QuilterGeek
Quilts by Julie Ramsey
Earthy pinwheels
Mar 31st
I love doing “stack and whack” projects because I have no idea what the blocks will look like until I’ve actually gotten them all sewn together. The variety is so pretty!
These blocks will be set on point, bordered in teal, and then have an outer border of the original fabric. I can’t wait to see what the finished product looks like!
Fun with appliqué, part 2
Mar 25th
The appliqué quilt is nearing completion! All I have left to do is stitch down the picture of the princess (who’ll have a face soon!) before it’s time to sandwich and quilt the whole thing. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out– and I can only hope that the lady I’m making it for likes it as well 
Earthy stack and whack
Mar 25th
The fabric for my mom’s commissioned quilt showed up on Tuesday, and it was too pretty not to play with. I put together three of the eight stack and whack blocks yesterday, and I’m really pleased with how they turned out. It’s amazing how different they can look, despite being cut from the same fabric!
Appliqué in progress
Mar 19th
My newbie attempts at appliqué are going pretty well, I think. I’ve put this together over the past two and a half days, and even though there are a few spots where the stitching jumps off the edge of the fabric, I’m really happy with how it looks so far.
Fun and learning
Mar 18th
I’ve been hesitant to try appliqué since the beginning of my quilting career. I’m not even sure why I’ve shied away from it, aside from the fact that my “freehand” sewing skills are somewhat lacking. But when I dreamed up this princess quilt for a granddaughter commission, it became quickly apparent that I’d have to learn!
Surprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I figured it would be. I picked up a jumbo roll of stabilizer, traced some letters printed out on the computer, and fused the letters down. I had to mess around with stitch width and whatnot for a bit (and actually on two machines…. my main machine is making noises, so I’m actually doing this on my embroidery machine), and finally got things figured out.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way things are turning out. In retrospect, I should have done the bigger letters first– these are 2.5″ tall, and I have another piece that will require 8″ pieces– but for my first time using the technique, the bits I’ve done have turned out remarkably well.
Oops
Mar 16th
This morning, I finished the last of the blocks for my commissioned star quilt and laid them out on the floor. I soon discovered that I’d made a wee bit of a mistake in the process.
That section highlighted in red? That’s supposed to be facing the OTHER way, giving an orange box effect around the swirly fabrics. Oops. At least I was able to laugh at my mistake– my own darn fault for not writing in my color scheme in the pattern book!
Fortunately, I really like the way the “backwards” blocks turned out, and I can turn them into a different project entirely. If I don’t include any sashing, they’ll turn into a nice crib quilt that looks something like this:
I’m feeling positive about this– I guess it’s just a sign that I need to make more crib quilts to put into my Etsy shop!
Two new geek ideas
Mar 15th
Idea: quilts inspired by engineering!
Engineers use diagrams like these to design circuits, and I think they’d translate fairly well into a quilt. There wouldn’t be a lot of color involved, nor a lot of actual piece-work, but I think a satin stitch to do the lines, and my embroidery machine to do letters and numbers, would make for something very cool.
My dad and my little brother are both engineers, so I may need to recruit them to do up a simple circuit design for me to play with.
Another fun project, once I get the hang of appliqué, would be a circuit board quilt– though hopefully a board a little less complicated than this one. The background would be pieced in the light and dark green to represent the paint on the board, and then I could appliqué on the chips, resistors, and whatnot. It would look especially snazzy if I used silver metallic thread to embroider on the letters and other small details!
Progress on commissions
Mar 14th
I’m working on one commission right now and finishing up the planning stages of another, and I’m really pleased with the progress on both of them!
The first is the quilt that my mom is giving as a gift. I was initially a little unsure about the color combination, especially with the orange right next to the dark teal, but after seeing all the blocks laid side-by-side, I like the overall feel of it.
The second is a quilt for a cousin’s granddaughter. I worked up a few sketches to send by email, and we’ve decided on something like this. (Bad photograph, colored pencil shows up terribly with a flash!) It’s 95% appliqué, which I have limited experience with, but I’ll be doing it in small sections so I’m sure it’ll work out just fine.
Open for business
Mar 14th
I finally got brave and listed two quilts on Etsy today.
I was worried that the quality isn’t good enough to sell, but overall I like the pieces well enough that someone else should appreciate them. I need to remind myself that I do good work, and that other people tend to really like my quilts, so hopefully my little shop will be successful.
I have absolutely NO idea how to price things and wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve gone a little too far off the low end… I guess we’ll wait and see what happens.
A shout-out
Mar 12th
I’d like to give a shout-out to the lovely employees at my local quilt shop, Bella Quiltworks here in Tucson, for giving some amazing help in the fabric-selection process.
I ordered some of the fabric on the far left for the commission I’m doing for my mom,and needed to find some fabric to go along with it. Luckily, there was a whole bolt of the stuff in the store (as opposed to the 2″ strip I brought along with me), so there was plenty to carry around the shop and hold up to different bolts of batiks.
The larger print will be the center for the big stars, with dark green points, and the fabric on the far right will be for the smaller stars. I’m really looking forward to seeing the whole thing assembled, and with any luck I can get it all put together this weekend, especially since I have the entire night to myself to watch anime and quilt
