CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO: Quilting

February 05, 2014

Quilt As You Go trees

The tree farm quilt is almost all quilted and ready to be bound. It is my first quilt as you go effort and it has been so much fun. I also planned on doing things differently but realized as I was going that you cannot do such and such with this technique... quilt and learn, come out smarter. I went for the narrow sashing method, it is not for every quilt but the more I think about it the less it bugs me. This is definitely the beginning of a great love triangle between the Bernina 580 automatic thread cutter (saves yards of bobbin thread) my walking foot and myself. Such a great combo those two...

Posted at 01:26 PM in Quilting, SEWING | Permalink | Comments (2)

January 29, 2014

a few more blocks

New York beauty block

Why did I ever stop quilting? I remember another blogger, very adept at knitting that one day just decided she had knit enough or anyway blogged about it enough and didn't enjoy it much any longer. Here is her post from 2009. I guess around 2009 this guy little guy took over our lives and quilting became less and less interesting.

his name is trouble

I don't know why suddenly I felt like picking it up again, maybe because I had purged my stash of almost all of it's content or maybe it is the studio Thomas is building for me. Suddenly less was more and I could see all the possibility when before I saw only clutter. Never mind why! It makes me so happy to sew again, to make fabric art again and learn to trust myself with more ambitious projects...

tree farm block 3

Posted at 03:35 PM in FABRIC, Kids, Quilting, SEWING | Permalink | Comments (3)

January 28, 2014

Tree Farm

tree farm quilt block 1

I am starting to believe that when working on an arduous patchwork such as the New York beauty blocks I have been showing here, you sometimes need a slightly more mindless side quilt. Since I have made a solemn vow not to start two new things at the same time but instead to work on a WIP along side something novel while at the same time using only my stash whenever possible (the rules we make for ourselves!), I opened up the box of half square triangle I had sewn ages ago, when thangles and triangle exchanges were all the rage.

After so long I wasn't sure what this project had been about, the pattern was there along with the triangle but no background or trunk fabrics. One of the yardage pieces that has survived many purge is this bolt of Alexander Henry dots. I love it but it goes well with nothing. It took a bit of fiddling but finally a red batik trunk ties it all well together. I hope that keeps true for the other blocks as all the leaves were sewn in solids and greys... more to come no doubt very soon.

The original block pattern is by Edita Sytar of Laundry Basket Quilts. It is called tree farm and many examples can be found on Pinterest.

edited:

and another:

Tree farm quilt block 2

Posted at 12:47 PM in Quilting | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 19, 2014

A few more blocks

I forgot to mention last week that the paper pieced blocks that you are seeing here are part of the Chrismas Pickle pattern. It's a beautiful quilt and I am enjoying working on it so far but It comes with nearly no guidance or instructions. I must have made ten different types of mistakes so far, and have made adjustments along the way. I am really enjoying the automatic cutter in the B580 at the end of all those short seams. It saves me so much clipping and bobbin thread. I do not have the proper 1/4" foot for the wider stitch plate of the 580 (I went from a 5mm machine to a 9mm) but I have been making it work by holding the thread ends when I get started. At first I was using two sewing machines, the 580 to paper piece and the Aurora to sew the 1/4" seams, but I got tired of sewing in two different rooms and ironing the seams in yet another! I now have a great little set up using a 12" ironing board (thrifted new) and a tiny Clover iron (bought eons ago for a class on machine applique) to the left of the B580.

Christmas Pickle quilt

I found that my friend's advice to reduce the stitch length to 1.5mm while paper piecing works equally well when sewing the curves. It's logical that you should get smoother curves if you take tinier steps... It makes them terribly difficult to unpick though, so think twice about which side of the curve goes with what and sew once. Lessons learned!

Christmas Pickle quilt

Posted at 04:35 PM in FABRIC, Quilting, SEWING | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 01, 2011

Where inspiration comes from

I am about to start a new quilt, very very soon. The only thing stopping me right now is the pain in my hand. It's maddening how painful this recovery has been only seeing small improvements each week. I feel pretty bitter and angry about it right now... Anyway, the worst part is cutting the fabric, holding the ruler steady is just not happening but I couldn't resist the immediate appeal of this color combo once it was in my head.

color inspiration

This is the pattern I have in mind, it's very involved and should keep me busy this spring and summer. At least it's the time frame I have in mind. No need to be too optimistic and crash and burn ever so soon. The pattern is from Laundry Basket quilts, it's called tree farm. I like the idea of modernizing traditional patterns. it's very different than the classic geometric modern quilt, which I love too but doesn't seem to have as much 'soul'.

TreeFarmL

The colors will be solids and the prints will be grey. I just need to procure a pack of foundation paper and continue my quest for greys. They are remarkably hard to find locally and I might have to expand my search to the internet. I like Pink Chalk Fabric or etsy, the first has great selection and etsy has fat quarters.

Posted at 08:34 AM in Quilting | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

March 11, 2011

Bones and Cartilage.

I feel I have to explain myself when it comes to the lack of blogging currently (not) taking place, but really all there is to say is: my hand is still injured and that has led me to ruminate way to much about my crafting life...

You tear a ligament and side cartilage and suddenly pining two pieces of fabric becomes so excruciating that you wonder why? oh why?! you ever picked up sewing in the first place.

Today I am trying to avoid the news as since 9/11 I have a tendency to become hysterical/catatonic when faced with the kind of horror and destruction that happened today in Japan. The avoidance tactics led me to complete a quilt top started just before the wrist injury. I am very grateful that my boss didn't decide to fire my useless ass (pardon my French) considering how long it took to get there.

With sore bones I sewed together a skull, and that was completely appropriate.

Posted at 02:14 PM in Quilting | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

November 09, 2010

Posh Tot and a Bolt coupon giveaway.

Here is my new baby (quilt). It's called Posh tot by blue underground studio. I spotted the idea when in Portland while visiting Bolt. The binding is sitting on top.

Posh Tot

This quilt is incredibly fast to sew together, and I think this is the first of many. I have so many idea on how to use this with solids or scraps... You get the idea.

Posh tot

Since I was buying organic fabric at $17 a yard, the good folks of Bolts gave me a 20% off coupon 'for next time'. There isn't going to be a next time for a long long while I imagine so I want to give it away. The rules are simple, you must live in Oregon or Washington and you have until Thanksgiving to make your move. Let me know in the comments if you want to enter your name.

Posted at 01:49 PM in Baby, FABRIC, Quilting | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

September 24, 2010

from start to finish.

Yesterday afternoon a lovely woman contacted me with the intent of taking a sewing class. She was just visiting Salt Lake City for a few days and wanted something productive to do with her time while her husband attended to business matters. I never thought of taking a crafting class while away from home but why not really, I though it was kind of cool so I agreed.

She wanted my help to understand how to take a project from the beginning to the end. I was a little worried about the vastness of the subject matter and while ruminating those coasters came to mind.

Pinwheel coaters

We made these in two hours of collaborative work and I think we were both really happy about how they turned out. It's always a gratifying feeling for a student to have something to take home that requires no more work and can be enjoyed or gifted right away.

Posted at 10:13 AM in Quilting, SEWING | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

August 29, 2010

to business!

I started a new quilt not long ago and have finally come to the sewing part. Cutting this quilt was interesting, it takes 28 fat quarters in pairs and about every square inch of the fat is needed. Make a mistake and you are out a block. Which happened of course, thirty seconds after I declared "I had better pay attention".

Sewing batiks is so relaxing, they don't stretch at all so there is no need to pin anything. I am using a mix of batiks and prints though, so I can't get too complacent. The final quilt should look something like the pattern bellow. The color I chose are so different it made me anxious at first, but now I am just excited. You can find the pattern here.

QD-ACrookedMile-200

Posted at 01:05 PM in Quilting, SEWING | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

January 12, 2010

A Zig-Zag year.

Orangeflower has given me the exact amount of push I needed to make my 'almost Amish quilt' this year. It was in the back of my head and now all that's missing: great solids. lately I have been sort of underwhelmed by printed fabric. There is nothing out there that I just must have on the spot... I wonder if that means I am depressed. What else not wanting any fabric could signify...

Oh well, I could do with solids, lots of them so that's good.

The quilt I chose is pictured bellow, it a representation of Roman Stripes.

DSC_0001_2

I found it in The World of Amish Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman. ISBN 0-934672-22-9. It doesn't come with a pattern unfortunately so I will have to use my brain a little, darn!

If any of you has any experience buying Amish Solids online I would really appreciate your input in the comment section.

I also want to mention that I changed almost all my links to celebrate the new year by actually doing some web maintenance on this old web page. It needs a new banner still, but that is for another day.

Posted at 01:31 PM in Quilting | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO