mastering geese for a swoon

so, i started something new a little while ago. no surprise there! when i get the urge or the itch, i just dive into something. this time i decided to join the IG #swoonalong. in celebration of her 10th year anniversary in the quilting business, camille rosskelly started a quilt along of her most popular pattern, swoon. i've had the pattern as part of her craftsy.com class i purchased a few years back, and it's been on my "to do" list for ages. it's on everyone's "to do" list because it's so awesome. when the swoonalong came up, i resisted for a little while before being sucked in.

i'm eyeball deep in projects, so i wanted a quick version of swoon. i decided to make a swoon variation of my stella grande quilt pattern: one giant swoon block with a top and bottom border. i'm using heather bailey's floral picnic bouquet in gold as my main fabric, sandi henderson's meadowdot in mint as the secondary fabric, and essex linen from robert kauffman as my background.

i decided if i'm going to make the ultimate quilt, one of the fabrics better be my ultimate favorite: meadowdot, of course. i picked the floral to compiliment it. and i've always wanted to try linen. it seemed a good time to do that, too.

i started cutting away on the floral. and did it wrong. the swoon pattern i have is for a 24"block, but i wanted a 60" block. so i had to do some math. and i did some wrong. then i decided after reading up on quilting with linen that i should use a 1/2" seam allowance rather than the standard 1/4". so i did some more math and re-cut my floral center square.

at this point i realized i was not going to have enough of the floral for the quilt, even before i made my cutting error. so i had to visit etsy and ebay to hunt down that out-of-print fabric i was committed to using in my quilt. lucky me, i found 3 yards of it, so i'm safely stocked again.

and then i ran out of essex linen in flax. i went to my new local shop and go more, but thought it seemed to look a little different than the piece i had picked up earlier in the week. after washing it was still a different color! i talked to the shop owener and found out it was the wrong one. stalled again. whew!

while i was waiting on fabrics, i was also following the #swoonalong progress on instagram. i noticed some of the pieces in the pattern that were originally composed of hsts (like the pattern i have) were being made with flying geese instead. that makes for less seams and a more composed look, so i decided to just figure that out, too.

basically, i've rewritten the entire pattern myself.

i'd love to share all of it here, but that would be giving away a copyrighted pattern. sorry. can't do it.

i had to experiment with the geese to figure out the technique and math for those, too. with some trial and error, i got it down. i had some extra squares of linen not yet used that i paired with some solid scraps,

  the upper left-hand corner of linen is a failed attempt at getting the corner the right size. i tried just cutting a triangle and sewing it on. it came out wrong. i don't even remember what size it was. i think i probably used the leftover piece cut off some of the other bits i'd already done.

i read up on making geese a little and decided to go with stitch-and-flip rather than trying to just sew a corner on.

the geese i need are 12.5" x 6.5" unfinished. i think what i used was a 7" square for the corners.

after stitching both a 1/2" and a 1/4" seam allowance (for reinforcement), i clipped the corners off, per the flip-and-stitch method.

 the linen doesn't behave exactly the same as cotton, so i found i needed to sew a scanter seam so it would reach where it needed to be to line up with the block.

in the end, i completely nailed my tip for my flying goose (singular). it's exactly perfect. which is what i'm going for with this quilt. i've found that when working with large scale patterns, all the little flaws are much more noticeable. since there aren't that many pieces for this quilt top, i think it's worth the time and effort to get them right.

i now have most of the geese units completed, so it's on to the corner units. only i've turned back to the other projects i had going. my grande swoon is in the wip pile for the moment. when i do get back to it, i'm ready for a fast finish and i've got the tricks to getting it right down pat.

if only i remember them . . .

machine binding secrets to success

not only did the quilting stitching go well on this quilt, i had pretty smooth sailing through the machine binding, too. since this is a baby quilt, i decided to machine bind for added durability. this is the 4th or 5th baby quilt i have machine bound in the last month or so. i'm so happy to report that it really does get better with practice. and more patience and attention to detail. here's what's helped me improve:

1. i accidentally cut the binding at 3" instead of the standard 2.5" yes, this really did help. it was the perfect size. after a few frustrated attempts at figuring out what seam allowance to use, i found a generous 1/4" was perfect. with the extra 1/2" i thought it would need more, but it didn't.
2. i broke down and used a tape guideline on the machine to help with the seam allowance accuracy/consistency. um, it really does help. i just stuck about an inch of scotch tape on the sewing table to help me guide it from further back. even though it was transparent, i could see it and the scotch was easily removed afterwards.
3. i went really slow. i got over the urge to just power through the mess. it's still much faster than handbinding so i might as well take my time and do it right, right?
4. going slow involved stopping every inch or so to position the binding strip properly. as best i can describe it, i fold over the binding strip so that it is just covers the seam that attaches it to the quilt from the other side, and line up the inner edge of my walking foot's left toe with the outer edge of the binding. that sounds confusing, so look at the photo.

you can see that the walking foot has two toes, which both are open in the middle. look inside the toe on the left: the outside edge of my binding is just barely a smidgen visible along that little opening inside the left toe. the barest line of pink is visible inside that opening. that's what i found to be the right set up for my machine and foot. since the needle falls about 1/16th" to the right of that toe's inner edge, it gives me the perfect seam allowance to catch the edge without leaving too much flap there. on the other side of the quilt, there is a seam about 1/6th" from the edge visible on the binding. this is how i like it.

 this is the second side of the quilt - the one i was just demonstrating above. (called the second side because it's the second seam i sewed on the binding to attach it to the quilt.) if i pull back the binding just a bit you can see where the original attaching seam is just under that lip.

when i flip the quilt over to the back (the side i originally attached to binding to the first time before folding over), you can see that the second seam shows up almost at the edge of the binding.

it feels so good to be improving at this machine binding! after my first dismal attempt, i was feeling as if i'd met my quilt chore match. i guess even an middle-age quilting dog like me can learn new tricks. that's good because there is a whole lot more i want to learn about quilting.

linking up to kelly's needle and thread thursday at my quilt infatuation.

and now it's a girl!

my finishing streak continues - i've finally completed baby cousin elizabeth's improv frames quilt. it got pushed aside in the wake of penny patch and the christmas gift quilts last fall. for a while now all it was in need of was the binding.

since october, the top was mostly complete, but i thought it was a bit small and wanted to add one more frame around it. the only fabric i could find to do this with was the yardage i had picked for the backing. unfortunately, i only had one yard of that fabric. i was going to make-do by figuring out how much excess fabric there was, divide that by 2, and then split the difference between the top and the backing, but it was rather risky and wouldn't give me very much of a border at all. besides, the quilt was running on the small side, anyway. so i played it safe and tracked down some more of the pretty paula prass garden lattice in sunset for michael miller fabrics. it wasn't as easy as i hoped finding any, but in january i found 2 yards (yay! staying on the safe side and a bit extra for stash) at an etsy shop called "vintage inspiration."

 not only did my fabric come prettily wrapped in some sewing pattern tissue paper, but there were a few vintage popcorn bags thrown in as a special treat. the kids are going to love those on family movie night!

inside the carefully wrapped package my fabric was nicely folded and tied with a satin ribbon, too. i love shops that give those extra little touches.

all of that was a while ago and i let it sit while i worked on other projects. but a few weeks ago i got out the fabric order and put that border on. but i forgot to include another little peek-a-boo piece of the umbrella girls in the frame like i wanted to! argh. that took a little bit of a patch job to fix.

 i decided to put the piece in where two of the frame pieces met to avoid excess cutting. but i forgot to figure in the seam allowance when i cut the piece. darn it! i was going to use the two little faces for the piece, but cut it short, so i had to go with another bit instead.

i don't know why it was so hard for me to wrap my brain around how big this piece should be and how to fit it in properly, but it was. until i had done it incorrectly and then i could see exactly what to do! my little remaining scrap of the fabric did not have anymore faces in it, so this rather boring umbrella piece made it in the spot instead. not sure it was worth all the effort, but there it is.

 today i put my big girl pants on and did the machine binding to complete this baby. usually i make binding while sitting at the machine, sort of eyeballing the 1/4" overlap when piecing. however, this time i did it all at once, standing up at my cutting mat. that's when i hit on the brilliant idea of using my cutting mat marks as a guide for a more accurate 1/4" overlap. it worked!

 when it came to joining up the binding, i pulled out my favorite directions from block party - the modern quilting bee. my only problem with this tutorial is that the binding is a solid color. in fact, it seems every binding tutorial in every quilt book, whether photographed or drawn, uses a solid color binding so it's nearly impossible to tell which is the right or wrong side of the fabric and which way the fabric is manipulated. i photographed it with patterned fabric myself, once apon a time, so as to help me remember which way to do it, but don't know what i did with those photos. go figure. anyhow, i made notes in the book so i can remember. someday i'll be able to do this from memory. for now, i'm glad of my notes!

i took yet another stab at machine binding with this quilt. i went extra slow and really focused intently on getting the alignment correct. it's an improvement, all right, but by no means have i yet perfected machine binding. it's HARD! i feel like an amateur all over again when it comes to machine binding. just when my quilts were starting to look pretty good, too. i only plan on doing it for baby quilts because of the added durability. however, because of the speed, I'm sorely tempted to finish off the stack of "just needs binding" wips this way.

i'm going to be so sad to see this quilt go. i truly love it. i hope baby elizabeth comes to feel the same way.

gypsy wips and shifting piles

 you've got to love a morning where you overhear your oldest daughter giving her little sister a counting by 5's and 10's lesson while they eat breakfast and then the 7 yr old tells you she's doing "baby daycare" for the smallest one, which means she's getting her something to eat and making her a special place to take a nap. with them all busily engaged or taking care of each other, i snuck in some sewing during piano lesson time.

my gypsy wife blocks for the month are done. or as done as i'm going to get them. four of the pinwheels are supposed to have borders around them, but i am still waffling over selecting solids or not for the borders. i'm saving that decision for later in the game.

 i've used this opportunity of only doing a few blocks at a time to really focus on precision and improving my skills. please don't look too closely at my points just yet! they are far better yet not fully perfected. when making the pinwheels, i overcut the pieces, which is easy enough since the pattern calls for 1/8" increments quite often. rounding up to the full 1/2" or 1" makes life easier all around. then i trim up after the blocks are formed before joining them. doing this continually would be extremely tedious. but doing one or two blocks at a time has been much more bearable. i would never take the time to do this otherwise.

i did not make my pinwheels completely scrappy, choosing to do one background fabric and four scrappy pieces for the pinwheel. none of the blocks are identical as i worked in at least one scrap from previous blocks to make each one unique. the first two incorporated red and blue, the second set (above) was yellow, blue, and green. as i put the second block (left) of the set together, i didn't think the yellow and blue print in the upper left corner stood out enough, so i replaced it with a different fabric that had a darker yellow and blues in it. this wasn't a waste because i simply used that block and the other one created from making the new hst in the next block i made, the yellow and pink one, where it still didn't stand out enough. oh, well. moving on.

better! but i wish i had shifted the fabric just a bit so more of the blue showed up rather than the yellow, which still seems to blend. thank goodness this is just one block of dozens in a very busy quilt. i can stop overthinking it now. why is it that the points i was off by a mm on are the bright blue colors rather than those that blend in at the tips so you can't even tell how perfect (or not) they turned out?

anywho, my blocks are done just in time for next month to roll in this weekend. and the new sugar block, too. oh, boy!

 the piano teacher did not bring her toddler today, so my wip pile is still spread out on the living room floor. down to two! amazing.

 actually, that just means there are more in the "needs binding" pile on the couch in the dining sewing room, which is wip pile #2. however, they have moved along in the racket, so that's progress. i do adore binding. there never seems enough time for it, though.

while the piano was a-playing and i was a-sewing and others were . . . a-doing whatever, this little lady decided to experiment with measuring, mixing, and pouring in the kitchen. sugar, oats, nuts, and anything in reach kept her occupied for some time. love how they are so busy learning at this stage. the messes, not so much. watching her continually reconfigure 12 lego duplo blocks for 30 minutes this morning was more enjoyable. but i do love her constant enthusiasm.

january's intention

 finished just in time for the next block to arrive in my inbox tomorrow morning, i have completed "intentions," my first block for the sugar block club 2014 bom series from amy at stitchery dickory dock.

being part of a bom series and making this block was a new experience for me in many ways. i've never done a traditional block before, mainly because they have been too complicated for my skill set. both the hourglass mini block and the 3-triangle mini blocks (official name?) were new to me. i surprised myself by working well with so many triangles.



because there is a low time commitment with only one block each month and because there are so many pieces/chances to throw off the size to each block, i focused on precision more than i normally do with this block. there were a few redo's for me, but not too many. in general i shocked myself with some pretty precise piecing. not perfect, mind you, but definitely personal progress.

i've never purposefully made blocks over-sized and then trimmed down, but i gave it a go this time and was converted. i did find one block that i either had to trim slightly off center or remake, and i let that go (notice the way the pink and blue point is slightly off in the upper left of the photo). however, when trimming up the mini blocks to assemble the larger one, i accidentally trimmed one 1/4" too small. arg. but i just whipped up another one.

also, when my hourglass block was a tad too small, even after repeat pressing, i just made another one (which is still slightly imperfect if you look at the bottom points). so i have a few spare parts now, but this doesn't bother me a bit. they'll just get worked into my backing when the time comes.

spare parts for the backing

with this series, each block is a surprise each month. i was a tiny uncomfortable with this at first because i wanted to know where the series was going when i made fabric selections. i wanted a color palette to start with but didn't know how many different fabrics might be required. however, i got over that and gave into the fun of working with continual surprises. despite wanting to break into my liberty fabrics, i knew they were too precious for a skill-building experience. instead, i picked over my stash to find some prints that have a sort of farmhouse and playful vintage feel to them. but i'm obviously also working in some modern prints with that comma circles print. i'm just going to take it month by month with the decision making.

all in all, this was a fun little project; a great exercise in skill building and comfort-zone busting. i look forward to the February block tomorrow.

how do you quilt a straight line on a juki?

when did this become the orange and navy quilt blog? ever since i started working on these 3 different boy quilts that each use some of the same fabrics, i guess. i do like the combo, but it's getting a bit old. i'm itching to work with something else, but am practicing a smidge of self-control by continuing to quilt "way out weston" (what i've named the baby boy simple strips quilt). actually, it's part laziness - i didn't want to change out the foot or thread for something else, either.

 

people who think they can't draw will describe themselves as "unable to draw a straight line," meaning they can't even do the most basic shape. what does it mean about a quilter that can't stitch a straight line - not able to quilt? it's such a basic shape and concept, with guidelines involved, even, that many a grown woman has been surprised at it's difficulty.

 

now i realize dear juki was purebred for fmq, which she is brilliant for, but i'm rather taken aback that even with her behemoth of a walking foot, i'm having issues with the basic straight line. i talked about this before when i was trying to get "twirly" together and got a few helpful responses such as, "go slow" or "lengthen your stitch." well, i tried that and everything else i could think of but am still seeking further input for how to straight line with juki.

 

i'll describe my method as best i can in hopes someone spots my mistakes.

 

• i quilt full-throttle on the tortoise (juki's slow setting). that's pretty slow because slow and steady wins the race, even in quilting. but maybe i need to ease up further? like an inch a minute?
• i have switched to a larger stitch size: 3, 3.5, or even 4. (no idea how this compares to other machines.)
• i have the presser foot pressure gauge at it's lowest-pressure setting.
• i barely guide the fabric through at all, mainly just lightly holding it up a few inches out from each side of the needle and foot so that it can freely feed through mostly on it's own. if i try to push or guide even slightly, i get ripples. if i let the machine completely feed itself, i get super tiny stitches and little to no movement.
• i started in the middle of the quilt and switch directions each time i begin another row so that i'm not always pushing the top toward the same end of the quilt.
• i pin baste about a fist's width apart in each direction. i do have rather large hands, so maybe i need to pin more closely? i average about 100 pins on a baby quilt, which seems like a lot.

 

really, it just seems that the quilt isn't feeding through at the same rate despite the walking foot. the top seems to be slightly pushed flat, causing it to spread out rather than go through with the rest of the sandwich or tuck up under the foot. i had the brilliant idea to try using my slider with the walking foot, thinking it would slip through more freely. after the quilt didn't move at all i made that missing synapse connection, realizing that the feed dogs can't reach the quilt when the slider's on. duh.

 

i'm at a loss what else to do other than keep trying and practicing. i tried to photograph the main issue i'm having.

 every so often, the top starts to pucker and fold over, like the above photo.

 if i simply stop and lift the presser foot up, it usually releases all on it's own without any smoothing from me. however, over the length of the quilt, the top is also pushed forward, which is creating ripples in the top.

getting my lines straight is another matter entirely. i was disappointed to find juki's walking foot does not accommodate a guide bar, so i have to find lines to work alongside myself. or mark the top with my hera marker - ugh. i do not want to spend the extra time doing that. this often means i end up outline quilting each of the seams. usually i line up with the foot's edge on either side or some other part of the apparatus, like the edge of the big white box, below.

staying straight is simply a matter of practice, i believe, and paying attention. still, the needle can wander pretty darn quickly. practice, practice, practice. i thought i was doing pretty good at following along until i took the quilt off and looked at it as a whole. practice, practice, practice. between trying to make sure the foot is staying in line properly and watching for puckers, it gets pretty intense. and every now and then i miss something, resulting in a tuck or two sewn into the quilt, or a wandering line (look closely at the photo below). i'm not hyperventilating over this like the last fmq disaster, but i do wish it looked better. i'm betting on practice to help me out, at least with accuracy.

i was wondering if my lines were as bad as i thought them and what good quilting done by an expert on a juki might look like, so i pulled down rachel's "lolly lolly" for some comparison, since it hasn't been washed yet. her lines do look straighter to the eye and there is a teeny tiny bit of ripple, more noticeable on the back. however, her quilting is a lot more dense than mine is so far, so i can't really say how it compares. i'm wondering if my ripples that exist now will turn into unavoidable puckers when i fill in some of the spaces between. i guess all i can do is move forward and find out.

certifiable

i am certifiably insane.
really, i am.
loads of projects lined up at home, two nearly finished.
and what do i do?
i pick another completely new project not even slated on the books yet.
insane.

well, i signed up for this one day class at ETC with the hopes of having a fun day out, getting a quick project completed, and digging into my stash at home to use for it. sounded like a great combo. but when i got the pattern for the quilt a few days before class, i realized it wasn't pre-cut friendly like i thought. it looked like it should use either charm squares (which i have aplenty) or jelly roll strips and a few large blocks of fabric. this, however, was not the case once i got the supply list. ugh. i didn't want to buy more fabric, really i didn't. there weren't even any i had my eye on at the store. but the idea of sorting through my stash for the needed items was too daunting and time consuming. so while at bucks day, i scrounged around and found some fabrics i liked. i did have a 20% off coupon for the whole purchase, so i got a little break.

i picked some riley blakes from "songbird" and "bohemian festival" lines and some joel dewberry from "heirloom", all with strong hot pink, yellow/gold, and forest and lime green. a few small touches of turquoise, too. it was a pretty pile of fabric. and i was rather pleased with my cross-line color matching. with so many fantastic lines already coordinated, i rarely branch out and mix them up much.

but my simple idea continued to get more complicated and consume more than i intended. looking at the pattern size and sample, i decided it wasn't quite big enough, so i did the math to enlarge it. really, i didn't need another crib size quilt, but daughter #3 had been complaining that "star cookie" was getting too small for her. i thought this was a great opportunity to get her a larger quilt. all i had to do was add a spinner or two to the rows to widen it and increase the two large panels a few inches to add some height. easy.

i was even a good girl and precut all the strips needed the night before class so i could knock out as much of the quilt as possible during the workshop time. i am finding that with the added practice, my cutting is getting much more accurate. it's a miracle! never thought i'd see that happen.

but by the day before class, there were more complications afoot at home: i had some really sick kids and seemed to be coming down with something myself. i debated skipping the class, but it was too late for a refund so i was going to loose the class fee and then i'd be stuck with a load of fabric i'd likely never get around to using. so i went anyway.

i took a couple advil, packed food and gatorades, and hammered my way through that quilt as fast as ever i could. i avoided shopping and chatting as much as possible. i got a bit reckless as i went along, but everything went together quite well. i utilized chain piecing for the blocks and only had to redo two - my only mistakes all day. that is another miracle! experience really is starting to pay off and improve my skills. even my seams are more accurate.

once i got everything laid out, however, i didn't like the look of the quilt much. it was way too busy and hurting my eyes to look at. maybe that was the flu coming on, but i didn't think so. i decided to add in those green sashing strips to break up the busyness and add some breathing room. it also increased the size of the quilt some more.

class time was almost over as i started sewing all the major pieces together. that's when i discovered a big problem: the large fabric panels had been cut 1/2" too short. the teacher was helping me figure out how to squeeze the cuts out of my 1.5 yards of fabric and either she cut it short or i cut some off somehow. i'm not sure who did it. regardless, it was short. a lot. normally that's easy to fix by cutting everything down a bit, but the only thing to do in this case was shorten the outer blocks by 1/2" which would be noticeable and ruin their square shape.

having made the top so much larger, i had to buy more fabric for the backing. i got the same pattern as the large fabric blocks, so i think i will unpick them and recut to the right size. the thought of that makes me sick, but i think in the long run i will be happiest that way.

i finished putting all the major pieces together, nearly completing the top. at that point, my advil had worn off and the illness kicked in earnestly. i could barely see straight. what a day!

in reality, i've never done a project so quickly. i tried stack cutting and made good use of chain piecing, too. but i left with an incomplete quilt, much less finished top. it was pretty depressing.

and i'm not even sure i like it that much.
i have no idea what to call it.
(maybe "spinning out of control"?)
like i said, totally insane.
completely.

accurate seams. or not.

i had a horrible time with my seam matching on my "taite" blocks. i couldn't ever predict accurately if i was matching them up or not. it was completely hit or miss. part of my problem might be that i don't pin, but pinning doesn't ever seem to give me better results, so i gave up on that to save time. also, jill and i went with the modern quilting trend of pressing all our seams open, which might have made it harder to match up those opposing seams. i can't wait to see how much we've scandalized louise when she discovers that we didn't press to one side like she told us to. well, elizabeth of oh, fransson  recommends it in her book practical patchwork, my current personal favorite book and quilting bible. and nettie of a quilt is nice was just trying it out. lots of quilters use this method now. i like it, too. it is twice the pressing, but can be more accurate. except maybe when getting opposing seams right.

i think maybe i should rename this blog "sloppy quilting" because i'm so not accurate and quilting is all about accuracy. i just keep telling myself i'm learning, wonky is nice, and "it will be okay." my quilts are getting done whether perfectly or not and that, for now, is good enough for me. this is a complete shift in paradigm from where i once was on the perfectionist continuum. one thing i did this week that has helped out in the accuracy department tremendously is to purchase a 1/4" guide foot. it's a dream! someday i'll take a picture of it when i have the macro lens on my camera so you can see the little guide bar that runs along the side of the foot. all i have to do is keep my fabric lined up along that bar and i have a perfect 1/4" seam. it's magical! my machine has a nifty see-through plate so i can keep an eye on the bobbin thread, but it makes gauging my seam allowance pretty tricky. i felt like i was skating all over the place as i tried to piece my quilt. this $13 little do-dad has solved my problem. i totally recommend it to any beginner or accuracy-challenged sewer like me.

ps - here's the foot: