"Inspired By..." A Modern Take on an Amish Crazy Quilt

The Quilt Alliance has a great theme for this year's annual fundraising contest: "Inspired By...". (The contest guidelines are here.) You all know that I have lately been deeply inspired by vintage crazy quilts....my current project is a case in point.

But in the midst of that very long term project, I had occasion to try the Inspired By approach for a wedding throw quilt for my nephew Andy and his lovely bride Caylie.  You remember them, don't you?  ;-)  And the wallhanging I made for him to give to her (at his request) while he was wooing her, "Love by the Moon"?

They love bright colors, live by the beach down near Oceanside, and needed something cozy because Caylie gets cold!  So silks quilted onto silk fleece seemed perfect.

The quilt that so inspired me is from the Susie Tompkins Buell Quilt Collection.

I love the large blocks and solid shapes with the intricate geometric grid overall.  I had to try out my own quilt with these basic parameters.

Here is the beginning.  As always, my "blanks"--foundation muslins--are up on the design wall.  I like to see how the blocks are going together as I make them.  (Here I am using Method 4, Intuitive Applique, from my Craftsy Class.  Sign up for it here if you are interested, with a $20 discount!)

It came together very fast, and here it is under the needle of my beloved Sweet 16 from Handiquilter.
I didn't mark the quilting lines, but I did first quilt in the ditch in the seams between the blocks, using clear thread.  That helped stabilize everything (along with my basting pins) for the quilting to come.

Here's a better look at that quilting on the silk.  So yummy!

I loved diving deeply into my prodigious silk stash to make this quilt.  I didn't have to buy a thing.  ;-)

You know me and binding: we are not pals. I will do anything to avoid making a traditional binding.
So I love to use trim or lace; it is so quick, easy, and looks and functions great.

I had trimmed the edge of the quilt and am just covering the raw edge with the lace.  There won't be any fraying, and the quilt police were nowhere in sight....

To sew it on, I used a 9mm wide zigzag stitch in clear thread, with a strong yet fine matching thread in the bobbin.  I only needed to make one pass.  My kind of binding, for sure!

You can see it from the back, along with how cool that gridded quilting looks on the silk fleece.  And the label, of course.  Always label your work, please!

Let's look again at how my quilt was definitely was inspired by the Amish quilt.  Here it is again, so you can view them right next to each other:

(And just a reminder, when you are thinking about your Quilt Alliance quilt for "Inspired by", you must choose a quilt from the Quilt Index and site it in your entry.  We are hoping to encourage more people to explore the Indesx this way!)

Of course, I had to try my Inspired-by version out before sending it off to Andy and Caylie....

It works great!!!

The Vintage CQ: Borders Constructed, 5 Years Later....

This quilt was begun in the summer of 2009.  I have made 45 blog posts about it!  If anyone is really curious and wants to see the individual flower blocks being made, and then the outer blocks, you can poke around
here, where the posts are all in one link.

This is the vintage crazy quilt that started it all.

How I wish I knew who made it or who owns it!  All I know is that when I first saw it, I instantly realized that I had to attempt a quilt based on it. Who knows why?  Love is not reasonable!

It was the border that made me put this quilt into hibernation from 2010 until 2014.

Not being a piecer, you can see why.  My friend Maureen Greeson even drafted the border pattern for me, but still I waited.

I think collaborating on our new book with my co-author, Valerie Bothell, whose work is so precise and logical, (and gorgeous) must have helped me tune up for this challenge.  Thanks, Val!

There are lots of technical issues, as you can imagine.  Working with wiggly, easily fraying fabric in small pieces was the main one; being accurate to the diagram, of course, was the other.  I'll share how I approached my task.

Because I am so used to working with a foundation, I decided to combine some "pre-piecing" of the units with machine applique.  Others would do this very differently, I am sure, but this is the only way that I could get a handle on this.  After tracing Maureen's diagram onto the muslin, and then interfacing it, this is the first "quadrant" being laid out.  I had traced freezer paper templates off the pattern for cutting out my shapes, and this worked very well.
I had sewn the units together...along their vertical lines.  That made the sewing easy.  The rest of the seams were ironed under, with the whole thing pinned to the foundation for sewing with clear thread.

Lots of pins....

For those chevron shapes along the outer edge, I sewed the fabrics together first, then ironed on the template and cut the shape out as one piece.  Then I joined the two halves of the chevron together by machine, matching where the seams came together in the center. This was doable!  The yellow triangles are appliqued on last.

One of the things I loved most about making these borders was that I got to revisit my fancy fabric stash, digging into the bins for just the right color and texture.

No scrap was too small, either!  I was right to save them all!

I used interfacing ALOT as I went along, sometimes before cutting the shapes out, sometimes after.

I will not even attempt to cut silk charmeuse without interfacing it first.

But more stable fabrics, like the silk tie fabric on the left, are ok to sew but they will fray like mad.  So I interfaced that chevron wedge after sewing but before cutting.

The other fabric that demanded strict and non-negotiable handling was that notorious diva, velvet.

Interfacing and then pinning it about every 1/2" did the trick.

Take that, you velvet, you!

By the time I finished the second quadrant, things were going very smoothly.

Here I've started playing around with using vintage velvet ribbon to cover the raw edges between the rows of units.

By the fourth quadrant, I really didn't want this phase of my Vintage CQ to end...

You can see I've got ironing, cutting and sewing all within reach.  What you can't see are the piles of fabric all over the rest of my sewing room!

There were many sweet memories as I used fabrics from so many friends and from family, too. This is a distinct advantage of working slowly.  It gives plenty of time for reflection....

I call this the "Seidman Corner".  My Uncle Bill Seidman was in government under Ford and Bush 1...his FDIC and Treasury Department ties are in there, an American flag eagle, a medal from his time as an economic adviser to the President in the White House.  I am very proud of his public service.
The ribbon is from my Aunt Sally's sewing box, a beautifully woven commemoration of the Bi-Centennial in 1976.

So this is where I am now:

The quadrants and ribbons are all pinned into place on the design wall, just so I can see that everything will eventually fit together alright. (Again, thanks Maureen!!!!)
When it comes time to sew it all together, I will have those rulers handy so I can get everything exactly the same size, not just eyeball it like here.  (Again, thanks Val!)

But first I need to embrodier those quadrants....

I'll be using the same fly stitch that is featured in all the center flower blocks, in DMC's Satin Floss, which is rayon and therefore nice and glimmery.

With that, and all the tremendous amount of finish work ahead of me, this quilt has a long ways to go.  But it will be done this year, for sure!

The DMC Crazy Quilt Commission: Part 4, Finished!

All done it is, and ready to be mailed to DMC USA in New Jersey....
What a lovely project it has been!

Where we last left off, I was going to add the outer vine and flowers to the wall-hanging...

I've repeated the Memory Thread couched vine element, but this time using three strands instead of just one in the first vine, two strands in a second one.  I pinned them into place and then couched them down using clear monofilament thread.
The flowers and velvet leaves pretty much arranged themselves, along with some vintage glass flower beads.

Here they are twining around Jean-Luc and Michael...

...and my beloved Notre Dame....(thanks again to Jerry Everard for this wonderful photo).....

...they surround my sister Mary....

....and me.

To finish the quilt I made and executive decision: No batting!
Wanting it to hang very, very straight, I gave the quilt the body it needed by interfacing the back of the embroidered and embellished top not once, but twice.

This is how the back looked before the first layer of overall interfacing.  You might notice that the center section was already interfaced once, for the crazy quilt stitching work.

Here is the backing after the first layer of overall interfacing was fused on; I gave it a second layer, too.
The results were very successful, in my opinion!  Because this quilt is small, about 30" X 30", and because the top is so incredibly stable, I also decided that the assembly of front to back could be accomplished solely by stitching the layers together around the perimeter, and then adding the binding.

The binding is actually the same vintage red velvet ribon used to frame some of the photographs.  Everyone knows, I love ribbon binding.

That outer border trim is so quintessentially French.  And it is from the 1920's!

Finally, the quilt back...

I attached the sleeve to the backing before sewing the back to the front, and this saved me a lot of time.  The binding covered the top edge of it.  That glittery trim along the bottom edge of the sleeve is from shopping in Montmartre.....

Always, every quilt must have a label.  This one has the graphic DMC used to promote the contest that led to my glorious adventure with my sister in France...

And now 2014 is soon upon us.  What awaits us in the new year?  Happy Stitching for all, I hope!

The DMC Crazy Quilt Commission, Part 3: Captions and Inner Vine

Because I used a scrapbook page as my inspiration for this quilt that captures our Paris trip from DMC, I wanted to put some captions under each photo.  And because it is now time to weave all the elements of the quilt together, I added the inner vine around the central image.  There's going to be an outer vine growing around the photos next.

To make the captions, I used a black Pental Gel Roller for Fabric  pen  size 1.0.  I tried several permanent marking pens, but this one has no bleed and gives a nice solid line.
Next I interfaced the tightweave cotton I had written on, then added a layer of lightweight Mistyfuse.

I fused them each in place under their picture, and buttonholed them with 2 strands of DMC Satin Floss.  It is rayon and glimmery.  ;-)

Then it was time for the Memory Thread vine.  That stuff is so great!

You bend it into the shape you want and it "remembers" it.  Here I have my vine pinned into place for couching.

Then I couched it down with single machine thread, and filled in the leaves with cotton DMC Color Variations floss.

I wanted this vine to be subtle, hence the tone-on-tone with the background fabrics.

I had bought some cool little vintage flower sequins at a flea market on the trip...

Here's Mary taking it all in, including that tired little boy with his mom and dad...

And my haul from that day...

That vintage trim has a role to play later in this commission...

Anyways, flower sequins!

I sewed them on with some little clear beads and crystals.

So now I am here....

The outer vine is definitely going to be the grand finale....! You just know I am going to pull out some of my pretty fabric flowers from M & S Schmalberg.....

The DMC Crazy Quilt Commission: Part 2

The images have been chosen, printed onto fabric, and appliqued to the background with nice frames around each one.
It was hard to choose, but each photo represents the most meaningful memories of our trip to France...

Here is the overall view so far:

The photo in the center is of the giant metal sign at the top of the DMC factory in Mulhouse.

I needed to add some detail to the horse, as it was too dark to show up.  I used a white pen that I bought at Sennelier,  the oldest pigment shop in Paris, and where all the Impressionists bought their colors!

Such history here.  It was like an artistic pilgrimage to enter these doors.
The pen makes me think of going there....which is why I am using it in this project, of course!

The photo at the top of the quilt, of Notre Dame at night, was taken by Jerry Everard, Sharon Boggon's partner.  They were in Paris the same time we were, and one of my delights was getting to see them there.
Their blog, Tones and Tints, has fabulous photos and posts about their travels.

Many thanks to Jerry for permission to use his photo!

There is a closer view of it, along with the photo of our two wonderful hosts at the DMC factory in Mulhouse, Jean-Luc Barbier and Michel Biechlin.
The trims around the three center images were purchased in Montmartre.

Amazingly, I didn't buy any fabric in France, but I bought a LOT of trim, so naturally I had to use some in my commission.  (Note that pile on the counter!)

Mary and I were so entranced by the Luxembourg Gardens....there were so many lovely flower borders, blooming so beautifully even in late September.  A close up that Mary took represents how much we loved all the flowers in France.

I used many different DMC threads to embellish the printed photograph.  This trim is vintage, found in an old box buried by mounds of other trims in the store pictured above.

Next I will be adding captions to the pictures, and then....bien sur.....some twining flowers to make another frame "layer" if you will, connecting all the images.....saving the most fun for last!