Carrie's Quilt

I've spent the last two days creating HSTs and truing them up, then cutting 4" squares.  If nothing goes wrong, I'll start piecing the quilt top, tomorrow.  I've come up with a plan; I'm going to sew them together in sections, instead of rows.  I think that will be much more manageable.

May your bobbins always be full,

Carrie's Quilt

I thought I'd share my process for Carrie's quilt.  I spent some time on Excel at the computer before I started cutting.  I decided that I'd work with 4" squares, so the finished squares will be 3.5 inches and I shaded in the colors; the tan will be the white background prints.  The column on the right indicates how many HSTs, I'll need altogether.  Then I determined how many of each color combo I needed. 30+36+30=96. Next, I figured out how many squares of each color were needed.  114+102+102=318.  96+318=414 total spaces; so my math is correct.

I'm using this method for making my HSTs, I'll have some extras to fool around with.

Click on chart to go to blog post.

I'm also planning to cut a few extra of each color, just in case.

May your bobbins always be full,

A quilt in non-colors

This is from an email from my daughter, Carrie, who lives in North Carolina:

"I've been thinking about a quilt and I think I want to go with non-colors. For example one dark charcoal gray fabric on the back; on the front have a quilted pattern of whites and off-whites, maybe pale, pale, pale pinks and yellows, too. Then have the stitching in a white thread so it would be subtle on the front, but dramatic on the back. Maybe in a floral pattern. What do you think?"

After her son Brett received his quilt, she asked if I would make her a quilt about the same size (twin).  I said sure, just let me know what you want.

These are the fabrics I've pulled together.  I think there's a good balance.  The gray and white stripe will be for the binding.  I thought that would tie the back and front together.

I'm very smitten with this quilt image, I think it's from Fall Quilt Market, but I'm not sure:

I think I may try something similar with squares and HSTs.  Of course with the "non-color" fabrics it'll be very subtle.

May your bobbins always be full,

Floating Moons

This is the quilt back of the Positive Quilt, I'm making for Amy.  When I started thinking about how I wanted the back to look, I thought of circles, to balance the plus signs on the front.  I've never pieced circles, but that's never stopped me, before.  The front on the quilt uses 12 Kona solids, and I own a 30° ruler, so I figured I was set.  12 x 30°=360°, no problem.

When I laid out the circles, I didn't want them all lined up, nor all looking the same.  I offset them and twisted them, to hopefully gain the feeling of movement.

This is a lot of fabric to wrestle.  The quilt is 86" x 94", so the back is 92" x 100", I pressed as I joined but failed to press the whole back after completion.

Here's the quilt top.

May your bobbins always be full,

What is a quilt worth?

Source

Bob and I have a favorite Aunt in Wisconsin.  She's only twelve years older than I, and she's a great gal.  We were talked on the phone last night for about an hour, and I told her about the commissioned quilt I was working on.  She wanted to know how much I charged for a queen size quilt.  I told her that my quilts are simple, she laughed, and that I charge $520.00 for a queen size.  She flat out told me that I wasn't charging enough.  

This is always a quilters dilemma, what to charge and still be fair to myself and my customer.  I've tried different methods since I started selling my quilts.  I finally settled on a simple formula that seems fair.  

Source

The above chart list what another blogger thinks a 72" x 72" finished quilt is worth.  It's just an example of how other's think.

We all know quilting fabric is expensive.  I try to take that into consideration.  Another consideration, for me, is I use a professional long-arm quilter, so I build her fee into the price.  My third consideration is my time is worth something.  I make quilts as an artistic outlet and as my hobby, part of my reward is the process.

Using the above example of a 72" x 72" finished quilt, this is how I arrive at a quilts final price.  It's an easy formula.

72 + 72 = 144.  144 x 3 = 432.  I'd charge $432.00 for that quilt.  1/3 would cover the fabric, 1/3 would cover the quilting service and the balance would be for me.

There's a big difference between $432.00 and $l,421.34.  I'm very comfortable with my charges.  I was looking at some quilts on etsy, after seeing them on  pinterest.  I'm amazed at the sellers who basically only charge for the fabric and batting.  They don't value themselves enough to charge for the time they spent sewing and quilting their products.

How about you.  Do you sell your quilts?  How do you determine the price?

May your bobbins always be full,

Positive Quilt Top is complete

I've gone from this , to this .  I'm really happy with the result.

This is my second attempt to photograph this Positive quilt top.  It's a queen size and I'm not too short, 5" 6", for the first attempt I took a step stool, that I've used before, with me down to the tennis courts to try a get a photo.  Even stretching as much as I could, I couldn't reach high enough so that the quilt top didn't touch the ground.  Then my trusty quilt model gave it a try.  Bob is just a tad less than 6', but it still was a no go.

We went back home and got the step ladder, went back to the tennis courts, and got the shots!  The only negative, is this Positive quilt top got a tad wrinkled, bummer.

I finished this quilt top a couple of days ago, but we had a bit of drizzly, and blustery weather, so I had some time before I could take photos.  I used that time to start something for the back of the quilt.  I thought some circles would be fun.

I'm going to be busy with lots of life things for the rest of this week, and next week I'm going to be busy with Thanksgiving prep, you know how it goes.  After Thanksgiving, I'm hoping to finish the quilt back.  This quilt and my test version won't go to the long arm quilter until after Christmas.  She has enough on her plate with all the quilters who don't plan ahead and want something done right before Christmas.

May your bobbins always be full,

Reverse Star Baby Quilt

This may be my last finish of 2013!  I have 3 small quilts at my long arm quilter, and 3 more large quilts being planned, to be ready for her, before the end of the year.  But, I don't think it's fair to demand they be done before the end of the year.  She's busy enough as it is.  This 40 x 40 inch baby quilt will go in the shop, as soon as I get some more photos.  It was a bit dreary, today.

The back.

I improvised, down at the pool.  Because it was so overcast, no one was taking advantage of the facilities,   The pool was smooth as glass.  Sun is expected tomorrow, so more photos, then.

May your bobbins always be full,