Presenting: After the Storm

Welcome, old friends and visitors from the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

It's time for me to share my finished "After the Storm" quilt.  I'm so excited to share its story with you.

It started back in September 2012.  I had just finished making a quilt for my in-law's 30th anniversary and it was time to start planning one for my own parents 30th.  Luckily, I had just won a FABULOUS FQ bundle from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, and was chomping at the bit to use it.

However, choosing a quilt design to make for my mom was HARD.  She doesn't seem as intrigued by all the gorgeous modern quilts out there that I love.  I got the feeling she really liked the quilts that reminded her of the ones my grandmothers used to make.  Uber traditional and not really ME.  Plus, my mom has done her share of sewing and quilt making, so I didn't want to mess this one up. 

Finally, I came across this pin on pinterest:

SOURCE:  Pinterest

 Unfortunately, it doesn't lead anywhere!  I searched and searched for more photos like this one, but the only one I found has now been taken down.  Oh well,  it doesn't matter.  I had found my inspiration.  The pattern is called "Storm at Sea" and it is super old - very traditional, right?  All I had to do was give a little twist with color placement and walla!  Modern Traditional.  Totally something I could get on board with, and hopefully something Mom could agree with.  So I started sketching.

Then I made a few practice blocks:

And some more blocks (I got better with time.  In fact, I grew TONS as a quilter over the course of making this quilt).

 

Then I had a quilt top.

And then I made it slightly bigger.

I came across this photo today and couldn't help but share it with you.  My twins have grown SO much since this photo.  I had forgotten the days when I could do a little sewing without them getting into everything and begging me to play with them instead...

I used up most of my FQ bundle on this section, so I stopped there.  Of course, then I had the extreme fortune to win myself another bundle - this time they were Oakshott solids and they were from Lily's Quilts.  I decided to make my quilt bigger.  I discovered the Snail Trail block and was happy to find that it works perfectly with the Storm at Sea block.  So I sketched some more.

And cut up some of that beautiful, shimmery Oakshott.

At that point, I decided to put this quilt on back burner and worked on it in bits and pieces here and there.

Gradually, I built up my stack of Snail Trail blocks,

and made a bunch of diamond blocks,
By the way, all of the blocks were paper pieced and there were LOTS of pieces.  Wanna guess how many in the whole quilt?  Well, I'll tell you.  3,118.  True story.

I assembled all of the blocks into 9 sections before quilting.  This is as close as I came to a completed "top."

My plan was to quilt this in sections and put them together "Quilt As You Go" style.  The quilt top was about 114 x 123, so I wasn't about to try quilting the whole thing on my home machine.

Quilting close up from the first (center) section

I took Ann Peterson's "Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine" class and loved it!  I decided to use her "Medallion" method for attaching my quilted sections.   It was a TON of work and there was a lot of time spent in front of the TV with a pair of snips, but I think it turned out great! 

Quilting close up from the second section - see how the bottom part is not quilted yet?

I agonized for days on what type of batting to use.  I read over and over again that polyester batting is slippery and difficult to quilt with on a home machine.  BUT I happen to know that my mom loves it.  She believes that quilts should be PUFFY (which it ended up not really being because I couldn't help but quilt it heavily).  So I bit the bullet and used polyester.  GASP!  I know!  And I really didn't have any problems.  I spray basted using Ann's method and really only had one big pucker in the entire quilt!  This one, right here:

Of course, by that point I wasn't about to go back and fix that.

 I think the reason I had so much success with the poly batting was because (once again), I took Ann's advice and stitched in the ditch around ALL of my blocks before doing ANY free motion quilting.  I am a complete fan of this method from now on.

You can read more about my quilting experience HERE.

And here are a few more up close shots of the quilting:

Before diving in, I put my original sketch in a sheet protector and started doodling designs with a fine tip dry erase marker.  I ended up more or less going for the top design.

I was hoping to finish the quilt in time for my parent's 30th anniversary, but I just missed it.  Instead, it was ready by the day before Easter - only one week late.  Here's the problem, though.  I laid it outside to take photographs and this is what it looked like:
It was gorgeous and all, but it would NOT lie flat (I'm pretty sure it's because of the way I quilted the center section and then attempted to add an unquilted section to it, and still match up seams).

Especially in the corners.  No amount of tugging was going to fix this.

 Luckily, I Ann Peterson ALSO taught us how to "Block" quilts when they won't lie flat.  So I washed the quilt on a gentle cycle, patted it dry as best I could, laid out a bunch of towels on the basement floor, and proceeded to tack the quilt down flat and straight all along the edges.  Then I left it to dry overnight with a fan on it.  Now it lies MUCH flatter.  Thank you, Ann Peterson!

But still.  After quilting and washing, this thing was about 116" x 108" (a full 3.5 inches smaller than the quilt top on all four sides) and huge!  That's almost 10 feet long!  I really struggled to find a place to photograph it.  I tried hanging it off our deck, but it was still too big, and it was obviously much to big for the hubby to hold up by himself.

Luckily, the in-laws have a second story deck and lots of brothers/sisters in law to hold it up.

Wait a sec.  Who are those two cute boys supervising the quilt holding?  Surely not the same ones from that other photo...

My parents LOVED it!  I think my mom suspected and hoped I was making this for her all along, so she was pleased.  It's so great to have this finished!

For the back, I collected solids from the remnant bin at Joanns over several trips and ended up with giant log cabin. 

I love how the quilting looks on the back.  I'm a firm believer in matching bobbin thread to top thread, so most of the quilting is white and really stands out.

 And just a *FEW* more photos, just for fun.

 

I only wish I had remembered to take a photo of it on our bed before giving it to my parents.  We recently scored a HUGE King sized bed set and I was really looking forward to trying it out.  Of course, I did get to take a peek of it on my parent's King sized bed, so I guess that works.  It turns out that the quilt fits pretty well with plenty of drape on the sides, but about 10 inches more than is strictly necessary on the bottom.  Oops.  At least this way, Mom and Dad will be able to tuck it under the mattress and it won't come loose (I totally hate it when my blankets don't stay tucked in while I sleep, don't you?) - which is pretty much the main reason I made it so big.

*EDIT* 6/8/14:
I borrowed the quilt from my parents to enter it in a show and finally got those pictures on my bed!  Proof that maybe there is such a thing as a quilt that is too big?

Of course, a friend recommended that I turn the quilt sideways, and that helped.  :)

And finally, the stats.

Quilt stats:

Started: September, 2012

Finished: April 19, 2014

Fabrics:  Kona Cotton Solids, Oakshott Colorbox solids, Kona Bone, Symphony Eggshell

Finished size: 108" x 116"

Recipient:  Mom and Dad

Methods used:  Paper Piecing, Free Motion Quilting (on my home machine)

Binding:  Machine stitched to front, hand stitched to back

Approximate number of hours spent:  At LEAST 100 (near as I can figure)

Total number of fabric pieces (not including backing):  3,118

All previous progress posts for this quilt can be found HERE.

Anyway.  If you've made it this far, congratulations!  You are awesome.  Thanks for stopping by to visit my quilt!  For tons and tons more inspiration, check out the rest of the Blogger's Quilt Festival here:

I'm entering this quilt in the ROYGBIV category.

One more thing - this quilt is now a PATTERN!  I'm SO EXCITED to be releasing PDF copies in my Etsy Shop:  Always Sewin Somethin.  If you want to make one for yourself (and it doesn't have to be King size - the pattern includes 7 size options), check it out!  I'm even considering pattern testers right now.  Let me know if you're interested!

I'm also giving away TWO copies of the pattern HERE.  Giveaway is only open for a little while longer and closes at 5 pm Pacific Time on Friday May 16, 2014.  

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. This quilt is part of my Q2 Finish Along List, which can be found HERE.  Linking up:

After the Storm: My First Pattern and a Giveaway!

Hi everyone, and welcome to those visiting from Sew Mama Sew.

Well, I'm totally doing this backwards, but I can't really help myself.  See, today is SMS Giveaway day.  I wasn't planning on giving anything away this time around, but then I had this idea - maybe a good one, maybe not so much.  We'll see what you all think.   ;)

My regular readers probably know that I finished my gigantic and color explosive "After the Storm" quilt recently.

I've blogged about it a TON, but still haven't done an official reveal.  I wanted to save that for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, which begins on Friday, so come back then for more photos.

What most of my regulars probably don't know is that I decided to sit down and write a pattern for this quilt.  I've had many positive comments about my progress, and finally one of my readers messaged me begging for a pattern.  So I thought about it for awhile and decided that even though I've never done it before, "How hard could it be?"  Of course, then I decided I wanted to include alternate size options for the quilt, in case other people don't feel inspired to make theirs huge-o-mongous like mine. 

Four weeks and many hours later, I have a finished quilt pattern with SEVEN size options.  :)  I'm super excited to be finally releasing it!  The pattern is paper pieced, and although I have not included instructions on how to paper piece, I did include lots of awesome links to tutorials online.  The pattern is super detailed (at least, I think so), and even includes diagrams for cutting fabric efficiently (because we all know how much paper piecing tends to EAT fabric).

You can find it for sale in my Etsy shop here:  Always Sewin Somethin

To celebrate my first pattern release, I am going to giveaway two PDF copies!  The winners can choose either the large quilt sizes (King/Queen/Full),

or the smaller quilt sizes (Twin/Lap/Baby).  The pattern will be emailed to the winners, so obviously anyone is welcome to enter! 
(Of course, I'm still pretty nervous about putting my first pattern out there for everybody to see, so hopefully somebody is willing to try it out for me!)

To enter, leave me a comment telling me what fabrics you might use for your version of "After the Storm."  Prints?  Solids?  A particular fabric line or color scheme?  I'd love to know!

For a second entry, follow my blog and leave another comment.  I'd love to know how many out there are reading along!  ;)
This giveaway will remain open until Friday, May 16th at 5:00 PST.   I will choose a winner via Random.org and email the winner their choice of pattern.

Now go check out all the other amazing things up for grabs:

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! 
Congratulations to Cynthia and Bonnie!  

After the Storm: Quilting

It's finished!  Yay!  I tried to take tons of pictures of my "After the Storm" quilt and I've decided to save the final reveal for later.  I know you are all soooo bummed.  You see, I've noticed that I tend to blog about my quilts in stages as I work on them (probably like most bloggers you follow)- the beginnings, a progress post here and there, the finished quilt top, and then the finished quilt.  Usually the finished quilt post is taken over by talk about the quilting, which I think is a pretty major stage in the process and deserves it's own post.  So this is going to be the post where I talk about how I quilted "After the Storm" and show you some sneak peaks of the finished quilt.  :)

Sneak Peak...

First of all, after MUCH deliberation, I decided to go against the norm and use thick polyester batting, as opposed to thin cotton batting.  I was worried about it being slippery or bearding lots and lots.  However, the person for whom this quilt was intended happens to love the puffy look polyester batting creates.  And as you may know, I'm not a huge fan of my quilts turning super crinkly in the wash (I don't like to see all that hard quilting work get hidden in the crinkles) and polyester doesn't shrink as much.

But here's the thing - I wanted to use a method I picked up in Ann Peterson's Craftsy class ("Quilting Big Quilts on a Small Machine" - AWESOME CLASS BTW).  This method called for more batting than I would have normally needed because of its QAYG nature.  Suddenly my king size package of batting wasn't big enough.  So I ended up piecing a bunch of larger batting scraps from my closet.  Don't tell anyone, but these batting scraps weren't all the same brand/thickness/fiber.  But they were close enough and I'm pretty sure they were all polyester, so I made them work.

Following Ann's advice, I first stitched-in-the-ditch around all of my blocks using invisible thread.  For anyone considering using polyester batting on one of their quilts, I HIGHLY recommend it!  Tons of people warn against using polyester because it's so slippery, but I didn't really have any problems with it and I think it's because I ditched so much of my quilt before doing any FMQ.  Or maybe the wrinkles and puckers are just hidden in the puffiness...

I liked how the quilt looked after ditching and even though the quilt's recipient probably would have liked it better this way - simple, puffy, with the blocks highlighted - I got a little cocky and decided to add some fancy free motion quilting.

First I took my colored sketch and stuck it in a sheet protector to practice designs with a dry erase marker:

I went with the top design, for those of you who can interpret this photo.  :)

Choosing thread was SUPER hard!  I had originally bought a variegated thread that I thought would be fun, but I was worried it would be too dark on the lighter sections.  But I auditioned a couple neutral threads and they stood out even more, so I stuck with the variegated.   By the way - I went through TONS of thread quilting this thing!  I had to go back to the store two or three time for more.

Auditioning thread.  Look closely and you can see the light gray, variegated, and dark gray thread.

I knew I wanted a swirly design that looked like ocean currents for the middle Storm at Sea section.  I also wanted the design to be pretty large, because I'm not sure the recipient loves super tight quilting the way I do.  It was kind of hard to quilt such a large design because of how often I had to move my hands... And I have a confession to make.  I quilted the ENTIRE section and then decided I didn't like it and could do better.  So I picked it all out and started over using almost the same design, but with a little more marking and planning.  It turned out better, but it's NOT perfect.  There are still lots of wobbly lines, square curves, and the thread doesn't always blend in.  But it looks great from a distance.  ;)

 
The Snail Trail sections were more fun to quilt, because it was so much easier to blend thread with the neutral fabrics.  I went for more swirls, but closer together - as if the sea is churning in a storm.

And those big huge neutral borders were just too tempting.  So I broke my "try not to quilt too densely" rule and quilted lots and lots of pebbles.  Smaller pebbles on the inside blend into bigger pebbles on the outside, with random swirls thrown in here and there.    The very outer edge was the perfect width for feathers, so I did one giant feather around the whole quilt.  

 Of course, the back looks pretty cool.  I always try to match my bobbin thread to my top thread, so most of the thread on the back is white, but I used brown for the areas where I used variegated thread.

For the most part, the polyester batting worked out great.  This is the only major pucker I had in the entire quilt, and honestly I'm just happy there weren't more.  

Here's another confession.  I actually bound the quilt before I finished quilting most of the outer borders.  See, I had an opportunity to spend 8 hours watching LDS General Conference, and it seemed like the perfect chance to sit and hand bind the quilt.  So I did.   And then I finished quilting my already bound quilt.  The best part was that I didn't have to worry about having the edges of my backing fold over and get caught in the quilting.  :)

One more sneak peak.  Stay tuned for the final reveal!  I'm trying to decide if I want to wait until the Blogger's Quilt Festival or if I should just share it sooner...

P.S.  Finishing this quilt was my April goal for ALYOF and I'm happy to be linking up:

 My goal setting post can be found HERE.  My post was linky #36.