Accountability and getting things done

There are too many quilts-in-progress in my house. Some don't have their own space and are stepping in my way regularly to remind me of the need to get them finished. Some others are hidden away in their own little corner, and only confront me now and then. Generally, these quilts-in-progress (is QUIP a known abbreviation?) deserve to be finished. I like them still - well most of them - and even though they got overtaken by an other project, I would not like to leave them as they are. They are worth it! And since their existence alone is making me feel too guilty to start a new project, they NEED to be finished, and the sooner, the better. There are just too many new ideas tumbling about in my head, fighting for their turn to be worked on... I need the old ones to be finished so I can enjoy starting some new!

QUIPs in different stages vying for my attention

So, when my boys all went back to their respective educations, I started my project "getting it done". I am focussing on one unfinished project at a time, which I will stick with until it's completely done-done-DONE!

First up: My bed quilt, the feathered star medallion. It is awaiting some more hand quilting and I will only be able to receive my course certificate when I show it to my tutor completely finished. So while the course administrators are writing out my cert (all approvals are in place bar "finished"), I am putting the last quilting stitches in my quilt. It is the last step for this one; since it had to go to an exhibition several months ago (as a work in progress) it is already bound and labelled. I know, not the usual order of things, but well, sometimes protecting your work with binding is more important than finishing the quilting completely before the binding goes on.

And, for the sake of accountability (which will keep me focussed, too, I hope) I am keeping track of my progress. The eighty spaces between the HSTs each needs a drop shape to be individually marked and quilted. Eight were done before the exhibition to show which way the work was going, so two weeks ago the score was 8/80. Now the score is up to 43/80 and all 80 drops are marked, too. And I am considering finishing off with a few more waves added to the existing one on the very outside border. Anyone interested in more detailed progress reports can follow along on Instagram, too.

For now I'll be spending some more time with this QUIP, so I'm off to sew, of course!

Sandra

Ending City & Guilds with a star...

... and an exhibition in Nadelwelt, Karlsruhe

- warning: photo heavy post -

This week saw this:

It was the last stitch on the binding of the big bed quilt I made as part of "my course". To be precise; the City & Guilds course in Craft and Design for Patchwork and Quilting, level 3 Certificate.

This quilt has been rather long in the making, and of course it needed a deadline to get to this stage! Today this quilt, along with ALL my City & Guilds makes, were being sent to Germany to be exhibited... so the last threads were only tied off 5 minutes before I jumped in the car to deliver it yesterday evening!

A few days ago all my other course material went to our tutor, to be sorted and packed up:

There were two boxes full of samples, ranging from EPP to hand piecing, machine piecing, hand and machine appliqué, hand and machine quilting, crazy piecing, hawaiian appliqué, Mola, Kantha, Sashiko, strip piecing, etc. etc. Then some note books, and a huge folder full of our art work, divided into colour, line, shape, texture, form.

Five items were designed and made during the course and each has its own folder with the design process and samples of all techniques considered (just visible on the left). Then there are the five items themselves: a cushion, bag, box, wall hanging and bed quilt.
Seeing it all together like that I realised why I have not had time for much other sewing in the last few years...

Ah, but you're not here to hear about all the design work in the course or even  to see that last measly stitch on my quilt! So, here is the full reveal:

Hand and (domestic) machine quilting was used on this quilt:

As you can see in the last photograph, the hand quilting is not quite finished - it will be done, I promise - but at least all the quilting that I planned has been started so you can see how it will look in the end.

And the sleeve is on, as well as the label:

Which was very important since like I said, all the work is to be sent to Germany. We (my co-students and tutors) are having an exhibition booth at the large Nadelwelt event in Karlsruhe where we are showing what is really involved in doing a City & Guilds course in Craft and Design. Not just the end results, but the whole process will be shown to the public.

So, if anyone is in the Karlsruhe area on 15 - 17 May, do come along and have a look and a chat, there is bound to be one of my co-students around. And there is some hand quilting action planned, too.

For now, I am trying to get some more blog posts written, and I'll have a leisurely ponder on a next project to work on. One that has nothing to do with any course!

Sandra

Linking up with: Freemotion by the River (linky Tuesday)

Twinkles

My latest project - that is the project I started most recently. I don't want to imply that any previous projects have been finished. Don't get your hopes up yet - is a major undertaking.
Not only is it a full size bed quilt, for our BIG bed, but also it is the final item to be made for the City and Guilds Cert course. So it has to be designed with the brief in mind, and executed to the best of my ability. Now I can do this, I know I can. But being me, I am not going to make it easy for myself, am I?! And I want to make something that I am proud of, that I will be really happy with. No pressure then!
I have long been wanting to make a medallion; I love medallion quilts, and I have never made one. And a square shape will suit our bed so that's ideal.
Also, I have once made a throw size feathered star quilt top (still to be quilted...but that's another story), and I would love to make another. So that's what it is going to be; a medallion with a feathered star centre.

Fast forward some weeks - this has been started a month or two ago - and the brief is written, fabrics gathered, feathered star pattern drawn, and order of construction worked out. Templates have been made, and used, and the feathered star has been sewn together. It is an elaborate feathered star (told you I was not going to make this easy) and I LOVE it.

The rest of the medallion is build up of plain strips, squares, and half square triangle (HST) strips. Which seems rather boring after the intricacy of the centre. So I have decided to liven it up a bit. I am introducing a bit of a sparkle, and a touch of improv, into an otherwise very strictly geometric design. It will be only a touch, mind you, but I do like to introduce a little twist or two into a project.

The first twist I have added, is what I am calling a twinkle - it most likely has been done before, and may have a "proper" name, but I don't know. So I may as well give it a name I like! - Twinkles are small strips of contrasting colour inserted into one round of plain strips in the medallion, in this case to indicate a touch of a starbeam showing - I cannot find "starbeam" in the dictionary, but in the context of this quilt it obviously means a beam of star light - This is what I did:

 * Place the strips where they are to go (around the existing centre), and indicate with a pin where the twinkle will be. In this case I placed the tape measure across, and stuck a pin at the correct angle into the right hand strip, and in the bottom strip:

* Take the medallion strip to your cutting board:

align the twinkle strip (yellow) with your marker (pin)

cut the twinkle strip even with your base strip (blue)

cut the base strip along one side of the twinkle

the pieces you end up with

 Now the most important step:
* Mark 1/4" from the edge that is to be sewn to the main strip (on the wrong side of the fabric). I marked only at the edges which will be in the seam allowance so the marks will not be visible later.

marking 1/4" from the inserting edge

marked 1/4" on both sides

* align edges to be sewn. Make sure that the twinkle fabric (yellow) is shifted so that the 1/4" marks are placed at the edge of the main strip (blue). The pieces are sticking out and do not appear to be correctly placed (but they are...):

* Sew a 1/4" seam, and repeat for the second seam. And there you have it:

twinkled strip sewn to medallion centre

I am happy with it and it went together so easily!
So after all that back to the cutting board. After all, I have a load of HST to be cut for the next border...

Sandra

Seasons

If the gap between blog posts means that the last one was then:

...and this is now:

I suppose you could say I have been missing here for a while!

Since it has been such a long time I am not even going to try to fill you in on anything specific that happened these last months. Suffice to say that it was summer (and a good one, too!), and school holidays, with travel and a visitor (who is very much missed now she's gone home again) and lots of time in the garden, and not much sewing being done at all...

But now the days are becoming noticeably shorter, and school and college have started again, it feels as if the sewing season is starting, too. And so it is high time to get actively sewing again and get some a lot of projects finished. A final serious effort is being made now to get my coursework completed. I have not (yet) dared to make a proper list of everything that needs to be done, because I am afraid that panic will set in when I see how long that list will be! But I know there are legions of small and larger projects started, but not quite finished.

And even though there is a lot still to be finished, I HAD to start sewing on my final (master?) piece for the course, item 5, the bed quilt! Not only because it needs to be finished as well, but also because I really look forward to making it. And in between projects that need to be finished, but are not my favourites (any more), it is good to have one that I really look forward to!

a glimpse of the final course item

And now, in between reactivating my sewing, also a blog post! It seems miracles do happen...

Sandra