The Unblogged: Hot Flush Diamonds

In undertaking the great sort-out of Spring-Summer 2015/16, I've discovered a few unblogged quilts , so I thought I might start a series called The Unblogged. Knowing me, I'll still be blogging the unblogged until 2017, but to show you how dedicated I am, here's the first Unblogged.



It's a monster and it was too big for the clothes line and too heavy for anyone to lift so I cleaned out my closet of skirt hangers and got the ladder out to hang the quilt on the tallest gutters of my house. Oh, and it's 36 degrees celcius outside and SCORCHING. You're welcome.

I started this quilt at a Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably workshop almost 5 years ago.  Good Lord. I finished it last summer, I think. I only say that because I really can't remember, but I do remember suffocating under this huge quilt last summer, so perhaps.



I didn't have much of a clue when I was putting this together. I followed the pattern for Cool Diamonds (from the book "Kaleidoscope of Quilts") to a tee, which meant the quilt size was much bigger than was practical. We have a low queen sized bed, and this quilt is really more a king sized or bedspread size. It's so long it hangs to the floor, and I can tuck my pillows underneath it. Not the most practical size, and also very heavy. So this quilt doesn't get used too often, but it really is very pretty to look at.



Raylee from Sunflower Quilting quilted it in an orange Rasant Thread and I really like it. I didn't want the quilting to blend in, and I wanted it to acknowledge the amount of orange that had crept into the quilt.



I backed it with Martha Negley bamboo print and some spare Kaffe from the binding fabric.



I called it Hot Flush Diamonds because in the book there is a Cool Diamonds pattern, and a Hot Diamonds pattern. I'm pretty sure they are identical except for the colours used. I started out with a cool green quilt but it was bland, so we added orange and suddenly it wasn't such a cool quilt anymore. There were definite temperature spikes in there. Hot Flush. Enough said.

Finished: The Problematic Apricot - a group quilt

This is not the quilt that Michelle made.



This is the quilt that Jan K, Jan M, Tracy H, Tracey B, Ronnie, Margaret, Pam, Merrie, Gerda, Emma, Valetta, Kay, Tina and Michelle made. We are fourteen members of the modern quilting group of Canberra Quilters and we decided to make a quilt to enter into the Canberra Quilters Members Exhibition which was held earlier this month.




And guess what? We won third place in the Group Quilt (Open) category!



So back to the quilt. I suggested at our first meeting this year that we could make a group quilt for the exhibition. We'd made a group quilt before, as an emergency hug for our group's founder when she was unwell, and not only did we produce a fantastic quilt but we worked extremely well together.

We decided to go with the same idea again for this quilt - HSTs are a good option when there are so many of you making the quilt, and it also allowed us to play on the design wall and that's usually the best part. Jenny had sent me a photo for colour and fabric inspiration and so based on that I purchased 22 different colours for the quilt.  There were a lot of pastels in there, much to most of the group's initial dismay, but those pastels worked really well to brighten up the darker maroons, greens, reds and purples.



It was entirely my fault that I didn't get the chance to book in available dates at the Canberra Quilters rooms until May, so in the end only 14 people could join in, and not the 20-odd that had expressed interest. It was all OK in the end though, but I know a lot of people were disappointed they couldn't be there to help make it. (Next year I'm hoping it won't be a nightmare year of household health issues that this year has been and I'll be able to be more organised.)



A couple of the ladies (Gerda and Emma I'm looking at you, you crazy chicks) got creative with the backing. Yes that is a pieced pinwheel back. Yes, that centre point lines up perfectly thanks to Tracy H. And yes, we tried really hard to centre the backing under the centre of the quilt when we basted it and got extremely close!

The quilt top was done in a few hours on a Saturday. The backing was sewn, and binding made, and we had about 6 sewing machines on the go while others cut, matched and trimmed with a couple of BlocLoc rulers that we had brought along with us (I cannot emphasise how wonderful the BlocLoc rulers are - and no they don't pay me to say that!).



We had a lunch break when most of the blocks were sewn - from the far end of the room we kept assessing the placement and then finally one of the ladies got up and starting rearranging at our bidding.



We named the quilt "The Problematic Apricot" because even though we had heaps of people sewing the apricot blocks, a lot of those blocks had to be unpicked as they were just causing too many problems when sewing the strips together. We don't know why - there was no obvious stretch, the fabric wasn't slubby or open weave, and in fact I think the apricot was the most expensive of the fabrics I'd purchased. Jan K and Tracy H did most of the unpicking, saying "This apricot fabric is proving problematic" and the name stuck.



(Here you get to see the full horror of my backyard, a victim of two wounded gardening soldiers - poor yard! These photos were taken over a month ago - it's much worse now!)

We spent an hour one evening a week later basting the quilt, and then I took it home to quilt it. I decided to use my favourite Aurifil 28/2 weight thread in my favourite grey colour 2605. I really do believe the heavier 28 weight adds great definition to the quilt, especially when using thinner cotton batting. Unfortunately half way through quilting it with concentric circles I seriously injured my back (not from the quilting though.). Luckily I could still sit at a sewing machine for periods of 10 minutes and the circular quilting gets much easier (with less wrangling) the further out you go, so the rest of the quilt was done in no time. But I must admit I'm not happy with the quality of the quilting at all and I feel it's the one thing that has let down the quilt. From the back of a galloping horse though, it looks great!

I attached the binding and then handed it over to Tina to stitch down by hand with only 4 days to go until the quilt was due to be handed in. She did the best binding job I have seen in my life. Labels and sleeves were attached the evening before the handover, and we had ourselves an entry!



I'm the very last person you'll find getting competitive in a quilt exhibition, but I was so proud when I got the phone call to say that we had been awarded third place in our category. It was such a great group effort, and we can't wait to do it all again next year.

Details 

Pattern: Random half square triangles
Size: 60 " by 60 " (5 inch finished blocks)

Fabric: Various solids by various manufacturers.

Quilting: Concentric circle quilting done by me on my cantankerous Bernina

Thread: pieced with every thread under the sun by various quilters, quilted with Aurifil 28/2 Weight thread colours 2605.

Batting: 100% unbleached cotton

Started: June 2015

Finished: July 2015

Finished: Trip around Honshu

Before you read anything more about this quilt, you need to go and read this post. Go on. I'll make a cuppa while I wait for you to come back.



Read it? You sure? Great. You are now permitted to read on.




I finally finished my Japanese trip around the world quilt.  I called it "Trip around Honshu" because that's what I did last November during some of the happiest few weeks of my life. I tripped.  Around Honshu in Japan.  So cool.



I finished the quilt top in about August or September last year, around the time that my quiltjo went walkabout. I really didn't like this quilt at all. I'd just come off making a bright rainbow of a quilt, all my other UFOs were bright and loud and sassy, and then there was this beast just sulking in the corner, neither of really caring whether I got it quilted or not.



I take a lot of pride in quilting most of my quilts myself (because then they really feel like they are mine, and not a team effort), but the true beasts I tend to send out to a professional because I worked out long ago that professional quilting is cheaper that physiotherapy. I hadn't used the long-arm skills of my friend Gemma from Pretty Bobbins before, except for an emergency hug quilt our modern group had made that she kindly (and very beautifully) quilted, so I thought now was the time to get her help in working out what the heck to do with this monster. I was keen on something geometric but really couldn't decide, and then at the last minute she showed me a wavy edge-to-edge pattern and I was sold. It really is the perfect pattern for this quilt. The thread is King Tut, from memory. It's kind of a variegated dark pink to red colour and it's perfect for this quilt.



As I've already mentioned, I'd stopped caring about the quilt and just wanted it DONE, so rather than piece a back like I usually do, I bought a wideback fabric online and had it sent to Gemma's studio. It was perfect.

I got the quilt back home just before we left for Japan, but I took aged to trim it, then bind it. In the end I finished the hand binding in only 5 hours on the couch (with breaks). That's 8.5 metres of binding. Is that a world record or something? Totally should be.



I have a lot of favourite blocks. A couple of them have the fabric that my beautiful niece had in her wedding invitations - they remind me of her and her wedding day. I also have blocks that have scraps from skirts I'd made. And lots of blocks with fabrics I remember the exact shop in California that I bought them from. But my favourite block is the one made entirely of owls. I bought all the fabrics from Shuji and there are owl squares throughout the quilt, but I figured I had to have at least one entire owl block in there, right?



So there's my quilt, my Japanese scrappy trip around the world. I showed it to Shuji last weekend at the SCQuilters retreat and he loved it and could identify all his fabrics. People at the Canberra Quilters meeting last night loved it as well. From a distance it has a tendency to sparkle with the lighter creamy fabrics, which is what I think people love about it. It's definitely one of those quilts that is full of memories for me. and I am growing to love it, even though it's not really my style any more. But that's totally OK with me. It might even get a turn on the bed this summer.

Details 

Pattern: Scrappy Trip Around the World (tutorial by Quiltville)
Size: 84 " x 84 "

Fabric: FQs and F8s of Japanese and American Japanese fabrics, collected since 2003

Backing: Wideback from Widebacks.com.au

Quilting: An edge-to-edge pattern by Pretty Bobbins quilting.

Thread: pieced with Rasant, quilted with King Tut.

Batting: 100% bamboo

Started: January 2013

Finished: 4 July 2015

Finished: Maple leaf quilt

All the way back in 2011, there was a little exhibition in New York which displayed over 600 red and white quilts from the one private collection. The event lit up the online quilting world and all over were amazing visions of red and white vintage quilts in cabinets, and hanging from the very tall ceilings. It was just breathtaking (and I so wish I had been there to see it!).

So when The Quilters' Guild of NSW announced that would have a special category in 2015 for red and white quilts, I knew I had to make one and exhibit it! My original plan was for an improv art quilt inspired by a particular favourite work of mine by Piet Mondrian, but even though I sketched it out, bought all the fabric and made several blocks, it just wasn't coming together on the design wall so I scrapped the idea.

In the end I went for a simple design using the fabric and quilting to create the impact, and I am so glad I did. Friends, meet my red and white quilt, which I've named North-West.

No, I did not name it after a Kardashian baby. No, I did not even know who the Kardashians were until recently, and I certainly didn't know there was some poor child named North West or Drain Pipe or something.

(Seriously though, Drain Pipe would be a pretty cool Kardashian name)

I used a simple maple leaf block. Can I just say how much I love this block? I have no idea if there was a faster way of making it, but I worked it out in my head and then realised it needed a stem, so I just flew by the seat of my pants on that too. Everything was made too big and trimmed down to size using my Bloc-Loc ruler (the greatest tool ever invented for quilters).

Anyone who knows me will know that red is my favourite colour. So I thought I had quite a substantial red stash. Turns out I did not. I had red with other colours, but not enough reds that "read as red" which was one of the quilt show rules. So my good friend Bron allowed me to raid her stash one afternoon. I cut enough fabric for four blocks (thanks Bron) and then realised much later that I hadn't cut any stalks out. Wah! But I don't mind embracing the quirky in quilting, so I added some of my favourite ever text fabric by Kumiko Fujita so that each of Bron's leaf stems has a little message.

All 25 blocks of the top came together very quickly, and then my battle was how to quilt it. I've mentioned before that I had stupidly described the quilting as "swirling through the leaves" in the catalogue description, but in the end I didn't have it in my to do circular or curvy quilting. This quilt was screaming out for directional straight lines in a thicker thread, so I used Aurifil 28/2 weight thread in 2024 White.

I started from the middle edge of the quilt and turned the quilt 90 degrees at the middle point and made my way back to the other edge. I was after an arrow in the north-west direction. Sigh. You just can't take the geographer out of the geography department. I echoed this design every half inch. I wasn't intent on perfection and was happy for some wobbles here and there as it gives the leaves more movement, like they are about to blow away (I don't know where they'd blow. East South East perhaps? Down the Drain Pipe?)

This half inch quilting was going really well. It was mindless, I could meditate or listen to music ... and then I realised I was going to run out of thread. And I didn't have any way of getting more of that thread. And also I was really, really getting sick of the half inch thing. So in the last row of blocks at the North and West side, I quilted straight lines an inch apart, intersecting them within the furthest most north-west block (known to non-geographers as the top left hand block).

And the concept worked really well! It definitely prevented the quilt from looking too boring and this is where using the Aurifil thread in the heavier weight definitely paid off.

Here's the back. I don't know why I'm showing you. It's pretty boring but I like how you can see the shape of the blocks through the back.

The label however is not boring. It was provided by the Guild when I got my acceptance letter and I love it. It's based on Maree Blanchard's red and white quilt exhibited at the 2013 show. Maree sadly passed away earlier this year, but she and Bob James still had a beautiful red and white quilt in the show.

As for the show, well what can I say? It was spectacular. I managed to get laryngitis just before the show and I wish I'd been able to ask permission from the quilters there to show you more quilts ina  blog post.

I was lucky enough to do white glove duty in  the Red and White category section on the first day of the show. There were over 110 quilts in that category! I did not intend to dress to match the quilts but there you have it. It was really busy and everyone loved seeing the quilts. If you want to see more of the winning quilts, check them out here.

What else can I say about this quilt other than I absolutely love it? Even though it's been made with my usual simple block design, the fabric selections and the limits of a red and white palette make it quite different to my usual quilts which tend to be a cacophony of fabric and colour. Because of my general dislike of sashing, there is nowhere for the eye to rest, but you also get some interesting secondary patterns in there too. I don't think this maple leaf quilt will be my last, do you?

Details 

Pattern: Traditional maple leaf pattern
Size: 60 " by 60 " (12 inch blocks)

Fabric: Scrappy "reads as white" background, and fabrics from my stash and Bron's stash for the "reads as red" leaves

Quilting: Straight line quilting done by me

Thread: pieced with Rasant, quilted with Aurifil 28/2 Weight thread.

Batting: 100% white cotton

Started: January 2015

Finished: June 2015

Orange Peel Special

My days are filled with cycling to work, work, cycling home, cooking dinner, gardening, household chores. My nights are filled with this:

Endless rows of this:

Backwards and forwards, trying to relax my shoulders, remember to use the knee lift, needle down, turn, one two three stitches, turn.  And do it all over again.

It took me ages to settle on a quilting design. The modern quilt group I go to asked me how I was going to quilt it, and I said "well, on the exhibition entry form, I used the words '... and the quilt is then heavily machine quilted'". I'd built a rod for my own back. But I like how it's turning out.

Of course, once this quilt is finished, I have another quilt to baste and quilt as well. For that one I've said 'The quilting design swirls through the leaves.' Shit. All in three weeks. No pressure or anything.

Scratching the itch

Since the Canberra Quilters' Exhibition a couple of weeks ago, I haven't been that inclined to get in the sewing room. For one, it was messy and my show purchases were scattered everywhere and I just couldn't be bothered getting enthused about that.

Secondly, I lost my sewing machine glasses. Yes, I'm one of those very special people who requires three different strengths of glasses for long-sightedness - weakest for the computer screen, second weakest for the sewing machine, and strongest for hand sewing. I recently got a stronger prescription for hand sewing, which meant all the other glasses got bumped to the next category of close work. I still hadn't filled my script, but I took my strongest pair to the quilt show to do a class, and I haven't seen them since. I have called everyone. I'm convinced they are still at my house, but where they are exactly is a mystery. I have the case - but no glasses.

No doubt they will turn up the moment I bring my new $400 glasses home from the optometrist in a fortnight.



So I've been a bit blind this week, but struggling by on my weakest set of glasses. I've done a little on my grandmother's flower garden, but tonight I just wanted to do something that didn't involve looking at anything too closely. My eyes are tired. Heck. I'm just tired.



I bought the printed Japanese cotton/linens at the quilt show from Studio Mio. I was attracted to not only their prints and how cheeky they were, but also to the depth of colour, and the textures. And I was also very much inspired by the gorgeous clamshell quilt my friend Sam made for the exhibition - it is linen and double gauze and is just so lovely and textured and I fell in love with it immediately. I actually laid out the fat quarters I had bought in the days after the show, but realised I needed some solids. I remembered that Echino did a solids range in cotton/linen, and that's where Kelani came in. I bought all six colours they had and they arrived today.



I've only cut three of each fabric so far to make it cot-sized, but I like where it is headed so far.



(I actually have no idea where it is headed but I'm so bone tired right now it doesn't matter.)



I played around a little with the stars I could see. They might not stay.

Sometimes with quilting there is an itch you just need to scratch.

Rainbows and unicorns

In the not-so-distant past when I was still on Instagram, I spied a special little roll of fabrics that Polka Dot Tea Fabrics were selling in their Etsy store. They recommended that it be bought with some black chambray and never having used chambray in quilting before, I thought why the heck not?




There were 18 rainbow colours in the roll. What else was I supposed to do but make a rainbow quilt?



Bron and I took these photos up at Mt Stromlo last weekend before we dropped our quilts in for the Canberra Quilters exhibition. There didn't appear to be much of a wind when we headed up to the Walking on the Moon sculpture, and yet there was. It was so frustrating while we waited for the gusts to die down, but Bron got to work on her core muscles again so it was all good.



I quilted concentric 1/4 circles on this quilt. I knew I wanted to do that the moment I started putting the blocks together, but it didn't work the first time. So I unpicked, unbasted, got new batting, rebasted, marked a centre 1/4 circle, and started again. The lines are 20 mm apart and I used my walking foot and the guide. The Bernina walking foot guide is a total pain in the arse - it is far too long and gets in the way of the quilt you are trying to feed through the throat space. In another life I might buy a spare set of guides and then take to the extra length with a hacksaw.



The thread I used for quilting was a 40 wt, rather than my usual 50 wt. I wanted the stitching to sit on top of the quilt a bit, to add another texture layer. I think I achieved that.

I got a little whiskering with the quilting lines, but not enough that I don't want to put this on the bed. It certainly won't win any prizes though, but I honestly don't care - I absolutely love it.




These photos happened because we were defeated by the wind.





I wanted to show the back because I think it is pretty cool. I used four different Candy Dot fabrics for the back, and used the excess for the sleeve and the label. I was going to write directly on the back of the quilt with my pigma pen, but the quilt police (MY HUSBAND OMG WHAT JUST HAPPENED THERE?) said I "should go to the effort of a proper stitched-on label" (those were the exact words he used too. He scares me sometimes).




So yeah. I love this quilt. A lot. It's just so ... happy. While I was making it I was thinking about rainbows and unicorns and how sometimes people seem determined to a) not believe in rainbows and unicorns and/or b) kill your rainbows and unicorns with their misery and negativity. I work really hard to be happy and to lead a full life. I don't need negative nellies. No one does.



The working name for this quilt was "Don't f- with my rainbow" but I decided to keep it clean because yeah. Presbyterian.



So please allow me to introduce you to the family- and exhibition-friendly name of this quilt "Don't mess with my rainbow (or with my unicorn)". *quilt takes a bow*.

Pattern: My own design, using the traditional half-square triangle block

Piecing: courtesy of Rasant thread and a BlocLoc ruler

Fabric: 18 different Michael Miller Colour Couture solids, sold in a 5 inch roll; and black chambray. Backed in Candy Dots.

Quilting: Machine quilted, echo style, using Aurifil Mako 40/2 thread in grey (2605)

Batting: 100% cotton

Started: June 2014

Finished: August 2014