A Prairie Home Quilts

Is it possible that the Floral Winding Ways quilt top snuck off with the Plaid Streak of Lightning quilt top when my back was turned and reproduced?  How else could 2 projects become 7? It defies logic and probably most known laws of the universe.  At least this is the way it happens at my house…

I’m asked to teach a class at the LQS.  I decide to kill two birds with one stone (probably should have left the bird killing out of the equation) and make a class sample that I can give to my mom as a birthday present.  I decide to use floral fabrics.  Florals are nice but not really my thing so I have to buy fabric.  I create this…

Then I have leftover floral scraps to deal with.

I think back to this project and I remember the boo boo I made with the setting triangles for this Plaid Streak of Lightning and think, “Hmm, these floral scraps would look good with the brown setting triangles I cut wrong.  Perhaps with a nice antique-y pink tone-on-tone for the other half of the HST blocks.” Since I have to buy that pink tone-on-tone, I add a few (cough) more floral fabrics to the cart.  [Side note:  If you followed the link to the post about the boo boo, did you notice that I mention that the Plaid Streak of Lightning also morphed into Bold Streak? Yeah.  Projects. Multiplying.  Exponentially.]

The lovely floral scraps and the antique-y pink tone-on-tone became these.   Oh, how hard I have fallen for these floral HST blocks!  I thought I was in love with the Plaid Streak of Lightning. Oh, no.  That was just a passing fancy. It’s a good thing I cut enough floral HST for 2 quilt tops.  Yet I still have enough floral fabric to get a head start on another project. Hmm.

I dream up this in EQ7…

Sixty pretty floral Dresden plates swirling across a 5-step gradient gray background. Lovely. Sixty different floral fabrics ought to be enough variation, right?  Let’s go with 80 just to be sure.  I can always use the extra petals in another project…  Oh, and the scraps! Enough to make at least 2 more Floral Streak of Lightning quilt tops, I’m sure.

I’m not even going to bother explaining what happened with the plaids.  All I did was buy a few plaid shirts at the thrift store.  Really.  It’s worse than the floral fabrics.  I need an intervention.

My Liberated Amish Challenge quilt top is done.  I definitely liberated the colors and the setting.  Hahaha.  Tonya’s challenge was for us to pick a quilt from the book Amish Abstractions or from the photos on the Browns’ website to “liberate.”  We were to add words — done Tonya-style — to the front of the quilt also. After much deliberation, I chose this quilt for inspiration.  As you can see from the photo of the original quilt, there was no matchy-matchy color scheme going on.  What was the original quilter thinking when she put these colors together?  The quilt is crib-sized and the HST blocks must be only about 3″.  Did she just want to use up her smallest scraps?  Did she choose her favorite colors no matter how they looked together?  Maybe it’s us — our culture — our time in history that’s decreed color palettes have to be so matchy-matchy?

So how did I choose the colors for my quilt?  I didn’t have any solids so I had to buy fabric, but I needed to narrow down my choices because I just kept adding more and more fabric to the online cart.  I noticed that the many names of the colors where names of fruits and vegetables so I added all those to my cart.  At first there were too many greens so I took out all the vegetables and left just the fruit.  The names of the fruits were also the inspiration for my words.

The colors are bright and bold.  Something I’m drawn to.  The center setting was a challenge.  Several people commented about the photo of my setting that combined the squares and straight furrows — something that hadn’t even occurred to me — combining them.  So thank you!  That was all the inspiration I needed to truly liberate the setting in the original quilt into something different.  Everything else just seemed somewhat predictable or something…  This is different — original — and I like it.

I do have a difficult time with the “cut without using rulers and doing the whole free-pieced blocks” thing.  My mind screams “precise, straight, precision, neat, orderly” even though I’m really rarely any of those things in real life.  I’m sure this is just a reflection of my rebellious heart trying to let loose over the shouting in my head though.  Maybe with some more practical experience my heart could win my mind over because I do like liberated quilts and would like to try making a few more.

To be truly ruled by my heart rather than my mind…  What would that look like I wonder?

I’m away again without internet access but don’t worry. . .  I have this

to keep me entertained!

Hmm.  Not quite what I envisioned…

Perhaps a grape intervention?  Or a completely different setting?

Still too wild?

Too dull?

Other possibilities?

Better?

Best?

Time for some chocolate.   And maybe a glass of wine.  Or two…

Okay, I still need 40 Flying Geese units. Using Inklingo to make flying geese units is also very easy. This technique makes 4 Flying Geese units from one large square and 4 small squares.  Using Inklingo I have printed my HST on the red fabric — 4 sets of 2 HST are needed.  Figure the size of the large square by multiplying the size of the HST by 2 and adding 1.25″.

Step One: Place 2 sets of HST on opposite corners of the large square, right sides together.

Close up of HST with stitching and cutting lines printed with Inklingo.

Step Two: Sew on dotted diagonal lines.

Step Three: Cut apart on solid center line and finger press seam open.

Step Four: Line up remaining HST in corners, RST and sew on dotted diagonal lines.  Cut apart on solid center line.

Step Five: Trim dog ears and press.

Two hundred sixty-two half square triangles and forty flying geese units? No problemo.  It’s easy with Inklingo. Let’s start with the HST shall we?

Step One: Iron freezer paper to right side of lightest colored fabric.

Step Two: Print triangle shapes onto the wrong side of fabric in a contrasting color.  I used a bit darker red than I would normally so it would show a little better in the photos.

Close-up of printed HST

Step Three: Layer printed fabric with a second fabric, right sides together.

Step Four: Sew on all the DIAGONAL DOTTED lines.

Step Five: Rotary or scissor cut all the SOLID lines — including the dog-ears.

Step Six: Press.

Voila! Perfect HST without papers to remove and even better — NO SQUARING UP NEEDED.

If you’re like me, you have a project or two with a half a million HSTs to square up and you got bored with the job and stalled.  So now the project is hiding in the closet. I know your secrets! [I've got a few of those myself. . .]  Next up, that gaggle of flying geese!

Phase Two is complete. The fabric was moved from my closet onto the shelves I bought and put in the closet in this room.  You can see a few of the plastic bins holding WIPs up on the top shelf.

I moved the dry sink onto the wall away from my design wall.  On paper it looked like it would be a tight squeeze between it and the file cabinet near the desk — like I’d have to turn sideways to fit — but I can fit through there just fine.  I’ve decided to make a pressing board that will cover the top of the dry sink using Sharon Schamber’s video instructions. That will be a Phase Three project.

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I bought two 4′ x 8′ sheets of styrofoam to use as a design wall surface.  The wall slopes down to 7′ 6″ though so I need to cut them down and mark and cut out the spot for the electrical outlet.  I’ve purchased gray fleece to cover them.  Another Phase Three project.

I needed more table space if I plan to do more machine quilting.  Mom had this table she got at a yard sale for $5 in the garage.  Her plan was to refinish it but she said I could have it.  It measures 48″ long x 30″ wide.

I moved the Singer treadle tables — one on the left to use as a small cutting surface while I’m piecing.  The other on the right which, as you can see, is sort of a catch-all space.  [You thought I was so neat, right?] You can see more plastic bins holding WIPs on the right behind the rulers in the picture.  I use these so that I can just take whatever I want to work on with me while I’m house sitting.  Makes it easy to just grab a few projects and go.  The white cart under the table is not working for me as I had hoped.  I need to find a home for it in another room.

Ludo [AKA Freckle Lips or Mr. Pink Ears] is allowed to sleep on the treadle tables…

When I move the sewing machine off to the left, I have a nice space for cutting fabric on the table.  Unfortunately Ludo loves to sleep right where I’m working and I have to keep moving him back to the treadle table.

Total spent to date: Basket $1, Inkwell $1, Saucer $1, Shelf Unit $20, Love Plaque $4, Colored Bottles $20, 2 Sheets Styrofoam $20, Fleece $25, Duct Tape $4, Double Sided Tape $5 = $101

Need to Buy: 2 new cutting mats, goose neck lamp, wall rack for rulers, purple paint, quilt rack for wall over dry sink.

Phase Three projects: Pressing surface, design wall, move out white cart, find permanent place to keep Singer 401 and overhead projector, hang ruler rack and quilt rack, more wall decorations.