Border Workshop

 

I recently took a border workshop, taught by Joyce Walton a member of my guild, York County Quilters Guild, Inc.  She had developed this very easy method of making this border.  The panel is one I purchased several years ago and could not decide what to do with it, I just thought is was the most beautiful panel I had ever seen.  This border treatment seems to suit it so well.

I am pleased with the result, but now having trouble deciding how to finish it.  Joyce did a presentation at our last guild meeting and she does the most beautiful quilting with decorative threads, beads, embroidery - I left so inspired wanting to use some of these techniques in this quilt.  She both hand quilted and machine quilted with the decorative threads, and that is what I am battling with.  I don't want to do heavy quilting in the panel, as I think it would take away from the pretty floral design.

Its up on my design wall, waiting for me to make up my mind.

Happy July 4th!!!

I am so thankful to be an American living in this great nation of ours. 

A few years ago, I made this banner.  The star is of my own design and I call it Star of Justice.  The words are from the Pledge of Allegiance and are hand embroidered and the banner is hand quilted.  Its just a small banner, but I do love putting it out at this time of year.  I give the pattern away and if you would like a copy, just give me your email and I will .pdf a copy to you.  If you don't want to post your email, just send me an email at jqd@comporium.net and I will send you one.

Slow Sunday Stitching - Favorite Handwork

I love to follow Kathy Quilts blog where she sponsors Slow Sunday Stitching link up party.  I have never linked up, but have really enjoyed seeing what everyone else is working on.   Today she is celebrating 7 years of postings to this blog and I thought I would join in.

She asked everyone to post their favorite hand work project and I looked back over my quilts that involved a lot of handwork and simply could not pick out a favorite.  So I have included pictures of a few with a few notes on what was involved. 


This is a Gifts of Grace quilt designed by Gail Pan.  I am only showing one block, as I don't have a really good picture of the quilt that shows up the blocks well. I hand embroidered each block - there are nine of them - and then hand quilted the quilt.

Jack's Chain - all hand pieced using English Paper Piecing.  Hand Quilted.  Made as a birthday gift to my brother, Jack

Baby quilt I made for my granddaughter, Lorelai.   This one is very special to me as the solid blocks were hand quilted by my mother.  She had passed by the time I made this quilt, but I had a collection of her blocks.  I hand appliqued the doll blocks and hand quilted them as well, then put the quilt together using a Quilt as you go method. I n putting this post together, I realize I never got a picture of the competed quilt - I will get one the next time I am at my daughter's house.  Lorelai turned two yesterday, and my daughter said she sleeps under this quilt every night now. 

Star of Bethlehem.  The stars are hand pieced using English Paper Piecing and the quilt is hand quilted. 

Patchwork of the Crosses - All the blocks and piecing of the quilt top was done by hand.  I paid to have it quilted by a long arm quilt professional. Two of my friends made one of these at the same time, and we finished them within a month of each other.  It was with the encouragement of each other that we three actually completed our quilts.

Irish Chain - I machine pieced the chain portion of this quilt, but the little Dresden plates were all hand pieced and then hand appliqued to the chain.  I hand quilted the white and Dresden blocks, but the remainder of the quilt I machine quilted.  I love the look of hand quilting and machine quilting combined.

She also asked us to show our current project and that is the last picture.  Thank you, Kathy, for sponsoring this sharing of our projects.

Pemberley, designed by Katrina Hadjmichael.  This is my current project.  All hand needle turned applique and English paper piecing.  There is one more border row that I am currently working on.  This last row is made up of blocks, some English Paper Pieced and some needle turn applique.  I am enjoying working on this project, and must admit, it has been quite a challenge for me.

Dear Jane - Kites

Drum roll - finished the corner kite blocks and thus all the blocks are done for the Dear Jane quilt.  Now just to get the borders sewn to the center and begin quilting.  I am definitely going to machine quilt, there are just too many seam in these blocks to make hand quilting pleasurable to me.

I patterned my signature block after Jane Stikle's block.  She had written "In War Time" on her quilt, as she made it during the Civil War while her husband was away fighting.  I chose "In Turmoil Times" as I began this quilt the day before "9/11" and it just seems to me that since then our country has just been in turmoil. 

Dear Jane Triangle Borders

Woohoo...finished the triangle borders this morning.  I have included some close up pictures of the Top and Left borders, but just now realized I never took pictures of the right border....guess that will be my next post.  But for now, I am on to the 4 corners.  I debated on using the sashing fabric for the solid triangle between each pieced block, but decided on the scrappy look, much like the ones in the original quilt.  I am glad I made this choice, as I love the way it looks, even thought it is VERY busy looking.

Dear Jane gets a new dress :)

Well maybe not a new dress, but new sashing that holds all the center blocks together.    When I first started making my Dear Jane in 2001, I chose a solid beige for the sashing so as "not to detract" from the blocks.  I also chose to sew the sashing onto the right and bottom side of each block, so that when I attached the blocks the sashing would be complete as I thought this would make lining up the blocks easier. 

About half way through the process, I remember thinking that I did not like the sashing, and it really did not look that neat.  I finished the top and packed it away, never finishing the quilt...mainly because I was simply unhappy with my sashing choice and the way I had sewn the blocks to each other.

There was also one block (Row M3) which is the last row in the quilt that I could not get to come out right, so I made my own design.  Sounded good at the time, but really bugged me that I let that block defeat me. 

Soooooo, when I decided to finish the quilt a couple of weeks ago and began working on the triangle border blocks, I got the quilt top out of my hope chest, and still did not like the way it looked.  I decided to rip the quilt blocks apart and add new sashing. For one week I ripped out the old sashing.

I also cut 5" squares of featherweight fusible pellon to put on the back of the blocks to stabilize them and also allow me to cut them to the correct size.  Many were fraying badly and some of the hand stitching had made them fragile. 

And I also made block M3 over to match the pattern.  I will keep my original block for the back of the quilt.

I will hand quilt with the Baptist Fan pattern, but since I will stab stitch, the pellon will not be difficult to stitch through.

And here it is, all put back together again. 

I am so pleased with the sashing I have chosen.  Its still a light beige, but not enough beige to take attention away from the blocks. I also has a tiny flower design of white on beige that I think soften's the look.  I did not know that the original Dear Jane was in a Trip Around the World color layout until I had most of my blocks done and was so sad that I did not make mine that way.  But you know, no way was I going to go back and re-do my blocks.

I also changed the method I used for putting the sashing on.  Picture on the left is the old sashing and on the right is the new sashing.  In many cases with the old sashing the sashing was uneven and the blocks were not in alignment.







I have completed the top border of triangle blocks.  I debated on using the sashing fabric for the alternating solid triangles, but decided to use fabrics from my stash instead, just like the original Dear Jane. An earlier post had the first 8 blocks I had made for this border, and I am showing the closeup of the remaining 5 in this post.    These triangle blocks are a real challenge for me.  I am paper piecing those that can be machine paper pieced and appliqueing all the others.



TR #9



TR #10

TR #11

TR #12

TR #13

Dear Jane Returns

I began my Dear Jane quilt on September 10, 2001, the day before the horrible day September 9/11.  I kept a log for a long time of each block when I finished it and what happened on that day.  Unfortunately I did not keep doing this for all the blocks.  I completed the 4.5" blocks for the quilt center on February 21, 2006 and have not worked on it since then.  Now, 13 years and a few months/days later, I have decided to finish the quilt.  I completed the first triangle block TR1 on Saturday, May 11, 2019.

I am machine paper piecing whenever I can, but on TR7 I had to do reverse applique.  I first tried English Paper Piecing on this one, but that just did not work.  The reverse applique worked fairly well, although points are not as crisp as I get them with paper piecing.   Following are the "kites" I have completed as of today.  Kinda of wonky, but done!