Tag Archives: Quilting

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Blast From The Past

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I recently purchased a quilt made entirely out of polyester double knit fabric.   Before you become totally horrified at the thought of that let me explain why.

I believe that these quilts are an important part of quilting history .  Quilting was for a long time assumed to be dying out of popularity.

We tend to think of America’s 200th birthday in 1976 as the beginning of the latest quilt revival.  Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof began collecting quilts at the end of the 1960s. In 1971 they were able to display the most fascinating of their quilts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

These 2 events caused a  gradual increase in women wanting to learn to quilt. Popular women’s magazines began to include more articles about quilt projects.  Quilters used the fabric at hand which was often double knit. Double knits went out of vogue for clothing during the 1970s but they were used to make quilts.

So these double knit quilts do fit into the history of quilting.  They were really at the beginning of the quilting world that we are in now. By 2010 it became a 3.58 billion dollar industry…with patterns aplenty, the most complex of machines and tools, hundreds of magazines….blogs!

Poly quickly went out of use as quilters started to look for more traditional materials….and shops dedicated to the quilter began to operate.  In many ways the polyester quilts of the 70′s are the grandparents of the quilts of today.

My quilt is tied not quilted.  The backing needs replacement because it is rather worn and the batting is in shreds!  Older batting was not resin bonded and needle punched so after several washings it ended up clumpy and bumpy and migrating everywhere, and with a tied quilt there is not quilting to hold that batting in place.

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But the top is in great shape!  The double knit fabric will seemingly never ever wear out!  So I plan a bit of a face lift for this quilt.  I will replace the backing and the batting, and I will do some simple hand quilting….once that is done it will last for many more years of use.

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Here are some pictures of the quilt (click to enlarge)

I put the rings quilt on the couch and Teddy decided that was pretty cool….but when he gets up there he always lands in the center of one of the circles.

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Today I spent the day on the MSU campus for the annual plant sale (I bought a few myself and will write about that when I plant them)  Tonight I am going to work some more on my whole cloth quilt.  I have the center of the quilt in the hoop today and I will finish that area tonight.  It still drives me crazy that the seam is right there in the center but I am trying to get over that.  Also I don’t think I need to be driven crazy…I can walk from here.

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Happy quilting

Tim

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Rings Quilt Finished

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I started this quilt last summer and got back to it this year.  I finished the top on April 22 (see that post here)

I started quilting it on May 5 (see that post here) and I did a short video of the quilting (see that here)

I use about 400 yards of thread on this quilt,   and the quilting took about 10 days (between a few other projects).

I decided to piece the binding with black and white fabric to match the inner border.    The fabric was sewed together in strips

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then cut at 2 1/2 ” and joined together.  I cut it 2 1/2″ wide and folded it in half….then machine sewed it to the front, folded it to the back and hand stitched it to the backing.

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I used muslin for the backing

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The “puffiness” comes from the poly batting.  I felt that if it had been finished back in the year that it was started the original maker would have used poly.

Here are more pictures (click to enlarge)

It was dark when I took the pictures but It just came out of the dryer and I couldn’t wait until morning to take pictures.

Now back to work on the whole cloth quilt.

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Dogwood Blossom Quilt Top

A new vintage quilt top today.  The pattern is called Dogwood Blossom

Dogwood Blossom

This top is 70″ x 83″  and mostly hand pieced.

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The piecing is not the best work but I will do some adjusting on that.

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Click to enlarge these

And here are a few garden pictures

I should be finished with the rings quilt tomorrow

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Happy Quilting

Tim

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Red and White Applique Blocks

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Today I got a group of antique quilt blocks from eBay.  It is difficult to date the blocks because the fabric is  solid red and white.  Printed fabrics are much easier to date based on the design.  These I will just call old.

The blocks are not completed.  The pieces were cut out and basted to the squares, but I will need to do the applique.  You may remember that I hate to applique….but I could not resist these blocks!

One of the blocks has the applique started.

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The seller was selling them individually, but I bought all they had.  I got a total of 13. Each block is 18″ square

Here is how they look if I set them 3 x 4

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and here is how they look if I set them on point and use all 13.

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Either was  think I will make a border to coordinate with the design.  I can not find a name for the design but I will keep looking.

The seller also sent 2 additional blocks

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These will go into another project some day.

Here are a bunch of pictures of them all (click to enlarge)

Of course I will hand quilt this when all the applique is done….but that will be a while yet!

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Free Form Fans

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Yesterday I worked on some of the border on the Rings quilt.  I decided to do free form fans. With this quilt  I just quilted and let it happen because I did not want to do any marking.   I am happy with how it is turning out. The poly batting is making for a rather “puffy” quilt, and in this case I like that.

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I have 8 more rings to hand quilt and 3 borders.

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More pictures (click to enlarge)

Happy Quilting

Tim

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More on Big Stitch Quilting and a video

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I have been working on the Single Wedding ring quilt, and using big stitch quilting.

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As always Teddy is anxious to help.

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I made a short Video of how I do it ( I have been gardening so ignore how dirty my fingernails are :)   )

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Happy Quilting

Tim

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Suspension Bridge Pattern

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I drew up a pattern for the Suspension Bridge quilt I am working on.

Here is the PDF file ( suspension bridge )

Refer to the posts about it here  and  here

I have a hard time sticking with piecing for more than a few days at a time, It feels a lot like work.  So I am taking a break to get back to my real enjoyment, Hand Quilting.

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A few more warm days and the garden continues to grow.

Lots of work to do in the garden….weeds seem to grow no matter what

Happy Friday

Tim

Almost forgot….the real reason that people read is to see Teddy :)

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Half Square Triangle Units…fast and easy

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I have been working on the sashing for the Suspension Bridge quilt.

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It takes a lot of half square triangle units  (24 for each section).  There are lots of ways that I have seen to make these units. The most common seems to be to stack 2 squares together, draw a diagonal line in the center, sew 1/4″ from either side of the line.

3 x 3 half square triangle

Then cut down the line, then press them open and then cut off the dog ears.  This requires a lot of time.  First you have to cut all the squares, then mark them then sew 2 seams on each group, then press each unit individually and then trim them.

I decided to do it differently.

This is the unit I am making.

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Here is How I did it.  First I cut strips of fabric , sewed them together and pressed.

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For this project the strips are 2″.  I cut 8 green and 8 white  and sewed together (15 seams) and pressed the seams to the dark fabric.

Next I drew a 45 degree line through the center and then marked each unit off of that line (if you are very careful about your measuring and cutting you could skip the making and just cut with the rotary cutter and a ruler.

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I hope you can see the lines I marked, here is another picture

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Now just line up the ruler on the marked line and cut them apart.

I got 90 units from those 15 seams and one pressing.  once they are cut apart they are done, they do not need any more pressing and they don’t need trimming, all the dog ears are cut off when you cut them apart.

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ready to sew them together

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and then add to the quilt.

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This quilt will have 31 of these sashing pieces, and each of those has 24 triangle units so I need to make 744 units.  It seems like less of a big deal this way.

Teddy has been watching…and wondering why I keep putting this on the floor in “his” space.

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In other developments I have a Robins nest in the yard again this year.  She decided that the front porch would be a good spot and gets mad every time someone goes out there….I think the mail man is more afraid of the Robin than he is of the dog!

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Spring Flowers and Making Sashing

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It is a beautiful Spring day in Lansing Michigan.  I had to go outside and take a few pictures of the garden.

the weeping Cherry is beautiful!…I wish its flowers lasted longer.

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The yard smells great because the hyacinth are blooming

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Daffodils are still looking good

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Trillium.

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Species Tulips will be blooming soon

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Allium are growing fast

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Peony sprouting

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Bleeding heart taking off

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I have so much yard work to get done!  But I have been obsessed with this Suspension Bridge Quilt I have been working on.

I have three of these blocks finished.

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and if you remember this is the layout I am going to use

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So I wanted to make up some of the sashing.  My first thought was to make the sashing with the same size spikes as in the arches of the blocks.  That was not the right thing to do.  It was just too wide (and in the sample I made I sewed half of the pieces in backward)

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So back to the drawing board (I don’t always get it right on the first try).  I think a good part of the fun is in figuring out how I want to do it.  I decided to go with square pieces….so using the same method, I sewed strips of fabric together.

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and cut out the squares (2″) with the diagonal of the square along the seam line.

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12 squares will make 1/2 of the sashing.

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It helps me to line them up in the right direction before sewing together.

Next I added the center strip.  I cut that at 3″ wide.

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and then I join the sashing pieces between the blocks.

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I will make 12 blocks. And I will need 20 corner stones and 31 sashing pieces and that will give ma a quilt about  74″ x 97.

Here are a few more pictures of the blocks and sashing (click to enlarge)

Each block will be different fabrics and the sashing will all be the same to tie it all together.

I have a lot more to do in this!   I will draw up a pattern and post that soon

Happy Quilting and Happy Spring!

Tim

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Suspension Bridge piecing

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As promised here is how I am piecing the suspension bridge blocks.

Before I describe how I am doing it I need to explain why.  I hate paper piecing…..I just hate it! I know that it has become very popular, and I know that it is a very accurate way to piece, but I still hate it.  It is just no fun at all for me…printing patterns, folding and pressing, trimming and pressing, and folding …….working from the back….having paper to remove…..I guess I am way to lazy to go through all the trouble, and I can live with the imperfections to keep it fun.  Having said all that here is the process.

Start by cutting 2 colors of fabric into strips, for the size of my blocks the strips are cut 2.5″

Sew them together and press the seams to the dark fabric

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here is the template I use to mark the pieces

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here they are marked to cut…I need to cut 28 of them for one block

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cut them out

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sew them together in groups of 7

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press them  and group your pieces together

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sew the arcs to the corners…lots of pins helps

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pin carefully so they come out even…I stat by placing a pin in the center and then the 2 ends and then work out from the center to the ends….

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sew the 4 corners and press.

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Next sew the center square to the center pieces….in this case the center square is 6 1/4″

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Next sew the corners to the center…just like before lots of pins helps

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So there it is finished, easy sewing and I didn’t drive myself crazy, and did NOT need to paper piece.  It still needs a good pressing…next time I will do a post about how I will do the sashing….it will be something like this

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I might make those cornerstones into stars

suspension bridge layout star

Happy Quilting

Tim