I feel like the last 3 months went by in a blur. Since there is no air conditioning in my house and sitting in my sewing room in the summer is like sewing on the surface of the sun, not a lot of sewing got done in the last few months. I hoped that this summer was a good time to bring my machines for any repairs that they needed, clean outs and timing tune ups. Sadly, I have given up on my Jenome quilting machine ever sewing a back stitch again. After having 3 different technicians pull it apart and try to fix the switch that reverses the stitch direction I stopped short of sending it directly to Jenome [for $58 shipping charge each way] for one last try for repair. I cut my losses and picked it up at the repair shop still broken figuring that I'll perhaps save it to use for a straight stitcher on a small Grace frame... that is, once I can pull together the money to purchase a quilting frame or decide where the heck I can find the space to set one up. Luckily my Singer backup machine [which has now been promoted to my main machine] is working like a champ after a good clean out, timing and tune-up, oiling and a quick fix to a small problem in the bobbin housing... so the machine is poised and ready to go.
The first quilt of the season is complete and ready to be wrapped as a gift for a baby shower that I am attending on Sunday (tomorrow afternoon). This project is for my niece Beth's new baby, Tommy, to be born late October.
I had an idea a while back to find a classic children story or book and build that into a theme for a baby quilt. I had in my mind something like 'Make Way for Ducklings' or 'Where the Wild Things Are'.. but then last year Jason's kindergarten class had a week or so where they celebrated the books and art of Eric Carle. That gave me the idea for this theme. It was a fun color pallet and best of all I did some searching and there were a few options online that I could find for themed 'Eric Carle' fabric. The obvious choice was either 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' or 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?". The colors and all the different animals in this fabric won out and I chose the Brown Bear.
I had done a character quilts before and a novelty square quilts with themes but never created a theme out of a book or a style of illustration. So I started with a plan / map of what I was able to dream up and headed to the cutting table. For this quilt I chose not to consult a pattern as I knew I wanted it to look like it had motion and be playful with color. I was lucky to be able to use up left over colorful fabric that I had previously used for the Kindergarten quilt last spring for Jason's teacher. The fabric was a perfect match and looked to belong with the licensed fabric I purchased.
This quilt was also quilted using a method called 'meandering' or a 'meandering stitch'. I usually quilt using a method called 'stitch in the ditch' which is where you attempt to hide the quilted stitches in the seam of two quilt blocks or pieced shapes. The meandering stitch is when you lower the feed dogs (the teeth that pull the fabric through the machine) so you can freely move the fabric around by hand, you use a special foot and 0 stitch length and you move the fabric in a random pattern of large swirls. This was a first for me and I really love the way this finished the quilt, the feel of it and the effect you get is great. However, it was a bit harder than I thought... reminded me of learning to swing a golf club... legs shoulder width, elbow up.. back straight, butt out, follow through.. there is about dozen different things you have to remember and do. With meandering quilting you need to maintain a steady controlled speed of the machine with your foot and with your hands maintain constant movement of the quilt being certain not to make any sharp lines or stops as they will stick out over the other quilting and also make sure you don't cross over other lines... all these factors together will controls the stitch length which you do not want to see variations. Now, I am certain the quilt police are not going to do a raid on my quilting room looking for inconsistent length in my meander stitch or if I sewed over another stitch.. however, I would like to try to get it as right as possible.
In progress and completed quilt photos here Quilt Gallery 2 .
Overall I'm really happy with this project.. I think it will make a cute quilt for the baby's room and of course I couldn't resist coupling it with the book that inspired it and a little stuffed Brown Bear.
