tilliestudioblog

Solution for a too-small backing

One of the most important factors in quilting on a longarm machine is having enough fabric to attach the whole thing evenly with room for testing stitch tension. That's why I ask customers to make sure they get backing and batting that is 4 inches wider and 4 inches longer than the quilt top.

Patty had already cut a backing piece that was roughly the same width as her quilt top and she was going to try quilting it herself on her home sewing machine, so she prepped it with safety pins holding the "sandwich" of back/batt/top together. Then she ran out of time.

She unpinned it all at my request, because each part of the sandwich needs to be pinned onto the machine separately. But she she had already cut the backing fabric.

To get the extra four inches, she used some of the left over fabric from the top (a sweet design by Elizabeth Hartman called Frames), Patty sliced the back into two pieces and sewed a 4.5-inch strip of the leftover print from top to bottom to each backing segment -- making a more interesting back for the quilt.

Patty asked me to quilt it all together with a design called "Labyrinth." She'll be finishing it with a yellow polka-dotted flannel binding in time for the birth of her first grandchild.

Sweet.

 

Her determination got me

My business model never included making completed quilts for sale. It was always about helping others complete their pieced tops by providing the quilting. So when Rachel wrote  trying to find someone to create an entire custom queen-sized wedding quilt for her, I was not going to go there. But she certainly deserved the courtesy of a reply, so I  wrote for more details without committing to the project.

Making a custom quilt can be expensive, so I asked her if she had a budget in mind. Rachel said she was prepared for that, but she was determined to give a quilt to the couple. She said the bride and groom were both close friends she had worked with and she introduced them and will be a bridesmaid in the wedding. But the clincher: The bride is a quilter who  has made many, many quilts for others as gifts. "I just  thought it would be nice if she got one," said Rachel.

Rachel doesn't quilt, or sew. This did not deter her. She had a design motif in mind and was willing to help in any way, "even if the greatest help would be not to help," she said. I  just couldn't say no. We met and she carefully  chose fabric to reflect  the couple's colors: natural tones of earth and foliage.

  The design Rachel envisioned was a variation on the bargello style. I found Becky Botello's Easy Peasy Bargello Quilt pattern (there on the left) and purchased the pdf. (This pdf, by the way, provided a clear, well-illustrated set of directions for an exacting result and was well worth the $5 cost of the download.)

Rachel was even game enough to take a lesson from me in how to blind stitch down the binding so she could finish the quilt herself by hand. (BTW, there are many videos out there that show ways to hand finish a quilt with a narrow binding. Rachel said they helped, but she was glad to see the blind stich done in front of her -- it gets easier the more you do it.)

The wedding's in early October and I know the quilt will be well loved because she put so much love into making it happen. Thanks for the experience, Rachel.

FUNd raisers

What's more fun than kids' art? Why kids' art made into a quilt, of course.

Dana, the mother of almost-5-year-old Emmeline (Emme for short) wrote me to help with a project for Emme's San Francisco preschool. Dana sent me a top pieced with playful fabrics framing abstract  masterpieces by students in the Peacock class.

The children were given permanent fabric markers in basic bright colors to draw on white Kona cotton. They added their names in proud block letters. One parent pieced the back from the same fabrics used on the blocks. Dana  then sewed up the top, alternating the kids' squares between sashing and log cabin squares to fit a 50-by-60-inch rectangle. For the quilting, Dana requested a simple (fast) allover panto, and "Labyrinth" by Jodi Beamish was just the ticket.

Why the rush? A fund-raising auction for the school in April. I'm thinking this will fetch a tidy little sum.

Studio note: The batting is 100% wool, provided by the customer, and I LOVE quilting on this wool. It's dense, yet light and really warm and makes a puffy surface without becoming stiff.

And here is the full-size result, with binding to be added by Dana.

 So now I'm thinking about using a few of the many fabulous drawings done by my grandchildren to make a memory quilt for each of them. Instead of having them draw on fabric, I can scan existing work, which is on plain white paper, and print it out on my Printed Treasures sheets that go through an ink jet printer. Or maybe we can combine both techniques, to get more color on the drawings.

Anyhoo, thanks Dana, for a fun project!

 

 

 

 

Pattern love

The quilting design you see above is "Knotty," a quilting pantograph (sometimes referred to as an all-over pattern) designed by Gali Design. When I bought it I had no idea how versatile it would turn out to be. Now it's one of my favorites. The design looks nice on solid cloth as well as on patchwork with multiple prints. It quilts up quickly and is affordable for most customers.

I just had to show you some examples from recent customers, who gave me permission to display their work.

First, pictured above, is Marci Glenn's color-rich quilt for her daughter, who did not want anything frilly or fussy. The woodsy feel of Knotty was perfect.

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Group quilts. I've quilted several sampler quilts with blocks made by sewers with expert skills and beginners with more enthusiasm than skill. Knotty can unify and make them play nicely together. Customer Erin Salimena rated the result: "Five out of five stars."

 

Melissa paired Knotty on a shop sample quilt for Bolt Neighborhood, with fabrics from Monaluna's Woodland Friends line. One print in that line has stumps on it! Loved the subtle connection.

 

Ruby Gates' quilt also fit beautifully with the forested feel of Knotty. The brown & mint deer print is delicious.

Finally, Susanne Grant chose Knotty to complete her Postcard Block of the Month quilt hosted by Rhea Daiute of Alewives Fabrics using lushly saturated prints by Kaffe Fassett. Here's the versatility of Knotty. It holds up to -- but does not compete with -- all the patterns and colors of the patchwork.

 

Let's talk sheets

 
For my first blog post, I'm going to reveal that longarm machine quilters are numerous and opinionated. For instance, there is a machine quilters' debate going on about using a bedsheet as backing on a quilt.

The YES side says it is the green thing to do and most don't have any trouble quilting through the sheets as long as they have been washed numerous times to loosen up the weave. Others point out  that using sheets as backing usually means no seams.

The NO side says 300-thread count and higher sheets require excessive prep work (larger needles and tricky tension adjustments), and are too much trouble when they are quilted.

So here's my response for Tillie's customers: If you find a used sheet (cotton feels best) that's loosely woven, in good shape (no holes or tears, etc.), and you trim off the hems and press it before sending it, I'll quilt it. After all, quilting is the most practical and prettiest way that I know of to recycle. 

Guess that means I'm a YES.

Update: I recently quilted a top AND bottom using polyester sheets using a thin poly batting (pictured).  No problems at all. The top was a plain yellow sheet that had been used for years as the tablecloth at birthday parties beginning when the child was two. The party guests outlined their handprints with permanent marker on the cloth and signed their names and the date. The back of the quilt was a juvenile print twin sheet (PacMan, for goodness sake). I quilted it with a cute panto pattern and the result was a snuggly memory quilt.