Tranquility: A Quilt Finish

 After our wedding GeoDad and I figured things would be a breeze, our basement was going to be repaired and re-finished and we no longer had to plan a wedding. Anyway, life has funny way of giving people a big middle finger when you start thinking that way and throws curve balls in your face.

Shortly after the wedding life happened.

Anyway, there is nothing about the situation that I can change myself. So I did what quilters around the world do. I sewed.

I took an afternoon off work and pieced most of a quilt top.
Spent the next week of evenings adding borders and making a backing.

Then spent 11 hours on the rental longarm at my LQS quilting.

It took about a week to get binding sewn on.
And this is the biggest quilt I have ever made and it took start to finish less than 3 weeks. (A bit of a whirlwind if you will and I had a deadline, it was getting on plane with me to be gifted to someone when I arrived). 

The embroidered label is simple, it says "May this bring you tranquility where ever you are."

Quilts Stats:
Name: Tranquility
Pattern: Majestic Beauties by Daphne B.
Fabrics: All from the Majestic Beauties Collection for Willington Prints
Size: 96"x98"
Quilted by me on a rental Handi Quilter Fusion 24
Thread: Pieced using Presencia 60wt,
Quilting top thread Isacord Embroidery thread, color Old Gold,
Quilting Bob Thread Wonderfil DecoBob in light grey
Notes: The pantograph I used was called Peacock Palm, it seemed fitting and I wanted it to have feathers, but have never quilted feathers before. The pantograph was very forgiving because nothing had to line up to closely. I didn't realize how much quilting it would be when I started. It is quite dense for a pantograph and very time consuming for such a large quilt. I used more than 2 km of thread between the top and bottom threads for the quilting on this one.

The quilt was gifted to half of the couple it was intended for while the other was out of the country. Now that they have both seen it they are planning sheets and decor to match. I know it will be treasured and I hope it brings them tranquility. 

GeoMama

The Secret Project is Finished

My secret project is finally all finished. I stitched the back of the binding down Thursday night after getting the kiddos to bed and going grocery shopping. I took a few photos yesterday in my Mom's garden and ran it through the wash.

Finishing the binding. It was much to warm to be snuggled up under a quilt, but thats ok.

Today I can let you all know the rest of the details on the secret project, because it no longer has to be a secret. Yesterday, my brother married the girl of his dreams (who I think it totally awesome). They had a beautiful ceremony in the park, and my kids behaved the whole time. 

I had thought for quite sometime this spring that I would like to make them a quilt, but I had a hard time finding a pattern that suited them. Then I found Cynthia from Cynthia from Ahhh...Quilting's Wipey Box Quilt . It was perfect for my brother and his fiancé. 

I chose to do it in browns and greens to match their livingroom decor and quilted it using very dense organic lines on the background. I was hoping to a achieve a wood grain effect because my brother does woodworking for a living.

This is the fabric on their couch and chair (pretty funky, and a traditional quilt just didn't seem right to add to the mix)

For the back of the quilt I did mostly solid brown, but found some brown on brown polka dot fabric, which was ideal because my new sister-in-law loves polka dots. I added their initials in green, in the Playbill font as a tribute to her love of acting and theater. 

GeoDad and Monkey helped me take pictures.

I have a little label on the back, it says "Grow together, love one another and always remember to cuddle"

Finally for the quilters reading this:

Quilt Stats:
Date: Started June 15 and Finished August 1, 2013

Pattern: Wipey Box Quilt by Cynthia Muir from Ahhh...Quitling

Size: 56.5" x 70"

Fabric: Kona Solids in Snow, Peapod, Lime, Honeydew and Brown, Free Spirit Fabrics Solids in Chocolate, Brown and Bronze Green. And Nancy Halvorsen's Cookie Dots in Brown. 

Thread: Pieced with 50wt Aurifil. Appliquéd using Sulky invisible thread. Quilted with Presencia Egytian Cotton thread in 50wt. All bobbin thread was dark brown with spool thread matching fabric on front. 
Batting: Quilter's Dream Green Batting. This batting is made of recycled pop bottles which I think is pretty neat. 
Pieced and quilted: By me on my Grandma's Husqvarna Viking Sewing machine. Quilted using a walking foot. 
Notes: This was a super fun project to put together. The only snag I ran into was accidentally getting 12 yards of double-sided fusible web instead of single-sided lightweight interfacing. It definitely slowed the process down because I had to remove the paper in the multiple steps to get the circles to stay circular. Other than that it made me really happy to be making it as a wedding gift. 


The good news is, they opened it this afternoon and love it!!
I wish them all the best in their new life together.

Now what I am going to sew next?
GeoMama

Work in Progress Wednesday: Finally Quilting

It has been a busy week in the sewing room. I finished the quilt back for the secret project late Friday night and my awesome Grandma came to help me sandwich it together Saturday afternoon. Then after kiddos went to bed I started quilt it together.  Monkey has been coming downstairs with me while LB naps in the morning, I get her set up watching cartoons on my laptop and playing with 'big girl' toys and I have been able to stitch for an hour or so.

I am doing dense organic lines on all the background areas. It is taking a huge amount of time, but going well. The more I work on this quilt the more it grows on my heart.

All rolled up to fit through the throat of my machine (and so you don't see too much, it is a secret project after all)

Still lots of sections need to be finished.

I am linking up with Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday.

Happy sewing and thanks for reading

GeoMama

Work in Progress Wednesday..oops I mean Friday

This week is disappearing rather quickly. Between working, coming down with a cold and heading up to Red Deer for my sister-in-law-to-be's stagette on the weekend I am feeling way behind on life in general. I haven't folded laundry that has been clean for 2 days, I haven't worked on my hexagon project for more than 10 minutes and suddenly it is Thursday  Friday.

On top of all the other stuff going on GeoDad and I went car shopping yesterday  Wednesday which ate up a bunch of time. We figured the cost of repairs to his truck was higher than we cared to pay (and they had to be done to pass an out of province inspection), so we have new-to-us PT Cruiser which should help cut down on gas costs.

But good news on the sewing front. The top of the secret project is all together!!! 48 shapes appliquéd on and back up on the design wall so I can make the back. I absolutely love this quilt and it is making me happy everytime I pick it to sew it.

I have also started getting the back together. Here is sneak peak at the start of it.

My awesome Grandma is coming to help me sandwich the quilt layers together tomorrow, so the back needs to be done before then. Luckily is it very simple. 

Have a great weekend everyone

GeoMama

Annoyances in the sewing room

I had a small crisis in my sewing room over the weekend. Not huge and life threatening, just minor and irritating. It has since been resolved, but I am still mulling over its consequences. It has also forced me to consider a better storage method some of my things, since it would be very annoying if this were to happen again.

So here is what was happening when the small crisis occurred.
I was busy sewing away on the secret project and had finally completed the background onto which I am appliquéing the 48 shapes I have cut out of fusible web and sewn onto fabric. I had previously decided that I did not want to use blanket stitch or satin stitch to hold my appliqué shapes in place so I had purchased some invisible thread. I was ready to rethread the sewing machine and get sewing my first shape onto the background, when lo and behold the invisible thread was nowhere to be found.

This is about when I started to panic, thinking, 'Of all the thread I could misplace, I had to misplace the invisible stuff... Invisible things are notoriously difficult to find, GRRR. This is annoying and is going to set me back for a bit while I go on the hunt'. So I went looking in all my normal spots where I keep thread; I checked the handsewing basket upstairs, I checked my storage cupboards, I checked the box I had been keeping the fabric for the secret project in, but I did not find it. I wondered if Monkey had managed to get her hands on it (and if she did, surely it would be hidden at the bottom of a toy box, never to be seen again). 

I continued to look, and eventually I did indeed find the invisible thread, it had been in my purse since the day I bought it. I was relieved both that it had been found and that, although it is called invisible thread, when it is on the spool it is very visible.

The other annoyance in the sewing room is at myself for not checking what I was buying more carefully a few weeks ago as I started on the secret project. The pattern calls for lightweight fusible interfacing, I bought fusible web. This are not easily interchangeable. The lightweight fusible interfacing I should have bought has glue on one side. The fusible web is a 2 -sided web of glue with a paper backing, the paper backing is giving me lots of trouble because it is not suppose to be in my seams, but I can't keep the shapes I am working with the right shape without the support of the paper. But once the first side it glued and the shape stiched onto the background, it is proving to be rather difficult to get all the paper off.

Anyway, on to happier things in the sewing room. Despite having some issues I have 21 of the 48 shapes stitched onto the background. I think at this rate I am going to need to decide on backing fabric asap. Here is sneak peak of a few of the shapes sewn onto the background (can you see the invisible thread?)

Yep that's right, the slightly shiny line on the dark brown is the invisible thread.

As for the silly little hexagons... 44 flowers completed. I hope to get them on the design wall this weekend to come up with an arrangement, so I can decide if the will be appliquéd onto a background or if I will make more hexagons for the background.

That's all for this week. Sorry for the lack of photos, I have worked 3 out of the last 5 days and we went to the Calgary Stampede. It has kept me busy busy busy. 

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for Work In Progress Wednesday.

GeoMama

WIP: Background on secret project

In between enjoying all the heat this weekend, and hosting a housewarming party I managed to get the background for the secret project sewn together. It is whopping 60" by 80" (not big by quilt standards, but cumbersome to handle anyway).  It is currenly about 10 inches longer than the pattern calls for so I intend to trim it down once the applique is done. 

I got my printer hooked up and was finally able to run some sheets of hexagon templates (using this template from Texas Freckles) for the silly little hexagon project. I basted the remaining blue hexagons (23 total) and 24 of the peachy-orange ones. The total number of completed flowers is 32, with total of 330 hexagons basted. I also have 13 flowers ready to sew (centers and petals chosen, those are stacks of hexagons below). 

I want to be cool so I am linking up with Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday. 

Happy Sewing and thanks for checking in.

GeoMama

WIP: Hexies, Secret Quilt and A New Job

As we get more settled into the new house I am finding way more bits of time for sewing. I am hand sewing while kids snack and play. I also got a desk set up to keep my sewing machine on. This saves me 10 minutes of hauling it up and setting it upstairs and 10 minutes of cleaning it all up when I am done sewing for the night.

GeoDad and I were talking about our budget last week and decided that I did need to be a working a little bit. Although I technically have a part-time work from home job doing some geophysics data processing, the exploration industry has been SLOW this year. That means, while I am available to do work there hasn't been any work for me to do. GeoDad and I agreed that until exploration picks up again it might be good for me to find a evening/weekend job. I got thinking about what I might want to do other than geophysics and figured finding something sewing/quilting related would be pretty sweet. So let's just say, I went looking and found it. I start today at a local store. I am super excited to be working in such a creative environment and thinking I will get to learn alot.

So here is my updates for the week.

The silly little hexagon project:
22 pieced flowers, each one is unique so far.

The secret quilt, is going well. I got 48 templates cut out of fusible web. 22 of those have been sewn to fabric. I have been spray starching the fabric before cutting and sewing and it is making me wonder why I have never starched fabric before. I am a huge fan. The only problem is that I have run out of starch (maybe I was too generous with the first couple yards). I also got all the background fabric cut.

Linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

  

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I am sewing.

GeoMama

WIP: Hexagons and A Secret

The main part of the house is mostly unpacked and I have a great new place to store all my projects. I am working on finding a permanent home for a sewing machine. I am super excited about the two projects I have on the go, so I thought I would do an update. 

 

So here goes the update:

The silly little hexagon project (last update here) is still waiting on me getting a printer to cut more paper hexagons, so in the mean time I started sewing the already basted and starched hexies together into flowers. I am finding this very enjoyable because I feel like I am finally getting somewhere on this project. 282 basted hexagons will make 40.2 flowers, so I have a bit of time to get a printer figured out.

As for the second project that I am currently working on, it is a big secret. Well I guess its not a complete secret, I am letting everyone know that it is happening. But to keep it as secret as possible I am only showing you 2 pictures:

 A giant cardboard protractor

6 Colors of Quilting Cotton (mostly Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton)

You are curious aren't you? Me too... I haven't really done any appliqué before, and this project has a bunch  crazy amount (probably should have read the pattern more closely before I got started... this is going to be a great way to learn some new skills).

I want to be the like the cool kids in quilting blogland, so I am linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

  

GeoMama