#handquilt

[quilt-giving]

Rise and shine, Earthlings! While I'm off to tackle the daily grind, I couldn't resist brightening your day with some out-of-this-world SCIFI quilts. Here's to thriving and prospering amidst the cosmic chaos of our time!" FYI, I made these!!

[creations-by-chaosfay]

@anastasiaoftheironwood handquilting Star Story has begun!

I need to find an alternative to white chalk that doesn't stain fabric. Seeing white chalk on nearly-white fabric is a challenge. I've tried Clover and Fons & Porter, but they stain fabric.

Threads I'm using are Sulky, 12 wt, and the colors are 4057 (yellow/gold), 4034 (black/grey), and 4001 (light brown/cream) They're variegated blendables, but stand out just enough to add visual interest.

As for the quilting, details below:

I'll be using a wood star cutout as a template. I found it at a craft shop, and it's supposed to be a wall decoration. After I get the stars quilted, I'll go over it again with crescents. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a crescent nor have one made (lack of funds), so I'm making one with embroidery rings and cardboard.

Why this instead of straight lines and following seams? Time and fun. I use a small quilting hoop to make circles on Halloween Dream, and the handquilting was fast. When I handquilted around thr blocks and border seams, it slowed considerably. Plus, the circles were fun. I'm sticking with templates for this, including the borders, because it is so much fun and faster. My client will get their quilt before the end of the summer. Ideally, within six weeks.

To help speed things along, I'm using a longer stitch as well. About a quarter inch. Tiny stitches are my preference for making parts of a quilt pop, like outlining butterflies other parts of a print. The effect is dramatic and very pleasing...bit it takes sooooo much time. I intend to avoid that here.

I'll be working on Star Story in the afternoon, when my sewing room gets too hot. Mornings will be for seeing, which means more project overlap. Monday-Thursday, from 6AM to 10AM, I'm sewing, take a lengthy lunchbreak, noon-4PM handquilting. I'm up at around 5AM, though that may soon be at 4AM because I love mornings, and go to bed at around 9PM now that we have an a/c unit in the bedroom.

When the handquilting is finished, I'll make a new post featuring it. This will be thr most beautiful quilt I have made yet.

[quill-ting]

Yeah OK so I was beginning to feel disappointed and underwhelmed with the individual blocks, but seeing them laid out helps. Also this is before the three borders... this thing is going to be huge! Truly a vast amount of quilt.

Tomorrow I need to start to sew all of these together but for tonight, I'm just going to bask in getting this far.

[ditsyknits]

I finished it! I took the green quilt out on a little adventure today before it goes off to it’s new home tomorrow!

I’m sooo happy with the way this came out. I’m really glad I took the time to start over with the quilting. I think the end product shines 🧡💚

[forestgreenlesbian]

finished my trek quilted wallhanging🖖

[ofmiceandwomen]

The portrait of the prince, taken and edited by @thistlesandstories (as well as the other pictures of me)

I had a great time at the local convention. I’m happy to announce that me and @thistlesandstories won the cosplay contest as the absolute winner, we earned awesome rewards and most importantly we really had fun and I am very grateful to @the-symphony-of-lydia-brown for helping us coming up with the presentation ideas an turned it into an entertaining spectacle.

This is our team. We are proud of ourselves

Both of the costumes are original designs made by us. We used multiple artworks and historical clothing references. I wrote more on it here

Some more pictures:

Bonus: comparison to the portrait by spectacular artist @jennydolfen

[temporary-dysphoria]

[tj-crochets]

Another crafting update: I'm a third of the way done hand quilting that green baby quilt from forever ago! I'm thinking handquilting is not my thing lol

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

I flipped thr blanket off my lap so I could get up to go use the bathroom. Now I can't move it because cacoa is under it, curled up on her heat reflection bed. This is my warmest quilt too.

Rude.

[justlymine]

I make all of my extended family niblets a quilt when they are born. I am self taught for quilting, so some of my methods may be a bit weird, but it works for me. And each one is better than the last! This is probably my last niblet of this generation and I’m super proud of the quilt as it’s coming together.

I’m doing a wide border on this one and decided to do the middle as one big block, with applique circles added on top. Note I mis-measured something and the center block ended up too wide to match the width of the top and bottom border panels, so i had to take the block in. I decided to make it into a pleat on the visible side, for more interest.

tacking down the pleat before sewing so my project isn’t bristling with pins

I also stitched around each circle to mark the placement. I like using a big running stitch for this instead of marking with chalk.

and then the fun part, picking the colors and then making sure it all works

sorry everything is so blurry. I didn’t document this project very well!

all of the circles have already had their edges folded under and pinned. Most of them I then put in temporary stitches to replace the pins before sewing. (I always get the thread caught on the pin heads--because I handsew everything as I hate the sound of the sewing machine)

I’ve almost stitched the whole top, next comes the stuffing and the back, then i get to quilt it!

I was listening to an audiobook for most of this: crocodile on a sandbank--an excellently read audiobook and very funny! the lead is hilarious, though she doesn’t intend to be.

[krislee]

Front and back <3 

[quilt-giving]

I began quilting in the 1990s. I have handquilted about 60 sci-fi quilts. It has been many years of trial and error. I was never very good at following quilting patterns. My favorite pattern is the disappearing nine patch. I use it a lot in my quilts. My blocks were never perfect. In fact , I’m most certain every quilt I have made has a mistake or two. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, I look at the mistake as adding character and artistic deviations to my quilts. :) A quilt doesn’t have to be a complicated design . My first quilt was an appliqué Star Trek baby quilt. It was simple by quilting standards. I worked so hard on it. It took months to finish but I was incredibly proud. As I was learning to quilt, I secretly hoped to make something fancy and worthy of an art show one day. FYI, A little more than 30 years later, I have never entered any of my quilts into an art show. I quilt for me. I quilt to give one of a kind quilts to friends and family…and the occasional acquaintance on the internet. Maybe one day, one of my quilts will make it to outer space. How glorious would that be? Peace to you and yours.

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Neither of my machines are large enough for the Cutie quilting frame. The diagram on Grace Company's website was unclear of where they measured the machine, but it turns out both my machines are nearly two inches too short for the lowest setting. I need at least 8.5 inches of workspace, also know as the throat.

I won't be able to handquilt for the next several months. My hands and wrists are a wreck and need time to heal. This is why everything I make will need to be handquilted until probably next spring or summer. It's why I need the frame, otherwise finished items will need to be small enough to fit in my machine without straining myself. I can manage about 30 inches square max, which is why the largest items I'm making are table runners and wallhangings. Large quilt tops are an option, but finishing the quilt won't happen unless I hire someone else, and I don't want to do that.

Grace Company made a machine specifically for the frame. It's called Little Rebel, and I hope to be able to afford it next winter. It's $3k, which is waaaaay outta my budget. There's a second machine, a Jenome, that's $1200. I have bills, my debt, and smaller things I need, like a printer, an XBox for my husband, and some inexpensive exercise equipment (my asthma cannot handle summer air and my body cannot tolerate summer heat or sunshine), just to name a few things. All money I receive goes to my goals and bills, not machines.

If you fancy purchasing a machine, I have my Throne list here. When I have either machine and get practice in, commission prices for quilts wheelchair/baby size and up may cost less than half the original prices I had them up. Handquilting will be reserved for love and personal pieces.

I will happily give a quilt I finish on the frame to whomever buys one of these machines for me. There are half a dozen quilt tops in my standing wardrobe, all waiting to be completed quilts. More tops will be made, which are more options to choose from.

I'll take my frame apart this weekend, once we figure out a place I can store it in the house. Until I get a machine that works with it, this will remain stored away and no larger quilts will be made except as just listed quilt tops.

Thank you.

My work below, for the interested:

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

I'm fourth generation quilter, grew up in a family of quilters. We all have our own styles, and one of my aunts does applique. Her stuff never fails to impress.

This is fucking mindblowing. You went the route of "dipping toes is for the weak, I'm gonna dive." This is soooooo amazing! I'm sitting here admiring ever damn stitch. I showed this to my mom, she showed it to her sister. Both of them: "That's their first quilt!?!" You have impressed pros. Good job!!!!!

I grew up with a grandma who quilted, but she’d never been interested in passing along the hobby, so when she finally kicked it I was the grandkid who got all her materials, ‘cause I was the only one who knew how to use a sewing machine. Then, in 2015, a friend had a baby and I figured I’d make her a quilt, ‘cause how hard could it be?

oh

my

god

Luckily I am the stubbornest human alive, ‘cause I never woulda finished otherwise. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know the terms to look up how to do anything, I musta reinvented the wheel like eight times and it took ten months, BUT I DID IT.

Figured I’d suffered enough and would never do it again and now I’m on quilt #9 smdh

————————–

I’m hyperventilating.

Holy shit. Holy SHIT.

This is INCREDIBLE.

Oh my god.

I’ve gotta go lay down holy shit look at this how do we just walk by other human beings every day and live our separate lives when there’s a person sitting next to you on the train or in line for coffee who goes home and makes things like this what even IS being human holy shit.

GOOD FUCKING JOB.

[carmellateresa]

Boro-Sashiko, Inspired Visible Stitching Houses For Our "Village" - All ...

[lsbknittingtheology]

My latest passion is making hand quilted hearts for people.