Joyce sent along this very cool technique that she found on Facebook for making Square in a square quilt blocks or a cushion cover. A very good a quick gift idea. Look for it later in Tips and Tutorials.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/quiltfreepatterns/permalink/2636871336495893/
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| Square in a Square Cushion Cover |
During the PSQG Chit Chat night on Zoom the subject came up of whether to prewash or not. Penny, showed us her box of Dr. Beckman's Colour Catchers which she bought at London Drugs and highly recommended them for dealing with fabrics that are likely to run in a quilt.
I had so many blocks left over from my Zig Zag quilt that I decided to do a test and put it through a wash cycle with some Colour Catchers. I stitched up the sample below as well as the corners I had cut off from the quilted quilt. I wet them all and before long all the purple/magentas had wicked onto the adjacent light blue. I then washed them all in the washer with two Colour Catchers and it worked. The Colour Catchers actually had streaks for the purples and blues from the batiks but nothing was showing on the samples. Now that I feel a little more confident that I won't ruin the quilt I think I should probably wash it to see if the Colour Catchers clean up the stained area.
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| No staining or bleeding along the seam lines |
This quilt is finished but still not labelled. I have a dilemma about whether I should turn it in to the TAQ's or keep it as a lesson to myself. The problem is that I spilled some water on the top when I was filling my iron and the colours bled into the adjoining light blue blocks. If we give this quilt to someone and they wash it, it could turn into a terrible mess and I would not want them to feel they had ruined it when it was my own lack of foresight in choosing batik scraps that hadn't been prewashed. I tried to get the staining out but not with much luck. I can wash it and use Colour Catchers but I really don't think they will prevent the dark dyes from wicking to the adjoining blocks.
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| Close up of colours. I think that purple will run. |
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| Straight line quilting. I had to mark the lines. |
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| I rounded the corners to soften all the sharp points in this quilt. Used an extra wide 100% cotton sheeting fabric on the back which I bought online from Fabricville in Quebec |
Thanks to Sue and Pauline I am finally able to view the blog and make a post.
I’ve spent this afternoon catching up on all the posts and information on the blog. I am very impressed and think this is a terrific idea. I’m sure there will be a bit of a learning curve but so far it’s good. I don’t seem to be able to add a comment on a post, must be doing something wrong.
I was showing the blog to a friend today and realized it would be nice to have everyone’s picture somewhere on the blog, especially with a quilt they have made.
While I had the two quilting batts out today I decided to take some photos to show you the differences between the two types of batting.
Thickness of batting. This was a surprise to me. I always have thought the Pellon was a thicker batting. After seeing some complaints online that Pellon is thinner I started to be concerned about the consistency of the Pellon quality although the two 10 yd batts I have used were the same.
Here is a photo which clearly shows that the Pellon (on top) is actually thinner than the Hobbs:
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| Thickness comparison. Pellon on top; Hobbs on bottom |
However, the Pellon is a denser batting making it less transparent. Here are two photos showing the transparency of the battings. I photographed them on top of a set of purple/lime green/ and bright pink fabrics. The photo on the left shows a band of thickness going from upper left to center bottom. The Hobbs has a more irregular surface.
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| Hobbs transparency |
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| Pellon transparency |
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| Pellon brown flecks |
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| Hobbs brown flecks |
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| Hobbs surface texture |
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| Pellon surface texture |
Check out this blog post I just received from Fabricana. If you hate cutting bindings or want a reversible binding without the fuss of cutting multiple strips this might be an option. Betty might have some more info on this at the meeting today.
I am certainly getting caught up on my quilting these days since being confined to quarters. Today there was a knock on the door. It appeared to be a real estate agent looking for a listing. When I yelled through the door, "I can't open the door. I have Covid", he backed down the stairs holding his folder up in front of his face. You can never be too careful, I guess.
Anyway, to the quilting news. I had to show you the great label I found for the pink Hourglass quilt. My sister can choose from two bindings if she gets that far.
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| I really lucked out with that label |
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| Chinese Coins Quilt all finished |
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| Flange binding and backing |
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| Zipper Quilt #2 finally quilted and bound |
I've finally felt well enough to get some quilting done and today was quite a productive day. I finished off the Chinese Coins quilt. It only needed the binding and some finishing off--cutting off thread ends and a good brushing--but that's done and I am ready to pass it along for a label. I'll have a look and see what I can find amongst or recent pile of label donations. If I am testing negative by Tuesday I will come to the meeting, unless anyone feels nervous about me being there. I'll bring the quilt to show everyone and get help with the photograph. It's a long quilt and really difficult to get a picture of.
I also finished this Hourglass baby quilt top which I will give to my sister to quilt and finish but I may end up doing that as well when I am there in June. Squaring up those blocks was a real pain. I had to line two crossed 90 degree lines along the diagonals but there was always one line of the four that didn't line up with the point so I knew my points would be all over the place. I decided I didn't really care and in the end they mostly did line up. I'm sure the baby and mom won't care much either.
It's for a June baby. You can just see the edges of the blue and yellow Zipper Quilt underneath which is next in the production line. I hope to get that quilted and bound tomorrow. Then just one more quilt to get quilted (Scrappy Zig Zag) and I think I am all caught up.
Penny sent me this photo today with some details. This is her latest panel quilt, another that she purchased from Dressew Supply on Hastings Street. She bought two of the Noah's Ark panels and this is the second which will be donated to the PSQG. The backing is a light blue flannel and she is outline quilting the motifs. There is just a little hand sewing left to do on the binding and label and Penny will be ready for a new project. What's next on your list, Penny?
Just looked at our blog on my home computer. Looks awesome. It was fun to read. For uploading pictures I will have to put them into the computer from my phone as at the moment that is where they are. Will get around to it eventually. Looking forward to our next get together.
Present at the meeting today were Marybeth, Colleen, Penny, Joyce, Betty and Sue with special guest, Willow.
Lots of time was devoted to Blog troubleshooting and lots of progress was made with just a few kinks to get ironed out. Thanks, Sue. Your help was really invaluable and not a "Tech Support Fail" as you reported. We are well on our way. I am thinking of adding a temporary tab to the blog Home Page with Blog FAQ's. Like all computer stuff we typically only learn what we need to in order to do what we want to do. We don't need to know everything--just enough.
The photos Colleen sent me today were pretty amazing. All our scrappy tops are done except possibly Sharon's. I will get an update from Sharon and edit this post later. Our output has been truly amazing this year. I think I am getting way more efficient at my quilting and there is nothing like our group enthusiasm to keep me focussed. We probably are all experiencing that.
Here are some photos of the quilt tops that were all finished and shown plus some photos of our special guest:
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| Betty's Scrappy Eclipse |
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| Joyce's Scrappy Trellis |
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| Kenny's partner's extra long purple quilt made by Joyce |
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| Colleen's black and white Zipper Quilt |
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| Marybeth's Trellis Quilt front view |
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| Marybeth's Trellis Quilt back view |
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| Special guest, Willow posing for a photo |
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| Admiring a quilt |
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| On squirrel patrol |
This appeared on the Quilts, Etc. blog. The photo is of a section of a scrap quilt on display at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. I included the comments below from the article about it.
Here is the full view so you can get the perspective.
Check out The Quilt Index for all the details of this quilt but in summary it is 80" square and contains about 37,000 pieces. It was hand pieced and quilted by Bessie Sanford of Michigan and probably made in 1939-40. These types of quilts were popular in the late 1800's.
Just a suggestion--if you think this is a good use of your scraps and time, start with a coaster and work up from there.
Yesterday Marybeth told me about Bonnie Hunter's website, Quiltville. Most of you will be familiar with Bonnie Hunter's style of quilting. She makes scrappy quilts in intricate traditional patterns and has been a popular teacher for years. Marybeth has made two of her quilts, but with a controlled colour palette. Bonnie Hunter's are somewhat controlled but she definitely has looser boundaries than most of us would feel comfortable with.
I just spent a few minutes exploring her website, particularly her Tips page. I went to her discussion on threads and battings and whether it is ok to use poly thread and/or batting in a quilt. Her conclusions surprised me, not because she was opposed to using poly battings--most of us don't use them--but because she had photos of an old quilt that the poly batting had actually worn out the cotton fabric of the quilt. She said it had acted like a brillo pad every time the quilt was washed.
Another thing that surprised me was her use of poly thread. She reported that she has hundreds of quilts that go back for years and have been washed till they've fallen apart all with seams intact. So, if you like to sew with poly thread you at least have Bonnie Hunter's stamp of approval.
Marybeth recommended the website to me for the sayings at the end of her posts. She saves them in a file. I'm not sure if they are on all her posts. Maybe it is a new thing. But I did find one on the thread and batting post that I read and I have saved that one.
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| So get busy and quilt! |
Here is Colleen's Mile a Minute all quilted and waiting for binding. You did a great job on the quilting, Colleen. The yellow sashings look really good with the blues in your quilt.
It was only Marybeth and me today so we started with lunch at the White Spot and just spent an hour chatting and getting caught up before heading back to Marybeth's for a quick blog tutorial.
We still had time for some quilting talk. Marybeth showed me her spray basted quilt and we talked about how she was going to quilt it. She wasn't sure whether she should quilt in the ditch along each diagonal line and the vertical and horizontal lines but, after some discussion we thought diagonal would be sufficient. The problem was that the vertical and horizontal lines would be on top of the prints and she is quilting with white thread and it would show.
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| Front of quilt |
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| Reverse of quilt |
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| Note the silk batting in this one. |
After seeing Marybeth's paper pieced tree blocks last week I have been thinking that it's time for our first group challenge and that it should be a tree themed project of any size or type. It could just be a postcard or mug rug but, if you're feeling ambitions a whole quilt would be good as well.
Here is a Pinterest feed with tree themed projects to give you some inspiration.
Yesterday I spent the day with my quilting friends, Margaret and Georgina and got a lot done on my Scrappy Zig Zag quilt. I got my 128 half square triangles pieced and cut and now they need pressing and squaring up--not something I particularly like doing when there are 128 blocks to do. But as soon as that is done I can lay it out and start chain piecing the top. My binding and label are done.
I also got the flange strip cut for the Chinese Coins binding and will stitch that up tomorrow. If things go well I might even get the binding sewn on. Since it has a flange it will be sewn on both sides by machine so then it will be done except for the label.
I'm looking forward to having lunch with Marybeth and Colleen and possibly even Adrienne tomorrow. We might be able to squeeze a quick blogger lesson in.
Here is a picture of Betty's Scrappy Mile a Minute. She decided not to do the last cut which is the one where you turn the 6.5" ruler on an angle to square up your blocks.
The red fabric is the backing and borders.
I'm happy to report that the quilting on the Chinese Coins quilt will be finished tonight. It went quite well. As the saying goes, done is better than perfect.
There's still a lot of work left to be done on it. I will cut the red pieces for a flanged binding tomorrow and maybe with a little luck get the two binding pieces sewn together and pressed but there won't be time to sew the binding onto the quilt. After the binding is sewn on it will need a good brushing and all the thread ends trimmed off and then I will pass it along for someone to make a label and sew it on. Then it will finally be finished.
Tomorrow I have a quilting day with my friends Margaret and Georgina. Margaret has a 1000 square foot sewing room which is the size of my whole house. She has two large cutting tables set up as islands so you can cut from any side. No need to take turns sewing because she has three sewing machines and a serger all set up for sewing. One of them is the same model as my Husqvarna so I know all the settings and how it will behave. She has glassed in cupboards all around the perimeter which hold her stash--enough for a small store and other cupboards that are full of thread of every colour and type. I get a bad case of sewing room envy every time I visit her but I'm happy that, small as it is, I still have two rooms in my house for sewing.
The blog is looking kind of sparse right now but as we start getting everyone set up and posting it will soon be a place you'll want to visit every day to catch up on what everyone in the group is doing. It's also the place to go to find out where the next meeting is taking place and to access other blog resources like photos, tips and tutorials, quilt patterns and member contact info.
So, now that you are here, please start blogging by hitting that New Post button on the upper right on the beige bar. The New Post button will take you to the Blogger menu page where you can hit the New Post button that opens to a basic word processing page where you can create a post along with links, photos and videos. When you're finished hit the Publish button and view the updated blog by clicking the blue View Blog button at the bottom of the menu list on the left.
-- Pauline
