It's a Blue Ribbon quilt!

Coming back down to earth after a few hectic months. And a dose of the flu!

This year not only did we demolish and rebuild our house, move twice, work hard and have our eldest start high school but I also managed to squeeze in some quilt making!
A very special quilt which I've been wanting to tackle since I first opened the pages of Chuck Nohara's 2001 New Patchwork Patterns.

During such a busy year there is no way I could have done this on my own. Fortunately, it was my turn to pick a project for our annual group entry for the NSW Quilters Guild Sydney Show. And fortunately my friends went along with me and made some amazing blocks for the quilt.

Each month we met and I distributed patterns and sometimes helped with fabric choices to keep the quirky vibe.

photo by Kerry Brack

As the blocks piled higher and higher it seemed like we might actually make it to the June deadline!

Originally nobody thought we could make a baby Symbol Quilt with the original sashing and border. But I had my heart set on those gorgeous little plus blocks and the wacky pineapple border.

Chuck Nohara’s Symbol Quilt is a massive 6 metres by 4 metres!

Just call me crazy and an optimist and surrounded by talented friends. I redesigned the border and sashings to simplify the piecing. The original border was way to big for our 121 5" blocks.

Reversing the dark/ light balance on the border better frames the smaller quilt (mind you it's still big at 230cm x 230cm). The original border is pale blue with white "pineapples" or crowns.

My fabric choices were a bit of a worry to the others. The fine teal pinstripe (Just Wing It) did prove a nightmare to cut and piece. But again I knew I had one of the most talented technicians on the job! Maree I couldn't have done it without you. Your precision and perseverance to paper piece all 44 border blocks and magic some corner blocks into existence whilst I crazily sewed over 600 crosses nudged this quilt over the line.
I think the teal border works because nearly half the crosses are blues. And the 144 corner stones are all orange. I think that pulls it all together.

When it looked like we might actually have a quilt to enter this year I started thinking about quilting. No way could I have gone this quilt justice. Even if I had another year to handquilt I would have struggled with the heavy and large top. So many seams, so much appliqué. Luckily Michele Turner of Pinetree Cottage Quilting agreed to machine quilt A Symbol Recomposed. I had seen her beautiful finish on various Dear Jane quilts, her treatment of miniature blocks respects the maker and the design.

Together we came up with quilting designs for the tricky sashings and borders. As a final nod to this special quilt Michele stitched the name of the quilt ( A Symbol Recomposed), the women who made the blocks ( Maree Blanchard, Kerry Brack, Lorena Uriarte and Loloma Wren) the quilter's name ( Michele Turner) and the woman who inspired this quilt ( Chuck Nohara) into the sashings. Barely visible but hopefully many years down the track a record of the women who were part of this gorgeous quilt.
And now the year is over, the quilt was hung, a blue ribbon was won. The quilt is safely home to be enjoyed by family and friends.
On to planning next year's entry. Our fifth one, Kerry's choice again. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention. This year my daughter entered her first quilt in the Show. And won 2nd place in the Under12 category. Well done Fia on your beautiful quilt! This is Fia’s blog if you want to see more on how she made her quilt.

Finishing your quilt ~ lots of links

Wow, I can never believe how far you guys come in 8 weeks. From not knowing how to thread a sewing machine or which colours go together, to having the skills you need to finish a quilt. In eight weeks, that’s pretty awesome. Very well done to all of you and I hope that this is just the beginning of your creative journey with fabric.

Patchwork and quilting is probably a lot more technical than many of you had hoped. There’s a new language to learn (reverting to inches!!), lots of tools to buy and tricky techniques to learn. You don’t need to remember every lesson in each of your quilts. You could decide to only make machine pieced quilts or that applique is now your passion. I hope that by showing you all the possibilities you can go forward confidently and at least know where to start next time you want to make something or tackle a pattern.

I am wary that there was a lot of information in last night’s class. Someone mentioned we actually need two lessons on finishing your quilt but then which other lesson would I cut out? I think that with last night’s tips, the notes I gave you and a few well documented online tutorials you should be ok but if you’re not, please feel free to contact me.

Hope to keep in touch via our mailing list and can’t wait to see all your finished quilts. I’d love to post photos of them here on my blog so send me the piccies.

Here’s one that was put together last night. Using the nine patchwork blocks, 3” sashings and corner stones this is now a 40” quilt top. By adding 5” borders that brings it up to 50”, or you could add more if you want a bigger quilt.

Only we quilters know how much effort and time goes into making these precious first quilts so give yourselves a big pat on the back ~ What a fantastic job!

Here are the links I mentioned that I believe will be helpful as you finish your quilts:

Great binding tutorial with step by step photos on how to achieve neat mitred corners and smooth joins. http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/ending-double-fold-binding/index.htm 

Want to give hand quilting a go? This tutorial has lots of photos as well as explaining the tools and materials to use :http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3734/perfect-your-hand-quilting-stitch 

Quilt too big to fit under your domestic machine? Quilt as you go is an option: http://fiberfocus.blogspot.com.au/2008/11/how-to-machine-quilt-large-bed-quilt-on.html 

There are lots more links here from preparing your quilt top for quilting to how to label your quilt: http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.net/FinishingYourQuilt.htm 

Good luck and stay in touch xx Lorena

Bigger layout options for your sampler quilt

So you want a bigger quilt? I usually don’t recommend that beginners work on very large quilts as they are difficult to quilt on a domestic sewing machine. It’s probably better to make a small project first, to understand what’s involved and to learn all the techniques. Having said that my first quilt was 88” (224cm) so I understand the compulsion to make your first quilt for your own bed!

Every quilt after that was smaller until I found I could get my large quilts machine quilted by a professional. This is always a possibility for special quilts, when you’re in a hurry or if you just don’t like quilting a large quilt. Machine quilting can be expensive however, a quilt 80” x 80” can cost upwards of $180 to have professionally quilted.The cost depends on not only how big the quilt is but also on the style and density of quilting. The most economical is edge to edge quilting where a pattern is repeated across the quilt.

You can contact the NSW Quilter’s Guild for a list of machine quilters or search the internet for machine quilters in your area. You could also check out this Directory of Machine Quilters.

So you still want to make a bigger quilt, here are your options:

1) Make lots more pieced blocks! For a quilt that finishes at 82” you will need 25 pieced 12” blocks. With sashings cut at 3.5” and a border cut 5.5” wide you will get a quilt that looks like this

Lou made one like this but didn’t have enough of the border fabric for a continuous piece. Her solution was to piece the border strips.This a great option if you only have a small piece left and your fabric has a big pattern that makes matching seams difficult.

2) Alternate your pieced blocks with some plain fabric blocks to stretch it out.

Leslie did this with the quilt for her nephew using a vintage toy themed fabric:

thanks to Amy for this photo! http://badskirt.blogspot.com.au/#!/2011/11/yesterday-i-popped-up-to-north-side-of.html 

3) Alternate your pieced blocks with simple pieced blocks that you can whip up quickly. You can find cutting and piecing diagrams to some simple 12” star patterns in the blog post by Piecemeal Quilts.

I used a Variable Star block alternated with pieced and applique blocks in this single bed quilt to give it some uniformity and make it a little bigger.

Next we’ll talk about wadding and backings and how to put the quilt sandwich together.