Finishing the Moonglow Quilt

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

I last posted about my Moonglow quilt in November 2020, so this project has been in limbo for a while. I started to post about this quilt in April 2020, and had been working on the piecing for about a year before that, so we’re at five years on this project.

It’s also been two years since I did any machine quilting myself. My goal this spring was to get some things done that have been languishing in my sewing room and this quilt top certainly made the list.

Here’s that official image of the quilt again, just to remind you. 🙂

When I pulled the Moonglow out this time, I had five blocks left to piece – the four corners and the middle block, which are the most complicated ones. After that, there’s the assembly with the sashing and the final quilting. This one is going to a long arm quilter to be finished up – my plan in March was to keep at it until it was ready to go to the quilter. I did pretty well with that goal!

The idea behind the quilt is that it should take a year to piece. There’s a block assigned to each month, then in month twelve, you piece the intermittent blocks and assemble the quilt. Of course, I didn’t follow the sequence – I did the courthouse steps blocks that go in between the stars when I was tired of paper piecing, so they were done already.

There are two different designs for the corner blocks and you make two of each. I’d already cut out the pieces for the pair that are top right and bottom left, so finished them up first. These are month nine’s project.

Moonglow quilt kit by Jinny Beyer pieced by Deborah Cooke

It’s a dingy day today, so I had to take the pix inside, which means they’re a bit underexposed.

Then, top left and bottom right:

And finally, the central medallion – I need to hand-sew the central octagon, so it’s pinned in place here.

Next up, the assembly. I’m not going to repiece any of the blocks (I had thought I might, and there’s enough fabric leftover for that) but I am going to restitch one of those central octagons to make a neater job. I’m also going to change the borders on the star blocks so that the seam allowances all press outward. I did that on the central medallion and it makes for a flatter finish. Then I’ll put it all together and take it to the long-arm quilting place.

I’ve never had a quilt quilted at the long-arm place, so I’ll take the dragon quilt to be finished first. This one will make the trip second.

I am pleased with this top and am sure I’ll like the final quilt. It’s a beautiful design and the colour selection is magical. I wish there had been more explanation of why each hue was chosen for each place – I assembled the quilt, but I still don’t understand what makes it work so well.

I did learn in the piecing of this one to step back when I was getting tired instead of pressing on. That’s probably why I wasn’t enjoying it so much at first – I was product-oriented instead of process-oriented. When I slowed down and just sewed for as long as I found it satisfying, the process was much more enjoyable. So, there’s a lesson learned.

I’m also done with kits. Both this one and the dragon quilt top were kits including both the fabric and the pattern. While I like them, I don’t feel the same sense of satisfaction as with the quilts I’ve either designed myself, or the quilt patterns for which I’ve chosen my own fabrics. It certainly could be argued that the designers do a better job of selecting the perfect fabric for each section, but I prefer when my quilts are unique – even if they’re less than optimal!

This one, for example, was also paper pieced, and there are sections that I’d make another colour if I did it again, but I like it better than either of these kits. It’s one of a kind. 🙂

Jumping Jax Flash quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

The pattern is Jumping Jax Flash by Judy Niemeyer. I pieced it probably twenty years ago. (Maybe thirty. Ha!) It’ll be heading to the long-arm quilter too, but it’ll be third and last to head there.

Maine Ocean Quilt

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

It’s been quiet here lately because I’ve been buried in writing and publishing tasks. Last week, though, I took a little fiber break and got this quilt top finished. I quilted it on my Singer 185.

Blue squares pieced and quilted by Deborah Cooke

This one was inspired by a quilt I saw on our road trip to Maine: the cabin where we stayed had a quilt in this pattern on the bed. Theirs was red and white, but I really liked the simple pattern and how effective a design it made. I doodled it down, then came home to sort through my stash. I really like this colour combination. The top has been waiting to be quilted for a while.

Since the colours reminded me of the ocean, I quilted it in waves – they go diagonally across the middle square, then I started to quilt around and around. After finishing the third (outer) square border around the middle, I had to respray the outside border with temporary adhesive – all that wrestling of the fabric had made the layers come apart again. The backing is a printed cotton sateen from my stash, and the border is the same Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass in purple that’s in the quilt.

Here’s a picture of the pieced top in the sunshine:

This one was a challenge to quilt on the machine – I think it’s either the maximum size that I can manage or close to it. It’s 72″ by 72″ finished. I have one more that’s about this size (the mermaids) and I’ll probably try to do my Storm at Sea on the machine – it’s a teensy bit bigger. (Ha. No pix of that one. It’s been waiting a looooooooong time to be quilted!) The bigger ones will have to go to the long arm quilter to be finished up.

I also have a lap top pieced in these fabrics which I’ve been handquilting with embroidery floss. It has flannel on the back and is a very cozy piece of work. I’ll try to get that done soon and post a pic.

My Finished Escher Quilt

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

A long time ago, I showed you the Escher quilt that I’d sewn from a kit. Here’s the pieced top again from that original post. There’s snow on the driveway!

Escher quilt from kit pieced by Deborah Cooke

This one became my first big quilt that I machine-quilted. I’ve already completed two smaller test quilts – this one and this one. The first lap quilt used up the scraps from this quilt. This one is about 62″ by 64″, still not a full-size quilt but big enough that I had to wrestle it through the machine.

If I’d been quilting this by hand, I would have made circles or curves to contrast with the piecing. With free motion quilting, I would have made those all-over squiggles. But at this point, I’m making lines with my walking foot, so I had to come up with a different plan.

I used a cotton Gutermann quilting thread in variegated yellow, which looked nice against both the backing and the front.

The back is a quilting cotton that I’d originally bought to make a shirt for Mr. Math. He didn’t love the print, though—the birds are bigger than expected from the pix online—so it’s been in my stash, waiting for opportunity. There wasn’t quite enough of it for the entire back, especially after I matched the print, so I did a little patch of leftover blocks from the quilt top.

back of Escher Quilt made by Deborah Cooke

For the quilting design, I marked the middle of the quilt, with the plan of quilting on either side of the diagonal lines – the quilting is about 1/4″ outside of the seam on either side of the seam. I started at the top left corner—where the stripey Y is—stitched on one side of the seam, pivoted at the middle point, then quilted up to the opposite top corner. Once I’d quilted both sides of the seam, I dropped down to the next diagonal line. There’s a floral Y there. I did this three times, then flipped the quilt and did the same from the other edge. That left two triangles on either side of the middle unquilted. I followed the same idea, pivoting one column outside of the middle column until the top had all the diagonal lines quilted.

This turned out to be a really good idea and a plan I’ll follow in future. The fabric adhesive I used (Odile 505) isn’t permanent and washes out. I wondered whether it would lose its grip over the course of quilting this quilt, with all the turning and wrestling with the fabric, and it did. So, it was good to have those main lines already quilted by the time I got to the final sections.

I could have just used the walking foot to make more parallel lines but wanted some curves. I like those sinuous curves that look like water flowing. I decided to treat each black triangle like a rock in a stream—I sewed one line down the middle of each space, going around the “rocks”. I added two more quilting lines in each gap, one on either side of that wavy line and undulating between it and the straight line.

I was stumped on the binding for a day or two. I didn’t have any of the component fabrics left over, and (incredibly) anything I pulled from my stash didn’t work. The pinks were too yellow or too blue, the oranges too bright, etc. Finally, I found a piece of Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass in black and red. That colourway isn’t in the quilt top, but that design is. It’s perfect. Here’s a detail shot of one corner:

Detail of Escher Quilt made by Deborah Cooke

This is a small quilt comparatively, but bigger than either of my test quilts. It felt like I did a lot of wrestling to get this one done! The weight was a bit of an issue, which means I need a bigger work surface next time. Also, my walking foot didn’t walk as well as previously, maybe also because of the weight. I’ll make some changes to my set-up before tackling another one of this size. My curved lines are smoother, despite all that, and my stitch length is more consistent. I only had one teensy tuck in the top and none in the backing, which is a triumph.

Here it is:

I’m really glad it’s done. 🙂

I’m also trying to remember where I put the pattern. The kit came with the fabric and was quite a mix. The result is chaotic and fun, but I’m curious how it would look with a more limited palette, and one in which I love every fabric. I think I’ll quilt that one (if and when I do it) with parallel lines.

What do you think of this one?

Test Lap Quilt #2

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

More on machine quilting today and the second lap quilt that I made. The one was inspired by this YouTube video called Five Ways to Use Ugly Fabric. I was intrigued by the title! She makes a number of suggestions then offers a tutorial for a lap quilt that requires twelve 14″ squares.

Instead of using ugly fabric, I chose fabrics I like from my stash but haven’t used, mostly florals, mostly red and black. The design reminds me of Stained Glass Quilts, but without the black sashing. (Here’s a tutorial on making those. They were really popular about 30 years ago.)

Here’s that “ugly” quilt top, which isn’t very ugly at all. There are twelve squares but they’re a bit tough to pick out. The only horizontal and vertical seams inside the borders are between the blocks. Look for three squares across and four down – each one is broken into 9 pieces.

The one fabric that breaks the rule of red-and-black is that green one with the chrysanthemums. I always loved it but have never used it. Now it’s here forever. Also the paisley one with the cream background technically follows the rules (there’s a bit of black in the outlines) but it’s also a less consistent choice. The styles of the prints are so different that I would never have put them together but it’s kind of fun to have them mixed like this. Two are Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I never used because the scale of them was so big. (One is black with huge red and pink flowers, while the other has a purple vase with long blue sprays of flower stems.) Hmm. That one floral is the only one with a lot of yellow. Maybe there are more outliers than I thought!

This quilt is bigger than the first test quilt – it’s 42″ by 54″ – but still a small quilt.

I did buy backing fabric for it out of the discount bin and had to piece the batting from that last piece of the roll. I’d originally planned to use the black cotton quilting thread, but instead I went looking for Aurifil thread, which is supposed to be the best. I found a wonderful cherry red in that which I couldn’t resist.

I had a plan to do my first free motion quilting on this one, using my Pfaff 360, but that machine needed a bit of TLC first. I did a few rows of quilting on a vintage Elna instead, using a cam from the embroidery stitches, then thought it would be too much to do the whole quilt that way. (Even though it is pretty.) I wanted to change to a straight stitch and the Elna didn’t want to go. (More TLC needed.)

Here’s that decorative cam stitch:

So, it was back to the trusty Singer 185K and the walking foot. As a result, this quilt has wavy lines of quilting, just like the last one, instead of free motion quilting. I still like it. Here it is:

Red Scrap Quilt by Deborah Cooke, completed

One difference is that I wanted to quilt the borders all around, in an enclosing square instead of quilting from edge to edge. That meant that I had to pull both threads to the same side at either end of each quilting line inside the borders, tie them off, then thread the ends onto a needle and bury them in the quilt. That took some time but wasn’t as tedious as I’d thought. (Hint: leave long ends in future.)

Until my machines get their TLC, I’m foiled as far as learning free motion quilting. I’m going to carry on with the walking foot, though. The lines are kind of fun when they wave and when they aren’t perfectly parallel, they have an organic appearance that will work for some of my quilt tops. There’s still room for improvement in my lines and my stitch length, too, and certainly I need practice supporting the weight of the quilt as I work.

In addition to giving us some picnic quilts for the car, these test pieces have convinced me of one thing: done is better than perfect. I never believed that until now, but all the imperfections that I see when I examine each quilt closely aren’t noticeable when you look at the whole thing. So, I’m going to continue with my quilt tops that need to be finished up, working from smallest to biggest as I get better at moving the weight of the quilt around.

Escher Quilt by Christopher Weinhold (kit) pieced by Deborah Cooke

Next up is my Escher quilt. Since it’s all diagonal lines anyway, I’m going to quilt it with chevrons – down from the left side on the diagonal to the middle, then pivot and quilt up to the right side on the diagonal. I haven’t yet decided whether to do that the whole way down, or to invert the chevron halfway down. That would make a big X instead of the Y in the piecing, which might be fun. We’ll see.

Quilt Labels

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

I always sign my quilts – I write my name on the quilt then embroider over it – and add the date, but there’s always the challenge of easily documenting more than that. For years, I kept a little book, a Quilt Diary or journal, which had a place for a picture of each quilt then some details about it. Naturally, the book is not with any specific quilt (and I’m not entirely sure where it is now.) So I was excited to find these panels at my LQS.

Sewing is my Happy Place quilt labels on printed panel from Northcott

This is one panel of the labels, which are part of the Sewing is My Happy Place line by Nina Djuric. Here are the fabrics in that line on the Northcott website. Each label is about 5.5″ by 5.75″ after washing (because the fabric shrank more in the lengthwise dimension, of course). I’m trimming them so that there’s half an inch all around, then turning down 1/4″ and stitching around the perimeter on the machine. I’ll sew them onto the backs of my quilt by hand once I’ve added the information to each one.

I also did a little test, writing on the selvedge with a black Sharpie marker before washing the fabric. That held perfectly, so I’ll use the Sharpie for my documenting. I need to find that old quilt diary to copy any details from there.

btw, the link on the Northcott page for the free tote bag pattern isn’t right. (It takes you to ALL of the patterns available there.) You can download that bag pattern right here. It’s hard to see in the thumbnail but the tote has pleated outer pockets. I’m going to try one and use those panels with the black background on it somewhere. 🙂

How do you record the details for your quilts?

Test Lap Quilt #1

Posted on July 27, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

One of my goals for this year was to finish up my quilts. I have a lot of quilt tops pieced but they haven’t become finished quilts. Part of this is because I’ve always pieced by machine but quilted my tops by hand, so the first part of the process is much faster than the second. Either I needed to hire someone to quilt my tops, or I needed to learn to machine quilt them myself. I went for option B and ordered a walking foot for my machine.

This (ironically) meant that I needed to make more quilt tops in order to practice machine quilting before taking on my existing quilt tops. Also, I thought it would be easier to work with a smaller quilt first, and my existing tops are mostly big. So, I began to piece lap quilts from scraps.

This one was inspired by this YouTube video from Missouri Star, Make a Summer Squares Quilt. They suggest using a jelly roll with two contrasting solid fabrics, but I dove into my scrap bag instead. I have a lot of strips in there, many of them from my Escher quilt, and it drives me crazy to waste fabric. I grouped strips into lights and darks to piece them together, using a Kaffe Fassett stripe in greens cut crosswise and KF yarn-dyed solid mauve as my contrast squares in the middle. Here it is:

I used all the pieces leftover from the Escher quilt but was missing two strips to make enough blocks for this layout. I used some lime Roman Glass in my stash then added one non-KF fabric – it’s the lime with polka dots that’s in the border. Because fabric was so tight, I didn’t really manage the light and dark assignment of colours in the Missouri Star quilt, but I like how bright and cheerful mine is.

The walking foot was delivered while I was piecing this, so I got right down to quilting by machine for the first time. (eek) I added one more tool to my arsenal – Odif 505 temporary fabric adhesive. (That’s an Amazon link.) You spray it on the batting then iron the fabric to it, then flip it over and do the same with the backing. It keeps the layers from sliding around as you stitch and is pretty awesome. (It washes out.)

I watched this video and thought this diagonal quilting was something I could do. The trick was that I’m using my vintage Singer 185 for this project, which is a workhorse but a straight stitch machine. (My Elna has an appointment for a sewing-machine-spa-day next month!) In the video, she uses a wave stitch chosen from the machine’s options. I decided to make my own waves, even though they’d be less regular.

I used Guterman 100% cotton thread in black, a Schmetz 14 sharp “chrome” needle, and my new walking foot. I set the guide on the foot for an inch but didn’t follow it faithfully. I wanted a more organic look to the “waves” and I like how they worked out. There are a few tucks but I expected that since my borders were a bit wavy (which comes from sewing fabric cut on the crossgrain onto strips with a bias edge. Next time, I’ll be more careful!)

It was a bit of a wrestle moving the fabric, but I got used to it. And my waves improved over the course of quilting. I noticed that the 185 likes to stop with its needle up, so I learned to crank it down before doing anything else (to avoid any little jumps). My curves were also smoother when I didn’t stop in the width of the quilt. Faster and smoother is better, too. Lessons learned. 🙂

There are a lot of things you can buy to make this machine quilting easier, but I’m trying to keep a lid on expenses until I decide whether I like it or not. Instead of buying quilting gloves, for example, I used a new pair of garden gloves. I did find it a bit tough to move the quilt, even with the walking foot, so I ordered a LaPierre Studio Supreme Slider (that’s another Amazon link.) This is a reuseable plastic sheet that you lay over the machine bed to make it smoother and more slippery.

The cool thing about this quilt is that it came completely from the stash and my scrap bag, even the batting. I’d bought a big roll of 100% cotton batting to layer up all my quilt tops and this is 1/3 of the last piece. (The very last piece is destined for Scrappy Test Lap Quilt #2 which is a bit bigger than this one.) The backing is a piece of yarn-dyed cotton that I got at the thrift store, leftover from the Purl Soho apron I made for the mister.

Back of the scrappy test quilt made by Deborah Cooke

You can see some pins there – I’ll sew the bias binding down by hand on the back side. The finished quilt is about 30 by 42″.

The one thing I’d change was the colour of the thread for the quilting. I used black, because I didn’t know what to pick, but I don’t love the look of the black on the solid mauve border. So, in future, I’ll hold the quilting thread against the most solid fabric to choose a colour.

On to the next one! I’ll have some knitting to show you soon, too – a cowl, a new pair of socks and a cardigan.

My Mermaid Quilt

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

I’ve recently finished a new quilt top, one that hadn’t been in my plans but just fit into my schedule perfectly. Here it is:

(I have to figure out a better way to photograph quilt tops. Hmm. I end up holding the camera overhead (even when I stand on a chair or ladder) and hoping for the best, about 10 times in a row. (Thank goodness for digital cameras!) I wish I had a wall high enough and big enough to hang each quilt. Hmm. I’ll keep thinking about it.)

The fabrics are mostly from a collection called Mermaid in Blue Jeans by Chelsea Design Works from StudioE. I’d ordered the panels, thinking they might make good tote bags, but changed my mind once they arrived. I decided to make a quilt instead and ordered another set of blocks to make it bigger. There are two free quilt patterns available for download on the StudioE website, but I didn’t see those before I started. (It’s okay. I don’t mind having designed my own.) You can also see on that page of the StudioE website that only the panels and the pink contrast fabric are currently available from the manufacturer. I bought my fabric on Etsy where all of the fabrics are still available.

Here are the fabrics that I used and the quantities. First, the mermaid panels. There are eight 10.5″ squares sold in the panel. You can see that there are really four designs then the mirror image of each one (with two having a colour change.) I bought two of these sets.

Mermaid in Blue Jeans by StudioE square panels

Then the allover mermaid print:

Allover mermaid print from Mermaid in Blue Jeans by StudioE

I had some of this left from my tote bags but ordered another meter for the outside border and used pretty much all of it for that. I cut 5″ strips lengthwise for the border and had only two inches left over. (I prefer to cut borders on the lengthwise grain, since it’s less inclined to stretch than the crosswise grain. This means, though, that you either need more fabric or have to do more piecing.) Even though this is a one-way design, there’s a lot going on, so I didn’t bother to match the seams for that outside border. I just didn’t sew any mermaids in half.

Dark Blue Mermaid Wave from Mermaid in Blue Jeans by StudioE

The third fabric I used from the line was the Dark Blue Mermaid Wave. I had one meter of this fabric, but once I started the sashing, I had to buy another. I have some left and I made some cutting errors. You could probably make it work with 1.5m, especially if you were less matchy-matchy than me.

The bright pink was in my stash. It’s a basic blender that comes in lots of colours and is stocked at Fabricland. It’s called Mystic Vine by John Louden. (That’s a UK site that shows many of the colours. I’ll guess mine is the Fuchsia.) Besides the fact that I like pink and navy together, the brighter pink gives the quilt some punch. I tried a paler one that matched the pink in the blocks more closely, but it was dull. I had maybe half a meter which I used to border the blocks and bought another meter for the border and binding. That’s a .75″ strip used to border the blocks (which finishes out to .25″ – I used .25″ seam allowances throughout) and a 1″ strip around the border that was cut at 1.5″.

There’s a challenge with these printed blocks that I also experienced with the dragon quilt. The blocks are printed square, but when you pre-wash the fabric, the cotton shrinks more in one dimension than the other, leaving rectangles instead of squares. Mine were about half an inch longer than they were wide after washing, which confounded me for a while. OTOH, it’s better to have this shrinkage before the quilt is pieced. Ultimately, I realized it didn’t really matter since I wasn’t coordinating these blocks with other square blocks. I just cut longer borders for the height.

The second challenge was that wave fabric. It’s a one-way design, which meant some planned cutting of the sashing. Also, it looks so much better when the wave is continuous across the quilt. (This is probably why it’s only used as an accent fabric in the free patterns. That’s a lot simpler.) I discovered that the wave shape repeats every 4″, with the complete design repeating every 12″. That’s why I cut 4″ sashing – it was easy to make matches then. My blocks finished out to just under 12″ with the pink borders, which was a happy coincidence. If I did this again (not going to happen!) I would plan for them to be 12″ wide.

I was going to have the blue horizontal sashing go all the way across, but again, it looked a bit bland. Instead, I cut 9 blocks of the allover print and didn’t like that at all. Next, I fussy-cut 9 mermaids out of the allover print for the blocks at the junctions of the sashing. This was less bright than I’d hoped, but the backgrounds blend so well that it’s not immediately obvious where my seams don’t join with surgical precision. I like the small mermaids there, too.

I found some turquoise-green cotton in the sale bin that matches those green mermaid tails and bought it for the backing. I’ve cut bias binding from the rest of the bright pink for the edges. The quilt will finish out at 60″ by 64″ or so. I’m going to try quilting it on the machine once my walking foot arrives. (Not as a first project, but it’s in that queue.)

I like this one. It presented a few challenges but was a pretty easy make while I finished writing a book. What do you think?

Quilting my Pineapple Star

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

I’m working on a number of projects this week, trying to finish things up, which means I have no completed project to show you. I’ve finished the second orange sock but you’ve seen the first and (surprise) the second is the same. It’s not very newsworthy. I’ve also been knitting on the Halo cardigan while watching movies at night (the back is done). I’ll definitely run out of Koigu KPPPM on that, so need to make a plan. Hmm. (Those links go to previous blog posts here at A&K.)

Sewing-wise, I’ve finished two Schoolhouse Tunics and don’t like either of them, so won’t be showing those off. (That link goes to the designer’s site.) I finished my Purl Soho Cross Back Apron and don’t love that on me either – fortunately, the straps were long enough that I could position them for the mister. He loves to cook and the apron looks great on him, so that’s solved. It’s a good pattern, if you’re looking for one, well described and comes out with a nice finish. (That’s a link to the pattern on the PS site.) I’ve just come to the conclusion that my friend Terri is right: square pieces of fabric don’t look good on round bodies. 🙂 I’m currently in the midst of making some bucket hats. Of course, I need to tweak the patterns – I’ll show you the results soon.

This may be more interesting.

Inspired by a friend’s machine quilting, I’ve decided to learn and finish up some of my quilt tops. I ordered a walking foot for my sewing machine, but in the meantime, I’ve put this quilt back on the frame. I’d started the hand quilting and put it away. Time to finish up.

Pineapple star quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

This is my Pineapple Star quilt, being quilted. I pieced this one a while ago – I know it was before we could shop easily online because I ran out of the big poppy print. I remember that the local shop that carried KF fabrics was out of stock of that one, so I had to piece one of the squares for the corners. Now, I’d just order another meter from someone else.

You’ve probably noticed that I’m quilting with embroidery thread. I like using this thread, even though it’s a bit thicker. I usually choose a contrasting colour – like the lime here – so the stiches show up. I split the thread into two strands of three ply each.

Here’s the quilt in progress, when the central star was completed, so you can see the design. I fussy cut the center of the medallion from that large scale Kaffe Fassett peony print. (The print is actually called Kimono. It’s fabulous, but discontinued.) The only other KF fabrics in the top are the lime green at the points of the stars and the cherry red outside the lime green ring – both are the same print, Roman Glass. The purple is a batik, the dark pink is kettle-dyed, the light pink is a solid (probably Kona, because it’s thick) and the lime green is a fun print with suns. There’s yellow Kona in the central squares in each point, with a leaf fussy-cut from another print in each one.

After this, I added additional triangles of the poppy fabric to the corners to square it up and added outer borders. It has a skinny border of that lime green from the middle and then a slightly wider border of purple batik – not the same batik as in the middle, since I’d run out of that too. (You may have guessed that this quilt wasn’t planned in advance.) I have some of the cherry Roman Glass cut on the bias for the binding.

The inspiration was a book called Pineapple Stars by Sharon Rexroad. Here’s the book at right and here’s an Amazon.ca link. It says at the ‘zon that the book was published in 2005, so I’ll guess that I pieced this top fifteen years ago or so.

Right now, I’ve got the big corner squares left to quilt – they’ll be quick, since I’m just doing them with diagonal lines – then the borders and binding. I’m going to try a technique featured in one of the serger tutorials I’ve been watching – the instructor uses her serger to trim the outer edge of her quilts while sewing one edge of the binding in place at the same time. I’ll handsew the other edge on the back side.

I like this quilt. It’s bright and cheerful, just the kind of thing to work on right now. What do you think?

Another Dragon Quilt

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

I don’t have any knitting to show you this week, although I’m making good progress on two projects. I finished the body on my Spector pullover and tried it on – it fits! That was exciting. Now I’m charging down the first sleeve. The other project I’m trying to finish was stranded on Sleeve Island for a long time. It’s my Audrey cardigan, which had to go into time-out when I realized the sleeves were far too wide and had to be frogged. One sleeve is done and I’m making good progress on the second. I’ll show you both sweaters when they’re done.

In the meantime, I saw some quilting fabric that I just had to buy – because, well, dragons. It’s from Studio E and the collection is called Rainbow Dragons. At right are the dragon panels.

There are two free PDF pattern downloads available using the prints in the collection – you can see them here – but I’d rather make up my own.

This is the alphabet panel I bought, which is just plain fun:

There are things I love about these panels – yes, dragons! – and things I discovered in cutting that add to the challenge of it all. The letters aren’t all the same size, which makes sense since they have different shapes. The bigger issue is that there isn’t the same amount of space between them – you can’t cut them apart so each letter has 1/2″ all around. Look at C and D, for example. They look spaced out but there isn’t even 1/4″ between the tip of the flourish on the C and the end of the serif on the D. There are also shaded images of dragons in the background – they’re more obvious in this photo than in real life – so adding a little piece of background to square up the letter will always show. Hmm. The designer must not have intended that the letters be cut apart, but that’s what quilters do!

As much as I love the side banner, I can’t figure out how to use it. There are exactly two repeats with no space between them for a seam allowance and no seam allowance at either end. Plus there are two different background gradations on each side, so you can’t piece one good one out of each pair. It’s not available as separate yardage either, which is a shame because it would make a rocking border. Hmm. I don’t actually know what to do with the border hexagons on the other dragon panel either. Inspiration may strike as I work.

The first solution was obviously to dip into the stash and I had a good time with that. I do have a rainbow selvedge-to-selvedge gradation in my stash that goes perfectly with these prints, so that’s been pulled out. I also tugged out a number of orange and yellow prints, including one with flames. (I default to turquoise, purple and pink, so am trying to mix it up a bit.) I’d already bought these flying dragons from the same line to make a brighter dragon tote bag. They’ll going into this quilt instead.

Studio E Rainbow Dragons, Flying Dragons ptint

I don’t have a design wall, so there’s fabric all over the floor. My dog likes to walk across it, or even sleep on it, just adding to the challenge of it all. 🙂 I’m quite excited about this project and will show you my results!

Three More Moonglow Blocks

Posted on November 25, 2020 by Deborah Cooke

I haven’t been working on my Moonglow quilt for a while, so a few weeks ago, I pulled it out again. I’ve always loved this quilt design and thought that when I bought the kit, I’d be obsessed with it until it was all pieced. Not so. It’s been a very fits-and-starts project. I tried to figure out why. (The picture at right is of someone else’s completed quilt.)

I first posted about it in April of this year, although I’ve had the kit for at least a year. Here’s that first post, with the alternating blocks and the first three stars done. In my May post, with the next two stars, I admitted to not loving the process, even though I’d switched to paper piecing.

I figured out that I’m not having fun because I’m disappointed in my results. My blocks aren’t completely flat (they ripple) and the points don’t match as neatly as I’d like. There are a bunch of reasons for this, even though I’m a fairly accurate seamstress. You can paper-piece some parts of each block, but never yet has it been possible to piece the entire block on paper.

Many of the blocks have set-in corners, like this one. So, the corner quadrants are paper-pieced, but then have to be set into the central star.

Many (many) seams are on the bias of the fabric, so they stretch.

There are many slightly angled seams, and it’s tricky to pivot at the right point. Under the sewing machine foot, it’s hard to see the point.

So, I used some techniques from dressmaking to minimize the effect of these things. When I have paper piecing, for example, I’m leaving the paper on each piece until it’s sewn in on every side. That helps to stabilize the seams on the bias. I’m also pinning the beginning and the end of each of those seams, then using more pins in the middle, to make sure it doesn’t shift while being sewn.

When setting in a corner, I sew the seam that comes to the corner only as far as the seam allowance and backtack it. That means I can move the seam allowances more readily when insetting the other piece. I’m also sewing out from the point, doing the inset in two seams (instead of sewing in to the corner, pivoting, then sewing out). Lots and lots of pins on these insets, too.

Moonglow template, from quilt designed by Jinny Beyer

When there’s a slightly angled seam, I poke a pin through the paper at the pivot point, leaving a hole. That’s visible when I’m sewing so I know exactly where to pivot. I’m also clipping the paper at those points, which makes it easier to re-align the seams (when the needle is down in the turning point) to continue sewing.

(You can also see in this image how much fabric is wasted in the trims. I’ve been saving these pieces as they’re big enough to cut the corner squares in the sashing.)

And of course, pressing, pressing, pressing. I was pressing a lot before but now I’m doing it even more.

I’ve done three more stars and am much happier with the results. I also enjoyed sewing them more. They’re still not perfect, but they’re better. These three blocks allowed me to complete the second column and the fourth column of the quilt. Here they are:

block for Moonglow quilt, designed by Jinny Beyer and pieced by Deborah Cooke

They all look much better once pieced into the quilt. I have five more blocks to make – the four corners and the middle star. There are two blocks designed for the corners and you make each one twice. The centre star is kind of the big finish, the most complicated block of all.

All my borders are cut and the alternating squares pieced, and many of the fabrics won’t be used again. There’s a lot of fabric left over, which means I’ll be able to redo any of the blocks that really irk me. (And there will still be a lot of fabric left! The cuts in this kit are really generous.) I’m getting close!

In the meantime, I’ve been seduced by another beauty: look at this!

Crimson Poppy quilt design by Judy Niemeyer Quiltworx

This is called Crimson Poppy and was designed by Judy Niemeyer (the designer of Jumping Jax Flash, which I’ve made) and sold at Quiltworx. Here’s a link to buy the pattern for the central medallion – it ends with the red polkadot square. The central block is on point in this version. You can also buy a kit for this larger version, with the four corner extensions and all the fabric required at Quiltster, right here.

On this page, there are a number of colour options and corner additions displayed, also as kits including fabric. You can also (be still my heart) join Quiltster and change out the fabrics online, customizing your own version, then buy your own kit from them. Hello, timesink – but what fun!

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave

Category Archives: Quilting