Hippity-Hop

 Hubby and I were near a quilt fabric store that I had heard great things about. A friend of his also mentioned the shop, saying it was a "must see". We decided to swing by and check it out. We discovered that the shop is HUGE! 

It is here:

And it is there:

The shop, called Quilted Twins, is a warehouse type store, catering to online shoppers from around the world. It has over 13,000 bolts of cotton quilting fabric at great prices. The fabric sells for $6.99/yard for most manufacturers (you now pay upwards of $15/yard at other shops), $9.99/yard for Batiks and $5.99 for off brands. Most designers and their collections seem to be available.

One could get lost in the shop - there are nooks and crannies, and different rooms to explore. Unlike some warehouse type shops I've visited, the fabrics are all numbered, cataloged and in specific places - almost like using their own Dewey decimal system! The second section of the shop is their warehouse, shipping center and classroom space. 

Following our adventure we turned toward home (with some acquired fabric in the back seat! Would you expect any less from me?!)

As we drove I thought, hmmm, there are two quilt shops I've never visited between our car and our home. So, says I, "Hubby dear, would you like to visit some other quilting shops?" Being the good man that he is, he acquiesced and away we went. 

The next shop we visited, Bold Notion Quilting, was not what I expected! The shop is located next to the owner's home, in a residential area. The focus of this shop is on long arm sewing. They have limited fabrics, most in 108" width for quilt backings, just about every quilt thread color and they sell, service and teach long arm quilting. Quilters can rent their machines, or pay to have their quilts quilted. But, what's the fun of that?!

The final shop we stopped at, Nana's Quilt Shop, is more the typical quilt and sewing machine shop. There were limited fabrics and collections and Brother sewing machines for sale. It's fun to explore in this shop as it has several rooms with different sorts of goodies, including a classroom area, with tables and space for customers to visit, sew and enjoy workshops. 

All in all, we had a pleasant day seeing the shops, finding an out-of-the-way nursery that was having a sale, and exploring the area around our home. 

Anatomy of a Quilt

I prepared this post in 2021, but never completed it.... I guess some things, like the subject of this post, just take time!!

Quilts that I make often begin as a single piece of fabric I happen to see and fall in love with. The fabric calls to me and tells me that I must make a quilt featuring that fabric. Then I begin the hunt for other fabrics. On very rare occasions I'll find a pattern and select all of the fabrics I need on one visit to the quilt shop. Well, maybe that's only happened once! Usually I walk out of the shop with the few yards of the fabric that caught my eye and nothing else. From there I may purchase more fabric when I find it, still looking for the perfect pattern, or the pattern may come next and then additional fabric. 

This quilt began with fabric I found at a quilt shop in Laramie, WY on a trip from Denver to San Francisco in 2017. Yes, you read that correctly! I collected fabric at several stops on the trip, not even knowing what I wanted to do with it. It wasn't until another adventure, this time a workshop in New Hampshire in 2018, that I found the pattern I wanted to use! Bonnie Hunter's String Fling" has a quilt called "Jamestown Landing".  I thought it would look great in teals, and decided I also wanted to add some soft orange colors. The hunt continued!

Quilts take fabric. Lots of fabric. A twin-size quilt requires 7 yards of fabric, plus or minus, just for the top. If the quilt is comprised of lots of tiny pieces, you may even need more because 1/2 inch of every piece, either width and length, are lost in the seam allowances. I decided to make this as a king, which requires over 10 yards of fabric! This particular quilt is what we call "scrappy" for obvious reasons. So, collecting fabric continued,  As I visit shops I look for fabrics in the right colors,  and add a quarter yard here and a quarter yard there. Some of my fabrics were featured in quilts I previously used and some I inherited from my mother. 

Half-square triangles, or HSTs (sounds like a venereal disease!) make up over half the pieces in the quilt. An HST is a square made of two triangles sewn along the diagonal. For this quilt the squares are 2 1/2". It takes a lot of HSTs to make a king size quilt! At one point, while sewing, and sewing, and sewing, a song came to mind. You can sing along to the tune of "Seasons of Love":

Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred HSTs, 
That's how many I have to sew.

Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred HSTs, 

I probably have a thousand to go!

You cut them,

You piece them,

You sew them together.

You press them,

You trim them,

And stack them up high. 

I began making HST's in mid to late January. The finished "flimsy" was on my wall on April 2, 2021.

"Strings" of triangles sewn together

HST's in stacks, ready to be pieced together

Here I have placed HST's on the quilt wall to view placement of colors

HST's are sewn together to make blocks

Blocks of different sizes are sewn together to make the quilt

I knew I wanted a "piano key" outer border, but here I am "auditioning" different fabrics for a smaller inner border, trying to decide which looks best.

When I complete the "flimsy" I often hang it up on one of the walls in my sewing room. This lets me enjoy the almost finished quilt, and also helps me decide what quilting patterns I want to use.

However, before the quilt can be quilted, I need to prepare backing. I enjoy using scraps from the quilt to make a pieced backing. It's almost as much fun as putting the top together!

Once the top and backing are complete I can put the fabrics on my long arm sewing machine, making a "sandwich" with the backing on the bottom, the batting in the middle and the quilt top on the top layer. The fabrics are rolled onto separate rollers on the machine, so the fabric may be held taut for stitching. 

Sometimes I am not quite sure what design I want to use for different portions of the quilt. I have a piece of plexiglas that I can put on top of the quilt while it is on the long arm which I can use to try out different pattern ideas. 

After the quilting is finished the only thing left to complete the quilt is to put a binding on the raw edges of the quilt. I usually sew the binding on by machine, and finish it with hand stitching. 

Adding a label to the quilt is also part of the process. This label was sewn into the backing of the quilt. Other labels are hand stitched to the back after the quilting is complete. 

The quilt is then ready to use or to gift to someone!

Sew, What Have You Been Doing Recently?

Sew... I worked a deal with my son and ended up with a new-to-me Bernina sewing machine that does just about everything, all by itself. My rekindled interest in sewing began just before Christmas when I quilted a jacket for my DIL's mother. I enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed playing with beautiful fabrics, and finding just the right patterns and colors.

Sew... not knowing much about quilting (although my mother was a fabulous quilter, and I inherited her stash),  I took a class at a nearby quilting/fabric shop.

Sew... we made a runner. I learned a lot. Mostly I learned:

Sew in haste...

Rip out at leisure!

As the clock ticked closer to the end of the class, I began sewing faster. When I completed my runner, and held it up, it closely resembled the letter "C". It was a cockeyed mess. 

Sew... I pulled out the seams, 'squared' the blocks, and more carefully pieced them together, being sure to keep my 1/4" seam allowance. My second attempt looked much better than the first! I was proud to give this to my Mother-in-Law when I saw her in May. 

Sew... one day I was at a fabric shop and my eye was caught by a bolt of cloth with a lovely pattern of warm colors. My colors. 

Sew... I found a quilt pattern (an "easy" quilt pattern) and went shopping for fabrics that complemented that which caught my eye, and made a table cloth. 

Sew... after going through numerous spools of thread, and lots of time sewing in "the dungeon",  on the new super machine... I completed  another project. What fun!

Sew... I wonder what I should make next?!!