Make Your Own Design Wall

I finally got around to making a Design Wall for my studio. We moved almost a year ago and I didn't realize how much I depended on one until I didn't have one.

My studio is very small.  I had to come up with a solution that would give me the maximum amount of space. The room is 11' x 10'. By the time I put a Cutting Table, Ironing Board and my Sewing Machine in there, that doesn't leave much room for anything else. I know I'm spoiled because every room I've worked in before this has been much larger and many people work in a much smaller space.

I found a couple YouTube videos about how to make a design wall and used a little bit from each to make mine. One of the videos showed using duct tape to make a design wall that hinged. I knew I wouldn't have room to swing the wall out on a hinge so I decided that I'd make 2 of them but keep them separate.

I purchased 2 sheets of Insulation Board. They are 8' tall and 4' wide. My ceiling is 8' so they just fit in the room. It was tricky getting them through the doorway and standing them up to see how they would work out.

The only place I had to work on this project was my living room floor. Here's a picture of one sheet on its side and the other sheet is on the floor.

I decided that since it was so hard to get the board through the door and to stand it up, I would take 12" off the length. I don't make that many huge quilts. I'd have to stand on a ladder to reach the top if it was 8' tall and I can probably reach almost to the top of a 7' one if I stand on a step stool. We'll see if someday I regret that decision but for right now, I'm fine with it.

I used a ballpoint pen to mark so it scored the line. Then I used my acrylic ruler and a razor knife to cut on that line. I had to make a couple passes because the insulation board is 5/8" thick.

The front and back of the board was covered with a layer of plastic which I peeled off.

I chose the plain side as the "right" side of my Design Wall. I put that side face up on the floor. I used batting to cover it. I had quite a bit on a roll so that was the least expensive way for me to do it. I didn't have to buy something to cover it. You could also use flannel. The down side to flannel is that it typically is 32" - 40" wide which means you would need to piece it to make it fit on a 4' piece of Insulation Board. 

I started by just laying the batting over the top and roughly centered it. It doesn't have to be exactly in the center because you are going to wrap it onto the back and no one will ever know whether it was centered or not. The way I did it you probably won't even remember which side was longer, even if you were to look on the back when it's all finished.

This was the time consuming and hard part. I smoothed out the batting. This involved crawling around on the tile floor on my hands and knees. I started on one end and smoothed it out. I pinned the batting into the side of the Insulation Board with straight pins.

 I worked my way all the way around smoothing it out and pinning it as I went along.

 I will say that on the first one I did I didn't pull the batting as tight as I could have. I made it much tighter when I covered the second one.

Once it was pinned all the way around I flipped it over so I could work on the back. I pulled the batting around to the back and pinned it in place. 

I worked my way all the way around and pinned an inch or two in from the raw edges. I folded and mitered the corners.

I roughly trimmed the batting all the way around. On some sides it was a lot wider. This probably wasn't a necessary step. It is the back and no one is going to see it. But I felt that I needed to do it so I did.

Then I started taping the back. I used duct tape. I had some on hand and felt that it would be stronger and less expensive to use than shipping tape, which I also had on hand. I knew that blue painter's tape which I also had wouldn't work. It wouldn't be permanent. I cut small pieces and put them every few inches all the way around, removing the pins as I went along.

After I went all the way around with the short pieces I did really long ones to make sure it was very secure.

Voila! Flip it over and the Design Wall was completed. The first one took about an hour and a half to do. I did the second one in a little over an hour. This picture shows the finished one in front of the second piece of Insulation Board which hasn't been trimmed yet.

I put them in my room with the cut edge at the top. I figured it was rougher and might not be as straight on the floor. I keep them one in front of the other off to one side when I'm laying out a small project. 

For a larger one I just slide the top one over to the left, line them up in the middle and I have one large Design Wall. Here's a picture of a project up on the wall.

Watch for another blog post soon about why it is a good idea to have a Design Wall. It is actually related to the project you see in this picture. 

Until then, Happy Sewing and Quilting,

Carol

My First Rag Quilt

I know these have been around FOREVER but I've never had much of a flannel stash. The first flannel quilt I ever made was a pieced project and the flannel was so squirrelly I didn't want to attempt another.

However, I have some flannel that I bought for something else and wanted to use it up. So I decided that making a couple rag quilts would be a good way to do that.

I decided on 6 1/2" squares. I'm planning to do 10 blocks x 10 blocks so that's 100 squares just for the top, 200 including the back and 100 more of batting. Yikes! That's a lot of squares and I am planning to do 2 with more or less the same fabrics so double that. The squares will be the same but I'll use different fabrics for the backings.

Thank goodness for my QuiltCut2 Fabric Cutting System!

I cut all of the fabric squares (400) in 3 hours. I used some scraps of batting and then full size pieces which I folded in half and then in half again. I cut 100 of these squares in less than an hour. Then I ran out of batting.

Here are the fabric squares for both quilts.

These are the squares for the first quilt. The Monkey Fabric is going to be the backing.

I decided to do a little quilting in each square before I put it together. I chose a variegated thread that will go with all of the fabrics in the quilt for the top and a bright pink for the back which goes perfectly with the little monkey print.

I quilted a simple X through all of the Monkey squares. That's as far as I've gotten so far. Stay tuned to watch the progress of this project.

Happy Quilting,

Carol

Young Quilters

The display of Quilters under 18 Years of Age was right by our booth at the Best of the Valley Quilt Show in Lindsay, CA. I am looking forward to teaching my granddaughter, Tristyn to quilt. You can see her playing with thread and Perle Cotton Bubbles on the side of this page. She is also featured in my post about Perle Cotton Bubbles. She likes to carry pieces of fabric around the house. So I'm getting her used to all of that at a very young age (she's 17 months old).

I was very impressed with the work of the young quilters who entered their quilts at the show. I would like to share it with you here.

This first quilt was made by 11 year old Jada Wheeler from Bakersfield, CA. She plans to decorate her room with a jungle theme. Her grandma let her choose the fabrics for the quilt. I think this quilt is going to look great in her room.

Jada's Jungle by Jada Wheeler - Age 11

The next quilt was made by Evan Renee Carson of Porterville, CA who is 9.  It was sewn on her white Featherweight sewing machine. Her inspiration is to be just like her Grammie (Priscilla Girard) who Evan says is a great quilter.

My First Quilt by Evan Renee Carson - Age 9

Summer Sunset won a Third Place Ribbon. Abrielle Ward from Hanford, CA made this quilt. She is 13. It is her second quilt and is the first one she quilted herself. She started with Jelly Rolls. She said it was a fun and easy quilt to make.

Summer Sunset by Abrielle Ward - Age 13

Raine Palomino from Hanford, CA made Pandas at Play. She saw the pattern at Best of the Valley last year and decided to make it. Raine quilted it by herself. She is only 12 years old and did thread play, free motion quilting and some stitch in the ditch quilting. She is definitely a serious quilter. Her quilt was the Second Place winner. (Sorry the photo isn't clearer).

Pandas at Play by Raine Palomino - Age 12

This is Irelan Fletcher's "First Quilt." She is from Clovis, CA and is 11 years old. She made the quilt with her grandmother, Janet Fletcher and her friend Judy McDaniel. Irelan chose the fabric, sewed, cut, and pressed the half square triangles. She also sewed the short seams, created the design and free motion quilted the rose design on most of the blocks. Judy did the feathers in the borders and Janet sewed the long seams and binding. Irelan says she loves quilting! Her quilt finished in First Place.

First Quilt by Irelan Fletcher - Age 11

Last, but certainly not least is Payton's First Quilt. Payton Evan is 8 years old and is from Porterville, CA. In her artist's statement she said that her favorite part was pressing the fabric. She says her grandma pressured her when her hands were tired but told her "Don't stop, we are almost done." I met Payton at the show. She was so excited about her quilt. Hers won Best of Show in the Under 18 Category.

Payton's First Quilt by Payton Evan - Age 8

Congratulations to all of the entrants! These are some very talented young quilters. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of their work for a long time to come.

Happy Quilting,

Carol

Batting Tape

I have a big plastic bin full of batting scraps of all sizes. For some reason I feel the need to keep any leftover piece of batting that I "might" be able to use later. Often times the piece I pull out to use is just a little bit too small. If I'm doing a big quilt sometimes I just need a little more length or width.

When I first started quilting I learned how to sew two pieces of batting together. This was time consuming and somewhat frustrating because it didn't always lie flat. I found Heat and Press Batting Tape a couple years ago and have used it with success. The only thing I don't like about it is the material it is made from. It is shiny and kind of "plasicy" feeling. You can see it is kind of shiny.

Heat and Press Batting Tape

When I heard that From Marti Michell products has a Batting Tape too, I was very excited to try it. This is a fusible too but it has a more cottony feel to it. The best analogy I can use is that the one I used before is like adhesive tape where as Marti's is like the paper type adhesive tape.

Marti's Choice Batting Tape

The lighter weight and fabric like fiber makes it much easier to quilt through either by hand or by machine. It is also the ideal way to use Marti's Low Fat Quilting Method described in her Machine Quilting in Sections book.

This quilt as you go method can be applied to any quilt you're making. It is a great way to quilt a larger quilt on your domestic sewing machine.

Now I will enjoy piecing all those not quite the right size batting pieces even more.

Happy Quilting!

Carol

Cochise Quilt

My last post was about some of the Whimsical Quilts at Tucson Quilt Fiesta! This one is about the quilt that stole the show. It won Best of Show and Viewer's Choice. I recently found out that it also won the Ed Seright Award for Workmanship. The latter is an award given by the guild members. When you read about the quilt and see the pictures, you'll know why all of these honors were bestowed upon this quilt.

I had the opportunity to speak at length with Patsy Heacox the artist who created this beautiful quilt. She was looking for a way to help make the quilting of pieces such as this a little easier. She would like to print designs from her computer onto something that she can lay on top of the quilt, quilt through and then tear away. So we were brainstorming possible solutions.

Patsy has been making portrait quilts for about five years. She took a class from Pam Holland in Houston in 2007. She took what she learned there and then developed her own style. She loves history and once she has chosen the subject for a quilt she does extensive research into the person. In this case it was Cochise. She takes pages of notes and then decides what to put into the quilt. She usually has a picture in her mind by the time the research is done but that can change as she works on the quilt.

I was able to view her quilt "Cochise - Once They Were Like the Wind" with her. As you can see it is impressive from afar.

Cochise - Once They Were Like the Wind
by Patsy Heacox

The hands and face are inked onto fabric. The rest of the fabrics are chosen. Everything is fused onto the background. and then the embellishment process begins. Patsy uses 25 -50 different threads to "paint" in all of the detail and believe me there are so many details in this quilt.

One of the interesting details is the way she did his feet. Not only do they extend into the bottom border, but his right foot actually goes off the edge of the quilt. There's also a little lizard between his feet and a gecko that extends into the inner border.

Bottom of the quilt

There are no photos of Cochise so Patsy had to create an image of him based on what she read and her imagination. She told me that as she worked on it she thought she could feel his presence. I love the detail in the face and the way she did his eyes. They have the shading and sparkle that make them very realistic. He is wearing a real piece of turquoise around his neck and the band around his head is folds of fabric.

Face Detail

The mountains behind him are the Dragoon Mountains. Along with random quilting, words related to them are also quilted in them. Here is a detailed picture of a small portion of the mountains. You'll also see some of the thread painting in his hair.

Mountain Details

There is written text on the quilt. In addition to what you see in the picture of the mountains there is text that includes his birth, marriage, etc as well as a couple quotes. When I looked at it I complimented Patsy on the way she incorporated machine embroidery into her quilt. She corrected me. What looks like embroidery is actually the words inked onto the fabric. She quilts around every part of every letter giving it the look of being embroidered but this is way harder. When you know what goes into every single letter, you appreciate her talent even more.

Letters are hand painted and then every part of each letter is quilted.

Speaking of quilting, if you look closely at the picture above you'll see horses quilted into the background. There are a total of 25 horses quilted into the quilt. Some are coming onto the quilt and others are running off on the other side.

Horse Quilting Detail

Patsy also includes various symbols and artifacts into her quilts. Here are some close ups of a couple that are included in this quilt.

Soaring Eagle

Piecing this star would be a challenge. Imagine how hard it must have been to quilt this so perfectly.

Look at all those tiny diamonds

I believe this is a Spirit Stick which is one of the artifacts quilted into the quilt.

Spirit Stick Quilting Detail

I hope you have enjoyed this rather lengthy, but what I hope you found to be inspiring, post. I have a feeling that Cochise will be traveling to some other shows. I encouraged Patsy to submit it to Pacific International Quilt Festival and she is thinking of entering it at Road to California next year. The pictures are good but seeing it in person really makes you appreciate it even more. I hope you'll have a chance to see this beautiful portrait quilt someday.

Happy Quilting,

Carol

New Wall Hanging Project

Ok. I know Christmas just ended and you're probably wondering why I would post a Christmas themed project when you just finished putting all the decorations away. Two reasons - One I just finished it and really wanted to share it with you. Two - There's plenty of time to get started on it now and finish it in time for next Christmas.

This wall hanging in this post is my version of the Santa Portrait Trio Pattern by Bird Brain Designs. I have posted pictures in previous blog posts about the blocks. Now I have put them together.

Santa Portrait Trio Pattern Photo

I knew when I decided to make this that I wanted to keep the feel of a portrait but I also wanted to do something different. I wanted it to be a quilted project rather than a framed piece. I finished stitching the blocks and set them aside until I figured out how to set them. I toyed with traditional sashing and possibly little stitched cornerstones but that was too obvious and kind of boring. Then I thought of Attic Windows but I still didn't think it was the right setting.

You never know when or where inspiration will strike. I was in Michael's one day looking for I don't even remember what. I walked past the picture frames and I had the solution to my problem. Here's my inspiration.

Once I had the plan I was really excited to get going on it. I decided that I wanted to do 8" x 10" blocks so they would be a standard photo size. So I trimmed my blocks to 8 1/2" x 10 1/2".

Next came the math part. I decided to have a 1" finished border around my blocks. I measured the size of the small black border in the photo and the white piece between the pictures. I used those measurements to apply the same ratio to my project. I used the same technique to choose the two outer borders. Keeping with the style of the sample frame, I mitered all of my borders.

There was a lot of "dead" space in the first wide border. I quilted a holly motif on the top and bottom borders. In the center of the sides I quilted a single Christmas Tree and finished the rest of the side borders with the same holly motif. 

Now for the finished project.

My Santa Portrait Trio Wall Hanging

Here's what it looks like on the back.

Quilting Detail

We usually think of a color for borders and sashing fabrics. I know that had I done it that way it would have been a completely different look. When I look at the finished product, I think I achieved the look I was going for. It looks like framed Santa photos.

Happy Quilting and Stitching,

Carol

Friendship's Garden Quilt

I just finished this quilt. I had so much fun putting it all together I wanted to share the process with you.

First I want you to know that I can't take credit for the embroidery in the blocks. My friend Holly from Quilter's Cove had one of her employees do the stitching. She was going to put them together and never got around to doing that so she passed them on to me. I've had them for a couple months but finally had the time to assemble the quilt.

I tried a few different fabrics for the sashing. It was kind of like Goldilocks. I thought I had the perfect green. When I actually sewed the sashing between the blocks in the first row, I hated it. It was too bright. I toyed with black but it just didn't fit with the cheery blocks. Next I tried red. It matched the red in the blocks, but it came out too dark. Most of the cornerstone fabrics didn't show up and I wanted to add that extra sparkle of color. Finally I tried the pink. I thought it was way too much pink, but when I actually sewed the sashing into that first row, I really liked it. That was the winner. However, I didn't like that it was a solid fabric. It was a little too plain.

Section of Plain Pink Sashing

I recently saw the book "Doodle Quilting" by Cheryl Malkowski on SewCalGal's Blog. I bought a copy right away because I knew it would come in handy for the Santa Portrait Trio quilt I'm working on. I found the perfect way to incorporate some of the "doodles" in the book into the sashing to break up all that solid pink.

I chose to do a combination of leaves, circles and flowers as the quilting motif for the sashing. Instead of choosing a pink thread that would blend into the sashing, I chose to do the quilting in green. I wanted it to look like a printed fabric rather than a solid. Here's  what one of the sashing strips looks like quilted.

Sashing with the Quilting

After I had done a good part of the quilting, I got really excited. I had achieved the look I was going for. It was pink with an added splash of color and texture. Don't you just love when that happens?

Partially Quilted

Here's what a small portion of it looks like from the back.

 I added yellow for the binding to give it a little more color and sparkle. Here's the finished quilt.

Finished Friendship's Garden Quilt

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'd love to know what you think. 

Happy Quilting and Stitching,

Carol

Table Runners

About a week ago I found a Free Pattern for a Table Runner. It was recommended as a quick last minute project for a Christmas gift. I didn't know what I was going to give one of the people on my gift list and this seemed like the perfect thing, especially if it really was a quick project. All you need is 2 yards of a border print.

So I headed to my local quilt shop in search of the perfect fabric. I didn't see a border print like the sample, but I did find a large scale stripe that I hoped would have the same effect. I also bought a companion floral print to use on the back.

This is the fabric pressed selvage to selvage

I made the top in just a couple hours. It really was fast and easy as advertised . Basically it is a stack of Quarter Square Triangles sewn together in different ways. I had LOTS of fabric leftover. So I decided to make another one. I was going to keep one for me but then remembered someone else that I needed a gift for.

I chose different ways to set the blocks for two different looks. I basted them and quilted them. I chose black to bind them just to pull it all together and define the outside. Here are my finished products.

Finished Table Runners

I even had enough of the border print left over to use on the backs. I thought it would be fun for the recipient to see what I started with and how it ended up in the finished piece. Now I can keep that companion fabric I bought to use on the back for my own personal stash.

Table Runner Backs 

I usually do a label for all of my work. The back is so pretty though, I think I might just sign and date them with a Micron Pigma Pen so it can be used on either side.

Not bad. Two completed projects from one fabric in what probably added up to a full day's work.

Happy Quilting, 

Carol

Celebrate The Seasons Banner

I just finished putting together my version of the Celebrate the Seasons pattern. Now that I'm feeling more confident with my stitching, it is time to branch out and apply my same philosophy to my Redwork projects as I do to my quilting projects. My mom taught me many years ago when I first started quilting that it is my quilt and I can use any fabric I want and make it any way I want. It doesn't have to look just like the picture. Once in awhile I do something similar to the pattern but more often than not, I put my own spin on things.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Here is the pattern for a quilt I was asked to make a sample of to test the pattern and then to sell at shows.

The Pattern

Here's a picture of my finished quilt:

My Confetti Quilt

I've been making minor changes to some of the Bird Brain Designs patterns but for the most part, except for fabric choices, I've made them like the pattern. Celebrate the Seasons is the first one I've done where I've really changed it up to make it mine.

So just like I have shown above, here is the picture from the pattern for the project.

Celebrate the Seasons

And here is my version that I just finished this morning.

My Version of Celebrate the Seasons

It is going to make its show debut at the Tucson Quilt Fiesta! in January. I have been working hard to get UFOs finished during my break. I hope to have several new things in our booth by then.

Happy Quilting and Stitching,

Carol