Quilting Diversion: Coastal Lilies

Hello after a long hiatus...

I have been distracted down a different road, recently, that of quilting. I still knit, also, but quilting seems to be my main passion, lately. I made several last year, even hand quilting two myself, but also having some machine quilted by others (mainly Itchin' To Be Stitchin' in Staunton, IL). I'll include some pictures of last year's quilts at the bottom.

It tugs at my "do it yourself" gene to pay someone else to quilt my quilts, but I just haven't been able to manage large quilts on my home sewing machine. I'd really like to get a long arm quilting machine, and I'm looking and scheming, but I'm not quite there. Maybe soon. I'm particularly intrigued by the combination of ruler work and free motion quilting (FMQ) done by Judi Madsen. In addition to her quilting, she and her husband run an on-line shop, Green Fairy Quilts. She's my hero. I've watched all three of her on-line/DVD quilt classes (at the time of this writing... hopefully there will be more), and I think they're wonderful.

One of the first quilts of Judi's that caught my eye was her quilting on "Coastal Lily," one of her customer quilts made using the "Coastal Lily" pattern by Minick & Simpson. Judi's work on the quilt inspired me to get the pattern (available on Minick & Simpson's Etsy page), and I'm in the thick of making the top. Here is a current progress shot:

I started by making all the flying geese. For the non-quilters out there who might have landed on this page (hi, Dad), "flying geese" are rectangles with a ratio of 2:1, with a right triangle in the middle, made by 45 degree angles between the center of one long side and the rectangle corners on the other long side. Easier to show a picture than describe it in words. It's coming...

Flying geese are often made by drawing diagonals on two squares the size of the short side of the rectangle, sewing them to the rectangle, and then trimming. The problem is that it throws away a bunch of little triangles of fabric (which scandalizes my frugal heart). I found instructions for "no waste flying geese" online, which put my heart at ease. The method makes four geese at a time, and I made twelve geese in my first prototype run. After following the instructions, though, I found my edges to be slightly inside the seam allowances, and so I didn't want to use the geese in my quilt. Rather than waste them, I cut down the geese to a smaller size (aided by their interesting dimensions... you can cut geese down to any smaller size by centering a template at the triangle point), and I then made some stars with my "prototype" geese. I can use these in another project, later.

To make flying geese for my Coastal Lilies quilt, I added another 1/8" to the instructed dimensions (see link above for no-waste flying geese, which gives cutting dimensions for different common finished sizes of geese). After making ever-so-slightly over-sized geese, I then trimmed them perfectly to size using a bloc-loc ruler. Here's a picture of the slightly over-sized goose and the template, prior to trimming. Barely any waste... and perfect flying geese.

Coastal Lily utilizes several techniques. While it is mostly machine pieced, it also involves applique and embroidery. You can see flying geese in progress, a few finished geese in the lower right, and some applique circles, in the progress photo, below.

The applique circles are a somewhat time-consuming aspect of this quilt pattern. Each lily has an appliqued and embroidered stamen (anther and filament). The pattern calls for 36 flowers (four flowers per 24" square block, and then three blocks wide and three blocks long in the quilt). Instead, I'm increasing the quilt size to a large king by making 4x4 24" blocks (plus border) instead of 3x3 blocks. That means there are 64 flowers instead of 36. With three stamens per flower, that is 192 circles. I've been sewing circles for weeks.

To make applique circles, I like to use Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles. I choose a circle template about 1/2" larger than the finished circle to trace the cutting lines. Then, I sew a basting line of stitches in the seam allowance and use the finished-size circle template to press the circles. Just pull the basting thread around the circle template, spray with Best Press, and press. After it cools, loosen the stitch line a bit, remove the circle, and then snug the basting stitches back in place. Perfect Circles!

The good news is that all the circles are now appliqued, and I have 16 stamen blocks embroidered with the filaments. One quarter down, and just 3/4 to go!

Having one quarter of the stamen blocks done means that I have been able to piece some lilies. I'm using different red fabrics for the lilies, making four flowers out of each fabric/print. I have twelve flowers (three fabrics) done so far.

Perhaps by the time I get the top completely done, I'll have a plan for a long arm purchase. I'd really like to quilt this one myself (after some practice, of course... lots and lots of practice). I have an appointment with a Gammill dealer, today, so the game is afoot!

As promised, here are a few of last year's quilts: