WIP Wednesdays... Pucker Up!!!

Hate to share my misfortunes, but I just finished quilting my Mother's quilt and when I was done all I could say was "Mother Pucker!!!" I need to write this post so that I can learn from my mistakes. It helps me to "ingrain in the membrane" and work it all out.

Ok, I haven't binded/bound it yet, but here are the pics (laid on a King size bed, but the quilt is Queen):

Puckering below (if you can see it) and some stitches ripped out :(

Binding below. And a kitty that likes to play with it :)

I need to figure out what caused all the puckering. I have some ideas:

1. Trying to baste (spray) on a design wall that is not suited for a quilt of this size.
2. Not spraying it thoroughly because of the size and the design wall limitations.
3. Not checking underneath while free motion quilting to make sure there were no problems (especially since I was breaking thread between every loopy flower design).
4. The quilt was so big and my sewing table so small, there was a ton of adjusting and a ton of overhang causing the baste to lose its hold.
5. Quit trying to rush things and looking for instant gratification.

I could go on and on I am sure. But, I think next time I will just be extra careful to check the back more often. I might even pin some of the outer areas (this is where most of the problems occurred). A nice solution would be to just buy a long arm :) Would probably make a Queen much easier to deal with! I know I was flattening and spreading, but I just did not feel the puckers with my gloves on! And, it happened in about 15 places!!!!!

Anyway, thought I would share. My mind is fluttering with tons of other ideas for fixing or for what went wrong, but feel free to share your thoughts!

I'm linking up at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays!



I also wanted to mention that I have linked up at the "new bloggers" link party. If I reach 50 followers, I'm having a giveaway!

Until next time,

Mike.

Modern Mini Challenge, Time to Vote!!! Slash & Sew, No Rules, Just Right!!!

Ok, let me just start out by saying THANK YOU to danih03 for telling me about this challenge! Because of her, I got inspired to do this :) For those of you reading this who do not know what the Modern Mini Challenge is, click on it! So, now that you know, it was a quickie challenge (5 weeks) and it has some fabulous prizes! I'm writing my blog essay about it so that I can be entered in the contest and get voted on ;) Let's get right down to it. Here it is: 

In case you did not click on the rules here they are:

The Modern Mini Challenge is a 5 week series that kicks off with some seriously inspiring work from some super talented bloggers. Spark your creativity with ideas and inspiration from some amazing mini quilts and mug rugs*. 

Get ideas flowing for color, fabric, technique and style. This is your opportunity to try something new, something fun, something on a small scale. 

Take that big idea and give it a try in mini form. 

So here’s how it will work: 

2/6/12 - 2/19/12 

Weeks 1 & 2 - Inspiration Weeks - Modern Mini Challenge Blog Hop  

Bloggers share their modern minis and kick-start your creativity. Get inspired, get creative, get those ideas flowing!

2/20/12 - 3/4/12 

Weeks 3 & 4 - Sew. Sew. Sew! 

Work on those minis and create your Modern Mini Challenge piece. 

3/5/12 - 3/9/12 

Week 5: Enter the Contest!

Link up your Modern Mini Challenge piece at Ellison Lane Quilts. Voting begins that week and winners are announced on March 9th!

Size Requirements: Minis should be smaller than 36." 

*mug rug=very small quilt typically used as a coaster :)

So, while I got tons of inspiration from the daily blogs, I already had some inspiration from my Mitch kitty :) I blogged about his love of quilts and cotton batting here and also here.

He really, really, really needed his own quilt to lay on! Since he loved laying in the kitchen, I started thinking about the colors in our kitchen and what kind of fabric would be kitty-centric. 

Here is a picture of our kitchen:

Then I started thinking "how could I make it modern?" Well, I have not been quilting long, so I mostly knew how to sew together rectangles and triangles (which is usually not considered modern). But, I was doing the Craftsy Block of the Month where they showed me how to do slashing/stripping. I decided that it was time to just start slashing and sewing with no rules, just whatever struck my fancy :) I used kitchen fabrics (peppers and the red with the kitchen words on it - hard to see in the pic). I went to JoAnn's and found a $10 bundle of fabric that had orange colours and kitties. And, then I just started improvising.

Here are a few of the pics of my progress:

Slashing.

 Ironing as I slash.

 About to put the border on. 

 Putting the border on.

 Sewing on the border. (Orange thread I used to quilt it is also in the pic.)

 Working on the back fabrics.

Spray basting it. Interesting note: I save all the batting and fabric that I cut off when I square final quilts. The batting was in two pieces (scraps) from previous large quilts that I had finished and I just lined them up to make it fit. You can't tell in the final product!!!

In the above photo, I was practicing on my quilt sandwich scrap.

In the above photo, I had accidentally forgotten to put the foot down and this is a view of the stitching from the underside. Good thing I was only warming up !

This is me quilting it.

This is me squaring it off (above).

This is me (above) about to sew the binding strip ends together. I use a technique I learned here at Moose Quilts. I love their approach to making the ends come together. It works purrfectly every time!!!

The ends after sewed together (above). The finished product (below): 

For the back, I used leftover fabrics and my signature.

 Here I used my labeling technique which I have fallen in love with.

And, here is Mitch showing it some love :)

And, Charlene Elizabeth Baltimore (Charlie) showing it some love with her best friend Mitch Hennessy!

Anyway, I hope you all can show me some love and vote. Also, please follow me, comment, +1 me, and share this on Facebook or through email with your friends!

Until my next post, I wish you all the best!

Mike.

Cat Scrap Fever!

My tiny little scrap bin is starting to overflow. I had to take a picture of it while I was digging through it. I was looking for scraps to use for the Modern Mini Challenge. I blogged about it in my previous post.

I am making the mini for Mitch and he gets very excited about the scraps when I pull them out. The are like toys for him. He sits under my cutting table while I am cutting off selvage and grabs for the danglers :)

But most of the time, these are the places you will find him. He likes to meow at me while I am working. And of course, his motor is always running.

Anyway, I just can't believe that it has taken so little time for me to build up my first scrap bin. I must say there are some juicy nuggets in there!

Mike.

Modern Mini Challenge, Printable Fabric Labels, and a Simple Welcome!

I haven't written on my blog in awhile, so I thought it was time since I had a spare moment. What I thought I would do was share some of the things I've been working on since my Block of the Month post on the 12th.

The first thing I wanted to share relates to something I blogged about here. I wanted to know how you sign your quilt. Of course I always try to use some sort of fabric on the back that relates to The Wizard of Oz. But I really needed a way to put words on the back. I decided to purchase some printable fabric sheets from Avery:

In the photo you can see the box it came in, and the sheet on the right is my first printed label. I ended up putting it on the back of this quilt.

The fabric sheets are fusible, so after I cut it out with my rotary blade, I ironed it to the back (after I washed the quilt). It seemed to work out well, but I have asked my Aunt Carrie to let me know when she washes it if it held up. For the label design I used my digital scrapbooking software, My Memories Suite, to create it and then print it.

I have also been working on the Modern Mini Challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts. I decided to make a mini for our cat, Mitch. He really needed something to lounge on in the kitchen. I noticed that he really liked laying on my works in progress or my unused batting, so I am making him his own quilt.

Above is Mitch laying in the kitchen in his favorite spot on towels that we used to wipe our feet when it is wet outside. (The back door is in the kitchen.)



I decided to go with colors that match the kitchen. Three of the walls are painted Candied Yam (obviously not the wall in the picture with Mitch above). And, I thought slashing and sewing would be the most modern piecing technique I know how to do.



The back fabrics are pictured above.

Anyway, I will blog about that more when it's time to enter the contest.

I have also been working on a queen sized quilt for my mom. I am using a pattern that I found in the latest issue of Easy Quilts from McCall's. It's called "A Simple Welcome." 

Here are some pictures:

I suppose I will blog about that when I finish it.

Anyway, I should get busy!

Until next time,

Mike.

My third quilt is finished.

Well, I am moving right along. This is the first quilt that I am giving away. When I was with my Aunt C. in Virginia for Thanksgiving we went to a quilting store (Quilter's Corner). She picked out the kitty cat fabric. (She likes cats and her favorite color is red.) I promised she would be the first person I give a quilt to, since she gifted me my Pfaff sewing machine!

 I think it turned out nicely. Below is close up picture of the fabric she picked out. I picked out the rest of the fabric to go with it.



I used a pattern that we got from the same quilting store. I changed it up a bit and used black for red and red for black. I also made the inner border black and the outer border the print.



 This is what it looks like on the back:

 My favorite back fabric was the "Meowsterpiece" from Michael Miller fabrics: 

And, I put my signature Wizard of Oz scraps on the back, as well as some ants, because she is my "ant." (It's an inside joke with us.)

Below I was getting ready to spray baste it on my design wall. I use tons of newspaper to make sure nothing else gets sticky!

I did a stippling (about an inch) all over the quilt.

I foresaw that the black thread was going to definitely show up on the white on white print, but I went with black because most of the rest of the quilt it would be unnoticeable. I just tried to make sure that I did not stop in the white, although as you can see in the photo directly above I stopped and the quilt moved before the needle went back to the down position. I left it in as a reminder that I did the quilting myself and I am just an amateur :) Besides, I think it gives it some character and reflects my hard work and how difficult it was.

I feel like I get better and better at it as I go along. The FMQ is starting to feel more natural. I owe a ton to Leah Day for her stippling quilt alongs at the Free Motion Quilting Project!

As you can see, it truly is a kitty quilt. For some reason, Mitch (kitty) loves cotton batting and finished quilts. If there is one in the room, he has to lay on it :) He likes to lay in the kitchen a lot, so I think I may make a mini quilt just for him. Right now, he lays on the rug or towels that we dry our feet on when it's wet outside.

Now I am working on a quilt for my mother, but I have also been dabbling a bit in a Block of the Month project from Craftsy. It was a free online course that is supposed to teach you several basic piecing techniques. I thought it was a good idea since I mostly sew rectangles and triangles together and I need to expand my abilities. I've never done anything like a Bee or BOM.

Until next time...

Mike.