Staying Busy at Home

It's been five days since the governor of Ohio decided it would be best if as many of us as possible just stayed home.  Monday was unsettling as we reviewed what we had and what we might need so my daughter could make a supply run but as each day passes since then, I've felt a bit calmer mostly because I've stayed busy.  I have the advantage of being retired for the past year and a half so I've adjusted to "not working" other than to do my own stuff.  

I've seen a number of quilters talking about losing their creative drive during this challenging health crisis.  Folks, we don't need to be "creative" - we need to be "calm" and the best way I know to do that is keep those hands busy.  I'd bet that most of us have enough UFO's to keep us moving along in spite of not feeling creative, so my advice is to get something off the shelf and push into it!

This past week, this quilt has been my focus.

Isn't it gorgeous?!?

When I finished the piecing (more than 5 years but less than 10 years ago), I set it up to be machine quilted in sections.  This is not a new approach for me and it has enabled me to finish several large quilts myself.  The thing I always notice right away is how much better my machine quilting is working this way -- not having a large piece to struggle through the machine makes a huge difference.

I took this picture a few days ago -- all four sections are quilted up to 2" from the edges that will be joined.  Notice that the "joins" of the top half and the lower half will not be centered to each other.  This is one of my "bulk management" strategies and it works very well.

Join me for a quick tour of the process from this point.

With the right sides of the sections matching and the batting and backing pieces of both pulled out of the way, I pin and stitch two sections together.

Once stitched, I spread it out on the ironing board and press the seam to one side.  Since I use 100% cotton batting, I don't need to worry about a hot iron damaging my batting, but if it had any synthetic fiber, I would make sure to have a pressing shield/cloth handy for the tight spaces. 

Now I need to join the batting and the backing.  I find spreading it over a narrow table as below works best as the weight of the quilt hanging down on both sides keeps the quilt smooth. 

The batting is overlapping at this point.

I need to be sure both pieces are flat and smooth. . . . . . 

. . . . . because now I'm going to cut up through the middle of the area, cutting both layers of batting as I go.  Steady does it!  I lift the batting slightly to keep my scissors away from the quilt top. 

There will be excess batting to pull away and the trimmed pieces will butt up to each other nearly perfectly. 

The batting edges can to basted together with a "catch stitch" or use a fusible tape like this one from Marti Michell.***  It's 2" wide and fuses to cotton batting beautifully.

Once the batting edges have been basted together, they will lay flat and it's time to seam the backing pieces.  

I overlap one side over the other, trimming off any excess and stitch it by hand -- like applique.   

One of the delightful parts of this finish for me is getting to use these three charming prints that I have been hoarding in my stash for quite some time -- one had 2002 on the selvedge?!?

I stagger the three seams -- the seam of the quilt top is centered in the open space, the seam of the batting pieces is about 1" to the left of the quilt top seam, and the seam of the backing pieces is about 1" to the right of the quilt top seam.

This staggering both helps reduce bulk and seems to make the join more secure.

In the photo below, you can see the unquilted area -- notice how far the backing seam is from the center of that area. 

Here's a view of the same area from the front -- notice the unquilted area along the top half of the photo.  Except for the fact that it isn't quilted yet, you can't even tell that I'm working in sections.

My reference book for this process is Machine Quilting In Sections by Marti Michell.  

When I was working as an educator for Marti, quilters often said to me "oh, I have that book" and my response was always, read it four times and try it!!

Click HERE to read another post I wrote about this process and THIS ONE shows some of the other quilts I've finished using this approach.

So on we go through this huge world event -- it's going to be bigger than Y2K in my memory!  I hope you can keep yourself motivated through the calming solace of stitching a bit every day because when we look back, we want to be able to point to the blessings of this time not the fears.

God bless you abundantly!

Mary

***EDIT April 2025

Marti Michel closed her business in late in 2024 and while some shops may still have a stock of her templates, you can also find them on Ebay and Etsy. 

Is it a "road block" or a "speed bump"?

That's one of the questions I ask myself to determine how to deal with my UFQ's!

"Road block" or "speed bump"?

It's almost that time of the year again when I take stock of my UFQ's and try to decide what to do about them.  I've made great progress over the past 4 years but not the progress I envisioned.

It's time for me to ask the question again -- at what point did I stop working on this project?

And hopefully that will lead me to a list that will give me a clue about "why" I stopped.
Then the trick is to decide if the "why" is a "speed bump" or a "road block"!!

Think about it.  

Speed bumps are annoying, they slow us down when we want to go faster, but they don't stop us.

Road blocks on the other hand are different -- we can't get through them for one reason or the other and if we're lucky someone will tell us where the detour is.

At my peak (?), I owned 72 finished quilt tops ready to be quilted.  It wasn't enough to just know how many there were (yikes), I needed to determine the WHY? behind that stack -- okay, those stacks.

My first excuse was that I don't like to layer quilts by myself. 

I'm capable of doing it certainly -- after all I've taught quilters how to layer their quilts for close to 30 years.

So this is just a speed bump for me -- it slows me down because I have to whine and fuss prior to engaging in the process. 

Good news is that I found a strategy or two that has helped this part of the quilt making process become less odious.  One is to ask for help and the other is to layer two or three at a time because the "hardest" part of the process is starting.

Help isn't always available and so I marked the center of my "layering" table -- who knew such a small thing could be such a big help?

My layering table is an adjustable height folding table with a hard plastic surface.

I set it up in the living room so I can watch TV and layer -- time passes enjoyably and I'm distracted from the "odious" task at hand.   As long as it's up right now, I'm going to cut out a blouse this evening to stitch up next week.

I layered this quilt yesterday afternoon while watching a new episode of Midsommer Murders!!

There's another small quilt that I'll layer before taking the table down for the weekend.

For the most part, I've eliminated this speed bump that kept me from finishing quilts on a regular basis!!

Then there is the "road block" issue.

How to actually quilt a top?

I'm talking about mental paralysis here!

I would just stare at a layered piece for days and try to figure out what to do.

What I have decided is that there were two issues -- first I don't believe I can "visualize" the end result and second, I didn't have enough experience to be confident about my quilting.

Since I teach quilt making professionally, I feel it's important for me to be able to discuss the "how to quilt it" question with students so I'm more inclined to quilt my own pieces rather than to send them to a professional quilter.  So over the past 5 years, I have worked hard to find alternative routes to get the quilting done myself!!

Since small quilts are easier to do myself, I've turned to doing the quilting in "sections" (or quilt-as-you-go) for my large pieces.  The first one I did was terrifying -- layered up the four sections and looked at it for a full six months before I actually started the stitching. 

Now it doesn't intimidate me as you can see in this POST.

Marti Michell's Machine Quilting in Sections is my "bible" for this process.  Between the alternative finishing ideas and the 14 reviews of quilts finished using this approach, I always find the help I need!  (Marti has a Craftsy Class on this topic.) 

BIG STITCH hand quilting has also provided an enjoyable alternative to finishing some of my quilts.  I enjoy hand stitching in the evening while watching TV and "big stitch" is a stress free approach.  There are lots of tutorials and youtube videos about the process -- I just found this one on the Auribuzz blog which has great step-by-step pictures.  I love the look of it for my "funky" stuff!  If you haven't tried it, go with a small project like a pillow cover and see what you think.

Finally, I've quit following the quilting escapades of professional long arm quilters!

They do beautiful work and it's really inspiring but it intimidates me. 

I don't have the patience or interest in spending hours creating detailed quilting designs.

I want to piece, piece, piece!!

So I now look to "modern" quilters for my quilting inspiration.

They tend to have a simpler utilitarian approach and I can do that!!

 The results of these three strategies are beginning to have a positive impact.  My pile of tops is dwindling steadily.  I'm not sure I've removed the "road block" but I've found three good alternate routes. 

I still get off to a hesitant start, but I'm realizing that quilting more quilts is making it easier to find solutions to that big question, "How should I quilt this?"

I'm betting some of you have struggled with this aspect of making a quilt.  I hope you'll share your strategy for "just doing it" with the rest of my readers in the comments section!

Have a stitching good time this weekend!

Mary

Finishing Only??

This past weekend, I was teaching for the Maye River Quilt Guild in Bluffton, South Carolina.  Fran, who booked my visit for the guild told the members several times that she "admired" the way I set goals at the beginning of the year for my quilt making. 

 

It got me to thinking about my goals -- setting them is one thing, achieving them is another as you well know.  And I've been negligent in the "achieving" department this quarter.  Last night I decided since the studio is still torn up (very bogged down, blaming the gardens), I'll spend the rest of May and June TOTALLY focused on finishing. 

NO NEW STARTS, Mary!!!

 

Between participating in the 2016 Finish-A-Long and the APQ UFO Challenge 2016 and my own goals, there is plenty to do!!  This is my APQ list -- if you look closely you'll notice I've left some blanks at the end of the list and there are a couple of duplicate entries.  I left four spaces blank when I made the list so if I didn't "finish" something, I could add it back into the list for a future month . . . . . . . clever or cheating?

I'm still working on the quilting of April's project.  I was so excited to actually be able to start this because how to quilt it has been a major stumbling block.  I've lost track of where I got the inspiration for this all-over quilting (if it was you, please let me know) but I'm very pleased with the results.

And it should have been finished by now but, but, but . . . . . I'm doing it in two sections and froze when I realized that might not have been a good strategy with a quilting design which flows across the surface and at this point seems impossible to blend across the join needed at the middle of the quilt.  So I'm back to thinking.   There is an idea percolating but it's need a bit of simulation before I go ahead with it.

The May project is to finish a scrappy tumbling blocks piece that I've been using for demonstrations in my Set-In Piecing Simplified workshops.  It was all pinned onto a sheet for easy transport to classes.

This morning, I transferred everything to the work wall (I can get to it) so as time occurs to piece, I can work at setting the units together (the sewing machine is accessible) and filling in the gaps (I wonder where the bag of scrap diamonds is stashed?).

One of my 2016 Finish-A-Long goals (you can see all of them HERE) is to hand quilt the round robin quilt top from early last year. 

Once again, I have to get over the hesitations about "how to quilt it" so Sunday evening I just started in the middle -- no idea where this is going yet but will keep forging ahead and waiting for something to click in my head.

Spring of course will continue to distract me.  The blue jays are busy in my backyard harvesting fibers from last year's swamp milkweed stalks to use in their new nest and I have to watch that!?!  And yesterday on a birding morning at one of our favorite places, we found this little patch of wild blue phlox.  This flower is increasingly rare and must be enjoyed at any opportunity!!  In this flood plain, it was abundant and thriving!

I hope you are finding balance in your life during this changing of the seasons -- it's a challenge for sure!!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

First Quarter Finish #4

It's all finished and in it's new home.  I'm just home from a visit with my daughter and her family.  The piece was quilted when I left but I waited until I could try it out on the bed to be sure the size was okay before I did the binding. 

It looks a bit lumpy because the bed in the guest room has become a catch-all -- what a surprise?!?

My daughter is pleased with it and likes the simplicity of it and the fabrics I chose.  (Yea!!)

I took a number of pictures to share with you as I assembled it since I quilted it in three sections.

The quilting is simple and organic to enhance the overall design.

The leaves are in the lighter bands while randomly spaced lines that follow the zig-zag of the piecing fill the medium to dark value bands.

The large leaves were fun to stitch.  Each began with an arc from the pivot point.

Then back up the middle to the top adding three or four "veins" 

and an occasional "bite" before proceeding to the next pivot point. 

My sections were two sets of eight rows and a center set of six rows.  I quilted out to the outer edges of the eight  row sections and out to the final zig-zag seam of the edges to be joined to the center section which is seen below. 

I marked the center of the triangles along that edge to make alignment of the center section easier.

For the center section, I did not quilt the last row on both sides so that I could pull back the batting and lining during the joining of the sections as you see below.

This is a "four-layer" seam -- the backing and batting of the center section is pulled over to the left side and I'm stitching (with my walking foot) through four layers -- center section top (right side down), side section top (right side up), batting, and backing of the side section.

I did well with the alignment of the zig-zags and only nipped off a couple tips.

I find that working on my iron board for finishing the backing is best as the weight of the sections hanging down both sides keeps the layers spread open completely.

(The pieced section in the backing is made of the leftover pieces from the top.)

Before doing any trimming, I press the four-layer seam to one side and check the front to be sure there are no pleats or wrinkles.

I trimmed away the extra backing fabric (about 3/8" from the stitching line and smooth down the batting that is caught in the seam.

Now I smooth the other batting over being sure that it is laying flat and smooth.  Notice that the backing at the lower edge of the picture is still pulled aside.

Now I very carefully trim that batting to match the edge of the first piece.  This is the slowest part of the process as it's important to keep the cut smooth and not slice the quilt top.  I achieve a smooth invisible finish by moving the joining of the batting  about 1" away from the four-layer seam.  When I shared it with my quilting group after the three sections were together, none of them could find the joins -- no lumpy-ness!!

At this point, I can whip stitch the batting edges together or use a fusible batting tape -- Marti Michell makes both a 1" wide and 2" wide product.  I use the 2" wide in quilts.  Once again, slow and careful gives the best results to be sure the edges of the battings meet snuggly with no gaps. 

Finally, I'm ready to turn back the edge of the backing fabric and pin it in place for hand stitching.

Once that is finished, I headed back to "George" to quilt the joining area between the two sections, thankful that I haven't had to wrestle with all the bulk of the quilt for the entire process!!

And there it is -- finish #4 from my first quarter list for the 2016 Finish-A-Long over at SHE CAN QUILT.  The link-up for this quarter is pretty impressive with almost 600 finishes listed so far.

I'm pleased to have reached four out of six of my goals.  I did make progress on #5 (now a finished top instead of a pile of blocks) and #6 (in process but still 2/3 of the cutting and piecing to go).

I'm working on my second quarter list!!

Click HERE to see my original list for this quarter.

If you have any questions about this post, please let me know in the comments below.

If you need to muster up more courage to try this process yourself, remember that Marti Michell now offers a class on Craftsy to show you a variety of options for quilting in sections!!

Now through the end of April, Craftsy is offering a Pick-Your-Prize Giveaway -- the $100 value would cover a couple of classes!!

Mary Huey

** Some of my posts contain affiliate links and if you make a purchase via one of those links, I may get a small commission.  I only suggest products that I use and recommend based on my own experience.  Thank you for supporting my blog!

Another deadline . . . .

I'm getting better at using self-imposed deadlines to motivate me to finish quilts.  I've been working on this quilt for my daughter's re-do of her guest room over the past couple months.  So I'm using the "deadline" of heading over there for a visit in a couple weeks to motivate it's finish.

I'm employing the techniques of breaking the quilt into sections which I learned from Marti Michell several years ago.  The quilt is in three sections at this point because it's easier for me to manage the bulk (the weight) of the quilt.  Section one is under the needle today.

Her book, Machine Quilting in Sections, was a ground breaker for me and I find when I'm showing folks quilts that I've finished this way, they realize they already own the book but have never had the courage to try the technique.  

Since it's nice here today, I dragged a few of the (monster) quilts I've finished using this approach outside for new pictures.  I did this Kaleidoscope in four sections.  Each was the size of a crib quilt!  Once I figured out the quilting design, each section only took one afternoon at the machine.
Zoom, zoom!!

I shared this basket sampler with you HERE -- my sections were more complex as I worked in diagonal  bands and added the border after the quilted center was finished.

This feathered star is without a doubt the biggest quilt I've tackled in sections.  All the borders you see at the "bottom" of the quilt are also above the feathered star center.  The quilt is Marti Michell's Feathered Star Medallion.  I quilted the center section -- feathered star with top and bottom pieced star bands.  Then the borders were added one at a time using a stitch and flip technique.

It's been a while since I quilted this one but I must have used tissue paper tracings to do that lovely leaf design in the kites -- it's too consistent!  I'll have to add this picture to my "quilting" ideas files for future reference!

It was interesting to read Lori Kennedy's post a couple days ago at The Inbox Jaunt -- she admitted to suffering from the same mental panic when starting a big quilting project that I experience.    She does such a consistent job of coming up with new free motion designs that I was surprised by her admission.  That makes me feel so normal.  

 

Those lines running down through the lightest zigzag were suppose to be interrupted with bubbles but when I got to the first one, I froze.  Change of plans!  Arcs are my comfort zone and so the bubble became a leaf -- arc down to the left, arc back up to the right and continue the straight line through the ellipse to the next spot -- leaves!!

The inspiration for the large leaves are my collection of Charley Harper posters which decorate my studio.  Holes in leaves are part of his art!

I need to quilt at least three bands each day to meet my deadline.  I'm excited enough about what is emerging at this point that I think it will happen more quickly!

 

Blessings to everyone for a peaceful Easter weekend!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

** Some of my posts contain affiliate links and if you make a purchase via one of those links, I may get a small commission.  I only suggest products that I use and recommend based on my own experience.  Thank you for supporting my blog!