Mustard Stain Goes to QuiltCon

When Mustard Stain was started on November 18th, I didn't know if I would have time to complete it by the November 30th deadline or if my idea would even work since I had very little batiking experience.

But here it is...I did finish it by the QuiltCon entry deadline AND it was juried in the the show AND it even won a 3rd place ribbon in the APQ Nine-Patch Challenge.  I was thrilled!

Our MQG's vice president, Faye, asked the board members over to her studio for a day of surface design and play.  Since we had batiked silk scarves with soy wax resist in her studio before, I was familiar with that process and thought I might could some how incorporate that technique into my nine patch challenge.  The scarf dyeing post is here.

Faye had some square cookie cutters in graduating sizes and I thought they would be perfect for my idea of stamping some nine-patches.  I started with 1 1/2 yards of Hoffman You + Me solid batik in zinc which was really white and I stamped away with the soy wax.

Faye sent me home with some Procion dyes in turquoise and chartreuse.  I got home and researched the basics on how to use the dye and started right away.  It was tricky because the soy wax melts at a much lower temperature than other wax.  I think that's the reason the turquoise stamps are not at clear.  This is what the fabric looked like once it was dyed and the wax was removed.  

Batiked fabric using soy wax resist and Procion dyes

I sketched out a design idea and realized I needed to add some turquoise lines between my 'nine' patches to define the bigger nine-patch.  This is my 4" x 4" sketch which was drawn on the back of the Procion dye instructions I had just printed out.  Don't you love my labeling...rather than large, I labeled the stamped nine patches small, medium and BIG.  I think C stands for chartreuse.  

Mustard Stain design sketch

I started cutting and piecing, without much planning, added an asymmetrical border and before too long I had a finished quilt top.  This picture was taken on November 20th around noon, so I didn't waste any time.  Maybe improv is easier when you don't have time to think about it. I guess this is planned improv when I had a sketch from which to work.  It was still all cut with a rotary ruler and cuter, no free hand for me.

Mustard Stain finished top 

Now, how was I to quilt this, my biggest dilemma with every quilt.  I guess I thought about for awhile because this picture was taken on November 21st at 10 am.  And for me, the safest bet is straight line quilting with the walking foot.  I had the idea of quilting it in the chartreuse color and forming one more nine-patch with turquoise thread.  Here I'm auditioning placement of the turquoise lines.

Auditioning quilting path

  

I thought about the binding before I quilted it and knew I would be cutting it close on fabric.  I had the idea of adding a bit of the turquoise in the binding along the right side where the large or BIG nine patch was.  Can you see I had to piece it?

Auditioning turquoise in the binding

Here's a picture taken after the quilting was completed on November 23rd late in the afternoon.  I quilted the four turquoise lines in each direction and then drew a line diagonally to give me a guide as to where to stop and pivot 90 degrees to echo quilt to the edge.  The lines are 1/2" apart and I used the edge of the walking foot as a guide.

Mustard Stain after quilting

I almost always block my quilts and needed to remove the blue marking lines so I dunked it in the washer spun it out.  I fluffed it in the dryer for just a bit and proceeded with blocking.  I did it the same afternoon so it could dry over night and be ready to bind soon after.

Here's were disaster almost struck.  I walked back in the room after 30 minutes or so and the turquoise had bled all into the chartreuse.  I was sick, especially after coming this far.  I had no choice but wash it and try to remove the dye.  I washed it a couple times in very hot water with synthrapol (designed to take our excess dye in the wash) and blocked it second time.  Thank goodness, no bleeding this time.

I was running very short on fabric. Improv is just seems wasteful to me, maybe that's another reason it's hard for me to do.  When I pieced the binding, it ended up with 15 joins with the grainline going crosswise and lengthwise.  This is detail shot that I inclued with the QuiltCon submission.  I decided on this shot because you can see the nine patch formed by the turquoise thread and the binding detail.

Mustard Stain detail

Here's the full shot.  You can barely see where I included the fabric which had been stamped along the bottom and left side of the quilt.

Mustard Stain by Paige Alexander

And you can see the Kaffe Fassett print for the backing and a partial shot of the label.

From all the creative nine-patch quilts in the category, I was excited that Mustard Stain placed 3rd in the APQ Nine-Patch Challenge.  The ribbon matches quite well.  I didn't hear who made the ribbons, but thank you!

American Patchwork & Quilting Nine-Patch Challenge 3rd place ribbon 

American Patchwork & Quilting generously sent the finalists a bundle of their latest publications.  Thanks APQ!

QuitCon was a blast and I hope to share more soon!  You can see all the 2017 QuiltCon winners here.


Quilt Stats:

• Finished size: 33" x 33" 
• Pattern: Original design with one pieced and hand stamped nine-patches forming one large nine-patch with an asymmetrical border
• Fabrics: Hand batiked and dyed fabrics using fiber reactive Procion dyes
• Thread: Quilting - Aurifil 5022 Mustard and 2810 Turquoise
• Quilting design: Echoing straight line with walking foot
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Completed: November 2016

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Finished or Not Friday and Show Off Saturday.

Table Runner from Blue Christmas Tutorial

I recently had the opportunity to teach machine applique using my Blue Christmas Machine Applique tutorial to my local traditional quilt guild and a neighboring guild. Wanting to give the students more options, I designed a table runner using the same applique motifs, a string of vintage Christmas lights.

Christmas vintage string of lights table runner

For the background, I found this harlequin diamond fabric in my stash by Blend Fabric.  The light bulbs are a tone on tone yellow gold and the sockets and strings are a RJR Cotton Supreme solid.  The red border is a Cotton and Steel print, Ornamentals in Cherry, from the Garland line.

Christmas lights table runner

I quilted it with using my walking foot and used the diamond grid in the background fabric as a guide.  I found it still necessary to mark the border to keep the quilting lines straight.  Aurifil 1147 light leaf green was the prefect match.  I quilted right over the applique and bias stems and it worked perfectly.

Threads for applique and quilting

The table runner measures 16 1/2" x 33" only because I was limited on the fabric.  It could easily be made the width of your fabric (using the same yardage given in the tutorial) or even longer.  I found a great backing in my stash.

Christmas table runner and back

The majority of the students choose the make the table runner and made great progress in class.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  16 1/2" x 33" 
• Pattern:  Blue Christmas Machine Applique Tutorial
• Fabrics: Background - Harlequin by Blend Fabric; Border - Ornamentals by Cotton and Steel
• Thread: Applique - Mettler; Quilting - Aurifil 1147 light leaf green
• Quilting design:  Straight line with walking foot on my Bernina 153
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Completed: November 2016

Linking to Finish it up Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday and Show Off Saturday.

Blogger's Quilt Festival ~ Plus Me + You ~ Fall 2016

Amy at Amy's Creative Side  is, once again, hosting the Fall 2016 edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Bloggers may enter up to two quilts, each with its own newly written post, into different categories.

For my second entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival into the mini category, I've chosen Plus Me + You.  It is definitely small, measuring only 12½" x 12½" and is made from 4 Outlined Plus blocks using Hoffman Me + You Indah batiks.

Plus Me + You, an Outlined Plus mini, by Paige Alexadner

In my original post here, I mention drafting the 6" block in EQ7 so I could achieve sharp points with paper piecing rather than traditional piecing.

Completed Outlined Plus blocks and paper piece sections drafted in EQ7

Three sections of the Outlined Plus blocks partially foundation pieced

The quilting was done with the walking foot on my Bernina 153 Quilters Edition using Aurifil 5022 (Mustard).  I quilted diagonally from corner to corner with the lines crossing.  From there, I echoed from those two starting lines.

Plus Me + You after the quilting was complete

I used one of the Indah batiks for the backing and the binding is ¼" double fold bias sewn down by hand.  Oops!  I still need to make the label!

One of my favorite photographs is one taken on the door of the barn loft.

And another close up of Plus Me + You.

Plus Me + You by Paige Alexander

You can find my original post for Plus Me + You here.  And, I have made some Outlined Plus blocks in their original size from Cotton + Steel fabrics and you can find them here.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  12½" x 12½"
• Original pattern:  Outlined Plus by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs, reduced to 6" blocks paper pieced
• Binding: ¼" double fold bias binding from 2" strips and sewn down by hand
• Fabrics: Me + You Indah batiks from Hoffman Fabrics
• Thread: Aurifil black for for piecing and 5022 mustard for quilting
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & Natural by the Warm Company
• Completed: May 31, 2016

You can read about my other entry in applique category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, Witco's Daisies, here and my original post can be found here.

I'm so glad you stopped by!  If you're new to Quilted Blooms, you can read more about me here and see some of my finished quilts in the gallery.

Thanks to Amy for hosting the 2016 Fall edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival and to all of the wonderful sponsors.  Below are the 11 categories and links to each so you can see all the fabulous quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

• Mini Quilts (Plus Me + You entered here)
• Small Quilts
• Large Quilts
• Applique Quilts (Witco's Daisies entered here)
• Art Quilts
• Hand Quilted Quilts
• Home Machine Quilted
• Modern Quilts
• Original Designs
• ROYGBIV Quilts (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet)
• Scrappy Quilts

Blogger's Quilt Festival ~ Witco's Daisies ~ Fall 2016

I'm excited to be able to participate (after watching from the sidelines for many years) in the Fall 2016 edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.  How can this be the 8th year of the Blogger's Quilt Festival already?...time flies!

Bloggers may enter up to two quilts, each with its own newly written post, into different categories.

For my first entry, into the applique category, I've chosen Witco's Daisies, originally made for the Triangle Quilt Challenge for QuiltCon West 2016.

Witco's Daisies by Paige Alexander

You can read my original post about Witco's Daisies, but here are some details along with other in-process photos and some taken today down at the barn.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  31" x 22"
• Fabrics, top: Cotton Couture in Avocado by Michael Miller, Soft White and Black; Woodgrain in Bark from Aviary 2 by Free Spirit for covering buttons and binding
• Fabrics, backing: Bear Essentials 2 in Lime by P&B Textiles
• Fusibles: Lite Steam-A-Seam 2, bottom layer and 805 Wonder-Under, top layer
• Buttons:  1 1/2" covered by Dritz
• Batting: Warm & Natural
• Thread: Aurifil 50 wt. 5016 Olive Green for quilting and Mettler Metrosene for applique

Witco's Daisies photographed on the barn

Techniques:

To prevent shadowing (my #1 quilting pet peeve) of the darker background fabric through the white daisy petals, I used a double layer of the cotton couture for the petals and fused them the background.  It worked like a charm!  The Cotton Couture is the perfect weight, not to thick, for this technique. 

The applique is a zigzag satin stitch by machine.  I explain my applique process in a tutorial here for a pillow with a vintage string of lights.

The straight line quilting was done with a walking foot on my Bernina 153 Quilters Edition using Auriful 5016.  I quilted directly over the appliqued elements.  This photo was taken before the covered buttons were added.

Witco's Daisies before adding covered buttons

I tried to achieve a landscape feel with the angled quilting at the bottom. Here it is on my design wall after trimming and before adding the binding or covered buttons.  

Witco's daisies trimmed before adding binding and buttons

Inspiration:

You may wonder why I added the wood fabric covered buttons as seen here from more of a profile view.  

Witco's Daisies from an angle

The quilt was inspired from this 1960's artwork by the Western International Trading Company (Witco) featuring Tiki style wood elements with Midcentury Modern/Danish influences.  Permission was granted to closely replicate the artwork with more details given in my original post.

Witco's Daisies with wooden accents from the 1960's

 (Photo by DejaVuLB used with permission)

One more photo taken on the barn where you can see the binding detail using the woodgrain fabric.

Woodgrain fabric used for binding and buttons to emulate wood detail in Witco's Daisies

I'm so glad you stopped by!  If you're new to Quilted Blooms, you can read more about me here and see some of my finished quilts here.

You can read about my other entry in mini category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, Plus Me + You, here and my original post can be found here.


Thanks to Amy for hosting the 2016 Fall edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival and to all of the wonderful sponsors.  Below are the 11 categories and links to each so you can see all the fabulous quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

• Mini Quilts (Plus Me + You)
• Small Quilts
• Large Quilts
• Applique Quilts (Witco's Daisies entered here)
• Art Quilts
• Hand Quilted Quilts
• Home Machine Quilted
• Modern Quilts
• Original Designs
• ROYGBIV Quilts (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet)
• Scrappy Quilts

Elephant Baby Quilt Inspired by Fabric

When the Mom-to-be opens your present at the baby shower and cries, you know you did ok!  I didn't ask too many questions about the nursery ahead of time.  But she mentioned she was decorating in gray and white with elephants.  I remembered a fabric I had which was leftover from making this baby quilt and thought it might work.  After all, this fabric from the Zoology collection by Michael Miller included gray, white and elephants.

Zoology in Sea by Michael Miller

I had the idea of enlarging the elephant and including the bird (which I knew she also liked) and adding some rain clouds for a minimalist design.  I was already thinking about the quilting at this point.

I used a circle template and drew two clouds with a flat bottoms.  Are those cumulus clouds?  I'm not sure.

Clouds with angled straight line quilting to represent rain

Planning to applique the quilt top at a Sew-In day with my local modern quilt guild, I prepared the elephant, bird and two clouds ahead of time.  I chose an almost white background, Modern Background Paper XOXO.

Guild members suggested I add a third cloud and have it going off the edge of the quilt.  You wouldn't believe, the fabric for the third cloud, V & Co Ombre Dots in aquatic blue,  was on the free-for-all table at the sew-in.

I managed to finish all of the satin stitch machine applique at the sew-in and here's the top on my design wall back at home.

Free Ride quilt top

Here's a closer look at the elephant and bird.

Elephant and bird appliqued to background fabric

Now that the quilt top was done,  it was on to the quilting.  And guess what...more walking foot quilting!

I'll show you the finished quilt and then explain how I went about quilting it which is very similar to how I quilted Witco's Daisies.

Free Ride baby quilt with an elephant, bird and clouds

I first quilted the horizontal lines below the elephant to establish the ground. The lines are about 3/4" apart and were marked with the Creative Grids Yardstick ruler and my favorite Clover hera marker.  I decided that 3/4" spacing might be too dense and quilted the 'sky' with lines about an inch apart.

I quilted the lines of the sky at an angle to represent rain. I started quilting from the top.  When I reached the horizontal line, I stitched right on top of my previous quilting line, made a U-turn and ended at the top again.  I didn't mark every single line with the hera marker, just every other one.  I just eyeballed it and quilted between the two lines on the return pass.

Every other quilting line marked with the hera marker

The only time I used a making pen was to mark the distance where I needed to stop and pivot for the return quilting line.  Can you see the blue dots on the horizontal line?  And yes, I quilted right over the applique which I also did on Witco's Daisies.

Straight line quilting with a walking foot on Free Ride

The label was handwritten with a permanent marker.  The process is explained in this blog post.  Just ignore the Great Aunt part, I'm feeling a little ancient!  Part of the label was stitched in with the machine binding. The only part which was hand stitched was the right side.

Handwritten quilt label and stitched mainly by machine

I didn't think it would be that noticeable and stitched over the previous quilting lines to attach the label.   Can you see the lines?  The 2nd and 6th horizontal lines are where I machine stitched on the label.

From the front where I machine stitched the label

And since this was for a boy and fairly light and would probably go through many washings, I attached the binding by machine.

Detail of  Free Ride with backing and machine binding

Free Ride was folded and wrapped the evening before the shower.  That was close, but it was finished on time!

Free Ride baby quilt folded and ready to be wrapped

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  Approx. 40" x 40" (Limited backing fabric determined the size)
• Pattern:  Elephant enlarged from Zoology fabric in an original setting
• Fabrics: Background - XOXO in Silver and White from Modern Background Paper by Zen Chic for Moda; Backing - Zoology in Sea from Michael Miller; Binding - Dot and Square from Mini Mikes from Michael Miller
• Thread: Applique - Mettler and Aurifil; Quilting - Aurifil 2600 Dove Gray
• Quilting design:  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.

Plus Me + You Quilt (Outlined Plus Mini)

I was just about to post this mini Outlined Plus quilt for my Sewtopia Me + You virtual fabric challenge entry when I got an email saying the deadline had been extended until June 15th.  So now I have two additional weeks to finish my "Plan A" entry with the Free Wheeling Single Girl quilt blocks I showed you here with the modern batiks.

Mini Outlined Plus by Paige Alexander

Outlined Plus pattern by Chery Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs and is made from 12" traditionally pieced blocks.  I got the idea when I saw Cindy's mini version here made with 6" blocks when she hosted a quilt along earlier this year on her blog Hyacinth Quilt Designs.

I decided to paper piece the blocks, so I drew the block in EQ7 and printed the 6" size.  Here is my first test block which I did not use.  I accidentally reversed the center section when piecing the rows so the background fabric wasn't all going in the same direction.  I also decided not use the Stitches print in Chartreuse for the outlines, but decided to use the solid chartreuse instead.

Foundation pieced mini 6" Outlined Plus block

It took longer than traditional piecing, but I like the sharp points on the corners of the outline created when using foundation piecing.

Four mini Outlined Plus blocks completed

Deciding on thread for quilting was difficult.  I tried Aurifil 2600, a dove gray, but it was too light over the black prints.  I then tried a darker gray, 2625 Arctic Ice, but it was too dark of the plus signs.  I decided to use Aurifil 5022 Mustard and thought it looked fine over the black prints.

Mini Outlined Plus with Aurifil 5022 Mustard

Here it is on the door which goes up the barn loft.

Mini Outlined Plus on the barn loft door

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  12" x 12"
• Pattern:  Outlined Plus by Cheryl Brickey, reduced to 6" blocks foundation pieced
• Binding: 1/4" double fold bias binding from 2" strips and sewn down by hand
• Fabrics: Me + You batiks from Hoffman Fabrics
• Thread: Aurifil black for for piecing and 5022 mustard for quilting
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & Natural by the Warm Company
• Completed: May 31, 2016

Now to see if I can finish my my original plan by June 15th.  Until then, I am linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Leanne at Devoted Quilter hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday and Show Off Saturday.