Sunday, February 20, 2011

Charity Quilt


Charity Quilt
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00

I have had this charity quilt project from guild for about 3 years, just lying around in the sewing room. I finally had the inspiration to quilt it.   I found the inspiration from one of the quilting blogs I follow - I think it was Tallgrass Prairie Studio. The concentric squares pattern added a nice texture to the project.

I did not make the top - I took the project to do the quilting.

It's a crib sized or baby sized quilt. Should be suitable for a boy.

Quilting Close Up 1


Quilting Close Up 1
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00
Here is a closeup of the quilting. It was a lot of fun to do, and quite easy on the domestic sewing machine. It's free motion quilted.

Quilting Close up 2


Quilting Close up 2
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00

Another closeup.  The X's in the middle of each square are for marking purposes, so I wouldn't get confused while sewing. It's easy to lose the larger perspective when working on a small section. Those marks will wash out.

It's a "nine-patch" like pattern superimposed on the simple blocking of the top. I calculated it: 216 squares.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Anns Quilt - Label


Anns Quilt - Label
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00
A close up of the label.

I think labels are very important. I like to tell the story of the quilt, although it can get tedious tracing the writing. This forces me to edit. (As you may know by now, I tend to be very wordy.) Here's how I do it:

I design the label on my computer and pick a nice font. Often I use a handwriting-like font, but since Ann is an architect, I chose an all caps font that kinda looks like the hand writing from blueprints. (Does anyone hand write blue prints any more?)  A plethora of nice handwriting fonts are at Kevin and Amanda blog.

I resized and copied the NC State logo after downloading it from the North Carolina State University web site.

I traced the design and writing using a Pigma Micron pen (permanent, archive quality ink). It looks better if I draw each line twice.

I colored in the logo. I used my Marvy Uchida pigment pens - I didn't know if it would work, but it did. This photo was taken after one washing.

Finally, I trimmed the muslin to the desired size and hand appliqueed it down on the back.

Quilting Detail of Ann's Quilt

It is machine quilted, mostly straight lines. Here is some detail of the free-motion section. Not perfect, but pretty good. It gives the inner border a nice texture.

Ann's Quilt


Ann's Quilt
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00
I've learned how to post from flickr to my blog!

This is Ann's quilt. You can't tell here, but the fabric is "NC State" themed sports fabric. This is where Ann and I both went to school (she for undergraduate, me for graduate). We didn't meet in school, but we met close by at a church near campus.





The pattern is from the book Quilt Boutique by Suzanne McNeil. This book has some nice designs - certainly not complex, but designs that can be applied quickly and easily.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Projects

Hello faithful and few readers!

I have not disappeared; I am simply unsure what to do with this blog now. My Etsy shop has "closed" and I'm not sure I can sustain a small sewing business while I have my current job. The job sucks the time away like I never anticipated. This is OK because I like the job, but 6 months later, I'm still struggling with how to adjust my life to find balance.

I will probably have to quit (or greatly reduce my involvement in) my quilt guild. (This saddens me greatly; but they meet during the day on a week day, and now I work a 8-5, 5 days a week schedule.) I am trying to add regular exercise to my life. I haven't achieved balance between the personal/private time I crave, errands/chores, and church attendance.


Blogs
Over the last few months I have really enjoyed reading other quilting blogs and now I ponder changing Rikrax into a personal quilting/sewing blog. Here is a shout out to the blogs I really enjoy (in no particular order):

Despite following all these blogs, I have yet to win one of their giveaways. It's OK, though.

Here's my Flickr site with a recent project posted.