Episode 209: The Challenge Has Been Met!

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At last, I’m done with my Riley Blake Challenge quilt!

If you want to read more about my process on this quilt, go here:

Process Post–Riley Blake/MQG Challenge, Part 1

 

Process Post: Riley Blake/MQG Challenge Quilt, Part 2

 

This is an excellent, very thorough tutorial on blocking a quilt:

Oh the Joys of Blocking a Quilt!

Hope this finds you well!

13 Replies to “Episode 209: The Challenge Has Been Met!”

  1. Love it, Frances!! Didn’t get to Meer up with you at Quiltcon but made a pic of me with your quilt. Will send to you if I can.

  2. Absolutely love this quilt – the idea that you designed it is very impressive. PS: I’m one of your “best-friends” who comments in my head all the time. Happy quilting.

  3. Wow – the circular quilting was a surprise – and it works! This quilt is outstanding. I haven’t listened yet; did you name it? How about “thermal columns” – we like to watch the hawks circle/soar/glide in the warm updrafts.

  4. I absolutely love this quilt! It turned out great, and the circular quilting is perfection.

    Ironically, while you were talking about the move away from super dense quilting, I was pebbling for my #machinequiltingbloghop post for tomorrow. I’ll be curious to see what the quilts from QuiltCon 2018 reveal.

  5. Was William Morris the arts & crafts guy you were talking about? Great quilt, and the quilting looks good! I’ve been kind of tired of overly dense quilting myself and have moved away from it on the last few I’ve made…especially baby quilts. All that thread can make a large quilt pretty heavy.

    1. I think a lot of everyday – Non professional quilters are thinking the way you are JANE with the less dense quilting style…. I am beginning to read about MINIMALIST QUILTING as a style that is against the DENSE quilting.

      Basically … the quilting is based on batting requirements posted by the manufacturer of the batting. The size of the motifs tend to be open, flowing, either FMQing or straight line but usually not closer than fist size … ie 3 to 6 inches apart. Enough to allow softness and cuddly but still keeping the quilt sewn together according to batting requirements.

      NONNIE

  6. YOU said you wanted comments about your current projects but since WINGS is finished I thought I would tell you what I think about CHAIRS …. I think this quilt would be a good opportunity tp try different stitches on your BERNINA to do the applique…. button hole, Ricky TIMs stitch #46 double button hole, the zig zag etc … then the different threads weights type and colors.

    By experimenting with the stitches, threads etc it add interest and texture to your quilt top… good chance to play and learn & practice techniques.

    .
    Just something I thought you might like to consider…..

    NONNIE

  7. Just found your podcast a few days ago. I’m really enjoying them. You have a great voice and a charming disposition. Thank you for the entertainment. I feel like I have a friend in my sewing room with me ????

  8. Count me in with those that are tired of most super dense quilting. It reminds me of the Rococo art style that always leaves me feeling claustrophobic. The only time I like dense quilting is if the quilting pattern itself is simple, like matchstick line quilting or the circles in your Wings quilt. Then it’s visually soothing. Another issue is that dense quilting makes the quilt too stiff. That’s okay for a wallhanging art quilt, but not something to tuck a child in at night with! Perhaps the pendulem swinging back will coincide with a resurgence of hand quilting? Okay- back to doing my hand quilting echoes at 1/4″ apart….(trickle down aesthetic?)

  9. Me again. Listened for awhile, then stopped at the lark vs sparrow. That’s it! Have you heard The Lark Ascending” by Vaughan Williams? One of my favorites. Could the Riley Challenge quilt be named “Larks Ascending?” Especially since they’re traveling next to your staircase … I also remember one of my favorite passages in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder was when she would play in the prairie grass and watch the larks ascend in the early mornings.
    Okay, back to listening…

  10. Fixed email address, sorry. Me again. Listened for awhile, then stopped at the lark vs sparrow. That’s it! Have you heard The Lark Ascending” by Vaughan Williams? One of my favorites. Could the Riley Challenge quilt be named “Larks Ascending?” Especially since they’re traveling next to your staircase … I also remember one of my favorite passages in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder was when she would play in the prairie grass and watch the larks ascend in the early mornings.
    Okay, back to listening…

  11. I finally went back and listened to the rest of Ep.208, but you had closed comments, which tells me that I have to get on the stick in a more timely manner with podcasts. I have just been so focused on listening to audiobooks.

    Then I went to Ep.209. I have to say that it was a little of a relief not to comment, since your comments were closed. I was commenting all over the place in my head, but I just continued cutting rather than jumping to the computer to write something else. I want to show how much I appreciate all the work you podcasters do, so I have to make peace with that.

    Your Riley Blake challenge looks great. I hope you will enter it in QuiltCon. I love the spirals. Did you mark or use the edge of the foot? I have no good advice for making the quilt flat as you quilt it. I wonder if Jackie Gehring has any advice. You might make some small pockets to place on the bottom, then sew drapery weights into those pockets. They will weigh the quilt down and help with hanging.

    Be okay with your process. PLEASE! Quiltmaking is fun. Embrace the learning. Your choices are made with the information you have at the time. As you get information you make different (and possibly better) decisions.

    Functionality also introduces personalized beauty into a living space.

    You might check out the applique’ tutorials I posted some time ago. The first one is at: http://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/2016/10/quilt-class-rose-wreath-pt-1/

    Do you ever try out a quilting design on scrap fabric, eg the muslin you were talking about in the last episode?

    I really like this idea of bird quilts or quilt book-related quilts. I see a show with your books and quilts sometime in the future. Your library might be interested. 😉

    Blocking a quilt seems scary to me. I wonder if you were more comfortable because you have done it with knitting?

    Re: dense quilting – it doesn’t make the quilt very drapey. I think quilts made for cuddling should be more loosely quilted. I also try to remember that quilting is a design element and we have to remember that when we are working on a quilt. Even I, who doesn’t quilt her own quilts, need to give my longarmer direction. Sometimes the direction is “do whatever you want as long as the blocks or elements are highlighted”. Sometimes the direction is much more specific. I want my quilting designs to work with my piecing not overshadow it.

    Have a great Memorial Day – hope you will be sewing. And Happy Birthday!! I know it is soon.

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