A Finish! Snowballs During the Winter that Won't End

This quilt is for little Olivia who is only 2 1/2 months old, and since it still feels like winter outside I think she'll have time to use this it before warm weather comes.  Whew!  She hasn't outgrown it before I finished it.  I'm new to this gramma thing and haven't got my timing down yet.

I'm still working on taking photographs that show the true colors....

Below, after a spin in the washer.

The finished quilt measures 41 1/8" x 52 1/8". 

I like to record details of each quilt I finish. 

Timeline  I record dates when part of the quilt was finished but not necessarily why it took so long.  Four months to quilt this little quilt is an impossibly long time except that I spent two weeks at my daughter's home before and after the baby was born helping her and watching new baby's toddler-brother.
10/14/13 - begun
10/26/13 - center blocks sewn together
11/13/13 - borders sewn on and applique finished
11/16/13 - quilting begun
 3/15/14 - quilting finished
 3/18/14 - binding cut, machine stitched
 3/20/14 - binding finished

Batting (info from package)

Soft n Crafty 80/20 (cotton/poly) from JoAnn
3/16" loft
2"-4" quilting distance
2-3% shrinkage

I found this batting easy to quilt through and I like the loft after washing -- puffed but not too much.  (After all, this quilt's meant to keep my grandbaby warm and it's the loft that adds warmth.  I might make another choice for a different quilt with a different perpson.)

Quilting
Hand-quilted using Natural Essential 100% cotton thread from Connecting Threads. 

Measurements
43" x 55" before layering
42 1/4" x 53" after quilting and before binding
42 5/8" x 53 1/2" after binding
41 1/8" x 52 1/8" after 6 washings and once in the dryer (because of the the pencil)

Actual shrinkage was about 9%.  Whew!!!  Much higher than the suggested 2-3% on the package.

I hope it will keep Olivia warm and comfy the rest of this winter and next year, too.


I'm linking this post to
TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday) at Devoted Quilter, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.   Thanks, ladies.


Happy Quilting,
--Nancy.

I Implore You, for the Sake of Your Quilt

On Thursday afternoon I was feeling excited about the ta-da moment of posting my washed and dried snowball and nine-patch quilt for little Olivia.  I'd finished the binding early in the day and tossed the quilt in the washer.  When I pulled it out and examined it I found that the pencil marks for the quilting had not washed out!  Drat!

I was disappointed.  I used pencil on my String-X quilt and it washed out completely.  And I'd sampled pencil on some of the fabrics in this quilt and they washed out.  I know nothing about the chemistry of pencil on fabric.  Maybe some fabrics soak in the graphite, or maybe the longer the pencil is on the fabric, the harder it is to remove.  It doesn't matter.  I would just rather not have pencil lead on a finished quilt.

Being the sensible sort, I did not panic.  I got online and searched how to remove pencil marks from fabric.  I found many suggestions.  I tried each then washed the quilt and air-dried it before trying the next.  Unfortunately none of them were completely effective. 

I tried

• Goop.  It is my go-to stain remover and nearly never fails me.  Chances are it would probably remove pencil from jeans (where it matters much less than it matters on a new baby quilt!).
• a white eraser.  That was a big mistake.  It rubbed the fiber the wrong way.
• liquid hand soap which had no effect whatsoever.
• a mixture of water, alcohol, and dish soap as recommended at Quilt History.  It was ineffective.
• Fels Naphtha rubbed on the marks.  It had no effect.
• ammonia.  This may have lightened some of the pencil lines but did not remove the darkest of them.
• Lestoil.  This may also have lightened some of the lines but also did not remove the darkest of them.

Lestoil was my last resort.  I used a q-tip to dab it onto the pencil lines, washed it, then into the dryer.  While the pencil lines are still there, the puckers in the fabric around the quilting seem to camouflage all but the very worst of the lines.  I've decided it's a fact that pencil is nearly impossible to remove from fabric.  I can only take comfort in knowing that my great-grandmother's quilt, made in the 1920s or 1930s, also has residual pencil marks and it is no less beautiful nor serviceable than if they were not there.

Still, I implore you for the sake of your quilt,

Please do not use pencil to mark quilting lines!

And one last photo, just for the fun of it.  The view into my washer after the last wash.

 --Nancy.
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Do the Corners...

... have to be square?

This corner is off by about one 16th of an inch.  Some of the others were off more.  Strangely enough, they all started out square before I began quilting.  The more I try to square one, the worse the others seem to become.  What is that all about, anyway?  How does it happen?  Maybe because fabric is so moveable?

Wouldn't it be great to have a huge--really huge--cutting mat?  Big enough to cover a pool table.

Wouldn't it be great if there were some magical way to square the corners after the quilting is finished?

I finished the quilting on Olivia's quilt on Saturday.  I hope to add the binding tomorrow and finish it.  She's only (only!) 2 months and a week old.  I'm not too late for her to use it.

Happy quilting!

--Nancy.
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Quilt for Olivia Rose

In February I hope to finish the quilting on this little quilt for Olivia.

I have nearly all of the center quilted and some of the flowers in the borders.

Too many times I've had the delusion that when I'm done with the center, I'm half done with the quilt. I'm learning not to think that way -- unless the center is very, very large and the edges are very, very small.  Not so with this quilt.  It has a hefty border.  I'll be doing some heavy-duty quilting this month. 

I'm claiming this as my February project for A Lovely Year of Finishes at Sew Bittersweet Designs.

--Nancy.
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From Thanksgiving to the End of December

It seems like I've been absent for a very long time.  December whizzed by while I worked at a candy store.  The whizzing started before Thanksgiving, though, when family visited for 11 days - two daughters, one son-in-law, and one 18-month-old grandson (all for varying amounts of time).  The day after the last one left (when I really, really needed a good rest) I started working.  And then it was Christmas (with no one visiting), and now it's nearly the New Year. 

Next comes the birth of a new granddaughter in the next few days, baby-tending my grandson, and care-giving to my daughter, her husband, and the two little ones.  Yes, I'll be even more tired, but I wouldn't miss it for the world.

In preparation for my grandson's visit at Thanksgiving I made a few little characters that I thought he might like. 

These are "wee folk" made in the manner of Salley Mavor, though not nearly as well done as hers.  Mali looked them over and put them down.  My feelings were not hurt.  Little children are quite open and honest about their preferences.

It turned out that Mali liked these tiny toys much better.

They are regular-sized dice, about half an inch square, and game markers from long-gone games.  His play primarily involved putting them into bottles of various sizes and taking them out again, though he also stacked them.  I was amazed that his attention span kept him playing with these for 30 to 45 minutes at a time. 

Here are Mali's parents.  Dad was attempting to look like he had a belly, too (but he's as skinny as a rail!).  And Mom, rounder than round, had another five weeks to go when this photo was taken!

I spent what time I could on this little quilt.

I stitched diagonally across the 9-patch blocks.  In the snowballs I quilted four hearts pointing toward the center.  On the flowers in the border I'm quilting around the edges of the flowers, edges of the centers, and outlining the leaves.

But I'm stumped about how to quilt the rest of the border.  Echo quilting?  Straight lines?  Fans?  Diagonals?  Diagonals crossing each other?  Nothing seems to be exactly right -- at least not yet.  It will not be finished in time for our granddaughter's birth but I don't think there will be a shortage of warm coverings.

In the past, when major events happened in my life (like hip replacements in 2002), I always looked forward to things getting back to normal.  But they never did.  Normal became something new and different with a few threads of what felt like normal amongst the new.  I'm wondering what will become normal by the end of January.

--Nancy.
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To Keep Her Warm

Finally, the snowball and nine-patch top for grandbaby girl is finished.  With simple flowers appliqued on the scrappy border.  Unquilted it measures 43" x 55".  It will shrink after quilting, washing, and drying but it will be big enough for a baby even if she happens to be 8 or 9 pounds.  I layered and basted it on Saturday and began quilting it today.

I deliberated about batting.  Cotton?  Poly?  I love the cotton batting I've been using but, honestly, it doesn't seem very warm.  Or cuddly.  So I decided on poly.  I had some in the closet, pulled it out, cut it, and realized that it was way too thick.  If I'd used it, the quilt would have been a mat instead of a cuddly cover.  Besides that, polyester seems like it could be dangerous because it melts.  My daughter and her husband use a wood stove to heat their small home.  Let my imagination turn aside and go no further down that road. . . .

So I headed to the store and ended up with a bat that is 80% cotton and 20% polyester.  While I don't like the feel of it on my hands, I know it will be completely encased in fabric.  It seems cuddly and warm.  I'll write more about the brand and how it quilts in a later post.

I'm linking this post to WOW (WiPs on Wednesday) at Esther's Blog and to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks, Esther and Lee.

I'm also linking this to A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts.  My original post claiming this as my goal for the month was posted on November 1.


--Nancy.
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Progress on the Snowball and Nine-Patch

It's just play at the moment.  I'm not sure what this quilt will look like when it's finished.  I know it helps to take photos and see them on the computer monitor, though.  It seems to give me a little objectivity and perspective.

Thoughts on various aspects of this quilt top:

the center
The nine patches and snowballs are all sewn together.  They stay as they are (for better or worse).

the stop border
You can barely see it there on the left side, a light/bright and very narrow strip of turquoise and white check.  Now I wonder if it's too light.  I've tried several other colors and tones/shades and haven't been happy with any of them.  And maybe it's too narrow.  I'm not sure how wide to make it on a quilt this size.  Width?  Color?

the outer border
It is intentionally uneven, narrower on the top and right side, wider on the bottom and left side.  Should it be even wider on the left and bottom?  Will the quilt look okay with an uneven border?  How wide is too wide, how narrow is too narrow?

I researched border sizes a little and learned that current thought suggests that the most effective border width is based on a numerical equation called phi, equal to 1.618.  Multiply the block size by .618 and by 1.618 to find out the best width range for a border.  The blocks in this quilt are 4½".  The range for the border is between 2¾" and 7¼".  That's a really wide range for a quilt center that measures 31½" x 40½".  As the borders are laid out now, the left and lower borders are 7", the right and top borders are 5".  Hmmmm.

The pinks are not really pink but small red prints on white/off white grounds (and two plaids), but they look very pink.  The greens and blues are also on white (or vice versa).  I think the colors will work but I don't like the placement. 

the applique flowers
The vine is a piece of yarn to give the impression of a vine but I don't think a vine will be effective on this quilt so I'm taking it out. 

Only a few applique flowers are laying on the border but I'm thinking of clusters of flowers with leaves on the wide borders; single flowers and leaves on the narrow borders.  Maybe the flowers are too small.... 

It's all just play for now but I can't play too long or our grandbaby girl will be 2 before it's finished!  I've decided that in my case, creativity can not be rushed.  It will take its time or the result will be less than my creative best and will look insincere.  There are so many variables in the creation of a quilt.  It seems to me that some people have an intuitive ability to make "perfect" decisions.  And some of us just puzzle our way through it learning a little from each quilt. 

I'm linking this post to:

• A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts.  My goal is to have this top completely stitched by the end of November.  I would love to have it layered and partly quilted before the end of the month, too.  It may happen but I'm not claiming that as a goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.
• Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts.

--Nancy.
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What You See Depends on What You're Looking For

When I look for the diagonal lines in this layout, I find them.  When I look for bright snowballs, I see those.  When I look for reds, or blues, or greens, that's what I see.  Interesting, isn't it?  Perhaps that means there's no focal point?  I don't know if that's good or bad.  I guess the only time we really see a whole quilt at one time is when it's posing for a photograph.  Otherwise, we see bits and pieces when it's in use or when it's folded.  Still, I like the idea of the pieces of a quilt working together to make a unified whole.

Because it's a quilt for a baby girl I wanted to make one that's a little feminine and light/bright but not too bright.  My fabrics run toward darks and brights with not many in between.  I tried to limit the palette to reds/roses/pinks, blues, greens, and yellows.  A few peaches and turquoisey fabrics crept in, too, all from what I had on hand.

The blocks are 5" before sewn, will be 4½" after being sewn.  Without borders the quilt would be only 31½" x 41½" which I think is too small for a baby quilt.  I'll add a border, maybe two, and I'm thinking of adding applique flowers, vine, and leaves.  We'll see...

Just to say:   masking tape has its limits on a design wall when it comes to using a wall in your house.  I didn't count but my guess is that about 20 sticks is the limit.  I've moved some of these blocks around a lot and have had to replace the masking tape.  Ha.

If you have any thoughts about changes to improve this little quilt, I'd love to read them.

I'm linking this post to WOW at Esther's Blog and WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thank you, Esther and Lee.

--Nancy.
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Snowball and Nine Patch: Four Variations

I always find it interesting that so many variations can be created from a single quilt pattern.

The four patterns above are all created from 9-patch blocks alternating with snowball blocks.  How different they look! 

The two on the top row both have dark-on-the-corner 9-patches.  The snowballs on the left have dark triangles in the corners.  The snowballs on the right have light triangles in the corners. 

The two on the bottom row both have light-in-the-corner 9-patches but the snowballs on the left have dark triangles in the corners and the snowballs on the right have light triangles in the corners.

The patterns that are catty-corner from each other have colors in opposite positions.  It may depend on your own vision what stands out to you or what you see first. 

When I look at the top left pattern the first thing I see are the diagonal crosses.  In all the other patterns, I see the snowballs first.  If I squint I can see the white diagonal crosses in the lower right pattern.


Turn these patterns on the diagonal and it almost looks like there are four different patterns.

How about you?  Do you notice how different patterns can look when the colors and/or lights/darks change places.  What do you see when you look at these patterns? 

--Nancy.
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