Lemon Tree Tales

Happy Thanksgivikkah

Wishing everyone a fabulous Thanksgiving and Thanksgivikkah! I'm grateful for so many good things in my life and am happy to be spending this holiday with my three favorite people ... my husband Steve and my two little furry bundles of terror, Fearghus and Fiona. Looking forward to putting our wellies on and walking the dogs in the countryside after an early dinner and naps. Enjoy the day my friends!

Wee Bunny for a wee baby

The other week Steve turned to me and asked if I could sew up a red/white bunny like the one I made for him years ago here. I asked him if his bunny was lonely. He laughed and said no that our racer friend and his wife were having their first baby. Ah! We picked red and white because that's the color of his race car and his number is '11'. Once again I used the free pattern by Wee Wonderfuls for her lovely bunny. It sews up quickly allowing time to be spent on the details like an embroidered face.

In SCCA racing a first year racer has to put the letter 'N' after his number so that others are aware of his status on the racetrack. That's why this little bunny also has one since this is a brand new racer-to-be. The front is some plush polka dot minkee. That fabric is so soft and fun to touch. Congratulations to the new baby's parents!

Fabrics for Fractured Quilt

Now that my nephew's quilt is done (well, the binding needs to be finished but I have the fabric so for argument's sake we'll check it off the list) I need another project to longarm. I don't know if you've seen the weather reports lately but it's been cold here in WY. The other day it was 8 degrees during the day. Yes, you read that correctly, eight. And let me tell you that in this case, eight is NOT enough! We don't have enough blankets in the house and we don't have a quilt to snuggle under. (I know, horrible of a quilter not to keep her household warm.) So the next two quilts will be for our bedroom. When we moved here we got one of those king-sized beds that's made from two twins that can change position. Comfy but one king bed covering isn't practical. Two twin quitls it is then. But I don't want them to be matchy-watchy.

That's where Kathy Doughty's lovely book Making Quilts comes into play. She has the Fractured and Red Centre quilt patterns that are made from the same wonky block unit. It'll be lots of fun!

I have lots of great turquoise and green fabrics in my stash that would look fantastic in a quilt. I took my Pink Chalk Fabrics gift certificate and ordered some darker blue fabrics to use as the contrast.

Of course on the monitor these all looked close to navy with the exception of the solid. Funny how it turns out that the Kaffe Fassett fabric is more teal and that the Moda Grunge fabric is more of a charcoal. They'll still look great and will add more depth. 

 

I may get a few darker navy fabrics to make more contrast with some of the turquoise fabrics. I'll only use a bit of the magentas and a shot of that brilliant chartreuse fabric in the upper center. It'll probably be a bit more color than what Steve would like but perhaps after I'll make a blue only bed runner to balance out some of the more feminine colors.

 

And just for fun I also ordered these three colors of Moda Grunge by Grey ... you never know when a good textured solid will come in handy. Sometimes I prefer textured solids to a plain solid. It seems to add that little bit of depth to a quilt. What about you? Do you use solids, textured solids, or mainly prints in your quilts?

Take 5 Quilt Done

Yesterday I took my Take 5 quilt top and backing to Jukebox Quilts for another session with the hand-guided Gammill longarm machine. It was a busy day ... all the machines were working! One lady had two of the Gammill Statlers (computerized machines) going with at least four quilts during the entire time I was there. And a young couple with a very sweet 3 month old baby (who hardly cried all day long!) were there quilting a king-sized lone star quilt on the 14' table. The husband and wife both took turns at the computer. Yep, I was the only one who was hand-guiding yesterday. It was on a Statler machine as well but we unhooked the belts so that I could drive it by hand.

 

 

 

Here's a quick shot I took after finishing a row of the popcorn pantograph. If you're not familiar with pantographs you can see that I guide the machine with a laser light pointer that "traces" the design on the paper pattern from the back of the table. The machine head stitches the design in the front. Sadly I'm not quite tall enough to see too much over the rolled up quilt. So I often would stop the machine (needle down) and walk to the front to check on things like tension and to make sure that it was stitching. Of course the first time I checked it turned out that I had a thread break and hadn't stitched out the last five inches. Oops!

 

 

Here's a closer look at the popcorn pantograph at the back of the machine. I really like how it brings texture to the quilt with all the thick and thin sections.

 

 

Here's the quilt after it's off the machine but before trimming it. As you can see this time I was almost spot on with getting the quilt squared. That is until I got to the bottom right corner where it was off by about 3/4". At first I couldn't figure out where it went wrong. I had measured the quilt top, bottom and center to get an average before cutting the borders and sewing them on. Finally it dawned on me that I had incorrectly thought that the quilt center itself was square. Ah-ha! So next time I'll make sure that's square by measuring the diagonals and then go on to the measurements for the borders. Still, not too bad, no? That little green square is my practice scrap to check the tension before quilting.

 

 

Closer look at the 3/4" off section. Now that I'm looking at the photograph I can really see how it's just that little bottom section of the big brown square that's off. Funny how that only shows up later.

 

 

After the quilt is all trimmed, ready for binding. This time I basted it within 1/8" from the edge so that i don't have to remove the basting stitches.

 

 

And finally here's the back! There's a method to my madness for all the piecing. The five blocks are from top to bottom: Double hourglass, Harry's Star or Henry of the West, Attic windows, Night and day, and Indian hatchets. They spell out the name of my nephew D, the recipient of this quilt. Turns out that I was a naughty auntie and never made him a baby quilt. A year ago he learned about quilts at school and wanted to know why his baby brother had one and not him. Bad, bad Tami! So when I needed to make another quilt to get some longarm rental time this was the perfect time to make him one. Now all that piecing in the back did mean that I had to take it a bit slower in those sections while quilting. I could hear the difference in the machine's sound. The needle went thunk, thunk, thunk. No needle breaks and only a couple thread breaks so all was good. I'm wondering if next time I should spray starch the backing with Mary Ellen's Best Press so that the seam allowances stay down better while I'm loading the quilt on the frame? Any suggestions? I really like the look of pieced backs and don't think that I'll stay away from them so I really need to learn all the tips and tricks on working with them.

 

 

This was the second time quilting with the Popcorn pantograph by Willow Leaf and it turned out much, much better than the first time. I really made an effort to keep the shapes more smooth so there's fewer wobbles in the stitching. Yay! I bet if I did it a third time that it'd really get smoother. But I think that next time I want to play with the computer on the Gammill Statler. They have the brand new touch screen system in the shop and it looks like so much fun. Now I just have to piece the next quilt. There's a plan, just have to wait for the fabric order from Pink Chalk Fabrics to arrive before I can get stitching. So what do you have lined up in the never-ending to-do queue?

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Take 5 Quilt Top

Thanks for the votes!

Thank you to all who voted for my Aurora Borealis quilt in the home machine quilted category of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival ... I won a $50 gift certificate to Kathy Mack's Pink Chalk Fabrics. Yay! It was a fun festival and so full of talented quilters. I was glad to see that one of my picks for Viewer's Choice made the cut. It's amazing to me how many different styles of quilters are out there. It just proves that this is an artform that's open to all. If you haven't had an opportunity to go and see the quilts, check it out. You'll be glued to the computer for hours, I guarantee it! Now I have to figure out what I want to get at Kathy's store ... more fabrics or patterns? What fun.  :-)

Aurora Borealis, original quilt by Tami Levin, photographed by Marilyn/Spiced Coffee (quilt owner)

Take 5 Quilt Top

After I finished the last charity quilt I needed to get another quilt top ready to longarm quilt at Jukebox Quilts. As it happens I "owe" a quilt to a family member but I had no idea of what design that would be quick and easy. When I went to the LQS the owner was helping another customer pick out fabrics for a Take 5 pattern by The Teacher's Pet. It sounded like a good pattern to try out. Boy am I glad that I did because it was quick and easy and looks like it'll be just right for a guy.

Pieces for the five blocks all cut and stacked.

 

Two of the blocks all sewn and ready to lay out the design.

 

The blocks in the original layout. The next step was to twist and turn the blocks around to achieve a bit of randomness.

 

The top all sewn with two borders. Originally I wanted to use brown minkee but listened to the advice of my longarm quilting friends who said that would be a nightmare. Instead I found this beautiful brown fabric from Lecien. I'll use the minkee for a matching decorative pillow. I'm in the middle of piecing the backing because I still love pieced backs. In two weeks I'll take this to Jukebox Quilts and quilt it on the longarm. Not sure which pantograph I'll choose so I'll wait until I'm there to pick one out.

Doll Prototypes

Designing your own doll pattern isn't quick and easy. So far I've made three sets of complete patterns and two prototypes. That first pattern was so off that I didn't even stuff it. I'm getting much closer. The third prototype (on the right in the picture) needs a bit more thickness in her ankle and a change in her head. I liked the 2nd one better but still want it 3-D in the back. I've made a few changes to the pattern and will sew it up to see how it fares. The leg change is so minor that I won't sew another prototype leg.

The legs and arms definitely look better when the upper sections aren't stuffed. Now I just need to decide on whether to add a bead to that joint area or stitch it closed or knot it closed. I'm leaning towards a knot but am not sure how much extra fabric that will take. It may end up cleaner with some type of a stitch line. Who knows? It's getting closer though ... I can't wait to get to the part that is the most fun ... costuming and face painting. What are you working on?

Caution Dogs at Play

Almost every day my two cairn terriers, Fearghus and Fiona, will play fight and run around the living room like crazy dogs. It sounds horrible and when you see their big white and sharp teeth it looks scary, but all they're doing is having fun, lots of it! I took a quick video of them in the act.

 

 

Aren't they silly dogs? We love them so much. And yes, our living room is dog-proofed with sheets on the recliners and dog crates and the ex-pen. They spend most of their time there except when it's bedtime. Then Fiona goes to her crate and Fearghus tries very hard to get to sleep on the bed. The little stinker is so cute that quite a bit of the time he does.

Designing an Original Cloth Doll

One of my to-do items on my list is to make two cloth dolls for my friend Rachel's two granddaughters. I made them dolls years ago here and now they've requested two new ones. Since they're older now I thought that they should have dolls that are a bit more grown as well. Sadly I didn't really have a good pattern. How hard is it to make my own? Hmm, well I'm taking a stab at it.

First thing was to sketch out what the doll should look like:

 

Next the first pattern was drawn and cut and sewn. Oops, without stuffing it I can tell that the pieces are just too small:

 

Second try at pattern drafting and then stuffing the sewn parts:

The second prototype was much better. I'm going to lengthen the legs, add a sole to the foot, fix the hand a bit, make the back of the head 3-D and finally add a flap to the back of the torso so that she'll sit better.

I can't wait to try out the third set of corrections so that I can get to the fun part of dressing the dolls. The deadline is Hanukkah which falls on Thanksgiving this year. Not much time left so I'd best get cracking. What are you working on this week?

New Living Room Pillow

In October I participated in the FLiRTS (Fab Little Random Treasures) swap on flickr and sent off that Halloween 241 tote and witches hat that I shared with you earlier. Well you can't believe the absolutely gorgeous pillow that uberstitch made for my living room chair. It perfectly matches the crochet afghan that I made for Steve the other year. It adds much needed color in an otherwise beige room.

The only problem is that we let our two cairn terriers, Fearghus and Fiona jump on the chairs. (Life's too short not to enjoy dogs on our laps.) I'm concerned that they'll end up making a mess of the pillow so I'm letting it be a company only pillow. ;-) 

I love it! Thank you Pam from uberstitch!