PhD Challenge Finish No. 2 - Climbing Lanterns

My original title for this post was Donde Esta La After Party, which is the title to a catchy song (hear it below).  However, I reconsidered in favor of consistency in naming my PhD Challenge finishes...and being less cryptic.

I am ready to find that after party though, because the Climbing Lanterns quilt is...dun-dun-dun...DONE!  

I know you will join me in praising the heavens above, mainly because after today we can move on to other quilt-in-progress pictures.  I've probably about worn you out with this one.  After this post, I will have for sure.

As you can see, I did an overall meander to quilt it.  It seemed like the thing to do, with the various appliqued parts (some flat, some fluffy) to maneuver around.  

Where the corners got tight, the meander got smaller.  It made sense to me at the time, and I went with it.  I used Isacord thread, as it's what I had available and had nixed my first idea of a variegated thread.  The Isacord is fine, silky, and has a sheen to it, which worked for this wall hanging.  I don't think I'd use it on a bed quilt though.  When I had to unpick a few stitches in a couple areas, it shredded pretty easily.

Here are some more close-ups.  I was a great ball of insecurity when I started quilting this, but now that it's behind me, I am pretty happy with the result.  

(Center of Back)

 Is it just me, or do you ever feel "meh" about the quilting at first, but 24-48 hours later, you're like, "day-um, that looks all right."  Because that has been my experience.

Norm was holding it up for me here, but standing in the basement sewing room with low ceilings under a fluorescent light was not very conducive to a good photo.  Whaddaya gonna do when it's dark and approaching negative digits outside?  Anyway, you get the idea of how it might look hanging on a wall.

So there it is, almost a year later, finished...after falling in love with the Lantern Bloom fabric line...finding a free pattern online...then grousing about how the branches on the original pattern resembled a craggy apple tree instead of something Chinese lanterns would actually grow on...enlisting my daughter to draw what we thought was a better version of the stems...getting only so far before abandoning the project in favor of other things...losing it behind the futon for awhile (the WIP, not my wits)...signing up for a challenge to inspire me to finish it...feeling the fear and quilting it anyway. 

A long road that ends in a happy place!

Thanks for joining me in a virtual celebration of the journey.  Now, donde esta la after party?

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict is hosting a Friday linky party for anyone wanting to celebrate their creative accomplishments this week.  



While I don't have a complete finish to show, I did get some things done on the Climbing Lanterns project this week.  After languishing for almost a year in a state of in-between, I am happy to say that it is finally ready for quilting and binding.

The top is done.  Yay!

I was going to baste it a few days ago but realized I didn't have a backing ready.  So I made one.

Then work got in the way of basting it...until this evening, when I had an unexpected night off.  

Basting:  Check!

So those are my steps worth celebrating this week—top done, backing made, quilt basted. 

And now, on to the part I am unsure of the most.  Anyone else get butterflies the moment the presser foot goes down over your project and the quilting foot starts hopping?  

Well, I made myself this visual aid to spur me on, use as a mantra, or possibly throw darts at if things go badly.  A reminder to just do it, already.

Whatever it takes, right?  Now, deep breaths...

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 23

Progress continues to be made on the Climbing Lanterns quilt project.  Today I stitched down the Chinese lanterns and stuffed them lightly.  A chopstick just happened to be the right tool for the job.  

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be to machine applique the top of the pieces down, being gathered and all.  I just stitched over that area first and left an opening for the stuffing along the side instead of at the top.  I used a stabilizer on the back for the zigzagging around the lanterns, which helped.

Next step:  Basting and quilting.  Again, there is some trepidation (how am I going to quilt it? and what if the quilting sucks?), but I'm trying not to freak myself out and just put one stitch in front of the other.  So far, it's working.
 
The Eyes Have It
"Your retinas are gorgeous."

I blinked and leaned in slightly until my forehead made gentle contact in the dimly lit room.

"Thanks," I replied.  "I guess I've never heard that one before."

It wasn't a pickup line.  It was a comment by my examiner in the Eye Study I participated in on Wednesday.  And I bet she says that to a lot of people.  Still, a compliment's a compliment, and I'll take it.  Good to know my peepers are healthy!

Nifty Thrifties
It was a good week for thrifting at Goodwill.  There were useful household things, like new-with-tags kitchen towels, an oven mitt, a vintage muslin sheet (potential quilt back?), as well as a yard of stars and stripes fabric.  

There were some other things too, including a vintage card shuffler, which may be heading to eBay.

Found a pretty piece of pink Pyrex! Blogged about at The Pyrex Collective.

And look what my friend Marie gave me today, in lieu of throwing them away!

Can you believe it?  How sweet is that?  I just love them!

Speaking of Pride and Prejudice...
Which is how my friend Kathy segued into a discussion on the topic Saturday morning.  Subtle, is what she is.  And funny.  Two of the many reasons I like her so much.

I have posted here before about Pride & Prejudice, one of my favorite movies, the 2007 version, mostly because I am not-so-secretly in love with Matthew Macfadyen.

As are a whole lot of other people, apparently.  If Google Analytics can be trusted, this post continues to be my most popular one of all time, racking up a couple hundred hits a month.  Who knew?

Anyway, Kathy received for Christmas a copy of the movie I had blathered on about and, after watching it, was sorely disappointed!  Over breakfast with Marie and I on Saturday morning, she cited her objections, including characters and storylines that were altogether missing, a butler who wasn't even the right sex (!), and so on.

She proposed that we rectify this by watching the BBC version of P&P, and so we have set a date to do just that.  I am so looking forward to it!  According to Kathy, it runs very true to the Jane Austen novel (not that I would know).  This is the one with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy and takes about 6 hours to get through.  Actually, I think I saw it on PBS many years ago, but most of it has since fallen through the fine sieve that is my brain, so it'll be like seeing it for the first time.  Yay for middle age!

Clap On, Clap Off
This had me laughing out loud today!

And Finally
Thank you to Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict for mentioning The Way I Sew It on the Surfin' Saturday blog feature this week.  I am so very honored.  I had to laugh at the picture she had of me in my jammies—eek!  Sarah's a dear, though, and one of the most prolific quilters I know.  She turns out such beautiful quilts week after week for her quilt ministry and is such an inspiration.

That about wraps it up for this edition of Sunday Sundry.  Thank you all for visiting!  Stay warm and think spring (it's never too early)!

What Does P. Stand For?

I want to show you what I'm working on, but first...

Oh.Em.Gee!  Look what Elizabeth did!  And she is giving it away!! 

 

Elizabeth's Double Pinwheel String Quilt Journal 

She used my Double Pinwheel String Quilt tute to make this quilt journal cover, and it is SO beautiful!  I have tears in my eyes right now!

Head on over to Such a Sew and Sew and (a) tell her Happy Birthday, and (b) enter to win any or all of her giveaways this week.  She is so talented and such a sweetheart!

Now, what I have been working on?  One of my PhD Challenge projects!

This is for the Climbing Lanterns wall hanging that I started almost a year ago.  Sheesh.  Yes, sometimes P. stands for Procrastination. 

And this is what happens when you ignore your WIPs...

...they hide on you!  It fell behind the futon and sat there for who knows how long, keeping a very low profile.  I got a glimpse of it while standing at the ironing board one day.  Come out, come out wherever you are!

I finally sewed down the stems last night.  After experimenting with different stitches on a scrap, I finally decided on one that does four stitches and then a zig, four stitches and a zag, etc.  I wanted to do a blanket stitch but this was as close as I could get on my 1960's Singer Touch & Sew with cams.  Yes, it is old, but it does the job.  The Juki and the Singer 301 are only straight stitch machines, and I recently gave the Kenmore to my daughter (yay, she is sewing!).

This morning, I hand-gathered the Chinese lantern pieces.  These will be appliqued onto the stems after they are stuffed lightly for dimensional effect.

I have no idea how tricky it will be to applique over the gathered part, but I guess I'll find out.

Today, P. stands for Progress! 

Tortoise or Hare?

Which one are you when it comes to your sewing and quilting projects?
Tortoise here.

Yesterday, I worked on the Climbing Lanterns project. It might seem like this has been in the works forever, but compared to the one other fused and machine appliqued wall hanging I've done, I am working at lightning speed. The other one took 18 months.

On Friday, I cut out the brown kraft paper stems my daughter had drawn for me last week and laid them over the background to check proportions. I had also made a sample of one of the red lanterns. It all seemed fine.

Then I traced the paper pieces onto fabric, which had been lined with Wonder-Under, and cut them out.

I repositioned the pieces onto the backing again, and tonight I will fuse them on. Ultimately, they will be machine appliqued in place.

Working on this reminded me of a project I finished in 2008 called "Three Water Lilies," from a pattern by Ann Fahl.

Check out her website and blog sometime. She does gorgeous work, and many of her designs are available as patterns. Her pattern says, "A Workshop in a Bag," and it is definitely a very well-written, step-by-step guide to making this kind of quilt.

By contrast is the current pattern I'm working from, which has only very basic instructions. But it was free, and what do you want for nothing?

So I found myself rereading Ann Fahl's instructions for the water lily quilt this morning, and I'm glad I did. I had forgotten her suggestion to use a tear-away stabilizer when doing the machine applique. Since I was going to the fabric store anyway for thread, I picked up a couple yards of stabilizer as well.

That is the status of the Climbing Lanterns project. Slow progress is being made, but progress nonetheless.

Freehandy

I'm so glad we bought her all those sketchbooks.

This afternoon, I got ready to draw something a bit more realistic than a tree trunk for the Climbing Lanterns project. Drawing is not my strong suit, but I was willing to give it a go. On a whim, though, I texted my daughter to see if she wanted to help.

Thankfully, she said yes.

Dear daughter has been drawing since she could hold a crayon. When we would go out to eat, she would entertain herself (and us) by drawing on the paper place mats or napkins.

She has filled many, many sketchbooks since then. Although her career doesn't involve art--unless you count the art of drawing blood from a squirming cat or dog--she still draws for her own enjoyment and sometimes commission.

It only took her a few minutes. She made it look easy. I'd have been wracking my brain much longer.

I hope to do it justice translating it to applique.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Again, love has blinded me to reality.

The instructions for this wall hanging say to "freehand draw the branch as shown on the piece of fabric."

Um, okay. Sure.

*record scratching noise*

Wait, what? Branch?

Yes, the pattern shows a branch -- a tree branch! One that looks very much like a gnarly apple tree, if you ask me, except that instead of apples hanging from it, there are Chinese lanterns!



One of these things is not like the other.

Chinese lanterns, or Physalis alkekengi, grow along the stems of an 18-24 inch plant.

You can cut them for a vase or container and the stems will dry out, but they don't usually turn dark brown, and they do not resemble an apple tree branch. The pattern even has you using a marbled fabric that resembles wood.

Alas, the lovely "Climbing Lanterns" has presented me with a dilemma. Do I suspend reality and make it as pictured, or go out on a limb and come up with a (possibly horrendous) alternative?

I need a couple of aspirin and some time to sort this out. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

Lantern Love Blooms

Do you believe in love at first sight? The kind that sweeps you away before you even know what you're doing?

I do.

What other excuse would I have for falling head over heels for Laura Gunn's Lantern Bloom fabric line? What else could possibly explain why within ten minutes of first setting eyes on it, I was clickety-clicking all over the internets, ordering a bit of just about everything in this line?

I am not impulsive by nature. This was highly unusual behavior.

Also, a first: The first time making a quilt from instructions, using exactly the fabric suggested. It's not that I'm oppositional; I'm just naturally scrappy. I'm an equal-opportunity fabric employer. Scrap fabric or new, vintage or contemporary, thrift shop or quilt shop, and all points in between.

What can I say? I'm a new quilter; I know not what I do. But that's also how I roll. I try to use what I have on hand. If that's wrong, I may need an intervention. Send Dr. Drew, please. He's got that brainy-but-hot thing going on.

This weekend, I did get a little sewing time in, and I cut out and pieced this little ditty. Emphasis on little. It's like crib quilt size. What part about 45 x 55 did I not understand? I guess when you're in love, you do silly things, like pretend not to care about size.


Oh, well, I'm still hearting this fabric in a major way. And did you notice? Birds! In cages! So wrong, but yet so right. I used to have birds. I taught Penny the parakeet to wolf whistle. Hey, when you're in your forties, you miss that stuff, so you resort to other means to fulfill your needs. She could also cluck like a chicken, say "Bird" (sort of), and laugh...my laugh...which was a bit unsettling.

This will have a binding out of the wine-colored tile mosaic print, and the backing will be...well, I don't know. I made a mistake and ordered the wrong amount of what was supposed to be the backing. See? All reason flies out the window when you're under Cupid's influence.

Next up: This wall hanging. Free pattern!