Tulip the Decepticon and Other Quilt Blocks

 

I honestly did not set out to make a quilt block that looks like a Transformer. It's actually supposed to be a tulip. A Tennessee Tulip, to be precise. But my choice of fabrics for this Sew Along resulted in this block looking more like a Transformer than a tulip. 

See what I mean? I have therefore nicknamed this block Tulip the Decepticon. It's Brackman 785.7, if you know what that means. Brackman, as in Barbara Brackman, the author of the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. I finally own my own copy, the newest third edition, just out last year. As someone who loves trying new blocks, this comprehensive volume has been on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. But then I found out that Electric Quilt was bringing out a new edition. Why pay $150 for a used second edition when I can get a brand new third edition for far less than that? Yay! In addition, they also brought out an updated version of the BlockBase software, Blockbase+. Double yay! So, instead of drafting the blocks myself from 2" line drawings, I have software that will print out rotary cutting instructions, foundation pieces and/or templates in whatever size block I want. That makes me a very happy quilter!

And then I found out that Electric Quilt was having a sew along to teach participants how to use the BlockBase+ software. What better way to learn the software that learning by doing? So, I joined in. 

This are the fabrics I chose for the project. And here's the first block, Brackman 1273. 

Since some blocks have many names, and some names refer to several different blocks, Barbara Brackman assigned each block a number. That way it's much easier to keep track of which block is being referred to. 

But before I started this sew along, Bernina started an Old Block Quilt Along. I don't usually join in on these things because I generally have more than enough projects on the go. But I love old, traditional blocks, and I love trying new blocks. Besides, at the end of the year, I could win a Bernina! What's not to love about that? Owning a newer Janome, and a Brother (plus my vintage Singer...), I figured I would give the Bernina to my daughter if I won it. She just had a cheaper Singer, but then she told me that she bought herself a heavy duty Singer, plus she will someday get my mother's Janome, which is currently in my possession, and I figured I will keep the Bernina if I win it. I can't have my daughter owning more sewing machines than me. LOL! 

So, here are the fabrics I purchased to use in the Bernina project: 

These fabrics are stunning and I think I could make the ugliest quilt blocks around and people would still love them just because of how beautiful the fabrics are. 

Here's the first block, Brides Bouquet. 

By the time I made up my mind to join these projects and purchased the fabric, I had some catching up to do. 

Quilter's Delight

Bird's Nest, which I christened Rat's Nest, because it was such a mess. Still people loved the block just because the fabric is so pretty. 

Cross and Star. So, having caught up on the Bernina project, I then had to catch up on the BlockBase+ one. 

Brackman 2898

Brackman 1638

Brackman1915b.

The Bernina Quilt Along is one or two blocks a month over a year, for a total of 20 blocks (I think) and the quilt will be a maximum of 60"x80". The blocks are different sizes, so it will be interesting to see how they are all arranged together. 

The BlockBase+ Sew Along, on the other hand, has only 8 blocks, one block every 2 weeks. The participants can chose what size to make the blocks. I chose a uniform 12" for all of the blocks and decided to add more blocks to make it at least a throw size. 

Brackman 1232, one of my own additions. There are some incredibly challenging quilt blocks in this book. 

Morning Star. Still having to keep up with the Bernina project. 

Brackman 2328, another one of my additions. I messed this one up because it should have had two of the solid purple triangles on the top and bottom, and two of the print triangles on the sides, instead of one of each on all four sides. But with all of those bias edges, I didn't really want to start ripping out seams. And I really wasn't that happy with my choice to use all purple fabrics. 

Brackman 3953. This one used a combination of foundation paper piecing, regular piecing and applique. And I think it's a truly amazing block. I likely would have never attempted some of these more challenging blocks if I didn't have BlockBase+, but this is one I chose to include. 

Mill and Stars. For the Bernina Quilt Along, my goal is to use some of all 7 of the fabrics (6 coloured fabrics, plus the grey texture for background) in each block. (The 8th fabric in the picture, the border print, is for the backing). This makes it challenging to keep it from looking like a "rat's nest" because the fabrics are rather busy. But I'm hoping I learned from the Bird's Nest block.

 

Brackman 2734. For the BlockBase+ Sew Along, I chose not to use all of the fabrics in each block, generally following the guidelines for the number of fabric choices by the number of colours in the book and software. 

Because I got started on making some of the most challenging quilt blocks in Brackman's Encyclopedia, I asked in a Facebook Quilting group for recommendations on what they considered challenging quilt blocks. Someone recommended Brackman 3806.5. This one has 8 mini stars, each less than 2 inches square, as part of the design, including 8 tiny Y-seams! There is no way to make these stars using foundation paper piecing. I tried using the templates, but the pieces are so small that it's virtually impossible to stitch on a sewing machine. Hand stitching? Not my forte. And then I thought of English paper piecing. Yes, it's still hand stitching, but the cardstock would give a little more structure to the pieces while being stitched. So, the above picture is the first of the mini stars. Far from perfect, but still recognizable as a star. You'll have to watch this blog to see if I actually end up completing this block. 

Meanwhile, I've got several quilts that are works in progress and I want to get them finished, so I'll get to those projects and put these blocks on the back burner for now. 

So You Think You Can Quilt

I have a tendency to compose blog posts in my mind while I'm driving. Some of them never actually get posted, but some of my best thoughts come while I'm between here and the city. I was in the city a week or so ago and mentally working on this post on the way home. Remember the sampler quilt top I made when I reviewed that quilting book? Well, I was trying to remember the name of the book and what came to my mind was, "So You Think You Can Quilt." No, I knew that was not the book's title, but I decided that would be a good name for this quilt anyway. (You can find the original post here). It's a sampler quilt, constructed by following the directions in a "how to" quilt book. And when it came to the actual quilting part, I was putting to use the skills I learned in my machine quilting class. So I figured that was an appropriate name for this quilt. 
Here it is:

I confess I really didn't like that border on it. I intended for it to pick up the blues in one of the black fabrics, but it just didn't work like I wanted it to. 
I still need lots of practice quilting, but it's coming. I bought a couple of new stencils when I was in the city and decided to try using my Pounce for the first time. Not happy. The white chalk dust barely showed up on the black print fabric and not at all on the pink fabric. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I need to try the blue or the pink pounce (though the pink wouldn't show up on the pink fabric either.  I tried to use my blue quilt marker, but it didn't show up on the black print either. So I resorted to tracing paper, which is not my favourite machine quilting method, but it worked. I did use a stencil and marking pen for quilting the border, however. 
Here's a closeup of some of the quilting:

Sorry, the camera flash washed it out quite a bit. I need to refine my camera skills. 
I chose to use a variegated pink 40 weight Signature thread. (I used that brand because it was what was available at my LQS). I really love variegated thread (and variegated yarn, for that matter). I'm not sure what the appeal is for me, but I choose to use it whenever I can. However, the blocks and fabrics in this quilt are too "busy" for the variegations to make a significant impact. It makes more sense to use a variegated thread in a quilt with more plain or solid fabrics, like the Law School quilt. Lesson learned. I will keep that in mind for next time. Though I suppose it also depends on the look I want to achieve. If I don't want the quilting to stand out and a variegated would blend in better, then I'd go with that. For this particular quilt, even against the black, the variegated pink doesn't show up that well. If I had wanted my stitching to really stand out, a solid bright pink probably would have worked better. But as I am still learning, I'm not so sure that I want my stitching to really stand out yet. 
I used a different quilting motif for each block and a border stencil for the border. I had to modify it slightly as it was a little wide for the border. On the sashing, I just made a zig-zag pattern using my walking foot. 
Here's the back:

I love this fabric. I wish I had more of it. This quilt is 30" square, so either a table topper or a cat quilt. I could use it as a wallhanging, but didn't put a hanging sleeve on.
And here's the fabric I bought at Fabricland:

I used to love the Pink Panther and with a purple background, I can't lose, especially since it was in the clearance section at $2.50 a metre. This is a flannel fabric and will become the backing on a flannel quilt. I bought what was left on the bolt.

I couldn't resist this one, especially since it was also $2.50 a metre. Unfortunately, what was left on the bolt was in two separate pieces - 1.4 metres and 1.6 metres, but I'm hoping I can make it work for a backing as well.  I also stopped in Michael's and looked at art supplies. I could have kicked myself as I forgot both my art supply list for my Craftsy course and my 20% off Michael's coupon. But I got back there a couple of days ago and remembered my coupon and list, plus I had another coupon for 40% off one item and an Airmiles coupon for 5x the Airmiles, so the second trip was worthwhile. They also sell one of those plastic tag gun thingies for quilt basting. Cheaper than the one at Fabricland. Have any of you ever used one of those? I figure it's got to be easier than pin basting. 
Since I had taken the live Machine Quilting Class, I decided to use my dubious quilting skills to finish this sampler from my online machine quilting class.

I have to admit that this looks kind of like a map - the purple is water and the orange is land. Here's a close up of what was supposed to be swirls:

It just wasn't coming together for me. And here's my stipling:

I don't know if free motion is ever going to work well for me. I was never really a doodler, even with pen and paper, so doodling with my sewing machine is even more of a challenge. Here's the back:

This one is only 24" square, so definitely a cat quilt. Actually, the cats have already been using it before I finished it. I had it folded up on a corner of the sewing table and that's where one of them would sleep when he/she wanted to keep me company, although they haven't been doing that since I moved the sewing stuff to the basement.
My buddy Phil, who is also a cat lover, once asked me if I'd made the cats any quilts yet. Now I can say yes. Actually, all of my samplers from the machine quilting class will be cat quilts as well. I just need to get my serger back from servicing so I can serge the edges. And hopefully, they will help keep the cat hair off the furniture. 
As it's Remembrance Day today, I watched the ceremonies in Ottawa today on TV. Here's one of my favourite videos to help keep our veterans in mind:

How to Make a Quilt: Book Review

How to Make a Quilt: Learn Basic Sewing Techniques for Creating Patchwork Quilts and Projects

by Barbara Weiland Talbert

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic preview edition of this book from Net Galley for review. I have not received any compensation for reviewing this book.

In order to review this book more effectively, I decided to construct the sampler quilt by following the book's instructions. Given that the preview edition doesn't have any pictures, it was rather like sewing a mystery quilt, only harder. Indeed, having never seen a Tam's patch quilt block before, I was rather in a quandary when I was told to construct it according to the diagram, which wasn't there. I ended up having to google Tam's Patch, and even so, since this was a variation, I had to decide how I wanted to arrange the final four sections. I had a similar issue with the Two by Two and just kind of randomly threw it together how I wanted to.  But that glitch is not the fault of the author. However, there were a few things in the actual instructions that left me scratching my head. 
In constructing the Tam's Patch block, I needed to make two half square triangle units. The instructions told me to cut one square of each of two fabrics, cut them in half diagonally, and then sew a light triangle to a dark triangle. The book then warned me to be careful not to stretch the fabric as I'd be sewing along the bias. I really didn't know anyone was still using this method for making half square triangle units. By drawing a diagonal line corner to corner on the light coloured block, putting a light and a dark coloured block together, sewing 1/4" each side of the line and then cutting on the line, you end up with two HST units without having to worry much about stretching the bias. For me, that's much more efficient. So, I was rather puzzled that any instructor in 2014 would still be teaching the old way. (If you're interested, you can see both methods explained here: Intro to Half Square Triangles). In this case, I did not follow the book's instructions. Ditto with the Hourglass block. The book said to cut the two blocks in quarters diagonally and sew bias seams. I knew there had to be a more efficient way to do that block, so I googled once more and found Jenny Doan's youtube instructions. Quick and easy! With either instructions - the book or Jenny's video - I would end up with two hourglass blocks. In Jenny's case, it would be for a whole quilt. In the case of the book, I only needed one hourglass block for the sampler quilt, so I ended up with an orphan block. I hate orphan blocks. They make me feel guilty, like somehow I must use this block so it won't be left alone and forlorn. Isn't there a way to make just one hourglass block? 
And on the subject of extras, the instructions for Tam's Patch said to cut two rectangles of fabric from both the light and the dark, but only the dark were used. I'm still puzzling over that one. What am I supposed to do with the light ones? Hopefully this has been corrected in the published edition of the book. 
The final block was the pinwheel block. For these HSTs, the author said to use the folded corner piecing method. This may work well for Flying Geese units and the Snowball block, but to use it for HSTs wastes a lot of fabric and time. I did the initial cutting for all of the blocks prior to sewing, so I only read enough of the instructions to know what sizes and shapes I needed to cut. Therefore, I didn't realize until it was time for sewing what a waste this was. Following the directions, I cut out 4 dark and 4 light 3-1/2" squares, when all I really needed was 2 dark and 2 light 3-7/8" squares if I was going to use the regular HST method. Grrr! So not impressed. So I cut the pieces I needed to do it my way, which to me is the logical way. I finally finished all of the blocks, and added the sashing, cornerstones and border. Here's the quilt top:

Blocks as follows:
Pinwheel - Flying Geese - Snowball
9 Patch - 4 Patch - Two by Two
Square in a Square - Hourglass - Tam's Patch Variation

Though the book does give directions for finishing the quilt, I don't plan on finishing it right away. It's hardly worth paying to quilt something this small (30" square) on the long arm. If you've been following my blog, you know that I am challenged when it comes to machine quilting on a domestic machine. I haven't been able to learn so far with several online classes I enrolled in, so I am hoping to take a live class this fall. I will probably need some projects to work on in the class, so I will save this quilt top for that. 
Meanwhile, back to this book: While there is useful information in it, I was disappointed with some of the techniques used and don't feel they're the best choice. I can't honestly say that I would recommend this book to someone who desires to learn how to quilt. There are so many better resources available out there.