Category: 100 Quilts

100 Quilts · Sewing · Tutorial

Lyon Carolings Top Finished!

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

Here it is in all its unquilted glory.  I’m really happy to be at this point.  Of course, I can see about five design changes I’d make right now, but I’m not unpicking another seam.  It will have to be what it is.

I cut the border print slightly away from the red band in order to have a little yellow piece separate and blend with the green initial border.  This has gone through so many iterations that I probably have enough for another quilt with Provence fabrics in my bin.  That will have to wait.  Now on to construct the back–I’m going to try to use some of the leftover border print there.

I’ve developed a few tricks for mitering a corner so it turns out half decent, or even better.

While sewing on the border, this really is be the first step (sorry it is already sewn).  What I want you to notice is where the blue thread on the green fabric begins and ends: at the seam.  Not over the seam. Don’t oversew in this step, or you’ll be picking it out.  You don’t need to sew past the seam because the fabric has to have the smallest bit of wiggle room in that area.

First lay your borders together, folding the quilt corner at a 45-degree angle, folding it out of the way below the borders. Match up the edges–both the sewn and the cut–very carefully.  Put pins if you have to.  Then using the 45-degree line of your favorite ruler, place that at the upper edge of the border and slide it so that the lower edge is at or just a thread’s width past the folded quilt edge.  Draw a line and pin it carefully before moving it at all.  DO NOT TRIM at this point. Stitch on that line (which you can see in the image above).

This is the glory shot: all the lines match up.  A good miter is a thing of beauty forever.  A bad miter hangs out in the back of the closet.

Trimming: Line up the quilt and borders as in the first step, replace the ruler so that you allow a 3/8″ seam allowance past the sewing line (I’m cautious here). 

Again, you are 3/8″ away from your stitched miter (at the green arrows). Slice it off, and try not to have heart failure that you’re cutting the wrong side.  If you fold it this way, you won’t (cut it wrongly, or have heart failure).

 Enjoy!

100 Quilts · Journal Entry · Tools of the Trade

Provence, Blues and Sewing Machines

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

The French fabrics have arrived and they are beautiful.

But yesterday’s work was cutting 250-plus 6″ blue squares (5 1/2″ finished).  Of course, I was delayed in the forward progress by running off to a couple of quilt shops to see if they had something to add to this melange.  That’s something I used to do a lot before Professoring and before the Internet.  I used to make the rounds, collecting colors, shades, patterns and I have to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable process.  There’s something unique about being involved with the tactile when selecting fabrics–the feel of the cloth, the hand, whether they are a rough texturey linen or a smoothly woven cotton.  Heading to a fabric store is also about the hunt: what will I find?  In yesterday’s case, not much.  That makes me glad that the internet exists, as in the case of the ability to find–and purchase–the French fabrics.

We have our region’s Quilters Run next weekend and both stores were slicked up in their Sunday Best, ready for the hordes.  All the bolts were lined up, edges folded in, notions arranged, with a variety of quilts on the wall or artfully draped over the displays.  In one corner of one store was a display of Featherweight machines of all kinds, as well as some vintage toy Singer sewing machines.

It reminded me of the toy Singer Sewing Machine machine that my mother used to play with and which she gave it to me a long time ago.  This one’s not as shiny or gussied up as the ones in the store but it has nice quality that those don’t others don’t: a remembrance of my mother.

But I did catch a look at the price they wanted for theirs: $145.00.  A non-toy Featherweight Singer sewing machine like the one I have (which I purchased at a garage sale) now goes for $495.00.  I told Dave that it’s nice to know that some of my treasures accrue in value without me doing anything but hanging out, living, and getting older.  I’m going to resist any gags about how they’re gaining in value as opposed to what’s happening to me, as I hang out, live and get older.

100 Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Blues for the Bedroom

Elizabeth E.

So what am I working on while I let Provence stew a little while on the pin wall?  The above photo is our bedroom, really the only room in the house that I consider nearly fully “decorated.”  Nothing else in my house looks like this, I can assure you.  See where the small darker blue quilt is folded up on the bottom of the bed?  This place needs its own quilt.

Luckily, I’ve been planning for this for a while, as witnessed by the array above.  Many of these you’ll recognize as Amy Butler prints from two cycles ago–yep, I’m usually that far behind on things.  I loved the pale grayed-down bluey-green of that line, if that is indeed some kind of description.  I”ve added a piece from her Love line on the right, as well as that fabulous geranium print from Rowan Fabrics (Is that a Martha Negley? The selvage doesn’t reveal it.)

After breaking my brain on the last couple of quilts, I want this one to be all about the fabric–so I’m planning just a random assortment of 5″ or 6″ blocks.  Yep.  A one-patch.

100 Quilts

Still Working on the Provence Quilt

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

This could be the title for about the next million posts, I think.  I pulled everything off but the center and some pieces around the edge.  I talked with a couple of people I admire (Tracy and my husband) and they just weren’t with me on the green borders.  I tried to figure out why, and my husband noted the pieces that jumped out at him–the bright kelly greens. Time to listen a bit, I think.

I like the greens idea–of letting there be another border there, but my advisors were right: the greens that I was using were fighting the rest of the design.  So what’s a quilter to do?  BUY MORE FABRIC!  Of course!

But where to find such specialized fabric?  Like I mentioned before, it’s not like it’s at the corner quilt shop.  I remembered that I’d purchased the last lot at our local quilt show Road to California, and found French Connections, from North Carolina, on the vendor page of the quilt show website.  Success.  I wanted just about everything, but it can get pretty pricey if you get it all.  Their prices are very reasonable, considering what I’d seen in Lyon, France when I was there.  American quilt fabric in France was about $20 per yard; French fabric in America is about the same.

I sent in my order, and chatted with them this morning; the fabric should be here by the weekend, or the beginning of next week.  She also told me she’ll be at Long Beach, as well as Road to California 2011.  Two cross-country drives!  I appreciate the dedication of these quilt shop owners to help people like me get what they need to finish the green borders on a quilt.  Plus. . . a little brainstorm occurred when looking at her selection of fabrics–a little twist of an idea that’s typically Provence-ian.  Stay tuned for what I’ve got planned.

One bright spot about no fabric and being at a resting place: I cleaned up my sewing desk (and cleaned out three sewing drawers).  You may not see it this clean again until the end of summer.