Mini quilt challenge entry- Shaaarrk!

I made this mini quilt in response to the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge from Ellison Lane Quilts. It measures 19" x 21.5" and is super cool.


I have wanted to try making a reverse applique quilt with patchwork ever since I saw this amazing quilt from Dan at Piece and Press. I knew it would take many tries to pull off an amazing piece like this, so I wanted to get trying! I love sharks and worked in shark research for a summer in college, so I knew what animal I had to make. They are as old as dinosaurs, so the connection was complete.

I made the grey patchwork square first, and loved the way it looked all on its own, but I forged on. I took out my shark books and found some pictures I liked, then drew them only as lines to see how well they would translate to patchwork. I picked this shape because I thought the plain side view was not graphically interesting enough. It is a little played out, in other words.

I loved the shark after I cut it out, but it was clear I needed to add the eye and the mouth and nose lines for the applique to read as a shark. So this is really a skill builder for me. I almost called in my sister but resisted.

Then I quilted on some wave lines to look like water, which I am pretty pleased with. I tried variegated blue thread thinking it would look cool, but it just got lost in the blue fabric, so white it is.

Overall, good lessons, fun time making it, and a nice piece for my shark loving household. Case in point: my toddler identifies the size of his bites relative to shark species and their size,
i.e. a lemon shark bite < tiger shark bite < megalodon bite.

Yes, we are bio (and shark) nerds. Love it.

Linking up...

A wabi heart mini quilt- my first tutorial

This tutorial is to make a reverse appliqued heart mini quilt, with raw edges. I finished mine in about 3.5 hours, even doing the design work, fabric picking and photos.

This project is for you if you want a break from precision quilting and sewing, if you need to make something quickly for a certain holiday, and if pink and red are not your valentine's most favorite colors.

I love it for some of these factors, but mostly for the wabi factor of it: an interpretation of a Japanese aesthetic embracing the beauty in irregular, organic work with the process evident. I posted a bit about this yesterday. Okay, enough background. Here we go!

(As I mentioned, this is my first tutorial, so please let me know if something is unclear or doesn't work in practice. I will edit to fix as needed.)

Finished size: 21.5" x 21"
All seam allowances 1/4"- or close
Fabric needs: 
This project is perfect for scraps, which is all I used, all stuff I pulled from my stash and none larger than 22" x 22".
For the strips: 6 pieces, minimum 19" long and 1.5" high. (You could use 12 for less repetition.)
For the square to sew strips to: 14" x 14" (I used natural muslin here and for front piece)
For the overlaying front piece: 21" x 21"
For backing: 22" x 22"
For binding: 1.5" strips to get 85" in length (generous)

Assembly:

1. Sew your 6 strips together for the heart piece on the long side, right sides together, and press. I auditioned several arrangements and then changed my mind on the fly. Its part of the project! Embrace it.

2. Once assembled, cut from the short side into 1" strips (there is a little leeway in the 19" so you can mess up). This way you end up with strips of little blocks of each fabric.

3. Arrange your strips with small variations in height to approximate a heart shape: 11 strips make up the main part, and 7 below add extra length to the middle strips to make a decent heart. To make the top, I placed 1 strip in the center, then added to the sides, stepping up and then back down more steeply at the far sides. 

4. Sew each of the bottom 7 strips to the 7 strips above them to get the extra length. Press.

5. Pin your strips in their arrangement to your 14" x 14" muslin square. Sew in place, using straight lines 1/4" from the long side of each strip. Or really, however you would like it to look. Sew once down the middle! Or three in each strip!

6. Now you are ready to place the 22" x 22" muslin square on top of the pieced strips. I sketched a rough heart at this point to place my pins, since we will be sewing in a heart shape, and I do best with multiple guidelines. Plus, it helps to make sure you keep your heart over the pieced strips and don't stray too much. Pin in place. 

7. Sew a heart shape to piece your muslin squares together. I sewed mine 5 times, once in white thread and 4 in yellow/brown variegated thread, making sure to cross lines and sew at different distances to create a sketchy look.

8. Cut out inside the sewn lines to show the pieced heart.

9. Square up your muslin as needed.

10. Make your quilt sandwich with backing, batting and top. Baste.

11. Quilt, roughly following the heart shape at different distances and keeping the sketchy-look end product in mind as in step 7. I also did a line about 2" from each edge, and some random lines in the top right corner. Again, whatever looks right to you. 

12. Trim up and square as needed.

13. Place and sew the binding. I did a single fold raw-edge binding (which is why it seems so small) to keep with the wabi look. Fold your 1.5" strips in half and press, then begin placing in the center of the bottom. When you come to the corner, you can still do the mitered edge look by just moving your strip over to the next edge and coaxing the fold nice and flat. I sewed close to the raw edge, more like a finishing stitch than a 1/4" binding stitch. So simple though- one line to sew, and you're done!

When I came to the point where I would join the strips at the bottom, I just laid them on top of each other and sewed them down as above.

All done! It really does sew up quick. Here are some more finished shots, emphasizing the imperfect but nevertheless pretty aspects of the quilt:

Let me know if you make it- I would love to know if this makes enough sense and see someone else's!

I Heart February post- a preview of my first tutorial!

I could not resist making a Valentine's Day related project, especially after I spied a fun linky and contest over at Pink Chalk Studio's blog, and a contest for a tutorial over at Sew Mama Sew. So I whipped up this heart hanging. I hope I will get my first tutorial written for it later this week. Edited to add: here is the link for the tutorial!

First off, I have been doing some reading on Zen and also on architecture- I know, bear with me. The book was called The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. In the very last bit, he writes about the Japanese concept of beauty and transience called wabi-sabi. (With apologies to any Japanese readers or scholars- I will misconstrue this, but only to the best of my abilities and intentions). The idea is that our ideas of beauty lie largely in perfection, while wabi-sabi is more about appreciating the beauty in asymmetry, organic, irregular objects or activities. Thus, the idea for this project was born and executed.

The whole aesthetic of this project is to embrace the raw, rough parts of fabric and sewing and take a break from the measured, perfect angles that quilting often takes. For me, it is a psychological break from my usual sewing room thinking.

It is a lot of sketchy sewing without much regard to linearity or spacing, though it is hard not to think of those things after sewing so long.

I laid down the strips with raw edges and sewed two lines down each pieced strip to secure them down. Then I reverse appliqued the heart shape on natural muslin.

This is one of the particularly rough sewed areas, and you may be just able to see the strips under the muslin layer.

I only did a single 1.5" strip for binding and left raw edges on both sides, as well as at this joint of the binding.

The top edge, where I did some organic lines but did not like the way they looked enough to continue.

A closer view of the reverse applique stitches, in variegated thread.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to Pink Chalk...http://pinkchalkstudio.com/blog/2012/01/31/i-heart-february/

And Canoe Ridge Creations...

WIP Wednesday- stacks and scraps

Stacks for Sparkle Punch QAL

A block that makes it look like i am doing more than cutting and stacking fabric

 Scrap blocks- tiny bits, log cabin-ish and strips

 Closer view of the little bits block

Not feeling very wordy today, because I am under the weather, but wanted to share!

Zig Zag baby quilt

So I find myself tonight listening to the monitor, waiting for my son to fall asleep, my husband downstairs studying, and me without much to do. My sewing stuff is in the basement and it is cold down there, and apparently my machine is loud and the sound really carries. Plus, I like music on when I am sewing, and Kanye coming through the vents is not conducive to my husband's concentration.  He suggested I write a blog post, but I have not much photogenic progress going on, just plugging along piecing my Sparkle Punch quilt...
Ah, yes! I never wrote a post about a quilt I made for my friend and co-worker's baby! And it is a missing link on my newly created Quilt Gallery page on this blog. A topic- success!

Back at my old, pre-baby job as a vet tech in a specialty surgery practice, I made an excellent friend who was having a baby. Well, this was before I got pregnant with my baby, and I was jealous. Three months later, I got over that (because I got a positive test, and the good hormones were raging) and I decided to make her a baby quilt.
I wanted to make a zig zag quilt, and to make things complicated I asked our coworkers if they wanted to each contribute a bit of fabric to make it, and then we would present it as a gift from all of us. My only guidelines were to get fabric in her nursery colors, brown and green. Then I got the fabric, and things got complicated. It was hard to make things look nice with that eclectic mix! Here I am trying out a layout- all one fabric, or all mixed up?

All mixed up, of course! Readers will know that I do love a crazy, wonky, lots-going-on quilt. And that I am really not skilled at taking good photos of my quilts! See below as evidence...

But you get the idea. I hope. I quilted in two different colors following the zig zag pattern, but not evenly spacing them, and doubled up some very close to the adjacent line. The binding was my first print binding- I had no other non-brown in any appreciable amount. But I love the look of it. The back is simply the brown on white print from the blocks. And I did not measure it, but is that really important? It's baby crib sized.
Can you believe I am a scientist at heart, who works in exactitude and vigilant record-keeping? Naw, me neither. This is my fun time hobby!

WIP Wednesday: Bit by bit

Work in Progress Wednesday! I have some fun stuff to show for my work this week:
(and have been working on the blog too- new quilt gallery page!)


Ongoing projects:
Blocks for the Sparkle Punch QAL at Oh, Frannson!
These are nice and easy to punch out about 6 whole star blocks a day, but I am antsy to put them all together and see what they look like!


Scrap attack quilt blocks
(Thanks everyone for the encouragement to keep going last week!)

No progress:
Cutting for the Sparkle QAL (I am planning on the mini size)
Name tag for Portland Modern Quilt Guild Feb meeting

Completed or new projects:
None!