Odd Projects

I've just been working on a few small things. 

I wanted to feel like I was getting something done so I machine quilted this little scrap quilt.  I guess that's the plus side of having a pile of unfinished projects.

And, of course had it Cat approved. Thanks Cassandra.

 And did some more topographic line doodles.  It's sort of meditative and easy to sit a couple minutes, often talking to someone, and just draw lines. Hills, valleys, lakes, rivers, mountains, shorelines, islands, cliffs and whatever I imagine.

This is another of the pearl cotton hand quilted pieces I work on when I'm watching TV.  I finished the edges of this small piece and plan to use it as the cover for a small book.

And this is the 'ugly' experiment completed.  I wanted to try a 'stack and slash' patchwork technique but didn't want to use any of my 'favorite' fabrics on something I might not like so I picked out of my stash 6 of my least liked fabrics, the 'uglies'.  I've see some really impressive and attractive stack and slash quilts and it looks like a fun technique to use but I didn't find it to be any less work really and the end results don't make me happy.  My vision/brain craves at least order and loves some symmetry with that and it would be nice if my favorite colors were involved. Maybe this wasn't a good test. If I liked the colors and prints in the quilt I might be able to overlook the disorder of the whole object.  Maybe.

This is one of our sleepy bees hanging out under the marigolds overnight. With their help I'll have all the seeds I need for flowers next year.

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

Mosaic Scrap Quilt

How does that pile of scraps keep growing? Am I really doing that many projects or are they secretly multiplying at night after I go to bed. Either way it's annoying to me and at some point I just start sewing them together into little mosaic blocks. At least at that point they are no longer a pile of scraps, they graduate to a pile of quilt blocks. Then I can decide later what to do with the blocks. Last November I posted about this.  Well now I've finally got around to sewing those colorful blocks into larger blocks and then into strips and finally into sections large enough to try and machine quilt. 

Three sections to machine quilt and then join. 

Now all I have to do is make the quilt layers and machine quilt it. 

And I thought it would be awhile before I did that when I started writing this post. 

But then I took a couple days and finished it and didn't bother to stop to take photos. 

I tried two different methods of quilting and joining sections. (Method1, Method2). Both methods worked but both have different drawbacks. Personally, at this point in my experience, I think all machine quilting methods are challenging in some way. No wonder so many people are paying others to do it for them on the professional quilting machines.

For now I'm still trying it out myself. There are a few other methods out there and I haven't yet dared to try free motion quilting.

And now the cat testing commences. 

Looks like I have a 100% cat satisfaction rating.

What else matters?

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen 

Lines, lines and more lines

I'm still exploring imaginary topography. 

And now there is color in the imaginary world. 

These random watercolor pieces make a good jumping off point for starting the lines. 

This is before and after adding lines. 

I think I'll do a few more like this. 

These are the next set of papers I plan to topograph. 

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen

Imaginary Topography

I've been sketching some imaginary topographies. These aren't very big and they don't take very long. If I sit and doodle for a couple minutes this is what I get:

Some inspired by real topography, some not so much.

Just playing with shape and density. 

And different pens and smoothness of line. 

And direction, size, shape and spacing. 

I think I'll do some more of these. Maybe add some color and other stuff. Maybe not.

I'd like to end up with a design for fabric but I'm not there yet.

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen

Never Guesstimate - Completed Quilt Table Runner

I finished piecing the front and back of the patchwork table runner. 

Front. 

Back. 

And I was just going to post this information because I hadn't planned on finishing it right away, I had other things to work on. 

But before I finished the post I had had a little time and decided to get the runner ready to quilt and prepare the binding. Then I thought I'd quilt a little bit before doing something else. Then I was done the quilting and planned to finish the binding later. Long story short, I finished it in one sitting and it didn't really take that long. 

I really like how it came out. But there is one thing I should mention. My big Oops. 

It doesn't fit where I planned it to go. 

I made it for the top of a coffee table. I had 'guessed' the size I needed for the runner by counting the blocks in the width and the length on another table runner that was smaller but also 2" blocks. 

I guess I should have measured it instead. Quilts shrink in dimension, even little ones, when using cotton batting. And you can iron them after washing and get some of the original dimensions back but who does that! And maybe my other 2" blocks weren't 2" blocks. Seam width variations will carry over into all-over dimensional changes. 

Even with some shrinkage this new table runner is still larger than I wanted. 

And you can't see it in the photo but there are some fabric wrinkles on the back because I rushed when finishing it. I really should have stopped at one of those points I thought I should stop and double check everything. It's just so hard to stop when you're getting so close to finishing something. 

But I still like how it came out and will use it.  But now I need to make another one, slightly smaller, for this table. Without guesstimating! Or rushing!

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen

A Little Prototype Book Project

I just finished this prototype little book.  It's 5 1/2" by 3 1/2" and filled with an assortment of papers including old book pages, atlas pages, drawing paper, graph paper, old blank workbook pages, painted pages, and brown paper. Basically stuff many other people might throw away. The cover is made from bonded fabric that has been folded (and ironed) instead of using a heavy paper for the cover. The binding is a simple long-stitch bookbinding method. 

The fabric for the cover was actually also an experimental project. It was a simple navy blue cotton that I stenciled with freezer paper and sprayed with bleach water to make the checkered heart pattern. I called this project a prototype because I've never made a book with this kind of bonded fabric cover. I didn't have any instructions to go by and I had no idea how it might come out but I suspected it would work. 

The book construction method is not new. There are many places you can find instructions for long-stitched books with heavy paper covers. There are a number of books and examples I referenced to understand the basic construction techniques. The experimental part was making a stiff paper like cover using fabric without glue or cardboard. 

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

Quilt Table Runner from a Charm Pack.

My current quilt project uses one charm pack of 42  5" pieces of fabric. There isn't enough fabric in a charm pack to complete the design I have planned so I've pulled some additional matching fabrics from my collection.

This is the moda barcelona fabric line charm pack cut into 2 1/2" squares and sorted by color groups.

This is the 22" x 52" table runner design I have planned. 



I started the design on the wall with the charm pack fabrics. 

These are the matching fabrics from my stash I may be using to fill in the remainder of the design. 

And this is the design on the wall ready to sew. 

So, I'll be doing some sewing now.

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen.