adventures of a quilting diva

Just when you finally set your fabrics down to go mop the floors, along comes a cleaner that tempts you back to the studio … not to work, but to play.

Meet CitraSolv, natural cleaner, degreaser, and fabulous fabric photo transfer solution. I’m sure that CitraSolv is a very effective cleaner, I’m just too busy having fun with photo fabric transfers to find out.

Here’s Maneki Neko, my first CitraSolv experiment (and another Dear Diary 2010 block).

After transferring the black and white image to fabric with CitraSolv, I added a dash of color with Tsukineko All-Purpose Inks and finished it off with machine stitching and hand sashiko. Check out the CitraSolv Artist Site for inspiration and how-to’s. I was too excited to stop and take step-by-step photos, but that’s OK, CitraSolv has some great tutorials.

I’ve transferred some images onto some solid color fabrics and will be doing some bleach discharge dyeing on those, so you can look forward to photos of more CitraSolv experiments in the very near future.

Until then, happy quilting! ^_^

I’m working on a few blocks for my guild’s Opportunity Quilt and they have to be Perfect with a capital P. So here’s #1 of 4.

I’m afraid that I probably should have gone counter-clockwise, so all that sparkly perfection may be in vain. I’m holding off on making a date with Mr. Seam Ripper, as well as sewing any more blocks until I have confirmed which direction the logs should be spinning. Either way, it’s a beauty to behold. Just wait until I have a photo of the completed technicolor king size quilt with pillow shams to show you!

Here’s my version of a Log Cabin block, stress-free style. The last red log wanted to go on the other side, so of course I obliged. (How could I refuse?) This one’s for my Dear Diary 2010 quilt, but it would be fun to do a whole quilt of these mixed up Log Cabins.

happy piecing! ^_^

Last week I took a sashiko workshop from Nancy Ota. I’ve always wanted to learn to do sashiko properly, and I’m so glad I did. Nancy is a wonderful teacher and a fabulous quilt artist as well. Here are my results from the last couple of days:

Chidori-Tsunagi, 6″

Mashu-Zashi, 6″

Asa-no-ha, 6″

That last one is on pre-printed fabric (I’ve only just begun, my stitching is the lighter part in the upper left corner), the other two are drafted with a white pencil. Following the stitching lines on the pre-printed fabric is good practice, I’m getting better at the tiny stitches in the centers. I think I prefer drafting to pre-printed though. When you draft them yourself you can draw the designs any size you wish and you can be more free with your stitch length and placement. These blocks are going to eventually become part of a sashiko sampler when I’ve finished enough of them.

Here’s a necklace I made with my Fast, Fun & Easy Cover Button Jewelry techniques by stitching on the pre-printed Asa-no-ha fabric. That’s a 1-7/8″ button.

4″ Dear Diary block made with my sashiko practice piece

and another 4″ Dear Diary block using up the rest of my practice stitches.

Sashiko is a great take-along project. You don’t need a hoop or complicated equipment. I’d like to try sashiko quilting on my painted Spring quilt top, but I didn’t use any fabric paint medium in the acrylics so it’s not going to be the most needle-friendly quilt top I’ve ever made. Maybe I could limit the sashiko to the upper part of the center panel where there’s not much paint and machine quilt the rest. For now though, I’m just going to continue with my sashiko sampler blocks.

“Measure twice, cut once” is good advice for many folk, from carpenters to quilters, but every once in awhile it’s nice to forget about the math and just start sewing fabric pieces together.

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Last night I was making a blue block for my Dear Diary quilt. Here is the design I pictured in my head. Actually it was originally more like 12 small squares and one large square, but I got tired of cutting and searching for that many blue fabrics so I changed it to the 4 small squares and 3 large squares shown in this illustration:

I didn’t feel like doing the math or the measurements either, so I simply guesstimated and moved to the machine to sew the pieces together. It quickly became apparent that the block wasn’t going to be big enough and it wasn’t even going to be square! Rather than start all over again I found a rectangle of polka dotted blue in my scrap box which was coincidentally exactly the size I needed and cut the cloud fabric to fit.

Here’s what I ended up with (the actual block):

I like the carefree feel of the finished block, and I love the mystery of piecing scraps together, not knowing exactly how the block will turn out till it reaches the desired size. Bonus: No stress over doing it right. Anything goes here!

Try piecing fabric scraps together sometime when you need to relax. Or sew a handful of pieces together as a warm-up before your regular quilt-making session. At the very least you’ll be warmed-up and ready to go, but you might also end up with a charming quilt top as well.

Still making a block a day for my Dear Diary 2010 quilt. (I’ve got 33 blocks now! See a few recent blocks below.) For a couple of days I fell into satin stitched applique. I didn’t mean to … it just happened.

Satin stitching is one of those techniques I just don’t do. Too much stress, too much hassle, too much thread to cut out when things go wrong. I’m more of a blanket stitch kind of gal.

Unfortunately the fabrics I chose for this little blue mushroom didn’t have as much contrast as I’d imagined they should. So it was either make an entirely new block from scratch or attempt to save the day with some satin stitching in bright blue rayon.

Not bad for a satin-stitch-a-phobe. I could definitely try this again. Maybe someday I’ll even make an entirely satin stitched applique quilt.

So the very next day I did. I had a sample of Glide Trilobal Polyester thread from Fil-Tec Bobbin Central that I’d been saving to try out on a mini quilt top.

As you can see on the cloud applique, it satin stitches beautifully. Notice the tight curves and inside points of the cloud. (These are 4-inch blocks.) I LOVE that even though I stacked up quite a bit of thread to cover the corners and curves, this thread was fine enough that it didn’t jam up or get caught in the feed dogs.

Glide’s shine matches that of rayon, plus it’s colorfast. Check out their wide range of gorgeous colors. There’s even color conversion charts for Madeira and Robison-Anton. The only thing I could wish for is Glide Trilobal Polyester thread in variegated colors. Until then …

Get 10% off all Glide colors for the month of February. Stock up on your favorite colors and fall in love with Glide.

I’ve learned a thing or two during the first 12 days of Dear Diary 2010. For example, there are some blocks that I would really rather not make multiples of. A four-inch 16-patch (shown above) is one of them. I don’t mind making one every now and then, and this quilt is the perfect place for it.

The purple and black Square-in-a-Square at right is another one of those blocks I don’t see myself making more of. (The dime is for scale.) It is pieced for real, not painted, stamped or fussy cut. I can’t imagine why I ever made it in the first place, but I can see why there is only one.

I was digging in my scrap box for more of the sheep fabric, but couldn’t find any. What I did find was this little gem, already inset into the muslin and just waiting for me. I think it fits in rather nicely.

happy quilting! =(^_^)=

There’s a new blog in my life. It doesn’t run on WordPress or Blogger, and has no URL. I don’t need a PC, a Mac, or even an internet connection for uploading to my new blog.

It’s my Dear Diary 2010 journal and I post every day with my Zig pigment pens.

But unless you happen to meet me in the street (or maybe at Road to California later this month) you might never get to read it. I promise to give you updates here every now and then.

Dear Diary 2010 is coming along quite well. I’m still working out a few kinks in the program, such as: maybe it’s not the most realistic expectation to design, create, and quilt a new block each and every single night when you get started around 10 or 11 pm. I can definitely design it and at least fuse or piece each one daily though. As long as I don’t skip any days I’ll be able to catch up.

None of them are quilted yet because I’m still deciding how I want to quilt them. I’m leaning towards hand quilting around the edges with big-stitch quilting with top-stitching thread. (I really love the look of bold hand stitches, and the 4-inch blocks are great for taking along.) Once they’re quilted I’m going to connect them with E seed beads.

Here are my first week’s blocks:

Stay tuned for more!

Celebrate the ordinary, extraordinary, and everything in between with me in 2010!

Although I only reached 50 blocks or so before I called it quits in my Dear Diary 2006 quilt, I’m now ready to give it another try.

One quilt block per day, inspired by each day’s activities. Sketched, sewn and quilted each day. Every several days I’ll sew them to each other so that I won’t lose any blocks. By January 1, 2011 the quilt will be complete.Here’s my journal, all ready to go. My daughter and I have broken it in so that I won’t have any empty sketchbook fears come January 1.

Come back and visit my blog in the new year. I’ll post my Dear Diary 2010 progress for you to see.

This Christmas, why not remember the festivities large and small by creating quilt blocks for each one. My tree block at left is from my Dear Diary quilt. It’s actually a January block, “Taking down the Christmas Tree” but it could just as easily depict a tree going up.

Make blocks for baking cookies, shopping for presents, attending a Christmas pageant, and more. Just about anything, really. Then make a New Year’s Resolution to piece the blocks together and quilt them so that next Christmas you can reminisce and enjoy your quilterly creation.

Quilts inspired by laundry … why not? You’ve got to do your laundry anyway. Might as well get a little inspiration out of it while you’re at it.

Here is an original block I designed called “Mismatched Socks”. My daughter was in kindergarten and one sock from each of her favorite pairs was missing in the laundry, a white pair that I crocheted a beaded trim to and a purple pair with butterflies. I think she may have worn this mismatched pair one day if my memory serves me correctly. Here are her mismatched socks, memorialized in a quilt block. This block would make a fun quilt. It could be a matching game to find where all the different pairs are.
The traditional “T” block offers a lot of fun laundry-inspired possibilities as well.
Click here to find out more about Dear Diary 2006, the quilt these blocks came from.