DQS 13

If you have followed my blog for a while you know that my all time favorite online swap is the Doll Quilt Swap (DQS) over on Flickr. Round 13 is underway and quilts are due to be sent out by mid February. I think I have participated in 6 rounds so far. I love the challenge of creating something unique for my partner. As I have pointed out to my husband before, just because it’s small (must measure between 9”x9” and 20”x20”) it doesn’t mean it’s any easier.

I’ve decided to finally make a design that has been in my EQ folder for a couple of years. I drafted this design when I was playing around with designs made up entirely of HST’s.

DQS 10 v1.2 - Butterflies

I don't know if I'll ever get over the nervousness and butterflies in my stomach feeling every time I start to free motion a quilt that does not involve stippling/meandering. There's is a certain safety net in doing a simple all over meander in that you really can't completely trash a quilt top. It never fails though, every time I set out to do something beyond a meander I hesitate. "What if I mess up the whole quilt top?" "What if it doesn't complement the piecing?" and all sorts of other wonderfully negative comments flow through my brain. Inevitably I put off the quilting for a few days. Finally I work up the courage to stare the quilt in the eye and show it who's boss.

The first few minutes are agonizing as I struggle to find my rhythm and loosen up. Eventually "it" just comes together and the quilting flows like I actually know what I'm doing, but really I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. Somehow or another I end up with something that really surprises me {and Mr. PD too!}




Of course every little flaw jumps out at me. The little snag, the slight hesitation in the curve, the skipped stitch (grr I hate those), the abrupt stop when my hand ran into the sewing machine, but all those little things are what drive me to keep going, to do better, and to one day master the whole machine quilting thing. In reality it's the part I love the most. One day I plan to be as good as Diane Gaudynski, Carla Barret, and Sally Bramald (to name a few of the many women that inspire me.) I just have to remember what Diane likes to say "Keep quilting - your work gets better every day!"

I'm about halfway done with the quilting on my DQS 10 and I'm falling more in love with it each day. I showed it to Mr. PD for his nod of approval and all he had to say was "seems like an awful lot of work for such a little quilt!" He liked it {of course he has no choice but to show approval} but I had to explain to him that just because it's a small quilt it doesn't make it any easier or less work. I don't think he understood why I would put so much effort into such a small piece.

Well dear partner I hope you like what you see so far.

~Norma

DQS 10 v1.1

I got a little bit more done on this doll quilt today. Yesterday I got as far as piecing the Dresden wedge. Today I picked out the background (Kona Cotton in Charcoal) and used my Accuquilt Go 1.5" strip cutter to make quick work of cutting my scraps into perfect 1.5" squares. It literally only took me like 10 minutes to cut 70+ squares. Gotta love time saving tools!




Hopefully I can get the borders all pieced tomorrow. I still have to attach the background to the Dresden and figure out what I want to use for the center. Right now I'm leaning towards a Charcoal center because I love the graphic look of it thus far.

~Norma

If you want to read my Accuquilt Go review and tutorial on how to cut squares with the Go see this post here.

Doll Quilt Swap 10

I've lost count... but I think this is either the 3rd or 4th round of the Flickr DQS I've joined. It's one of my favorite projects of the year. This time around my partner was proving to be quite tricky to sew for. I finally settled on a design after months of throwing ideas around in my head. Usually by this point I've already had a good start on the doll quilt, but this time around I haven't had the same drive to get started. I think it has something to do with the whole baby growing deal. Ok, so it's probably has a lot to do with that plus being pretty busy with my shop, the kids, and church responsibilities.

This time around I think it paid off to procrastinate. As I was doing the daily purging of my google reader I somehow or another {you know how it goes, one link leads to another... and half an hour later you're there} I found this cute little quilt and then I hopped on over to the flickr group and was smitten by everything everyone has made.

So yesterday I pulled a stack of fabrics, mostly from my Jacob's Coat pile and today I got busy cutting wedges:




Hopefully I'll be able to piece it all shortly.

~Norma

Modify Tradition Swap

Today is the deadline for shipping out the Modify Tradition Swap quilt. I finished this last night and then I did a dumb thing! I completely forgot to go to the post office today. I will stop by tomorrow morning and this fun little quilt will make it's way into the hands of my swap partner. I hope she likes it!

It's made with a "Birdie" by Moda charm pack. There are quite a few firsts in this little quilt. My first Dresden plate, made super simple by following the great instructions by Elizabeth. My first pieced binding (it looks awesome!) and my first pebble quilting.

front

black and white detail of back

I think I love the back more than the front! I want my partner to be able to display either side so I'm not attaching a quilt label. I've made a label but it is just pinned on. Now I'll have to make one for myself!

Project 365 - Week 10

I'm still going strong with my picture a day "journal." I must admit to cheating a little bit though. Sometimes I take a few pictures on the same day (especially to make up for cloudy bad lighting day.) On those days I take pictures of common occurrences at our house, like dirty dishes or toys all over the floor.

It does take a lot more time than I thought it would, not in the picture taking, but in the photo editing, and watermarking of the images. Not to mention uploading and then adding captions and blogging about it! I love it though, it has been fun capturing our daily lives through a lens.

1. Project 365 week 10, 2. 3-5 DQS8 Ready for binding, 3. 3-6 House Party, 4. 3-7 Yet again..., 5. 3-8 DQS8 on it's way, 6. 3-9 Re-purpose, 7. 3-10 Car Trip, 8. 3-11 DQS8 Received

I know there are a lot of pictures of the doll quilt this week, but that is what I was trying to finish up. My favorite image this week is the doll quilt I received from my partner.

See those little black frames? I'm making something super cute fro my sewing room. I'm almost done with it so I'll be showing it to you soon.

Trapunto fun: DQS7 progress

I have always wanted to try trapunto, but have been deathly afraid to try it. First of all it sounded way to complicated and second of all I felt like my free motion skills weren't up to the challenge of trapunto.

Well I grabbed the bull by the horns and just went for it yesterday! I had so much fun I think I have found a new passion!

My free motion skills have improved by leaps and bounds since my first free motion project a couple of months ago. I owe it all to a secret tool that I discovered and I will be showing you how to make your very own sometime soon. I promise! I also owe a lot of the credit to my new love...

Say hello to my Brother PQ1300!!

I scored this baby off of eBay for about $350. It is the predecessor to the PQ1500 (which you can find for about $800 new) and is rather hard to find and no longer made. It is identical to the PQ1500 but instead of sewing 1500 stitches per minute it only (insert sarcasm) sews at a mere 1300 stitches per minute! I love the 9" throat space and the super responsive foot control. Oh and I'm 100% positively in love with the knee lift!

I got this baby a couple of weeks before moving from TN and it only made it out of it's box to make sure it was in working order then it went right back in. I only now pulled it out and have been using it for the nine patch quilt along and for working on the peacock. There is no better way to learn how to use a machine than by working on a project with it.

The only bad thing about my machine is that the lady I bought it from had lost the large extension table that came with it. I called my brother dealer from back in TN to check on the price for replacing it and he said Brother quoted him $180-ish!!! HA! Apparently the reason it is so high is because they don't sell it separate and they no longer make it. Well there is now way in the world I would ever pay that much! So I'll be ordering a custom made table for well under $180!

So how did I accomplish this great feat of trapunto? I actually did it all by machine and it went rather quickly. The hardest part was cutting away the fabric and that was only because it took so long!


1) Trace your design with water soluble marker onto your quilt top
2) Decide which areas you want to be "fluffy." I just colored on my design template in red crayon those areas I wanted "fluffy" so I could have something to reference as I quilted
3) Lay your quilt top on to a piece of batting (I used quilters dream poly in white) using Basting Spray to secure it.
4) Using water soluble thread (I used YLI Wash-a-way thread $3.95/spool) stitch around all the areas you want "fluffy
5) Cut away all of the batting from the back of the quilt except in the areas that you wan to be "fluffy." Be very careful not to cut a hole in your quilt top! I found a pair of cuticle scissors handy for really small spaces
6) Now layer your quilt as you normally do: quilt top, batting, backing. Thread your machine with regular thread and quilt around your motif as you normally would!

When you are done you will dissolve the wash a way thread and the blue marker leaving you with a beautiful finish piece. I know it sounds complicated but don't shy away from it! Give a try with something simple like a single flower or something, just to practice.

First layer quilted with water soluble thread

Water soluble thread detail


Here I have quilted through all layers in regular thread after I cut away my excess batting. You can start to see how certain areas are raised. This will be accented further once I do the background quilting.



and to give you an idea of what the quilt will look like, the reverse of the quilt

I still need to quilt the background before I take the quilt to water to wash away the thread and the ink. I still haven't decided if I will proceed with my plan of adding color to the quilt.









PS I need some help naming my Brother. Give me some suggestions and if I choose yours I'll send you a little something. I haven't decided if it's a guy or a gal so I'm open to all suggestions!