40 Country Quilting Projects: Iris Medallion Quilt

 I have a lot of older quilting books. I've picked them up at various thrift stores, clearance sales at quilt shops, library sales, etc. When I use an older book, I do expect there to be some outdated techniques, but I don't have a problem with that. I've been making quilts long enough now that I'm confident enough to choose a technique that suits me better. But what I don't expect are errors: miscalculations in yardage, incorrect cutting measurements, inadequate or missing instructions... And, in my opinion, any pattern should have pattern testers before it's published: at least one person, preferably 2 or 3 or more that is at the experience level of the target audience for the pattern and completes the whole project following the pattern exactly. That way any errors can be found and corrected prior to publication. It's not enough that the original pattern designer has made the quilt. That designer might have certain steps that are so automatic that he/she neglects to include them in the instructions. Or maybe there were distractions during the writing of the pattern and things got written incorrectly, or excluded altogether. So pattern testers are a necessity. But, from my experience, it appears that there have been a lot of patterns published with no prior testing whatsoever. Which is quite a pity. A really poorly written pattern could be enough to discourage a beginner from pursuing the hobby altogether. And that would be a shame. 
So, in all honesty, I cannot recommend this book, unless you're a relatively experienced quilter and are into brain challenges. 

There are just too many mistakes. I have done quite a number of projects from this book now, and I think that's more than sufficient to know that it is not a great quilting book. 
I originally posted about my quilting book challenge back in December of 2016: I was planning on completing every project in this book, with some possible modifications, like using fusible web for my applique, and never hand stitching unless absolutely necessary. I had no idea that many of the modifications would end up being correcting the patterns. And by the way, I'm not really sure how the author calculated the number of projects: if I made 3 Christmas ornaments, does that count as one project, or three? So, I'm not totally sure what number I'm at, so the 40 in the title is a best guestimate. 
But on to the challenges with this particular pattern:
First of all, I will say that I can't honestly speak to the yardage requirements. I switched colours, added fabric from other projects and sometimes did my own thing, but as far as I can tell, the fabric yardages listed are reasonably accurate. Not so for making Template G. It states 12½ x 12½ x 17¾-inch right triangle. Hmm, knowing what I do about HSTs (half square triangles), I think that following these measurements will end up with a square that's slightly too small. Making an HST unit that ends up 12½" square (12" finished size), I need to start with squares that are 12⅞", not 12½". So, I ended up making HST units according to my knowledge, and not cut individual triangles using a template that wasn't the correct size. 
My main concern with this pattern, however, is the cutting charts, particularly for the appliqué blocks. For the individual iris blocks, it says to cut 12 of Template L. This is the leaf template, and it neglects to state that you also need 12 of the reverse of Template L. Then for the centre medallion, it calls for 8 of Template O and 8 of Template P, also leaf templates. This time, the amount was correct, but half of those 8 each need to be reversed. Otherwise all of the leaves would be pointing in the same direction. 

When it came to actually doing the appliqué, I found that the instructions were not as clear as I would have liked. There are no specific measurements or guidelines for positioning the pieces. For example, in the centre medallion, you start by putting the 'O' leaves on. Obviously, from both the diagram and the quilt pictures, these leaves are partway up the stem, but there is no indication for how far up the stem. Furthermore, the diagram shows the 'O' leaves on the vertical and horizontal, and later instructs the quilter to put the 'P' leaves on the diagonal, but the quilt pictures show the opposite. I went with the placement in the pictures, and just guestimated for where to put the 'O' leaves. As far as the stems go, I felt that they were too short and made mine longer.

There were also no measurements for where to attach the corners on the centre medallion. 
As for the rest of the instructions, I was occasionally referring to them, but mostly doing what I knew needed to be done. I found it rather peculiar that the Quilting Basics chapter does discuss strip piecing, but never recommends using it for the 9-patches, which would have been ideal for that technique. And that's what I did. 

I did a little research into why this book would have still been using templates for so many of the pieces that were pretty basic measurements. Apparently, while rotary cutters, mats and rulers existed at this time (1990), many quilters and quilt publications were still using templates. And that would be why the cutting charts in this book indicate the number of pieces required, but not how many strips to cut first. If you're interested in a little history of quilting templates, you can find it here. 
Anyway, my personal design changes in this quilt:
Initially, I was going to do the irises all in purple, as per the pattern, but the sister for whom I was making this quilt really likes yellow, so I opted for bi-colour irises, incorporating the yellow. 
Of course, I used fusible web and machine stitching for the appliqué, rather than freezer paper and hand stitching. I would still be working on this quilt a decade from now if I was hand stitching all of those pieces down - 160 individual pieces. And I did not use bias strips for the stems - just regular fabric and fusible web, stitched down by machine. 
The original size of the quilt was to be 84 x 108 inches, but I wanted it 90", my preferred width for a queen-sized quilt. So, I added the checkerboard border on the sides. 
The "trunk" of the pine tree in the pine tree block was supposed to have been the same dark green as the solid green triangle and square in the block. But who has ever seen a dark green tree trunk? At least not on a pine tree. I used brown instead. And I opted for a more medium green as well. I felt that the dark green in the quilt pictures kind of "shouted" and was rather distracting from what should have been the focus of the quilt - the irises. 

I also chose not to use blue in the 9-patch, opting instead for an alternate purple print.
If I had to do it over again, I would probably choose to use fabrics with greater contrast for the yellow parts of the irises. And in the individual iris blocks, I likely would have also decided on greater contrast between the green leaves and the green part of the background. 
In spite of all of the challenges, it really is a beautiful quilt. And, as you can see, it looks significantly different from the one in the cover photo on the book. I told my middle sister, Nancy, that if Therese (the sister for whom this quilt was made) doesn't like it, she should give it back because I sure do. And Nancy said that she would be next in line. 
For the quilting, I had really wanted to use an iris pantograph, but I wasn't pleased with either Iris Clamshell or Siberian Iris from Urban Elementz. They were too sharp and stylized. The iris design included in the Flower Flakes collection from Meadow Lyon is very pretty, and more what I wanted, but it was just a single block, not an edge to edge design. And really, since I own so many pantographs that I have yet to use, I could hardly justify buying a new pantograph. And I certainly didn't wish to buy a whole bunch of them in order to justify the cost of shipping. So, rather reluctantly, I was planning on choosing a design from my rather extensive "library" of pantographs. But I hadn't totally given up on the idea of an iris pantograph, and I finally decided to check Anne Bright Designs. It's not a vendor I resort to often. She doesn't sell paper pantographs. Most of her designs are digital, although she does have a few self-print. I might have mentioned before that I am not a fan of self-print. I don't like having to print out multiple pieces of paper and trying to precisely line them up and tape them together. And then, if I want to keep it, how I am supposed to store this mass of paper and tape? What I choose to do instead is print out one repeat of the design in the size I want, and trace it onto a roll of paper cut to pantograph size (12'). The roll of paper is actually for a children's easel, and I bought it on Amazon. But that is quite a tedious job as well. 

Nevertheless, I found a design I liked: Iris for Donna. I enlarged it 200% to get it to the size I wanted. My hand weights came in handy to keep the paper in place whilte tracing. But it took me several days, and probably loss of brain cells due to inhaling the magic marker smell. But I was happy with it. 

In spite of enlarging it 200%, it is still a pretty delicate design, and I certainly had to take my time quilting this one. But I got it quilted within 2 or 3 days, and I got it in the mail to my sister. 

Because I'm a bit of a numbers nerd, sometimes I like to keep track of things. In the picture is bobbin number 8, that I only used part of, so over 7 bobbins to quilt this quilt. The 1100 metre spool of Aurilux thread was full when I started (cone of blue on the right for comparison). And that was just for bobbin thread. I used Glide on the top. 
 
Interestingly, I kept the invoice for when I purchased most of the fabric used in this quilt because I made notes on it for which fabric to use for what part of the quilt. The invoice is dated 2017, so it was long overdue to be completed. And that's it - my final quilt for my sisters. Now, I really should make one for my own bed!

Gone Golfing

 Well, no, I haven't gone golfing. Aside from mini golf and a very brief try on my Wii, I've never been golfing, and likely never will. The title of this post refers to this quilt. 

A member of our management team is retiring and I determined to make her a signature quilt. No one seemed to know her favourite colour(s) from which to compose her quilt, but then I remembered that she likes to golf. It's not very easy to find golf-themed fabric. I don't know why. But I was able to find this pattern by googling. I could pay and download it right away, which was important since the recipient didn't give us much notice. So, I really didn't have time to wait for a pattern - or fabric, for that matter - to arrive in the mail. And I could also figure out how to turn this quilt into a signature quilt by changing the squares into signature blocks. 

I was dropping off my Fiesta quilt, which I haven't blogged about yet, at Johnson's Sewing Centre in Edmonton for their quilt challenge and checked out their sale fabric section. Yes, they had the colours I needed in batiks. I picked up the Deb's Golf pantograph at Sparrow Quilt Co on the same trip, and found some appropriate backing fabric at Fabricland. The pink, the cream for the signatures, the white for the golf balls, the grey for the clubs and the batting all came from my stash. 

I really love being able to coordinate my pantograph with the theme of my quilt. 

I chose green for the thread colour, because what other colour could represent golf? However, if I had to do it over again, I may have chosen a thread that matched the light blue. It wouldn't have stood out as much. But I'm still happy with it. And I'm hoping the recipient will be, too.

Another signature quilt is in the works because we have a unit clerk retiring in July. She has made rag quilts for every nurse in acute care that has retired, so I asked the unit manager if there was anyone besides me that would make her a quilt. No, there isn't and I can't let her retire without getting her own quilt. 

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). 

Quilting Projects with Christmas Deadlines

As I pointed out in My Quilting Journey, I have been interested in quilting for a long time. And that interest was encouraged by quilt patterns posted in women's magazines. There were the Puff Quilt and the Meow-y Christmas Quilt that I mentioned in that post. And then there was this one. 

I glued this picture to one side of a sheet of typing paper and the instructions on the other side. Held up to the light, I can see through to see that it was from a Family Circle magazine from 1977. And I've kept that pattern through marriage, divorce, childrearing, short and long distance moves and other life events. A few years ago, I bought the fabric to finally make it. But too many other projects got in the way.

Maybe a month or so ago, my daughter asked me to make her a queen-sized quilt with a wool batting. She asked for a queen because she didn't realize that I make my bed-sized quilts with a generous overhang. So, she'll be happy with a double, as that's her bed size. She said that she's always cold, so I offered to do a double batting. This will be a first for me, both in using wool and in using two batts. 

Then I had to determine a pattern. I shared several ideas with her and we finally settled on this one. She doesn't want the colours too bright or loud so that it can fit in any decor. And so she was happy with the fabric I had already purchased. 

I don't know if fusible web even existed when this pattern was published, and the instructions were for needle turn appliqué, but there was no way I was doing that. So Heat N Bond Lite was put to use. 

I haven't traced all 80 maple leaves yet and I'm getting close to the end of the part roll of Heat N Bond that I had. I will likely have to buy another one. Unless I find the other part roll I have somewhere in my stash. 

The first block is fused. I was able to find 3 colours in my stash of Aurifil that will work with some of these fabrics, but I had to order 3 more to get some to match the rest of the fabric. 

The background is a white-on-white print. 

I also need to order the wool batting. I'm on the fence as to whether I will order a full roll or just what I need. It's not like I plan on using wool batting a lot. I primarily use 80/20. But by the metre, it's $26, and I probably need about 3 metres, so $78, plus shipping. The best price I can find for a whole roll is $350 plus $79.80 shipping for a total of $429.80, which works out to $18.77 per metre. A substantial savings, but can I really fit a whole roll into my budget? Decisions, decisions...

Another decision I made was to redo Block 3 of Moda Stitch Pink to make it a 12" block without the extra strips of background fabric, and I'm much happier with the result. This is the old block. 

And this is the new one.

And I did the same with block 11, a 9-patch. 

And block 15, which is a 7-patch (98 pieces of fabric in this block). 

In addition, I made block 14 using HSTs for the border instead of fiddling with bias edges on the triangles. 

I actually tried it with the triangles, but my bias edges stretched and I ended up with a mess. That's why I resorted to the HST units.

So, I'm done half of the blocks now. 

If I had to do this quilt over again, I wouldn't. I enjoy learning new blocks, but 30 of them in one quilt is rather excessive, in my opinion. With a different block each time, you can't use any "assembly line" techniques like you can when you're making multiples of the same block. You also waste fabric because you're chopping out a bit this size and then a bit that size, not whole strips of the same width. I suppose if I was using scraps instead of yardage, it would be more economical. So, I'm finding it's getting rather tedious, especially when I keep modifying blocks. Which is another thing: with the vast array of blocks available, why would the designer choose some blocks that don't easily fit a 12" size? Also, I don't really like the look of the blocks all smooshed together. I think the layout would be much more attractive with some sashing between the blocks, giving more definition to the individual blocks. Being all different blocks, they don't flow together, so I feel that they should be separated. 

Because I was getting tired of this one, I decided to start the Maple Leaf quilt. It has twenty blocks total and I've got 15 blocks remaining in the Stitch Pink quilt. So, I figure I will alternate: one block of the Maple Leaf quilt and then one block of the Stitch Pink quilt. And hopefully, have them both finished by Christmas. 

The Art and Science of Mathematics

He was a mathematician who had worked in the oilfield, so his mother told me. But by the time we met, he was incapable of telling me that himself, no longer able to verbally communicate. He was dying. I remembered a friend telling me that her father was presented with a quilt while he was in the hospital dying, and how much it meant to her. So, I determined to make this mother and son a quilt. 
I like to customize my quilts as much as possible, so I googled "math quilt." I found this one from Whistlepig Creek Productions. The picture on the pattern shows the quilt in very bright, vibrant colours, but I didn't think that was the most appropriate for this situation. And I remembered seeing some fabric at Fabricland that might be appropriate. I just couldn't remember if it was math or science. 
When I arrived at Fabricland, I discovered it was mainly science. But, to me, math and science are very closely related. I selected three fabrics to compose the quilt top. 
I chose "Galileo" from Windham Fabrics for the background. 

It's not a typical background fabric because it has a very distinct print. But I tend to find solids boring and I couldn't find a more appropriate tonal, and I wanted the background to "say something." 

The other fabrics I chose were "Compass" by Alison Glass for Andover

and "Science," a Timeless Treasures fabric. 

This one is, of course, chemistry's periodic table of the elements. I really like this one. 

Unfortunately, the demands of my new job kept me from even starting this quilt before he passed away. But I still wanted to make it for his mother. 

I reduced the size of the quilt from 63" x 83" to 63" x 63" by reducing the number of blocks to 25. Determining to make the quilt more "sophisticated," I created templates to add square root and pi symbols to the quilt, not just the basic math functions. I decided to complete all of the appliqué blocks first, and "accidentally" created double the amount of division blocks I needed, only to realize that, without the appliqué dots, they were actually the minus blocks. 

So, I had 4 out of the seven symbols completed. My job required commuting 40 minutes each way, and it was exhausting and demanding, so I didn't get this quilt done as promptly as I might have liked.

Especially when I had to wait first for the renovations to be completed and then the flooring issues in my quilting studio had to be resolved. 

Finally, I had the quilt top completed and on the longarm. 

I chose Meandering Numbers from Willow Leaf Studio as the most appropriate pantograph (another hold-up: I also had to wait for the pantograph to arrive). 

It's now finished. I just have to get the mailing address of the recipient so that I can get it mailed off to her. 

So why did I choose this name instead of just "Math Quilt," as the pattern is titled? First of all, way back when my daughter was born, one of our neighbours was a university math professor. And he stated that he believed that mathematics is an art. And, in a certain way, I have to agree with him. There is a beauty in the symmetry and precision of math. It can also be used in various art forms, as any quilter can attest. However, it's also very important in the sciences, particularly chemistry and physics. And, of course, the fabrics used in this quilt reflect the sciences. Like my profession of nursing, mathematics is both an art and a science. And even quilting is both. So combining both art and science, I created a quilt that celebrates mathematics and the life of one particular mathematician.

Replacing Thomas

I was in a thrift store one day and happened to find a size 4 fleece hoodie with Thomas the Tank Engine on the front. It was in really good shape - no stains, rips or other obvious wear and tear, so I picked it up for my grandson. I was, however, a little concerned that Thomas was made out of plastic and wondered how well he would wear in the laundry. After all, this is a little boy's hoodie and it was likely to get regular washing, and not on the delicate cycle. Who knew - maybe they'd made significant improvements to the composition of plastic and it wouldn't markedly deteriorate with repeated washings? I had no way of telling how frequently it had been washed prior to my purchasing it.
Unfortunately, after only 2 or 3 washings, Thomas started to crack up. And I wasn't about to let my grandson wear something now so tacky-looking. The shirt itself was still in great shape. It was Thomas that was the problem. So I determined to see what I could do to remedy the situation.

 I labouriously removed Thomas from the shirt. Sorry about the glare in the picture which prevents you from seeing how cracked/torn he is. It's his face at this point, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too many more washings before it was all a mess.
I determined to attempt to replace plastic Thomas with an applique Thomas. Here's the result.

By the time I got to those dark grey parts on the lower part of Thomas, I was tired of trying to applique all of the small details and used a permanent marker instead. Hopefully, it won't fade too much in the wash. The most important details are applique and straight stitching, so it should last my grandson for awhile. At least as long as the hoodie will still fit him. I see I got the applique on a little bit crooked, but I'm sure Damian won't care.