This is a really old quilt block that I canot even find on the Internet. It’s apparently a local variation, hence the name “Jemseg” Dahlia.
They are big blocks – 18″ square and since there is some hand gathering and hand applique I am making one whole block for a wall hanging.
I’m considering making a pattern if there’s interest.
Click through the images to see notations for each.
Speed pieced huge 9 patch block quilts for babies.
I am almost done Kaytlyn’s quilt. At least the quilting part. I ran out of yellow thread *again*. That’s two spools if you are counting, plus a spool each of pink, purple and orange that still have lots left, but I need the yellow for the back. This quilt is using a LOT of thread.
I read another tutorial from Diane Gaudynski, and I swear this is the one I was looking for before, but someone forgot I read it. This time I clicked. Diane Gaudynski “Echo Feather Plume”
Here’s what I did the other day.
This was the third block I did, nice and relaxed and happy with the results. I’m not quite done the quilting because as I said above, I ran out of thread! And my local quilt shop is moving so it has been closed for a few days.
Here’s a nice shot showing how the quilt will look when done.
I need to find where I put the rest of the hot pink fabric so I can use it for the binding. One more row of feathers to go and two more of loops.
And just so Kaytlyn is not the only person I am tormenting with quilting previews, I did some work on a wall hanging for my mom. Mom has picked out a panel to hang in her stairwell, and since I am now her quilter, this is my first project and she said to do whatever I liked.
If you think that looks good, wait till you see the front. 😉 Some days I wish I had the whole day to quilt. So far, I have to keep stopping for one reason or another.
So I’ve worked on Kaytlyn’s quilt a few more times, after I unpicked the last screw up and worked on something else instead. Here’s what that same block looks like now, all done properly.
I went swimmingly, until I flipped the quilt over and realized I made yet another boo boo. But this one was more recoverable and did not involved taking out stitches. It turns out if you are near the edge and don’t pay attention to the backing fabric, you get this:
It flips over and you wind up quilting it. Uh-oh. But then you just find your tiny scissors, turns on some bright lights, get comfy and snip the fabric off from around the stitching. Like this:
Any of those stray threads will wash right out. I always try and wash my quilts before I send them off. This way I know they will hold up for the user and if anything comes undone (it happens) then I have a chance to fix it.
I also figured out how to quilts the skinny blocks and thanks to some advice from Angela Walters, decided *not* to quilt the hot pink sashing. It looks SO much better leaving it unquilted. It really does help frame the blocks, don’t you think?
Here’s the back, where you can see the effect really well.
In the skinnier blocks I decided to do a loop-de-loo, or a bunch of Laverne L’s. Sometimes when doing these bits I hummed the Laverne and Shirley theme song because I am a dork like that.
Two more big rows to go! I have to draw out the feathers on these ones, since I’m doing them all in the same direction and they are basically upside down because of the way I have to feed it through my machine.
I had a migraine yesterday. It woke me up, that;s how it hurt. I think it was from sleeping hard in the same position for hours.
So I muddled through as best I could,and after the second round of strong tea and Advil, plus protein, it lessened enough I could move my head. I set aside my laptop (one can still do minimal support when one’s head is settled amongst pillows) and shuffled down the hall to go play with fabric.
Face it – I needed the break anyway. 😀
I tried to quilt a bit and screwed up two feather blocks. Well, screwed up one and tried a different method on another. I’m not doing each block exactly the same, trying out a few different things every so often.
But the orange thread on the plain pink square? Upside down? Post-migraine?
Yeah. Not a good idea.
I did, however, take pictures for you to point and laugh at. Today I attacked it with a seam ripper.
Also shown: I did a small disappearing 9 patch baby quilt and laid out another, all from the same line of “Giddy” fabric. Nice and springy and Valentine’s in one.
Since I’ve finished up Meaghan’s quilt I moved on to Kaytlyn’s, getting it all layered and basted this weekend. I also had a chance to quilt three of the large blocks.
I had always planned to do big feather plumes in these blocks, as it just screamed at me to do so. Problem was when I started the quilt, I’d never done them. So I drew and I practised and I did some samples.
Today I actually dug out all the thread and took the plunge. I’m using yellow thread on the back and in some places on the front will be changing thread colors. This not only blends in better (to hide potential goofs 😛 ) it also helps me use up much of my half-empty spools of thread. OF which there are plenty.
I’ll do all the large blocks on this quilt first and yes – I am stopping and starting on each block, snipping the thread entirely and not stitching over to the next one. I also did not draw on most of the quilt top for a template. Some I just drew the spine, some blocks nothing at all. They will be almost entirely freehand.
I’ve also been picking up some tips from Diane Gaudynski and her upcoming free motion quilt along. The topic for February? Feather plumes! 😀 Mine don’t look near as nice as hers, but like she says – just keep on practising!
By the time I get to the last block, I should be pretty good. They are fun to do, if maddening in parts. I definitely like the look of going back and outlining the whole thing until the block fills. It definitely hides my turn backs.
I also chose poly batting because of the loft, and to see how my Bernina handles it. So far, I still don’t like working with it.
YAY! I finally finished Meaghan’s quilt this week. Her birthday was Nov 1st. Remember, I also made a quilt for her brother and his birthday was the day before. He got his quilt on time tho.
I used the same pattern for both quilts, except for Meaghan I sized the blocks smaller to 5″ and made the sashing smaller as well. This brought it down to a twin size. She picked purple and grey as her colors.
It sewed up fast enough but both Meg & I hummed and hawed over how to quilt it. Finally we decided to go for diamonds in the sashing areas. When I finished that part, she picked a curved leafy design for the borders. That was not something I want to quilt again any time soon. They are small and detailed.
After another long period of indecision, I went and quilted loop squares in the squares .Those were pretty fun! It worked up fast too, as I just went in a straight line down the side of each square to get to the next one, and went around the quilt in a big circle towards the side. This made nice lines on the back as well.
I bound it in a grey on grey floral she picked out from the Thimbleberries line. Just straight cut, 3″ wide, folder over and sewn down on the front.
She’s happy, so any mistakes are noticed only by me. It crinkled up real nice after washing as well.
There’s a shot in here of the border before and after washing.The denser quilting on the border definitely crinkled up really nice.
So I was poking around, taking a break ad quilting, when we finally settled on a border pattern for Meaghan’s quilt. It’s a curved fern design from Follow the Line Quilting Designs volume 3 (heads up: I LOVE this kind of thing). The only problem was, in the one corner sample given, the leaves changed direction. It was not a simple matter to simply mirror image the pattern itself to be able to turn the next corner. The leaves themselves would have had to turn direction midway.
I’ve been mentally trying to figre this out since yesterday afternoon. Then I made extra copies of the designs, scanned it in and flipped it, printed off those and even then could not get it to line up.
So we turn to the old fashioned way of pencil and paper. I got another sheet, made sure each side of the border I traced was heading to the corner in the right direction, then figured out how to fill in a leaf myself.
Final result with the original corner and the drawn version of the next corner.
Each corner will be used twice in one quilt, at opposite corners. Note how in the original the leaf is tucked in and you hardly notice the direction change. In the opposite corner, the leaf has to point out, or at least look like it did.
Now I can stop thinking about how to do it and maybe go quilt some more.
Well I was piecing the leftover scraps for Kaytlyn’s quilt and since there were so many little bits and a couple leftover blocks from the first quilt I made… it wound up a new baby quilt.
There’s enough going on it would get lost as a quilt back. So. Baby quilt it is.
Bonus shots of a couple close-ups of the fabrics used. (different lighting so the colors are washed out in some.)