Gloves – I use Machinger’s because they’re so lightweight and breathable. Fon’s and Porter also makes quilting gloves. Trust me, this is the best $6 investment you can make for FMQ quilting.
TIP: cut off the tip (about 1″) of the thumb and forefinger on each glove so you can wind bobbins, replace needles, and make cuts without having to remove the gloves each time.

Supreme Super Slider – This self-sticking teflon pad naturally adheres to your machine bed without residue and enables the quilt to move more smoothly under the needle. There are three sizes for this at different price points, so read carefully and choose the best size for your machine.

Topstitch 90/14 needles are sharp and have a large eye that makes it easier for the thread to move back and forth during free motion quilting. Any brand will do but I usually stick to Schmetz. Superior Threads has some great education on needles that’s an excellent free read. They also sell some titanium topstitch needles that I’ve been itching to try.

Aurifil Mako and Superior Threads Masterpiece cotton threads, 50wt or occasionally 40wt, are what I usually use. I’ve also just purchased some Wonderful Spaghetti 12wt thread to try some specialty quilting with. Look for it on my upcoming Peppermint Dash quilt. You’ll need to experiment a bit for this, since some machines can be finicky. After trying several, I’ve settle on these brands for use with my Pfaff.

Practice Panels

Practice panels like the ones listed below from multiple vendors are a great way to start to get comfortable with Free Motion Quilting. The designs come pre-printed on the fabric, so it’s quick and easy to sandwich the panel with some inexpensive batting and backing so you can get right to the quilting.

What’s also nice about these panels is they teach you common free motion designs that are easy to translate onto your real quilts later when you’ve gain confidence. Here’s a panel designed by Jane Hauprich, an FMQ instructor and HandiQuilter National Educator – I took some of her classes! This panel is available at Connecting Threads or you can get it at Jane’s site, where her wonderful workbooks are also available for purchase.

You can also use any regular quilting panel that you might buy to include in a actual quilt. Whatever you can find that is already marked with lines is perfect because the real purpose of these is to get to know your machine, its rhythm, and how to you must move the fabric to get the designs you want. Pre-printed is really the way to get started quickly without a lot of fuss.

I also like this modern, colorful one from Bernina, designed by Amand Murphy, whose book I mentioned earlier in this post. It’s available exclusively at Bernina dealers. So if you’re in Charlotte, Hickory, or Shelby stop in at Lee’s Creative Sewing & Vacuums to pick up one of these two colorful, fun panels. I’ve got one right now in progress. When it’s done, I’ll machine bind it for a nice little throw quilt to either keep or give away.

Finally, there’s a set of three, inexpensive, Skill-buider panels that also have pre-printed designs. This is what I used when I began free motion quilting. Since I was just working out how to adjust my tension, it’s a good thing I began on one of these bare-bones  panels because the back was a chaotic mess of too much thread! But that was okay – I learned without ruining a quilt top. Working through the various designs helped me gain confidence to continue on my Free Motion Quilting journey.

Finally…

Get a panel, watch a video, and try it out yourself. You’ll find out how it can be both fun and occasionally frustrating. But in the end, it will make you a better quilter all-around. Promise.

Check back next week for some tips and photos about setting up the machine to prepare for Free Motion Quilting.

Happy Quilting!

~3G

I haven’t been quilting much lately, but I have been spending time designing quilts in EQ8. It’s so easy to lose hours just lost in quilt design on the computer! If you own EQ8, you know what I’m talking about.

Since I can’t show you any real quilts in progress, here are few ‘virtual’ beauties to enjoy.

 

Wild Beach Balls emerged from a personal challenge to create an interesting design from just two solid-colored fabrics. I’m not sure I’ve found the perfect color combo yet, but I love the movement in this design.

If you can believe it, the entire quilt is made with only a single block. The design is pretty modern so I think it might work well for the annual 2-color quilt challenge for QuiltCon each year.

 

 

 

Festiva began as an experiment with the New York Beauty block. I’ve not made a quilt from this block yet, but am itching to do so. I’ve got about 60 color variations with varying border treatments as well. I haven’t settled on exactly the right one yet, but when I do I might actually make this quilt.

 

 

I recently came across the Antique Nosegay block, which I had never seen before. It’s such a calm little block I felt like I had to make traditional quilt design for it. The Baltimore album medallion in the alternate blocks seems to create a nice contrast.

While playing with the colors, it struck me that this would make really nice wedding quilt, perhaps with  30’s reproduction colors for softness.

Well, that’s all for now. Photos of real quilts in progress coming soon – promise!

~3G

It’s time for the big reveal: ta-da!

I know the quilting in this photo is impossible to see, but it was an excellent choice for this quilt top. Believe it or not, Rebecca chose a gold-colored thread for the quilting and it truly was perfect. It didn’t fight with the color and gave just the right amount of texture and contrast. We named the quilt Color and Light, a Sondheim song reference that is well-known to the theatre-savvy couple.

I was able to finish the hand-sewn binding in time to take it to “Show and Tell” at my guild meeting before carting it off to New York the next day. Whew! Just in time.

So what did the happy couple have to say about it?

“A formal thank you to follow, of course, but we have spent the morning sending photos of this quilt to people. It’s *gorgeous* and we couldn’t love it more!”

Just what we’d hoped for.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to the original version and a kit for this quilt in case you don’t want to mix and match fabrics on your own. It’s a fun, fast quilt to make and is just perfect for mixing lots of color and pattern. Mine’s way more colorful and exciting than the original (guess I’m kind of partial!) but you’re welcome to try their version. For my money, mixing and matching some vibrant Kaffe Fasset fabrics is the way to go.

Now I just have to buckle down to start my next project, which is an original design. Stay tuned for more!

~3G

I’ve taken the quilt to Rebecca Mullins, a long-arm quilter in our guild who does fantastic work. We immediately hit it off last year when she designed the quilting on the raffle quilt I designed for our guild’s triennial quilt show. I want her to quilt this special quilt.

For those of us without a longarm, it’s sometimes hard to imagine what the final result will look like. So I’m here to tell you: trust your longarmer! In fact, be sure to read my  10 tips for making your longarm quilter happy before you take your quilt top to be quilted.

Longarm quilters spend a lot of time looking at quilting designs and they see a lot of quilts. As a result, I believe that good longarmers tend to develop a great sense of matching quilting designs to quilt tops. So listen to their suggestions.

In the conversation with Rebecca, she provided multiple options, each of them a nice, curvy contrast to the very straight-lined design of the top. We exchanged texts as she considered designs (normal for us), and in her texts she included screenshots like the one below for the designs under consideration.

Honestly, it was really hard for me to envision the end result of a design on a queen-sized quilt by looking at a two-inch pic on my iPhone. So I told Rebecca I trusted her judgement and asked her to choose the design she thought would look the best.

Here’s what she chose. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Happy Quilting!

~3G

It was a long search for backing fabric for the log cabin quilt. I wanted a black fabric with subtle coloring and it had to be patterned. No solid fabrics in this quilt! Turns out that is not so easy to find. Finally I located just what wanted at Missouri Star. They had just enough for me to use for setting triangles, binding, and backing.

I plan to use the leftover bits from the FQs to insert a little colored row in the backing. Since the quilt is so large – queen size – I’ll have to piece the backing anyway. So why not make it a little interesting and link it to the front with some leftover fabric?!

So I cut some pieces and experimented with making a column of fabric to insert into one of the seams on the back. I laid out two columns, trying one that was laid out in a graduated design and another that was just randomly mixed. Though I like the graduated look, the random mix matches the quilt front better – I’ll go with that one.

It’s time to piece the backing snd the front together. Exciting!

3G