a maiden hair fern: March 2021

Saturday, March 20, 2021

p-40 warhawk stencil quilt

P-40 aircraft flying in perfect formation, against a brilliant blue sky.

Create a disappearing 9 patch quilt top.

Start by cutting 270 - 5 inch squares from 8 or 9 fabrics,

roughly the same shade of blue (batiks are a nice option)

Sew into 30 - 9 patch blocks.

Cut in half in each direction to create

120 - Disappearing 9 patch blocks.

Place blocks onto a design board, turning them in different directions,

creating a random design.

8 rows across

10 rows down.

Sew together.

The Stack and sew method words great for this step.

Determine and measure the design that you want to show through from the back.

Make a mini-quilt top with aprox. 2 inch finished blocks of 1/2 square triangles .

The mini-quilt should measure 1 inch larger on all sides

than the pattern you have just drawn onto your thin quilting paper.

Pick fabrics with the colors of the design that will show through from the bottom

A 1/2 square triangle pattern gives a nice contrast to the Disappearing 9 patch.

The red squares sewn into the white mini-quilt tops capture the red tips of the aircraft.

Gage about where you want your design go show through from the back of the quilt top.

Pin the white mini-quilts to the back of the blue quilt top with both quilt tops facing up.

Lay a piece of thin paper, I like to use Quilting Paper by Golden Threads, over the plane design

and trace the outline of the aircraft onto the paper.

Place the plane pattern on top of the blue quilt top, directly above the white quilt top that you have pinned to the back.

Look from the top for the pins that you have used to secure the mini-quilt to the back to determine where to place your paper pattern.

Pin pattern down

Sew on the line of the aircraft on the pattern WITH A SMALL STITCH.

Using small sharp scissors,

cut along the inside of the line you have just sewn,

a little more than 1/8 of an inch, but not as much as 1/4 of an inch.

Clip every 1/4 of an inch to create a fraying process.

Once all your designs are showing through the blue quilt top from under side,

you are ready to sandwich the quilt top.

Quilt large humps to create an illusion of clouds.

stats

Fabrics are mostly batiks

stencil quilt (named by me, it may be named something else by others :)

batting is bamboo

measures 60 x 75, washed

Use Chenille to create propellors and to customize your quilt.

Mark onto your quilt where you want to put the chenille. Cut pieces long enough to fit. Sew chenille WITH A VERY SMALL STITCH onto your markings. This will keep it from coming loose.

After a good washing, it gets all fuzzy like.

Embellish further to create interest.

When your Nana is making you a P-40 quilt and your Daddy is a WW2 buff that knows all the details (or at least he thinks he does ;) .... she gets very detailed instructions.

... And you get a REALLY cool quilt with precise details.

Loved :)

Friday, March 19, 2021

Washington D.C. quilt w/ scrap crumb top

Scraps here, scraps there, scraps everywhere. They seem to grow like weeds! The more you use them, the more you seem to have!!

I went on a scrap quilt spree last year. I've always wanted to try making a scrap crumb quilt, so when I saw it come up as a "come along" by Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts, I decided to join in.

Here is the link is the link to the post about my scrap crumb experience, which I had a lot of fun with. It's pretty funny to watch a person's face as they look at a scrap vortex quilt and try to figure out a pattern, or where the blocks are, if they don't know how to make one.

On the back, I wanted to try something I hadn't quilted before. A map. A map of Washington D. C.

I ordered several maps online, and narrowed down the area I wanted to quilt.

I wasn't sure how to tackle this beast, but I knew it started with blowing up this map. I decided on a finished size and set off to find a printer that could help me.

After several tries, I found a printer that could think outside the box. He came up with printing the map on 20 sheets of paper, measuring 12x18 inches. I found some great colors of felt for rivers and parks, and different colored threads for the different roads, and labeling landmarks.

I laid the map out and taped it together in rows.

I used Golden Threads Quilting Paper to transfer the information that I wanted to quilt onto the fabric. I started with the Potomac River, then the major freeways, then smaller roads, and finally landmarks.

There was a lot of down time, as it took me a while to figure out how to create what I saw in my head.

This quilt and map of Washington D.C. represents a history of 2 people coming together. A baby was conceived and placed for adoption. A lovely family adopted this baby and this child grew up in the suburbs north of Washington D.C. Meanwhile, the birth mother took a job in Washington and lived west of the city. This quilt is a history of where those 2 people lived their lives.

It includes places of residence, burial places, airports . . .

places of worship, and places of education . . .

It includes places of birth, work places and the gloriousness that our nation's capital has to share.

This quilt was presented to the birthmother after over 50 years of not knowing what happened to her child.

Thursday, March 18, 2021

ombre gem Quilt w/ minky back

This is what the school bus stop looks like when you live in a small town.

I love to see signs of children in the neighborhood.

I joined this ombre gem quilt along when it went around the first time several years ago. It was pretty tedious, shinier things took over, and the ombre gem quilt went in the closet.

The second time the quilt along went around, I got it back out and finished it.

It went to an elderly uncle back east, so I put minky on to the back. I also wanted a thin layer of batting in it (bamboo).

I trimmed the quilt, stuck the batting onto the back of the top with 505 adhesive, and sewed the minky to the front, right sides together, leaving a 10 inch opening. Then I trimmed the corners, turned it inside out, reached in through the opening, and sprayed more 505 where I could, then sewed the opening shut.