Author Archives: Sarah Minshall

I figured it was finally time to update my neglected little blog…unfortunately having mono has really wiped me out over the past few weeks. I’ve been working on things here and there, but my mostly singular project (outside of going to work) has been sleep. Lots and lots of it.

One of the few things I have done has been to finish the quilting and to start sewing on the binding of my Bright Squares quilt. It’s going slowly, but since it’s pretty small, I’m hoping I can have it finished in the next few days. We’ll see.

I’ll be back….after I take another nap.

Thanks to having a week off from work last week, I am nearly done with the hand quilting on my Bright Squares quilt. Just four more blocks, plus the binding (my least favorite) to go. I’m still pleased with my choice to rip out the machine quilting–just for the fact that the quilt lays flat when it’s spread out on the floor. It seemed crazy at first to do it, but I’m glad that I made the decision.

And thinking about hand quilting, I wondered if I were to put together a hand quilting tutorial, would anyone be interested in it? It seems that many more people machine quilt (which yes, I would like a good tutorial, thank you very much) their projects, and maybe it’s just because they’re afraid to try hand quilting. Interested? Let me know. I’m thinking it might be fun!

Seeing as though I’m still riding high on the feelings of having finished a big project, all I can think about now is keeping my momentum going and finishing more quilts. In fact, I had one in mind that I had started last year and thought would a make for a quick finish.

Then I stepped into my crazypants and made a simple project into a much, much bigger one.

I had started machine quilting this last year, and when started working on it again, I just felt like it was so lousy compared to what I had just finished doing. My stitches were uneven, the tension was terrible, and I just felt like I had to start over.

Hello, seam ripper. You are the one tool that I both loathe and love at the same time.

I guess it makes sense to hand quilt this, especially since it’s the last top that I pieced by hand. Back when I first started quilting, I didn’t have a sewing machine, so I learned to piece by hand. Now though, I don’t spend the time hand piecing because I don’t really feel like it adds that much to the finished quality of the quilt. Sure, I’ve spent an extra 10,000 hours on it while I sew everything together, but you can’t really see it once it’s all finished. I’d rather use my machine to piece (which is often more precise than I could do by hand) and spend the time to hand quilt.

I’m happy with how my quilting is starting to look now, especially compared to the way it looked with all those mistakes. I don’t think the mistakes were terrible, but I just felt that it was a waste of my time to finish something that I thought was so shoddy. All that time it’s taken me to make this, I’d just be so upset to think that it could have turned out so much better.

The only thing that really disappoints me about ripping all of this out is that I feel like I really failed at machine quilting. I know it’s my first real attempt, but even after some practice, I just felt that I couldn’t get the hang of it. Before I make another serious attempt, however, I’d like to take a class so that someone can actually show me what I need to do!

After a tense trip through the wash last night, The Quilt is complete! I could not be any happier with it.

I ended up picking a solid turquoise Kona cotton for my binding, to match the turquoise print that I used for the lines between the beads. It’s so simple, but it does a nice job of making the lower half of the quilt not feel so boring in all of it’s off-white-ness. At first, I wished that I had more of the print to use for the binding, but it’s been years long gone. Once I found the close match in the Kona, it seemed like an obvious choice to go with a solid. I’m very pleased with it.

I’m also really pleased with how the quilting in the circles came out after the wash and dry. I was nervous that since I used such tight quilting lines that there was the possibility that I’d get some nasty puckering. I got lucky though, and the circles look fantastic both on the front and back of the quilt. I also love how it feels–the mass of quilting makes this so much more tactile than anything I’ve done before.

Last night’s washing wasn’t without a little drama though. I added a smidge of Downy to the wash to soften things up, but after it finished drying, I realized there were about a half a dozen little Downy stains all over the bottom of it. I scrubbed the spots with some detergent and sent it right back through the wash. So far, all the spots seem to have faded, but it’s certainly not the first thing you want to find on your finished project.

I am so happy to have this completed. It’s renewed an interest in finishing quilting projects that I’ve had sitting, waiting for me for several years. The time I spent hand quilting were relaxing and enjoyable again. To be this excited about finishing this project and moving on to more is well worth the time it took to finish this.

Fin!

I have a confession to make: I’m afraid I might be a compulsive hoarder. Want proof? Just have a look at my stack of new fabrics and tell me I’m not crazy.

I’m currently somewhat obsessed with watching shows about people who have compulsive hoarding problems recently. I’m also somewhat obsessed about starting new projects that involve new fabric. Do you see the parallel? ARE YOU FEARFUL YET?

But look! SNAILS! Can we even begin to discuss how much I love this fabric? Because I do. (But do you think that red and cream Amy Butler dot print matches the red from the mushrooms? I actually already had that one and pulled it out because I couldn’t find a red that I liked when I found the other four colors. Thoughts?)

And then I’ve been collecting browns and greens. I think this is going to make an fantastic top, but I have no idea what to do with it. I’m stumped on what to start. So far, my only idea has been to make a Single Girl with it, but I’m not sure I have enough variation in fabrics. Again, thoughts?

And here are the miscellaneous fabrics. I’ve been picking them up since the beginning of the year now, and I’m pretty sure they don’t all really go together. I need to keep planning with this team. All wonderful, for sure, but not all necessarily meant to be together. Which I think is a hoarding-type thought. I think.

The one good thing about all this is that I haven’t acutally begun any projects yet. (Which I think is certainly adding to this issue!) I’m still on track to get the quilting on my Love Beads quilt finished up by the end of the month. I’ll also hopefully be back with two finished knits by the end of the week. That is, unless I become buried alive by my fabric, yarn and craft supplies.

Send help in the form of Rubbermaid bins and mental counseling soon!

Seriously. It’s hard work. FIVE YEARS of work, in fact.

It’s such an awesome pattern–called Love Beads–and is from the book The Modern Quilt Workshop by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle of Funquilts. (The book is one of my favorites–it was one of the first things that really sparked my interest in making modern patchwork.)

I pieced the top back in the fall of 2004, and started quilting it sometime over that winter. I wanted to be all ambitious with the hand quilting, so I had the brilliant idea to free hand, thin spirals in all the circles. And while it looks GREAT, I burned out on it quickly. It’s been sitting, collecting dust and pet fur ever since.

It’s one of those projects that I felt really guilty about leaving there. I really thought it had the potential to be a fantastic finished quilt, but the idea of hand quilting THAT much….ugh. No thanks.

In keeping with my post from a few weeks ago, I’ve just been trying to weigh out what I REALLY want to be making these days. For the past few years I’ve focused my energy into making items for craft shows and Etsy, and while I still enjoy doing that, I really came to the conclusion that I’ve not finished much for myself over that time. Between really slow sales at shows and online (which is depressing when it’s all that you foucs on), I decided it was time to get back to quilting circles.

And you know what? I enjoyed it.

The circles are done, and I’m on to the major task of finishing this bad boy off. I’ve started marking out my diagonal stripes that will serve as the background. To my surprise, it’s moving fast. I’m hoping at this point I can have the quilting finished off by the end of March. It’s going to be a stretch, but I think it’s possible.

That way, no one can tell me that I don’t finish what I start.

So, hey. I just want to say, that if you get bronchitis, it sucks. You cough, and cough and cough and do little else besides cough and sleep. In fact, today was the first day this week that I didn’t wear pajamas all day. I even went to work. It was a big day.

In fact, I took a picture of my happy bronchitis face. See how happy I am? So, so happy.

During my time on the couch this week I’ve been thinking about wanting to get down to business on some of my projects. I started piecing these blocks over the past summer and due to other projects and craft shows that I did last fall, I never finished them up.

Today’s plan was to figure out how many I have completed, and how many more I have to go. At this point, I have 23 finished blocks and I’d like to have 40 finished for a 5×8 grid. Each block is about 12 inches square, but even with 40 blocks, I’m not sure about the size.

So here’s my question for my fellow quilters: Do you always have a set size in mind when making quilts? Part of me is concerned that if I don’t at least make it as large as a twin size that it will be useless if I ever decide to use it for something other to cover up with on the couch. Any input into how big you decide to make your quilts would be appreciated. I’m having trouble coming to a decision on what I should do.

Hopefully I’ll be seeing a little more of my sewing table in the next few days (minus the cough drop wrappers, of course). I’d like to get these blocks tied up so I can do some top piecing here in the next few weeks!