Mini-dahlia done!

Woohoo! I got one of my very own quilts done this weekend. I even sewed on the binding and put on a sleeve. All I have left is the hand-stitching (which I've even started!). I've had the center of this top done since 2007. I got the borders put on in May. And now, finally, at the end of August '09, I'm going to get the bloody thing finished. I'm still up in the air as to whether I'm going to sell this one or keep it. I really like how the quilting turned out (except the border-blech).
Here's the whole thing (well, almost, my wonky photography is what it is):
Here's a large shot of the corner quilting, which you can vaguely see in the shot of the whole thing:
And a close-up of my corner/dahlia edge motif:

I did it using Superior Metallic antique silver thread and I really like the texture it added. I didn't do a fill around the feather because I didn't want to detract from the feathers and I liked the texture just the way they were.

My border on the other hand was a different story. I chose to do a long, wrap-around feather with fronds going in opposite directions. It didn't work out as planned :( Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I used 100 weight silk for the border and centers and was intrigued at how it melted away.
My favorite thing about quilting for myself is that when something doesn't look nice, if I don't want to, I don't have to rip it! I found ultimately that I didn't see the border, so it definitely wasn't worth tearing out :) Hooray for not ripping! I also don't worry about my minor mistakes like I have to when quilting for others.

Anyway, I'm happy with it and already onto my next quilt.

Happy quilting!

Backing and batting, thread to follow

First, let's consider backing. The back of your quilt is really what will be touching you the most, so it's important that it's soft and nice to touch. This is particularly true of a lap or snuggle quilt when you won't have a sheet separating your skin from the back. There are several options for backing, the first is to use regular fabric and piece it together--this works fine and then you can usually find a fabric that matches your quilt and that has the hand (feel) you like.
Another option that you'll see at some shops is extra-wide backing, usually 108", but some are 120". There is a more limited palette to choose from, and often the extra-wide is a lower quality fabric that the top which can lead to uneven wear and shrinkage if you wash your quilts. I'm not a huge fan of extra wide backing, but I don't mind piecing my backing either. Like everything in your quilt, it will be your choice ultimately, so if you can't stand to piece your back, extra-wide works great. One exception to my I-don't-like-extra-wide is the cotton sateen extra wide. Very soft and has a nicer weave than most.

Also be aware that you don't have to use the same fabric on the top as on the bottom. When I first started quilting, I put flannel on the backs of my quilts because I liked the softness of it. Later (and still) if I want a soft back, I use a product that is known widely as minkee and its cousins. Minkee is 100% polyester and it's furry. It's not polar fleece, which pills up fairly quickly with washing. It's much softer, stays cleaner and feels fantastic. In some circles, it's referred to it as naked skin fabric. Minkee comes in a variety of textures and colors and is wider than regular fabric; it's 60" wide. Now obviously for a lightweight summer quilt you aren't going to want it, but if you're making something snuggly, it really is fantastic and it quilts beautiful. It's pricey (usually about $20/yd) but it is so durable and often on large or small quilts, minkee ends up being cheaper because it's 60 wide. Go to your local quilt shop and ask to feel some if they carry it. You'll see why I love it so much.

The only caveat any time you use two very different fabrics on top and bottom (say, flannel top, minkee back) is that polyester (minkee) won't shrink at all and flannel will shrink a pretty decent amount. Rather than prewash my fabric (blech!), in this situation, if I'm concerned about uneven shrinkage (which to be frank, I rarely worry about stuff like that, which will undoubtedly haunt me at some point, but hasn't yet) then you can wet the top and dry it however you plan to dry your quilted quilt. I have washed a top in my washing machine before quilting it before, and dried it in the drier, and it came out fine, but I'm not going to recommend that to anyone without seeing the construction and materials. One thing is for sure, if you're going to do that, make sure you stay-stitch around the whole top (a line of stitching about 1/4" all the way around the edge of the top).

If you choose cotton top, batik back, or some variation thereof, you really don't have to worry about uneven shrinkage. Even cotton on minkee is not worth a bit of worry. Another way to alay any fears of unevenness is to use a puffy batt. Flannel is really the only cotton fabric that shrinks significantly. Now, go out and pet fabric until you find the perfect back.

One last note on backing, one thing I really don't recommend for backing and in general hate quilting on is sheets. A lot of people go out and buy a nice big sheet to use as their back, again, so they don't have to piece, so it's cheaper, the list goes on. I'm sure they have their reasons, but sheets are a pain to quilt. They tend to be a denser weave than regular quilting fabric (even cheap sheets), the grain is rarely straight, and they're hard on the needle leading to burrs, crappy tension, and just lots of headaches in general. If you're going to quilt it yourself, you can try a sheet, but make sure you change your needle often and watch your tension.

Onward to batting then!

There are several considerations when choosing a batting (the stuff that goes in between your quilt top and your backing and then you "quilt" the three layers together). Warmth, loft, shrinkage, drape, and how it looks quilted are all factors. There are so many battings on the market that I dare not try to cover them all. I'll mention some that I work with regularly and really like and you can go from there.

Let's start with warmth. If you want a really warm quilt, there are several batts available, but also bear in mind that you can use more than one layer (and even more than one type) of batting in a quilt. The warmest batting that I've worked with is wool, and I've only used Dream Wool by Quilter's Dream. It's very light, but warm, and quilts beautiful. Their wool is a washable wool, which means you can wash it on cold and dry it with no heat. Otherwise it reeeeeally shrinks. Wool is very breatable so it's perfect for warm winter bed quilts or snuggly quilts. You can layer wool too, sometimes dark minkee beards (fiber from the back pulls up through the stitching holes and leaves little 'beards' on the front) and a great way to deal with that is to put a layer of poly (I like Dream Puff) and then a layer of wool. That seems to catch the beards before they make it to the front. Dream Puff (also by quilter's dream) is a really great, warm, cheap alternative to wool. It's got a nice loft (puffiness) to it and works great with minkee to pop out your quilting design.

A more traditional batt would be 100% cotton which will shrink up a little, is moderately warm, and hangs a little stiffer than either wool or dream puff. Cotton is also a very thin batt with hardly any loft. Cotton batts are great for "heirloom" looking quilts that you want to loook old-fashioned. If you quilt a quilt with cotton batt and wash it, it shrivels up just enough to give it that rumpled antique look. I have used cotton batts a great deal on my own and other people's quilts, and while I like it okay, I find that I prefer some of the newer more environmentally and people friendly batts. Cotton (for those of you who care) is extremely water intensive and cotton cultivation has been causing water shortages for people in some parts of the world. Batting uses a huge amount of cotton compared to fabric, so I try not to use it anymore. I like to save most of my cotton consumption for fabric.

The most recent alternatives to cotton still contain some cotton, but they're moving away from that. Two of the main cotton alternatives are soy and bamboo. Soy batting is made from the leavings after soy beans have been processed into various food products. It has the same shrinkage as cotton, is quite a bit softer and has a softer drape. It's low loft, like cotton, too.
Bamboo, another cotton alternative is great because it grows extremely fast, about 2 feet a day, and is therefore very renewable. It requires little to no watering or fertilizer and the processing is pretty earth friendly. It has a very silky feel and soft drape. I carry a new product called Dream Orient from Quilter's Dream that's a blend of silk, bamboo, tencel and a little bit of cotton. It's heavenly and silk breathes really well, while being warm and light, but not smothering you either. MMMmmmm, silk batting is nice :)

I'm still researching alpaca batts for the wool allergy crowd (or even just the wool itchy crowd). Most are blends at the moment, so I'm pushing my favorite company, Quilter's Dream, to make a 100% alpaca wool batt. Any phone calls to them requesting this would be greatly appreciated. Alpaca hair is one of the warmest natural fibers in the world, extremely soft, light, and hypo-allergenic, so it will definitely make an awesome batting, I just need to get someone on the manufacturing end.

There are also a lot of poly-cotton blends on the market, none of which I'm particularly fond of. I do like 100% poly, but I'm picky. Cheap poly is extremely unpleasant to work with because it's scratchy, smells funny, and can be a nightmare to quilt. My current favorite light poly (Dream Puff is 100% poly, but many folks don't like the loft) is called Dream Green and is 100% recycled plastic bottles so it has a soft green tint because they keep the processing to a minimum to keep it "Green". It has a bit of stretch to it, which can be tricky, but it's really soft and smooth and quilts beautifully. I love it's drape too, and it's very thin so it's perfect for a lightweight summer quilt.

So that's a highlight of some battings, but like I said, there are so many different types and brands out there, you should just go out and experiment, touch, and look at quilts with different batts. If you want to order from me, click here.

Next time, we'll talk thread and design.

Happy quilting!

Quilts on the lawn

Ack, I've failed another week. Last week was extremely crazy as one of my employees got very sick and so I worked a stretch of 10 days, which is not ideal for my brain or slipped disk (we have a very hard tile floor in the shop), and by Friday, I just needed a day off and one of my other employees gave me the much needed time. Then this week we've got the scramble of getting ready for the rush of quilters who come through for the big quilt show in Bozeman (Quilts on the Lawn) and on top of all that I'm teaching a class tomorrow (I thought I was teaching it last Wednesday...as it turns out, calendars serve a purpose). So, hopefully Friday I'll have my wits about me enough to discuss, batting, basting, backing, and of course, my favorite topic of all: thread!
In the mean time, I'm back to the rush and grind of primping the shop, prepping the inner teacher, and tackling the more tedious aspects of life as a small business owner.
Happy quilting!

Borders

I took pictures while doing the borders on my Swanky quilt, but a). my camera seems to be having trouble focusing and b). they really weren't very useful. That being said, let us finally carry on with our border lesson.
The first step in doing your borders is to measure your quilt. I don't mean read how big it's supposed to be and cut your borders that length. You actually have to measure :) Many folks just make a big long strip and sew it on and cut it off, and in fact I did that for years. Then I became a longarmer and now I realize that unless you measure, your border ends up as more of a ruffled skirt for your quilt, or more rarely, a belt around its big fat belly.

The way to measure your quilt is this (if you can lay it out, great, if you have to fold it in halves on your kitchen table, that works too): measure the top width, the width across the middle, and the width across the bottom. Sometimes these numbers will be the same, most times they are slightly different. On the rare occasion that they are drastically different (more than an inch), you may want to trim your top if you want it to lay flat and be square. Otherwise, average these numbers. Cut your border strips however wide you want them to be, let's say 6.5" and piece them together until you have enough for that width you just came up with. I blunt piece my borders (meaning I square up their ends and sew a straight seam), but your other option is to piece them on a 45 degree angle. To do this for wide borders, I recommend cutting first.

Line the 45 degree line of your ruler up with the long side of your border fabric. Cut off the end. Then, the piece you're going to attach, cut going the other direction, but also at a 45 degree angle. Piece them together with a little quarter-inch triangle sticking off of either end. (I'll cover this more in depth when I do a special mitered border lesson, hopefully next week, with pictures and all).

So you're all pieced, now cut two border pieces the averaged width of your quilt (*NOTE--it doesn't really matter if you do length or width first, whichever you prefer). Then find the midpoint of those pieces (fold in half and give it a little press to make a crease0. Find the midpoint of the width of your quilt. Now, many people at this stage pin their borders on, but I personally like to use Elmer's Washable School Glue. Line up your centers and working from the center out run a thin line of glue along your quilt top. Lay the border, from center out to the edge. You may have to stretch or bunch up a little bit to make it fit (remember it's an average). Once it's where you want it, press (lift and set) it with a hot iron. Make sure the glue is dry before moving on. Once ironed, it won't go anywhere. Repeat for the other half of that border and the other end. NOTE: If you don't plan to wash your quilt, DO NOT use the glue method. Gluing is for those of us who will wash it out. If you aren't going to wash, do the same thing, but stick a pin every couple inches, perpendicular to the seam and pull them out as you sew.

If your iron got gunked up, get yourself a Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser (the original), get it wet and rub your iron (hot or cold, doesn't matter) really hard on that. Don't worry it won't melt. The glue often hardens onto the iron and forms a dark film--I've never had any issues with this coming off on fabric, it seams to be permanent, but don't use your favorite iron if you're worried about it. Get yourself a nice $10 "Toastmaster" for gluing.

Anyway, now that you're all glued up, go ahead and sew those seams. Then press them toward the border (you may have to tug a little to unglue any glue that squibbed beyond the seam allowance). Don't be scared if you've got some lint transfer from light to dark, this is just dark lint stuck in the glue and when you wash, it will go away. If you're scared. Do a little test with your scraps--glue together, iron, peel apart, wash, if something remains, I'm shocked, but I always tell people anytime they're nervous the best cure is a nice little test.

*I wash ALL my quilts in cold water; if I glued them a lot, I let them soak a little. I dry them too, but much of that will depend on your batting, which we'll discuss next time. Many quilters never wash their quilts. Mine live and are made in a house which is a). not kept very clean because I'd rather be quilting b). inhabited by three black haired shedding machines and also, since I don't prewash, I do like to get the sizing out eventually, after it's served it's purpose. I also use a lot of spray starch, glue, and whatever other chemicals I need to make it work. So, that's why I wash. You decide what's right for you.

Okay, once you're done with the first set of borders, measure left, middle, right of the length, average, cut your borders, find center, align, glue/pin, sew, press and voila! Your first border! If you have multiple borders, continue the process until you're done.

Borders can be a pain but they add a nice frame to most quilts. Doing them correctly is what makes them a pain, but I promise it's worth it in the end because you won't have all sorts of excess border or quilt top that you can't get to quilt out.

I'll discuss batting and backing on Friday and Thread on Tuesday and quilting on next Friday hopefully.

Until then, happy quilting!

Still a train wreck.

I won't lie, dear quilters, my brain is still shot through like old swiss cheese, so my lesson is delayed. Once I make it through Saturday Sampler tomorrow and hopefully get a decent night's sleep one of these days (my cat has returned to urinating on anything cloth he can find if he's inside and yowling beneath our bedroom window when he's outside--he may quickly be incorporated into a quilt project). So between cat pee paranoia, soccer, driving all over, getting so many new things in the shop that it makes my head spin, and trying to get some stuff done around the house before summer's over, I'm useless in the explaining/teaching/writing department. Apologies again! I'll be back on my game by Tuesday and you will have your in depth explanation of how to do borders.

Happy quilting!

Back on the quiltin' wagon...almost.

Well folks, I completely spaced posting last week because I was busy doing the proverbial chicken minus head act when I came back from vacation. I might've been okay, but it was County Fair week here and I judged some of the 4H kids events and did a little workshop. Anyway, point being, even if I had remembered to blog, it would have been gibberish.

Vacation in Cali was lots of fun, including a little sea otter trying to get on our kayak, which pretty much made Erik's life, and mine too, but that man loves otters. Also had deep fried artichoke hearts, which were amazing. All in all we just had a good time with brother-in-law and his wife, who's many beautiful creations convinced me to try to become a knitter. (Knitting for Lily=yarn in a drawer). Someday perhaps I'll actually get something done.

I'm going to forego my border lesson until next week. This week is pretty hectic too with some lessons, still getting caught up from last week, tons of new stuff to deal with and organize in the store, as well as my final two games of soccer :( As a wise magnet on my mom's fridge says, "Life isn't passing me by, it's running me over." That's how I've felt this summer. Things will be much tamer once soccer is done, despite my sadness, it's a ton of time. Course it also allows me to eat more candy :)

Until next time, happy quilting!