Supernova Quilt-Along: Quilting and Finishing

Today's the day: Time to finish your quilt!

Unfortunately, we've now reached the part of the quilt-along in which I feel least qualified to be giving out advice. Because the actual quilting? Is so not my specialty. I just don't like it all that much. The more quilting I do, the more tolerable it gets, but I'm still not at the point where I'm like, "Oh, yay, I get to spend an afternoon wrestling this quilt into the machine to be stitched!" Also, I have yet to master free-motion quilting. I'm all about the straight lines, but that's more out of necessity than preference!

However. It's my quilt-along, so I guess I have to say something here, right? Just be advised that at this point in the QAL, it's entirely possible I have no idea what I'm talking about, and proceed with caution. : )

I've had a hard time deciding how to quilt this, and I still am not 100% decided. After all, a carefully-chosen quilting style could take this design in a whole different direction. That's especially true of straight-line quilting. So I pulled out my computer and doctored up a photo of my quilt top in order to test-drive a few patterns. Let's take a look at some options, shall we?

Basic echo quilting. Personally, I don't care for stitch-in-the-ditch. I don't particularly like how it looks, and I find it very difficult to do well. It requires way too much concentration for me, and the needle always wants to pop out of the ditch somewhere. But echo quilting (quilting 1/4" or more away from the seams) is a perfect alternative to stitch-in-the-ditch. And while this style of quilting is quite basic, I really love it. It adds to the twinkly, starry feeling of the Supernova design.

Diagonal lines straight across. This is a very modern look, with much tighter quilting. But it still lets the design of the piecing shine through. If you want to avoid stich-in-the-ditch on this design, you'll need to do some advance planning to figure out exactly where to put your lines, and how far apart to quilt them.

Diagonal lines converging. I love the quilting on this pillow by KarrieLyne of Freckled Whimsy. That pillow was my inspiration here. I think this style of quilting works very well with the Supernova piecing, and I'm strongly leaning toward this one for my own quilt.

Echo quilting plus. This design basically attempts to fill in all the negative space with quilting. This strikes me as the "glutton for punishment" option, because turning the quilt that many times would probably drive me to drink (more than I already do). But I do like how this looks, so I thought I'd throw it out there, in case somebody is ambitious enough to take it on.

Of course, there's always free-motion. You can't go wrong with a good stipple! Elizabeth and Katie have already finished off their Supernovas that way. Elizabeth had a great post the other day outlining her tips for free-motion stippling, so check it out if you're new to FMQ.

And finally, check this one out! This is by Marlene of KISSed Quilts. Incredible! It does such fascinating things to the Supernova design! This quilting is obviously way beyond my abilities, but if you've got mad skills like Marlene, go for it!

So without further ado, this is where you can link up your finished quilts. I can't wait to see every single one of them! You can link up a blog post or a Flickr photo of your completed quilt. Everyone who links up a completed quilt by noon Central time on May 12 will be entered into my drawing for a FQ bundle of Castle Peeps. (A completed quilt, in my book, means one that is ready to use—so it must be quilted and bound.) However, I will leave the linky open permanently, even after May 12, so you can link up a completed quilt any time, even if it's months (years?) from now. I hope people will continue to participate in the quilt-along even after it is technically done!

I can't wait to see how you all choose to quilt your Supernovas. And I want to thank all of you for quilting along with me! This has been not only enjoyable for me, but it's such a rush seeing my design completed in so many different and interesting ways. In a quilt-along, everybody seems to bring something different to the table, and that's just so much fun. I feel like I know a little more about each of you, thanks to your Supernovas. How wonderful.

Edited to add: Looking for an alternative way to baste your quilt? Becky's got a great save-your-knees approach to basting—check it out!

A Confession

I have something to say. I'm a little afraid to say it, but in the spirit of Rachel's post, I'm just gonna put it out there.

I don't think the quilting blog world is that negative.

There, I said it. You can all gasp in horror.

I don't get it, you guys. With only a few teeny exceptions, I have always found the quilting blog world to be very inclusive and positive and supportive. It is certainly vastly more positive than any other online community I've ever experienced. I have never seen anything resembling a clique or an "in-crowd."

No, I don't always receive replies to comments I leave on other blogs. But I assume that's because the blogger is busy, not because she didn't appreciate my comment. And yes, I have been rejected for a swap in the past. But I assumed that was due to practical limits on participation, not a personal rejection of my work.

The vast majority of negative posts and comments I've seen around blogland recently have been about the negativity. So you know how we can stop it? By stopping.

And that's all I have to say about it. Please know that I appreciate every single one of you, regardless of what you quilt, how you quilt it, where, or why.

WIP Wednesday #24

Oh, Wednesday. Why must you sneak up on me so quickly every week?

New projects:

Bee blocksI finished up my {Sew} Beautiful and String Me Along blocks this week, and now working on these bright, fun string blocks for Do. Good Stitches.

Ongoing projects:

Modern Meadow baby quiltHand-stitching the binding on as we speak. So I should have a finished quilt for you by next week. This will be my 4th finish of the year, which means I'm more or less still on track for 12 finished quilts in 2011.

Supernova Quilt-Along
All basted, and I'm about to start the quilting. It's so exciting to be finishing this up! And I have been blown away by the finished tops and quilts showing up in the Flickr group! Beautiful work, ladies!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Hope Valley (the original Supernova)

On hold ... yeah, yeah.
Blockapalooza
Central Park jelly roll quilt
Figgy Pudding quilt
Wonky Log Cabin

This week's stats:
New projects - 1 (bee blocks)
Completed projects - 1 (Mosaic Squares shower curtain)
Currently in progress - 10 (same as last week)

You're up! Let's see what you've got going this week. Remember to link back to my blog in your post, and please comment on the other links. Happy sewing!

Herringbone Block Tutorial

I was so thrilled to participate in the Designer Challenge in the new issue of Fat Quarterly!

The Designer Challenge asks a handful of bloggers to create a block using specific design elements and/or fabric requirements. I'm always amazed at the different interpretations people come up with. This issue's challenge was to create a block using charm squares.

This herringbone block was what I came up with. It uses charm squares and an easy piecing method to create a unique spin on zig zags or string blocks. A complete tutorial for making the block can be found in Issue 5.

Fat Quarterly is hands-down my favorite quilting publication—I've been a subscriber since day one. So how fun for my block to be in it this month, alongside all the other fabulous blocks. Issue 5 is all about pre-cuts, and it's full of great patterns, so if you haven't checked it out yet, please do!

Mosaic Squares Shower Curtain

I finished this up last night—a fresh, fun shower curtain for our guest bathroom.

I basically duplicated this beautiful curtain, made by Rachel of Stitched in Color. This one was all her idea, so thank you, Rachel! I love how the teeny patchwork squares almost look like glass tile. I decided to make mine in a softer color palette, in keeping with the color on the walls.

The strip sets from last week's WIP Wednesday post became these teeny random patchwork squares that finish at 1" by 1". You can find out more about how to make it in Rachel's post. The biggest change I made to Rachel's instructions was, instead of sewing the shower curtain, I bought a basic white shower curtain from Target, cut a 6.5" strip out of it, and set the squares right into it. Easy peasy. No scary buttonholes required. : )

I am rapidly becoming a convert to open-pressed seams. But for this project, I was all about side-pressing. I alternate the directions of my seam allowances (as shown above), so that they can nest up against each other as I'm piecing. Lines them up like a dream, with minimal effort—it's hard to give that up! I love the nice flat look of open-pressed seams, and they definitely seem to be the way to go with bias seams, but for a project like this, I couldn't resist going back to side-pressing.

And I was hoping this project would cure me of my desire to make a postage stamp quilt. Strangely enough, now that it's done, I want to make a postage stamp quilt even more. What is wrong with me??

(Edited to add: Per Angela's request, the paint is Valspar from Lowe's, and the color is "Silver Sea.")

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday.

Supernova Quilt-Along: Making the Back

Welcome back to the Supernova Quilt-Along! By now I'm sure every last one of you has a completed quilt top, right? : ) Of course you do! Okay then, today we'll be piecing the back.

I have a love/hate relationship with making backs. Love: The design possibilities, and the fact that you can make a quilt back in an evening. After spending so much time on a quilt top, you gotta love the instant gratification of the back. Hate: Dealing with gargantuan pieces of fabric. I tend to sew large cuts of fabric like a drunken sailor. That often includes the cursing.

But like it or not, making the back is a necessary part of creating a quilt. Even if you farm out your quilting to a professional, you will almost always need to provide the back yourself. So it helps to consider the back an opportunity to add to your design, rather than just another chore.

I usually have two goals when it comes to making a quilt back: 1) Use up as many scraps, excess blocks, and existing stash fabrics as I can. 2) Create a design on the back that echoes or compliments the design on the front. I also consider the back a chance to be a little more improvisational and free-flowing than I was on the front. Let's face it, there's just less pressure back there. If you end up hating it, you can always just fold the quilt with the front facing out. Problem solved!

So when it came time to piece the back for my Supernova, I started with some excess sub-units that I had on hand. I changed my mind about using these on the front, so now they were just hanging out on my design wall, lined up in a row, waiting to be useful. And do you see what I see? Yes! Zig zags!

I decided to extend the zig zag across the entire back of the quilt. To do that, I needed 9 sub-units. Since I already had four, I started by piecing the remaining five and sewing them all together, side by side, into one long row, as shown above.

Next, to complete the zig zag points, you'll need some flying geese units.

Remember how we made the "half-goose units" during the first piecing step? You'll make your flying geese units in the same way, except that when the half-goose unit is done, just add another square to the other side, as shown above.

Trim and press, and you should end up with something that looks like this.

Make 1 flying geese unit for each point of the zig zag. If you use 9 sub-units, like I did, you'll need a total of 8 flying geese units, plus one half-square triangle on each end. So here are mine, all sewn and added to the design wall, in the appropriate spots to complete the zig zag.

To complete the zig zag, cut some 3" by 10.5" rectangles from your background fabric. Sew the flying geese units alternating with the rectangles, into one long strip, as shown above. Sew that row onto the zig zag row. Now, I won't lie to you: Matching up bias seams all the way across on such a long row is not an easy task. Start by lining up the seams in the middle of the rows, pin, and work your way out toward the sides. My seams are far from perfect in a number of spots. But I was so enamored with how this giant zig-zag looks that I didn't even care. Repeat with the bottom zig zag points.

Once I had the focal point of my back—the jumbo zig zag—done, I was ready to finish off the back. To do that, I laid out the front of the quilt face down on the floor. Then I just started spreading fabric over it to create the back. Doing it this way means you'll get the size of the back right, and you can keep an eye on placement of various design elements in relation to the front. I started by laying down my zig zag, placing it off-center toward the bottom of the quilt. Then I added some strips from my Supernova scrap pile, as well as some Metro Living yardage from my stash. (Love, love, love Metro Living.) I then filled in the holes with my background fabric, Kona Coal.

Sewed it all together, and ta da, one completed quilt back! (Sorry for the truly awful photo.)

If you don't want to tackle the zig zag, there are plenty of other design options for your back. Katie, who has already completed the quilt-along(!), did a great strip-pieced back (more details here). This is a perfect use for any leftover 3" strips you might have.

And if you did the bonus HSTs while you were piecing your sub-units, that's another design possibility. There are so many cool ways you can lay out HSTs—the possibilities are endless.

Or you could get really ambitious like Elizabeth, and make another whole quilt top for the back. Look—so awesome! Elizabeth and Katie, over-achieve much? : )

Quilt backs are a place where almost anything goes, and where you don't have to do much planning. Just go for it! That freedom makes for a fun design process, no matter how you feel about giant pieces of fabric. I hope these suggestions have given you a jumping off point for your own unique pieced back. Can't wait to see all of your backsides in the Flickr group!

Next week, we'll have our final post in the series: Quilting and finishing. I'll have some suggestions for different ways you can quilt your Supernova. That post will also be the site of our exciting final link-up! This is where you can show off your completed quilt. (Remember, completed quilts only—that means quilted, bound, the whole shebang). The linky will be open until May 12, and everyone who links up a completed quilt by then will be eligible to win the Castle Peeps FQ pack. Good times! See you then.

WIP Wednesday #23

Gettin' WIPpy with it ...

New projects:
These strip sets are hoping to become teeny pieced squares. This little project is coming together quickly, so you should be seeing more of this one very soon.

Ongoing projects:

Supernova Quilt-Along
Piecing the back as we speak! Can't wait to show it off!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Hope Valley (the original Supernova)

Completed quilts awaiting binding:
Modern Meadow

On hold ... yeah, yeah.
Blockapalooza
Central Park jelly roll quilt
Figgy Pudding quilt
Wonky Log Cabin

This week's stats:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 10 (up one from last week)

Oh, one more thing—I just have to be a proud mommy for a minute and show off this "quilt" that my daughter made! Future fabric designer right here, amiright? : ) I didn't suggest that she do this or give her any direction—this was all her. I love how some of her "prints" are even cut off at the edges of the "blocks," just like they would be with actual cut pieces of fabric. How I love this kid!

Okay, let's see 'em! Link up any post featuring a work in progress. Don't forget to link back to my blog and please comment on some of the other links.

I'm On Trunk Show Tuesday!

Becky at Patchwork Posse is featuring little old me in her Trunk Show Tuesday today! So fun! Head over there to check out Becky's blog. She is a very talented quilter and sewer, and her embroidery is lovely.

Thank you, Becky, for letting me show off my work!

Swap Happiness

Make Mine Modern swap, received:
As soon as I saw the name on the return address of the box my mailman dropped on my porch, I knew exactly what was inside and I did a little happy dance! I got all of these incredible items from Kaelin of The Plaid Scottie:

She made this pretty little mini in colors that were inspired by my sun pillow for Fat Quarterly. There's lots of Central Park in there, which is one of my fave lines! I love it!

I put it up in my sewing room right away, and as you can see, it's already getting along famously with my DQS quilt from Jess. : ) BTW, thanks to those of you who suggested hanging mini-quilts with good old straight pins. That's exactly what I did. I have a feeling I'll be adding to my wall collection over time, and that will require frequently moving around the existing quilts. So I needed something easy and simple that wouldn't damage the wall.

Kaelin also sent along a coffee sleeve and this incredible bag. She mentioned that she didn't know if I like linen—are you kidding me? How could I not love these? It's funny, I've never used linen in any of my projects, but I'm always in love with it when I see it used by other people. I guess I just haven't had the right project for it (yet), and I'm not quite sure what exactly to buy or where to buy it. But this bag makes me want to get my hands on some linen ASAP! Anybody have any linen recommendations?

Anyway, check out the adorable farmer's-market fabric she used in the hexies, and the hand-stitching, and that apple! It's all too sweet! Kaelin shared that when she lived in Chicago, they used to drive up to Wisconsin to go apple-picking, so that was her inspiration for this bag. Just lovely. : ) And I'm so happy to get a bag, because I'm just not much of a bag-maker. There's no way I could have pulled off anything nearly this cute and well-made!

The coffee cuff says, "Fuel," which is so spot-on for me it's not even funny, and she also threw in a Starbucks gift card. Thank you, thank you, thank you Kaelin! Everything is just perfect, and I guarantee the bag and coffee cuff will get loads of use.

And Make Mine Modern swap, sent:
Now that my partner's got her goodies, I can reveal that my rainbow placemats were for Kelly of Kelby Sews. Kelly's got a thing for rainbows, so I wanted rainbow colors to figure in there somewhere. And placemats were one of the things she mentioned wanting. When I saw that we had both Flickr-favorited Angela's Pink Lemonade quilt, I knew I had my plan!

I wanted to do two colors per placemat, so that meant I needed to make five of them. But these went quickly and they were so much fun to make! Anyway, when it comes to placemats, a larger set is just so much more useful. Plus, I liked the idea that if Kelly was using fewer of them, she could color-coordinate to her dishes, the season, her mood that day ... whatever.

Most of the fabric I used came from my scrap bins—I only had to supplement the red and the purple (I guess those must be the colors I use the least). The backs all came from my stash. I echo-quilted each one with the two colors used in the placemats, and that turned out to make a very cool pattern on the back.

Instead of traditional binding, I just wrapped the back around to the front and sewed it down. The corners were a little fiddly, but other than that, I think this method turned out okay—each one I did looked better than the last. And what a huge time-saver! I don't think I would use this method for quilts, but you might see it again from me for things like wall-hangings, placemats, etc.

Along with the placemats, I sent two little fabric baskets (more about those here), some fat-quarters of Circa 50 and Heather Ross's Spoonflower prints, a rainbow of thread, and some chocolate and local coffee (roasted just up the road from me).

And last but not least, I also got this today:

My first ever fabric postcard! This is from Becky of Becky's Blabber, as a thank you for the Supernova quilt-along! So sweet, thank you, Becky! It's beautiful! I believe that's going to find a place on my inspiration wall as well. : )

Friday Flickr Finds - Supernova Edition

I have so enjoyed seeing all of your Supernova blocks popping up in the quilt-along's Flickr group, so I thought this would be the perfect time to bring back Friday Flickr Finds and feature just a few of your wonderful creations. I love the unique twists you all have been giving to your Supernova quilts and I wish I could show off every single one of them here!


By Lindsay of Linz Sews. I love how her color choices make some blocks pop and others recede. I also like the different-colored piecing in the borders.


By Becky of Becky's Blabber. Becky chose to do all her diagonal lines in cool tones and and horizontal/verticals in warm tones. It changes the design to more of a lattice look—so cool!


By Lobster Grrl. Love the sophisticated colors here.


By Shahann. Such an unexpected color combination and great prints! This one really pops.


By Katie of Katie's Korner. Her Central Park prints give these Supernova blocks a delicate, almost lacy look.


By Julie of Distant Pickles. I adore this one—it's almost kaleidoscopic or psychedelic or something! This is an example of making larger-scale, colorful prints work well in this design.


By Elizabeth of Don't Call Me Betsy. Another one that uses larger scale, colorful prints to great effect. Love those egg prints!


By Meghan of Purl and Piece. I love the subtle, yet fresh and summery color palette here. And she's working a great mix of patterns and solids here.

It's not too late to join the Supernova Quilt-Along! In fact, it will never be too late: This is a join-any-time and work-at-your-own-pace kind of deal. (But don't forget that anyone who links up a finished quilt by May 12 will be entered into a giveaway for a FQ bundle of Castle Peeps!) Thank you, everyone, for quilting along with me!