Unfinished Business....by (Angela) Jean

The quilt and shams Amelia and I made together in January

Over the last 10 years I have made a lot of quilts. Aside from the quilts I have made for my own kids, they have all been for other people.

I have loads of ideas stored deep in my brain, for quilts I would like to make for myself, but so far most of them have never been started.

I've been trying to figure out why. Why can I churn out quilt after quilt for other people and never finish one for myself?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am a procrastinator at my best when I have a deadline. Both the quilt orders I receive and the quilts I make as gifts, always have a due date (baby-on-the-way, wedding shower, birthdays etc). I always tell myself I'll get started on my own quilts 'when I have time'.
 
I have one quilt that has remained unfinished for years....at least 5 or 6, but I can't even be sure. It is going to be a queen size scrap quilt made from all the blue & white fabrics I have collected.

Recently my mother-in-law dropped off a bag containing parts of a sampler quilt that she had started but now wants me to finish for her. I was a little stunned since a) my mother-in-law has never shown any interest in quilting or sewing in the 13+ years I have known her and b) I had no idea she had taken a 10 week quilt sampler course over the winter at my local quilting store. I must admit she did a great job choosing the fabrics, and the pattern is quite pretty even if it's not to my personal taste.

The bag she left on my sewing table included her finished blocks and a binder of instructions for completing the sashing and assembly. I don't normally make quilts like this but I thought I'd give it a shot.

So that leads me to my idea. What if I make myself a deadline, with you as my witness? What if I tell you that I will have both of these quilts finished by July 1 and that I will have to do a follow-up post to prove it?

Will you agree to be my deadline enforcement committee? If you do, I think it will work.
Wish me luck.

Chic Babushkas & The Workroom...by (Angela) Jean

Does this ever happen to you?

You find yourself in a bit of a creative rut, but then magically, you stumble across something new that instantly starts the creative juices flowing again? Your fingers get itchy, and your heart begins to beat a little faster?  Does your mind start racing with all the things you want to create?

In case you need a little inspiration to get started on your next project, or you're just in the mood to see some pretty things, let me share one of my recent finds.

I have a friend named Irina. She is brilliantly creative and never ceases to inspire me. She introduced me to Japanese Paper many years ago, and when Shawn and I were planning our wedding we commissioned her to use some of our favourite Japanese Paper to design our stationary and invitations. These original collages remain among our most precious possessions. 

We have other pieces of her artwork all over our house.

These days, her talents are mostly focused on print-making, sewing, knitting and crocheting and she and I share a passion for beautiful fabric. The last time she came to visit she brought me some gorgeous pieces from here and left with a bag full of fabric from my stash. (Is there anything more fun than a good stash swap?)

Irina had been telling me about The Workroom for some time, but until recently, I hadn’t had a chance to check out their website. I spent a few minutes salivating over their beautiful fabric and now I can’t wait to get to the store. When I do, I’ll tell you all about it.

Here is the quilt I finished tonight using some of Irina’s fabric and some from my own collection.

aren't those little rocket ships adorable?

It’s for a special baby named Atticus. I hope he likes it.

Kwilty Pleasures...by (Angela ) Jean

The very first quilt I ever made was for my niece E's first birthday. She's turning 11 in a few weeks, so I guess that means I have a decade of quilting under my belt.
Over the years, I've made hundreds of baby quilts. In 2003 alone, I made over 200. Sewing is a creative outlet for me, and also a therapeutic one. During the 5 years we struggled to build our family, sewing kept my mind and hands busy when it was too difficult to deal with the world. I made quilts for other people's babies when I couldn't have my own. It sounds like torture, but it wasn't. It kept me calm, focused and productive.

I'd like to share my process with you....with one caveat...I do not claim to be a "real" quilter. I am completely self-taught and therefore positive that many of my techniques would make a bona-fide quilter cringe and wring her hands in dismay.
But, this is my blog, and this is how I do it.
At this point I should also confess that I have a textile addiction. (one day I'll share my collection with you, but that's a post for another day). Money is a lot tighter now, so I haven't bought much lately, but a few years ago my fabric shopping was rampant. My favourite place to buy fabric is here.

So, are you ready? Let's get started. First we need to pick a colour scheme and some fabric.

 

I make so many of these quilts, that I have bins of  fabric pre-cut into 4.5" squares and sorted by colour. From time to time I branch out and make different types of quilts, but I always come back to 9 X 9 square patchwork. I have a thing about squares. I find the symmetry very appealing.

For this quilt, I decided to go with greens, yellows and teal.

Next, I find a clear space on the floor (not easy to do at my house), and begin the design. I prefer a random-looking composition over a formal pattern, but that's just me. One of my tricks is to lay everything out on the floor, step back, and squint a little. If something jumps out I adjust the design.

At this point, I suggest you barricade your work space or your design could end up like mine.

I turned my back for one second to grab the camera and someone ran over my quilt with his fire truck. He was too quick for me to catch him in the act but the evidence was damning...

Once I'm happy with the design, I stack each row.

Then, I stack the piles, turning each pile 45 degrees. I call this a Kwilty Pack.

Designing is my favourite part of the entire process. I often design as many as 10 or 15 quilts at once and store them like this in ziploc bags so they are ready to go when I need to sew one up quickly to fill an order.

Now we're ready to start sewing the top together.
I un-stack the Kwilty Pack (make sure you put the piles in the right order or your quilt top will not look like your original design) and line up the piles of squares on my ironing board, which I have set up on my left.
I take the top two squares from pile #1. The top square goes on the bottom, right side up. The second square goes on top, right side down. Stitch together along the right-hand side with a 1/4" seam allowance.

When I get to the end of the length of the square, I stop, but don't cut the thread. I pick up the top two squares from pile #2 and repeat the same process.

When I've have done that for all 9 piles I end up with a long line of "flags" that looks like this.

 

I open up the first pair of squares I sewed together. I pick up square #3 from pile #1, line it up, right sides together with the square on the right and sew them together. When I get to the end of the edge of the square, like before, I stop sewing but don't cut the thread. Pick up the square #3 from pile #2 and repeat the same process. Continue with the rest of the 9 piles.

I continue until all 81 squares are sewn together and the quilt top looks like this.

At this point, the squares are all sewn together along their horizontal axes but not their vertical axes. Now, one column at a time, I sew the vertical axes. As I go, I'm careful to keep the seam allowances all going the same direction.
TaDA! Quilt top DONE!
Now we need to iron the seams down. I iron the back first, keeping all the seams going in one direction.

I do a quick iron of the top side too. Just for extra smoothness.

 Now it's time to make a quilt sandwich. Go get your batting. I'll wait here.

I lay a piece of batting on the floor. The backing fabric goes on top, right side up. The quilt top goes on top of the backing fabric, right side down. Careful, when you lay fabric on the ground....it attracts rascals...

I pin all three layers together. I try not to pin the rascals, although that might help move them off the fabric.

I sew all three layers together, leaving a space-2 squares long-open, to turn everything right-side-out.

I trim, the edges...

...pin the opening shut, and sew it up.

Almost done now. To finish the quilt off I top-stitch all along the edge. It gives it the look of traditional quilt binding, but without any of the tedious work.

I also top-stitch along a few of the grid-lines, just to give the whole quilt a bit more stability.

The finished product.

Quick and easy. (I'm pretty sure it took longer to write this post than it takes to make the quilt)
I love these quilts because they are colourful and very durable. I have thrown my kids' quilts in the wash countless times and they still look great. They used them in their cribs and now their beds, but they also drag them around the house to make forts and take them outside for picnics.
I hope you enjoyed today's sewing lesson. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask a question in the comments and I'll do my best to answer it.