Backing Fabric

 OK, here's another new one for me!  I have never bought the wide fabric especially made for backing for quilts.  I have always pieced together 42" wide fabric, or pieced the back from fabric in my stash.

For once, however, I decided that I would just buy the dang backing fabric and be done with it!  I found a nice gray print at 108" wide, and bought 3 yards, which is 108" long.  Voila!  I have the backing all done for the pickle dish and mariner's compass quilt.

Geesh. Sometimes it takes years for something to sink in.  It was less expensive and much more pleasurable to just plunk down the money and have the backing all done.  Guess what I'm going to do next time?

I hope you enjoy quilting and are getting a few laughs from my blog.  Tee-hee....until next time.

Reflection Quilt used for advertising the Clark County Quilters 2021 show

The Clark County quilt show coordinators picked "Reflections" as the theme for the Clark County Quilters show in 2021.

They remembered that I had made a quilt of my granddaughter looking into a lobster tank, and that her reflection on the stainless steel vat was a key element of that quilt.  They asked me if they could use that image for advertising, and of course I said, "Yes".

Here was the postcard announcing our 2021 show, which unfortunately was never distributed.  The postcard was printed and ready to distribute at the 2020 show that was supposed to be held in April 2020.  That show got postponed to November, then got cancelled entirely.  And the 2021 show got changed to November 2021.  As a result, this postcard became moot,   There would be no show at which it would be distributed.   The 2021 show is usually not announced until the 2020 show is in full swing.  And I think it has because I've seen it in print in a couple of places.

I hope you attend our fabulous show, and that you like the postcard!

Pickle Dish and Mariner's Compass - Piecing underway Again and top finished

This is a continuation of many previous posts about the making of the Pickle Dish and Mariner's Compass Quilt.  I'm going to try and show you how I sewed together the vertical rows on this challenging quilt.  First, I sewed the vertical units together, then sewed the pickles to the vertical rows.  This made the "pickle dish" vertical rows.

Then I sewed together the "Mariner's Compass" vertical rows. (See the second row in the picture below.)

The key was to sew rows so that they nested as an "Ess" shape.  Very similar to the process of sewing together the pickle dish units.  Look at the center vertical strip and the one on the right.  You can see that I picked up each piece and sewed them together to make the vertical rows.  And can you see the resulting "Ess" gap?  That's how you make it easier to sew all these curved seams together.  I sewed the border pieces onto each end as well.

Then the vertical rows were sewn together.  Here is what it looks like with those two rows sewn together.  I actually sewed it in sections.  First by sewing all of the center pieces with their corresponding pickle dish section.  Then going back and sewing in the Mariner's Compass sections with the center pieces.  And finally, by sewing the pickle dish end pieces and border pieces together.  It wasn't complicated, but did involve a lot of pinning and SLOW sewing.  Oh, and in order for the Mariner's compass to overlap the pickle dish ends, they do have to be marked for the curve.  I just made a freezer paper template and marked the seam line.

I hope you like the color placement and beauty of this quilt.  The top ending up being 90"  x 90".  

It's so big that it goes from the floor to the ceiling of my design wall and I wasn't able to step back far enough to get a good shot of it.

Anyway, I hope you like it.  Now onto the quilting!  

Pickle Dish and Mariner's Compass quilt - part whatever plus one

 This is a continuation of the posts about the making of the Pickle Dish and Mariner's Compass quilt.  

After I got the pieces done, it was time to sew the units together and the rows together.  It was tricky with all of the curved edges and trying to determine which pieces needed to be sewn together first, next, and last in order to make the piecing the easiest it could me.  (None of this quilt was easy, however.)

I sewed several components together, and starting from the left, I sewed 3 vertical rows together.  However, I noticed that I had big problems putting the pieces together.  Not so much in the stitching, but when the sewing was done, I had a quilt that was not laying flat.  I tried taking a nip and tuck here and there to solve the problem.  But it was very clear that something was really wrong somewhere.  

I was so worried that all of my work was headed for the trash can that I couldn't go to sleep at all.  So I got up and went into my studio and redrafted the whole pattern again.  Then I worried that one of the other quilters had used my pattern and thought that she was going to hate me when I divulged that there were some problems.  By 3:00 am, I was in a better place and was able to go back to bed.  My pattern was OK, but the sewing was a little sloppy.  I knew that I would have to tear out all the rows and sewing to join the components before I could move forward again.  So, tear out I did.  (Mumble, mumble).

How I fixed the problem was to make a freezer paper template of the pickle dish component and iron this on top of the completed units, redraw the seam lines with dissolving blue pen, and then resew the units. Too bad I had already trimmed the seams to 1/4".  Some of the seams would now be skimpy.  

Here is the new marking.  

I also had to redraw the seam lines on the center pieces and they were slightly more off than the pickle dish units.  Here is where I lined up the new seam lines.  I sewed the cured section first.

Then I sewed the two straight seams on both ends.

There were 2 steps to press the end seams.  Pressing open the straight seam with the white piece out of the way.

Then put the tip of the white piece back in place and press again.  Trim if necessary.

And here is what it looks like on the front side.

When I get all the rest of the pieces remarked and back up on the design wall, I'll be able to make forward progress again.

Until then, happy sewing!  

Pickle Dish and Mariner's Compass Quilt - part whatever

OK, I've completely lost track of how many posts I've made about the making of the Pickle Dish and Mariner's Compass Quilt.  I think I numbered them, and then sneaked in a few about the intricate units.  And then added a little bit of humor about how my group is all whining about making the quilt.  So, don't ask me what number this one is - it's a continuation, OK?

I got bogged down when I had most of the sub-pieces done and had a hard time figuring out what color to put on the edges of some of the center pickle dish units.  I cut out and placed moss green.  Too dark.  I tried lime green.  I tried white.  AAH!  I don't really like any of them, but ended up with the moss green so that the background receded behind the Mariner's Compass blocks.  Here are the pictures of the trials.

All lime green made the circles a focus element and it fought with the Mariner's compass blocks for attention.

All white - too blah!

Moss green just right.

I hope you learn something from all of my trials.  I know the other people working on their quilts are learning what NOT to do!  

Sewing outside border to outside pickle dish units

 For the border of the Pickle Dish and Mariner's compass quilt, I designed the pieces to fit around just one pickle and then seam them where they met.  I remembered a cool technique that I learned from Judy Niemeyer on how to piece large pieces together in an ice cream cone fashion.

Here is a picture of my freezer paper template of the border piece.

I marked the seam lines and a few key intersection points and left a bit of overhang on the outside edge to be trimmed after the quilt gets quilted.

Just like the pickle dish units, the mantra is pins, pins and more pins.  I matched the center, the intersection of the pickle pieces and the end pieces and then the seam at the edge.  Then I placed pins about every 3/4 inch.

Then the fun part comes when you put the edge piece on the top and grab up all the fabric like and ice cream cone.  This bends the top pieces to more or less match the bottom curved piece.  

It's quite easy to sew this long curved line this way, by letting the curved piece stay curved on the bed of the sewing machine.

When it was all sewn, the seam was pressed towards the outside edge and away from the pickle dish unit.

I hope these pictures and description of the steps helps you on your next quilt.  

Clark County Quilters Virtual Quilt Show, November 2020

 Clark County Quilters tried really hard to have a quilt show in April.  COVID-19 dashed those hopes pretty quickly.  It was rescheduled for November 2020, but again, that darn COVID-19 started increasing in number of people both testing positive and being hospitalized.  So that show got cancelled.  But the board of CCQ was very inventive, and they had us submit our photos and a few of them put it together on a whole new website.  The "show" was unveiled on November 12th to the members and we got a little preview of how to see the show and vote for our favorites.  

Here is how to access the show until the end of December and vote for your favorites. Go go to the show website.  Note:  all of the ribbons and awards will be decided by YOU, the viewers.  There are no judges this year.  So be sure to vote for your favorites in each category and for the best of show.  Type this in your browser:

            quiltfestnw.org

You will get this screen:

If you scroll down you will get this screen.  If you're ready to look at the show, select Quiltfest Map:

Then just follow the categories and vote for your favorites.  If you're stuck, there is a short video letting you know how to get into the show.  

And finally, if you want to find the quilts made by a specific person (me, maybe?), click on the FAQ button and it will bring up the quilters by name.

That's it, have fun, and vote!