What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I really like using my blog to document my thought process of a quilt, to see why I start the quilts I start and how they wind up the way they are finished as compared to what I was envisioning when I started.

I got the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine (Issue 172) in the mail a couple / few weeks ago and have been admiring the Golden Glow quilt. I loved the beautiful cheddar, and the simplicity of the quilt. It looks like something that would be fast and easy to make.

When I looked at the pattern, it looks ...

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It's been a hot, rainy week, which means there has been lots of stitching.

2021:  Week 35 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week, I have been cutting postage stamps and sewing them together. I wrote a bunch of blog posts, one of which showed you a postage stamp block. I've made good progress on two additional blocks.

I also joined the binding strips and pressed them for the Quote quilt.

Linked with:

15 Minutes to ...

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There are two times in each of my quilt's life that I unconditionally love it. Both of these times feel like the quilt is emerging from a cocoon or coming home after a makeover.

The first time is when the backing and batting is trimmed away, making the quilt straight. As you know, the batting and backing is usually larger than the quilt top to allow for shrinkage, and they just hang out from underneath the quilt top, making the quilt uglier than it really is. When they are trimmed away, the quilt looks better than it ever did ...

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I wrote my first post on this blog on August 13, 2008, which makes today the thirteenth anniversary of my blog. This blog is an extension to another blog which is no longer available to the public. Even though I was not new to blogging, I made a low key entrance to this blog by posting as if I had been posting here all along.

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging and have no plans on stopping. There are so many benefits to the blog.

 

• It provides a historical record of my quilting.
• It gives me motivation to keep making so ...

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I added more motifs to the Quote quilt. I have finished quilting all of the blocks, and just need to do an inspection to see if there is more quilting needed on ...

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I am working on quilting the Quote Quilt, but I had more blue spaces than I had ideas of how to quilt them, so I found more fabric motifs to add. The hand applique doubles as quilting stitches. I've done that with machine applique before and not with hand applique, but it works just as well. This bright orange also helps make the bright orange t-shirt motif more at home.

This fabric comes from a blouse my daughter and I were trying to sew a long time ago. We never did figure out how to do it with the ...

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My report is spaced out again this week so I can include my photos. Some of these may look familiar because they are the same settings, but they are new photos taken this week. 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

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My work has slowed down substantially this week and ongoing so I have had more time for quilting. I worked on all three of my current projects. 

Here is the ABC block of the month quilt designed by Julie Porter. I am using fusible applique even though I enjoyed using needle turn applique on Life of Plenty. I have a lot of quilts on my list I want to finish.  I still need to add the embroidery and will secure the applique with the quilting. And make the other blocks that have already been released.

I added some blue strips ...

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 I'm still quilting the Quote Quilt, and wanted to show you some of the quilting motifs I have added. I am trying to keep the quilting simple, but still try to add some texture and interest. I am doing this by echoing the existing shape, but sometimes I add simple shapes or a little bit extra.

This picture is upside down, but I think you will be able to get enough of an idea without standing on your head.

The watering can is is one of the stencil shapes. I managed to resist the urge to fill in or ...

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It's the second half of the year already! I recently took a class with Dayton Art Institute where you made a drawing to replicate the style of Julian Stamczak. You draw straight lines, then you overlay them with curvy lines, and you color them in a checkerboard style. My curtains with the curves formed by the mini blinds shadows remind me of that style. 

This is an index card reproduction. I think it would be great to try to replicate that in a small quilt. In this card, I made the diagonal lines after coloring so the checkerboard isn ...

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After the backing has been added to a crazy quilt, the next step is to simply tack it to secure the layers.

This sounds great in theory. After all the work of adding so many embellishments, you may be done with it and just want to finish it off so you can show it off and/or move on to your next quilt.

 

However, for me, it is a big pivot to move from maximalist, everything goes, to minimalist tacking stitches. I am not anywhere near tired of the quilt.

2021:  Week 26 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

Besides, you ...

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Sometimes when making a quilt, it stalls, sometimes for no discernible reason. I prepared a backing for the quilt at the beginning of the year. The plan was to move forward and finish it. I had a sheet I could use for a backing, and since it showed the stitches from the quilt, I pressed a fusible interfacing to a big sheet to use as a backing. All I had to do was to join the front and the back together. But it stalled.

The fusible was a little bit stretchy, but since it was fused, it probably wouldn't ...

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The weeks are going by so fast.  In week 24, I worked on the backing for the Quote quilt. I had made the decision in week 23 to use a dark blue backing and had chosen a couple of batik pieces that would work.

 This week, I looked again in the closet and found a different blue backing fabric that I liked better. This fabric is wider so will require less piecing, and I think it fits the theme and age of the quilt better.

 

 

2021:  Week 24 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I spent the week choosing, washing, drying ...

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2021:  Week 23 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

If you recall from my last post, the Amalfi Coast quilt changed sizes between the time I was measuring and cutting the inner border fabric and the time I sewed that inner border fabric to the side of the quilt. I put the Amalfi Coast quilt on a timeout because it needed some time to think about what it had done. By the way, Barbara Brackman did a post about the quilt block. Apparently it is called housetop and not rooftop, so it is a good thing I am calling the quilt ...

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There aren't any pretty quilt photos to show you this week, but I think this beautiful sky shot will suffice.  It was taken earlier in January. We got about three inches of snow yesterday and the snow is falling again today. It is beautiful, but we don't walk when it is slippery anymore to protect Zeus.

 I have been trying to bullet journal.  I mostly started because I have seen a lot of beautiful bullet journals on Youtube and I really liked the art. I am sure you will get quite a laugh out of my dinosaurs. I ...

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 Sometimes procrastinating cleaning the basement and sandwiching a quilt can come in handy. There has been an avalanche of new additions to the Quote Quilt .

This quote covers up a duplicate quote. While I don't mind duplicate quotes, this quote has been important to me ever since I first came across it as a teenager. I just let the fabric be this organic shape (trimmed to size) instead of cutting it into a particular shape.

When I tried to think of things that happened during the 2002 to 2020 time frame, I remembered that we had several graduations. I ...

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I'm still adding more things to the quote quilt, as you can tell from the title. These are the new additions this week.

I added mostly decorative things this week. No deep meanings behind most of these. In the photo above, I  added the boy sleeping under a crazy quilt. The quote and the moon were there from previous additions.

This sun quote is on one of my index cards drawings. I got it from an art journal page I saw on YouTube. I really like the confidence of this quote.

I have pi on the circle quilt, and ...

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When I let Zeus out yesterday afternoon, I noticed a bird beautifully silhouetted in front of my neighbor's tree with the orange leaves. We have had fabulous colors this year, and this tree has never stood out to me. I ran inside to get the camera and when I came back, it was still there.When I zoomed in, I could see the bird clearly.  In fact, the bird stayed there and posed for me until I had more pictures than I could ever need. Most of them came out sharp and clear.

Work on the quote quilt continues ...

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