Another Graduation Quilt

Laurel's Lace

For most of the previous seven months I've been working on a high school graduation gift for my niece, Laurel.  This one took me a bit longer than normal, though I need to take into account that some of the time has been spent traveling around this side of the world and hosting guests (including having to hide it away when Laurel comes to visit).  With a sigh of relief I'm able to finish before high school ends, and just in time for Steve to personally deliver it a week before the ceremony. 

the picture from the pattern

I email Laurel pages of quilt pictures, and have her choose the design she likes best.  She picks "Charlotte's Lace" by Raija Salomaa.  It's not one of Deb Tucker's patterns, however it does use three of her rulers.  Luckily I have two already and order the third to be sent to my sister's house, so she can bring it to me when she visits.  Then Steve's mother takes Laurel to the paint store to pick out her favorite color swatches, and she mails them to me in Japan.  (And one of the final cottons that go into the quilt I order from a Texas quilt shop - Fabric Fanatics - and have my mother bring when she visits Japan.  So making this quilt is really a family effort!)

Laurel picks out greens and browns, which makes me excited.  Way back when I decided I wanted to learn to quilt, I picked up a book (Learning to Quilt from Leisure Arts - at the time I didn't realize there were places that actually taught classes on quilting).  The book is a sampler pattern of a quilt that finishes 78" x 93", and uses six fabrics.  It recommends that you pick colors that are pleasing to you, and I decide on brown and green - tree colors.  Then I go to the quilt store, and spend two hours choosing material - and end up with a blue and purple quilt (and if you look in my stash today, those colors are the biggest piles).  So after many years, I finally get to make the brown and green quilt!

Nope - the paisley is too dark to use in place of the background.

There are only six fabrics in this quilt, too, but finding them in Japan proves to be a bit of a challenge. (For her sister Alaina's quilt, I was able to pick out the fabric from my stash before I moved to Japan.  Most of the stash is currently in storage in the US, so I couldn't raid it for Laurel's quilt.  The story of Alaina's quilt is here if you'd like to read it.)  

Nope - the light fabric is just the wrong shade.

I look through the fabrics I have with me in Japan, and find one I really like for the background - but I've already started cutting into it a little bit for another project, so I'm a bit short.  I purchased it a Yuzawaya about a month ago, so I return to see if there's more, but they're out.  I spend a day running around to three other Yuzawayas in the Tokyo area, but still no luck.  I also visit Okadaya, Kanda, and Tomato, but I can't find it there, either.  I do end up finding a batik that is similar in color and tone, so I buy that to use for the border if I don't have enough of the hand-dye (Of course, I also bought five other fabrics to see if they might work for the quilt, but I have no luck with them.  Into the Japan stash they go!).  

You'd think this one would work, but it doesn't.

I have a pretty brown material with a traditional Japanese pattern on it, and various greens I've picked up at a Japanese quilt show.  I also have a green fern batik I bought in New Zealand last year...but I'm having the hardest time with fabric #6, which I feel should also be a bold brown with a little bit of green.  I discover olive green does NOT work with the other fabrics in the quilt.  I try various ones, but I have no luck...until my mother arrives with the fabrics I ordered from the US.  Finally, I have all the fabrics selected! 

Neither does this one.

This one's colors shows promise, so I buy it...

...but it's actually a flax & cotton blend, making it rough to the touch.  That won't work for a bed quilt!

We finally have a winner (and one last discard resting on the ironing board)!

parts and pieces of the quilt

Even though I have some of Deb Tucker's rulers, I haven't had a chance to use them until this quilt.  I love them!  She does a wonderful job of putting lots of lines so you can have accurate and precise pieces.  The rulers are also set up so the sections are oversized, and you cut them down to the exact shape.  Some people might find that wasteful, but I like having the little bit of wiggle room to help make sure it's perfect.  It also taught me to pay better attention to my pressing.  I noticed some sections weren't lining up absolutely right with the ruler lines, and it turned out I wasn't quite pressing them all the way open. 

The first completed block!  Only 57 more to go!

See - the horizontal short green strip is pressed in on the left block, and the
horizontal long green strip is pressed out on the right block.  They snug up together
where the blocks are sewn together, in the open seam on top of the pressing bar.
  (The vertical long green strip is pressed out on the left block, so it will match up with
the short green strip when sewn to the row above and below.)

So everything is going well, and I'm really happy with the way the quilt is coming together.  Then I discover a mistake I've made.  When putting the blocks together, the final long green seams are supposed to be pressed out, not in towards the green.  It does make a difference when sewing the blocks together - the green joins across the quilt to look like a sashing, and one long green strip will be pressed out, and the smaller green strip will be pressed in, so they will lock together when sewing.  I spend six hours repressing all those seams...and it also causes the seam to shift slightly because the fabric is now folded the opposite way.  After making the first block I used it as a guide for precisely where the sewing line should go, so I'd end up with a perfect point on all the diamonds and squares.  Repressing causes me to lose some of those points (because of the fabric shift), though I resew some of the worst ones.  It doesn't look horrible, but I'm disappointed to make such a stupid mistake.  I'm definitely triple checking the pressing instructions from now on!

The center - with every seam pressed the right way!

Once that's all fixed I sew the blocks together into rows.  The seams are supposed to be pressed open now (trust me - I triple checked the instructions) and I use a pressing bar to help prevent the iron from accidentally catching the other seams and folding them the wrong way.  It's the first time I've used that toy, too, and it works very well.

Next it's time to test the borders.  I'm happy with the three I've got, though if I were to sew the pattern again I would try making the first border (closest to the center) the same fabric as the one used for the "sashing." (It's not really sashing, because it's in the middle of the completed block - sashing usually refers to a strip of fabric between blocks.)  It might be interesting to see how that frames up the quilt.  The pattern calls for a fourth border, but I don't have enough of the clay background fabric to make it.  The batik I picked out looks like it blends well with the other material, and I decide the quilt does need the final border, so on it goes!

testing the border fabrics

Clipping the loose threads from the back of the quilt...my least favorite ten hours of the quilting process (other than the six hours I spent pressing seams the proper way).

basting the three layers together for the quilt

I try something else new with this quilt - using Hobbs Premium Cotton 80/20 (80% cotton, 20% polyester) as the batting, instead of Warm and Natural.  I want to see how the extra loft (thickness) handles stitching in the ditch (stitching the layers together along the seam lines).  It really sharpens up the shapes and points - I'm in love!  This will be what I use for bed quilts from  now on.  Warm and Natural is pretty flat and dense, so I think it's better when it's used for wall hangings.  Basting the quilt seemed to work much faster and easier with this batting, too.

I mostly quilted in the ditch for this quilt, but I do a little design in the widest border, since the batting recommends quilting every 3.5 inches and the border finishes 4.5 inches wide.  I just mimic the Japanese pattern, and sew split triangles along the Japanese fabric. I use thread in colors to match the top and back.  

Quilted in the ditch - you don't really see the stitches.  (This is a pretty small square - each side is about 1" long...and it's made up of four pieces.  This is an example of how the Deb Tucker rulers help you be precise with your piecing - that's 8 points that have to match up perfectly.

The border quilting - can you see it?

Of course, her name has to be in the quilt!

A picture of the quilting from the backside.

The binding is machine sewn on the front, and I hand sew it to the back.  During the process, Tie-Dye decides the quilt deserves a "Paw of Approval!"  (Don't worry - I wash the quilt before I give it away.)

"My dreams are so good when I'm on Laurel's quilt!"

Can you find the seam lines??

One full size photo of the back...I have some problems with the backing fabric, too.  I find it at Tomato and want 5 1/4 yards, but they only have 4 5/8.  I buy it, and once I decide I like it for the quilt I hope the pattern overstates the amount you need.  A few months later I'm at a quilt show in Tokyo and I find some fat quarters of the same fabric.  I ask if they sell it off the bolt, but they don't, so I just a couple of fat quarters, just in case.  Sure enough, when I measure the finished quilt top my large cut of backing is not enough for the quilt.  I debate what to do (I'm not really a fan of pieced backs with multiple fabrics - it's just not my preference), but then I realize I can cut the fat quarters in half, sew them in a row, and that will give me the extra nine inches I need across the bottom.  So it all works out, and there's just some extra seam lines on the back side.

testing the pillowcase fabrics

I'm actually surprised all the colors work well together in the quilt.  When it came time to make the pillowcase, I have the hardest time picking out three to use for it.  Partly it's because I don't want to use the Japanese fabric for the main part of the body and also because I don't have enough of certain colors, but I finally come up with a combination I'm happy with.  Additionally, I'm able to use more of the new border fabric I bought since
                                                                               I ran out of the clay colored fabric.

The finished quilt, all wrapped up in its matching pillowcase (or storage bag)!

Here's Laurel, with her graduation gift!  I like to name gift quilts with some variation of the pattern title, and this was an easy one since Charlotte's Lace becomes Laurel's Lace.  However, if I was creating my own name, I'd probably have some variation of mint chocolate chip - that's what I kept thinking of when I was working with all this brown and green.

Congratulations, Laurel!