Blogger’s Quilt Festival and Wacky Witchy Way

October 24, 2014October 24, 2014 Lovelli Quilts3 Comments

I’m entering Wacky Witchy Way into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival which starts today. Voting will start November 1.

I was inspired by the great fabric line from Maywood Studios, Black Cat Crossing. Although it is a Halloween seasonal fabric line, most of the prints are very versatile and can be used in many quilt applications. My houses could be witches are wearing hats put on with flair. Or, my witches could be houses with crackled eyes. I made free-motion free-standing lace spider webs, there is a tutorial here. The spider web quilting is a design by Jessica Schick.

I will be adding my link to the Original Design Category in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. Don’t forget to vote!

Black Cat Crossing and Wicked Witch-y Way

October 22, 2014October 22, 2014 Lovelli Quilts91 Comments

Thank you Wicked Wendy for leading us on a blog hop featuring fabric from the Black Cat Crossing by Maywood Studio. Thank you Madame Samm for organizing such wonderful hops with interesting themes. I promised a Halloween quilt and a tutorial. Today’s quilt is a Quilt Design a Day finish–yippee!! My first finish from the designs which I have posted on Quilt Design a Day is from September 11, 2014. Here is the design as I originally posted it:

And here is the finished quilt:

A closer look at the scary/whimsical witch-y houses:

I fussy cut the eyes/windows in the witch-y houses so that the spiderweb prints would look like eyes. Each house has a door/nose using a purple background print, the houses/faces are a green print and the roofs/hats are a black background print. I used fabrics from the Black Cat Crossing line and some solids which were in my stash. The web quilting design was by Jessica Schick. The spiderweb embellishments were free-motion free-standing lace. They were definitely a spooky addition and easy to make.

To make the webs I started with Aquamesh Plus, a water soluble stabilizer, Bridal organza and embroidery thread.

I set up my machine for free motion stitching, lowered the feed dogs, installed the free motion foot, changed my needle for an embroidery needle and installed the straight stitch throat plate. Please consult your sewing machine’s manual for how to do this.

In order to stitch the colored webs, I threaded both white and colored threads through the machine as if they were one thread following the same path. Both threads should be threaded through the one needle. Please consult your owner’s manual if this does not work on your machine or if you have excessive thread breakage. I stuck the adhesive side of the stabilizer to the bridal organza ribbon (after removing the wire from the ribbon) then I hooped them together in an embroidery hoop. I used a 7 inch diameter hoop.

If you are insecure with your free motion stitching drawing ability I suggest that you draw your web on the stabilizer/organza with a water soluble marker. I drew my first web with a non-soluble pen and it transferred to the thread when I dissolved the stabilizer. The resulting web looked very dirty. After drawing a few webs I felt comfortable enough to go ‘off-road’ at the sewing machine. The first stitches are an ‘asterisk’ shape which form the skeleton of the web.

I found that setting the needle speed at approximately midway between the slowest and fastest kept thread breakage at a minimum. The needle will be going fast, but your movements should be slow and deliberate. First lay down the base stitches–I stitched the lines upon which I would build the design. I usually went over the lines twice. Next I went over the spiderweb ‘straight’ lines with a tight looping stitch.

In the above picture you can see both the straight lines and the beginning of one line of the looping stitch. Watch that you do not have excessive thread build-up in one place, you don’t want to pull your needle out of the needle bar or break your needle. The width of each line when finished should be 1/8 inch. When stitching the outer lines of the web be careful not to bump into the hoop with the presser foot. Also I noticed that my hoop was not travelling smoothly because my sewing surface was not completely flat–I used my Silicone Slider to fix that issue.

After stitching the skeleton of the web and the outer shape I stitched the inner lines.

Once you have completed stitching the web, remove it from the hoop and following the manufacturer’s instructions dissolve the water soluble stabilizer.

Remove the webs from the water, dry them in a towel and press them. I then carefully cut the organza out of sections of the web to add to the ‘webby’ illusion. Arrange them on the quilt and tack them down with a few stitches.

Thank you so much for your time. Please visit the other blogs on today’s schedule:

Have a quilty day!!

Santa Fe Block Design Challenge, and a Giveaway

July 25, 2014 Lovelli Quilts4 Comments

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A friend of mine was talking about my designs at dinner a couple of weeks ago and she challenged me to take one block design and use it in several quilt designs. I’ve really appreciated it when other designers on qdad (Quilt Design a Day) have done this. The slide show above shows my designs for the week, the block in each one is the Santa Fe block.

According to Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, this block design was first printed in the Ladies Arts catalogue, Quilt Patterns: Patchwork and Applique, published in 1922. The seems complicated in that there are 77 pieces in it. However, it can be pieced using beginner/advanced beginner skills. Next week I’ll show you how to piece it to ensure accuracy.

In the mean time, I promised a giveaway today, and there will be one next Friday as well. Next week the giveaway will be the Traveling Stash Box #5, it had a little adventure on its way to me, involving mis-deliveries, confused possessions, etc. However, it is in my hands now and I have added some treasures to it. I will give it away next Friday, so please come back.

Today I will be giving away a jelly roll from Edyta Sitar’s new collection at Moda fabrics. The colors in this collection would be so pretty in the Santa Fe Block, in fact I will be using this collection in my tutorials for the block next week. To enter the giveaway please leave a comment below, I will choose a winner on Monday at 12:00 pm, Central time. I can only ship to addresses in the United States.

Have a quilty weekend!

Using EQ7’s Serendipity to Design Original Blocks, part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 Lovelli QuiltsLeave a comment

Today I would like to show you some more quilts which I designed with the help of EQ7’s Block>Serendipity>Shrink and Flip. You can find part 1 of the tutorial here. In the galleries found below the first image is always the original block and the following blocks are the combinations from Shrink and Flip, used in the quilt design and numbered to reflect the set of flags in the Shrink and Flip dialog box.

I took the “Palm” block in EQ7 and rearranged it for the following quilt design.

I find that by mixing and remixing the combinations in the Shrink and Flip dialog box I discover new blocks and fun new ways to arrange blocks. Many times the combinations are unexpected and beautiful. I hope you discover something new when you play with Shrink and Flip.

For the following quilt, I recolored some of the patches in each block once it was set into the quilt and I also darkened the background.

Finally here is the Orange Slice design which I showed you in part 1 of the tutorial:

Spend some time to play around with this neat feature!

Using EQ7’s Serendipity to Make Original Block Designs, part 1

July 4, 2014July 5, 2014 Lovelli Quilts3 Comments

I have been using EQ7 to design original blocks for many of my quilt designs for Quilt Design a Day (Qdad). Each of us has committed to designing a quilt a day. I joined originally for fun, but now I am very serious about continuing. The discipline of designing every day has improved my designs and increased my creativity. It has also made me a much better EQ7 user. We get our inspiration from the two photos and their color palettes on Design Seeds. I then convert the palettes to Kona Cottons using PaletteBuilder. You can see my tutorial on Creating Custom Palettes on my Tutorials page.

I use EQ7’s Serendipity function (Block>Serendipity) to design many of my quilts. I usually I start with a some kind of representation inspired by the Design Seeds photo and palette. For example, this week we had an orange slice as the inspiration photo and palette.

I started by drawing a block, in Easy Draw, which was a very literal translation of the inspiration photo:

Next I decided to see what would happen if I used EQ7 Serendipity to change the block. I went to Block>Serendipity> Shrink and Flip. EQ7 then shrinks the hi-lighted block (on the left) and combines it with three copies of itself.

The flags below the main picture determine the direction the 4 shrunk blocks will take. I look at each block and decide if I want to keep it. When I want to keep a block, I press the Add to Sketchbook button. Look at the quilt below and notice that I placed the Design 3 blocks in the center, Design 1 blocks in the inner pieced border, and Design 4 blocks around the perimeter. All of the blocks have the same components arranged differently.

The same thing can be accomplished with graph paper, crayons (or colored pencils/markers, etc). Draw the original block, make copies, either by hand or photocopied, color them, cut them apart and rearrange. I would take a photo of your design when you are done. One tool which you might find useful is the Dritz design mirror. It is a two mirror set which you can set by your design to see what it would look like multiplied. It is thrilling!!!

Have a quilty day!!

Red and White Challenge

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 Lovelli Quilts19 Comments

I am so excited about SewCalGal‘s Red and White Design Challenge–a red and white quilt has always been on my quilter’s “bucket” list. I was inspired by pictures of mosaic floors and tile work to design these quilts in EQ7. My ‘Rising Star Medallion’ quilt measures 64 1/2″ x 64 1/2″ and requires 5 3/8 yards red and 4 1/8 yards white fabric for the quilt top, 7 1/2 yards fabric for the backing, and 1/2 yard red for the binding. (Whew! that seems like a lot of fabric, EQ7 frequently over estimates the amount of fabric needed. However, I’d much rather overestimate yardage than not have enough, I just add the excess to my stash!). To calculate the fabric needed for backing and binding, I used the calculators found on The Quilter’s Paradise,

The ‘Rising Star Medallion’ quilt features the following blocks from Barbara Brackman’s Blockbase: “The Rising Sun”, Finley #3445, the first border uses the block: “Sonnies Playhouse,” Kansas City Star 1935 #N023, and the third border uses: “Lover’s Knot,” Old Chelsea Station Needlecraft Service/Laura Wheeler #3010.

I designed several quilts with these blocks. Some are more challenging than others to piece, and some have a more modern aesthetic, such as the following which uses the Lover’s Knot block:

The ‘Lover’s Knot’ quilt is 36″ x 36″, and requires the following fabrics: 3 yards medium red, 1/4 yard dark red, and 1 1/2 yard white (backing and binding included).

Lastly, I designed ‘Sonnies Knot’ quilt as a bed quilt, it is 82 1/2″ x 99 1/2″, and requires the following fabrics: 6 3/8 yards medium red, 1 yard dark red (plus 1/2 yard for the binding), and 6 3/4 yards white. The backing will require 8 1/4 yards (I’m considering red minky for the backing to make it super snugglie).

I really appreciate SewCalGal‘s hosting of the Red and White Challenge, and EQ7 and Island Batik. Batiks are wonderful fabrics to work with when doing precision piecing because their higher thread counts will stand up to the shorter stitch length used in foundation piecing, they are easily pressed, and their bias edges don’t stretch as much as quilting cottons. I am planning several tutorials on precision piecing as the Red and White Challenge progresses to the construction phase. Please look at SewCalGal’s blog for all of the red and white designs.

I’m linking up with SewCalGal, Design Wall Monday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Anything Goes Mondays, Show and Tell Tuesday, and Freemotion by the River. I follow all of these blogs.