It's mine.

 A quilted block

Rainy days have given me time to work on my "December" machine quilting. So, what do I have to report?

1.  I love the herringbone stitch I used to hand baste this quilt.  See my blog post for details.  It's great not to have to deal with safety pins.  As I'm quilting, all I need to do is clip the basting stitches;  the rest of the basting stitch stays in place until I get there.

Clipping basting stitches

2.  I am quilting with 40 weight Rayon machine embroidery thread which is the same thread I use for all my machine appliqué and I'm using 60 weight Bottom Line thread in my bobbin, matching the color to my top thread.  No tension problems at all.


3.  I had no plans to do this, but I am adding detail stitching and some 'thread painting' to my appliqué motifs.  At the AQS Paducah, Kentucky show this spring, I saw many thread painted quilts which were just beautiful and I stuck this in my "have to try this" memory. Using embroidery thread for thread painting is perfect as it matches my appliqué stitches.

Detail stitching

4.  After detail stitching my appliqués in off white thread,  I'm outline quilting them in dark grey thread and this is going well.  I think after spending so much time drawing and stitching all these designs, I know them by heart and it's easy to go ahead with my quilting, even those teeny circles.

Outline stitching

5.  I really didn't plan this either, but I am creating an interesting stitching design on the back of my quilt.  You will see snowflakes on the front and the back!  My backing fabric is a gorgeous black mottled Stonhenge.

Back of quilt 

6.  And finally:  I don't plan to add a ton of quilting, like tiny filler stitching in the background which is already textured and dark.  The trend in machine quilting seems to be over-the-top, quilt-it-to-death.  

There is still plenty of quilting going on here, but this quilt is really about my appliqué and after all, this is my quilt and I'm going my own way here.  

It's much more fun that way.  

Save me my dragonflies!

Dragonfly Applique

What an explosion of mosquitos in the north woods!  They are in full attack mode, making any outdoor activity a challenge.

But, the dragonflies are here and this morning on my walk they flitted all about me devouring those pesky skeeters.  

The full pattern for this quilt is included in my upcoming book "Nature's Journey Appliqué".

"I Love the Nightlife"

Jane Zillmer

Machine quilting by Lisa Arndt

Basting Away

 December 60" x 60"

This is my newest quilt "December" and the photo is the same as when I last blogged about it.  As you can see, there are no borders.

After many, many hours of consternation and trial and error, including some great ideas from my quilt group, I came up with a border appliqué design and thank goodness, the top is finally finished.  You can see a sneak preview below.  

Since this is not one of my larger quilts, I decided I'd tackle the machine quilting myself.  It has long been my goal to do all my own quilting, but I've never had the courage to tackle those 90" x 90" quilts.  

At this point otherwise, I'd be joyfully handing my quilt top off to my machine quilter.  Let her decide on the quilting design (though I usually had some ideas).  And no layering and basting required on my part!

In the past, I hand quilted most my quilts, so I've done my share of crawling on the floor and pin basting.  You know, it just never seemed right to be working on the floor like that.  Much less how not right the body felt afterward. 

I came upon Sharon Shamber's wonderful video about how to hand baste a quilt of any size while seated at a table.  I followed her instructions step by step and was able to accomplish this at my dining room table.  My herringbone basting stitch is a bit uneven, but  I was trying to avoid stitching on my appliqué motifs.   There are no puckers on the back and no pins to deal with.  I love the way I can smooth the quilt out, whereas with safety pins you can't do this.  It's also so much lighter and easier to handle without all those pins.  And it didn't take any longer to hand baste than it would to pin baste, believe it or not.  

Hand basting "December" in progress

Since starting this quilt,  I've been planning how to quilt it and what quilting designs to use.  With my large and very detailed central appliqués, there isn't space for much quilting but I will be outline stitching in and around all those snowflakes as my first step. 

Sue Nickels' new book: "Fabulous Feathers & Fillers" is wonderful and after reading it, I was able to draw my own feather design for the open spaces in my borders. 

I'm experimenting with different threads on sample sandwiches at this point, and then it's Happy Quilting Time!  

Threading my way....

Detail applique stitching from the quilt "December" using machine embroidery thread.

Happy Monday!  The schools are closed and I'm not going to venture out for my walk.  It's April 15th and it's sleeting, snowing, icy and slushy outside.  I love it!  

Another day to be grounded in my sewing world.  I really do love it. 

My blog today is thread themed, so I'll start with some photos of my thread stash:

Threads at hand - always ready.

More thread.  

But, do I ever actually USE all these threads?  Yes, I really do.  

1.  Machine appliqué top threads:  I always use #40 rayon or polyester machine embroidery thread.   I love the way it sort of melts into the fabric, the colors blend well and the stitches are noticeable due to the sheen of the thread.  It's important to closely match thread to fabric in my appliqué, so a large selection of colors is important.  I don't have a favorite brand.  Quilt show vendors often have collections of these threads at reduced prices

2.  Machine appliqué bobbin thread:  I use #60 The Bottom Line by Superior Threads in a neutral color.  It never messes up my top thread tension as long as I thread the bobbin thread through the eye of my bobbin case.  A large spool lasts a long time and a large amount fits on each bobbin.  If you are someone who worries about how the back of your project looks, this thread just blends right in and you barely see it.

3.  Hand stitching:  For bindings, The Bottom Line is very nice as your stitches will really be invisible.  It takes quite a bit longer for me to hand stitch with this thread as it's so fine!  If I'm hand stitching something like a sleeve or label, I often use my old collection of Coats and Clarks Dual Duty.  It doesn't tangle and I still have many colors.  Remember when that's all we used for almost all sewing?  Hand quilting thread actually works well too.  For actual hand quilting, I prefer #12 Perle Cotton and use a modified big stitch. 

4.  Piecing:  I love #50 cotton thread,  any number of the better brands.  I match these threads to the fabric - though not as closely as I do with my appliqué.  Dark grey thread will blend very nicely with dark blue fabric for example.  

5.  Machine quilting:  Ah, here I vary quite a bit.  Maybe because I love experimenting, but also because I can!  #40 embroidery threads look wonderful if I really want the quilting to show.  Very fine threads like The Bottom Line or even #100 Invisafil are very forgiving and don't show mistakes and are great for outline stitching and detail quilting.  I haven't tried silk thread (also very fine) and I'm working my way up to that.  I've also used #30 So Fine by Superior Threads for very bold quilting designs.  

6.  Other:  I have some metallics and invisible threads but rarely use them.  But I still keep them.  I just don't throw out thread.  

Machine quilting with #40 machine embroidery thread.

Hand quilting with Perle Cotton.  I'm on my last block!

One last note about my thread stash and all of my sewing and quilting supplies and fabric collections:  I AM NOT A HOARDER.  I have heard this term used to describe those of us who collect and store all these beautiful and useful items.

I guess it's a term thrown around these days since that awful reality TV show has become so popular.  (how can anyone stand to watch it?) 

Anyway, if anyone ever told me that personally, I would show them my needle stash!   

More Snowflakes

Snowflake Block #9

Just in case anyone thinks I've been brainwashed and won over by The Modern Quilt movement, I thought I'd reassure all that I'm still traditional Plain Jane, working away at what I always do.  Sometimes though, a diversion is nice, and I might just do it again... make a modern quilt that is.

When I last blogged about my newest quilt December, I had finished 8 of my snowflake blocks and was working on #9.  I had a partial design going, sort of based on icicles.  At one point,  it just came together and has actually taken center stage on this quilt. 

December

Now it's back to the drawing board and I'm working on the border design.  This always takes me quite a while.  My quilt groups have supplied some great ideas and eventually, I'll know when I have the right design worked out.  

Until then, this quilt is under wraps and I won't be showing photos until it's finished.  Hopefully, winter will be over by the time it's done!

And now, I'm out the door to take my morning walk (by the way, it's 3 below zero out there and more snowflakes are in the forecast).  

Jane makes a Modern Quilt

After I wrote a review on my blog about the McCall's ebook:  (Click here for a free copy), I just had to try making one of the quilts.  

To read my review click here.

I pulled fabrics from my stash in colors that I like and started cutting, but quickly realized my background fabric choice did not fit the design mode of a modern quilt.  See the bottom fabric below;  the print is much to busy.

I found a linen look fabric at my local quilt shop which worked very well and kept the look of a modern quilt. At first I thought I might add borders and of course, appliqué.  But, no to both.  The top is finished.  I'll have some fun next exploring how to quilt a modern quilt.   

My quilt does still look quite different from the photo sample in the ebook.  I will say it was fun to make.  It's been a while since I cut and pieced a quilt anything like it.  

Leo snoozing on my chosen fabrics

Paducah, Kentucky = Spring

Ah.... spring. It's nearly that time of year again.  According to the calendar, spring begins in 10 days.  Looking out of my window at a very snowy day, it seems months away.

But really, for me, spring means the annual American Quilter's Society show in Paducah, Kentucky held  the last week in April each year. 

This year marks my 10th trip to the show which I always attend  with my sister.  I get to  stay with her and her hubby at their wonderful home not far from Paducah.  I call it my personal B&B and have a standing reservation there!  Could any quilter be luckier?  And this year, to make it even more special, my daughter Katy will be going with me.  

I've had  eight of my quilts juried into this show, the first one in 2007.  Seeing  my quilts displayed among all the other masterpieces makes the show even more fun for me.

This year's entries:

Oh, Mexico Beach 85" x 85"

Carla Rose and Katy Marie 60" x 60"

Machine Quilting

The weekend found me in the mood to work on my machine quilting.  I know, it's a Christmas quilt and not in any immediate need of being finished, but it is on my UFO Bucket List.  And, I like to rotate between projects, depending on my mood.

Crimson Tweed. Pattern by Sue Spargo

For some reason when working on this quilt, I preferred not to use my Bernina Basic Stitch Regulator and instead I used  quilting foot #9.  I set my stitch length and width at zero and did not lower the feed dogs.  With this closed toe foot, I was able to easily stitch very closely to my wool appliqués without the foot getting caught on them.  

You will notice that I did not add any quilting to the actual appliqués in this quilt as one might normally do.  I decided to "respect the wool" and my hand stitching (love those French knots)  and leave the appliqués  alone!

Bernina #9 quilting foot

Close up of machine quilting.

Yup, more machine quilting.

I also tackled 2 of the borders and spent quite some time doodling on paper to come up with a design.   The hardest part of machine quilting for me is still the design part.  With this border  stitching plan, I didn't need to double stitch over my blue border ditch quilting at all but instead made my turns in the batting and fabric edge.

Sketching out quilting design ideas for border.

Marking border quilting lines.

The top and right side border quilting is up next.  Since they are appliquéd, they will need a different quilting design after outline stitching.  But... today it's back to my snowflake quilt.  Crimson Tweed goes back into UFO land for now.

Bottom border quilting.

Rounding Number Nine

Picnic anyone?

Summer is right around the corner!

Well, not exactly.  Days are longer, temperature are warmer, but we are still immersed in winter here in northern Wisconsin.  

Perfect time to work on my winter quilt and I've finished designing and fusing 8 out of 9 total snowflake blocks.  Here they are:

Snowflakes 1 - 4

Snowflakes 5-8

I've been stuck on block #9:  "drawer's block?"  So, I  just let it sit there and look at me. By the way, a friend recently told me she thought that I draw my appliqués using my computer program, but no I actually draw everything on paper.  These snowflakes are all my original designs, using botanical and outdoor elements for the details. 

This is a "rough draft" of block #9.  I fused, cut and placed these pieces, and after staring at them for a couple of weeks now, I finally realize what they look like:  icicles!  I've never seen so many icicles on the eaves and everywhere as I have this year;  I guess they just showed up in fabric too!

Block #9 in progress

To complete the design, I thought I'd draw tree branches with snow using the next photo as inspiration.

Leo immersed in wintry fabric.

By the way, my shore birds quilt did not win an award at the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival.  I'm still waiting to hear if it's been juried into the Paducah Ky, 2013 show.  

Modern Quilt Patterns ebook review

Today I'm writing a review about an ebook publication from McCalls' Quilting and McCall's Quick Quilts:  "Modern Quilt Patterns."

This neat little book is available free for anyone. For your copy CLICK HERE.

My first impression of this book was FUN and FRESH.  The modern quilt movement is definitely here to stay, and I've been curious about it myself.  The designs are based on traditional blocks and patterns but the quilts themselves are updated and modern looking.  New, bright and colorful fabrics,  asymmetrical layouts and simple free motion quilting designs are what make modern quilts stand out.  

"Modern Quilt Patterns"  includes 3 projects.  Each quilt is featured as a full color photo with very easy to follow directions for planning, cutting and piecing.  The assembly diagrams, also in full color, are great.  

Baubles and Beads is a bed quilt made up of simple pieced blocks.  Rainbow Rhythm has a very striking color design layout and it is pieced with traditional half square triangles.  And Lemon Squeezy (easy-peasy) is made up of strips, using free form piecing techniques.  Quilt as you go instructions for this quilt are included.  

After reading this book and studying the quilts, I was inspired to give modern quilting a try.  The Rainbow Rhythm quilt project is on my cutting table. I admit to choosing more traditional colors and fabrics, and there may be some appliqué added but, it will still be FUN and FRESH.

Log Cabin ebook update

Since writing a review on my blog about the above Fons and Porter ebook, I learned from the publisher that there are some errors in that copy.

Click here for a link to my blog post. 

Click here for a link to the revised copy.

This bring up an interesting point.  Over the years, I have occasionally found patterns which contain errors - usually in cutting measurements.  I also know that publishers will have corrections posted on their websites.  

One thing I always  do when working from a pattern - my own included -  is to make a sample block and check  it for accuracy.  Lets say you need to cut and piece 50 blocks;  wouldn't you rather discover an error on block number 1?  I also double check instructions before cutting larger pieces, such as borders.  

I edit my own patterns many times. For my book, I had a very astute, perfectionistic quilter edit all my math and measurements.  She found ONE tiny discrepancy.  Even so, I still encourage anyone using my patterns to do the same:  make one sample block before cutting all of them.

Happy quilting and stay tuned for another ebook review on Modern Quilts from McCall's patterns.  

Just a little tip

 A neat little sculpture of nature.

I've been wanting to add this photo to my blog for a long time.  It's just a piece of bark I found on my walk one day, but those tiny perfect holes were what caught my eye.  They were created by a tiny perfect beak from some wonderful bird.

My post today is about a different tiny "eye";  this one in my Bernina bobbin case.  I learned long ago that to achieve perfect tension when doing appliqué stitching, one must run your bobbin thread through this eye.  No other tension adjustments need to be made.

Bobbin threaded correctly through eye in case.

Yesterday, I was stitching away doing my appliqué and had major problems with tension.  My seam ripper really got a workout!  I could NOT figure it out, until finally a light bulb went on in my head;  sure enough, I had forgotten to thread my bobbin through that eye, something I usually do without thinking.  

So, that's my little tip for the day.  

More snowflakes!

Snowflake blocks in progress.

While the snow falls outside and the temperature dips well below zero, Jane is making progress on her snowflake quilt inside!   

I spent hours yesterday designing Block #5 (front left partial layout), drawing and erasing until I was happy with it.  

Sketching, cutting donut holes in fusible.

I'm designing one block at a time, and in between I machine stitch the appliqués. 

Leo visits me in my sewing room several times a day and I usually stop and play with him.  If things sound really exciting, his sister Lily will join us.  But yesterday, so intent on my drawing, I ignored him.  Later, when I had Block #5 laid out in pieces on the floor, he snuck in and completely messed it up.  I deserved that.

 Leo loves fabric too!

Thinking outside appliqué

Wallhanging 9 1/2" x 23"

I just finished a small wallhanging using patterns from the book "3D Folded Blocks"  AQS books.  

This was a fun project and forced me to think outside my comfort zone (appliqué, appliqué, appliqué) and to try something I've never done before.  These traditional blocks are actually created by fabric folding; sort of like doing origami.  Once finished, I machine quilted the wallhanging using my walking foot and simple, geometric stitching lines.

Close up of 3D folded blocks

Easy hanging method

Instead of a hanging sleeve, I stitched 3" folded corner triangles to the back top side of the quilt just before adding the binding.  A narrow, flat wooden strip cut to size is slipped inside the triangles, and then I attached a small picture hanging hook.

Finished wallhanging hung on guest bathroom wall.

Opposite wall of bathroom with my color inspiration for wallhanging. 

Out of the Ordinary

 Detail "Oh, Mexico Beach"

2012 Jane Zillmer

To rev up some quilt excitement (winter gets long here in the Northwoods), I've entered this quilt in the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA .  This is a juried and judged show with great cash awards.

The show's theme is "Out of the Ordinary" and there is a separate award for best theme interpretation. A statement needs to be included in the application about how your art and specifically this quilt entry allows you to "escape the ordinary and enter the realm of extraordinary."  

Here's what I wrote about my quilt (approved by Katy my journalist daughter):

 

Designing a quilt starts with inspiration from the ordinary world around me; a passing idea or a thought is transformed into a lasting memento, something extraordinary.

Our many family vacations spent in Mexico Beach, Florida are now but a memory.  Here, in my quilt “Oh, Mexico Beach”, the most beautiful shore birds, the white sandy beaches, the aqua and bright blue waves of the Gulf of Mexico, bubbles and seaweed are all right there and I’m back on that beach with my family.