A New Mystery Quilt: Spinners!

Think motion and designs that spin!  I like to tackle a mystery quilt now and then, and I'm hoping you do, too!   This "Spinners" design has been on my design wall (well, archives) for awhile now, and it's time it found some legs.  The quilt doesn't have a lot of pieces, or small pieces, and I think a beginner would be fine with it--though it may not be appropriate for a first quilt.

There will be 6  or 7 more clues, depending on how I decide to divide up the finishing, and I'll post a new clue each Monday.  (Starting next week, I'll also include a link to print-friendly version of each week's clue.  They will have diagrams, rather than photos, to try to save you some ink.  :-)  

Let's get started with choosing fabric.

Clue 1: Fabric

I will be giving the finished sample quilt to Quilts of Valor, so I'm using a red, white, and blue color scheme, but other colors and combinations will work, as long as there is good contrast among the fabrics.  Think two fabrics with good contrast, and a background (white/tan, in my case).  

I think the quilt would also look good if you used three different shades of the same color  (hmm....blue would be fun), provided there is good contrast.   Winter holiday colors, or colors for a kids' quilt will work.

Large prints with a lot of stuff going on are probably not the best choice for this quilt.

Here are my choices:

You will need:

Red:   1-1/4 yards

Blue:   1-1/4 yards
White/Background:  2-1/4 yards

Inner border:  3/8 yard   (Choose either the Red or Blue; I will be using Red)

Outer border:  3/4 yard     (You can use one of the fabrics in the rest of the quilt--though not the same as the Inner Border, or you can use a complementary fabric.  I will be using the same blue as in the rest of the quilt)

Have fun choosing fabrics, and I'll see you back here next Monday!

Five Arguments I've Had With Quilts (And Who Won Them)

We quilters are accustomed to quilts talking to us, telling us what to do:  this fabric needs to replace that one, that block needs to go here, etc., etc.   Sometimes I talk back.  Well, I argue.  (When you live alone, I guess you like to argue with someone other than yourself sometimes, especially when you don't always win the arguments with yourself.)

Mind you, most of the time I listen to the quilts because they are usually right, but sometimes I'm a contrarian and I really don't want to do what they tell me.   Here are five of the most vigorous discussions I've had with quilts.   You don't need to keep score; I'll track which of us won the arguments.

1. "The sashing needs to be narrower.  Narrower.  Narrower."

This was simply trying to avoid very narrow sashing, because I know many people don't like to cut and piece narrower strips; they're "fussier" and you have to be careful about accuracy, because 1/16" error across a 1" cut is more noticeable than across, say, 2-1/2"--which is the size of the sashing I started with on Underwater Basketweaving.   Truthfully, I knew that was much too wide but it's a handy, common size in quilting.

So I cut it down to 2", then 1-1/2", and finally, reluctantly, 1" (finishing at 1/2").   Really, it couldn't have been any wider; it just looked too clunky and detracted from the diagonal block design.

Students in the class complained about it and, to to this day, some are still cursing my name.   Sorry, but it had to be!

Quilt:  1
Karen:  0

  

2. " The quilting needs to be straight lines.  And 1/4" apart."

I have a longarm (Molly) and I love her dearly, but she is hand-guided so straight lines are no picnic.  If a quilt is small enough I will opt to do straight lines on my domestic machine, rather than loading up Molly.  However, I was determined to get better at custom quilting on the longarm and this is a fairly sizeable quilt, so....

I wanted the green shapes to be quilted to look like plowing. The "fields" are quilted with straight lines, 1/4" apart.  I tried 1" apart.  I wasn't having any more luck with that argument here than I did with Underwater Basketweaving and the sashing.  So, 1/2" apart.  Sigh.  All, right; 1/4" apart.

 MOST of the fields are straight lines, 1/4" apart.  (I DID learn a lot while doing it.)  I rebelled and did one of the fields with 1/2" lines, and one even has curved lines, as if it was contour plowed.

So, I'm going to score this one as:

Quilt:  1/2
Karen:  1/2

3.  "This Focus Fabric is Perfect Where It Is.  Keep it."

I love the colors in the floral fabric at the top,  which is why I chose it to be the focus for my color choices for the rest of the quilt.  (This was made in a "Quilter's Playtime" class with Dianne S. Hire.  If you think you might like to try improvisational quilting for a whimsical quilt, this is a terrific resource.  It's out of print, but track down a used copy.  It's tremendous fun.)

I've been putting off quilting this because I just can't make up my mind about that fabric in the quilt.  As inspiration for color it was top-notch but I'm just not sure....The quilt keeps saying, "Keep me, keep me!"  but I'm still arguing this one.  "OK, smarty; what would you put in its place?"  "Well, maybe a solid color, or more black and white."  "Blah, blah, blah...."  

Yep.  This could go on forever.  And it very well might!

How to score this one?   Argument called on account of....wishy-washiness??

Quilt?
Karen?

4.  "The cords need to extend into the binding."

I didn't argue this one for very long before I succumbed, because I really did agree with it.  But I almost rebelled while I was doing it.  The black was tricky enough--getting it to be in just the right spot, and EXACTLY the same width as the pieced cord was at the edge point where it met the binding.  But he floral?  Ay, yi, yi.  That angle was a hair-tearer.   A mathematician or a finish carpenter would have been able to do it in a flash, I'm sure, but I am neither of those.   There was some colorful language in that argument but the quilt fought back.

BTW, the name of the quilt is "Unplugged."  You don't need to be an electrician to know that ALL of these cords are unplugged.  It's a metaphor.  And the quilt told me that all the plugs wanted prongs. (And grounds, of course.)

Quilt: 1
Karen: 0

5.  "I want pink."

I like pink, I really do.  I can even wear it pretty well.  It just isn't really my thing.   When I first designed 'Boxed In" as a bonus pattern for my Frivolity group it was all black and white and grays, and I liked it that way.  But I wanted a punch of color in there.   I tried purple.  "I want pink."  Nope, not doing pink.  I tried teal.  "I want pink."  Nope, not doing pink.  I tried bright green.  "I want pink."   Sigh.

But I really didn't want to give in on this one so, in the end:

Quilt:  1/2
Karen:  1/2

The scoring (such as it is, incomplete as it is) puts the quilts a bit ahead but, of course, they were all a win for me, too; the quilts are better for it and it didn't hurt me to work through other options.

  I just like to win an argument now and then.

THIS Design. No, Maybe This One. Or This One.

I don't really do New Years resolutions, but if I did I would have resolved to spend 2016 focused more on teaching and one-of-a-kind designs, and less on published patterns.   So far, so good--though at only a bit more than 3 weeks into the year it may be too soon to celebrate success.  It's back to "Design Mondays" for the Spinster.  :-)  And she's pretty happy about that.

I'm still designing things for classes and for a few special events at my LQS, and I'm trolling around for ideas for a May class.   People have been asking for a curved piecing class, and I've been thinking about a Drunkard's Path class for some time, but I haven't quite hit on the right design.  In the end I might just do a fairly standard DP design but it has revisiting a design I did months (or maybe years, at this point) ago.   It was originally for a class, but its time had not come,   Still, I like the basics of the design and decided to pursue more designing today.

Retro Fans Original

Here's the original design:  Retro Fans, which combines Drunkard's Path and Pinwheel blocks.  I really, really like the basic "block", the variety of colors and the simplicity of it all.

Retro Fans Class 1

 Originally, for the class (way back when) I wanted to simplify even more, so participants wouldn't be daunted by the number of units they'd have to make.  So, I reduced the number of units/blocks, and set it in a modern, a-symmetrical set.

Retro Fans 1

I still like that, but for a one-off design for myself I wanted a little more....something.   Thinking that I might like a base or stand for the fan, I tried a few possibilities and, in the end, settled on triangles.  And a fan makes the air move, so perhaps something to signify the waves of air movement would add to the design.  Odd numbers, especially 3, are more pleasing to the eye, and I like a bit of shift from straight-line order.   This is still pretty symmetrical, but OK.   MAYBE this one would be it?

Retro Fans 2

Yeah, no.  Not it.  Not yet.  It's better with graduated length of lines, don't you think?   You probably can't tell the difference, but the lines in this version aren't all centered in the "blocks" for the lines.   It changes the spacing, which might not seem significant--especially in an illustration this small, but it does change the spacing between the lines.  I may or may not like it.






But there are other ideas to try out, as they start rolling through my brain.   We could extend with lines, with a a break in them, of course, to give us some white space.  We could shift the whole design concept into a diagonal.   I'm finding that rather a good idea.

       

Retro Fans 3

Retro Fans 4

                           

Retro Fans 5

What if I extend the lines again, and have them start to flow (blow?) off the top edge of the quilt.  (OK, I was being lazy.  I didn't want to shift everything down in the design software.  But off-the-edge is a modern design concept, so I thought I'd give that a try as a rationalization for my laziness.)   Frankly, it's not my cup of tea in this instance.

Retro Fans 6

There was another option for the airwaves:  lines closer together.   Bleah.  Too much density, and drawing attention too much away from the fans.














BUT I could introduce the denser waves with the dispersed waves.  Better.  It adds a bit of texture and interest without bulking it all up.  The denser waves could be extended, or remain only close to the fan blades. I could live with either.
           

     

Retro Fans 7

  

Retro Fans 8

I think I could get rid of the fan bases.  They're a little distracting, and don't add much to the design.

Retro Fans 9

Retro Fans 10

And I knew I had buckle down and shift everything down, so the right-most fan started in the bottom corner., which fixed the issue of the airwaves getting cut off at the top left edge. It's OK to hit the edge of the quilt, but not to have the design cut off before its time.

Then I wondered how it would look if some of the ariwaves moved over to the adjacent fans.  Actually, I don't hate this.  It might be all right.  I would want the lower right fan to be the color I wanted to dominate, as the quilt would have more of that color (and the least amount of the color in the upper left fan.) 

Retro Fans 11

I thought I was finished, and happy, but suddenly the squared-off base of the airwaves looked clunky, and not a good contrast with the general diagonal flow.  So, a little more adding and deleting of blocks and....I think I've reached the end of working on this design.  For today.    I'm not sure which one I like best; what do you think?

Retro Fans 12

My Top 5 'Musts" for Quilt Patterns

Where would we be without quilt patterns?

We love our quilt patterns, don't we?  (We won't talk about how small a percentage of the stash this is.)

 I like to create my own designs, to be sure, and usually I don't write patterns for those quilts, but I also like to make quilts that others design and make available in patterns.  For a couple of years I've been mainly focused on writing and publishing patterns for my own designs, but over the past few weeks I've had occasion to use others' patterns quite a bit.   In the process, I've been reminded of the characteristics I most appreciate in a pattern--characteristics that I try to build into my patterns--and I want to share those, and invite you to share what YOU like to see in quilt patterns.  (All right, that's a little self-serving, because I'm always looking for ways to make my patterns better, but that is ultimately for YOUR benefit, as I try to improve them for you!)

Remember, these are MY preferences; yours may be completely different!

1. Error-checked

This is at the top of my list.   Mistakes happen, no question. But I appreciate designers/pattern writers who double-check their measurements and construction procedures and, even better, have another pair of eyes (preferably, another quilter's) check them.  (If they're anything like I am, they can look at the same error 15 times and never see the error.  Another person can spot it in an instant!)  Minimizing errors before publication is a much-appreciated step!  

It's also nice when designers publish corrections on their websites, though I confess I usually (with one exception) don't check before I start a pattern.   But, if I'm making a pattern, and something doesn't seem right, I will often check out the website.  

My sister is my technical editor, bless her.  She's a quilter, but she was a computer programmer and systems designer in her professional life, and she's very good with the details, as well as spotting any potentially confusing instructions. Though she doesn't ever say it exactly in that way, there have definitely been some "Huh, Karen?" moments in my pattern-writing career.  Thanks, Mary Kay!  I can't promise that we'll never let a mistake get past us, but we certainly try hard to prevent them.

My sister's, and my, notes on a pattern draft

My process for pattern-writing is to design the quilt visually (usually in EQ, but not always), work out fabric requirements, then write the pattern before I make the blocks and quilt.  Then I follow those instructions as I construct the blocks and quilt, even if I can do it without the instructions.  I catch many errors that way, and am able to find better ways to phrase instructions, to make them more clear.  I take many, many notes as I go, then go back to the computer and make the changes, then send them to Mary Kay for her comments and corrections.

2. Clear text instructions

I'm mostly a kinesthetic learner, but I worked in a profession generally dominated by text-based learners, so I learned (!) to pay attention to text.   My favorite patterns have clear, unambiguous written instructions, especially for those who are text-based learners.   When I'm writing instructions I try to write them such that illustrations are, technically, unnecessary in figuring out the construction.

The font should be a clear, straightforward style--Times New Roman, Calibri, whatever--but NOT a fun or fancy font that is difficult to read.   I prefer a serif font when reading a book but, oddly, a san serif when reading patterns.  Go figure.

Funky fonts are all right for titles, but I'll take Calibri for instructions

.

Fabric requirements and cutting instructions should match.  :-)   I know this would seem to be a given, but I've worked with patterns that tell me to cut a piece for something, but doesn't tell me from which fabric I should be cutting it.

Text is important on its own, but it should also act as a support to the illustrations, for those who are visual learners.  Which leads us to illustrations...

3. Illustrations

A lot of quilters seem to be visual learners, so illustrations are important.  Because of my professional background, I find myself trying to figure out the text instructions first, then look at the illustrations.  I'm more visual than text, however, so I do rely on the illustrations to help me figure out those steps that I just can't wrap my brain around.

I invited some friends to critique one of my patterns, and one of the questions I asked was whether they preferred photos or diagrams and, though they said it could depend, mostly they thought diagrams were better.  In printed patterns, at least,  I usually prefer diagrams--if they're done well.  If photos are used I find them easier to follow if they're large, clear and in color, without a lot of extraneous distractions in the frame.  I think I like diagrams because they are less likely to have those distracting elements that photos can often have.

It's also useful to have the illustrations WITH the relevant text instructions, so I don't have to fumble for a sheet where the photos or illustrations have been gathered into one sheet.

4. Format

This is pretty subjective, of course.  You can usually tell, when you open the pattern package and take out the instruction sheets, whether or not you're going to want to dive into the pattern, can't you?  Whatever it is about the layout and format, it either invites you in or sends you screaming into the night.

 My preference is for good-sized illustrations, with enough white space that my eyes can easily differentiate between steps, and maybe take a rest now and then, from the block of text.  It doesn't have to waster paper with extra-wide margins, but my eyes are happier with some white space--it seems to help my brain to organize what it's seeing.

I like color diagrams, with relevant text, and enough white space to differentiate steps.

Color illustrations help me, though it isn't always necessary. Atkinson Designs, probably my favorite designer in terms of pattern format and clarity of instructions, have b&w illustrations and they work just fine for me.   If it is clear enough that I can tell the difference between fabrics, and between right and wrong sides, then b&w is fine with me.  

5. Pressing instructions

This may not be on everyone's list of Top 5 Musts, but it's one of the first things I look at in a pattern. (In some cases, it determine whether or not I buy the pattern.)   A block (and a quilt) go together so much better if I know, as I go along, how I should press the seams.  (Those who press seams open probably don't care, though!)   I can guess how to press seams, from looking at where and how blocks intersect, but it's hard to picture it in my head, or even work it out on pencil and paper.   If a designer tells me how to press so that the blocks fit together, with seams butting up against each other, well, I'm a happy camper (quilter).  If it doesn't matter which way I press, I'd like to know that, too, so I'm not wondering.

I've learned over the years that it's best if I make test blocks before I start sewing the actual sample quilt. (Did I mention that it's hard for me to work that out in my head, or on paper?)  Sometimes I have it figured correctly when I do the first draft of a pattern, and sometimes I don't.  I make enough test blocks to work out the pressing scheme, not matter how many different blocks there might be, or how many combinations of rotations of those blocks against each other.

Test blocks, and working out pressing scheme for a new pattern

My test blocks are never much in the way of "lookers" but they are essential to getting the pressing scheme correct, and that's pretty important to me.

(A really smart person would probably choose a color scheme and always make the test blocks from those colors/fabrics, so as to have blocks for a sample quilt some day but, alas, I am apparently not that person!)

YOUR Top 5?

So, those are my Top 5 Musts.  Do you agree?  What are yours?

Mini-Quilt Swap

Quilt swaps are always a lot of fun, and a good way to connect with other quilters, so I'm pleased to be participating in Cut Up and Quilt's Mini-Swap.  I have received info about the quilter for whom I'll be making a quilt, and I'm rarin' to go!  The creative pairings are a secret, so I'll try not to give away too much, so she doesn't recognize her preferences, should she or friends happen to read this post.  :-)

She likes modern designs, which suits my style just fine.  I started sketching some ideas for designs for the mini quilt, which is to be somewhere between 8" x 8" and 24" x 24".   I love technology, but I somehow seem to need to start with pencil and paper, at least to get ideas to come out from hiding in my brain..

Computer 'sketching" comes next, and here I can start to get a better idea of proportions.  It's easier to move pieces around to compare compositions and layouts.  (I use Word.  I know, I know, but I have used it so much that I'm most comfortable with it.  I have the Adobe Creative Suite, which has wonderful tools but, since Word is so comfortable for me, I can focus on the design aspects instead of how to use the tools.)

The first one didn't appear in my sketchbook but as I started drawing, copying, and pasting the black bars, the squares just sort of popped into my head and I tossed one in, just to see how it would look.  I liked it, so a couple more were tossed into the mix.   If I make the quilt (whether for the Mini-Swap, or for a later project) the number of bars and squares, might well change, as may the number of bars and the relative positions.


My brain thinks bars and circles are good foils for each other (if you followed my design challenge last year you might recall that) and I wanted to continue with some bead and bar layouts.  This has been rolling around for while, inspired by the little nubbly bits on the fabric of my shower curtain.  Ideas come from the mundane as well as the profound, right?  (Well, I'm not especially profound, frankly, so most of mine come from the mundane.)

I like most of them, but will have to live with them for awhile to make a decision.

A few designs in the sketchbook haven't made it to the computer drawing board yet.  One must spread out the fun, don't you think?

Another design that has been caroming around in my head might figure into this, as well.

It's great fun to be challenged to design a quilt for someone else.  The shipping deadline isn't until November and there may very well be more ideas ahead--stay tuned, and I'll post new ones as they arise.   I wonder if the final mini-quilt will look at all like any of them.  :-)

 

Quilt Design Comes to Fruition!

Sometimes quilt designs actually become quilts!  :-)  This is probably more true for other quilters than for me, but I'm happy to say that "Between Two Rivers" is finished, and I promised that I would share some of how it came to be, the decisions I made, and the steps along the way.

A few months ago I embarked on a 12 week challenge to design quilts based on....well, whatever.  One of the challenges was issued by my friend Ann, who presented me with the theme of "different paths."   Here are some of the designs I produced:

And here's the final design.  In the end I decided to call it "Between Two Rivers," which is the meaning of 'Iowa."   Yes, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, which bound Iowa on two sides, run north and south, rather than east and west.  I'm chalking it up to artistic license.

I began by auditioning fabrics for the "fields."  Some of the greens made it, some didn't.   Iowa has two primary field crops: corn and beans, so two greens would probably have been sufficient, but other crops ARE grown, and where's the fun of just two fabrics?

Then it was a question of deciding on lengths, widths and proportions of the fields.  That was just a lot of trial and error, and deciding what I liked.

It seemed to me that the fields/quilt needed some "pop" and a deep rich brown--for the rich Iowa soil--would be just the ticket.  Narrow strips were all it needed, on just one side of each field.

Laying out the curves of the rivers was next.  That was not as easy as you might think; lots of trial and error, again. 

I hand-appliqued the rivers, because I like hand applique and I thought it would be better.   I think, were I to do this quilt again, I would machine applique the rivers; there's a bit of a wave--literal--where the rivers cross the quilt and some of that may be due to extra 'give' in the curves as I appliqued.   (Bless those quilters at a recent trunk show who looked at me, all innocence, and said, "Rivers SHOULD have some wave to them.")

Next was the quilting, and the quilt was set aside for awhile as I worked out how I wanted to quilt it.   Decision time. 

The river quilting was easy, and fun; with blue thread I just moved along in curves across the width of the rivers, sometimes crossing, sometimes running (sort of) parallel.   I did the rivers first, to stabilize the quilt before doing the rest of the quilting.

The fields are quilted in lines,as if plow lines.  Most of them are 1/4" apart (talk about a challenge), though a couple are 1/2" apart.  Some are vertical, some are horizontal, some are diagonal, and one has curved lines.  The thread is the same color of green, on all the fields.

Straight lines are much easier on a domestic machine (at least, for me) but the quilt is quite large and I'm just not good at managing bulk when quilting on a domestic machine.  The biggest challenge in quilting on Molly, the longarm, is getting long, straight lines, because she doesn't have a channel lock, or means to do circles or diagonals.  That means using rulers.

Using rulers means using a platform extended, so there's enough support for a ruler as you press on it to hold it in place.

I tried a few different rulers.  I thought the ruler to which I'd attached some non-slip dots would be best, but it turned out that those were a hindrance, as sliding the ruler as I quilted the lines was crucial.   The ruler I used didn't have a 1/4" line on it, so blue painter's tape acted as the guide for the 1/2" lines.  (The edge of Molly's hopper foot is 1/4" from the needle, so running the foot along a ruler automatically makes a line 1/4" from the ruler's edge.)  Note the seam ripper.  It got good use.

It took some time to get the hang of the best method for me.  I had to slide the ruler as I moved along, and I slid it when I was only about halfway along the length; any more than that and I lost control of the ruler.  Once I found the rhythm it worked pretty well.

The curves were a whole other story.  I started them out by using a circle ruler, with lines scribed on perpendicular diameters to make it easy to place the circles so they are concentric.   That works fabulously well--for circle sizes for which you have a ruler.  :-)   I didn't have very many sizes. I don't think anyone makes circles in that many sizes.

So, I tried several methods to do nice, even curves.  I never did find anything that worked as well I would have liked.  I tried drawing the curves and following them 'free-hand" but I'm not very good at doing that, even when following panto patterns with a laser light.  Then I tried using a straight ruler to keep me from slipping, curving the ruler along the previous quilting line.  That worked better, but still not as well as I wished.   Consequently, I'm pretty sure that no self-respecting farmer would plow his fields/contours this unevenly.   Maybe next time.

The background was done much the same as the rivers.  It was quilted as I rolled the quilt, using white thread, so you see the texture, not the thread.

In the end, I really like the quilt.  I think it will probably be washed, so it will have that charming "crinkled" look.  For now, I'm enjoying it on the wall behind Molly.