Cursive is a Fading Art

I am excited to share a recently finished quilt, Cursive.  This wall hanging was made for an entry in the Black, White and Pop of Color Challenge issued by the Greenville MQG.  And since I was the coordinator of the challenge, I definitely wanted to participate.

Cursive in front of the James B. Duke Library at Furman University

 The basic rules of the challenge were to create a quilt using only black and white fabrics whether prints or solids and one pop of color.  Some gray fabrics could be used and no side could be larger than 36".  My goal was to encourage participants to create quilts in a modern aesthetic which could then also be entered into QuiltCon East in the small category.

I actually thought of a similar idea back in 2014 when the MQG announced the bias tape challenge.  My idea at the time was to create hand writing paper with a broken midline similar to the paper used by those learning to write cursive.  But since I was able to use only one pop of color, I decided to design the background like ruled three-ring notebook filler paper.

Background of Cursive designed like filler paper

My original idea was to include the cursive words, Practice makes perfect and make them from bias stems rather than bias tape.  Bias stems are made from strips of fabric, cut on the bias and sewn wrong sides together to form a tube.

Since I did not use the more elementary style 'paper' I changed the wording to Cursive is a fading art.  The handwriting used was D'Neilian Handwriting and permission was granted by the developer, Donald N. Thurber.

This blue-gray brick wall found in downtown Greenville (SC) on the way to my MQG meeting was the perfect backdrop for Cursive.

Cursive by Paige Alexander

Most of the fabrics are text related fabrics from the background to the binding and lettering.  Four of the fabrics are from Modern Background Essentials by Brigitte Heitland (Zen Chic) for Moda.  Not able to find a dark gray text fabric, I used another Zen Chic print similar to text.  And you can see I started out with black text fabric and faded to a pure white text fabric (Jam's &Jellies by Henry Glass).  The next to last print is the binding is the backing is College Ruled from Paper Obsessed by Heather Givens for Windham Fabrics.

Fabrics used in Cursive

Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in bright pink was used to make the bias stem to create the vertical line of the notebook paper and was the only bias which was stitched by machine.  The horizontal lines which finished at 1/4" were pieced from Michael Miller Cotton Couture in fog.  The thinner weight of Cotton Couture was perfect since there were bulky overlapping seam allowances on the back.

Vertical line created from bias stem and machine stitched in place

The background was pieced from one length of fabric and, although the text is subtle, I was careful to match the printed handwriting when inserting the horizontal strips.

I had the idea of practicing my cursive handwriting by quilting rows of lower case letters in between the lines.  Spacing of the rows needed to be calculated because some letters drop below the line while other are different heights. Knowing I was not coordinated enough to quilt this entirely free handed,   I drew out every single cursive letter and the horizontal guide lines with a blue water soluble fabric marker.  I tried to choose letters which were not too complicated so that meant not dotting i's or crossing t's.

Lower case cursive letters drawn with a water soluble marker

And another reason to draw out every single letter was that in order to fit the quilt easily under my machine, the letters in the top half were quilted sideways from right to left (top to bottom).  The most difficult part was quilting the lower half where I was actually quilting as if writing the backwards (top to bottom).

Lower case cursive letters were quilted backwards

I noticed the my stitch length when quilting the l's was longer after I rounded the top and was coming out letter.  Aurifil 2600 dove gray was used for the quilting the lettering.  I did use my walking foot to quilt in the ditch along each side to the notebook paper lines.

Cursive detail

This was the first time that I pieced the background, quilted and blocked it before I applied the hand and machine applique (and the binding).  I had no idea how this would work, but it worked out fine.  I knew there was no way I could keep the flow of the quilted letters if I had to stop and work around the applique.  Not to mention, I surely didn't want to bury all those threads.

Cursive detail

The most difficult part was hand appliqueing the lettering to the background and being very careful not to allow my applique stitches to be seen from the back.  I also had to manipulate the stems for turning corners and tight curves and carefully trim them at various angles to hide the stops and starts.

The dots of the i's and the period were made using Karen Kay Buckley perfect circles. I don't remember how long it took to complete the applique, but I stitched it all standing over my ironing board.

Cursive detail

Another shot of the lettering.

Cursive detail

I was astounded as to how creme the Modern Background is compared to the backing from Paper Obsessed.  When they are not together it wasn't that noticeable.

The label was hand written, not in cursive though, with a permanent fabric marker using the same fabric but on a square that was cut on the bias.

 

Backing of College Ruled from Paper Obsessed by Heather Givens

I was thrilled to received 1st place in the Black, White and Pop of color challenge and 2nd place in Gray Matters category of the Asheville Quilt Show.

Cursive received 1st and 2nd place ribbons

Here I am at the the Asheville Quilt Show with Cursive.

Paige Alexander with Cursive at Asheville Quilt Show

Here's one more of Cursive on the brick wall downtown Greenville.  You can see what I used to 'hang' the quilt sitting on the curb.  Loops of masking tape held it in place.

Cursive held in place with masking tape

And this one was taken on the wall of the old Dacusville Elementary School which is now a community center.

Cursive on the wall of the Dacusville Community Center

I know I've shared many photos and a lot of details but I wanted to document it well since Cursive is now in a new home.  After a friend of Susan Bachelder snapped a photo at the Asheville Quilt Show and sent it to her, she inquired about purchasing the quilt.  You see, Susan has just self published a book, Alphabet Crash, about the decline of cursive writing.  It couldn't go to a better home.

Cursive rolled up and ready to ship

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size: 34" x 36" 
• Pattern: Original design using D'Nealian Handwriting
• Fabrics: Background - Modern Background Paper by Zen Chic for Moda and other prints listed above; Backing - College Ruled from Paper Obsessed by Heather Givens for Windham
• Thread: Quilting - Aurifil 2600 Dove Gray
• Quilting design: Free motion and some straight line with walking foot
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Completed: August 2016

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday and Show Off Saturday.

588 Steps

For those of you who have visited the Greek island of Santorini, you might recognize these steps that start at the old port of Gialos and lead up the capital city of Fira.  I snapped a photo just as we were about to descend the long, steeply angled, donkey poop covered Karavolades stairs, all 588 of them. This mini quilt was made for the Photo Inspiration Challenge issued by Alison Glass as part of the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club.

588 Steps by Paige Alexander

My quilt was inspired by this photo taken in May 2011 late in the day as we leaving Santorini for the next stop on our curise.  You can see I decided to leave out a couple of elements.  For one, I didn't know those feet so those were not included.  I had planned to 'quilt' the grates, but forgot as I was quilting.

Steps leading to Fira, capital of Santorini

I also changed the shadow on the top step from curved to straight for ease of piecing.

Detail show angle of the shadow where it was changed slightly.

I failed to follow the assignment completely as Alison suggested 'improv' piecing.  I actually printed the photo in black and white and had it enlarged.  I then traced over the enlargement using waxed paper and cut it apart for templates.  I originally planned to use solids but didn't have enough variety in the light and dark grays so I use these Alison Glass prints from her Sun Print 2015 and Sun Print 2016 collections.

588 Steps completed quilt top

Originally, I didn't plan to include the the numbers which were painted on the steps but thought it might help recognize the steps easier.  To recreate them as close a possible, I traced the numbers onto vinyl tablecloth material and then flipped them over to trace onto the no sew Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold.

I quilted pebbles on the steps starting out with larger pebbles at the bottom and reduced them in size with each step trying to create perspective.  This picture is really not in focus but shows the pebbles more. And you will see why I had difficulty getting a better shot by looking at the video I posted on Instagram.

588 Steps on the fence blowing in the wind

Here is another picture taken of the steps to give your a better idea of what they were like.

Steps leading to Fira, capital of Santorini

And here's the reason for the all the poop.  This is just one donkey, but there were many more.  They made the trip up and down a little scary at times.  When they would come by, I would try to hide behind a telephone poll or lean far over the side.

And here are a few pictures of flowers taken on Santorini.

I am looking forward to more challenges in the Mightly Lucky Quilting Club.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  15 1/2" x 15 1/2"
• Pattern:  Original design from my photograph inspired by the Photo Inspiration challenge by Alison Glass and the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club
• Binding: 1/4" bias binding from 2" strips and sewn down by hand
• Fabrics: Sun Print 2015 and Sun Print 2016 collections by Alison Glass for Andover Fabricsplus a sliver of Kona white in the top step
• Thread: Aurifil for piecing and some quilting plus a few others
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Completed: April 27, 2016

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Fiona at Celtic Thistle Stitches hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday and Show Off Saturday.

And next week, May 2nd through the 6th is the blog tour for Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Vol. 13.  Be sure to visit their blog, Quiltly Pleasures, each day for each stop on the blog tour and chances to win your own copy of 100 Blocks and more.  I'm so excited to have a block published in this issue and my date for the blog tour is Friday, May 6th.  Please join me on the tour.

Peak of Perfection - Sewtopia Atlanta Fabric Challenge

When I heard Sewtopia would be coming to Atlanta, just a couple of hours down the road, and the teachers would be Elizabeth Hartman and Denyse Schmidt, I knew I would love to attend.  But when registration opened, I hesitated a bit on signing up and found myself on the the waiting list. Fortunately, I was able to land a spot through a cancellation, one of only 80 attendees.

In completing the registration form, I was asked if I wanted to participate in the fabric challenge.  I did not hesitate marking that box with a YES!

I am happy to show you my Michael Miller Fabric Challenge for Sewtopia Atlanta, Peak of Perfection.  I am guessing that Sewtopia was named after Utopia and according to Webster, it a place of perfection. The pattern I used is called Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. So I combined the two and decided on the name, Peak of Perfection.  And I know my piecing and quilting are anything but perfect.

Peak of Perfection by Paige Alexander
(Pattern: Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Midst Designs)

The Michael Miller challenge fabric arrived in late February and here is a picture I posted on Instagram.

I received 6 fat quarters and the main print was Color Play in blue by Laura Gunn.  Here it is photographed with 3 Cotton Couture solids, Opal, Lemon and Turquoise.

Michael Miller Color Play with Cotton Couture in Opal, Lemon and Turquoise

Also included were 2 fat quarters of Michael Miller's basics, Painter's Canvas, again by Laura Gunn in Coral and Blue.

Michael Miller's Painter's Canvas n Coral and Blue

According to the challenge guidelines, we could make anything for the challenge and use as least one of the challenge fabrics.  We could add in any other Michael Miller fabrics from solids to prints. The two Painter's Canvas prints spoke to me and I decided to pair them with Cotton Couture in Bright White.

Pike's Peak made its debut in Issue #2 of Make Modern, an Australian digital magazine, and included 2 colors, a lime green and hot pink, both paired with black along with a background of white.  The pattern includes 2 sizes, 50" x 50", Cheryl's version pictured here, and a smaller wall version measuring 25" x 25" which is what I made.

Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs
(photograph used with permission)

The piecing went fairly quick but when it came to the quilting, I ended up ripping out several seams. One time I started ripping out a line of quilting where I was not satisfied with the spacing and started ripping out the wrong quilting line.  So I then removed two entire lines because it was right in the center and did not want the repaired stitching line to show.  I quilted mine similar to how Cheryl quilted Pike's Peak.  In this blog post you can see the detail of her beautiful quilting and her quilt hanging at QuiltCon 2015.

Here you can see more of the piecing and quilting detail along with the two color binding.  I chose to change the binding color in each quadrant. With just 2 fat quarters, I managed to make 32 half square triangles and piece the binding which included several extra seams due to the color changes.

Peak of Perfection by Paige Alexander, detail

A close up of the binding color change is below.

Peak of Perfection binding detail

I am glad to have my challenge piece done with time to spare and excited to be going to Sewtopia! You can see the fabrics I picked out for the Free-Wheeling Single Girl class with Denyse Schmidt in this blog post.  I am working on gathering the fabrics for Elizabeth Hartman's class now.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  25" x 25" 
• Pattern:  Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs
• Binding: 1/4" straight binding from 2" strips sewn down by hand    
• Fabrics: Painter's Canvas in Blue and Coral by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics and Cotton Couture in Bright White
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Thread: Aurifil 2024 White for piecing and quilting

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Anja at Anja Quilts hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.

Friendship Star Wreath Mini Quilt and WIN!

When you mention CHALLENGE I get distracted from my current project, much like a dog chasing a squirrel. Just like Izzy at Dizzy Quilts and Cindy at Hyacinth Quilt Designs have mentioned before.

Earlier this month, I shared with you my Five Times Five mini quilt made in celebration of the Electric Quilt Company turning 25 in 2016.  All year long there will be challenges and giveaways, so be sure to follow along on their anniversary page here.

The Fat Quarter Shop helped them celebrate this month by issuing a challenge to make a big block mini quilt and sharing it on Instagram using the hashtags FQSbigblockchallenge and EQ25.  Here is my friendship star wreath mini quilt made using this tutorial. I was fond of Camille Roskelley's pattern Round and Round when it was published a couple of years ago.

Wreath of True Colors by Paige Alexander

I had a charm pack of True Colors by Tula Pink and wanted to use the beautiful colors in my big block.

True Colors by Tula Pink charm pack

I used the Alternative Method for making half square triangles by Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts.  I was nervous with all the edges finishing on the bias so I gave them a good spray of Magic Sizing before sewing and cutting.  I decided to press the seams open.  With this method it almost eliminates fraying and the risk of the colored threads shadowing behind the lighter fabric.

My only dilemma was which way to press the seams when sewing it all together.  I decided to press the seams of the blocks in the same direction alternating from row to row and then pressed all the seams down when sewing the rows together.  It is bulky in some places and will consider pressing all of the seams open next time.  For those of you who have made this block, which way did you press the seams of the half square triangles and rows?

For quilting, I decided to crosshatch going through the centers of each friendship star marking the lines with a hera marker.  The lines ended up being 7/8" apart and I extended the lines across the quilt.

Crosshatch quilting detail of Wreath of True Colors by Paige Alexander

Here it is the before blocking and applying the binding.  I dunked it in the washer (top loader) with warm water, ran the spin cycle and put in the dryer for about 5 minutes before blocking.

Wreath of True Colors just out of the washer and the dryer a few minutes

Good eye if you noticed the slight difference in the background fabric of the half square triangles and the solid squares.  When starting out, I planed to use Cotton Couture in Bright White for the background, but accidentally grabbed Soft White instead.  All of the background fabric is Soft White, but there must be from a difference in the dye lots.  I will be sure to use from a continuous cut of fabric from here out.  It is not noticeable when hanging up.

Slight variation in background fabrics noticeable in the HSTs

One more picture of the quilting detail.

Wreath of True Colors stars and quilting

I made the double fold bias binding from 2" strips of Wisteria Daisy Buds and used Aurifil 2479 Medium Orchid to hand sew it down on the back.  I just love the way a bias binding feels when you sew it down by hand.

Bias binding and Aurifil thread

One more picture of the bias binding with a mitered corner.

And, I was very excited to find out my big block mini was chosen and I won a copy of EQ7 software! Thank you Fat Quarter Shop and Electric Quilt! 

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  24 1/2" x 24 1/2" (Finished block size 22 1/2" with 1" borders)
• HSTs:  unfinished 3" square, made from charm squares
• Binding: 1/4" bias binding from 2" strips sewn down by hand    
• Fabrics: True Colors by Tula Pink for Free Spirit Fabrics and Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Soft White
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Thread: Aurifil 2024 White for piecing and quilting, 2479 Medium Orchid for sewing down binding

Instagram - If you woulld like to follow along on Instagram, you can find me at @QuiltedBlooms.


I am happy to link up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Lisa in Port Hope hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.

And I am linking for the first time to Afton @ Quilting Mod for Lessons Learned!  I've learned my lesson about using fabric from the same dye lot!

Five Times Five Mini Quilt

We all know 5 x 5 = 25.  And that is the number of years The Electric Quilt Company has been around with Electric Quilt, the leading quilt design software.  I had no idea!  They are having a year long celebration which you can read about here on their blog.

To help kick off  the celebration, Michael Miller Fabrics issued a challenge to create a mini quilt using only Michael Miller fabrics and it must not be larger than 20" x 20".  That seemed doable.  So here is my mini quilt, Five Times Five, measuring 15" x 15".

Five Times Five by Paige Alexander

I only used two fabrics, Quarter Dot and Cotton Couture in black.  I purchased the Pearlized Quarter Dot in black and silver, part of the Glitz collection, when I was working on a quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild's Michael Miller Fabric Challenge.  Here is the half yard cut of fabric with the square cut out for Five Times Time. (And notice how the selvage information lined up perfectly where I cut out the square.)

Quarter Dot where I cut out a block for Five Times Five

The dots were printed at 45 degree angle to selvage so when I cut out the block it was on the bias. The dots did not align perfectly, probably due to me prewashing the fabric, but it was close.  I simply added borders of the cotton couture.  The quilting design worked out fairly well.  I decided to use my walking foot and quilt in a crosshatch grid between the dots.  And when I did that, the quilting lines were exactly an inch apart.  It is hard to photograph black, but here I hope you can see the quilting.

Crosshatch quilting of Five Times Five by Paige Alexander

I thought my idea of the 25 silver quarter dots representing the 25th anniversary of EQ was clever, but my quilt was not chosen as a winner.  I want to congratulate those that won!  You can see the winning quilts on the Michael Miller blog with a link to the winners' Instagram feeds.

Congratulations EQ on 25 years and thank you Michael Miller Fabrics for sponsoring the challenge.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  15 1/4" x 15 1/4" 
• Binding: 1/4" straight grain sewn down by hand    
• Fabrics: Michael Miller Quarter Dot, Cotton Couture in black, Confetti Border for backing
• Batting: Hobbs 80/20 in black
• Thread: Aurifil 2692 for piecing and quilting

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Devoted Quilter hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whomp! There IT Is and Show Off Saturday.