Quilting Along with Leah Day - Week 45

Front Side of Week 44 & 45 Practice Piece

December 21, 2012 has come and gone and the world did not to come to end. Not that I was worried. However, I have been struggling with the idea that Week 45 of Quilt Along with Leah Day would be the last assignment. I have truly enjoyed the process of tackling each new assignment. What would I do next to keep the momentum going? It seems that Leah has a whole new series of assignments she has been working on for 2013. Guess what I will be doing?

Back Side of Week 44 & 45 Practice Piece

When I am not blogging about my experience of creating under Leah's tutelage, I plan to share my personal work as well as Tricks and Tips of the Trade. Here is my first tip - there is no right way to do what needs doing in quilting. What is important is to try various ways and understanding what they are and are not good for. Which way to press a seam is a perfect example. When I started quilting, back in the Jurassic era, the hard and fast rule was to press the seam towards the darker fabric. Why? There were three reasons. One, the dark fabric, if pressed towards the light fabric might shadow through. Two, batting tended beard and therefore by covering the seam by pressing fabric over it, batting threads wouldn't sneak out through the seam to the front of the quilt. Three, most quilts were hand quilted. The quilting motif could be designed so that it never had to go through more than three layers (top, batting and backing) versus four layers (top, seam allowance, batting and backing.) My preference today is to press my seams open. Why? The seam allowance doesn't shadow through. The quilt is flatter. I choose a batting that doesn't beard. Finally, I no longer hand quilt. My machine can handle going over seam allowances.

Detail showing a tweaked "Heart Confetti"
quilting pattern. 

What that tip is really saying is that you are in charge of your design and your technique. There is so much praise I could heap on Leah, but I will share one thing here that I appreciate about her. Leah encourages experimentation. She does not insist that things be done her way. Of course her way has come from experimenting and learning what works best for her. In this week's assignment, "Heart Confetti" I diverged from Leah, once again. What I liked about the design was the hearts, the echoing and the pivoting. I'm still not sold on overlapping designs. I did overlap a few hearts in the beginning, but quickly swapped out the overlaps for tripling and even quadrupling my echoes instead. I actually find it less confusing to pivot and echo a design than to overlap. Of course my goal wasn't to cover a big area quickly with an overall pattern. I just want to quilt hearts in the star section of my quilt.

A back side detail of my version of "Heart Confetti."

Once I completed "Heart Confetti", or perhaps I should rename it "Throbbing Hearts", I tried out my own pattern, "Starry Night" in the border. It is done by creating a short curvy line, then a five pointed star, followed by another short curvy line which precedes to spiral first in and then back out again (much easier than travel stitching) then repeat.

"Starry Night" seen from the front.

"Starry Night" as it appears on the back.

I am so grateful that our journey with Leah is not coming to a halt, but will continue on into 2013. I hope you will join me in a year filled with the joy of creating.

Quilting Along With Leah Day - Week 36

I am loving the Flowing Line series of quilting patterns Leah has us working on this month. In this incarnation the eye shaped gaps are filled with Pivoting Paisley. This turned out to be the perfect pattern for my current WIP (work in progress) that involves a series of blocks of different sizes showcasing shells.

Full View of Scallop Shell Block
Quilted with Flowing Lines and Pivoting Paisley

So many of Leah's lessons have proven useful as I created this 15" H x 12" W block. For example how to execute a pattern in quadrants and then in rows or to work my way around a motif. The only time I have to break thread now is when I change colors or come to the end of a spool or bobbin. What a treat to not have a bunch of thread tails to tackle.

Detail of Scallop Shell Block

Then there are Leah's tips, such as the fact that she uses a Quilter's Dream mid loft poly batt. That is what I have been using for this series. The quilting stands out well enough that there was no need to photograph the backside. This piece has been soaked and blocked to remove the starch and water soluble marker. I did not iron it any time.

UFO's of a Different Nature

Ever wonder what to do with class samples? When I first started quilting back in the Jurassic period (1985) I signed up for workshops, lots and lots of workshops. They were a great way of picking up techniques and getting tips. They were also a great way of accumulating half finished projects and samples. Now I rarely sign up for a workshop, but I did commit to doing the assignments given by Leah Day on her blog, The Free Motion Quilting Project. I've done all 35 to date. My stash of samples was mushrooming. What to do?

The answer came when Fiber Artists Coalition decided to create an exhibition titled Salvage and Selvage. All the work in the exhibition had to include recycled materials. Why not repurpose my free motioning quilting practice pieces, using the quilt as you go method and repurpose those samples? Hence Tree Serenade was created.

Tree Serenade
48" H x 40" W

If you have been following my blog you will recognize various pieces of the quilt, such as my "wonky" quilt, several pivoting paisley incarnations, a few branching out pieces, my sample of adding acrylic paint mixed with a bonding medium and the latest assignment based on flowing lines that became the tree. If you haven't followed the blog or just want to jog your memory, scroll through the previous posts and have fun matching them to the background pieces. Note how the quilt as you go method becomes an integral part of the design.

The only portion of the quilt that did not come from Leah's assignments are the leaf clusters. These were made by spray painting dryer sheets, bonding them to drop clothes used to catch paint in my wet studio, cutting out clusters, fusing them to quilt and further securing them with free motion quilting.

Detail from Tree Serenade
Note the leaf clusters made from painted dryer sheets.

Quilt Along with Leah Day - Week 33

Pointy Paisley (Pivoting Triangles)

It's a miracle. Not only did I manage to finish Leah's assignment for Week 33 just one day after it was posted, I also am writing my post about it the following day. Normally it takes me four days from Leah's posting to get my assignment done and publish my own piece. It feels quite good to be so far ahead of schedule. Perhaps I am getting faster with practice. I suspect it is because I have an incentive. I am using many of the recent practice pieces, including this one, in the background of the current art quilt I am working.

Detail from Pointy Paisley (Pivoting Triangles)

It can be difficult to see the stitches on my full view pieces. That is why I always include a close up. However, if you click on any image on the page, you are able to scroll through the images at their actual size (versus blog size) and the stitches are easier to spot.

Backside of Pointy Paisley (Pivoting Triangles)

Leah refers to this week's pattern as Pointy Paisley, but I prefer to think of it as Pivoting Triangles. The idea is to start with a triangle, echo it a few times and then pivot off in a new direction and create the next triangle. The big difference between this pattern and the others in the Paisley family cluster is that the lines are straight.

Detail of Backside of Pointy Paisley (Pivoting Triangles)

I had to do a bit more travel stitching with this pattern, as well as "filler" spaces. You can see this clearly on the backside of the piece. Those aren't hesitation beads at the points, they are thread building up by returning to the same point over and over again.

When I first saw Pointy Paisley, it didn't grab me as a pattern. However, once I finished my practice panel it had grown on me.

Quilting Along with Leah Day - Week 32

Snake Paisley 

Leah Day gave us another permutation on a pivoting paisley to practice this week. At first I couldn't tell the difference between Snake Paisley and the prior week's Lava Paisley. The difference is very subtle and has to do with the original shape that is echoed. Lave Paisley has one sharp point and one rounded end, where as Snake Paisley has two sharp points.

Close up of Snake Paisley

Whether the ends are sharp or rounded, the overall effect is pretty much the same. I also found them just as easy to execute.

I chose this very pale batik to practice on. I will be using it in the sky portion of an abstract quilt I am working on with a working title of Out on a Limb. It could just as easily be used for water, since the Snake Paisley design looks like a lake stirred up by a gentle breeze.

Quilting Along with Leah Day - Week 31

Front Side of Lava Paisley

Is this gorgeous fabric, or what? I just love vegetation, batiks and chartreuse, so couldn't resist buying this gem when I say it. I used a variegated King Tut thread of a similar color way that blended beautifully with the fabric but makes it very difficult to pick out the quilting on the front side. The downside is that I occasionally crossed over a stitch line because I just didn't see it. The upside is that if you don't know where the crossovers are you can't find them.

Backside of Lava Paisley

This is the second in Leah Day's series based on echoing and pivoting paisleys. She titled this Lava Paisley, her husband had another, much funnier name and I have christened it Wiggling Paisley. I'm not sure whether it was executing Pivoting Paisley or allowing the paisley to develop from a wiggling tear, but I found this much easier to stitch than last week's exercise. I also prefer the overall look.

The Detail Allows You to See the Stitching

Although Leah suggests that there is a fair amount of traveling stitching with this pattern, I actually found the travel stitching minimal. It is most noticeable on the back side.

Back Side Detail Shows Some Travel Stitching
and Filler Work

Quilting Along with Leah Day - Week 30

Good-bye stippling. Hello paisley patterns. Our first assignment in the pivoting paisley family could be described as echoing a tear drop. I am used to paisleys looking more like either Yin or Yang. This pattern doesn't curl or have a tail.

Full View of Pivoting Paisley - Mid Scale

Working on a new to me pattern is a humbling experience. This was particularly difficult because I opted to follow Leah's lead and try to execute the pattern in a larger scale than my usual small scale style. I did fine with the inner tears but when I tried to echo them 1/2" or so out I really struggled to keep swooping lines. By the time I reached the outer echo my lines tended to undulate instead.

Detail of Pivoting Paisley - Includes Travel Stitching
and Filler Lines for Odd Gaps

How do you do it, Leah? How do you keep your echo lines so evenly spaced with such perfect arcs and swoops? I can imagine that practice is beneficial, but do you have any other tips for large, even very large free motion quilting?