September 30, 2010

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Pebbles and variations

Let's talk about pebbles. They are a big effect from a simple technique - stitching circles right next to one another. I like the look when I vary the size of the pebbles. Pebbles are time consuming to quilt, so practice on something small before you decide to do a queen size.


Want to mess with the design? How about stretching it out?


Or squaring it off?


The inside of a pebble is just waiting for you to put something inside it. I once saw a quilt with this wagon wheel quilting. It was so dynamic!


I thought these would look like rings but it's possible they look more like toilet seats.


Jingle bells? Soap bubbles? Either way, I like it.


Here I just inserted a line in the middle. I think they look like aspirin. I also doodled a beach ball pebble but forgot to take a picture of it.

Leah Day has some great pebble based designs, here, here, here and here.
If you've never stitched pebbles before, start by drawing them. Do this without lifting your pen - use a continuous line. Draw a circle. Now, starting from the edge of that circle, draw another circle right next to it. Now continue around that circle a bit until you can start a third circle nestled against the first two circles. And just go on that way, letting one circle lead to another, until your space is filled. You can do this. Try filling a page or two this way. It will get you used to figuring out where your next pebble will go.

In large or small doses, pebbles are a beautiful way to quilt. Take a look at these examples!



1. Baby quilt - for baby William, 2. Green Space, 3. Quilt for Louis Jude Graham born 10th August 2010, 4. zigging, zagging, pebbling, 5. pebble quilting {back}, 6. after pebbling is complete

So you know what to do now - sketch some pebbles! I know my instructions aren't super detailed. First, I'm lazy. Second, it will serve you well to figure out how to draw the designs you think of with a continuous line. It's just pen and paper. Experiment! My quilting always improves when I draw the designs beforehand.

See more Free Motion Quilting designs and tips on the Free Motion Quilting page.

September 28, 2010

Hot Mess Time Machine

I'd like to spend a little time horrifying reassuring you that the first steps down the path of free motion quilting aren't necessarily pretty. So let's step in my time machine and go back six years, to the first quilt I ever quilted. I kept this quilt in a dark dark drawer for five of the past six years. So please take it as an expression of love that I'm sharing my dirty little secret with you.


When I was working on my practice pad things looked pretty good, but for some reason when I started on the actual quilt it all dissolved into wackiness. Sound familiar?


I'd say this is about 30 stitches per inch.


Stops and starts - out of control.



What was I thinking using dark thread on white fabric? I don't know, but it's coming in handy now that I want to show it to you!








I had no idea what I was doing. 


On the back my bobbin thread was pretty much just laying on the quilt.


Oops.


By the end of it I improved a bit.  And from far enough away I don't totally want to burn it.


So if you're just starting out, with angles where you want curves, crooked lines where you want straight ones, stitch length issues and awful tension, carry on. It's just the way it has to be.The way out of this free motion morass is through. Keep stitching. Get through that first quilt and on the road to better quilting.

A special thank you to those who have posted their free motion stitching on the Flickr group. It is so exciting to see your experimentation and progress, you are all doing fabulously! Thanks for being brave enough to share your progress.

September 27, 2010

Carrot cakes in excruciating detail



The only requests from my friends for their wedding carrot cakes were: no fruit, and include nuts. I knew I had to start with test cakes.


The first recipe I tested was from America's Test Kitchen. It was tasty but strangely light and fluffy and not what I wanted at all. When I think of carrot cake I think of dense, sticky, rich. Now I have to wonder about those folks over at America's Test Kitchen. Can I even trust them anymore? With this cake I scrubbed the carrots but didn't peel them. Two days later little green flecks appeared in the cake. Lesson learned. Peel yer carrots.


I started working the vegan angle instead and tried a vegan carrot cake recipe from the Whole Foods app on my iPhone. It was well received but shredded immediately upon frosting. I liked the strong spices though. 


I decided to come up with my own, taking what I liked from each recipe. To make the cake darker I used brown sugar instead of white, and I added some whole wheat flour as well as some cocoa, a trick I learned from baking pumpernickel bread. To make it moist I added oat milk and applesauce. I used more carrots than either of the other recipes also. This version was much closer to what I wanted. I was running out of testing time so I decided to stick with it.


To make it vegan I used egg replacer and fiddled with the liquids. The frosting was the challenge here. I never quite perfected it. I first tried Vegan Gourmet brand vegan cream cheese: disgusting. I threw it in the trash. I almost gave up right there but Google convinced me to try Tofutti "Better than cream cheese" and it worked fine. I haven't figured out the right vegan margarine though. I used what we had in the fridge, Earth Balance, which tastes great on our bread but in the frosting had this kind of chemically fragrance and aftertaste. A more subtle margarine would be better. This frosting also ended up kind of watery, which was not a tragedy but definitely skip the lemon juice for this one or you'll have a runny mess. The regular cream cheese frosting was amazing and I ate about a cup of it that weekend. I'm gonna tell myself that's ok because I'm still breastfeeding.


As I was mixing up a double batch of cake mix in my soup pot (since I didn't have any bowls big enough!) I had to laugh at myself. This whole process certainly made me a better baker. I now understand why we have cooking spray and parchment paper. And somehow, despite the fact that I have eaten pounds of this carrot cake in the past month, I still want to have more of it. At the wedding the two cakes were totally gone by the end of the night. The bride's son even asked me to make a carrot cake for his birthday next month. So it all worked out!


These pictures from the wedding should tell you that the carrot cakes were hardly a blip on the radar. It was a beautiful weekend. It was a wedding that made me realize these are the moments we will look back on when we are old, the stories we will tell. It was a wedding that made me feel more in love with my husband. And how about those outfits? The bride is such an amazing seamstress. She made her dress, the groom's outfit, the officiant's outfit and her kids' outfits too! I get proud when I embellish a kitchen towel and she's designing formal wear. So humbling! And now, I give you the cakes.



Carrot Cake
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
3 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup oat milk (or plain milk I imagine would work fine)
3.5 cups shredded carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts

Frosting
8 oz. package of cream cheese
5 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x12 cake pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Mix flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and spices in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, mix eggs, brown sugar, applesauce, oil and oat milk until well blended. Add shredded carrots to wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, stirring until mostly combined. Add walnuts and mix just until combined. Don't over mix. Pour into baking pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack. To make frosting, mix butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Add powdered sugar. Frost cake when cool.


Vegan Carrot Cake
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
2 Tbsp egg replacer
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
3/4 cup oat milk (or rice or soy milk)
3.5 cups shredded carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts

Frosting
8 oz. container Tofutti "better than cream cheese"
5 Tbsp. vegan non-hydrogenated margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x12 cake pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Mix flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, egg replacer and spices in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, mix brown sugar, applesauce, oil and oat milk until well blended. Add shredded carrots to wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, stirring until mostly combined. Add walnuts and mix just until combined. Don't over mix. Pour into baking pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack. To make frosting, mix margarine and cream cheese until well blended. Add vanilla. Add powdered sugar. Frost cake when cool.

September 26, 2010

$16.50

I went to the Northwest Quilting Expo with the toddler, which is EXACTLY as awesome as it sounds. The poor little kid wore herself out with all the squirming out of my arms, wiggling under the roped off areas, and then whining for me to pick her up again. Once she fell asleep in the Ergo, though, I got a chance to take it all in. Following are my four favorites.

"9 Characters", Maker: Ann Johnston, Quilters: Oswego Quilters

"Nibs", Made and quilted by Carolanne Olson

"Anthony's City", Made and quilted by: Laura Newton

"Prototype redwork", Made and quilted by: Janice W. Hearn

I came out of there with a few prominent thoughts swimming in my head.

1) Between the ticket price and the parking I paid $16.50. I was there for about 2 and a half hours. Thinking about it this way, I can't wait for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild to start collecting dues. It is totally worth the money. The PMQG is three hours once a month and it comes with a sense of community that I didn't have at the quilt show.

2) I am totally not into quilts with rhinestones on them. It's like someone attacked a quilt with a Bedazzler. I wish I could unsee that part of the quilt show.

3) There is so much to learn from looking at quilts, even the ones I don't "like". I try to analyze the pattern, construction, color scheme and quilting on each one. I learned so much!

September 24, 2010

Free Motion Quilt Along: Loops

Hello free motion quilters, I hope you are feeling loopy! This week we will be stitching in the last of the narrow strips, as well as a portion of one of the wide strips. As in past weeks, doodle some designs and then pick two or three for the narrow strip, and at least a few for the wide strip.

I started with a double loop.


Then I did a couple loopy flowers


And I finished off the row with a pebble line.


In the middle wide strip I marked off an 11 inch area on the edge. I was most excited to try the interlocking rings. I like the effect but they are a little slow. Then I went on to the lazy eight, and my mind was clearly wandering - my stops and starts were very crooked! Oh well. If your stops/starts look like this, the only advice I have is 1) practice 2) try having your needle down in the quilt when you restart your stitching (not a given if you tend to just move your hands one at a time to reposition) 3) test placing your stop/start at different points in the design to see which part of the design is easiest to match up when you restart your stitching 4) just let it go. Reassure yourself that no one will notice it, especially not after it's washed. I certainly don't normally quilt with this much contrast between my thread and my quilt!


I pulled it together for the last few designs.  I think I liked the alternating big and small loops the best.


Next week we'll focus on pebbles! Happy quilting. Of course we would all love to fawn over your pictures in the Flickr pool.

September 23, 2010

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Loops

Loops are a wonderful design for beginners. They are so whimsical and fun that wobbles and irregularities just fit right in. You could quilt an entire quilt with loops!


Loops are charming as part of a wiggly line. Ooh, and double loops? Yes.


Some loop variants. I liked the effect of five loops grouped together for an easy flower motif. That one design down in the middle I was trying to make pointy. Hmmm.


Riding home on the bus one day I saw some circular barbed wire. I thought it would be a fun quilting design to try. You would stitch around the circle twice and then stop (at the dots) to start a new circle.


Loops make great meandering, which is yet to come, as well as pebbles which we will cover next - trust me, there are a lot of pebble variations, pebbling deserves its own week.


If you are feeling goofy for pebbles, here is a nice pebble line to start with. You stitch a circle, then follow it back around to the bottom, where you begin another circle immediately below it.


I found some examples of how great simple loops can be on quilts! Now, how about sketching some of these loop designs, and designing some of your own?



1. Loopy-doo, 2. more loops, 3. 28.365, 4. Little red under a Christmas Tree, 5. Pretty square quilt detail, 6. free motion quilting

See more Free Motion Quilting designs and tips on the Free Motion Quilting page.

September 21, 2010

Deep breath


These two wonderful people are now married.


We enjoyed ourselves. Yep, that's what we wore to the wedding. And I assure you, we fit right in. 


Cakes were appreciated and devoured.  I'll post the recipes next week.


Cake decorating is serious business. I got to share it with a little sweetie.


This picture should tell you I know nothing about frosting a cake.

Unwelcome surprises:
Toddler gets carsick! Noooooo!
It rained about 80% of our camping trip.

Welcome Surprises:
Blackberries every morning at the campsite.
A three minute shower on Saturday morning. 

So, except for the post about Milwaukee, everything that's happened on this blog for the past two weeks has been a scheduled post. We are back and in the workweek and I am drowning in laundry and email! My reward for making it to the weekend will be getting to go to the Northwest Quilt Expo (quilting journal in hand!). Happy equinox!

September 19, 2010

Free Motion Quilting Inspiration: Sandra

I'd like to show you some quilting that my friend Sandra did. Sandra's mom is a quilter, but does not do free motion quilting. Sandra was the first recipient of a group quilt from our circle of friends. She asked me to teach her free motion quilting and I gave her a brief lesson. When I was expecting our daughter, Sandra organized a Sci-Fi themed group quilt for me from our circle of friends. It was only the second quilt she ever quilted. While the entire quilt is a work of art, I'd like to show you pictures of Sandra's awesome quilting here as a testimony that jumping in to free motion quilting is totally worth it and you shouldn't fuss too much. Sandra, thank you for the amazing gift of your time and talent. I treasure this quilt.

She stippled the entire border. And by stippling I mean, it makes you tired just to think about doing something that detailed.

 

Check out the spacey stitching in this Wall-E block.


See the little flower stitched down on the planet?! Genius.



I was so delighted when I discovered this little oil can stitched next to the robot.


And the stitching on the arms of the space monkey's space suit is just perfection.


Here is how she quilted the "wormhole". Awesome, right?



I love her way of inserting spirals into the stippling.


This is an extreme close up of a Baobab tree so you can see the little detailed leaves and swirls.


So how about that? Are you feeling inspired? I sure hope so. Happy stitching!