Category Archives: quilt design

Winter’s Work, Put to Rest

May 2, 2016quilt design, quilting, UncategorizedMarci

Here in Mid-Michigan we experienced a relatively mild winter, but it has been very reluctant to leave. That meant a lot of days when quilting was a very appealing activity, and all the projects destined for the Midland Quilter’s Squared Quilt Show, held last weekend, were completed in time:

Below is the completed Mystery Quilt, composed of many more tiny squares than have ever crossed my table before for a project. Fortunately the errors aren’t too visible from here, and it makes me happy that my granddaughter, Isabella, is looking forward to receiving it.

This is a photo of another project I posted on earlier. The blue fan squares were part of a 1930-40 quilt top which was quite misshapen and had never been finished by its creator. The blocks were taken apart and reconstructed into flowers. White sashing and borders were then added and I spent the entire winter hand quilting it during the long evenings. The idea came from a presentation by Tim Latimer, but, unlike Tim, I am not very fast.

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The last photo is a small wall hanging, done for this years quilt show challenge. We were to base our piece on a song. This one was inspired by “Swing on a Star” written for Bing Crosby. “Would you like to swing on a star…Carry moonbeams home in a jar…”

So, at last, gardening time is approaching and I have lots of smaller projects on the way. Happy May!

Happy Halloween

October 31, 2015quilt designhalloween, paper piecing, quilt designMarci

Thought I would share my Halloween wall hanging and a few notes on it’s design.

It was inspired by a panel purchased at Material Mart here in Midland. I knew I wanted to use it for some blocks in my own design, and began by paper piecing 3 pumpkins from a Leisure Arts book, “100 Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks”. This book was published in 2009, so may be hard to find, but I especially like it because it includes a CD of the patterns so that they can be printed any size. I keep a shelf of quilting books that include a wide variety of techniques, both as inspiration and for occasions such as this.

For me, paper piecing always includes a bit of quiet cussing and some seam ripping, but then it turns out looking just like it’s supposed to! Very rewarding.

Anyway, once the pumpkins were done I mixed in some blocks taken from the panel and added borders using both panel and some other fabric I thought worked well, and here it is!

Happy Halloween!

A Landscape Quilt from a Photo

May 12, 2015art quilt, Free-motion quilting, landscape quilt, machine embroidery, quilt designMarci

Dunes photo — Photo courtesy of tripadvisor.com

Northwest Michigan is an area of great beauty, and this is one of my favorite photogenic spots. When faced with designing something for a Michigan themed auction, this was the scene I chose to work from. I drew the scene freehand, to the best of my meager artistic ability, onto freezer paper, (Chosen for having some body, but being easy to cut.) It would have been great if I had taken a photo of this step, but because it is a simple photo, you can easily find logical places for fabric changes.

Once fabric was chosen, I attached fusible web to an appropriate amount of fabric. The freezer paper drawing was cut into pieces, and I chose to immediately trace these onto the backing of my prepared fabric. Care was taken to see that the pattern piece was face down on the backing.

My pieces were laid out as they were cut, and I added overlap when I cut the pieces on which others would be layered. If you are a beginner and this does not quite make sense, watch for my next attempt at a landscape and I will take it step-by-step. (Of course, comments requesting this will motivate me to get this done, as that is just the way I am. Retirement is blissful.)

Once the pieces for the picture were assembled, by pressing to bond over parchment (to protect the ironing board) I did some free-motion embroidery to create the trees, grass, flip-flop detail and wood grain on the planks. Next the borders were added and the quilt sandwich was created. The free-motion quilting is always my favorite part. I know by then that it can only look better with each stitch.

Discovering Portrait Quilting

April 29, 2015Free-motion quilting, machine embroidery, quilt designfree-motion quilting, machine embroidery, portrait quiltMarci

For some time now, portrait quilts have intrigued me. After studying them, listening to You Tube tutorials, reading and imagining, I finally jumped in and gave it a try last week. There are as many styles and techniques as there are quilters, as we all know, so I kept reminding myself that there is no wrong or right when it comes to quilting.

I started with a selfie, posted by my son, as selfies already have a nice low number of megapixels, making it easily simplified, and because the distortion makes me smile. This was to be a trial piece and I anticipated it would go in a scrap pile somewhere when finished. It really surprised me, therefore, when I actually started to really like it. Many authors have mentioned that, with art quilting, you need to feel free to just go where the quilt takes you, and that it will often take it’s own direction. Initially it was to be just the isolated head of my granddaughter, but as that neared completion, the distortion of the selfie begged to be explained, so the cell phone border was added, complete with hand embroidered icons and a sparkly “screen”. The title then went from “A Selfie for Grandma”, to “Facetime with Gemma”.

The simplified process was as follows:

1. Using a photo editor, the head was isolated and simplified using a poster app.

2. The result was printed in gray scale and I then traced around each piece I was seeing, using parchment. By cutting the parchment pieces apart, you have a pattern.

3. At this point you need to consider the process you plan to use. If doing hand applique you need to add 1/4 inch all around each piece, but I planned to bond and machine applique, Bonding is applied to each fabric you plan to use, then the pieces are cut out. (I traced onto the bond paper, so had to place my pattern face down as well.)

4. The face on mine was treated as a base, with the smaller pieces ironed on. Then the whole face was bonded to the background fabric. I stitched close to all the edges before making a quilt sandwich, and used hand and machine embroidery on the eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes. The rest of the quilting and machine embroidery were done after layering the quilt sandwich.

If you wish more detail on any of the steps, feel free to contact me through the comments. I am always ready to talk about quilting.

A “Simple” Quilted Wall-Hanging

January 30, 2015Free-motion quilting, machine embroidery, quilt designbeginning quilt pattern, free-motion quilting, machine embroidery, thread sketchingMarci

The second project completed while passing the winter in South Carolina, is the above quilt, inspired by the shaker tune, “Simple Gifts”, as well as by the fabric seen below.

“Simple Gifts”

‘Tis a gift to be simple,

‘Tis a gift to be free,

‘Tis a gift to come down where you ought to be.

And when you find yourself in a place just right,

’twill be in the valley of love and delight.

The quilt top was pieced very randomly, to demonstrate the concepts of freedom and joyfulness, using this fabric with coordinating solids. I chose to call it “Simple Gifts from the Valley of Delight”.

After completing the top, some machine embroidery was added, to delineate fantasy flowers, and to add a different “gift” word to each of the print squares. I wished the appearance of the words to be subtle, so that the viewer would have to seek them out, much as in life, we need to be watching for the presence of these gifts in order to recognize them when they occur. Below is a close-up of one of the squares, that shows the word “joy”.

Finally, the quilt sandwich was built, and I had the pleasure of adding the free-motion quilting, This was a fun quilt, Put together in recognition of the generosity of a brand new friend, who seems to always put the needs of others before her own, and who told me to use whatever colors inspired me, as there is no color which would not be welcome in her home.

Creating a Donald Duck (or any other favorite character) Quilt

January 28, 2015embroidery, Free-motion quilting, quilt design, quiltingcharacter quilt, Donald Duck, free-motion quilting, simple quilt designMarci

Sometime before last Christmas, I set aside blogging, as my then current projects were all to be top secret gifts. Now as a snowbird on Hilton Head Island, with nothing more pressing than to enjoy the sun and do some quilting, it’s time to return to sharing. My first project after settling in was this quilt, in order to fulfill a Christmas IOU. Well before Christmas, I made several false starts that ended with tabling the project until after the busy holidays. This had shown me what didn’t work, and made it easier to find a process that produced what I had imagined. Below is a simple version of the steps. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need more details.

1. The first step was searching out the images I wished to use and transferring them to my blocks. I found mine in Google images which is acceptable when making an item for your own use. I used a printshop type program to create like-sized images and to print them. . At this point you could use whatever method you prefer. (Print directly on your fabric, print a heat transfer or print a copy and trace) I was forced to trace, as I had brought copies and have no printer with me. Make extra paper copies with any method, to use as patterns for the applique.

2. In choosing fabric, I was guided by Donald’s original cartoon images, only darkening them a bit to suit my own taste. I then chose to work the rest of the quilt in those colors, adding only a striped fabric to draw the design together. Fuse your fabrics to Wonder Under or the bonding product of your choice. Cut patterns from your Donald image and trace them right side down to the Wonder Under backing of the appropriate colors. Cut out the pieces and bond them to your block using the transferred image for placement. I then stitched around each piece, very close to the edge. Donald is always shown with black lines around each object so I tried using my machine satin stitch for this, but wasn’t happy with the look, so ended up using hand embroidery for his lines. Your might, however, wish to experiment with your machine. A blanket stitch might have sufficed.

3. Once the blocks were complete, I cut an assortment of various width strips of each fabric and laid them out to decide on my design. Some people complete their design on paper and then know exactly what to cut, but this is the method I chose for this project.

laying out the design

4. Now you are ready to sew your pieces together and create a quilt sandwich of backing, batting and the top. I have recently begun using a spray bonding product in place of pinning. This works so much better than pinning if you plan to free-motion quilt, which is my preferred method.

That completes your quilt. Next blog I’ll share another simple wall hanging created as a thank you for a special friend.

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