Moving Toward a New Project

    Well, we've hand stitched a sampler and discussed the various elements of working quilting into the spaces of our quilts. It's time to move forward. I learned quilting before I learned piecing. My early whole cloth quilts were the canvas my quilt stitches were honed on, but the quilting journey didn't end there..and neither will ours.
   

    The next few weeks will find us in set up mode. I will share pictures of some of my sewing spaces as it has changed over the past few years. We don't need an elaborate studio or even an entire room to piece or quilt, however, we do need some key elements and a little planning.
    From there our journey will take us to piecing a simple quilt top using color and creativity. Hopefully you will join me for a Fence Rail picnic quilt from either a colorful jelly roll fabric pack or some pieces you choose yourself.
     When our quilt top comes together our online classroom will find us exploring quilt finishing as we baste, quilt and bind our way to completion. One class will show simple machine quilting and another will work a hand quilt design. The finishing touches are nearly finished as I complete the sample and work an outline.
       I hope you will join me in the classroom gaining confidence as we walk step by step together through an entire quilt..readily available for questions and online assistance. We'll share each others' progress and encourage one another on the way. I'm so excited! See you next week!

Looking at the Border

    A quilt is a beautiful work of art pieced in love and worked in fiber. The borders of a quilt offer a dose of stability as well as a finishing framework showcasing our creativity and hard work. Once a quilt top is complete, choosing a design leads us to the question..what about the borders?

 

    If we decide to 'edge-to-edge' quilt a design, then our borders are simply ignored, allowing the stitched motif to spill over from one edge of the quilt to the other. Stitch lines are invalid and the quilting assumes a life of it's own. One option to this is a partial edge-to-edge design where the design flows within the main area of the quilt stopping at the border area. This gives us freedom to pursue some unique framework stitching for our quilt. In the Dresden quilt above the main quilt area is quilted edge to edge with a cross hatch design. The leafy outer border was given a trailing leaf design offering contrasting texture as well as a muted design element.

      Often a border dictates its own design. The Holly Lane quilt, above, is bordered with pieced leaves and berries. Outlining the existing motif enhanced the design while leaving soft texture and body for the bed size quilt. Quilts with obvious design elements, such as flowers, leaves, or even geometric image, can easily be outlined for a border that adds beauty and texture without distracting from the main design.

    Here we have a quilt with plenty of design element, except in the border area. The main piecing has stars and triangles dancing about with plenty of color and texture, yet the borders sport solid, plain fabric. When I consider this quilt, two thoughts come to mind..1. continue the theme: allow the stars/triangles to be stitched along the border to include them in the design..this will hide the obvious plainness of the fabric. 2. soften the blow: add some curve or circular stitching to the border softening the sharp angles in the main design. Adding another border would work as well.

      Framing our quilt with borders leaves a clean finish to our central design. I generally try to contrast my outer frame quilting with the inner quilting..for example, if the inner quilt design has plenty of lines or sharp angles, my border quilting will generally be softer curves and rounded shapes. Some standard designs for quilting borders are feathers, gables, fans, and spirals. Any design can be a border design: repeating hearts, leafy vines, even our cross hatch. Remember, when filling our quilt spaces, we are only limited by our own imaginations..grab your thimble and let's stitch something beautiful!

Care and Consideration of Quilts

    Hand made quilts are a beautiful treasure for any home adding welcome comfort and style. Vintage quilts are an even more exquisite attraction, often delicate and priceless, while modern quilts are constructed of hearty fibers and color fast fabrics making them more sturdy for daily wear. These priceless possessions need careful care and consideration to keep them in mint condition for generations to come.Let's consider the needs of vintage, hand quilted, and machine finished quilts.

    A vintage quilt is often a family heirloom hand pieced and hand quilted with cotton fabrics and natural cotton or wool batting. When I work with vintage quilts, restoring or finishing, I often recommend these beautiful quilts be kept out of direct light preserving their color and fabric as long as possible. For these delicate quilts it is best not to wash them if at all possible. Occasional airing in filtered sunlight gives them a much needed lift and keeps them sufficiently well cared for. If more cleaning is needed, I test an area before spot cleaning with gentle soap and water. Only if absolutely necessary do I hand wash a vintage quilts..in cool water, by hand, in a bath tub. Once allowed to drain, I never wring or twist them..instead folding and pressing water out before hanging them to dry.

    Hand quilted quilts may have modern, sturdy fabrics and batting giving them a bit more stability and strength. Once again, the first recommendation is simply airing them..and spot clean if needed; their fabrics are sturdy, their threads may be less so. When a hand quilted piece leaves my home, it has been gently washed in a delicate cycle and air dried in filtered light or tossed in a delicate, low heat dryer. Hand quilted quilts can be gently washed, but only on occasion, as their threads can snap and break leaving the quilt in need of repair.

    Machine finished quilts are the modern marvel. Sturdy fabric, synthetic batting, and a strong dose of dense quilting give these quilts serious durability. My machine quilts never leave my house without a run through the gentle cycle of the wash and a toss in the low heat dryer. While I still recommend only washing when absolutely necessary, a machine finished quilt will usually stand up to more use and wear then our traditional hand finished ones.

    When I work with any quilt..my own, or a client's..my motto is 'less is best'. The less stress we put on the fabric the better off we are... and the older the fabric, the more delicate we need to be. Sadly, our busy life styles leave us little time for hand washing and airing quilts bringing us to the need/demand for the modern machine made ones. Are the less wonderful? No way..still made with love and invested in by someone special.

     If you have tips or advice about caring for quilts, please share with us...or if you have questions, shoot me a message or comment.



   

Filling Blank Space

   Every quilter defines blank space differently..this quilter believes a blank space is any space that causes my mind to draw a blank. Sometimes the hardest part of quilting is choosing the 'right design for the space.' I confess, I do not quilt like other quilters do, so blank spaces don't scare me. As for 'the right design', every design is a right design..the only limitation is your own imagination.

   A doodler at heart, I am prone to draw the quilt spaces and scribble this and that until something just screams YES. While I love to fill and fiddle with various designs on paper, I know that what works on the paper doesn't always translate well on the fabric. Sometimes, less is more. For example, I played with several designs for the blue block baby quilt pictured above. In the end simply outlining the blocks and sawtooth gave me the illusion my heart desired- tumbling blocks.

   Filler designs range from flowers, to pebbles, to loopty-loops..geometric shapes or echoed outlines. Machine quilters often fill with stipples or wiggly lines, but that isn't easily done by hand. Only once did I hand quilt stippling..then and there I swore never to do it again. When we consider filling a space in a block we must consider the whole of the quilt..maintaining gauge and tension consistently. 

   In this week's video we take a look at some finished sampler quilts to see how different fillers enhance the space and add some 'space filler designs' to our sampler.

    Quilting is a personal experience..and expression of our individual taste and temperament. Bear in mind, there are no wrong designs..no wrong motifs...no limits to what we can design, create or stitch. Explore quilts this week and take the time to really see the heart of the quilter in the way they used the spaces and translate that into your own work. Let's go quilt something beautiful! 

When a Quilt Stumps You

   We've been looking at quilt design and the various options often found in our quilting, but sometimes even with all the tools and templates available to us we get stumped. Try as we may no design seems to naturally pop out when we look at the top. Quilter's block is a frustrating thing that often leads to shelves of unfinished work..and I hate trying to return to unfinished work, especially if it has me stumped.

    One way I deal with a quilt stump...exposure. The kitchen wall, draped over the bed or couch or hung in the quilting room..that quilt is in my face off and on throughout the day. Exposing the quilt in various light at various angles as I pass it gives me time to mull around and dream..ponder the existing textures and lines. Sometimes catching the quilt off hand from the corner of my eye sparks the realization of just what that quilt needs.

     Let's look at an example. The Dresden quilt top pictured above has been off and on my design wall for over a year. My creative energy zapped, I would shove it in a drawer until I felt the pang of guilt over it and pulled it out again.Outlining the Dresden will enhance the existing elements, but there is a lot of blank space- pink blank space. Feathers and medallions seem a bit too wavy and loopy, and a stipple is too much circular motion. Cross hatch may give some balance to the roundness of the Dresden..but there is so much pink. See my dilemma?
    

    Quilting is as diverse as the women who quilt. If five ladies pieced the same design, each quilt would be different is some way..and the quilting would be just as different. The point is, there is no wrong design. When you make a quilt, it is a part of you..no design you choose can be wrong for the quilt you make. That's one of the many beauties of the wonderful world of fabric! So don't be stumped.

   

Three Types of Quilting and the Orange Peel

    Quilting design and motif varies from quilter to quilter..ask three quilters how to best enhance a quilt top and you will get three very different answers. My quilting designs tend to fall into one of three main design categories. I call them echo/outline, all over, and artistic.
   Echo or outline quilt design simply takes the pieced or appliqued design element and enhances it either by stitching in the ditch (seem lines) or echoing the design. Generally, I use them together working my quilting ino the ditch as well as echoing the design in the blank spaces. In the Dresden fan quilt pictured above we can clearly see the echo and outline design enhancing and even copying the original design element of the quilt top. The quilt has density, texture, and beauty added through the simple act of repeating the lines.

    This quilt has a lot of beautiful curves and ripples in the pieced design. To complete the quilt without detracting from the theme, it is stitched in the ditch (outlined) to enhance the design, create soft texture, and give no other element  to the work. Being a bed quilt, the outline keeps the quilt soft and subtle for a great snuggle effect.

    When a quilt is really 'busy' or really plain or is intended to stand up to plenty of use, an all over design can enhance the final product. This quilt above has a lot going on in the design; plenty of color and line. This quilt is currently on the quilt frame being quilted with last week's Baptist fan design. The gently curves will give stability while adding some softness to the lines in the design. I have a Dresden quilt next in line that has only six applique on the whole cloth top..the design plan is to add lined texture with an all over cross hatch, allowing sturdiness and contrast to the bed size quilt.

    When a quilt has plenty of artistic thought in the piecing, it screams artistic quilting. In the Holly Lane quilt above, we have applique and piecing done with very specific fabrics; it conveys a scenic motif that draws your mind to visions of winter wonder. The quilting here was intended to enhance the vision bringing swirling snow and stars in the sky..chimneys held smoke billows and in the borders holly dances along the way. Artistic quilting is the most time consuming and detailed of the three..for me, it is often added to a smaller wall quilt or done by special request for a client.

   Now for our sampler. This week another easy to mark design, the orange peel..sometimes called the wineglass, fills the fourth space on the sampler. The base of a drinking glass, a small desert plate or even my canning ring gives the overlapping circular patter. Where the Baptist fan was a softer circle, the orange peel adds a bit of intricacy to the fabric with the oblong slivers it creates. Perfect for all over quilting, filling empty squares, or adding beautiful texture to a border, the orange peel is a wonderful design to have in our tool box.

Plan the Design & The Baptist Fan

    I love quilting..love it, but the most challenging aspect of quilting for me is planning a design. After all the piecing is complete it's time to take a long hard look at the form and function of the quilt. Is there a clear design element to the quilt (lines/circles)? What will this quilt face in it's lifetime? Is it for use or display? Does the batting have requirements? I have some questions to ponder before a design is chosen.
     Let's look at an example: the quilt in the picture above is lab/crib size, intended for use, may face plenty of washing and wear and it has a lot of straight line elements. This in mind I needed a smaller gauge design to give stability..the amount of piecing may make detailed designs more challenging..and with all the lines already in the design, some curves may soften the texture.

   Drawing the quilt on a sheet of paper gives me a canvas for testing ideas. I use a spiral notebook for design doodling and block planning. Here you can see my basic pinwheel quilt sketched out with a few variant quilting designs played with in the spaces. This gives me room to play and keeps the designs from getting lost on the sewing room desk.

   Some quilts just shout a design. This vintage star quilt is hand quilted with 'meandering stars' giving the appearance of stars scattered across the bed. Other quilts are artistic and beg for embellishment..i.e. the Holly Lane quilt made last Christmas needed stars in the night sky with smoke curling from the chimneys. Baby girl quilts easily lend to flower or ribbon effects while a boys quilt may need bubbles or sail boats. I try to keep in mind the person receiving the quilt..their tastes and preferences. No matter the design, the end result will be beautiful and functional. I do talk a little bit in the video about smaller quilts and their designs.

   Now for this week's quilt design: the Baptist fan. I love the simplicity and flow of this traditional quilt design. Easily fit in any quilt space and versatile in gauge and direction, this design can fill a large quilt or an outer border. The arches quilt well without too much curve, enabling us to load those needles with more stitches and move the work along at a faster pace. My Jungle Babies quilt pictured at the top is on the frame right now being quilted with this very design.

    Share your  projects with us..add pictures or your link in the comment box to encourage and inspire others. Questions..quilt troubles you need help with? Send me an email at simplyscaife@yahoo.com.