{Post 1,069} Feels Like Fall Finally Finished

This picture does not show the quilting very well, but it did turn out really cute.  My son and husband are holding this up for me outside, where the leaves are indeed changing colors.

This was washed and dried yesterday.  With the flannel on the back, it will be a popular one around these parts!

{Post 1,054} Veins and Tendrils

Last post on this for tonight.  I am tired.  Like dog tired.  So is my husband.  I slept 14 hours the other night.  Feel like I could do it again tonight!  Machine quilting wears me out, so I try to do it in small bites.  Since I did two continuous borders on this quilt and changed thread colors, I had a lot of unrolling and rerolling on this quilt.

I ended up using a polyester orange thread that matched my orange Thimbleberries pumpkins nearly perfectly.  One of those "did I already quilt there" matches.  Here is a picture, but the quilting is hard to see.

Now for the veins and tendrils.  I will start out far and let you move closer:

You can see the meandering some in the last two pictures.  I also quilted a star in the stem of the pumpkin.  I double sewed the tendrils, purposely stitching a little to the side.  I could only last for 6 pumpkins.  More tomorrow!

~Joan

{Post 1,053} Corner of Feels Like Fall

Here is a corner I just turned of my own version of a pattern in Angela Walters' book, Free-Motion Quilting.  I'm still learning the ins and outs of my HandiQuilter machine and frame.  Now I'm quilting a simple zigzag in the cream one-inch-wide border.  Just ran out of thread and time, so a good place to stop for now.

My pumpkin blocks are the same size as the flying geese blocks.  I'm not sure the veins will be enough quilting to make it as flat as I'd like.  I am going to get a thread that matches the pumpkins as closely as possible and do a simple meander or small loops in them, then quilt the veins and tendrils in a dark brown.  I think I'll like that better!

My motto for quilts:  better to rip it now than to regret it forever.

~Joan

{Post 1,052} Feels Like Fall Quilting

Here is the beginning of my Feels Like Fall quilt top being quilted.  I am going to unsew the pumpkin veins and tendrils.  One cannot see the tendrils because the thread matches the background too closely.  I am going to do the veins on my DSM in a brown thread because they show up too much.  Fortunately, I only have 2 pumpkins to unstitch.

Here is my flying geese block with my own made-up version of a continuous-line quilting design (no stencil used):

I am marking the pumpkin blocks for veins with a homemade stencil.  My mom got me a book of quilt patterns a while ago in a huge 3-ring binder.  They were all supposed to be hand cut from the stencils provided.  As it happens, I only liked one of the maybe 30 patterns in the book.  Nearly all the patterns could be rotary cut.  It was a very old book--as in, older than me.  

I saved the stencil sheets for my monogram signs and for quilt stencils.  I knew I would not be happy if the veins were not fairly consistent from pumpkin to pumpkin (yes--I'm OCD).  

Here's what I did:  I traced the outline of a block roughly with a Sharpie on one of the stencil sheets of plastic.  Then I Sharpied lines where I wanted the veins.  Then I cut out a wedge to trace as well as the vein closest to the edge.  I used a Mark-B-Gone to mark them.  Easy peasy.

Here is the outside edge (which I just flipped over for the other side) and the wedge cut out.

This shows the edge of the stencil pulled away from the left edge:

Maybe I can make a couple more passes on the machine today at some point.  Time will tell!

~Joan

{Post 1,048} New Light Up & Working

Our old light had two 25-watt bulbs.  The new one has two 60-watt bulbs.  Know watt that means?  Now I can really see the dirt on the carpet going downstairs!!

OLD:

NEW:

Can you see the difference in how much light is cast on the walls around the light??  Don't expect a carpet picture any time soon.  ;)

I was planning on starting the quilting on my Feels Like Fall quilt in the AM, but DH just dropped a bomb on me:  we are starting school TOMORROW instead of Monday.  Serious decrease in quilting time!

~Joan

{Post 1,047} Feels Like Fall Top Finished

The tiny flying geese for Feels Like Fall (all 300 of them) were pieced as a leader/ender project for a few months.  Fun!  

This morning I attached the last piece of the outer border.  I am getting ready to piece a backing out of light green flannel and get it washed so I can (hopefully) start the machine quilting tonight.  Have some new ideas to try out on this one.

The raw-edged appliqued leaves were my own idea.  

In other news today, my husband is going to install a new light for our going-down-the-steps area.  We have had the light fixture for a while, but today's the day it goes up!  

This one hardly casts any light, and it's UGLY.  It does work, so there's that.  Will post an update later!

~Joan

{Post #951} Feels Like Fall Blocks Finished

Leader/enders are amazing.  Yesterday I realized after a quick count that I only needed a few tiny geese to have all of those finished.  I had them safety-pinned in groups of 10, so it was easy to count them.  I needed 300 total.  That number seemed so gigantic when I was contemplating making this quilt, but, what in the world??  All my blocks are finished.


This AM I drew a template for the leaf and cut them out of 5 different scrap greens.  When I saved the pattern in a page protector, I forgot to get the leaf template off the pattern sheet.  But this works :)


I decided to use the raw-edge applique method like I did on my Bull's Eye quilt.  Perfect!!  This will gain so much personality with the quilting of the pumpkin segments, vines, and leaf veins.  But I'm likin' it a lot NOW!!  Here are the 30 blocks laid out.  Each block finishes at 10".

Doesn't that make your pumpkin-y heart go all a-pitter-patter??  Here is a close-up of one leaf...

After washing and drying, it will be all soft and fluttery-edged.    I.  love.  to.  quilt.


Bet ya never would've guessed!


~Joan

{Post #950} Second Post Tonight...Feels Like Fall

Tomorrow I just have to press and trim my blocks for the Feels Like Fall quilt.  I have 30 blocks to make, 15 pumpkins and 15 gosling blocks.  I am referring to the gosling blocks.  I have the pumpkin blocks all pieced, but I still need to draft and applique a leaf on each of them.  I am thinking of doing a raw-edge applique of the leaf.  


Here is a picture of my sewing area and the gosling blocks.  Each tiny flying geese finishes at 1" x 2".  Teeny tiny.

The shiny blue tin is what I've been using to keep the pieces together.  Now the blocks are nearly finished.  


I delved into a small stash I have of homespuns.  I don't like using them because they're so loosely woven and seem to "move" when I sew them.  In the pic above, the block closest to the bottom left corner has a piece of the homespun in it...it's the 4th gosling from the left, a gold with dark blue plaid on it.  


I also used a few pieces of some shirts I got for 75 cents each yesterday.  The block (the right of the two in the front), the very center gosling is a green shirt print.  I think those shirts will go far.  A 2XL long-sleeved men's shirt has a LOT of fabric in it!!


~Joan

{Post #867} Feels Like Fall

That is the name of the new block I'm working on as a leader/ender with the goslings.  Here is the first block...

I am going to start on one of the alternate blocks.  The blocks are 10-1/2" square.  The alternate blocks are one big pumpkin.  I'll probably have a picture up by tomorrow some time.

In other progress, I finished another complete row of an I Spy quilt I'm starting for way down the road, so I got that off the design wall.  I also took down my Red Zinger selvage blocks and stacked them in a drawer.  The design wall is practically empty.

~Joan