There's A Thread

Recently I heard someone use the phrase “pod fading” to describe the process of starting a podcast (aside: podcasts! so trendy now!) and then slowly losing interest and abandoning it. I felt a little bit sad, realizing how badly I’ve “blog faded” over the past year or so. I’ve been thinking it over lately and wondering why, although I’m still making things, I’ve been so much more lax about sharing them here. I think it has something to do with my general ambivalence about social media and how it seems to subtly change what feels worth doing. I think I needed to step away for a while and reestablish my connection with my own likes and dislikes, apart from what the internet might have to say about the matter.

Anyway, I have a new quilt to share, and it’s a definite like!

This is pretty much the result of spying the Octagon Shimmer Quilt by Jennifer Sampou on Pinterest and deciding I had to make one like it, NOW. Unfortunately the pattern hasn’t yet been released, so I drafted my own giant foundation pieces using tissue paper. Jennifer’s idea to take the uber-traditional spiderweb quilt and reverse the usual light-dark color scheme is just genius, don’t you think? Hopefully my copy-catting will inspire some of you to buy the pattern when it’s released in September.

The fabrics are quite a bit of Carolyn Friedlander plus some solids and blenders from my stash. I made 16″ squares, so the whole quilt is about 64″ x 74″.

Ok, I told you this one was going to be epic, and I hope you agree. After poring over Judi Madsen’s wonderful book Quilting Wide Open Spaces and getting some encouragement from my longarm mentor Sue Fox, I recently decided to attempt something with much more detailed quilting than I have ever done, and the result is this baby quilt version of the “Irish Lass” quilt in Judi’s book.

I simplified some of Judi’s suggested quilting designs to make them more manageable for myself, but the quilting is still pretty crazy!

Here’s a close-up of what I’m calling the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” motif. I’m really proud of my micro-pebbling here. I followed Judi’s advice and slowed the machine way down, to the point where I could see each individual stitch as it was being made. I ached the day after, and I’m not sure this super-dense quilting is something I’ll want to do regularly, but I really love the way it looks and feels. Each of these took about 40 minutes of quilting. The whole quilt took me about eight hours total, as well as some initial practice time.

The binding on this quilt is one of my favorite parts. Crisp but pretty, no? I’m hoarding this fabric now for binding future projects.

Overall, this project is definitely a lot more “traditional” than my usual style. I don’t know that I’ll continue to move in this direction, but working on this project has given me a lot more confidence in my quilting, and I think that will influence how I think about projects in the future. I’m noticing other people’s quilting choices more now, and feeling drawn to projects that make the quilting a more prominent part of the design.

Oh, and a bonus random tip for you: Hobbs wool batting is fantastic. This was the first time I tried it, and it quilts SO smoothly. It’s lighter and airier than cotton (a surprise for me), and it doesn’t crease like cotton, although it does still give you a crinkly texture if you wash it. In short, it is dreamy and you should try it if you haven’t yet.

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

So, nearly a year ago, I posted about my Garnets and Gold quilt top. It sat and waited patiently while I did a million other things, but this awesome clashy riot finally got the quilting it deserved.

From a distance it doesn’t look that different than before, because the prints disguise the quilting. Here’s a look at the back where you can get a better view.

I did a back and forth wiggle on the red/pink/yellow strips, and a loopy ribbon candy pattern through the diamonds. I love the texture this gave. The bright colors and ripply texture remind me of party streamers.

A shot of the whole quilt:

I need a design/photo wall for these photographing big quilts!  Last week I floated the idea with Jason of getting rid of the couch in our living room and installing a giant design wall like this one. Of course, we couldn’t actually sit in there anymore, but that space has been operating as a weird hybrid of my sewing space and his office for some time now. This would just be the next natural step in that evolution, really.

In case you don’t remember my posts from last year (ha!), I made a paper-piecing template for my version of this quilt; the original is in the book Little Bits Quilting Bee. The points look really excellent using this method, if I do say so myself. :)

I quilted this at Sue Fox’s long arm studio in Berkeley, where I have been spending a lot of time lately. I’ve been hard at work quilting the Irish Chain quilt I mentioned last week. This involved a days-long delay during which Sue had to reassure me, “You did not break the machine.” Yep, the machine malfunctioned in a scary, potentially-never-fixable-loooking kind of way while I was working. But all has been fixed and I should have some exciting machine quilting to show you soon!

Meanwhile, Garnets and Gold has gone to live with Liz, my guru in all things dyeing/textiles/color as well as one of the sweetest, most wonderful people I know. Love ya Liz!