Whimsy

Whimsy:

a fanciful or fantastic device, object, or creation especially in writing or art
(Merriam-Webster)

I think I may have mentioned before that our local quilt shop has closed. Sad, but nothing I could do about it. My nearest quilt shop is now in a smaller community about 20 minutes drive away, which is not bad when you consider that you can be living in a large city and and take at least that long to get to your local quilt shop. But since I no longer drive outside of town during the winter, I guess I  will no longer be visiting a quilt shop in person once the snow flies. 
So, I visited my nearest quilt shop recently and, as usual, headed to the clearance section. That's where I found this border stripe print. 

It says: 
    Open your heart and soul.
    Seek wonderment.
    Embrace whimsy. 
    Envision good things.
    Dream and make it real. 
I really liked it, the colours, the funky design, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. What does one do with border stripes, besides backing or Triangle Frenzy table runners? Then the clerk in the shop showed me some of the quilts where they used border prints, separated into the individual stripes, alternated with simple rectangles of coordinating fabrics. And I thought that was a cool idea - simple and quick yet still attractive.  
And then I thought that I could get enough of the border print to use in a queen-sized quilt top for my bed. I do have several more complex patterns that I intend to make for my bed. Some day. But this way I could make a fairly quick quilt and finally have one of my own quilts for my bed. 
I did some calculations, determining what size and width I wanted the different fabric rectangles (I hadn't taken any measurements on any of the ones in the shop), and utilized my Quilt Pro 6 software to design a layout and calculate yardage. And on my first quilt shop hop with a couple of friends from the Lutheran church crafting group, I took the border print fabric along with me. Once again, I hit the bargain section and came up with some blender fabrics that look good with it. 

I love the colours, but initially I felt that the design was quite boring. You may recall that I like to challenge myself with complex quilt blocks and designs, and this just wasn't meeting my expectations. I felt better about it once I put the borders on as it seemed to help make the quilt top more cohesive. But I determined to use a more complex quilting design since the design of the quilt was so simple. 

And I chose New Delhi #2, a fun and funky design that I felt suited the vibe of the border print. 

I chose this large pansy print for the backing. While I wouldn't normally want anyone to say that the back of a quilt I'd made is prettier than the front, in this case, I think it may be true. 
Now, if only it would stop raining long enough for me to get all of my bedding (blanket, comforter, pillows, etc.) washed and on the line to dry. Then I will make up the bed with this quilt on top. Meanwhile, I'm sleeping in the basement bedroom, where I already have one of my own quilts on the bed. 



 
 

Maple Leaf Forever Scarf and More

 

I introduced the Maple Leaf forever scarf back in November when it was almost finished (see post here). I finished it in the meantime and had sufficient yarn to make a matching toque, but I didn't want to make it using multiple double pointed needles. While I do own some, I have never used them to actually knit in the round and have no desire to, using them only when I need them for a cable or other fancy stitch. Especially when I also own knitting looms. While I can generally hand knit faster than I can "loom", I just didn't want the hassle. There's probably a way to make a toque with a circular needle instead of double pointed needles, but I would have had to find a pattern. And I had made loom-knit toques before. However, when it came down to it, I didn't remember which pattern I'd used. I think I finally found it, but now I don't honestly remember which pattern I used. I believe it was for a slouchy from LoomaHat, but she has a lot of different patterns and videos. I modified it anyway as I incorporated the maple leaf design from the scarf pattern and made it shorter, so it wouldn't be as slouchy. If I had to do it over again, I would move the maple leaf closer to the brim and made the toque even shorter as it's still slouchy, and I don't like slouchy hats. Yes, I know I was using a slouchy pattern, but my previous efforts didn't turn out slouchy at all... Perhaps it was a totally different pattern that I had used before. 
I finished both the scarf and the toque by the middle of November, but I've been so busy getting other projects finished before Christmas that I haven't blogged about it until now. One of the projects was Tartan Delight, another one of Fabric Cafe's 3-yard quilt patterns. 

This one is the It's a Snap pattern from the book Pretty Darn Quick. I had purchased the fabric on one of my quilt shop hops. I love tartan fabric and I think it turned out very nice. The recipient suggested blues and greens, and this was the best match I had in my 1 metre/yard collection. I used a royal blue minky dot for the backing. 

Anise is the pantograph I chose. It was one I received for a pantograph of the month program that I was in briefly, but I haven't used it as it didn't really appeal to me. However, now that I've stitched it out, I do find it rather pretty, though it will likely never be one of my favourites. 
I worked on this one at the Lutheran church sew days, but when I got it home and put it up on my design wall to measure for the borders, I thought, "What is wrong?" It definitely did not look right. I finally figured out that I had gotten all the blocks in the correct order in each row, but then I had stitched the rows together in the wrong order. I think I only ended up with two out of the 6 rows in the right place. I gave the stitch ripper a workout that day. 
Next up was Higher Ground, using the Stepping Up pattern. I had gotten the pattern as one of the freebies that Fabric Cafe shares. They switch out their freebies every couple of months, so it's a case of you snooze, you lose. But I try to keep up with their pattern giveaways, so I don't lose out. 

I was kind of loathe to part with this one because the colours and the fabrics are just really awesome, but the recipients loved it. I had to make a few design changes - a couple were deliberate, based on my fabric available (I didn't have quite enough of the navy blue, so had to rearrange fabric placements, and decided to make the mauve border wider). And I accidentally made one too many of one block and one too few of the other, so my rows are arranged slightly differently than the pattern. But it's still a beautiful quilt, in my opinion. 

I had some mauve minky dot in my stash that I used for the backing and Zoidberg Feathers for the quilting. This is a pantograph that I have used before, but I had to choose something that would work with minky - nothing too dense - and would look good on the quilt top. It's probably one of my favourite designs - it's very pretty and works up relatively quickly. 

As a matter of fact, I decided that it had the right qualities for stitching up fabrics for bag-making, and I used it for quilting the fabrics for a travel bag for my grandson, seen here on the longarm, and a backpack for my daughter. I was really hoping to get these bags finished, plus a couple more quilts, in time for Christmas, but I just ran out of time. As a matter of fact, I didn't even get all 3 of my Christmas trees up and decorated until Christmas Eve. And other Christmas decorating around the house was pretty sparse. Hopefully, I'll get the bags finished soon and you'll hear more about them then. 

Home on the Farm

 

As I stated in Amazing Grace, I started about 4 different quilts before I settled on the one for that occasion. This was one of the quilts I started. Yet, when I posted a picture of the first block, the Barbara Frietchie star, to Facebook, one of my great nieces said that she loved it.

Well, generally, family takes precedence and, since I had already given both her brothers their quilts, I decided it was time for her to get hers. 

It's interesting that the purpose for which I originally purchase fabric is not necessarily what it becomes, or for whom. this batch of fabric went through a couple of different recipients before it became my niece's. I had purchased the dark green, brown and yellow fabric, but when I looked at the block pattern again, I realized that I needed another colour. I found this red in my stash that was left over from my Canada 150 quilt, and felt that it worked quite well. This is the first quilt I planned on using the farm panel in, but the unit clerk's impending retirement made Farm Friendship a higher priority. Personally, I prefer this one over that one. But I designed them both myself. 

I fiddled with the brown fabric to make all of the pieces with the farms right side up. It worked in the Barbara Frietchie blocks, but not in the flying geese. I used the no-waste method and I couldn't figure out if it was even possible to end up with all of the farms oriented in the same direction. So, it didn't happen. As my mother used to say, "A blind man will never see it." And I used the easy eight method for the HSTs in the Barbara Frietchie blocks. Originally, I was going to use part blocks of the Barbara Frietchie star to surroud the panel and not use the flying geese, but then felt this might look better. And I'm pleased with the results. 

The quilt is packed up now and hopefully, I will get it in the mail tomorrow. 

The Solid Rock

Under ordinary circumstances, I try to coordinate the backing and the pantograph with the quilt top. But this, this is no ordinary circumstance. 

What can you do, what can you say when you find out that a young friend has been taken advantage of sexually by a pastor she knew and trusted? And it devastated her to the point where she attempted suicide. And I knew him as well, at least I thought I did. I ate in his home, I laughed with him, shared with him and prayed with him. But I guess none of us really knew him. My feelings ranged from being dumbfounded, to murderous rage, to heart-rending grief. And what do you do with those impotent emotions? 

Quilting has long been my creative outlet - for stress, anxiety, depression and compassion. It started as just a hobby, but has become almost an obsession because I can use it to work out toxic emotions and frustrations. For me, when the going gets tough, the tough get quilting. I have made quilts for people who have lost a loved one, for people experiencing health challenges. But this is the first time I have made a quilt for such a reason. So, this quilt is rather unique. 

First, I found out that the young lady's favourite colour is dark turquoise. Well, I had plenty of leftovers from Audacious (and still do), which includes dark turquoise. I had picked up a second panel with Bible texts/inspirational thoughts and I wanted to include something from there in this quilt. So, I had to find a pattern that I could fit it into, preferably one that would work up quickly. 

I turned to my vast library and came up with the book, Supersize 'Em by Debby Kratovil. I decided to use the Starry Starry Brights pattern, because I could fit the panel in the middle. I had to use partial seams to do it, but those are a lot easier than Y-seams! I eliminated the final border because I just wanted a throw size quilt and with this border, it would have been bigger than I wanted. 

I had to decide which Bible verse I wanted to include and had narrowed my choice down to "Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10, and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13. I finally settled on Philippians 4:13 because I wanted to give her courage that, with Christ in her life, she can get through anything. 

I had plenty of the Stonehenge Solstice fabric, but no pieces big enough to make a backing. And as I pondered this quilt, I thought about the fact that this young lady is still a teenager, and decided that it needed a backing that would liven it up. The Stonehenge fabric is beautiful, but it is rather solemn. So, I found this. 

There was some of the same fabric in a dark turquoise, but not enough for backing. This one still has dark turquoise in it and it's very cheerful. I had a hard time convincing myself to use this as a backing fabric because it really doesn't coordinate with the quilt top. But the goal was liveliness and cheerfulness, and I decided to go with it.

Then I had to decide on a pantograph. What would coordinate with both the top and backing? Nothing! I could have chosen a nondescript feather or swirl or paisley. But this young lady is entering nursing school this fall and I do want to let her know that she still has a life and a future and not to lose sight of her goals. So, I went with Lady with the Lamp. 

You can see the nursing cap in this picture, plus part of an ECG tracing (above and below the nursing cap to the right) and the end of a stethoscope on the left. Also included are bandaids and needles/syringes. A fun pantograph by Dave Hudson from Urban Elementz. I love how the nursing cap ended up right in the centre of the quilt. Even though we don't wear caps any more. 

Finally, I had to come up with a name for this quilt. Starry Starry Brights didn't work because the quilt top really isn't bright. A lot of the Stonehenge fabric has stone-like texture, so I played around with that a bit, and came up with The Solid Rock. There are many Bible texts and hymns that liken Jesus to a solid rock, and I wanted my young friend to remember that Jesus can be depended on, He never fails. And, of course, there's this hymn. 

 

The Great Canadian Maple Leaf Quilting Adventure

I'm actually calling this the Vintage Maple Leaf Quilt because it's from a "vintage" pattern, but it has been quite the adventure. This is definitely a quilt of firsts:

• first applique quilt (yes, I've done applique blocks, but never a whole quilt)
• first quilt with wool batting
• first quilt with double batting (one layer cotton, one layer wool)
• first quilt completed with rulers (I did do those fabric Valentines for my grandson with a ruler, but that was less than a metre of fabric)
• first quilt that I've taken off the frame and reloaded it sideways
• first quilt I've had to do three passes over - one for the horizontal borders and sashing plus the leaves, one for the vertical borders and sashing and one to quilt the white background in the blocks
• first quilt I've used 2 different colours of thread to quilt (an army green for the borders, sashing and leaves and white for the block backgrounds)
• first time I've completed a quilt from a pattern that I've had for over 43 years (while I may have some books that are older than that, I don't think I have owned any of them for that length of time)

My goal was actually to complete this quilt for my daughter for Christmas. The label on the back says 2020, but that is not entirely accurate. I was alternating rows of blocks between this one and the Stitch Pink quilt, which I was making for my oldest niece. I was able to finish that one before Christmas, and the quilt top was finished for this one. But then the (mis)adventures began. When I unfolded the backing fabric, I disovered that somehow I had miscalculated the amount required and I didn't have enough. Thank the Lord, I was off work, the quilt shop was open and they still had some of the fabric left. That was the 23rd of December and they were closed December 24th and wouldn't reopen until the 4th of January. I wouldn't have been able to do any work on this quilt over the holidays if I hadn't gone in that day. Or I would have had to make a mad dash to another community with a quilt shop open and probably had to purchase the entire amount required for backing since the likelihood of matching this fabric was slim. 

Nearly perfect backing fabric for this quilt. My LQS actually had one that I liked better. It was the same design, but some of the leaves were fall colours. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough of that one. And I almost didn't have enough of this one. 😌 

The next issue was trying to get my longarm into ClearView load position. 

Since I would be using rulers, this keeps the top bar out of the way of the rulers and my arms. I watched the video and it looked pretty simple to lift and drop the bar assembly and then it would just be a matter of turning around one of the leaders to use it in this position. However, no matter how much I manhandled it (even lifting the entire frame off the floor), I could barely get it to budge. I finally called my vendor and was told to loosen a couple of the screws on each end (which is what I had thought of trying, but didn't want to try it without their go ahead), and success! Though the left end still gave me some trouble. 

Before I loaded the quilt, I also had to trim both battings so that I wouldn't have a lot hanging over the side. I trimmed them to what I thought was a generous allowance - about 8" wider than the quilt top. Apparently, wool batting scrunches itself back up somehow and once I loaded it, I discovered that I barely had enough and had to keep tugging on it to make sure it extended past the edges of the quilt top. Then, to load. As the clamps would be in the way of the ruler base, I had to have something to which the clamps could attach and then pin the other ends to the backing. Some binding remnants served the purpose. 

These are the rulers I purchased for this quilt: Wiggle Wave, Versa Tool and Straight Edge.

I bought the Versa Tool because it's supposed to be good for applique and stitch-in-the-ditch. I didn't find it really improved my accuracy for applique, and I only did enough stitch-in-the-ditch to get from one diagonal line to the next in the block backgrounds, so that would have required a quick switch back and forth from the Straight Edge to the Versa Tool and back again - not worth the effort, in my opinion. 

I finally started the quilting, but, oh my, what a lot of work quilting with rulers is! I don't know why people like it. It's tedious and time-consuming.

And my free motion quilting on the leaves was terrible. I couldn't stay on the edge of the leaves. And when I did the veins and had to travel back over my quilting, I often ended up with loops instead of my stitching going over the previous path. And what a hassle to switch between colours frequently! I was up late that first night and went to bed discouraged, and could hardly sleep because I was trying to figure out how to get this quilting done. I had pretty much made up my mind to remove it from the frame, rip out all of my stitching and just use a pantograph. I do have two different maple leaf pantographs, after all. And that was what I had originally planned on doing. But I also knew that an allover pantograph just wouldn't do this quilt justice. Those leaves needed to pop, which is what I wanted to accomplish with ruler quilting. 

In the morning, I decided not to let this defeat me and came up with a better plan of attack. I had originally planned on doing the whole quilt with one pass, completing each section as I advanced the quilt. I now recognized that that was not the best way to get this quilt quilted. Trying to do vertical as well as horizontal lines, plus changing thread colours repeatedly wasn't going to cut it. So, I now planned to quilt it in three stages: 

1. Quilt the horizontal borders and sashing, plus the leaves.
2. Reload the quilt sideways to quilt the vertical borders and sashing.
3. Switch to white thread and quilt the block backgrounds. 

I found stage 2 the easiest and stage 3 the most tedious. Stage 3 would have been much quicker and easier if I could have just quilted right over the leaves instead of having to go around them. 

Because each leaf had to be quilted individually, with the veins quilted separately from the outline, I managed to produce a large pile of thread ends. 

Some time during my quilting - I'm not sure what I did: held my finger too long on the up/down button maybe? - but suddenly my needle was stopping so low that it dragged on the quilt top a couple of times. I managed to get it up high enough to clear the quilt top, but still wasn't happy with where it was stopping - too low for my comfort. 

I asked advice in the Handi Quilter group on Facebook and finally contacted the repairman at my vendor. Ultimately, I will have to take it in for adjustment, but it was working well enough for me to comfortably finish the quilt. 

Meanwhile, I was finding that, with the ClearView load, and double batting, it was very difficult to adjust the batting to keep the wrinkles out. So there are a few places where I've got batting ridges in the quilt. I also neglected to trim all of the thread ends, and there are some places where dark threads show through the white fabric. 😖 Live and learn!

I was finding Stage 3 very tedious, and considering just finishing one block at a time, but these blocks are too wide for the throat space, so that would necessitate rolling it back and forth for each block. So I would do approximately half of each block in one row, advance the quilt and then quilt the other halves of the blocks.

Finally, the quilting was done and I took it off the frame and put it on the double bed in the basement bedroom to have a good look. 

My goal with the quilting was to make the leaves "pop." Mystery (my cat) confirmed the success of my goal when he jumped on the bed and promptly tried to play with the leaves.

Now for the binding, which is my least favourite part of any quilt. But especially when it's a bulky, heavy, double-bed sized quilt. And, with two battings, this one is heavy. And stiff because of the fairly dense quilting. I had planned on using this fabric 

It's fall colours, but that black background made me hesitate. There is no other black in this quilt. So, I decided to see if I could find something else. I was planning on going into the quilt shop when I had the chance, but then I found this fabric in my stash. 

Perfect colours, perfect theme. And today, because we had two severe weather warnings in effect (freezing rain and high winds), and I have a 45-minute commute to work, I opted to take one of the Personal Leave days that my employer allows, and got the binding done. Currently, it's snowing horizontally.

And so, nearly 44 years after this pattern was published, I've completed my version of it. 

Original Pattern: Maple Leaf Quilt from Scraps, published in Family Circle magazine in March 1977

(My changes from the original pattern included raw edge appliqué using fusible web, rather than needle turn applique, widening the outside borders to 5", and, of course, longarm quilting rather than hand quilting). 

Too Many Projects on the Go

While working on Practice Makes Perfect, I decided to see if I had sufficient fabric left over to make the practice quilts for the two Angela Walters classes I own. One is Quilting With Rulers: Free Motion Made Simple, which I own online (hopefully, the new Craftsy will get our pre-owned classes sorted out soon). And the other is Help! How Do I Quilt It?: A Machine-Quilting Manual, which I own on DVD. Like the previous class, these are both taught mostly on a domestic machine, so I will have to be creative to make them work on my longarm. But, after all of the time and effort I invested in Practice Makes Perfect, I really am not in a hurry to do another quilt using free motion or rulers. I just wanted to get the quilt tops done so that they'd be ready when I am. And I can put the remnants of the fabric in the scrap bin. 

This is the quilt top for ruler practice, which I will call Practice Makes Perfect 2. But I had gotten sidetracked while working on Practice Makes Perfect, and started on something more interesting. 

I think I will call this Fall Frolic. It's made from the Jordan Fabrics pattern, Teatime, and it gave me the opportunity to use my Strip Tube ruler for the first time. I am actually farther along than this picture shows, needing only one more border and then it will be ready for the longarm. It will be for my nephew, Andrew. 

Back to making practice quilt tops, I got this far on Practice Makes Perfect 3 (pattern from the "Help!" class) and discovered that my HST border was too long. I've been revising the instructions as I saw fit and even though I starched the fabric before cutting HSTs, the bias still stretched. A LOT! I have some ideas for how I'm going to remedy this, but I wanted to work on something more fun for awhile. (I also made templates for the paper-piecing part - those diamonds in the centre - because I realized that I would run out of fabric if I did it all with paper-piecing). 

I had seen this video and thought that those quilts would work for baby quilts. Not that I have run out of ideas for using HSTs in baby quilts. But I certainly am not opposed to finding and trying new ideas. My local quilt shop sells precut metres of fabric for $7/metre and I resolved to give this a try. So I picked up 3 coordinating fabrics the next time I was in the shop. 

And this is what I tried next. 

This one is the Jigsaw quilt, demonstrated by Misty starting at 17:29 in the video. Full cutting directions are not provided, because, of course, they want to sell the book, which you can find here:

(And if you purchase through this link, I'll actually earn a small pittance. I have no idea how much because it's never happened so far). 

I'm going to keep this author's books in mind because I really like the idea of a 3-yard quilt and they will be great alternates for HST baby quilts. Unfortunately, I don't currently have backing fabric for this one, but that's not a big problem since I also don't have a recipient in mind. 

Meanwhile, I did a little doodling. 

This is one of the quilting designs (or at least my version of it) in the "Help!" Not bad for a non-doodler, eh? But I don't think I will ever master the serpentine lines!

October started with daily emails of quilt block designs from Moda arriving in my inbox. These are part of the #ModaStitchPink project for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I don't usually join Quilt Alongs, since I already have more than enough projects to work on. However, my oldest niece, Julie, celebrated her 50th birthday on October 11th. And her favourite colour is pink. Plus I have a sister who is a breast cancer survivor and an aunt who died at 95, who was a breast cancer survivor as well. So, I thought, "Why not?" Especially since I like trying new quilt blocks. I picked up several pink fabrics at the quilt shop, including a very pale pink solid that I'm using as the background. And I added some pink fabrics from my stash, and started making blocks. 

I think I need to move purchasing a new camera higher on my priority list. My cell phone camera just doesn't capture colours very well. 

I've only got the first two blocks done so far. As usual, I don't always follow directions exactly if I know a method that I think works better. In the above block, I used the no-waste method for making flying geese. 

I hate wasting fabric, or trying to figure out what to do with triangles that I've had to cut off corners. So, this method works really well for me. 

I told my niece that it would be a combined birthday and Christmas present and she'd probably get it closer to Christmas, but I didn't tell her that it's a quilt. I suspect that she'll probably guess. 

Well, back to the studio. In addition to these project, I've also got some more masks to make. 

UFOs No More - 2 projects

I get bored easily. And maybe distracted by new projects too easily. So, I start new projects before the current one is finished - over and over again. I have more UFOs than I care to count. And some of them have disappeared in the mess that is my quilting/crafting studio (or somewhere else in the house). Daughter and grandson move in and out, renovations in the studio, and rooms have to be rearranged and projects disappear, only to reappear when I'm looking for a different one... But I'm trying to do better!

I don't remember how long ago my niece Tara asked me for a set of placemats. She loves Christmas, so I opted for Christmas ones, and decided to go one better and make a matching table runner. I picked up these patterns, probably at my local quilt shop. 

They're from Pieced Tree Patterns, and are quick and easy. That is, they are quick and easy if they're not interrupted by renovations and you then have to find the pieces and the patterns and the time...

Now, I'll digress slightly to explain why I decided to finally finish this set now. Some time before, my brother-in-law in Michigan paid me to make him some masks. (I wasn't going to charge him, but he insisted on paying me - he's generous to a fault). He has a larger than average head and was finding that the elastics broke on the standardly available masks, so had been wearing one of the ones I had made for my sister, to the point where it was getting ragged. So, I made and mailed his custom made masks, plus some ear savers and a couple of extra masks for my sister. I made the mistake of just sending them through as small packet, no tracking. And then we waited and waited. As the weeks went by, I finally decided to make him a new bunch of masks to replace the ones that had gone missing. This time, I determined to send them in a trackable parcel and to make it more difficult to lose, I decided to include the placemat set I hadn't yet finished for my niece, this sister's daughter, who lived nearby. That way the parcel would be bigger. But I had to finish the set first, which I did.  And I had the parcel all packed up and addressed in my truck, ready to mail when I got off work. Then I got the text from my sister that they got the masks! Seven weeks, that's how long it took! So, now I have some oversized masks that I should probably try to sell on our local buy and sell Facebook group. Plus the box that I originally had the placemat set in is now too big without the masks. I need to find a smaller box before I can mail it. But at least it's done.

Looking at them altogether like this, I think they are just too busy. The print is too big and if I had to do it over again, I would have selected different fabrics. The focus fabric in the centre is fine, and the other fabric doesn't look too bad on the table runner, but almost overwhelming on the placemats. However, spread out on a table, it won't look quite so bad either. See the individual placemat at the top of this post. But, it's still too busy. Smaller prints would have worked much better. 

If my niece gets tired or dizzy from looking at them, she can always turn them over. 

(I really love this backing fabric and wouldn't blame my niece if she primarily uses this side. LOL). I quilted them using the Poinsettia Fantasia pantograph from Meadow Lyon. I wasn't entirely happy with it, because, to me, the poinsettias came out too abstract looking. If I ever choose to quilt poinsettias again, I think I will look for a different pantograph. I never took a close up of the quilting for that reason. 

Next on the UFO agenda was my grandson's dinosaur quilt, Dinosaur Days. Again, I don't remember when I first bought it. My grandson was old enough to express to the clerk in the store where I bought the kit that the T Rex in the panel was Grandpa B___ (my ex-husband). 😄 (I still find that incredibly amusing). But it was long enough ago that Damian didn't remember I was making it. And this year, I determined to get it finished for his birthday, August 30. Thank the Lord, I was able to find all of the pieces (in different locations in the studio) and the pattern and the backing fabric. 

Isn't this amazing fabric? Every once in awhile, I find a piece of fabric that it so appealing that I'd like to just disappear into it and live happily ever after. The scenic fabric in Wintry Woods is another such fabric. Unfortunately, like most directional fabrics, I had to do a vertical seam to keep the scenery going in the same direction as the quilt top, since the quilt top was directional as well. Not a favourite thing for longarmers to do, but it's not the first time I've had to do it. 

Getting home from work one day, while I had it on the longarm frame, the light coming in the window was just perfect to highlight the triceratops in the quilting.

I never did get a picture of the stegasaurus because it didn't show up as well as the triceratops. However, my grandson was impressed that even the stitching was dinosaurs in his new quilt. I used Dino Jungle from Urban Elementz for the quilting. With this pantograph, I had the opposite problem from Poinsettia Fantasia. It was too detailed and accurate. All of those points, angles and corners made for very tedious and time-consuming quilting. I'm happy with the results, but what a lot of work! I couldn't help but think that an apatosaurus would have been much simpler to quilt than stegasauruses and triceratops! Again, if I ever do another dinosaur quilt, I will likely look for a different pantograph. I think Dave's Dinosaurs gives sufficient detail to make the dinosaurs recognizable without being so time-consuming.

Once the quilt was done, I had to find a place to take its picture. I have a sloping front lawn, and with my tallest stepladder on the public sidewalk, I was able to get a full-length portrait. 

This quilt is 76x96", so a generous twin bed size or a skimpy double. Here it is on my double bed. 

Admittedly, it doesn't look great with the pink-flowered bedskirt, but Damian isn't going to have to worry about a bedskirt. I bought Damian's bed when he was a toddler and had "graduated" from a crib. It's got a thin mattress and is fairly low to the ground. It's a good, safe bed for a small child, but this quilt is really too wide for it and will be dragging on the floor. However, in a few years time, we will get him a full box spring and mattress and the quilt will fit fine. And the good thing about this quilt is, because the dinosaurs are realistic and not toy-looking, it's not limited to just being appropriate for small children. 

One oddball thing I found about this pattern: it showed the side dinosaur borders with the dinosaurs facing in, not out. So when hanging like this, the dinosaurs would be upside down! Obviously, I chose not to follow that part of the pattern. 😃 And I'm going to keep this pattern around as one that might work well with other panels and their coordinating fabrics. 

My Quilting Journey

When I'm asked how long I've been quilting, that is a difficult question to answer. It's not like I can answer, "My mother taught me when I was 12 and I've been quilting ever since." (My mother wasn't even a quilter, but she was a seamstress). Or, "I took a class when I was 40..." No, my quilting journey is a rather long and convoluted one. 
Let me start by saying that I hated Home Economics (or Home Ec, as we preferred to call it) classes. I was required to take them in Grade 8. I think it was one afternoon a week, all of the girls in my class were required to traipse over to another school, where they had a Home Economics classroom and teacher, so we could learn the joys of cooking and sewing. The class was divided in half, so that half of the girls were learning cooking while the other half was learning sewing. I had baked cakes from scratch before I ever took a Home Economics class, so was quite insulted when we had to make a cake mix. Therefore, I didn't really feel that there was much to learn on the cooking side of things. 
Sewing was a different matter because, while I had used my mother's Sunbeam Mixmaster, I had never used her Singer. And, for whatever reason, there appeared to be a shortage of sewing machines in the Home Ec classroom. It seemed that every time I got up from my sewing machine, another girl in the class would "steal" it. It made for a very frustrating time trying to complete a project. My first project was a skirt. I think it was probably made from a yard of fabric (we weren't on the metric system back then). One seam up the side, an elastic casing and then hand-hemming. Boy, that hand-hemming was painful. Little wonder that when I finally got my first sewing machine, one of the requirements was that it have a blind hemming stitch. No more of that hand-hemming for me. As I was working on hemming my skirt, the teacher told me it was too short. Oh come on, this was the early 70s: all of our skirts were either minis, midis or maxis. And one yard was definitely not enough fabric to make a midi or a maxi! And why didn't she tell me that before I started hemming? The next project was pajamas. I asked if I could use a pattern that my mother already had from one of my older sisters' forays into the domestic arts, rather than the one the teacher suggested. Why spend money on another pattern if we didn't have to? (Especially since it was not likely to get used again). The teacher agreed and the project was started. She did, however, tell me to do something different with the armholes. Was it binding instead of facing? I don't remember exactly, but instead of making it easier, I think it made it more challenging. I had to take the project home to get it finished, and when my mother saw me so frustrated, struggling so much with it to the point of tears, she finished if for me. Was that cheating? Probably, but I likely would have done the same for my daughter. Except that I homeschooled my daughter, so I was the teacher.
Somewhere during that frustrating time, I decided to stop attending Home Ec classes, with my mother's full knowledge and consent. If that makes me sound like a spoiled brat with an indulgent mother, that's definitely not the case. My mother raised me to be mature, responsible and self-directed, and when she heard my rationale for wanting to quit, she allowed me to. Instead, I stayed home and cleaned the litter box. That is, I stayed home until the Home Ec teacher reported my continued absence to my teacher, and I started going back again. Looking back, I wish I'd had the courage to tell him how frustrating I considered Home Ec and what a waste of time it was. And that I had my mother's permission to stay home. However, I went back and endured the frustration until it was over. But it turned me off sewing so much that I never touched a sewing machine again until after I finished high school. I found shop class, which I took as an option, much more fun, feeling that I was learning and accomplishing something, with appropriate supervision and input from the teacher. I can't help but wonder how many of the girls in my Home Ec class never sewed again. At least for me, it wasn't an experience calculated to instill in me a lifelong love of sewing. 
So how did I end up returning to sewing? I really don't know, other than the fact that my mother always sewed, and so, in spite of my experience, it wasn't something that was seen as negative. Somehow I got back into it, only this time it was a wonderful journey. Yes, I had frustrations. I remember a green satin dress on which I just couldn't get the bodice right. And my mother ended up finishing that one for me as well. But I did successfully make a lot of my own clothing. 
And sometime in those early days of garment sewing, I developed an interest in quilts. That was back in the day of women's magazines that would feature craft patterns - I still have some of them in my library. One of the first I remember was a puff quilt that called for four layers of batting, two of which were cut up into squares about an inch smaller than the squares of fabric. When you stitched the quilt together, these two layers would be stitched inside the fabric squares. It made for a very puffy, and no doubt very warm, quilt. Unfortunately, I never did get around to making that quilt and neglected to preserve the pattern. The next one was the Meow-y Christmas quilt. I love Christmas and I love cats, so this was a perfect quilt for me. I think it had 16 or 20 blocks where I had to embroider cats in various poses. Each cat pattern had to be increased in size using a grid from a small picture in the magazine, and then transferred to the fabric. I managed to get 12 of them done, and eventually ordered the package from the magazine. 

As you can see, I still have it. And maybe some day, I will actually complete this quilt. 

One of my reasons for being interested in making quilts was because of all the scraps I was accumulating from garment sewing. Eventually, I used some of those to make my very first quilt.

And yes, I've still got it, too. And believe it or not, I think it has pieces of that original skirt in it (the orange fabric).

It's a real mish-mash of fabrics - cotton, poly-cotton, polyester, flannelette, and satin. And in some places, the fabric is totally gone. So, it is in definite need of repair. I did the quilting on the sewing machine, not really having a clue what I was doing. I don't even know if walking feet even existed back then. I got tired of making all the squares in the centre and decided to try crazy quilting around the outside. Look at those huge pieces with no quilting, aside from the edges of the pieces. If I ever get around to repairing it, I might try putting it on the longarm and doing a better quilting job. Not sure how that would work because I'm not going to take it all apart. I don't remember what year I made it, but I know that I had it on my bed in nurses' residence when I was in nursing school, 1982-1984.

Sometime early in my marriage, I belonged to a book club, and I am quite sure that's how I obtained this book. 

Owning a book on quilt-making and actually making a quilt are not the same thing. And this book, unfortunately, is about making quilts by hand. It's from the days before rotary cutters and rulers and walking feet were common. And as you can see from the spine, it's well travelled, going with us as we moved from province to province. 

My next quilt was not until I was pregnant with my daughter in 1990. I finally used 6 of the embroidered cat blocks I completed many years before. 

And this one is also still around and now in my grandson's possession. I had intended to use the other cat blocks for another quilt for my daughter, doubling the batting to make a winter weight quilt. But, once I had Sophia, finding time for making another quilt just didn't happen. Unfortunately, through my many moves, I have lost the other six blocks.

Somewhere and somehow, I acquired a rotary cutter and pattern weights to use with garment making. I'm not sure whose not-so-brilliant idea that was. Rotary cutters don't work very well for cutting out garment patterns with small notches and indentations and curves. And the pattern weights don't work very well with scissors. As soon as you lift the fabric up to cut, the weights shift. At least, I already had a rotary cutter and mat for when I actually started making quilts.

It was after I moved to Alberta (1999) that I really wanted to get into quiltmaking. And I wanted to take a class. But I couldn't find one. I could find quilting classes for my daughter, but none for me. So, I had to learn from books and magazines. This is one of my original books. 

And then not only was I able to make quilts, but I actually taught a small class of my daughter and her friend, my niece and a couple of my friends. It was just a basic 4-patch, and my daughter still has the quilt she made from that class. 

I made a few quilts over a few years, but when my marriage started falling apart, so did my motivation for quilting. And once the marriage ended (2006), I had to focus on getting my life and my career back on track. Not really any time for hobbies. I had been out of nursing for 20 years, and had to take a nursing refresher course in order to get back into it. I had started it preemptively before the marriage ended and finished it in 2007. Then, because I didn't have any recent experience to put on my resume, I decided to pursue my degree. In 2012, I was awarded my bachelor's degree in nursing. And in 2013, I started quilting again, starting with both the 2012 and 2013 Craftsy (now Bluprint) BOMs, neither of which is finished yet. 

In September of that year was the last time I quilted a larger quilt on my domestic machine.

The cats were extremely helpful, as you can see. I had been trying through online learning to figure out how to do free motion quilting on the domestic machine. I had even found a tractor tire design that I wanted to use on this John Deere quilt. But I just couldn't get it right, so I ended up just doing straight line quilting with the walking foot. I had wanted to do cross-hatching, but It took me days just to get diagonal lines done. And I'd had enough. 

I had probably been to the Creativ Stitches show in September and I think that's where I got the flyer about renting a longarm. So, in November, I decided to give it a try. 

And I've never looked back. Since then, I have only done mini quilts on my domestic machine, renting a longarm for all of my bigger quilts. And in 2018, I bought my HQ Amara. 

And since this purchase, I have completed over 20 quilts on this machine, plus a couple of tote bags, table runners and table toppers.