A weft yarn

Bush Rose : Dolly quilt block : from Material Obsession

I was thrilled to finally get started on the Dolly quilts. They have been slowly collecting into a program of epic proportions.  I am not yet sure what I will do with the blocks or Dollies. Originally, I was thinking that they would just be dolly quilts...but I'm not sure I need dozens and dozens of dolly quilts. I'm wondering now if I can't somehow sew them into a complete quilt. I'll give it some thought as I go. This week's Dolly Quilt is called Bush Rose and is made from beautiful Aboriginal design fabrics from this company.

This little quilt is exactly my kind of thing. I love the pattern, the fabrics and I also enjoyed learning how to sew it together.

You cut rectangles and squares. The small dark squares become the design focal point. The point around which the design rotates.

At first it looked like the small dark squares formed into rows, but then the twirly pattern as well as the rows became apparent. I guess good designs can take on multiple forms as you gaze at them. I also love the way so many fabrics, colours and designs are used but yet the underlying integrity of the images on the  Aboriginal fabric blend together into a new-almost-dot-painting image.

The instructions for how to sew it together had me a bit confused at first. Not because they were confusing. More because I had never done this before, so I didn't have much experience to help me visualise the process. When the instructions said to sew each small dark square to a large square, half way down the seam. I understood it but didn't understand why I would do that. I had laid out the design on the floor of my study/sewing area.

As a way of moving forward, I just started piecing the quilt top together (ignoring that particular instruction) and then after I had sewn the first 12 or so pieces together, I understood the requirement and did as instructed. In the photo below you can see in the top right that I've sewn a block together of about 12 pieces. Below them are a few of the 'two squares sewn together' and below them are the blocks laid out in the orignal pattern.

You can see in the photo below, I've sewn a large block to a small block and sewn half way down the seam. The blocks then need to go back into the design in the correct place so I needed some system to make sure it all made sense now that the two sewn together pieces no longer looked easily recognisable.

I settled on a method. I put the two squares together, one diagonal row at a time. When I finished the row I put it back down on the pattern in the correct order. Then once it came to piecing the whole top together I sort of added a horizontal row at a time. I had photographed the original design and so uploaded it to the computer.

With the image on the computer screen as reference, I placed the partially completed quilt top on the chair next to the computer - looked at the image and then selected the correct '2-squares' from the laid out design on my study floor.

It might sound a bit confusing, and it's obviously not essential that you understand this, I just felt really pleased with the little system I got going to sew it together. It helped me retain the original design and get a bit of a production line thing happening. After I did all this, and the quilt top was done, I thought maybe I should take the advice of both Material Obsessions books, other quilters and the Dolly instructions themselves and look into a design wall. So I could get up off the floor. It wasn't too hard with the dolly sized quilt to be down on the floor, and I was really thrilled how to work out a sewing method that very quickly settled into a pattern, with no mistakes, but perhaps there's an easier way.

I did a bit of reading, looking at blogs and reveiws for products and decided that the quickest solution for me, without heading out of town (either financially or physically) was to hang a flannel sheet on the back of the door. I'll look into a better long term solution later down the track. For now, voila. Two completed dolly quilt tops and miraculously they are about the same size!

Zig Zag : Dolly quilt : from Material Obsession

I made a quilt when I was in high school. It travelled the world with me, was much loved, fell apart and then two years ago, I decided to try making another quilt. So, I did a course, made my Dad a very simple quilt with lots of love and flaws. Then made a cot quilt for a friend's first born, then started a massive quilt for our bed ....then in 2010 signed up for a Block of the Month program at Material Obsession called Dolly quilts. It has now, two years later, morphed into a BOM called Starting Blocks but you can find on the MO website the original dolly quilts as separate one-off purchases (or if you are crazy ....like moi...you stay with the program while it morphs from Dollies to Starting Blocks and you can keep receiving little packages of goodness) .

My early experiences of dipping myself back into the world of quilting was that it was large universe of details and precision and I didn't know where to start. So after I had a couple of goes and realised I had a lot to learn, I put myself on a quilting infusion drip. Material Obsession came within my radar and Kathy's blog is in my blog reader as - let me check..it's either in my Favourites (collection of gardening, crafting, cooking, political blogs) or it's in my Craft - everyday Reads group. OK - everyday reads.

As time has passed, these monthly drips have overflown their storage container and really...I..MUST...DO...SOMETHING...with all these little packages. First cab off the rank - Zig Zag quilt. As part of the Dolly program, because you sign up to dolly programs to learn - make samples etc, you are probably interested in trying new techniques, acquiring patterns, fabrics and tools, rulers and templates. Purchasing the added bits are always optional - but I usually always opted in. This month, we got a Flying Geese ruler.

After much cutting - you position the triangles at odds to each other (that's a technical expression) and then sew them together into rows.

Here you can see my rows laid out on the study floor next to scaleable items. You see it was never mentioned anywhere (I would have ignored it even if it was) what size the finished object Dolly would be. I happen to have two dolly quilts, which were actually used to tuck dolly in...and note the difference? The MO zig zag dolly quilt is about 20 inches square - slightly bigger than a fat quarter. Ah, interesting.

I was rather pleased when I sewed the rows into the block that I managed to keep most (if not all) my triangle points. My first few experiences of patchwork cutting and sewing were more on the 'that's done' side rather than the 'quilting-guild-badge-of-honour-precision-sewing' side. I'm still on the bell curve down on the 'that's done' side but would like to see how far towards 'precision sewing' I can move, without bending myself out of shape. I don't want to win awards, I just want some beautiful objects, something warm on our legs in front of the TV and I want to learn as I go.

If you're interested, I found someone on the interwebs who seems to have made a number of dolly quilts. Back in 2009, she also signed up for Material Obsession's dolly quilt program. She seems to be still blogging, but not so much quilting.

It's always funny reading really old posts...there's quite a story in the link-throughs on that blog. Dolly quilt swaps 1, 2 and 3, unkind words, one quilter pointing out that someone's quilting just "wasn't up to standard of a swap"....ouch. Like many people, I got involved in swaps when I first started reading, and then writing, blogs. To be honest, I found them pressured and anxiety ridden (or is that me?). There were deadlines. There were questions one asked oneself about one's competancy...am I good enough for this? And there was always the odd feeling that even though they said 'thanks ...I love it"` was it really useful or beautiful to them? So, I stopped doing swaps and maybe it's where I read these days, but I don't notice that many these days. Do people still do them? Personally, the bake-along that I did was the most fun, least stressful, kindest group of women to share an activity with. I wish I'd signed up at the beginning instead of the end. But hey, that's life.

Flower garden quilt progress

I have done quite a bit of work on my flower garden quilt. In order to make the quilt top, I needed to cut 144 squares, sew them into 16 9-blocks, then cut them up into 64 blocks. Divide and conquer. I have completed 48 of the required 64, so only another 16 blocks to go. In a fit of excitement, I laid the blocks out on my bed without any particular order or thought going into the layout. I followed a pattern but no thought was given to whether this print looks nice alongside of this print.

The accent fabric is a dark brown and you use the dark brown to determine a pattern. As with all geometry, there are a number of patterns that can be created. It would be hard to discern the pattern from the picture below - nonetheless, there is one. Can you also see the angel? The bright sunlight has cast an interesting shape onto our bed. Namaste.

And then the cats joined me. As you do, when stuff is going on - fabric on the bed. The conversation between the new black boy kitten and the well-loved older girl cat goes like this "I'm new, I love you, bite bite bite". Her answer is hissssss, scat "none of this is necessary. Biting is NOT a sign of love".

A flower garden quilt

In 2010, after making a couple of simple, small quilts, I took another quilt course at my local fabric store that was advertised as a "Divide and Conquer" quilt. Now this kind of a title wouldn't necessarily appeal but the quilt of that name was hanging in the store and I really loved it. It was big, made out of Japanese fabrics (as in Japanese themed fabric) and had a kind of appealing randomness to the pattern.

I decided, given my love of dirt, and that my first, much loved, much treasured, used everyday quilt had a floral orange and brown theme I would make a riff on those themes. So a Flower Garden quilt was born. The pattern of the Divide and Conquer quilt needs an accent fabric and I chose a dark, chocolate brown (from the Japanese fabric range used in the store's quilt). This dark brown fabric isn't actually included in the photos below.

The selection of fabrics for my quilt came from a Sew Mama Sew sampler put together by Hillary Lang (oranges/brown/florals). I actually had picked this out and bought it long before I decided to make this flower garden quilt. And I had purchased a whole swathe of Anna Maria Horner Garden party fabric - again pre-quilt course. I'm fascinated by the way some creative projects seem to come together from serendipity. Two separate purchases, two different times, a Japanese quilt in a fabric store .... but underlying all that serendipity are actually broad themes running through one's creative imagination. Anyway, here's a selection of photos of the fabric laid out on the floor.

They are laid out in 9 patch blocks because that is the start of the whole sewing process.

 

A quilt for a baby - cot quilt

Last year in 2010 some friends of ours were due to have a baby. As I had completed the beginner's quilting course and made a quilt for my father, I decided to try my hand at another quilt. I managed to sew a very simple baby cot quilt - just strips. We knew that our friends were having a baby boy so the colours were easy to select.

I sewed the quilt top together in two short sittings and here it is ironed and ready for the quilting.

I managed to put the walking foot on correctly this time but still, after doing the machine quilting on an even simpler scale than quilt I made for my father, I think I'll be exploring hand quilting for my next project. Perhaps it's my old machine (a Bernina 801 which I love) or it's my technique - either way - I just don't enjoy shoving the three layers of stuff through my machine and ending up with pretty wonky stitching at the end of it. Machine quilting is the only bit of the whole process I haven't enjoyed, so that tells me something. I have decided that my next quilting project will be on a much larger scale.

 

Dad's quilt - Beginners quilt

In High School, many many years ago, in a lived experience far far away, I sewed myself a single bed quilt. This quilt followed me around the world and for thirty odd years (and they were odd) I used it as "watching TV" quilt. It finally fell apart in late 2009. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. After all, it had been my constant companion since I was a teenager. Instead, in 2010 I decided to enter again this interesting world of fabric and comforting blanket type things. The first thing I did was enroll in a course at my local fabric store and begin a very simple lap quilt which I intended for my father, who in his 85th year had of late been feeling the cold. I was thinking of the room that he spent a lot of time in when I choose these colours.

It was a very simple beginners design. Square blocks sewn together into a row with an accent strip and then accent strips sewn to the top of that row and then the rows sewn together. I was quite impatient in my sewing and didn't take a lot of care with accuarcy and lining everything up. I also didn't buy a quarter inch foot until long after I'd finished this quilt. Then, when I started quilting it I put my walking foot on incorrectly. So, all in all, I learned a lot about what not to do. Still, I enjoyed myself and wanted to get better at this quilting thing.

I cut the backing too small and had to add bits to it. I had always intended the backing to look a bit patchworky. I was drawing inspiration from Amy Karol's Bend the rules quilt. But seriously, did it need to look this patchworky?

Anyway, I love my father and I hope it gave him a little bit of warmth on his legs. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get it to him until well after winter - 2010 was a crazy busy year for me. It got there eventually and when the parcel arrived my Dad got on the phone and said thanks for the "laptop", then he laughed at his own joke. He always liked to be up on things, my Dad.