Hoots

I do adore Facebook.

It has allowed me to hook up & reconnect with people.

One person, for instance, is my sister's best friend from grade school, AT.

As if I didn't have enough quilts on my plate, I decided just after reconnecting with AT, that she needed a baby quilt for, at the time, unborn baby boy.

About the same time, Bo Davis had just published her "Dare to be Square" book.

In it was Hootananny, the cover art.

 

I thought this would be perfect.

So, DH & I pulled some fabric to make it:

Building part 1

Building part 2

The completed top

Once I had the top done in 2011, I thought I would hand quilt it in a continuous circle pattern.

Towards the middle of the summer of 2013 & I hadn’t finished the quilting.

At that point, I was barely 1/5th of the way done.

I decided that I was getting nowhere with it.

So out comes the frogger, aka stitch ripper.

Rip it, rip it, rip it.

Completely frogged and I run out of basting spray.

If you have read my rant from a while back, you know how important basting spray is to me.

Here we are in 2015, and the quilt is still in PhD status.

Whoops.

Happiness is...

Happiness is my second finished quilt for the year and number three is following in short pursuit.

My first finish of the year was a commission piece. 
The quilt was queen sized with a couple of nice borders.  

My favorite part of the quilt was that it was a completely new design. 
I loved the pattern so much I have to make it again. 
I am calling the pattern "Tangled Tumbler." 

It is based on a cross between a disappearing 9-patch and a tumbler. 
This is one type of finished block.

And this is the other.

My silly brain forgot to take a finished picture before the quilt went to its new home. Or even a shot with the borders.                                                                                                                   How do you remember to take photos?

My second finish is this little baby. 
It's a baby quilt for my godson. 
A gal is guild gave me some flannel triangles that I stitched on point. 
Not only did I remember to take a photo of the completed quilt, I also remembered the label.
I think it's sweet. 
What do you think?

In the coming weeks, be on the look out for my Etsy store, Titan Pink Quilts. 

Here I am planning on having patterns and quilts created by me. 

This turn is because, over the last year or two, I have been testing other people's quilt patterns. 

It has been fun. 

More importantly this little adventure of testing patterns has given me many ideas that I am not seeing in the quilting world. 

The loving tree

There are so many cute couples in my life. There is one in particular that has known each other since high school. They got married over Labor Day weekend. I almost had their quilt done before the wedding. Alas, my quilting got goobered up on the border, and I had to frog it. Thus, the hand binding I was doing had to take a pause. I took me just long enough to miss having the quilt done before the wedding.

The process began with asking what their favorite colors and shapes were. They said neutrals, nothing overly bright, with words or anything too funky. So DH & I dug thru my stash. What did I find? Some pretty tree fabric I bought when we were in Wylie for a week. Specifically, Beautiful Trees by Camelot Cottons in a fat quarter bundle.

Next, we looked at a ton of quilt patterns. Had a couple of ideas, but nothing was like "YES!" Then we pulled other coordinates to see what we could come up with. Not really enough to make any specific pattern, especially after we got to cutting. Just not enough for a wonky log cabin or anything. The light bulb went off! And this is what we came up with

Similar to a coin purse type of pattern, with sashing between the charm squares. The sashing was 2.5 inches. Nice & balanced, so I think.

Borders. Yes, it needs borders:

Now on to the basting. I thought I would try glue basting. Precisely, mixing water & Elmer's glue, misting on each layer of the quilt and ironing the water out. It worked. My ratio was 3 parts water to 1 part glue. I just didn't like the crispyness of the texture. This said I am going to keep buying basting spray until I have a frame to quilt on. 

The quilting is a fun swirly pattern throughout the top and the outer border has a nice loopy pattern. The binding is done by hand. I wrapped the backing fabric around to the front with about 1/2 inch showing.  

The gift was given and much loved. 

Least favorite step

So here I was making a facebook post that just blew up into a rant. As to not offend any of the quilters there I thought the rant would do better here.

My weekend plan is to finish the quilts that are almost done I need 2 things: basting spray & thread. Guess I will either work on my hand piecing projects or start other quilts that have been in the planning stages. One quilt I ran out of thread 3/4 of the way though quilting it. ARG! Really I could use a third thing: backing fabric for the Batman quilt that is ready to go as well.

I need the basting spray because I don't like the results of pin or thread basting. Especially after DH pointed out that he things the true definition of insanity lies in pin/thread basting.

I really dislike basting. I wish it wasn't such a needed step. So much work for a temporary need. I guess the only way around not basting is getting a frame for my Beast. (Yes, I have named my main machine.) Or take them to the longarm shop. Hmm. Naw, I like quilting in my house with my music and such like.

My train of thought is quite scattered today. Just writing about the name of the machine spawned another post. And above where I mentioned thread, well keep your eyes open for that post as well.

Oh such a squeal

I am so in love with the last quilt I made. I can share photos yet. I will once the recipient has received it. There were a few bumps along the way. In the end I am very happy with the results. It helps that the quilt features one of my all time favorite characters "Betty Boop."

After I bought this fabric and had Christmas with my family I found more Betty Boop fabric.

There are so many things I learned along the way. Especially in the finishing. I stitched 1/2 the binding down then folded over and went around again. I very much like the results. Also on the quilting of it, I started in one corner and worked my way diagonally to the other. no puckers or anything. And and and...

On to the next one...

This coming weekend I will be taking my 1st ever class. Fun & Done! with my wonderful sister in law. I will be very sad when she moves back to Tulsa, as for now she is close enough for a weekend trip.

Sharing and mutants

I have a hard time remembering to share my work on the internet. My first step was to post completed quilts to my facebook page. I may start posting about the process, thanks Rossie & Modify Tradition.

A wee bit o'background: I have been quilting for about 5 years now. And I may create 5 quilts a year. Almost all of them are gifts. I am still learning the processes and I keep trying to make a better quilt. By that I mean, try with each quilt to make all of the corners line up exactly. My favorite part of the whole process is the creating of the quilt top, from choosing fabrics and the design to the cutting and sewing of the top. Well maybe not so much the cutting, if I ask really nicely my loving husband will grudgingly cut the pieces.

I love quilting and art. Yet over the years I have had a horrible time trying to verbalize and categorize my work. This is a super cool and lovely explanation of what my work is: r0ssie.blogspot.com/2010/05/mutant-quilting.html. We all have moments where we feel we are mutants. So I say embrace it and pass it along. Yet to embrace the mutant you have to know where you come from in order to pass it along. There are a few things in the article that I don't agree with.

As I grow as a quilter things get easier and as they become easy there forms an opening for more complex techniques. Not everything has to be super complex. There is a simplicity in the big blocks and Turning Twenty designs. My current piece is based on a technique that has been around for many centuries. No it's not "modern" yet the image is not traditional for the technique. I find it humorous that both the image and technique individually are many centuries old, yet somehow the combining of the two feels modern.

I feel the need to share this in many places. So, raise a glass to my first attempt to officially start blogging about my work. Ack! I am so scared...