Back to school

In contrast to my school time "as if" training, I like to learn while doing something useful, so I decided to make a Christmas quilt from the lot I won in a give away from the "Kludemagasinet" (the Danish Quilt Association's membership magazine). I won a Juniper Berry Layer Cake.

I have never bought a Layer Cake, I sure have more fabrics than I'll ever need for the rest of my life, but it is an interesting way to skip the work selection fabrics that works together in a quilt design. Hmmm.... actually takes a fun part out of preparing for a quilt. On the other hand it might present you with combinations that are outside your comfort zone / usually selection pattern.

 

I went to YouTube to look for a pattern and chose "Square Dance Quilt" from Material Girl Quilt Tutorials.

It's an extremely simple quilt, but as a training project for a novice it's perfect. I need to learn to go about all the basic function, like how to start and stop sewing and build up some good habits.

My first problem was that the upper thread made a messy dot on the backside at the fabric when it's automatically tied at the start of sewing. But lo and behold here again my favored teacher YouTube came to help. There's just not that, you can't find an explanation for there. The problem you might have is what words to use when searching, definitely not the lack of content. There's always someone out the who know the problem you have and want to lend a helping hand.
When I can't find the solution, I can always ask people in Facebook, so I immediately joined a fb group called "Os Der Syr På Bernina" (We, who sew with a Bernina). It's filled with helpful people and also there was a person with the same  start problem as I, so there were several good advices to find there too.

 Down memory lane

The difference between a mechanical sewing machine and a computerized one is as big as the difference between a manual sewing machine and a mechanical one.

My mother worked at a seamstress before she married and she had a rather fancy Singer sewing machine - for that time. It looked like this

and the machine could be lifted down into the table, so that the table had an even surface and look like a regular table. When it wasn't used she hid the legs and pedal under a curtain and used the sewing machine as a table under a mirror in the entrance hall. When she wanted to sew it was carried into the kitchen where she sat in the middle of the room working on her projects.

I remember she sewed all my dresses when I was a child. The first ready made dress I got was my confirmation and 2nd days dresses. It was a big day back then: buying the white dress with matching shoes and white psalm book and a 2.day dress also with matching shoes. Both pair of shoes was very low pumps. A coat and hat and bag was also acquired. The bought/ready made dresses and coat, the hat and the pumps/heels being a traditional marking of being a grown up. 

While my mother was working on a professional embroidery machine at work, her Singer could  sew running stitches only. She managed to decorate some of her own dresses with free motion quilting stitches. Quite an accomplishments when all you could change was the tension and length of the stitches.

I learned to sew - and knit and crochet - from my mother, but we was also taught to sew in school. The sewing machine there was with hand cranks

As far as I remember there was 5 sewing machines to 24 children. And the projects we could sew were very few and simple. Lol
The only project I remember making on the sewing machine is a sun dress (top and trousers). Definitely not a bikini, the trousers were so baggy that they could reach my armpits if I stretched the out. I don't remember ever wearing it, but we did laugh a lot at the design. Looking at it as most of our school projects: not useful, training only.

Spending spree day

My old, faithful Bernina -  bought from an 80 year old lady in 1985 - went to the ghost. 

After more than a month preparation I finally reached a decision. Phew! That was hard. I had a list with 20 "Need to have" and "Nice to have" functions + a list of feet, I wanted. Bernina 570 QE VIO met everything on my list, so I went west to Aladdins Cave aka Allan's symaskine shop i Ribe.

A rather funny shop that sold almost everything connected in the slightest way to working with textiles - looked more like a warehouse than a shop, but with a lot of customers and a rather big number of different sewing machines.

I spend some time using the Bernina and my, oh my, it's a dream come true. It seams like the only thing it can't do is to talk to me :D

I spend some time today unboxing it and learning to fill the bobbin and thread the machine. I decided to sew a simple quilt from the Layer Cake I won from "Kludemagasinet" (the Danish Quilt Association's magazine). It's actually Christmas fabrics (Moda: Juniper Berry), but you can't start Christmas preparations too early, can you?

I chose a simple design: Square Dance Quilt, that I found on YouTube. It'll make me familiar with the basic functions of the sewing machine and I won't cry if I spoil it later when quilting it on the machine too. 

To end the spending spree, I ordered a TAILORMADE DUO sewing table that'll arrive later this week. So "It's Beginning to Look like Christmas" here on a sunny day in February :D

BowTie & Stilettos

The quilt is finished and set on a background frame of dark blue monochromatic fabric. I chose this setup to make the prairie points visible on a white wall. It does show that the quilt isn't a perfect square, but so be it.

As mentioned, I've been working with a serie of quilts made from BowTie blocks. The last one is a mandala like design stressing the beautiful fabrics from Moda: Stilettos. They're so pretty that I hardly had the heart to cut them. 

The technique is still English Paper Piecing. When sewing the block parts together with whipstitches, the thread is visible at the right side, but I've found a method to hide the stitches completely from the right side of the quilt top. (The blue color is the color of the design wall, where the quilt is hanging, not part of the quilt.)

It needs precision to make the fabric lay flat and doesn't pucker. 

But a little squaring up of the top always helps.

I wanted a very narrow black line before the Prairie Point Binding. To get the line very, very narrow, II put a macramé thread into a bias binding, fastened the Prairie Points to the binding and stitched it to the patchwork top. It didn't make it less complicated that I wanted the Prairie Points padded like the top itself!

Finally I hand quilted bubbles around the dark BowTie blocks to add champagne to the dress up party.

(Quilting seen at this backside detail photo.)

Long time, no post

I've done a lot of sewing since my last blog post. I'll try to catch up in the next couple of days.

After finishing CouchPeanut's quilt I found an old machine sewn top in my UFO (unfinished objects) chest. It has a distinctly masculine expression that made it the perfect quilt for hubby :) I asked Brenda Sanders to longarm quilt this top too and she took these beautiful pictures of the finished work.

 

The top has a lot of memories since most of the fabrics are from longs warn out shirts, curtains and portières from the old half-timbered and thatched roofed farm house we lived in from 1978 to 1991. I half expect to see CouchPeanut race by the quilt at her bright red tricycle :)

To Do's

I'm working on UFO's and my To Do list. It's a shortcut to feeling good actually. Logic being:it doesn't take as long to finished a 2/3 done project as it does to start a new. Lolz

So I have made labels for all the quilts I've made this year. My BowTie serie are completed..... unless I come up with yet a nother way to deconstruct the BowTie block.





They're all hand sewn (English paper piecing technique) and hand quilted. I like the English paper technique because it makes it possible to have full control over the design before I start sewing.the patches together.
When I sew "the american way" like I did the CouchPeanut quilt, I often pin at least a portion of it at my design wall with the seam allowance hidden. It is surprising how much difference that little seam makes, especially if the block design has tips that are supposed to meet accurately like the star tips in the eight pointed star block.

Label

I ended up writing the label with a permanent pen. I made a label with common sewing thread and tiny, tiny chain stitches, but I like the permanent pen better. The text stand sharply and clearly defined. I've washed and ironed it to make sure it doesn't run. Better safe than sorry. Lolz.

Done!

The quilt came back from Brenda Sanders Wednesday. Beautifully quilted. I sat down asap and started the final border and late Thursday afternoon, the quilt was all done. All I need now is to make a label. That's a project in itself. Printed in a jet ink printer, drawn with a permanent pen or embroidered? And the text? Short and facts only or poetic with a flower border? Choices, choices.... always choices. Lolz

After that I have only one last thing to do: write the text to Brenda. I have been procrastinating far too long, but it's really hard to write..... 

Daisy quilts for me

Due to the corona virus I can't drive up to Brenda Sander and talk to her about how the star top is to be quilted, but we have had a good talk via good old fashioned email. That part worked well, but I'm sad that I can't see how she's quilting it with her longarm, aka Daisy.

I think Brenda knew my longing even I haven't told her and yesterday she send me 3 photos of my quilt on her longarm. She's the best!!

Photos: Brenda Sanders

It is easy to make promises - it is hard work to keep them (quote Boris Johnson)

Brenda Sanders asked me for some information to add to her blog when she's ready to post my quilt on her blog (DaisyQuiltsForYou). She's interested in "the quilt makers journey when making the quilt and her quilting story." It's exactly what I like to read in other quilters blogs, so what could I do, but promise to deliver. So here I am, working my way down memory lane.

To write about the "CoutchPeanut" quilt is quite easy. I started this English part of my blog writing about that when I brought it back to live in February this year. The posts from February 23rd to April 28th are all about my thoughts and choices around that quilt. So that part is already done, but to write a long quilt life down in a short text seems like a mission impossible.

The hardest thing is to try to gather hundreds if not thousands of memories into one consistent narrative. Maybe a list is a way to start?

• How it all started: The course "Women's pictures. Sew, weave and crochet your life". 1985-1987
  New couse in 1987- 1992: Quilting, a Mental Health Craft.
  My first quilt (and how it later was saved - and still not finished)
  Course taught by Lis Ahrenkiel (my Hawaii quilt - which is finished)
  Publikums prisen 1988: The Fat Grey (quote: Charlotte Yde, who I admire immensely. Both as a teacher and as an artist)
• Techniq skills and the social aspect was the most important aspects
  More UFO's than finished quilts
• Nordborg gruppen:
  Teaching (material)
  Danmarkstæppet, Nordisk Quilte Træf , Oslo 1994 (article in Kludemagasinet 2010/2, by Lisbeth Borggren: "Focus på Danmark)
  Diary
  Editing Kludemagasinet (Grete Lindgaard, Bitten Carl and me)
  Nordborg træffet (block bingo)
  Quilt for Town Hall, Nordborg kommune
  Weekends in summer cottages
• QuiltCon's (foreign teachers: Michael James, Jinny Beier (signed book), Mary Coyne Penders, Dorle Stern-Straeter, .....)
• Lectures with Charlotte Yde: Tradition og fornyelse. (slide show with traditional quilts and modern quilts)
• Photo collection
• Books

My ironing board

When posting about my quilt being posted, I posted a picture of the package placed on my ironing board.



It's heavy, not adjustable (height), rather wobbly and has it's very own special sound when used. But it's a very special to me. I belonged to my late mother and I remember it's sound from my early childhood. I know I could have a far better lightweight, adjustable and wider one, but I can't bear to replace it. This summer, I stripped it from all the strange layers of old towels that had been covering it and making it "soft" under the final metallic cover.


I'm sure it's made by a woodworker in the town, where my mother lived when she married. It's clearly handmade. I know my attachment to it is sentimental and in now way rational, but I find i so beautiful. I even considered to keep it naked as decoration, but decided against it and dressed it up again and am using it for it's original purpose.
....... someone seems to have forgotten an iron on it. Auch!

Cool PostNord tracking!

I usually swear at the slow speed when waiting for a letter to arrive, but a recommended packet has definitely a quite different speed. The quilt to be delivered within 24 hours!! What a pleasant surprise that it didn't have to lie folded within a box for long!
And cool to have the tracking app. Love it.

Off to quilting

The quilt is ready for quilting. As I mentioned before, I decided to send it out to a longarm quilter to have it quilted. Quilting is a slow process done by hand and the size of the quilt would mean that I had to quilt for months. Honestly. I don't like quilting that much! So the decision to send it out for quilting was easy. It's in safe hands at Brenda Sanders who's a very talented and skilled longarm quilter.
So....



here we go....... looking forward to see you again baby.

What did you learn i school today...?

I learned that it's better to cut the tips of the triangles as you go than cutting all of the at the end!!
Hmm.... don't feel like just throwing the cuttings out, must be possible to use them for something....?

Necessity is the mother of invention

I've got a bias strip folder, but it was too big for this job, so I had to come up with a fast solution :)


But I think I'll buy an 18 mm folder next time I shop.........

The sun's shining today

Yay!! Not only had Gitte Andreassen from Gittea Patchkwork just enough of the fabric I wanted for the background, I just received a mail from Brenda Sanders, who my quilting friends tells me is a brilliant "longarm'er". I was afraid she was so busy that she didn't have time for more customers, but I got a positive answer from her. I feel sooo lucky. Unfortunately I can't meet with her at her studio, but I'm sure, we'll find a way to communicate. I feel pretty safe in her hands.

I also got an advice from Lisbeth Borggreen today on the border. She suggested, that I not only added a narrow reddish brown border after the row of beige squares as I planned, but also before the beige squares. I think it's a really good suggestion, that will add the classic look to the quilt, that my daughter wished for, when I began to plan the quilt.

Now I'm only waiting for the mailman to bring the fabric. Luckily I have other project on my design wall :)

CouchPeanut top

The top is almost finished now. I only need to add the border of small squares the size of the 4 corner squares in the block. The 2 borders on the illustration only placed beside the top, not yet stitched. They will be more narrow when stitched (because of the seam allowance). NB. The blue is a sheet that holds the styrofoam plates that make up my temporary "design-wall" together. It's not part of the quilt.


My daughter (aka CouchPeanut) and I discussed the border: should it be just a narrow binding or should there be a row of small squares the size of the squares in the block before a narrow binding of a darker color?

We would have skipped the border if the half blocks along the edges had been from one fabric, but since they are half stars we feel a border will be best. So now that's all I need to do to finish the top. Piece of cake. Will do tomorrow.

We also decided which fabric - chosen among the scraps - should be used as background and I've emailed a photo of it to Gitte Andreasen (Gittea Patchwork) where I bought the fat quarter of it, that was used in some stars at the top. I hope she can identify it from the photo and that she has more of it!! Unfortunately Gitte has moved her nearby shop in Rødekro to Odense. But anyway - in these corona times, the best is online ordering, I guess.

I also have to contact a longarm quilter. Good friends have recommended a highly skilled "longarmer", Brenda Sanders. I hope she has time for more customers. Because she is so accomplished, the demand for her work is high. I really hope to squeeze in.
I read about her in Kludemagasinet some time ago and I have followed her on social media's: her blog, Instagram and Flickr, but the recommendation from my friends made me sure, my baby will be in safe hands with her.

2 hope. Let's see if luck is on my side.....

Think about the quilting

While producing the 85 block, 24 half blocks and 4 corner blocks


 I've begun to think about the quilting. Should I send it to a long arm quilter to have her do it? Or do it myself on machine, which I have absolutely no practice doing or shall I hand quilt it, which will take eternity? And shall the quilting be one big design or repeated block designs?

Evening Star or Eight- pointed Star

NB. Revised post (March 18, 2020)
In the original post, I wrote: "I've been researching the name of the block. Like it's often the case with blocks, it has several different names, but it looks like the most common is Ohio Star."


I was wrong. A good friend of mine - who's a gold mine of knowledge on patchwork and quilts - tells me, that this is NOT an Ohio Star block, but an Evening Star or Eight-pointed Star block.


The photo (and my quilt) is an Evening Star/four patch block that is: 4 by 4 squares (see right outline) while Ohio Star is a  nine patch block: 3 by 3 squares (left outline) and the difference from the two is quite obvious. I stand corrected.

If you're interested in the subject, there are several online articles on block names and of course millions of pages with blocks. One of the better articles are written by Laurette Carroll, a quilt maker and collector from California: "Quilt Pattern Names" At the end of the article you'll find several references to books on block names and designs.


Now it's production time: