Hemispheres Quilted

The Hemispheres Quilt-Along wall hanging is now completely done.  Another one checked off the to-be-finished list!

I used a walking foot to quilt it, following the arc of the curves and using a chaco liner to mark the curves where I didn't have the ditch to follow.

I wanted the top thread color to match the azure fabric but was limited by what was locally available on short notice.  The big box store had a turquoise Coats and Clark 40-wt. trilobal polyester embroidery thread, so I thought I'd give it a shot, with Aurifil in the bobbin.  I am happy with the result.  The CC didn't shred or lint and had a nice sheen.

The fabrics in the top are Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in azure, charcoal, and snow.  I love the bit of dimension you can see up close, yet it still reads as a solid from a couple feet away.

While I was at the store, I spied what looked to be an interesting fabric for the backing, so I grabbed a couple yards of that as well.
 

Some of you may recall that this JCP skirt was my inspiration. I found it while online shopping and pinned it on Pinterest, commenting that it'd make a cool quilt.

Not long afterwards, I heard about the Hemispheres Quilt-Along and saw the quilt pattern.  It was serendipity!

So there you have it for this week's finish.  Linking to:

Hemispheres Flimsy and Cookin' Leftovers

These shorter, colder days are not very conducive to quilt photography, at least indoors with my little point and shoot dealie (that's official camera speak, don't ya know) anytime past mid-afternoon.  

Nevertheless, here is my Hemispheres Quilt-Along flimsy.  

My walls are not yellowish green (they're off-white), but the colors of the quilt are fairly accurate.  Now, it's not exactly like I laid it out, two posts back.  I did sew it together that way initially, but when I showed Norm, he did not like the pink floral bits at all.  I had to admit I agreed with him.

His exact words were, "You didn't ask me about putting that pink in there."  I had to laugh.  I do ask for his opinion a lot, but he was right; this time I hadn't even thought to.  It's not like I feel I need his approval, but what he was saying, in effect, was that he felt the pink part was a mistake he could have helped me avoid.  Funny guy.

So after a little unsewing, it is now the way you see it above.  I actually have a plan for how I intend to quilt it, if you can believe it.  And I think I can do (most of) it with a walking foot, even though the quilting will follow the curves in the blocks, and then some.  We'll see.

Meanwhile, those pink print bits have not gone to waste.  I rejiggered them a little and made some monkey wrench/churn dash (same thing, right?) blocks.  This will probably end up to be a little baby quilt, either for donation or to hang onto for a future occasion.

Linking to Whoop-Whoop Friday at Sarah's.  But before I go, I want to wish my brother Darrell a happy birthday.  We just had a phone conversation about, among other things, the music we're listening to, and he steered me to this band.  Sister P. likes!

Hemispheres

I've been working on the Hemispheres Quilt Along project(s) this past week.  There are two in the works.  One I have put aside until I know for certain how it's going to go together.  I think I have a pretty good idea but I'm waiting a bit longer before I actually commit the final assemblage to needle and thread.  That is the one which uses some of the pink, dye discharged fabrics from the last post.

The other Hemispheres project is this one, which is finally in the sewing it all together stage.  Here it is laid out on the cutting table.

[Aside:  I can't think Hemispheres without thinking of Rush's 1978 album by that name.  And here is where I admit that I have just spent the last 10 minutes watching a 2011 live version of the instrumental "La Villa Strangiato" on YouTube.  Want to be distracted by the shininess that is Neil Peart's drum set?  Go ahead, indulge your inner prog-rocker and check it out.  The real action begins at about 1:00 in.  No one will mind if you air drum along.]

It was a bit of a challenge to get those half circles to butt up against each other.  I switched to a zipper foot and that helped, but it's still not the close shave I might have hoped for.  Ah, well.

Need a reason to smile today?  These babies will fix that.  If not, look out; they might snap you with a rubber band.  Oh, to be so easily and joyfully entertained!

Challenge Fabric and Quilting Along

My sister gave me yards of this navy and white print fabric a couple years ago to use as I saw fit.  She had bought it to make a dress (in the '80s, I think), which obviously never happened.  I, too, stashed it away so far back as to be off the radar.

Recently, I found it again and prewashed it.  As it lay on my cutting table waiting to be refolded, I contemplated whatever to do with it.  Perhaps a two-color quilt in flying geese, or maybe stars, or half-square triangles?  But I worried that all by itself, it might make a brand new quilt look instantly dated.  Maybe just use the yardage for a border, or a backing?

It's mostly cotton, from what I can tell.  It may have some poly, judging from how it didn't wrinkle in the dryer and from the feel of it.  But it is a nice weight and seems stable enough to quilt with, is the point.  The selvage says The Manes Corporation, which I believe is no longer in business since a couple decades ago.  I guess that makes it vintage.

Then I thought maybe combining it with other fabrics might be a better idea—you know, sort of losing it in the shuffle.  On a whim, I decided to make a trial Dresden block with it.

And I liked that.  However, maybe I wouldn't do a traditional Dresden but something else, like a diagonal squiggle with quarter blocks.

Still undecided about how to put it together, but I went ahead and cut more pieces, so we'll see how it evolves.  I'll still have loads the navy/white print left.  Any ideas?

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If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have seen this skirt I pinned from JCPenney recently.  I don't wear short (or any) skirts anymore, but I loved the design and thought it'd make a cool quilt.

JCP - $9.99 y'all!

So I experimented with a couple different methods for how to make the blocks, including a drunkard's path (which worked okay, but matching the arcs where a thick seam meets was a challenge).

I also tried a one-seam flying geese block and then folding the sides back, cathedral windows style.

I tossed these in the odd blocks bin for another time.  A couple days later, however, I saw a blurb about an upcoming quit-along hosted by Megan at City Stitches.  Serendipity!

I have downloaded the pattern, which is basically a modified drunkard's path block.  Now I need to get my fabric together.  Check out the post here for some cool variations.

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Here's a tune from the vault, circa 1977, which I found myself singing along with the chorus ("no no no no nooo no no no...") in the car the other day.  Such a pretty song for the saga of a deadbeat (and only slightly remorseful) dad.