Baptist Fan Quilting

As of this moment I don't even know why I'm trying to post on my blog.  For some reason all of my photos have disappeared.  Wonder what's up with that.  Hopefully, this little problem will go away on its own.  And that later I'll read this post and wonder what I was talking about.  Hopefully.

Anyway,  here is my finished Heart Quilt.  I love the way it turned out, especially the Baptist Fan quilting.  This was my practice piece for making a template, drawing the fans, then quilting them.  Whoo hoo it turned out okay.

Mini Heart Quilt with Baptist Fan Quilting

So far, so good. I can see the picture right now. Wonder if it will post to the blog?  

Back of quilt.

Close up.

In the close up it is apparent what the problem is with this little quilt.  The reds bled! Darn it!  I am so terribly disappointed.  I always pre-wash all of my fabrics before they go into my sewing room.  So I was pretty confident that they would be okay.  Nope, not to be.  And it wasn't just one of them either.  So when someone tells you that these new "quilt shop" fabrics are better than ever - be skeptical.  Because yes, it was some of the quilt shop fabric that did this dirty deed.  Oh, well.  My last post on this was that the border was wonky so I was going to use it as a practice piece.  It certainly worked well for that.  Now I'm confident that I can do the Baptist Fan quilting on something else.

I'll share again that the quilt pattern came from the Temecula Quilt Company and I found the terrific Baptist Fan tutorial here at Victoria Findlay Wolfe's blog.  Her tutorial is great.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Of course, the lack of pictures was my fault. Yesterday I had changed my settings in Picasa Web Album and it blocked everyone from seeing my pictures.  Fixed it.

Thank Goodness I'm A Morning Person

Thank goodness I'm a morning person.  The older I get the earlier I wake up.  I've heard that comes with age.  This getting old is for the birds.  This morning it was 4:15.  That gave me an extra hour and 45 minutes to do something.  So of course I sewed.

I finished up the 12" star in a star blocks with the neutral centers.
 

There was also some more cutting done.  I have the different sizes for the snails trail blocks pinned to my design wall.  It's more of a clutter wall then anything else.  I can see at least three things in the picture above that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this quilt. And I'm not really sure that cutting at 4:15 in the morning is something I should be doing.

This picture is actually my sewing table.  And yes all of those stacks stay right where they are when I'm sewing and cutting.  Every once in a while I'll drag a few pieces off a stack and then have to figure out which one they came from.  There are 2", 3", 3 1/2", 3 7/8" and 3 1/2 x 6 1/2".  Oh, and that is times two for the neutral and blues.  This quilt has a lot of different sizes.  So when I cut something I start with the largest size which is 6 7/8 and work my way down and just add to each stack.  It is controlled chaos :)

Well the clock has struck 8:00 and then some so it's time to start my workday.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Sewing Along

Still working on my Shakespeare in the Park.  I'm sure I'll be on it for a while.  Lots of measuring, cutting and sewing.

I now have just the these three 12" blocks done.  Also the 24 stars that are 6" with the neutral in the center.  Still need 24 with blue centers and a lot of the 12" blocks.  I'm glad the picture shows the circular motion in the blocks on the left.  Because just looking at them on my table it isn't quite as apparent.

I've also been enjoying having some Canadian Geese out my office window. They were here last year and I'm assuming it is the same group that is back again.  Not a great picture with the reflection.
Right now all of that grass is covered in yucky white stuff. Snow.  Wonder what that thing is laying in the road?

Happy sewing,

Julie

Oops

One thing that was not very apparent to me when I was sewing yesterday was that I had put neutral corners on these star blocks.  Oops.  For this set they needed to be the blue corners.

Those corners are wrong.

So after a lot of unsewing and resewing.  I finally got 10 star blocks done.  That should teach me to be a little more careful when I'm sewing at 5:00 in the morning.  But I have no doubt that this or something very much like it will occur again. 

I love these blocks:)

Julie

New Project

Well instead of finishing something I've again started on a new project.   Piecing a new top.  It busies my mind and my hands.  It makes me use my creative side.  It makes me happy.  Guess I try to justify it to myself more than anyone else.

For several years I have wanted to make Shakespeare in the Park. And I guess now is the time.

I don't really care for the directions in the book so I found a 6" star block that I have already made to give me the measurements for the inner star.  I'll have to work a little harder to figure the outer part.  If you biggie size the picture you can see how the larger blocks are a star in a star.  This pattern is in Judy Martin's book - The Creative Pattern book.  What I don't like about the directions is that you have to cut EVERYTHING out at one time.  You can't tell what is for the star blocks and what is for the alternate blocks from the cutting directions.  So I pulled out my sticky notes, my hi-liters, crossed my fingers and started figuring out what I needed.  The fabrics are from my precut bins.  There is a whole lot more mess than this though. And I need a lot more fabric than what is precut.

This is as far as I have made it.  From the picture they look a lot like flying geese and I guess they are.  But there is a little more work than that.  I'll need 24 with this light background and 24 that have a blue background.  And then of course make some of them into the larger star in a star. 

I did finish the little red and white heart quilt.  It turned out great.  And then I washed it.  And then it wasn't so great anymore.  Even though I had pre-washed all of my fabrics some of the reds still bled.  I have bought some stuff to soak it in and hope that works.

Julie

Oh, my!

One thing I like to do on the internet is to Google something quilty I want to look at.  For instance I might Google Shoo Fly quilts.  Then Google takes me to a list to choose from.  One thing that comes up in the list is "images of Shoo Fly quilts".  And there are literally hundreds of pictures that come from various places in the internet.  You can click on the picture and it will take you to the blog or site where the picture is found.  It is a good way to get some inspiration for a block or pattern I'm thinking about working on.

This morning I Googled Baptist Fan quilting tutorials.  I am still looking for a simple way to do freehand Baptist Fan quilting.  Imagine my surprise, or horror rather, when one of my own images came up.  This is the first time it has ever happened.  There was a feeling of awe at knowing how large and yet how small the internet is.  But the horror came when of all the pictures I have posted on my blog - the picture that came up was this one:

Practice Quilting

My scrap sample of my own Baptist Fan quilting.  Yes, this exact picture.  the one that starts in ecru thread and ends with red.  The one that has a hole in the fabric on the left hand side.  The one that has other practice quilting under the Baptist Fan practice.  And now by posting another picture it may come up yet again.  The picture above has an added caption that reads "practice quilting".  Wish the first one had said that.

Anyway.  Yippee one of my images came up in a Google search.  Oh, my.  Did it have to be that one.

You can bet that my practice pieces will be much prettier in the future.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Design Wall Monday

This weekend I worked at finishing up my Heart Table Topper. You can find this pattern at the Temecula Quilt Company .  This was a fun "little" quilt to make.  But by the time my border didn't fit quite right I was not liking it quite so much.

Overall it looks just fine.  But if you were to call out the quilt police and inspect it you would find that I used the chop and fit method for my border.  The worst of it being in the upper right hand side.  So I have decided to use it as my first actual piece for my Baptist Fan quilting.

This is my practice piece for Baptist Fan quilting.  Happy little monkeys.  This is a scrap sandwich I've been using for more than a year.  When I start quilting something I pull this out and take a few stitches to make sure my tension is right.  So it was what I went to when I wanted to try out a freehand Baptist Fan design.  I think it turned out great.  The only part I question is the very center where I ended at.  After starting with ecru thread it finally dawned on me to change to red so I could actually see what I was doing.  There is a terrific tutorial on Bonnie Hunter's blog on how to do Freehand Baptist Fans while hand quilting.  So I just used that with my sewing machine quilting.  I started like Bonnie suggested by drawing it out on paper. That really helped.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to giving it a try on something besides my my little monkeys.

So this is pinned and ready to be quilted (used as a guinea pig).  Now to get the courage to start.  And if needed, the patience to rip out.  Naaaahhhh

I'm linking up today with Judy over at Patchwork Times.  So head over there to see lots of great projects people are working on.

Julie