Showing posts with label denim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label denim. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Finish, Attempts at New Techniques and My First Label

Update:  I just realized there is a credit that I failed to include.  And that was my inspiration for my free motion quilting which came from http://leahday.com/.  I have only done stippling but one day hope to branch out and try some more.

I have finally finished my sister's angel heart quilt.  I have
tried a couple of new techniques and put my first label
ever on this quilt.

These are just some close ups of some of the details on the blocks.


This one shows one of the new details that I tried on this quilt.
You can find a tutorial here at Podunk Pretties for this scalloped border.




And here is a tutorial for this piped binding at Aunt Marti's 52 Quilts
I really like how it turned out and I think the corners mitered better than I have ever been able to
get them to in the past even if they are not just perfect.  The miter on the denim was from the tutorial mentioned above for the scalloped tutorial.











And lastly is the first label I have ever made.  I must admit that I did lots of searching on the internet
for tutorials on this element.  But probably used Dolls and Daydreams for the best part of my inspiration.  I wound up with a product called Blumenthal Craft, Crafter's Images Computer Crafting at Home.  It is a 100% Cotton Poplin but I think at some point I am going to try the freezer paper with a white cotton poplin or similar fabric.  I wasn't absolutely pleased with my label and so I want to play around with that more.  The directions on the product said that it works with all Inkjet Printers but I was really concerned about the ink not setting so I ironed it with a very hot iron to try to set the ink first and then poured vinegar into a shallow dish and wet the entire label and rinsed before taking it back and drying it with the very hot iron.  The label was just a little larger than I liked and when
I did my binding you can see where I sewed across the corners.  I don't so much mind that the thread from the binding was on that side but I don't like that it went across my label.  So I think I need to work with making a design that will set away from my binding far enough that my sewing line won't go directly across the corner of my label. 



All in all I am still pleased with the way it turned out.  I so love the red against that denim.
It just sets against the blue denim so pretty.


Sunday, March 8, 2015

Start of Another Angel Quilt for my Sister



I think this is about how I have decided to do the layout for my sister's quilt.  Not sure about this so suggestions would be welcome.  Also I'm thinking about doing a small heart with yoyo's right in the middle of the next to the last row because I think it might make the hearts in the middle look a bit like a heart.



I just was not satisfied with this layout because it looked a lot like a big "H".

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Duh...Just Realized I haven't Posted about the Latest

I have been trying to blog here about my quilts as I do them 
but I still get lax on coming here.  I am working now on a quilt for my sister.
It is going to be full of hearts and love.

When I am working on them I test different ideas.  This is one of the
first log cabin hearts I did the other day and I think it was just an epic fail.
The "v" in the top is just too shallow.


But I think the second try was better.  Although I must say that when
 I am putting these together and before they have been trimmed up 
I am always thinking these are the ugliest blocks.


But once I have them quilted and get them trimmed up I am starting to
think they are so much prettier.  There is just something about getting 
that unfinished batting edge trimmed away that starts giving them
that neat quilt block look.  Plus for these I just love how the red
compliments the blue denim.

Below are previews of the other heart blocks I've made to go in it.  
They will be be interspersed with some of the pocket blocks that I have. 


Button!  Buttons!


Log Cabin Hearts!


Angels holding hearts!


Heart! Hearts!


Broken Hearts!


Denim Hearts!


Linked Hearts! 


Machine Embroidered Hearts!

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Staying Busy and the Trails my Mind takes me Down as I Do

I'm staying busy again.  I have deconstructed a pile of jeans and I've been working into cutting them into panels that will be sewn into a larger panel to cut my blocks.  I have almost become obsessed with denim.  I love working with it in my quilts.  Since I have let it be known that I've been doing quilts with denim I have family and friends that are donating to me.  I have one friend that will just leave me sacks of them at my back door.  It is like a little surprise when I find them. 

But I love how it fades.  Some denims fade differently than others so you get all the beautiful different shades of blue and blue is just such a comforting color.  As I am working with the denim I notice stains or fading.  For instance the knees always fade more than the rest of the jean.  Stains from dirt or grass are usually found on the front.  Sometimes I just run my hand across a faded denim and you can feel how the fabric has worn to a softness. 

As I am working with it my mind starts to wonder.  I wonder about what the person that wore these jeans did.  What kind of work did they do?  If I see an oil stain I wonder if it is from a teenage kid just learning to work on their first car.  I have a friend that has told me she has me a big sack of jeans and her family worked in concrete so I know there will be stains that will tell that story when I get them. 

I'm currently working on another quilt for one of my grandsons.  One of the first denim quilts I made was for another grandson and was made out of jeans from his mother, from me and from him.  But as I working on these quilts for my other grandsons I also think about the people these other jeans belonged to.  I hope as these boys sleep under these quilts that somehow that working and being good men will seep into them.  That somehow they will know they have a grandmother that loves them very much and that she put a lot of thought into these things as they were made.

Then my thoughts go to my own grandmother.  My quilting is so untraditional.  Machine quilting.  When I was growing up my grandmother lived probably within a quarter mile of our home and I remember walking to her home often during the summer months.  She had a wooden quilting frame that was attached to her ceiling with hooks and ropes and she would wind the rope around the ends of the wooden frame to lift it up to the ceiling when she was not quilting.  But many times it would be down and she would be quilting when I got there.  I would sit with her and she taught me how to hand quilt and make tiny stitches.  I really miss that.  Sometimes one or another of my Aunts would come in and sit and help and she had a friend, Ms. Ritter, who would sometimes walk all the way across town.  We would never know that she was coming until we would see her walking down the road.  Good times!

So yes I am loving working with the denim but after today I'm not so sure it is as much the denim as it is the quilting and all the wonderful thoughts that it provokes in me.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Great News and Staying Busy

 Had some great news come in from my doctor regarding my last colonoscopy.  I have a really small ulcer possibly around the site where my colon was nicked during my kidney surgery but all of my biopsies came back clean.  How great is that! 

Early detection is key folks.  So please go have your test ran.

And I have been staying busy at my denim quilting.  I have been processing the old jeans and now I have a nice big box of denim material to work up.  I am so excited.  It does not take much to make me happy.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Bursting Heart and Angel Quilt Finished



A couple of pictures of the Bursting Heart and Angel Quilt.  This one without the binding.
And this one of the final  finished quilt.

Have a wonderful day!!!

Bursting Heart and Angel Quilt Coming Along

Honestly, I don't think I have an original thought in my head.  But my...oh my...am I easily inspired.  I can look through Pinterest and my mind is in a whirl wind of frenzied ideas.  You saw from my last post Denim Angel Quilt Block Tutorial how I was inspired for the denim angels quilt block.
Well then I ran across this Bursting Heart Pillow tutorial over at the Blue Susan makes... blog.  And apparently I am not the only one inspired by others because she admits that her inspiration came from an Amy Butler's pattern Alchemy Sweet Slices Pillow.  So I had to try to adapt it to my beloved denim.  And this is what I came up with...


And I have incorporated it and the angels into this quilt that is slowly coming along.


I've also included a couple of my denim hearts and I may try to do a tutorial on those in the near future.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Lap Quilts Delivered


Two lap quilts made as gifts for friends...met one of my friends for dinner last night to deliver them.  The other friend doesn't know that it is coming...so it will be a nice surprise for her.







Monday, March 24, 2014

Another Try

Ok, so I decided one more try at the stars and I am a little more pleased with this set than the last but I have decided they really just aren't my thing...I will use them in a quilt but so far all of my recycled jeans/denim quilts have all been put together in a mod podge way so hopefully they won't stand out like a sore thumb.

This time I started with a 12 1/2-inch square and when I trimmed they were at 10-inches but one of the points I think is too close to the edge and I'm concerned my sashing with probably cover a bit of it when I go to put my block together.  This time I did not stack and slash but used some lines on my ruler that I normally don't use for angles and tried to line the edge of each block at the same place to try to get the cuts to run across each block at the same place.  The blocks did come out some better but I don't know...doing this block just feels a bit stressful to me and I don't like that feeling when I am quilting...to me that is my relaxing time...and I guess I don't like thinking quite that hard... :-)

Here are my blocks....





Saturday, March 22, 2014

Hearts and Stars, a Bit of a Fail and a Bit of a Save, Never give Up

I can't hardly believe I didn't do a post about my heart blocks...



They were a bit of a booger bear to get to center correctly.  I would start by centering the bottom of the heart and had all the seams cut and lined out before starting but as I worked up it would migrate to the right in the direction that I was sewing.

I had also been wanting to try a stack and slash block for a star using the denim.  I finally got to that this weekend but about half way through...I got that feeling...you know...that I've been there done that feeling...meaning that I was already starting to feel a bit of a fail with it and I'm not sure I will try this again.  I got the idea from jmday.com which has a excellent tutorial for the stack and slash star but thought I would put a denim twist on it thinking that the different shades would make the star.

So I started with 5 12-inch squares wanting to work toward a 10-inch square since that is usually what I do in my jean/denim quilts and I try to choose old jeans at different levels of fade.  That was my first mistake....I should have started with a 13-inch as I typically will do just a bit more than a 1/4-inch seam on denim because it will fray sometimes.  Also all of my blocks had a seam because when you a recycling jeans there typically is no place that you can get a solid 12-inch square without a seam running through it.  My first thought was to use that seam as the starting slash but decided against that because the contrast in one jean to the next is part of what would make the star pop.  And I decided to turn the seam for each block...so for the top block I had it at the top...the next it was to the right...then to the bottom and so forth for all 5 blocks so that as I slashed through each stack those seems would not be stacked on top of each other making it difficult to cut through (why I thought there would be any ease to cutting through a stack of 5 denim blocks only God knows).  And I take care to stack so that none that are anywhere near being at the same level of fade are not next to one another but I found this hard to do as my jeans seemed to be more like a only two levels of fade.




So here I am through my first slash...not too bad so far although I was having to saw with my rotary cutter even on this first cut...apparently I need a new blade.  But from the top section I pull the bottom piece to the top...with the idea that this would be that this would be the mix for each block.  Then disappointment this is where I noticed that the top and bottom block were close to the same level of fade (too close to the same color)...but I decided to trudge on and sewed all my block back to gather and used a decorative stitch of about the same color.  On looking back I am wondering if I should not have just used a white thread for a little more contrast.




The thread is blending with the material pretty good here.

I worked at trying to make sure that I got my seams lined up good with my next stack, slash and sew.




So far so good...one seam seemed to be off just a bit but not bad and I am ready to do my next stack and slash.  My cutter has gotten worse so I decided to resort to scissors and I have to pull each cut piece away just a little to be able to get my scissors where they needed to be.  Ugh!!!!



And I get the next seam sewn and I am wondering now why my point at the top of the star doesn't match with the point of the little piece that you can see at the top...but there is no extra fabric at the end of any of my seams so again...trudging on.


So I stack, slash, and sew my next seam. There should be a total of 5 stack and slash.

And finally the last stack and slash.

And I have cluse where I got off...see how this final point is off center. 



I think this is the only one where the points all seemed to center correctly on the very middle of the star.

But as you can see here none of them came out to the 10-inch square when I  was done with my trimming as I had set as my goal when I started.  So I will sew a sash up the short edges if necessary.  After all these are just for me and my family.  They will still make good usable quilts.