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Pins, Pins, Pins

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Last week I told the story of our granddaughter’s comforter and this week you’ll get “the rest of the story” 🤣.

My husband retired six years ago. I have recently been pushed into what I hope is temporary early retirement, from teaching quilting and grandchild daycare, by the pandemic. So Mike and I are spending a lot of time together. As with many people who are at our stage of life, we are experiencing some of the less than funny symptoms of maturity. Fortunately we enjoy teasing and laughing together.

That being said, Mike wasn’t laughing when we began pinning Hanna’s poofy comforter into the frame. Three extra-loft batts make for a really thick comforter!

I usually pin with 1″ bent safety pins, and even I struggled to get them to work along the edge of the purple fabric.

Mike struggled for only a few minutes before he threw up his hands in frustration, so I gave him the handful of 1 1/2″ pins I own.

That didn’t make him any happier and, after giving it a good try, he allowed me to finish pinning things together solo. I didn’t blame him a bit. I however did persevere and all went well.

Time went by, the quilt was finished and sent off to Hanna, and I didn’t give this situation another thought… until Christmas. Mike and I don’t typically exchange gifts (we have everything we need – praise the LORD). So imagine my surprise when he walks up to me with a smirk on his face and presents me with a Christmas present. I unwrapped it to reveal… 3″ long safety pins!!!

I laughed hysterically! Those pins are honking big!

I’m pretty sure my quilts won’t survive the size of the holes they would make!

I have a challenge – who can come up with a use for 3″ pins? I’d love to let Mike know that I like my gift and find them useful (tee-hee).

And now, the rest of the rest of the story…

I wrote this post shortly after it happened, in anticipation of sharing it with you this week, and I thought it was complete. Imagine my surprise when 3 days after Christmas Mike hands me a package that had just been delivered to our mailbox. What was inside?

The colorful 4″ pins that didn’t get delivered in time for Christmas!!!

This guy really makes me laugh. As I hugged him I glanced at my shelf only to discover I am also guilty of a pin addiction. At last year’s quilt Expo in Madison I found a unique “quilt hanger” I just had to have and, you guessed it, it’s the biggest pin yet!

It’s about 16″ long and it actually opens to slip a quilt on for display on the wall.

So I guess we were meant for each other!

PS. The pin wasn’t in the original photo – isn’t Photoshop™ a hoot?!?

Wishing you a week filled with smiles!

Tying a Comforter

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I have one more Christmas project story to share 😊. Our granddaughter Hanna will be 15 this month and she recently redecorated her bedroom. She asked me to make her a poofy comforter: solid forest green flannel on the top with a purple flannel on the back, and the back could be a plaid. She wanted the knots tied to the back. I like a girl who knows what she wants (even if a solid green top isn’t very exciting in grandma’s opinion)!

For the top I found a flannel sheet in the requested color. I absolutely wanted a plaid for the backing, but the one I liked best was near the end of the bolt, so I needed to border it with solid purple. Once the backing was pieced my dear husband offered to help and quickly cleared a space in his shed. We thumbtacked the top fabric, wrong side up, into the frame (so the knots would be on the back), then layered on three extra loft batts, and topped it off with the purple plaid backing. Pinning the top in place with all that batting was quite an ordeal, and that story will have to wait until next week’s post, but once it was pinned the tying could commence.

I don’t believe I’ve ever posted about tying a quilt, so I figured it was about time to share some of my favorite tips. I prefer to use a light weight yarn or multiple strands of embroidery floss. For Hanna’s quilt I used a 6 strand length each of purple and green floss. It can be tricky to thread the needle with thicker threads. I’ve found this type of threader to be very helpful (and I just saw something similar at JoAnn’s):

You simply push the hook through the needle, catch the threads/yarn:

and pull them through:

I cut my thread(s) as long as the side of the quilt (yes, you read that right), and I make knot stitches in a line down the entire length of the quilt. I was told years ago to make sure the stitch length of the knot is at least 1/4″ so that it won’t pull through with wear.

I like to use a ruler to keep my stitches evenly spaced and found the plaid to be a real blessing in lining up the knots! After a line is stitched I go back to the beginning and cut the first tie so there is about 1 1/2″ of thread on each side.

At this point it’s important to grab each end and slide the piece side to side to insure there are no unwanted twists of thread underneath. Once you’re sure, tie a square knot (right over left, then left over right).

To trim the knots evenly I like to hold the tails against my forefinger and cut at the first “knuckle crease”:

Continue to tie all the knots in that line and then move on to the next. The tying went well and in no time it was complete,

It even looked good on the bottom, as seen when I peeked under the frame.

Next it was time to bind it in the purple flannel. I can’t say I love binding a project that is this thick, but I love my granddaughter – and she loved her comforter – so it was worth it! The comforter (and other gifts) made it safely to Vancouver, WA and she had it on her bed on Christmas Eve!

She said it was exactly what she wanted, and it’s so much fun to make something that brings joy!

The last time I tied a comforter was in December of 2017 when I helped my cousin make a t-shirt “quilt” for a friend who’s husband had passed away suddenly. Stitching through those layers was a bit tricky, and if you’d like to read about it please click here.

Do you have any tips for tying a comforter you’d like to share?

Lebkuchenherzen

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If 2020 had been a normal year our Sew We Go riverboat cruise of the European Christmas Markets would be a happy memory by now. Sadly, this did not happen. On the bright side, AmaWaterways has allowed us to simply postpone our dream cruise until December of 2021. So Wendy and I certainly have something to look forward to!

As with all of our Sew We Go adventures, We design projects for our travelers to make to add to the fun. This year our pre-trip project was inspired by a favorite treat at the Christmas markets – Lebkuchenherzen!

These are a German variation on traditional gingerbread cookies with a cherished history. Some of them sold at the markets are the size of dinner plates! They can be simple or very complex. This sweet treat has a fascinating history. To read an article about it go to: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/a-brief-history-of-lebkuchen-germanys-heart-shaped-gingerbread-cookie/

I decided these cookies could be made in fabric with rick-rack and bias tape “frosting”. So I went about designing and stitching a table topper. I sent the instructions to our travelers in the weeks prior to Christmas this year to make the postponement a little less disappointing. This project kept me busy for quite a while, but I didn’t want to tell you all about it here until our group had the fun of learning how to make them. Since these table toppers have a holiday theme – I felt now was a good week to share!

Each of the hearts was made as a separate small quilt. The center was made as a quilted circle, and the hearts were stitched in place. I couldn’t resist making a second one because it was just so much fun!

I enjoyed decorating with my Lebkuchenherzen toppers this Christmas, while dreaming of next year’s trip.

I’m not able to share the pattern with anyone outside of our travelers at this time – as this project was designed especially for them. We are enjoying the anticipation of a trip that is less than a year away and afterwards, if anyone is interested, I may be persuaded to present the instructions here on the blog 😊.

And to leave 2020 with a smile…

As a wonderful finish to this week’s post my friend Julie sent me a delightful photo of Christmas gifts she made for her grandkids that were inspired by a Sew We Go project I’ve posted about many times; our version of Flat Stanley – the quilt sissies!

Julie traveled with me to Japan last January and was intrigued by my QuiltAnna (lower center right in the photo above). She decided to make her own version for her grandkids!

How creative!!! And here they are strolling past her mariner’s compass quilt 😁:

Great job Julie – thanks for sharing – I’m sure they’ll love ’em.

Happy New Year everyone! May 2021 be a good year for us all!

Merry Christmas 2020

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I was excited to put up our tree this year so I could place our new Mariner’s Compass tree skirt under it!

Once it was in place my husband commented that it matched the Christmas quilt we’d just hung on the other side of the living room.

I hadn’t made the connection – WOW! I guess I do have a Mariners Compass addiction 😄.

Since the day we put up the tree – it snowed! 6″ of heavy, wet, beautiful snow! I love it and I couldn’t resist going outside while the thick flakes were coming down and snapping a few pics.

As I approached our bird feeding area there were birds everywhere. My presence caused them to scatter, so I decided to stand very still and wait. Mike looked out our bedroom window and couldn’t resist photographing me waiting to photograph our feathered friends.

A brave chickadee made the waiting worthwhile (look to the right – he’s small, but he’s there!)

One of my favorite parts of the season is baking cookies with my parents, kids, and grandkids. Our son and his family live nearby but are concerned about gathering this year. Our grandkids in Washington should have been here by now, but the pandemic has delayed that visit. So I set up a time to bake with Mom and Dad. After all, they’re the ones I’ve done this with consistently since the time I was very young 😊. Then, while talking with Hanna via Facetime, she had the idea of baking together virtually. She and Willy “gathered” with us on my computer screen.

They made peanut butter kiss cookies

And we made all our traditional ones:

A yummy time was had by all!

Now we await a church service on Christmas Eve and a quiet and small gathering for Christmas dinner to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

So grateful to have so many blessings. A very merry Christmas to all of you. God bless us everyone!

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And here’s a quick update on Sharon and my “Ringing and Singing” for the Salvation Army

Each year during the Christmas season I’ve posted about the wonderful time my friend Sharon and I have ringing and singing for the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle drive at our local grocery store.

Ringing and Singing 2019

This wonderful program has become yet another casualty of the pandemic. I received a letter from Marie, the head of our local campaign, saying that they won’t be manning the kettles with volunteers this year (it would have been our 18th). The good news is they have an alternate plan to support this very worthwhile organization. I wrote Marie that I would share it on my blog:

“Due to Covid, & the safety of our bell ringers, the Watertown Salvation Army Kettle Campaign will look a little different this year. There will be no bell ringers at kettles. New this year is a way to donate to the Virtual Kettle. Please text to Local to 24365. Donations made online will be credited to Jefferson County’s Kettle Campaign. Check donations may be mailed to PO Box 774, Watertown, WI 53094. Thank you for all the past generous contributions to the local Red Kettle Campaign.Marie Miller, Volunteer, The Watertown Salvation Army”

If you don’t live in the Watertown area, I’m sure the Salvation Army is taking donations wherever you live.

Many things are going to be very different this Christmas season, but the real reason for the season will never change – Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come!

We have much to celebrate!

Greetings From the Cattail Retreat!

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In August I posted about a wonderful getaway with my friends. We had such a good time Laura decided to host another one.

I’ve been so craving the company of quilting friends and this weekend has been such a blessing. We’ve stitched,

enjoyed great food at the retreat center (prepared by the participants – these are just the snacks!),

As well as a delicious lunch on the shores of Lake Wisconsin.

We did a bit of shopping in the quaint town of Lodi,

and stitched some more. I put together a quilt from a bag of donated fabrics I picked up at guild. Thanks for the pattern Jo! It’s turning into a lovely charity quilt.

I also had a blast making Christmas table toppers as gifts for dear friends.

We laughed a lot (during our white elephant gift exchange – I think Cathy likes the dachsund planter I found for her at an antique store 😊!),

took in beautiful scenery on frozen Lake Wisconsin,

and out our back door.

Quilting friends are the best! Thank you Laura, Cathy, April and Jo, for a delightful weekend!

Quilting a King

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As I begin to compose this post my scrappy diamond quilt top is complete and it’s ready for quilting. In the past I’ve quilted 2 king sized quilts on a domestic home sewing machine. Now that I have a HQ Sweet Sixteen mid-arm, I think it will be much more enjoyable 😁. Please join me on my “quilting a king” journey.

The first step: pin baste the quilt in a frame (in my husband’s shed).

In previous posts I’ve shared how to use this simple frame learned from my quilting teacher, Sharon Grieve Grinyer, way back in the late 80s. It requires four 10′ long 2″ x 2″ boards, four bar clamps, and four high back chairs to set it on. I first shared this step-by-step technique for basting in 2011 and, since many of you weren’t following my blog back then, you are welcome to click here to link to it!

Once the quilt is in the frame I safety pin the layers together and it’s ready for quilting.

But what design to use? I typically like to begin by straight line quilting in some sort of grid to hold everything together, and get rid of a lot of pins. Since I greatly dislike stitching in the ditch I like to look for other options. Eureka! The pattern for these blocks did away with this problem! Because the edges of the first two strips sewn to each foundation were aligned with the diagonal of the block, the seam was 1/4″ away from it. This allowed me to straight-line quilt the long diagonals, without being in the ditch! I did this part on my regular machine (I find long straight lines turn out better with feed dogs).

This next part I’ve shared before, but I feel it’s worth repeating: quilting long lines with the feed dogs up often causes puckers on the back of the quilt. My solution is what I call my 3 pin technique. I put the needle down at the start of my quilting line and place 3 pins perpendicular to the seam I’m about to sew.

I remove the pins as I stitch up to them, then repin the next portion. It may sound a bit tedious, but once I establish a rhythm, it’s a breeze and it results in no puckers!

After the quilt was gridded along the large diamonds, I moved to my mid-arm. Since this quilt is so scrappy, fancy free-motion quilting would probably not show, so I did what I often do – I asked myself “what would be fun?” The answer – ruler work!

Straight line quilting in all directions on a large quilt is extremely difficult on a domestic machine, since the quilt needs to be rotated through the small opening under the arm of the machine. By dropping the feed dogs and using rulers that problem is eliminated. It works especially well with the channel ruler from Four Paws Quilting. I set the ruler along the line I wish to quilt and, since it’s free-motion, I simply push the quilt and ruler along at an even rate as I stitch (don’t my colorful gloves get lost in the busy patchwork?).

When I get to a pivot point, the ruler is rotated without turning the quilt, and the process continues.

I’m very pleased with the two concentric diamonds I’ve sewn inside each gridded diamond (you’ll probably have to zoom in to see them) – and I’m truly enjoying every step of the process.

As I mentioned before, the quilt is so busy the quilting doesn’t show from the front. It’s easier to see the concentric diamonds from the back:

And last night we slept under it!!!

I’m very pleased with the results and Mike likes it too!

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One last thing – Lynn just sent me a photo of a string quilt she made and I couldn’t resist sharing it with you.

I’m really loving these scrappy quilts. Thanks Lynn!

Spicing Up Our Quilts

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Donna sent me the photo of her Lake Michigan quilt during the time I was posting about being inspired by the colors of nature. This is what she said:

“Here’s a quilt that I made inspired by Lake Michigan. Every time I looked at the lake there were all kinds of marvelous colors which always changed with the time of day or the season. I’d say to myself, I have fabric that color! (My favorite color is blue, go figure)
It’s called ‘Ode to the Many Colors of Lake Michigan’.”

What a spectacular work of art! I love the glow in the center. She then sent me a second email in which she mentioned an inner “border” she appliquéd on, just because the quilt needed it:

“Between the lady of the lake blocks and the outer border there is a 1/4 inch stripe fabric appliqued on. It kind of needed that definition, though I didn’t want to do it. Once done it was a nice addition.”

Donna admitted that appliquéing that narrow striped border was worth it, and I really admire the effort it took. What an effective addition!

I’ve had a few occasions in my quilting life when the quilt was done, but it just needed a little something more. One of them was “Pekoe and Cut Black”, a quilt I made for a “Tea” challenge. I decided to pull a bunch of white/cream scraps from my stash and dye them in tea. I only used these fabrics in the quilt, including the binding. So the outer edge ended up looking quite bland.

To add definition I couched a piece of variegated yarn in the ditch between the binding and the quilt and I was much happier with the results:

And here’s a detail shot:

Another quilt which benefitted from couching a “piping” along the binding was one I made with my friend Sharon Rotz. We made it for the New Quilts From an Old Favorite challenge at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. The “Old Favorite” was the monkey wrench pattern and our quilt is entitled: Two Friends Monkeying Around:

It was accepted into the competition, hung in the museum during Quilt Week, and traveled with the exhibit for 2 years before we got it back. At that point Sharon decided to enter it in an art competition. She felt the edge needed a bit of definition and couched black cording along the binding.

This addition framed the quilt well and we took first place! Here’s a detail shot:

I think these “spicing up” additions we’re well worth the effort in each of the above quilts. Have you ever added a little extra zip to a quilt in this way? If so, please send me photos!

Bonus Story

Many of you have heard the story of my Tea quilt, but in case you missed it – enjoy 😊:

I drew a number of swirls originating from a center circle until I found the one that was just right. I then stitched them together using Caryl Bryer Fallert’s applipiecing technique. I quilted each area with a different free-motion quilting pattern, adjusting the design when it hit my pre-marked circle.

This quilt is part of my “Crossings” series where portions of the quilt are made separately and then the pieces are connected back together with beads. It’s a spiritual journey series of quilts in which I feel the beads cross the gap and hold the broken pieces of my quilt together as my faith in Jesus Christ holds the broken pieces of my life together.

In most of the quilts in this series I bead together rectangles or squares. This time I decided to make the entire quilt – quilted, bound and finished. Then I cut the circle out of the center of the quilt, finished both edges with corded piping, and beaded the circle back into the hole it had created with pyramid beads from a broken bracelet. It was quite a gutsy move, but I was pleased with the results.

For some reason I feel like making myself a cup of tea right now 😁.

Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving!

Making Diamonds

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I’m making great progress on the king sized quilt for our bed. I posted a few weeks ago about the process for making the string pieced blocks (click here for a link to that post). As soon as all 120 blocks were completed I couldn’t resist laying them out on the floor of my studio. After admiring them for a day I realized I wasn’t able to move in there, so I gathered them all up for the next step: paper removal!

This proved to be much easier than I expected, and I’d like to share the process I came up with. My first discovery was that the blocks I pieced on pages from an old phone book were the easiest foundations to remove. I highly recommend them. But the ones pieced on regular paper weren’t all that difficult either.

I quickly got into a rhythm. Here’s the process:

  1. Begin at a corner and place your thumbnail along the seam at the edge of the paper to protect the stitches from pulling out. With your other hand rip the corner triangle back over the seam quickly.

2. Pull the next foundation piece away from the stitching at one end, place your thumb under it, and run it to the other end, releasing the paper from the seam.

3. Hold the stitches secure with your thumbnail on the next seam and repeat step 1.

I continue removing strips until I reach the center diagonal seam, then I rotate the block and continue from the opposite corner until all the strips are removed.

Once all the blocks have been freed from their foundations, it’s time to sew them together. This quilt is really scrappy, so there’s no reason to overthink the layout – unless it matters to you. (I have friends who would agonize over this – and you know who you are 🤣).

I decided to begin by sewing them together into pairs in the shape of a “V”:

And continued until I had 60 pairs. I then sewed the pairs into rows of 4s, making sure that the ends of each strip remained Vs:

As I sewed these units of 4s into 8s I realized that if I kept sewing these units together in this fashion I wouldn’t get the results I wanted because my plan was to have 20 blocks across. Sewing two 8s into 16s was fine, but sewing two 16s would not give me 20! So I needed to set aside 10 of the above 4 block units before I stitched my 8s into 16s. The saved 4s would then give me the 20 block rows I required.

Notice how the pair of blocks on each end of the 8 block units are still Vs:

The 8s will be sewn into 16s (with Vs on the ends – this may be repetitive, but there’s a reason – read on 😊):

Once the 4 block units were added, it was time to press. As I made the blocks I consistently pressed the seam allowances in the same direction. If you zoom in to the rows below, you’ll notice all the vertical seam allowances are pressed to the right:

By pressing all the V rows alike I am able to flip every other row to create diamonds, and the seam allowances will butt (kiss and hug) when the rows are sewn together. Proper pressing does make the quilt lay flatter.

I am really enjoying this project and am confident I’ll have a new king sized quilt on my bed before year’s end. Stay tuned 😃!

PS In my last post about this quilt Shellie commented with the question “why bother with the paper when piecing these blocks”. Since you may have missed my reply – I thought I’d share it here:

“I’ve made a quilt where I pieced chunks and strips without a foundation, and then cut them into the proper sized squares. I discovered there was a lot of measuring and fussing to achieve the right size and shape. I found that frustrating. So when Lori told me of this technique I wanted to give it a try. I like the way the size and shape are obvious as I piece, and the angle is kept perfectly.”