finished quilts

:: Dialed In Quilt ::

November 20, 2020 By Katie

sew Katie did | Seattle Modern Sewing & Quilting Studio | Spinning Webs Quilt

You know fall has arrived in Seattle when you more than occasionally face plant into spider webs. Considering its seasonal theme, I thought it time appropriate to finish up this quilt. I think it was going on its 6th year unquilted.

Obviously, I missed the seasonal window for posting it;)

How to quilt it was the problem, I just couldn’t decide. I thought about starting in the middle, echoing the octagons/spiderweb shape with angled straight lines, but that would be a lot of turning and I’m a lazy quilter. If I can run my quilting off the edge I do.

Finally getting some lines of quilting in was like shooting a current through it. It just made it come to life. Without a seam to readjust, I wasn’t completely sure how the measuring of the “V’ing” lines would turn out. It’s pretty easy to have the quilting get pretty wonk by the time you get to the outside edge when using this design.

I was super thrilled, it was no hassle at all.

I’m not a fan of the feel of a faced binding, but quilt needed one. I wish I would have had more of the yarn dyed Essex from the front. It would have framed the backing fabric a bit better, but we’re working with what we have here.

I’ll definitely be offering this block as an improv workshop starting in the studio when the world returns to right side up. It already has its person, they just haven’t been created yet.

I planned on getting a post of this quilt up by Halloween and can’t remember if the weather was good, so I was outside gardening, or if it was bad, so I was cooking and baking, I’ll use both as an excuse.

When you see these photos you’d think all I do is bake, but trust me, I share with my neighbors.

For Halloween and Day of the Dead I made pies and improv paper cut some stencils to decorate them.

The pumpkin was just ok. From can, pre-made crust, mixed with a physics lesson reminder that powdered sugar melts into anything with moisture. Way better presentation on a flourless chocolate cake.

I hadn’t made a cream pie in about 20 years, so in March I decided it was time. Banana cream is my favorite, though I’ll take a chocolate or a coconut with zero complaint. I’ve tried all the variations my cookbooks have to offer, but I faze back to the recipe in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. Cocoa powder works great for these stencil designs and of course what is better with bananas than chocolate?

With a round of over-ripe bananas I tried the NYT’s Nutella Banana bread. I think I’ve found my forever banana bread recipe. I’d just make it next time with chocolate chips and avoid the palm oil ingredient in Nutella.

I also found my forever recipe for oatmeal fudge bars. There was a box mix we loved as kids called Fudge Jumbles. This recipe is probably better than my 13 year-old brain remembers.

I’m usually reminded it’s time to bake of batch of almond kiss cookies when I see the kisses all wrapped in their holiday outfits. I don’t see many cookies in my near future since our kitchen is still in glamping stage. I’m baking about 5 at a time in a little convection oven , but If I’m going to make a cookie I make these.

Of course I’ve made a bunch of savory food, it’s just not as exciting to photograph. I have perfected my hot and sour soup and chicken pho during all this craziness.

I still have blooms happening in the yard though I’m largely in ignore stage now.

My cosmos from seed were really late to bloom and have been hanging strong ever since.

The snails love to eat the tips of these.

Last Friday the weather report for the unforeseen future looked solid for zero time socializing outside, so we took advantage of the last night, pack up some blankets, made some walk-tails and headed over to our friends for happy hour and a fire.

Roan and I finally wore Jefe down and we adopted this sweet little mutt to mix things up and keep us on the up and up. We now have a Jefe and a Boss in the house.

He’s already got his own quilt.

Lastly, Clark County Quilters is holding their annual quilt festival online starting today, so go check them out. I had planned on joining them as the featured quilter this year. I always enjoy the teaching, but was looking forward to a walk and talk of my quilts. I thought it sounded like a fun approach that I hadn’t done before. They will still be displaying quilts virtually and I’m guessing with all of us spending more time at home it should be quite a show.

I’ve got some tips on how I quilt a king size quilt on my domestic next time. I hope you’re finding joy in the things that keep you busy too;)

:: Wee Raindrops Quilt ::

September 9, 2020 By Katie

Though I never met a boot I didn’t like, I’m not somebody that craves fall. When people point out a wink of it at the end of August I jokingly tell them to shut up. September seems like this sweet spot in between, but things can really go either way in Seattle.

sew Katie did | Seattle Modern Quilting and Sewing Studio | Wee Raindrop Quilt

Turning my attention back to the studio/office/school room and mentally embracing the grey and rain is something I’ve begun planning for by taking inventory of some hand sewing I’d like to do.

The Wee Raindrops quilt resurfaced. It was quilted and bound over 8 years ago, just missing its appliqué raindrops that had lived in my imagination long enough. Seemed an appropriate quilt to slowly start my adaptation.

It has a new home waiting for its person and the cooler weather to arrive. Perfect timing for all that lovely flannel on the back and binding.

One of the first quilty skills my mom taught me was how she creates appliqués making templates and that same technique is how I created the raindrops.

I started by freehand drawing and cutting the raindrop shape on a cereal box in a few sizes (or find the shape and print from the internet) An emery board for nails should smooth out any edginess to the curve.

Pick a scrap.

I go for one that’s at least a 1/4″ larger than my template.

Trace the template onto the wrong side of the scrap and trim a 1/4ish” from the line.

Starting at the bottom of the curve stitch just outside the drawn line with short stitches leaving a tail of thread at the beginning and end.

Pull the two tails to shape the fabric tightly around the template. At the raindrop’s point I sometimes clip a little of the extra bulk out or just fold one side over the other. Get your iron hot and if you have some starch give it a spray front and back.

Press and let cool. Once cooled I carefully pull the template out and place it face down on the ironing board to give it a final press from the front or clean up any issues.

From here I choose their placement and ladder stitched (invisible stitch, slip stitch, blind stitch) them down. Youtube has a worm hole of videos on this.

My thinking was that any free-motion quilting that wasn’t perfect could be covered up with an appliquéd raindrop and if they all fell off the quilt would still be structurally sound. It could be the perfect I-Spy or cute with some hand quilting stitches added around or on the appliqués.

It’s so happy and reminds me that rain is good;)

None of the appliqués are perfect and I was gifted a reminder that few things are, even in nature with one of my sunflowers this week. Yup;)

Ok, maybe tortes are perfect;), especially with a pile of billowy whipped cream;)

Plums from my alley are the star player right now. One of my favorite recipes is a plum torte with a third of the flour replaced by cornmeal.

Homegrown summer tomatoes and corn are also perfect.

I’ve gathered up three more unfinished projects that need either binding, mending, some appliqué and/or hand quilting and added them to the pile by the couch.

I’ve been able to subtly listen in on the remote learning that’s happening here while writing this and I’m hoping to add/delete the pile to keep busy and present if I’m needed. Yesterday it was a little sad on my walk to see kids through windows sitting alone at tables in front of computers, but I’ve been pretty impressed with the emotional support Roan’s teachers have been providing the students.

I hope you’re all etching out some sewing time or other good for you things too.

xoxo, Katie

:: Pony Up Quilt | Design Potential ::

May 3, 2020 By Katie

In our current state it’s rather dreamy to think about packing up and going on a sewing retreat, but that’s where this quilt started and where my mind was as I finished it here one sunny morning.

This will be the first year in many my little tribe won’t go sew, eat, drink and walk the beach so it seemed the most appropriate pull from the growing pile of UFOs.

Because I sew faster in my head than in real life, I tend to have an unrealistic vision of what I can complete in four days + days of retreat, same goes for the cooking.

A no boundaries approach would lead to the entire studio being loaded, so I tend to look for something double or triple duty in tools and material. Under those guidelines there’s no technique full of more potential than improvisational strip piecing. Half hatched ideas using that technique made the cut this past trip.

I enjoy teaching what I call an Improv Coin Quilt as my beginning improv class and wanted to take my teaching samples to make another example quilt for layout options.

In my workshops there always tends to be student or two that have taken a beginning quilting class with a more traditional scope. All those important skills like precise cutting and matching points have been covered, but what I love the most is how they just light up when they come to discover that quilting doesn’t always have to be that way.

You’d never guess from it’s simplicity how much I messed with the layout.

As far as the quilting I went with straight lines which is a divergence from the quilting design I used on my first quilt sample for this class back in 2011.

I’m a lazy quilter and like to run off the edge of my quilts. My process wasn’t any different for this one, starting with quilting a quarter inch from the seams to tack them down and working in lines here and there until it seemed visually pleasing;).

I tease at my trunk shows that I bought all of the Anna Maria Horner flannel out there so no one else can have it and I’m still using it for my quilt backs. I love the weight and drape.

I went with faced binding, a first for me. The jury is still out on whether I like it or not. I can see its appeal on an art quilt or wall hanging, but I make utilitarian quilts and I think the cuteness factor of a baby quilt would have held better had it had a binding.

You’ll be seeing more of this fabric combo and improv strip piecing in the two other quilt tops I finished at the retreat last May. They all match my box pouch. I love the color way and the pony fabric.

I’m calling Pony Up my second quilt finish of 2020.

I haven’t been in the studio much since the initial order to physically distance ourselves with the exceptions of finishing these two quilts and have just let that be. Jefe has etched out a corner of the studio for an office and our dining room table is now a school.

For me, gardening and cooking are sewing’s kindred spirits and with the weather playing so nicely my garden has been where my head space seems best. I got back to my running routine this past week after more than a few weeks of pure laziness. I’m amazed not only with how quickly things grow and bloom this time of year in Seattle, but also how quickly the muscles atrophy;)

We have rain this weekend so a little studio clean up happened yesterday with hopes of making it in there today.

Hope you are all well. xoxo

xoxo