Columbus Cityscape Block of the Month: History Center

Posted on September 1, 2018September 1, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Columbus Cityscape Quilt, Quilting, Works In Progress (WIP) / 2 Comments

The Ohio History Connection is situated between the Ohio State Fairgrounds and a heavily trafficked section of interstate. This positioning has made the building a significant landmark in the city of Columbus.

The main building appears to rise up from the surrounding landscape and forms a wonderfully symmetrical building with a strong visual perspective.

I have been having fun selecting a few specialty fabrics for some of the buildings, and the banner on the history center was a perfect opportunity for some fussy cutting. The banner on the building has an image of a mastodon skeleton, but mastodon fabric is really hard to come by, so we took some artistic liberty and substituted some really cute dinosaur fabric instead. At least they are both (unfortunately) extinct!

This pattern is available from Dabble and Stitch in Columbus, Ohio. If you have already purchased the pattern, you can access the extra templates here. You will need the password included in the pattern instructions to access this page.

I will be doing a demonstration of a portion of this block at Dabble and Stitch tomorrow, Sunday, September 2 at 1pm!

House Mini Challenge

Posted on August 31, 2018September 17, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 3 Comments

At the beginning of August, Curated Quilts Magazine issued a mini quilt challenge with a specific color palette and the theme of “House.” I’m am very drawn to architectural details, so I decided to create this mini that focuses in on the dormer of a house.

The biggest challenge for me was the provided color palette. The image below is the palette provided by Curated Quilts. I love that each color scheme they provide echos the overall theme of the challenge. If you have followed me for long, you probably know that brown is not a color I tend to willingly incorporate. However, to make this design work, I needed to use the entire color scheme. (The only reason I even had that brown dot print was because a friend dared me to buy it a few months ago!)

I decided to use three point perspective to draft the design for this quilt. Most perspective drawings use one or two point perspective, which results in a realistic looking drawing. I think three point perspective tends to give a more wonky, whimsical feel to the drawing, and I liked the way that aesthetic pairs with the given color palette. I use AutoCad LT to draft the overall design. You can see each of the points surrounding the finished drawing, and I left a few construction lines to help show how the design came together.

The quilt top was created using foundation paper piecing. Once the overall design is complete, I break down the sections of the block that will be used to piece the block. Since paper piecing requires the fabric to be pieced on the non-printed side of the template, all of the template pieces are mirrored so the finished block faces the correct direction.

The quilting on this mini was a first for me- I used Aurifil Monofilament to quilt the entire quilt. I had never quilted with monofilament, and I had only done very limited sewing with it. The Aurifil monofilament worked beautifully for this application. It was amazing to be able to move across the quilt without having to change thread color! It went through my domestic machine really well. I reduced the top tension slightly and used a smaller micro-tex needle than I usually quilt with.

I tend to use lots of colors of thread in each piece, and I don’t think that will change much, but I do like how the monofilament thread allows the focus of the quilting to be on the texture rather than the color. This is something that I will want to explore further. The back of the quilt really shows off that texture!

Facings finish the edges so that the design of the quilt top isn’t interrupted by a binding border.

Quilt Stats

Title: Upward Perspective

Size: 15-1/2″ x 15-1/2″

Techniques: Foundation Paper Piecing

Quilting: Machine echo quilting using a walking foot on a Bernina 1008 domestic

Fabric: Assorted cotton prints and solids and Essex Linen in the palette provided by Curated Quilts

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with clear Aurifil Monofilament

Binding: Faced with fabric matching the quilt backing

Columbus Cityscape Block of the Month: State Fair

Posted on August 20, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Columbus Cityscape Quilt, Quilting, Works In Progress (WIP) / 3 Comments

The Ohio State Fair has been a tradition since 1850, and it continues to be a favorite summer destination for Ohio families to both learn and have fun. County and State Fairs have always honored the makers in their communities, which makes the inclusion of the fair in this quilt particularly appropriate. The fair runs for a week and a half from the end of July to through the beginning of August, so I knew that the fair block would be perfect for August.

The Ohio State Fair has taken place in the same location since 1886, and the buildings that comprise the fairgrounds have been constructed throughout the years since then. The architecture has evolved to meet the needs of each department, so the overall look of the fairgrounds is quite eclectic.

I chose to focus on the Poultry and Rabbit Pavilion for two main reasons:

The architecture of the building is one of the most distinctive on the fairgrounds, and
I raised chickens in 4-H, so I always spend an inordinate amount of time visiting the poultry barns at every fair I attend.

I have noticed that I am drawn to buildings with green trim, so this was right up my alley!

The occupants of the pavilion are usually quite interested in their visitors. This pullet (female chicken born in the same year) was particularly social.

The feather patterns on these birds are stunning!

Did you know that the color egg a chicken lays corresponds to the color of its earlobe, not the color of its feathers? I didn’t know this until I raised egg layers for the first time, and got a gorgeous brown egg from my snowy white flock of chickens!

I will refrain from showing you the dozens of other chicken photos I have taken this year, but I’m starting to think there may be a chicken quilt in my future! The pattern for this block, and the rest of the quilt, are available exclusively from Dabble and Stitch in Columbus, Ohio.

If you have already purchased the pattern, you can access the extra templates here. You will need the password included in the pattern instructions to access this page.

Shipping Quilts to a Show

Posted on July 18, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Quilt Shows / Leave a comment

Shipping quilts is the most nerve-racking part of entering a quilt in a show. Well, at least that’s the case for me. It is also a lot of work, but ultimately it is worth it since it gives you an opportunity to share your work with lots of other very appreciative quilters. Over the last few years, I have finally developed a process for packing and shipping quilts. It will probably continue to evolve, but I thought I would share with you what I do to prepare a quilt to go off into the world.

Today I sent three quilts off to an upcoming show. Raise the Roof, Resonance, and Lateral Ascension will be included in the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Week in Grand Rapids this August. The photos of the packing process in this post are actually from a previous show. What can I say? I have been meaning to write this post for quite a while!

Raise the Roof

Resonance

Lateral Ascension

By the time shipping day rolls around, I have (almost!) always added the hanging sleeve and label to the quilt, so most of the packing process is making sure the quilt is ready to show at its best. First I lint roll each quilt, starting with the back and moving to the front. The only place in the house that is large enough to lay most quilts out flat is the eat-in kitchen. The furniture gets moved to the family room and the floor is thoroughly vacuumed before quilts are laid out. I use a commercial grade lint roller for the quilts. It is more sticky than most lint rollers, but even more helpful is the heavy duty handle with metal construction in the areas that move. I have had the occasional lint roller break before I switched to these commercial rollers, and that is not fun when you are in a hurry. I am always in a hurry on shipping day!

While I am de-linting the quilt I try to examine each area of the quilt for threads that need to be clipped or anything else that needs attention on the quilt. One time I found a couple rows of stitching that had come loose at some point during a previous show. I was so glad that I found and fixed those before sending the quilt back out!

Any time that I have used cotton batting and/or have a quilt with heavy matchstick quilting, I stuff each fold with tissue paper. I am trying to cut back on the amount of tissue used when the quilt has wool batting and slightly looser quilting. Quilts are folded top to bottom and then sideways. I had once heard that folding quilts diagonally, but only did it once. When that quilt received a prize, I had the chance to speak with one of the people running the show and was informed diagonal folding is probably the worst way to ship a quilt. It isn’t easy to fold a quilt on the diagonal, so I was actually relieved to hear this.

Whenever possible, I try to fold the quilt so the label is on the outside. If the quilt ever gets separated from its box, I want it to be easy to identify and get back to me. Each show is different, but AQS does not require the label to be covered when it is sent out. The quilt is then put in a transparent plastic bag. I prefer the extra large ziplock bags since they have a strong seal to keep the quilt dry while in transit.

The paperwork required for each show is different, but for this show you tape an envelope with the quilt’s show number printed on it to the bag. This envelope holds the return shipping information. I have recently started using pre-printed labels for shipping and return shipping. This saves a lot of time dropping packages off, and it often ends up saving a little money on shipping. Setting up a shipping account has been very worthwhile for me. Where I live, FedEx seems to have the best rates and be the most reliable. The Postal Service is more expensive once I account for insurance, and UPS does not have particularly good service in this area. UPS routinely leave packages sitting out in the open, even if they are supposed to require a signature for delivery. I don’t know if this is the case in other areas, but the fact that it happens here makes me worry it happens other places.

If you are shipping high value items with FedEx, they will probably check that your boxes are properly packed before shipping, so it is best to let them seal the boxes at the store. If you are printing your own label, you can go ahead and seal them up. For the show pictured above, I had four quilts heading out in one day. I usually plan to spend an average of about one hour per quilt to prep paperwork and pack it to ship. Fortunately, when I’m shipping to AQS, ground shipping only takes one day to arrive, so I only have one night to worry about my quilts in transit! It has taken a couple of years, but I am finally getting used to this process. The guy at FedEx even recognizes me now!

Now I get to worry until I receive the notification of the safe arrival of my quilts!

Diamond Placemat

Posted on July 14, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Aurifil, Finished Quilts, Quilting, Quilting Community / 3 Comments

The charity that the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild is working with this year is Meals on Wheels. We are making placemats that are distributed to recipients along with their meals to brighten things up. Our Charity Chair has been issuing challenges this year to encourage participation and encourage members to use these projects to stretch their quilting skills. This placemat is from one of these challenges.

We were each given a line drawing of a traditional quilt block that we reinterpreted into a placemat. I received a block called “Diamond Quilt Block.”

My reinterpretation is fairly straightforward. I stretched the traditionally square block into a rectangle, but then I had some fun with the quilting. I matched the quilting thread to the pink, green, and white sections of the block, and extended the stitching out to the edges of the block. Each stitching line pivots to create a triangular form.

The pink and green stitching is done in 28wt thread and the white is 12wt, but the bobbins thread is always 50wt thread in the color matching the top thread. This still allows the design to show up nicely, even on the tone on tone print that I used on the back of the placemat.

I have several bias bindings that I keep made up and ready to go for small projects, and I chose this one because it enhances the energy of the diagonal quilting lines.

The labels for our guild quilts are Spoonflower Prints with our guild name and Logo. We each sign the label so the recipients know who made their placemat.

I won’t be writing a full pattern for this project, but if you would like to make your own, you can download the templates below. This file is templates only, and the template on the final page needs to be assembled prior to cutting your fabric.

Diamond Placemat Templates

Placemat Stats

Title: Diamond Placemat

Size: 12″ x 18″

Techniques: Machine Piecing

Quilting: Machine echo quilting using a walking foot on a Bernina 1008 domestic machine

Fabric: Kona Cotton Solids on the front, print backing and binding

Batting: Warm and White

Thread: Quilted with 50wt, 28wt, and 12wt cotton Aurifil in pink, green, and white

Binding: Striped bias binding, cut 2″ wide, machine stitched to the front and hand finished on the back