Beth Ferrier’s Blog

A funny thing happened on the way to designing this next little free project. I started out with the same template that I used with Spring and Summer. I already had plans for the applique shapes, and the corner blocks. Little New York Beauty blocks in the corner, like beaming sunflowers, peaking as the summer ends. And of course we’d have pumpkins and fall leaves, and maybe a flower or two.

But no matter which way I attacked it, I wasn’t pleased. Too pat, too familiar, too boring. Yikes. Who will want to make a quilt that I don’t even want to be bothered to make?

So, I thought, maybe what this quilt needs is a pieced center focal block. Something stretched, more oval than square, an idea I’ve thought about exploring in the past. Still thinking about the spiky New York Beauty, I decided to stretch out a simple Lone Star block. Cool, huh?

It turned out to be ridiculously complicated! Not only were the pieced diamonds different shapes and angles for the horizonal and the vertical, they were also mirror images! Yikes, how would I ever write this?

Of course the first thing I did was design cheats, templates to make cutting the strip sets easier. That worked great. And I figured out that I could cut the weird setting triangles from one rectangle, clever that, eh?

All went well until it was time to sew the final seams. Nothing, I mean nothing, lines up! All of the seams meet at weird angles. I’ve tried sewing it from a dozen different directions and it always ends up looking like a transporter accident. But I’m not done with this block yet. With a little more tweaking, it may yet end up as the center of the winter quilt project.

Still with me? Great!

I have a file full of applique shapes that I like but haven’t used yet, intermediate steps that ended up very different by the end of a project. I’ve had these on the mind lately because I’ve always though they looked like mums to me, and fall is all about the mums here in the north.

So, even with the background design still vague in my head, I dove into creating the applique shapes. They are big and bold and oh-so-cheerful!

Back to the background now, these babies need a place to live. I was thinking that I’d like to use some subtle piecing, to make the background interesting, but not a main character.  It’s an idea that I’ve been playing with for some time. I had an idea percolating when I saw one of Ricky Tim’s work in progress quilts posted on Facebook. He used seminol piecing in his border, which is basically a series of squares on point. (Friend him, and you can see it too, it’s a smashing quilt!)

And that was it. I knew just what to do. The pieced squares idea I was messing about with suddenly jumped on point and, ta-dah, it’s a background.

I’ve pressed the seams towards the lighter squares (which means the darker fabric is my background, right Sneaky Piecing Tricks graduates?) to make them jump forwards against the darker fabric. Yes, that’s my toe in the lower right. And then just started dealing out the applique shapes until I liked what I saw.

So here it is, at it now stands. The flowers are just laying in place, not stitched down. I need to decrease the size of that middle border by a couple of inches, maybe (or leave it as room for quilting?). And maybe shift some of the colors around a bit. It may end up landscape instead of portrait (wide instead of tall). And, most importantly, I want to do some hand (!!!) embroidery to the applique before it’s stitched down to the background.

I’ve had a terrible bee in my bonnet about embroidery lately. I learned to embroider before kindergarten and put it aside when quilting took over my life. But now that the Wash Away Applique Sheets make it easy to embellish my appliques, I can think of nothing else. It’s time to blow the dust off my boxes of floss and get stitching!

Still with me? Terrific!

I’ve found a terrific fabric line called Shades by Clothworks. It’s brand new, so we won’t have to worry about running out. We will be offering kits, which will probably run about $40. I’m going to need about two weeks to finish up the quilt and pattern (I’m out the door tomorrow to Dansville, NY for three days of classes and a Friday night lecture), so let’s look for the new project to start September 1st.

And, as usual, I need a name for the quilt. I’m thinking something with Harlequin, because of the diamond shapes. And of course, we have mums and the blue bonnets to consider. Leave a comment with a suggestion, and if I use your idea, I’ll send you a free package of Wash Away Applique Sheets!

It’s been a long time in coming, but I’m finally in the home stretch, finishing my Now & Forever quilt. The top has been done for ages. It’s been layered and basted since January. Even the pattern is done, just waiting for a picture of the quilt for the cover. (I hope to have the pattern up on the web site by the weekend.) Life does have a way of coming between us and our quilting, even when quilting is our job.

I always start the quliting by stitching in the ditch around the applique, and usually around the blocks as well. It really helps them stand out against the background. It also helps to stabilize the quilt. I had a really hard time deciding on which quilting patterns to use. Even though I’m not a big fan of stippling, this quilt seemed to demand it. There’s just not a lot of room to develop a more complex pattern.

It would seem that I’ve once again quilted the snot out of it. (Technical term.) I didn’t mean to, but the more I quilted the more I wanted to quilt it.

It was fun using a variety of threads. For the flowers and pieced blocks I used variegated threads, 50 wt cotton, from Superior, Wonderfil and Aurafil. The background fill is poly from Floriani (beautiful stuff, looks like rayon, but with none of the problems of rayon).

My next job is to bind the quilt. I’m going to use the same gold print fabric used in the sashing. I’m listening to the latest book in J.D. Robb’s In Death series. Seems fitting to finish the quilt and the series together. After that? It’s time to write.

Without a doubt, the hardest decision for me, when it comes to quilting, is settling on a background fill. I have my favorites and I argue with myself about falling back on tried and true. I want to use a fill that will compliment the quilt, and be interesting, but not more interesting than the applique and piecing. Scale is important too. Too big and loose will look like I got lazy and just wanted the darn thing done. Too small and tight will make the piece stiff and take freaking forever.

For a quilt with lots of curves, a linear design makes a nice counterpoint. Conversely, a geometric design is often complimented with a curvy quilting design. In the end, I used a peacock eye design, mostly because I had just taught a class in free motion quilting and was reminded of how fun this design is to stitch. So much for science.

The open corners on the borders are just begging for some sexy stitching. I decided to do some simple princess feathers, mostly because I could use the heart shape in the corner to change the direction of the feathers. It mirrors the heart shapes in the flower petals and the flutterby wings. Using a flexible ruler I marked just the spines. I used a pale peach rayon thread (by Sulky, I think, it’s been in my thread stash for a while). It seemed to me that the quilting needed a little more oomf to hold its own against the vibrant colors of the applique.

Simple curves on the pieced blocks, flowers and leaves completed the quilting.

All that remained was that lovely, peaceful task of turning the binding. I’m totally old school on this, stitching by hand. Because my hands are still healing, it took several hours to complete the binding. It made for a lovely morning, in my rocker on the front porch, listening to my latest addiction, the “In Death” series by J. D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts. (I’m working my way through the series, up to Born in Death.)

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of my spiffy nails (installed at the local mall). Yep, I’ve definately reentered my sparkly phase.

It’s here, finally. Our second block of the month project for this year is ready to start, well almost. I’m still quilting the sample (my hands can only take so much before they start complaining), but the important stuff is done.

So, here’s a graphic of the design, in all it’s glory.

I’m calling it Flutterby Fancies. It will finish the same size as Be Still My Heart, about 37 x 42 inches.

We have a very limited number of kits available. First come, first serve. Because I know someone will ask, the applique fabric is by Lyndhurst Studio, a division of Northcott Fabrics. The line is the Rainbow Ombres in Nature’s Palette, by Michele Scott. It is gone from the manufacturer’s warehouses. You may be able to find it at your local shop, or online somewhere, but there is no more for your local shop to order. The background fabric is Kaufmann’s Kona Solids, in Snow, just like last month’s kit.

Here’s my version, with the quilting just started. What’s that you say? Are you noticing my spiffy new machine? It’s a Bernina 820, and it’s a honey. Flutterby Fancies is the first quilt I’ve made using it, and it’s been a treat. (You see a globe on the screen because it’s currently on “eco”, a power saving setting that lets me leave the machine on, but at a lower power level.)

I got to see the prototype of this machine over three years ago, while visiting the Bernina factory in Switzerland. It was my good luck to be one of many teachers asked for opinions on what would go into this machine. I’ve had it only a couple of weeks, and so far I’m maddly in love. Don’t tell Kent, he may be jealous.

The Ferrier family welcomed a new member on March 31st. Nicole Lynn arrived by c-section at about 7:45 am, weighing 9lbs 6 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. Of course, we think she is perfect in every way. Daddy (my oldest son, Nathan), big brother Alex and Mommy Amanda give baby Nicole the warm welcome she deserves.

Kent and I were thrilled to make it to the hospital just in time to greet our new granddaughter.

Kent’s usually the one taking the pictures, it’s about time we caught him in front of the camera. I was really happy that she decided to arrive before my trip to Oklahoma, but it was super hard to hand her back to her mom and other grandma while I was off doing what I do!

I must admit, I was more than a little nervous about making my first teaching trip after the accident. I’ve been so sedentary, healing, that I was not sure I’d have the stamina to make it through three lectures and four day-long workshops. Luckily everyone was very understanding about letting me hide out in my hotel room, resting, between jobs. I’m so grateful to all the wonderful quilters who did the heavy lifting for me. Lugging big suitcases and boxes of class supplies are part of the job, and a part that I don’t easily foist onto others.

It was, in the end, very good for me to be back in the classroom. I love to teach. Being with quilters fills me with energy and inspiration. It’s nice to know that even when I’m not at my tip top shape I can still offer a good and fun class. Knowing that sure helps in the dark times when life is handing out lemons.

While not a requirement, it’s handy to have a light box for my Hand Applique by Machine technique class. I’ve seen all sorts of them, store bought and home made. But I almost fell over laughing when Mary demonstrated her “laptop lightbox”.  I’m always impressed by how resourceful quilters can be.

I also need to thank Lerlene Nevaril, president of the Bartlesville, OK quilt guild. My last day of classes fell on my birthday, and Lerlene surprised me with a perfect cake: white cake and frosting and red roses! It was totally unexpected and left me speechless (really!).

This week I have been playing grandma. I’m off to Holland, Mi to help out my daughter in law and cuddle my grandchildren. Alex is nearly three, and he just keeps getting more spectacular. Watching him play takes me right back to when his daddy was little. Can you see the tiger that he’s chasing? Me either, but Alex kept me safe all afternoon, hot on the tail of that mean tiger. He insisted that I sit on the hill at the back of the yard while he chased and chastised that pesky tiger. And just often enough, he would run up the hill to me, to give me a reassuring hug, and to let me know that he’d keep keep that mean tiger away. My heart is full.

Baby sister Nicole just gets more beautiful every day. She’s a good natured baby, nursing well and beginning to stretch out the time between meals. Looks like she’s going to be a red head! I always wanted a red headed child, but it doesn’t run on either side of our family trees. Amanda brought red hair with her, and I’m thrilled to see it. It’s been a bit of a challenge, jumping straight from teaching to grandma-ing, but we’ve all been taking naps when the kids sleep. Naps are underappreciated, I’m thinking about allowing time for one in my classes.

I was really happy to have my cast removed at four weeks after the accident, but not at all happy to find out that my use of the hand was still just as restricted. The brace is so much nicer, especially the part about being able to remove it for showers. But the doc reminded me that the bone was still healing, not healed. No lifting more than a soup can, no yard work (very frustrating as spring is arriving and my gardens are calling to me), still no scissors.

I’ve just had my eight week check up and I’m still in the brace for six more weeks. I am not a happy camper. But I’m trying hard to follow doctor’s orders and keep my mood up. I’m sorry to say that the start of the next block of the month project is going to be delayed until May 15th. I have it started, but no where near ready to post. I’m trying to get back on track, but I’m afraid to say, my applique train was really derailed. Don’t you just hate when real life gets in the way of your quilting?

It’s finally done, ready, and uploaded!

This year’s Block of the Month will be a series of wall hangings, all finishing about 37 x 42 inches, celebrating the seasons. Our first quilt, Be Still My Heart, features tulips, one of my favorite flowers.

It’s quite a job, to get everything in order to offer fabric kits. Just when I thought everything was ready to go, another detail would need my attention. I’m already working on the kit for the next quilt. (I may have it all figured out by the end of the year.)

Several people suggested the quilt’s name, thank you so much. It turned out to be the perfect name, for more than one reason. You see, while trying to get all the loose ends tied up for this quilt I was also dealing with a very sick dad. My father had a mild heart attack on the fifteenth. Tests showed major blockages and he was scheduled for a triple bypass. He came through the surgery okay, but a complication sent him back into surgery twelve hours later. The good news is that’s he’s doing fine! He’s been moved out of intensive care to a room on the cardiac floor. His heart muscle is a little weak and he really needs to quit smoking (like that will happen, he’s been smoking since he was a kid), but for now, we get to keep him a little longer.

So, for me, this happy quilt will remind me how blessed we are to have healthy and loving hearts.

I’m off to Spokane, Washington today. I’m looking forward to this first teaching trip of the year. See you there?

The goal was to be able to present the new block of the month project today. But then I decided that I’d like to offer fabric kits to go with the design. Shopping for yardage to sell is not nearly as much fun as shopping for fabric for my stash. Since it’s something that I don’t do all that often I don’t have a fabric rep or contacts at the manufacturers. Progress stalled.

 I have found this killer fabric to use for the applique, five shades across the width of the fabric! When it comes to applique it doesn’t get any better than that. Still working on the background fabric, but I am making progress.

These lovely sorbet colors came from two fabrics, medium and light. Isn’t that cool? The colors blend across the width, with magical swirls of shades. I especially like how the fabric reads as a solid, just begging for thread work and embellishment.

All of this applique came from just four fabrics! Oh, be still my heart.

So here’s the deal. This year, instead of one large project, we’ll be having four seasonal block of the month projects. The quilts will finish about 38 x 42 inches, a nice wall or lap size. We’ll post the projects in three steps each, and just as we’ve done for years, the steps will be free for one month.

New this year, we’re going to offer the complete pattern for sale, as a download, when the first step is posted. We’ll get our act together and offer fabric kits. I’d like to also offer thread or embellishment kits. And eventually I will combine the motifs from all four seasonal patterns into one really deluxe larger quilt. At least that’s the plan as it stands today.

I could use a little help with a name for this quilt. Ideas anyone?

There is a very long list of things I’d like to learn how to do. I’d like to learn to spin my own yarn. I’d like to raise chickens (which will never happen as long as we live downriver from a chemical plant, but I can dream). I’d love to learn how to throw pottery on a wheel. And it would be really good if I could learn how to take better pictures.

Everything that happens in my life is pretty much a crime of opportunity. Keeping chocolate morsels in the pantry significantly increases the likelihood of cookies, for example. I’ve gathered the supplies for painting on silk, painting lace, beading, machine embroidery, heirloom sewing and others just in case I have a dire need to paint, bead or embroider. It could happen. Over the last year or so I’ve been gathering the tools for rug hooking, or more precisely, punch needle rug hooking.

Several years ago (um, like maybe eight years ago, but who’s counting?) I started a rug with the traditional hook technique. I got as far as WE in “welcome” before I lost interest. Of course that hasn’t kept me from collecting wool to cut into strips. But still, I didn’t really enjoy using the hook to lift the strips to the front of the work, it hurt my hands. So, the base fabric hangs from the quilt hoop frame (that I bought thinking that I might like hand quilting someday), waiting.

After knitting myself crazy making the stranded projects for Christmas I decided the time was right to pull out those punchneedle supplies. I pushed a few lines around to create the design, snapped up a sharpie marker and set to work.

In no time at all I had the design traced and hooped, feeling very clever that I had the foresight to stash this stuff.

As with all things, there was a learning curve. My first leaves were too densely packed. The yarn was too thin for the punch needle, so I doubled it up. It didn’t occur to me to check the other punch needle I had stashed, trusting my memory that it was larger. (It isn’t.) But I found that I liked using two different shades at once, and the doubled strands filled the spaces faster.

Not bad for a first attempt. This thirteen inch circle took just a couple of hours and put a significant dent in my Christmas knitting leftover yarn. I guess it will become a pillow top, or something.

But what is an appliquist to do? The design just demanded that I applique it. I mean, really, how could I not?

Time to run to the stash and pull some fabrics the fine folks at Northcott sent me, gradation of shade and color across the width of the fabric, it’s an appliquist’s dream.

Here it is, laid out just as for the little rug thingie. It’s lovely, I really love it. I love the delicate shading that the fabric provides. I really like the circle showing through the background fabric, I’ve been thinking about how that should be incorporated into the design. 

But now I have a problem. What do I do with this design? I’m sort of obsessing on the Block of the Month for this year. I was thinking that I’d really like to do a Baltimore Album style quilt. Or a series of little quilts. Or, ideally, a series of little quilts that could be combined to make a Baltimore album quilt. My default setting for quilt design is to start with a queen size. I’m too practical. Everything must be useful, have a purpose. So, what do you think? A series of circles? A series of circles with no other plan than to let you decide what you’re doing with the end product? Arggg! Help me out here!

Penny asked for me info on the dots. Since time is short I’ll have to do this minus pictures. I’m on my way, out the door to catch a plane to St. Louis, MO. From there I will drive to Hannibal, the boyhood home of Mark Twain, one of my favorite authors. I know there is still room in tomorrow night’s lecture, but Saturday’s class is full. Will I see you there?

To begin, I used scrapbooking punches to make my Tear Away Magic fusible templates. (I’ve been having a lot of success haunting scrapbooking stores for quilting supplies. I found the Globox there, and my new favorite glue pen, and now excellent shape punches.) I used two different sizes of punches, one about 3/4 of an inch, the other, a heaping 1/2 inch. I found that I could punch through about four layers of the TAMF, netting me tons of perfect circles in just a couple of minutes.

 The templates are then used just as we’ve done for the rest of the applique: pressed to the wrong side of the fabric (I used four shades of yellow), seam allowance added as they were cut out and then glue basted.

The basted circles were placed in the desired positions on the quilt and then temporarily held there by a tack from my favorite basting gun. Oh, this is sooooooooo much better than getting poked to death by the previously favored flat flower head pins.

 Finally, the dots were stitched down just as we stitch our flowers and leaves and other motifs in place, using the invisible thread and a zig zag or blind hem stitch. Because I’m using our handy dandy water soluble paper there’s no need to remove the templates. (How cool is that? Gosh, I will never stop being thrilled at having found this stuff. I’ve been begging stablizer manufacturers to create this stuff for years!)

After whining so unattractively about adding the berries, in the end it really did take only a few extra hours of stitching. And I know that the quilt is better for it. I’m just so silly sometimes.

 Coming in on the home stretch on my Now & Forever quilt, I had reached the point when I just wanted to be done. No longer in love with the quilt, no longer excited about the project, I just wanted to get it out of the way so I could move on. I get like that with almost all of my quilts. There comes a time when I’m just over it, and find myself wondering why I thought it was such a good idea in the first place. I have a feeling I’m not alone in this, why else would we all have so many UFOs?

When it comes to quilting I’m not keen on multitasking. I usually work on one project until it’s done and then move on. Too many balls in the air at one time makes me anxious and distracted. Of course, that’s not entirely true because deadlines often require that I drop everything and complete a small project, but I think of those as self-limiting.

The real problem arises when I’m stuck on a big project, in the hating phase, and I won’t allow myself to start something totally new. I have so many new ideas that I want to try that I would be flitting off like a butterfly at every turn and nothing would ever be finished.

So here I am, nearly done with the applique on the Now & Forever Quilt, and the issue of the berries must at last be addressed. To dot or not to dot, that is the question. The zillion berries had already been glue basted, they sat is a heap, just waiting to be placed.

The berries won. So, I wrestled my cranky self to the ground and got to work. Armed with my handy dandy basting gun, it only took a couple of hours to place and secure all the dots. In the end, adding the little gems will add one day to the applique process, maybe two if you count the basting. I used scrapbooking punches to make perfect circles out of the Tear Away Magic Fusible, the large are about 3/4 of an inch, the smaller just a heaping 1/2 inch. If I stop to count them now I may lose all heart and never finish.

Thank goodness for Sue Grafton and her “alphabet mysteries” on my mp3 player. I is for Innocent got me through the glue basting, J is for Judgement took me through the securing and stitching of the borders and K is for Killer will take me to the finish line.