This quilt is going to torture me until I die!

 I thought I was done, but then noticed that there are more places that I need to fill in with quilting. I sewed the top sleeve on and hung it to see how it would hang. It did not hang flat. So I sewed on the bottom sleeve and there was still wiggle along the sides. Next thing to do besides swear was to tack the facing through the backing and some of the batting. I’ve done that along the bottom and the left side. No wobble now. I still have to do the right side, but it’s hard on my hands forcing a needle through all the that thickness….fabric, fusible, batting. I had to take a break. Here’s some photos before I do a bit of analysis to try to understand the wiggles.  The slats of wood are too large because they are from another quilt that was hanging in this location. These photos were taken before I got rid of the wiggles.

Gravity is always going to win this battle. Fabric hanging on a wall is going to be affected by gravity. It can be controlled somewhat, but not 100%. So what did I do wrong? First off this quilt hung on my design wall for more than 2 years. I’m sure gravity caused a lot a sagging and stretching in that time. So there was already distortion which would lead to wiggles. Another issue was the sky fabric. While it is a beautiful fabric it is much thinner than the other fabrics in the quilt especially since they also have a lot of fusible in them. So I’m sure that would lead to wiggles. A mistake that I made was to quilt the sky scrapers and then eventually quilt the sky much later. In order to get the sky between the buildings to be flat with no kinks I had to press and distort it somewhat. That was probably not a good idea. I noticed that the sky wiggled somewhat when the quilt was lying on the floor. Adding the sleeve and the plank of wood forced the top of the quilt and the sky to be flat. Then the wiggles moved further down into the quilt.

Lastly some of the buildings are quilted closer together and contain more layers of fusible than others and that could contribute to the problem. I did soak the quilt and let it dry flat and that usually takes care of that issue, but maybe not here. 

At any rate tacking the facing through the batting has helped a lot and most of the wiggle is gone. It did upset me for a few days, but now I’m over it.

Thanks for reading.

Current photo of the cats….

Chris

Looking ahead

 I’m nearly done finishing the edges of the Boston quilt. I decided to face it instead of binding it after all. I have the 2 long sides done. Still have to face the top and bottom. The right side was really difficult due to all the fusible along the edge, but I got it done. The second photo shows the facing on the back of the quilt. Of course I still have 2 sleeves and a label to sew on the back before I’m really done.

Now that I’m almost done with the Boston quilt I’m beginning to think about what comes next. I have to quilt my Halloween quilt. I also have a secret project that I have to work on. That will actually be what I have to work on next. There’s a deadline for that secret project.

After the secret project and the Halloween quilt are done I’m thinking about doing an ancient stone structure. I’m thinking about photos we took of Innisfallen Abbey when we were in Ireland. Plenty of time to debate about it. 

Thanks for reading. Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

Squared up and ready for binding

Cutting off the edges and squaring up this quilt was a nightmare. I spent 2 days fretting over it and this morning I just finally did it. The diagonals when I measured them were pretty much equal. Normally I would face an art quilt, but this one is just too big for that. Plus maybe it needs a frame??? I just can’t deal with the wrestling match that facing a quilt this size with lots of fusible near the edges is. Although now I’m feeling guilting for not facing it!

I have cut skinny trial fabric strips to see what fabric to use for binding. I have a lot of potential fabrics, but many of them were just too small to cut all of the binding strips. I think I’ve settled on a blue and purple batik. I wanted one that was not too dark against the sky fabric.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Almost there

The torture is nearly over! I’m basically done quilting. I need look at the quilt and fill anything in that I missed as well as looking for stitches that have come out from all the manhandling of the quilt.

The building I just finished was the row of brownstones. I tried quilting the stair railings, but it just looked stupid. I tried 2 different colors and ended up ripping it out both times. What a pain. I think the problem is that the stitches sink into the quilt. They needed to be on the top. So I should have stitched them in before I even quilted it as in thread painting. I might hand stitch railings in. Or just skip them!

Here’s the back in case you don’t think there’s a lot of quilting in this quilt!  

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Changed my mind….

I decided to quilt the sky wavy and horizontally. I also changed my mind about the thread. The King Tut was too dark for the light parts of the sky. I went with a light peach thread. Too late now since it’s quilted.

Thanks for checking in and reading my blog.

Chris

Bottom right building is done

So now I have to go back to the row of brownstones or do the sky. I’m thinking about doing the sky to get the rest of the safety pins out of the quilt.

Here’s the bottom building.

If I decide to do the sky the question becomes how to quilt it. I’ve tried out several ideas on my iPad. I could quilt in wavy diagonal lines or straight lines. 

I think I’m going to use a King Tut thread that is orange and purple to quilt the sky. Sometimes I wish someone would decide for me!!

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Nearly there….

Even though I only quilt for a short amount of time each day I’m nearly done with the building that I’m working on. I still have some windows, decorative things, and pillars to quilt, but I’m getting there.  I did the top of the building. It’s lot of starting and stopping. I’ve decided I hate pulling up the bobbin thread when starting. I know I’m supposed to do it, but I find it tedious!

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Still working on bottom right building

I feel like I’ll never get it done. I quilt for about an hour or an hour and a half and then can’t take it anymore. I know that it will eventually be done, but it’s so tedious. I still have a long way to go on it. I’ve even simplified things like the windows and even then there’s a lot to quilt. 

I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from making this quilt is not to make one this big again. What sounds like a good idea when I start an idea is not fun in the end!

Thanks for reading.

Chris

If you hate one building move onto another

 And come back to it later. I was quilting the row of brownstones on the right side of the quilt below the skyscrapers. I was getting so bored that I decided to move onto some other buildings. I will have to come back to that row of brownstones. Unfortunately I will have to face them again. At this point I have to quilt the large building in the lower right, those painful brownstones, and the sky. Plus I think I missed quilting some things along the way. 

I think this maybe the worst quilting that I’ve ever done. The bulk and size of the quilt has made it very difficult. Lines are not as straight as I would like them. At any rate it will be done at some point and I can move on. I’ve learned a lot with this quilt. I will share those lessons later.

The cats are doing well. We’ve had them 8 weeks now.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Back to Boston

After a long hiatus I’m back to quilting my Boston collage quilt. This week I’ve been working on the long purple brownstone on the left side. This quilt is so heavy and stiff from all the fusible web that it’s nearly impossible to turn. I try to quilt in one direction without turning so that means lots of starts and stops. That’s not ideal, but easier than turning. 

You can see what I still have to do based on where the safety pins are. I started designing this quilt almost 4 years ago. I hate when quilts make you feel guilty for that long. Time to get it done. I will never make a building quilt that large again. Someone talked me into the size. I forget who that was! Maybe it was me…..

Thanks for reading.

Chris

It was a lot of handmade gifts this year

I finished the vellum quilt of my daughters house. I’m just waiting for the mat and frame to arrive today. I tried to do the siding lines with embroidery floss, but it just looked weird so I decided to machine stitch them. It’s not a great idea to do machine stitching after hand stitching. It was not the best way to do that for sure, but I got it done. I do want to initial it with my initials as well as my dads initials since it was done on a drawing vellum of a house he designed. That’s all the words and numbers that you can see.

My girlfriend loved the Penn State gnome that I made for her. It’s pretty darn cute. It’s now hanging out with the the Christmas gnome that I made for her earlier this year.

The other handmade gifts were for my daughter and her fiancé. There’s the nuthatch ornament, the owl ornaments, the embroidered beret, and the witch gnome complete with pumpkins and tiny mice. It was a busy year! I still have to make a catnip mouse for our kitty.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Another week has passed

I did get some things accomplished. 

First I finished the witch gnome. I have not glued any mice to the pumpkins so our daughter can arrange the mice and pumpkins as she likes. She can put the mice on the pumpkins or in front of them. There is one mouse glued to the witches hat.

I’ve worked on my daughters house on my dad’s drafting vellum.

Here’s the house colored in with markers and intense pencils.

My first attempt was a failure because I worked it too much and the green intense pencil began to mix in with my dad’s pencil marks which grayed and darkened the color. It also made the the vellum wavy.  The other thing I noticed is that some parts were rough. It must have been where my dad had erased during his design.

Then I machine stitched the outlines.

Now I started the hand stitching.  I still have a way to go.

Thanks for reading. 

Back to stitching. 

Chris

Decisions, tests, major failures….oh well

I picked the photo to work with to make the vellum portrait of my daughter’s house. The vellum is one I have from my father’s drafting vellums.

I drew out a pattern to work with and did a rough coloring in on my iPad.

Then I traced it out on the vellum. I usually use Faber Castell India ink makers, but mine were running out of ink so I used a sharpie. 

Then I started to color it in with Tombow markers which I’ve used before. What a disaster! The sharpie marker mixed in with the Tombow markers. Then my dad’s pencil marking began to blur. Apparently sharpies are not all that water proof. And apparently not all drafting vellums are created equal. The Tombow markers beaded up on this vellum. I tested out several of my dad’s vellums and some must have more of a plastic component. So here’s the disaster.

That’s a far cry from what I ultimately want to get to.

I did a trial coloring as well as some trial stitching. What I’m finding most difficult is matching the green of the siding. An online color picker pegs it as gray. So it’s a very grayed green. 

This is the closest I’ve come to matching it on this trial. It’s a combination of a green and a gray marker that are blended together. I can’t find the perfect marker. It’s amazing how many greens there are and how none of them match what I need. I did just order a Copic green gray marker so I’ll see if it works out.

So I’ve bought some more Faber Castell India ink markers and will trace the house on the vellum again. And I will use the less plastic vellum. And hopefully things go better this time!

Have you ever had a disaster? How did you recover?

Thanks for reading.

Chris