Jill's Quilt....Finished!

With all this endless rain we've been having, I have had plenty of indoor time to do the finish work on Jill's Quilt.
I am overall quite happy with how it turned out.

First off, the center:

The stipple quilting took care of the loose wrinkly look of the silk. I used the new PolyLite thread from Sulky that I got a sample of at Quilt Market and I really, really liked it! It truly was trouble free to stitch with, not too intrusive but not "invisible" either.

But once that was done, I decided I needed a little more stipple quilting elsewhere in the quilt, to tie in with the center section. The hearts were the perfect place for that.

I used my AccuQuilt die to cut out a template to mark my quilt...in a size bigger than what I used to cut out the hearts I appliqued on.

So I marked around the hearts with the template and then stippled around that.

It shows up really well on the black background...for better or worse... ;-)

You can see how that narrow ribbon went on between all the blocks, too...and how that ties in with the trim around the perimeter of the quilt. The trim is from Simplicity, by Cynthia Rowley.

It was interesting, combining the machine quilting with crazy quilting. I could do more of this I think.

So here is the quilt, 45" X 54", finished...

I have to say, the picture here doesn't quite catch the way this quilt kind of glows. The addition of small amounts of yellow, red, and orange are responsible for that.

All the Pink Bandana quilts are going to be shown at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this coming fall. I am quite sure that each quiltmaker will be telling a moving story about breast cancer and the exhibit will be a highlight of the show. I'm honored to be a part of it.
And it is not too late for you to make your quilt. Read about the challenge here. Thank you, Simplicity, for initiating this!

......We did actually have ONE sunny day this week. (We have maybe had 10 sunny days since the beginning of Spring and I am not kidding here.) I took a picture of my home for my next project...which is to make the sample for my "Home Portraits" class at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat in Wichita in November...

Yes, the sun does come out occasionally in SW Washington!
I so look forward to teaching this class....which will be about capturing the essence of "home" in an embroidered, CQ inspired stitching project...

Quilting Jill's Quilt

I've never believed that crazy quilts should be quilted.
To me the two surfaces--quilted and embellished--are almost mutually exclusive.

But lately I've been interested in hybrids....not cars...but quilts, that are both crazy and sane. Jill's Quilt is an example of this. Structurally, it needs to be quilted. And because the embellishments are graphic but not detailed, some sewing amidst them was theoretically possible.
That big blank space in the center of the quilt, around the lettering, actually needs the quilting from a design standpoint, too.

So I decided to give this a try.

First I pin basted it, one safety pin per 6" block.
I used drapery lining for the batting (not EVER wanting puffiness on a CQ) and some nice gingham from Kaufman Fabrics on the back. The blue and white check will hide the quilting lines, which are not of interest, IMHO.

My Juki is threaded with clear monofilament on the top and some nice and substantial Aurofil #28 in the bobbin. I'm using a largish topstitching needle and all worked just fine.
Alas, the Dodgers were losing...again! *sigh*

After getting all the in-the-ditch work finished between the blocks, it became immediately apparent that I had to add some quilting within them too. You do have to give a quilt what it wants....can't hold back.

I kept in the ditch, but around the main elements in the blocks (free machine stitching here).

And I switched to 1949's "Little Women". Liz Taylor as Amy, Janet Leigh as Meg, and Margaret
O'Brien as Beth. Excellent! The costumes were superb as well.

Quilting in the ditch between the stitches was a little tricky, but doable. It wouldn't have been if there were beads involved, though. As it was, I was able to avoid all the hand stitches.

When all that was done, I realized that the seams between the blocks had to be covered. The quilt just didn't look "done" with those bare seams. Hybrid or not, this is still a crazy quilt!
I got a bunch of this narrow Renaissance Ribbon on sale at Fabric Depot. Using a clear zigzag on top and some Wonderfil Invisifil thread in the bobbin (I really didnt want it to show on the back more than necessary) it is quick work to sew this down.

It was simple to bury the end of the ribbon into the quilt before sewing the ribbon down.

Easy peasy.

And now to the center. I've quilted around the letters but do need to knock back that puffiness in the green silk.
I'll probably weanie out and just stipple quilt it...I don't have enough practice at fancy machine quilting details to pull off anything else. But I think it will look ok.

Then to finish the edges, put on the sleeve and label, and this is done!

Jill's Quilt....Top Finished

The top is all sewn together. I won't be actually finishing this for a little while but have come to a really good stopping point for now.
I like how it came out! Very 60's, as Barbara said.

I am going to quilt it. (Gasp!)
Around the blocks, mostly, but it needs some quilting in the green area of the center too. Any ideas for that, anyone?

Jill's Quilt...Progress!

My quilt for Simplicity's Pink Bandana Challenge has been my focus since returning home from the Adventure in Crazy Quilting in CT. I am loving this project not only for the joy of making it, but also because it promotes breast cancer awareness and will be contributing money to research for a cure.

I put some of the motifs I received in Connecticut to work right away!
The crocheted yellow rudbeckia is from the Maryland ladies who attended.

And the Black Eyed Susan is from our Mistress of Ceremonies, Susan Elliott.

I love that my friends' work is joining me on this quilt.

I used my Accuquilt Go! Cutter to cut out some hearts for some of the blocks...

I don't know how I lived without this tool....!

I machine appliqued the hearts onto their backgrounds and then buttonhole stitched them down, also with the machine, using #12 silk perle thread and a #110 jeans needle.

Sue Weeks's beaded motif was just perfect for the center here.

I trimmed and assembled all the blocks together, and now will have the grand fun of creating embellishments and sashing for the center block.

I'm enjoying pushing this crazy quilt into a contemporary, graphic direction. I've mixed handwork and machine work together, too, in a way I haven't tried before.

For the center I have a feeling some of these are going to show up....

While these were not made by M & S Schmalberg, the owner, Warren, gave them to me while I was there in NYC last week. (See Cathy K's fabulous post about our visit there.)

So some people who are dear to me are coming together here on this quilt...seems symbolic of the way to defeat breast cancer too.

Jill's Quilt...The Pink Bandana Challenge

I don't know her, but I love her. She is Susan Elliott's friend Jill, whom you can read about here. Jill is undergoing treatment for breast cancer and she is my inspiration for the quilt I am making for the Cherish: Pink Bandana Quilt Challenge. (There is information for you to enter it too, here and here.)

I started this quilt for the demo at Fabric Depot last Friday, but thoughts of Jill, her courage, and her refusal to give up her happiness in the face of breast cancer totally inspired me all week-end as I roughed out the blocks and design for my quilt.

The quilt will measure 45" X 54". The blocks at the moment are all roughly 6 1/2" square.

And my sewing room looks like a tornado hit it!

We're all among friends here so I'm not too embarrassed....!

Here are a few close ups of the naked blocks...

I used the Go! cutter for the hearts, which made them very easy.

And I used one of Simplicity's little square rulers to lay out trim in those squares within the blocks.

Those flowers are from the Schmalberg's. (More about them in a couple of weeks.)

This is early days of course and there is a lot of tweaking to do in the composition, etc. The blocks will each get their due attention over the next few months...but the impulse was strong to do this NOW and I am glad it is ready for its next phase of development.
But for the present, there is some cleaning up to do.... ;-)