Manx Log Cabin Quilt Block by Machine: A New Project

I've been wanting to work on a Manx Log Cabin block and I finally worked up the "test" or sample block. Sample blocks are always useful because 

1. It lets me know if I can stand to work on whatever technique is at hand. 
2. It also give me a sample block to look at while I'm working through the rest of the blocks.

 

 

• For this particular block, there was something about the center that doesn't work.  I chose blue in contrast to the red and cream logs.  But the first log is a dark red and it fights with the blue log of the same shape and size and depth of color.  I should have picked one of the pinkier colors for that spot. Lesson learned! 

 Turning a Hand-Sewn Manx Quilt Block into Machine-Sewn by Timothy Totten.

The Manx quilt block was developed by Celtic people living on the Isle of Man, where they reused every scrap of fabric that they could.   They would use the span of their hands, and the length of their thumb to measure fabric for these blocks--so every quilt was unique to the maker.    Although I love the look of these blocks, I'm not so keen on hand-sewing, so I was happy to see this version for doing it by machine and using 2-1/2 strips from jelly rolls.

The logs are sewn and flipped / folded in such a way as to leave a little tuck (for lack of a better word).  I love the 3D nature of this technique!  You could fiddle with and play with the pockets as you are falling asleep ...

 

Here is the foundation fabric.  You have to press some guidelines into it to keep all the logs straight.  

I have already placed the center block, aligned with the diaganals, ready for the logs.  

Here are the jelly rolls I'm using.  The raspberry strips are from Nanna's Creations on Etsy and the cream is a light batik jelly roll.  I'm going to have to look for something to use for the backing blocks.  For this one, I just used a square cut from an old sheet -- which I guess is in keeping with traditional Manx quilts to reuse whatever they had.  You don't have to be precise about cutting the logs perfectly with this method either, but I wanted to keep it simple by using the 2-1/2 inch width jelly rolls.

There is no batting in these, so they are considered "light" summer quilts. With the folds, they can get kind of heavy.  We'll see if I get going on this sooner than later ...  I'll have to decide if I want to chain piece a project like this or do 1 block at a time.  Yet to be decided!

I also bought jelly rolls to do a purple and gray set as well.  If everything goes well, I may be on a Manx Log Cabin (Jelly) Roll for a while ... 

 

Hues & Cues: A Game about Colors

 

At Quilt Class this week, we spent the first hour playing a game called Hues & Cues.  

It starts with a game board where colors are mapped up on a grid.  There's a deck of cards where one player picks a color and attempts to describe it to the other players enough so that they can locate it on the board.  They can use 1 word on the first round, and 2 words on the 2nd round, but you can't use the most basic color words to describe it (ie red-green-yellow-blue, etc.)   Even if you say grape or tomato, these fruits and veg come in a variety of colors, so even those specifics made it difficult to pin down.

It was fascinating and challenging!  Yes -- Harder than you might think it would be!

I have new appreciation for going to a quilt shop and asking for any given color, looking for the match in the vision of my mind, but not finding it on the shelf amid a sea of colors in that family--and at a loss to adequately describe it well enough to find it.  I know it when I see it, though!

 

The game board reminded me of dying the color charts in the Candied Fabrics Dye Class years ago.   

These are the Earth & Sky Triads.

We dyed all those colors from 3 basic primary colors -- the colors in the corners.  

We never actually named the resulting colors, but there's a tiny tag in the corner of each square with the color recipe indicating how much blue - yellow - red make any given color on the chart, making them easy to recreate at any time the need arises.  Just look at all those lovely purples in the Sky Triad!

There were days this chart was hanging up in my sewing studio, on the design wall.  Some days, I just liked to sit quietly and BE by my colors.  Soak up my colors  ;-)  My Happy Place 

Some dyers actually bother to name  all the colors they develop.  That's a huge challenge -- and then getting other people to agree that those colors are accurately named!

A Little Bling in Late Winter

I bought this black fleece jacket recently and decided it needed a little sprucing up, so I added this teal ribbon on the collar.   My friend J picked up the ribbon n Saudi Arabia a few years ago.  It does the trick! 

 

Quilt Jam #1: Thank You, Girl - Thread Sketching For the Love of a Good Dog

I've been wanting to get back to doing regular journal quilts, to test techniques and practice my art.  I've been seeing these line drawings on Pinterest -- I think they might be for tattoos?  And I thought they'd be good for thread sketching, too.

 

This one could be entered into the Quilt Jam Challenge for the Fly In Quilt Show later this summer.   This challenge is to make a quilt based on a song.  The song is John Hiatt's "Thank You Girl."  He wrote it for a girlfiend / wife, or maybe a car (?), but I always pictured it being about a K-9 friend instead.  ;-)   I've always loved this song, and I always thought it was about a dog -- Probably because I had my own wonderful Keba-Girl at the time I discovered John Hiatt, and yes, we were "rolling in clover" then!  

This could also be #4 of the Stolen Moments Series depicting John Hiatt songs.  

Here's a bit of the lyric:

Thank You, Girl by John Hiatt

You're a little on the thin side, but that's all right 
You stood by my me baby when I didn't think I'd ever see daylight ...
Now we're rolling in clover ...
We didn't see this in no tea leaves ...
My fate was sealed before I met you, Darlin'
Still you took the little love I saved
I wanna thank you, Girl

 John Hiatt's "Thank You Girl."

Some notes on the making of this quitlie:

I traced the line drawing to tracing paper, and then sewed through it.  

The words were trickier -- I had to bone up on that again.  I wound up doing some thread calligraphy / embroidery for the words.   Could use a little more practice, but it worked in the end.

I used some leftover Dream wool batting, because it puffs up so nice even without washing it.  

 

For this little quiltie, I decided to use a facing instead of a binding.  So here is a video from APQS about how to do that:

 Late edit: Turns out this little quiltie isn't big enough to qualify for the Fly In Quilt Challenge.  It needs to be 16 x 36 in.  It was still a good exercise, and I will definitely hang it up in my house!

Hunter Star: Quilting Classes at the Senior Center

Hunter's Star

Yes, I already know how to quilt, but there is always more to learn!  And this is a group of more advanced sewers.  I did order Quilter's Academy Book #4 by Harriet Hargrave, which is the text we're using in the class.

This week, I was sewing together the Morningstar as a trial run for the Lonestar.  It took me most of the morning to sew all the pieces together.  We used the Lemoyen Star method which uses a painless way to do Y-seams.  You work from the outside into the middle of the star to finish it -- which seams a little counter intuitive.  It worked, and subsequent stars should go faster.

The points are all nice and sharp--and they match.  Hurray! 

Near the end of the class, Liz showed us the electric AccuCut tool that the Senior Center has, and helped us cut out fabric for a Hunter's Star block.  She wanted us to experience a much easier star than the lone stars we'd been working on this month.

She ran the fabric through the machine over the die cut, and we had our accurate and fully cut fabric pieces in about 3 seconds!  It was remarkably fast!  And the electric version is so much easier than the the manual cranking it through by hand.  

 

Left block is the correct way to sew the quarters of the Hunters Star.  

The right side is the WRONG way to put them together.  

When I got home, I sewed the pieces together ...  If there is a way to do it WRONG, I will do it wrong until I have a model to follow.  It should not have taken all afternoon, but it did!  By the forth quarter, I finally had it figured out!  Put it down to learning something new ...

Lone Star Lessons at the Senior Center

I retired from my job of the last 27 years this past February with no regrets!  With my new-found time, I am checking out the offerings at the local Senior Center.  Lo and behold, they offer quilt classes (Only $10 for 4 classes this month!), run by one of my fellow Quilt Guild members.  The project this month focuses on Lone Star blocks as laid out in the Quilter's Academy Book #4 by Harriet Hargrave.  Even though I've already done a giant queen-size lone star quilt, there is always something new to be learned -- and projects, and fellowship.  

Here's the other layout.
 

This is what I did on Week 1.   It doesn't seem like much, but the directions were a little wonky, and we spent a fair amount of time re-interpreting them to get the desired result.

This is what it should have directed us to do: Make the 45-degree cuts in the same direction.

Once these stars are complete, I think I might add them to a canvas tote bag ...  Or a jean jacket?   

Stay tuned ...