2014 « Triangles Gone Mad

Archive for 2014

Grandpa’s Quilt of Valor

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

The mission of the Quilt of Valor Foundation is ” to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.” To date the QOV Foundation has awarded over 108,000 quilts to veterans of American wars. I have been quilting for QOV for about two years, and it is so very rewarding to do some small thing for our service men and women who give so much for our safety and freedom. To learn more about QOV go to their website here.

Last month I was privileged to award a Quilt of Valor to my father-in-law, Gene Wade, who served in the Army’s 11th Airborne Division as a paratrooper. He was stationed in Japan at the end of WWII. At the time we gave him the quilt he had just had a stroke, and was in a skilled nursing facility at the time. They were gracious enough to let us use one of the public rooms for the ceremony.

The quilt we gave him was one that I had done the longarm quilting on. The quilt top was made by Ruth Dassen, who is a tireless worker when it comes to making Quilts of Valor here in Arizona. The quilt was beautifully sewn and the quilting added the final touch.

Here is my husband, David, wrapping Gene up in all the warmth and appreciation that is stitched into every Quilt of Valor. Gene and Joy were happy to receive the quilt and appreciation that came along with it. All the family members wanted to share in the excitement of the day, especially the great-grandchildren! Thank you, Gene, for your service to our country!

Tags: Family Fun, Quilt of Valor, Quilting
Posted in Highlight: Quilt, Our Projects, Quilting | No Comments »

Making Time to Quilt

Tuesday, October 7th, 2014

As a SAHM (a stay at home mom) of young children and a part time teacher I often lack time to do some of the things I would like to in a day. I am a list writer – I attempt to plan out each day in a way that our home and lives will run more smoothly… but, some days I’m terrible at it! I usually finish 80% of my to do list, but sometimes I manage to finish 100%. Often that is for the simple reason that I set a low bar to begin with. 🙂 The goal is to survive and be happy. I was once told that frustration comes from unmet expectations. Managing expectations is something I am working on. So I leave things that I would just like to do off my list.

My list really helps me throughout the day. Quilting is high on my “want to do” list but it falls lower on my “need to do to survive” list. Sometimes to keep sanity I must make time for things we want to do. In an attempt to make time for my “want to do” list… which definitely means quilting… I have tried to make some of my to do list items quicker and easier.
I decided that dinner was a time user and needed streamlining. To make dinners easier I combined freezer and slow cooker meals. I made 18 frozen meals that I can just toss into the slow cooker each morning. Dinner time comes and all I have to do is open the crock pot to a warm, scrumtious dinner.
The first thing I did was to plan a few meals. I looked online for inspiration. Once I had a list of the meals I wanted to prepare, I made a list of all of the needed ingreedients. I then found a babysitter and went to the grocery store with my LONG list. I bought in bulk (saving money for me to buy more fabric.) and I brought the food home. I then went back to the grocery store for the few items I forgot, this time with kids in tow.

The next day my mother (who was so kind to come over and help me) and I cut up meats and vegetables and put the meals together into the freezer bags. I kept the dry seasonings in their own small freezer bags within the larger bags to add to the meal when cooking. That really just seemed like a good idea to me. 🙂 I ended up with many meals this month that are going to help me maximize my quilting time! Chicken Pot Roast, Lentil soup, Pork Chops, Sweet and Sour Pork and many more.

We had one of the dinners two nights ago. It was a tasty success! What types of things do you do to be more efficient and make time for quilting?
Happy Tuesday!

Tags: Help Quilting, Quilitng, Quilting Motivation
Posted in Helpful Hints, Life Madness | No Comments »

To Wash or NOT to Wash…

Wednesday, September 10th, 2014

That really is the question when it comes to prepping fabric for quilting. In fact there is a lot to think about when laundering or not in preparation for quilting and after completing a quilt.

I remember when I was young my mother would get the fabric all together for a quilt and she’d put it in the wash. This new perfectly flat fabric would be washed and dried. Then she would spent what seemed to me to be days ironing the newly cleaned fabric all before starting a quilt. Wow! What a hassle. So when not washing fabric came into vogue I was quick to jump on the band wagon. But really there are times when washing could be better and times when not washing could be the better choice.

There are a few hard fast rules like never wash precuts. (If you wash a stack of precuts you’ll be sad because what at you remove from the dryer will be an unusable pile of threads. Just trust me. Less crying that way.) And wash a quilt if it gets dirty. An un-washable quilt is not very practical or useful.

Wash or don’t wash before quilting? Here are a few things to think about. The choice will have different effects on the look of your quilt after machine quilting. If you wash the fabric before cutting and quilting your quilt will be smoother. If not you will get a more “quilty” look where the quilt top will shrink a little more.(That makes it a little more bunchy at each stitch.)

When planning a quilt think about how often you plan on washing the quilt. This may effect the type of applique and binding you select for your quilt. If it’s a quilt for picnicking or for a child or any quilt that may be washed more often you may want to opt for machine binding and applique. Heavy washing can tear at the threads and machine stitches are normally stronger and closer together. If it is a less washed quilt, hand binding and hand applique would be great.

If you are giving your quilt away you may want to do what my mom does. It’s BRILLIANT! She makes her quilts smell wonderful for the lucky recipient by adding scented liquids to the load. She always adds Odoban, but there are an hundred things you could add. One could add rose water, detergents, Odoban, or essential oils into the bleach tray. (For oils I think linen, citrus, peppermint and vanilla would all be yummy!)

Hope these little, laundering tips are helpful! Happy Tuesday!

Tags: Do I need to wash Fabric Before I Quilt?, How to clean a quilt, Washing Fabric
Posted in Helpful Hints, Quilting | No Comments »

InStyle Inspiration

Sunday, September 7th, 2014

I’ve been a subscriber to InStyle Magazine since 2011. What started as a well thought Christmas present became a friendship. InStyle and I get along really well. It influences my style and this week it has influenced my quilting. One of the recent issues was the Fall Special Issue “Your Look” and it describes 30 ways to update your look. #24 was “Pick Your Palette” which gave some examples of great color palettes. The palettes are unique combinations of colors and for quilting are a great place to start. I chose one of the palettes and made a table runner to show how easy it is to go from runway to quilt-way! The palette included Aurora Red, Sand, and Chocolate.

HPYP1

HPYP3

I did an easy modern design to showcase the palette. My mother came up with the design and an easy way to make it. We stacked the 3 different fabrics (each 1/2 yard), one on top of the other, and cut across making different triangles. Then we rearranged the colors, sewed the pieces back together, and ta-da, table runner!!! I really love the way these colors go together and I got the idea from a fashion magazine!

HPYP4 HPYP2

Things to think about when going from runway to quilt-way:

1. Fashion colors might not have enough contrast for your quilting squares. My runner had a bright, a dark, and a neutral color. This is a good way to start.

2. Sometimes fashion can be extreme and over the top, so just use little bits of inspiration. Example: Feathers covering entire outfits= some feather printed fabric.

3. Look for fashion trends that can be translated to home decor because quilts usually add to the home look. An example of this is the mighty chevron stripe! Looks good on a skirt and a bed spread.

Fashion can be a means of inspiration for a quilter. Trends this fall include neutral plaids, winter pastels, animal print (especially snakeskin), and mixing bold and bright colors with subdued tones (easy to translate to quilting). So be bold in your quilting and seek for inspiration outside the quilt shop.

Tags: Design your own Quilts, Quilting
Posted in Helpful Hints, Highlight: Block | No Comments »

Quilt Show & Love Lessons

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

Labor day weekend is always a fun time for our family. Our anniversary usually falls in that weekend and so we celebrate our “family’s birthday” together. This year we were fortunate to get to go up north to cooler weather. While we were up there we had lots of fun without the Internet and it’s accompanying worries. One morning while driving to a couple of places Harley and I saw a sign that said “Quilt Show; Labor Day Weekend”. How is it that there happened to be a quilt show just down the road from where we were staying on the one weekend in a year that I would be there? A coincidence? A blessing? Maybe both? Well whatever it was I was more than happy when I saw the sign.
It is an interesting thing to be married because your spouse sometimes has very different likes and dislikes and there are moments when we have no desire to do things but we do them because we love our spouse. This quilt show was one of those times. I know that Israel is sometimes frustrated with my hobby and the amount of time and effort that sometimes goes into it. And I talk incessantly about stitches, fabric choice, patterns, etc. All of this renders him bored out of his mind, but he listens and tries to be engaged and when all else fails he feigns interest. I love him for that. So when I told Israel about the quilt show he, the best husband EVER, knowing that he would be bored and most likely just act as babysitter, said we should all go. And so we did.
Marriages are like quilts and the same way that the contrasting, similar and complimentary fabrics play together to create beautiful patterns and art so does the contrasting, similar and complimentary personalities and likes and the conscious and planned way that we put them together can create a beautiful marriage. Cheesy I know. But true.
It was a fun little quilt show. There are SO many talented quilters all over. I took photos of some of my favorite quilts and exhibits. There were some of the local guild members encouraging membership and a few other local organizations with booths and raffles. We walked around and looked at the pretty quilts and spoke to some of the designers/quilters about techniques and other things. Some of them would stop me just so they could get a look at my pretty baby girl. She was a treat. Even though she was teething she still gave out smiles to all the nice people.
The whole quilt show was super fun for me! My husband is SO kind. He took Harley around and they found stuff that was fun for him and then they went and played at the playground outside the school where the show took place. What a fun quilt show, we enjoyed it so much. I have such a fun family!Happy Wednesday!

Tags: Family Fun, Quilt Show
Posted in Life Madness, Quilting | No Comments »

Laying Out Your Quilt

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

What to do, what to do . . . Sometimes figuring how to lay out your quilt blocks once they’re made is the hardest part of making the quilt. I find that after I have spent all the time cutting and sewing the blocks, I’m not sure if I want the quilt to look like the original design I’ve been working on for the last several days! That’s what design walls are for, you say? Well, I have a design floor. Somehow I’ve never gotten a design wall up anywhere, mostly because I have things hanging on every available wall in my house . Here are four different ways of laying out this quilt. Post your comments on which layout you like, and later I’ll let you know which one I chose.

This is the original layout for my quilt. I saw The Love Note Quilt first on the Missouri Star Quilt Company’s YouTube channel, and I fell in love with it. So did my daughter, Stephanie! So now it’s going to be her daughter, Hope’s, baby quilt. As you can see, I laid the quilt pattern out in a gradient from light grey to dark red. I’ve spent a little time getting it all put together. I really enjoyed making the quilt squares, and now it’s time to sew the rows together, but do I really want it to look this way?

The patterns above and below are variations of the second pattern I tried. In the layout above (B.) I kept the squares in the same order, simply turning them to create the X patterns. By simply turning the blocks, I kept my original idea of a gradient from light grey to dark red. However, I don’t think it’s as apparent in this layout as it is in the first layout.

In this layout (C.), I placed the blocks randomly but in the same layout as (B.), giving the quilt a more scrappy look. With the more scrappy placement of the blocks, some of the X pattern seems to disappear depending on which colors happen to be next to one another.

Here’s a look at the last layout I did for this quilt. The layout above was done with the blocks still scrappy (D). It’s funny, but it wasn’t until after these were all laid out that I realized that they were in rows with each envelope block turned the opposite way. You can see it if you look hard, but the actual appearance seems to be diagonal rows of envelope blocks. I really like this one. I like the way the alternating blocks create a white envelope made from the four blocks coming together. One of the fun things about changing the layout is the secondary designs that appears when you put the blocks together.

This last layout (E.) is the same as the one above (D.) with the blocks back in a gradient from light gray to dark red~I like this one, too! There are so many ways to lay out the blocks you’ve made for your quilt. Just have fun designing your quilt. Nothing is written in stone, so make it the way you want it to look. Which one do you like the best?

Tags: How to lay out a quilt, Laying out a Quilt, Quilting
Posted in Helpful Hints, Quilting | 2 Comments »

Passionate Paisley

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Shall we make a pattern? Many quilters either pick a pattern and get the fabric to make it, or have fabric and then pick a pattern that matches the amount of fabric they have. So, I’m the quilter who just wants to make up my quilt based on the fabric I have. When I pick fabrics, I start to design a pattern in my mind. I have a hard time sticking with a pattern from a quilting book. Of the four quilts I’ve made, I designed three and modified the other. With my paisley quilt, I didn’t even try to find a pattern that would work. I’ve realized that, when it comes to quilting, I just need to design my own quilts and do my own thing. After a few quilts, I decided to try a more complex pattern, but not one too crazy.

For Passionate Paisley, I decided I wanted to showcase the fabric, so I chose to do squares. One thing you have to decide is whether you want your fabric to be the focus of your quilt, or if it’s all about the pattern.

While making my quilt blocks, especially the nine-patch squares, I had to keep seam allowance in mind. This means a quarter inch is taken off each edge for the seam on every piece of fabric. That was the most difficult part of the design process because of the math.

I learned when making my featured quilt, Passionate Paisley, sometimes you just have to make do with what you have. Don’t let it frustrate you into quitting, be flexible. The fabric for my backing wasn’t quite long enough, so I added a strip of another fabric to make it big enough. Now it’s one of my favorite parts of the quilt. Making your own design is satisfying, you should try it!

Quilt facts:

The binding is corduroy, which adds just a little fun.
There are thirteen different fabrics in the quilt.
It’s made up of more than five unique blocks.

Tags: Design your own Quilts, Quilt, Quilt Pattern
Posted in Highlight: Quilt, Quilting | No Comments »

MY QUILT CACHE

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

My family and I recently moved after living in one house for nine and a half years. As I was feeling overwhelmed with a new baby (#6) and packing, a few things helped me pause to be grateful for this new, exciting change and adventure. One was simply how many quilts I own! I have so many and I only made one of them myself! (Probably a bad thing to confess as a contributor to this blog.) I have bought only one comforter and that was when my husband and I first got married 14 years ago. All the other baby quilts, snuggling quilts, kids’ bedspreads, my bedspreads, picnic blankets, movie quilts, and so on, are all from the amazing talents and generosity of my mother and my mother-in-law.

I’m so grateful they supply my family with these quilts that bring wonderful memories into our home. There’s the picnic blanket made from our old jeans, with the song stitched into the edges, “Going on a picnic, leaving right away, if it doesn’t rain we’ll stay all day…” We have the kid’s quilts that I have based their whole room decor around: space for the boys and vibrant flowers for the girls.

Each child has a snuggly quilt made with love in the form of minky from Grandma (my Mother). Another quilt made from my deceased father-in-law’s old work shirts will be used in the kids’ future fort we’re building in the new backyard, with love from Grandma (my husband’s mother). And many, more–too many to name, but each bringing with it the love of our mothers, and fun memories for our family. What do you do with your quilts? Happy Thursday!

Tags: Lots of quilts, What to use Quilts for
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Blankets from Clothing

Wednesday, August 13th, 2014

I have made many quilts out of clothing in my quilting “career” and throughout that I have learned a thing or two about quilting with clothing. Here are a few thoughts and photos for all to see.
Last year my dad retired from teaching religion for 20 years. Throughout his teaching career he wore a suit, white shirt, and tie 6 days each week. These were often cheesy cartoon and holiday ties. I’m pretty sure his students loved the ties. They really go with his humor in the classroom. When he retired we (Mostly me) decided that it was time for him to also retire some of his ties. Suits wear out pretty easily when you wear them so often, so we had to get rid of those too. He has always worked so hard to support our family of nine and I decided as a retirement gift I would make him a quilt. I had made t-shirt quilts before but my dad wasn’t a t-shirt wearer. This tie, suit and white shirt quilt was as a t-shirt quilt for MY dad. He’s like a real life super hero hence the superhero backing and sashing. It was a fun quilt to design and create. A thought on this quilt is that quilts can be personal.
#1. They can be very special and sentimental.I don’t know about you but I really like and have strong feelings for some of my clothing. I’m a person who will wear a favorite t-shirt until it is too hole ridden and thin to pass as clothing. Those soft worn clothes can be the perfect fabric for a cuddly quilt. Using them in a way that makes them “last” makes me happy.

All other clothing quilts I have made also hold sentiment and they have taught me a thing or two. Such as…
#2. Not all machines are made to handle jeans or many layers. Both the jean quilt and the suit quilt had parts that were very thick or many layers. Make sure you invest in the right needles and that your machine is made to handle such tough fabric and or multiple layers of fabric. The jean quilt was not machine quilted because I chose to display many pockets and zippers and buttons. These don’t do well on a long arm machine with out outlining and “cutting” around each thing. And even then you have to be careful about when the arm is traveling that it doesn’t catch or run into the objects. The suit quilt was long arm quilted and I should have been more diligent in getting rid of the interfacing on the ties and some suit pieces… Next time!
My mother saved our jeans my whole life… or at least as long as I can remember. We all wore hand me downs and when a pair was unwearable any more (they didn’t fit, they got a bleach spot or a hole, or they just got old) it went into a bag up in the attic. I was so grateful for this stash one day when I decided I wanted to make and then subsequently designed a jean quilt. I then climbed up into the attic and pulled out two large trash sized bags of jeans. I cut and sewed and quickly made that quilt. At the age of 16 I would never had saved enough of a variety of jeans on my own to make a quilt. Thanks Mom.

So I live in Mesa, AZ which may be the only city on earth that cares what high school you attended even into your eighties. There is a lot of school pride in this city and beyond that I am one of seven kids, our parents graduated from the same high school, six of us seven siblings graduated from the same high school and my husband also graduated from that same high school. I was very active in sports and extracurriculars and so I had LOTS of t-shirts… what else to do but make a quilt. From this quilt I learned…
#3. don’t stretch or pull the pieces. Clothing fabric and T-shirt are fun and easy to work with as long as you are careful. clothing fabric is different to your typical coating quilting fabric because it often has more stretch to it. When stretched these fabrics change shape and curl on the edges. Not good. So you have to be careful not to pull of fold these fabrics too much. T-shirt is fun because it sticks to itself. Because of this, when working with it the pieces can just be laid on top of each other without pinning. And when I can avoid pinning I do. Then just allow the sewing machine to feed the fabric through itself holding softly.

#4. There are endless possibilities. No one is going to have the exact same clothing to put into a quilt and so there are no two alike. When you decide the clothing you would like to use there are SO many designs that you can create. I made another t-shirt quilt and it is very different from my high school t-shirt quilt. This one (below) is made of Harley Davidson Motorcycle T-shirts that my father-in-law had accumulated over years. It is backed with fabric that I ordered from Sturgis, South Dakota. My father-in-law and my husband and his brother attended The Sturgis Rally together years ago. And to make it even more motorcycle themed, I quilted it with a motorcycles stitch. I love how it turned out.

There are SO many fun ways to quilt with clothing! Get designing and you could make your clothing into something great! Happy Wednesday!

Tags: Blankets from clothing, Quilts From Clothing, T-shirt Quilt, Tips for T-shirt Quilts
Posted in Our Projects, Quilting | No Comments »

Fruit Market and Swirly Stitching
Monday, August 11th, 2014

In August, 2007 I bought my long-arm computerized Statler Stitcher quilting machine and that was the beginning of great relationship between creating and quilting. The more I quilt the more I enjoy quilting on my machine. Every day I learn something new from quilting on my Statler! I have begun to feel proficient using my Statler, and I enjoy quilting almost every day~it’s addicting! There is lots of excitement picking out the pattern for the quilting, choosing the color of the thread, and figuring out how to make the quilt unique.

I named the quilt that I’m highlighting today “Fruit Market” after the original pattern I used. “Spice Market,” a pattern designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, was featured on the cover of the April, 2007 American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, and I fell in love with it on sight. At the time, I was using lots of bright colors in my quilting and wanted to make my quilt out of some of my favorite colors. So I did.
The pattern went together fairly quickly. Sewing the individual strips together was fast, cutting them, and then laying them out so that there were no repeats was not quite as fast.
It made my head spin trying to make sure that I hadn’t used the exact same combination before. Although I tried and tried, I still had some places where the same fabrics were together. Even so, I still love it and the bright colors make me so happy!

When I did the machine quilting for this quilt, I chose the pattern “Sticky Buns” by Anne Bright, because I wanted the machine quilting to contrast with the straight lines of the quilt. The swirling lines of Sticky Buns created just the right amount of distinction between the quilting stitch and the quilt. The result was just what I was looking for. I find that when I am doing an all over quilt pattern, I am happiest when it varies from the design of the quilt. Straight lines with curvy quilts, and vice versa.

Bright quilts still make me very happy. Even though I make quilts in other color ways, I think my heart will always be with bright colors! Hope you enjoy seeing my first Statler machine stitched quilt! Happy Monday!

Tags: Pretty Bright Quilts, Quilting
Posted in Highlight: Quilt, Our Projects, Quilting | 1 Comment »

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