Miriam's Quilt - Part II - 3rd Post

Today will be the last of my posts updating Miriam's process of her Down On The Farm Quilt by Robert Kaufman designed by Cheri Wollenberg until I receive another update from her.  I'm so glad that she has shared this process with me.  I've been so amazed at her disciplined approach to this creative work and her talent.  Thank you again, Miriam.  My readers will be glad to receive the next installments of your progress!  Today's post is the fifth step continued from yesterday's post. Enjoy:

5.  Then I started to work on the frame that is gray and blue made of nine individual squares.  By far this is the most time consuming -- lots of steps to make sure you get it right.  Because of its intricacy, I always go ahead and do one complete block (making sure it all works well together) before treating it like an assembly line.  It goes faster if you do one step to all squares before going on the the next step and so on -- eventually sewing them all together to create the block.  I got one completed and it looks good so now I will concentrate on making the remaining 18 blocks which will take me a while.  In this block you have to have the right tools -- special ruler with 1/4" mark, pen that can mark but then when you iron the fabric the markings disappears and finally a ruler that allows you to mark a 3.5 square for trimming accurately after doing the two color square.  You also need to iron the seams in back of each row for the block in every other direction so when you sew it together the seams will nestle together and not create a thick bulk of fabric.  In addition, the blue fabric points in front of the blue block will meet nicely.

Well that is all for now -- will continue to put together the gray/blue squares and then I will be able to start putting the rows together.

Miriam's Quilt - Part II - Second Post - Down On The Farm Quilt

This is the second post of Part II of Miriam's process of the  Down On The Farm Quilt/Designed by Cheri Wollenberg...fabrics by Robert Kaufman. Thank you again Miriam for the beautiful images showing your steps.  Today's post is quite colorful.  Blog Readers I've posted the text and images here:

3.  Next, I took the animal print squares and added a strip of fabric (called sashing) to one side of the frame.  To every piece of fabric you sew on, you must iron to flatten the stitches first and then you turn the fabric over and iron again.  I have completed all the animal squares sashing.

Miriam's Quilt Part II

This is the second post regarding Miriam's Down On The Farm Quilt (Fabric by Robert Kaufman) designed by Cheri Wollenberg.  I'm sure she is very busy at the moment as last week so I've decided to separate the installments of her process to post here.  This is so interesting and I see that it is very necessary to having a very professional looking quilt.  She is awesome for sharing this with me and I'll continue with Step 3 tomorrow.  Below are images documenting her first two steps.  Her personal explanation is as follows with documented images below:

Hi Cheri,
As luck would have it, I was able to get in a few hours of sewing this weekend (my comment: a few weeks ago - sorry for the delay in post).  This is what I have been able to accomplish so far:

1.  As I get ready to sew, the most important thing is to prepare my machine.   I have to make sure it is clean, has a new needle, the right threads are on top and on the bobbin, use the right foot for the project - Bernina 57D - great for a 1/4"seam project.  I tested the machine set up on a scrap piece of fabric and I was ready to go.

2.  I started with the binding preparation.  The binding is actually the last step of quilting but is the least thing I enjoy doing.  There is always something in everyone's hobbies that is not what you might particularly care to do but is a must.  So, what I learned to do is prepare it ahead of time so I won't have to worry about it later.  I joined the long strips, ironed the seams open and then ironed the strips in half and rolled them up into a ball until I begin to sew them down on the quilt around the edge for the nice finished look - more on the binding when I get ready to finish the quilt!

 Thanks for stopping by.  Please stay tuned.

Miriam's Quilt - Part I - Fabric Panels Down On The Farm)

How exciting is this!!!  The photos she has provided are place above.  Hopefully I have placed in the right order.  I've included her message to me below with very little editing.....just any personal notes.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.  Stay tuned.  I may not post the next steps for a few days.  I know you will enjoy her personal thoughts and writing.  She is awsome!

Hi Cheri,

1.       I bought the fabrics --- two of your panels of animal farm and  1.5 yards of each RK gray, burgundy, and navy blue fabric (always buy a little more than what they tell you for those unfortunate oops). I had to order the fabric from three different places and the panels from a fourth place but it was worth it.

2.       I am using the pattern provided by RK http://www.robertkaufman.com/quilting/quilts_patterns/hoedown/ -- This is a great pattern to showcase your artwork. RK is providing it on their website for FREE!

3.       Cut, cut, cut --- quilting is all about taking perfectly, beautiful fabrics and cutting them up sometimes to a million pieces just to put them back together again! This process took me all day. They say you should measure twice and cut once. For me, I have learned to measure four times and then cut once--- once you make a mistake in cutting is over and you will need to buy more fabric for your mistake.

4.       Iron, iron, iron --- must iron all fabric before cutting and what I use is a little Niagara starch to get a crisp, flat fabric to cut. The hardest and longest job was cutting the individual frames of the animals. When they say fuzzy cut it, it means you figure out how much of the frame you want to show in your quilt, but must stay within the measurements given to you for cutting. You also have to factor in the 1/4" on each side that you will be taking in as a seam when sewing pieces together. So while they look wonky when you finish cutting them, you hope you did it right so only the animal/background shows and not the black borders surrounding each frame when you sew it. A lot of the frame had to be cut down from 11"X10" frames to 9.5" squares--- but it worked out nicely.

5.       Sew, sew, sew --- now that everything has been cut according to the instructions from the pattern and is seating in my sewing basket, I am ready to go over to my sewing machine for the real fun!

 As I start to put the quilt together, I will be sending you pictures of the progress. Unfortunately, I may take a couple of weeks in sewing, since I may need to take a trip to see my son who is in college and of course there is always other things that get in the way of me having fun. I hope it won't be too long in finishing the top of the quilt and then there will be one big step after that and one smaller second/final step in totally completing the quilt.

Warm wishes,

Miriam

I'm Only An Oil Painting Artist!

 

I have sadly neglected my blog for quite some time again!  This past year (2016) has been a very eventful and fascinating year in my art life!  A couple of years ago I had an opportunity to license a painting of some whimsical snow carolers.  They were printed on popcorn tins during the Christmas shopping season of 2014 and 2015.  It was delightful to see this happen, but I have had some of my work licensed for other products during 2015 and 2016 and amazingly these works have been printed on things like dishes,rugs, pillows, fabric, and so forth.  To tell you about this is way too long and boring, which brings me to the next series of blog posts.  They are fascinating to me, because I'm Only An Artist, but I admire quilters so very much.  The block pictured above is around 100 years old.  This one is from a group that was given to me from my granny's unfinished stash about 20 years ago.  That's a story in itself, and I will share more about it later.  Starting tomorrow I'll be sharing the process of a quilt being made by a lady who is using the fabric from my designs sold by Robert Kaufman.  She has generously shared her process through images and notes and I'm excited about this to say the least!  And, concerning the story of the 100 year old quilt blocks made by my granny and her friends......that will have to come later.  For now, I'll end this post by using Paul Harvey's famous words...please tune in tomorrow to hear...."The Rest Of The Story".