Trivets for Susan

 Some time last Fall (November, maybe?), a friend called to ask if I could make some trivets for her that would be cuter than the ones she had been seeing in stores. "Of course," I said. "When do you want them?" "Whenever you have time," she said. Big mistake, Susan! Now she knows that I need a firm deadline, even if it is arbitrary!

 Susan follows me on Instagram.* Every time I saw that she had clicked "like" on one of my quilty photos or left a sweet comment, I felt guilty for not working on her trivets. A few months ago, I pulled all the reds and cream/tans from my stash and set them aside. I thought that was a good start. About a month ago, I was surprised to see my stash was seriously lacking in reds and low volumes. Haha!

 

When I cleaned out my quilty storage area to move some furniture around, I found the stack and quickly got to work. I used different block designs and different fabric combinations for each trivet to make the project more fun and interesting for me. That Dutchman's Puzzle might be my all-time favorite block.

 

She had asked for a modern country look. The smaller trivets are 8-9" and the larger ones are about 11".  There is a layer of Insul-brite and a layer of cotton batting. They are pretty thick, so I kept the quilting simple with just a few straight lines.

I get excited when I actually remember to sew my labels into the binding! (It's the little things, people.) The binding is done all on the machine for durability. I rinsed each one separately several times to remove most of the excess red dye. Then I threw them all in the washer with a color catcher and then into the dryer. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't run or fall apart on her, and they washed beautifully.

 

If there is a moral to this story, it is to always give Tina a deadline!

Percolation time: 8 months

Working time: 10 hours over 3 days

*If you ever wonder what I'm up to between blog posts, visit me on Instagram. I post there pretty regularly. For example, you can see what I worked on in a machine quilting class yesterday with Angela Walters!

Engineer's Wife Sampler

After 19 months and hundreds of hours of work, the Engineer's Wife Sampler quilt is complete. I started calling it that way back at the beginning because my husband is not a farmer! You can see I went my own way from the start with this quilt, but I loved working from Laurie Hird's book.

This post is a little long, so feel free to just look at the pictures!

 January 26, 2014: I blogged that I might make a few blocks from this book for a table runner. Then my friend Sharon mentioned that she had started piecing this quilt. Knowing that there was someone nearby to commiserate with was somehow comforting. And challenging!

February 17, 2014: Day 1. As I pieced these blocks from my modern scrap bin, I made quite a mess! I pieced the blocks in numerical order, and wrote the date I completed each block in the book.

February 21, 2014: In four days, I had pieced 24 blocks and cut out the next 24.

March 8, 2014: Made 12 blocks on retreat.

Summer 2014: lots of blocks pieced when I needed a break from the wedding ring.

January 28, 2015: 20 more blocks. And I learned the term Maverick blocks.

February 2, 2015: 111 blocks complete! (Yes, I kept the stack in numerical order.)

March 2015: My original layout plan was to use alternate gray and white hourglass blocks. I made 8 of them and decided I really didn't want to make 100 more.

(crummy iphone photo)

 June 26, 2015: Layout plan B. The gradation in the background was inspired by a class with Vanessa Christenson. I had seen other samplers set like this (half on point, half straight) without the gradation. It's interesting to see how the colors pop differently on the various shades of gray.

July 18, 2015: Top complete.

September 4, 2015: Hand basting using Sharon Schamber's technique.

September 5-23, 2015: Hand and machine quilting. I started at the top, center. I would hand quilt a few blocks, then machine quilt them. After a few rows, I discovered that the best method for me was to machine quilt in the ditch around each block, then fill in the block with machine quilting (all in white thread, different design for each block). Then I hand quilted 1/4" around the blocks. Then I went back to the machine to quilt the background.

Hand quilting was done in a hoop on the dining room table with variegated #5 perle cotton and a no. 3 embroidery needle. I really enjoyed this process, but soon discovered that 100% cotton batting is not ideal for needling through, especially with thick thread and a big needle. (Apparently, wool batting is quite nice for hand quilting.)

 I used a different color thread to hand quilt each background color. One stitch at a time.

 Machine quilting was done on my trusty Bernina 153 on the kitchen table. The background was quilted with thread that matched the fabric color. Fortunately, I found a chart online that matched Aurifil colors with Kona colors. This photo commemorates the completion of quilting.

September 24, 2015: The binding matches the background colors - white on top, black on the bottom, sides pieced to match. (will add photo when I get the quilt back)

Since I only used 100 blocks on the front, the remaining 11 went on the back. Ten are pieced into a strip through the middle. (That area was fun to hand quilt through. Not!)

September 25, 2015: The last block became the label. Since it is so large, I "quilted" some lines and a heart so it wouldn't flap around. The stitches only go through to the batting and don't show on the front.

I am really proud of this quilt. You can see it (with Sharon's and Donna's) at the Ninigret Quilters show this weekend in Westerly, RI. It has also been accepted for exhibition at A Quilters Gathering in Manchester, NH, in early November.

Engineer's Wife

85" X 85"

Pieced & Quilted by Tina Craig

Started February 17, 2014

Completed September 25, 2015

Block Patterns: Farmer's Wife Sampler by Laurie Aaron Hird

Layout: original

Kona solids: white, silver, medium gray, coal, black

Aurifil 50 wt thread: 2024, 2600, 2605, 5004, 2692

DMC #5 pearl cotton: 4200, 4124, 4077, 4050, 4025

Awards:

Ninigret Quilters, October 2015:
Master Division
Best Machine Quilting- Domestic
Best Scrap Quilt

A Quilters' Gathering, November 2016:
CoDirector's Award

Narragansett Bay Quilters Association, April 2016:
HM Exemplary Piecing
2nd Place Exemplary Modern

WIP Wednesday

 How has it been three weeks since the my last post? Summer fun has kept me away from the blog, but not my sewing machine. I was able to complete two quilt tops recently.

My Farmer's Engineer's Wife top is done! It's great to have friends working on the same pattern to push me along. (Hi, Sharon & Donna!) Sharon started quilting this week, so the pressure is on!

The spools top is done, too. I might quilt this one first since it's a lot smaller and I can just have fun with it.

I'm finishing up another Quilt of Valor this week. Tonight, I'm burying threads while I watch TV.  More quilting and binding tomorrow or Friday.