cog + wheels quilt

Since last year I have been thinking about what to make on my monastery weekend retreat with my patchwork group. My quilting group organizes a weekend retreat once a year in a monastery or convent where we sew for ourselves; this is not a course. Since there are quite a few monasteries and convents in Germany, you can book meetings, seminars, and retreats of all kinds with a full breakfast, lunch, dinner meals as well as breaks & snacks prepared so you concentrate on your plan at hand. I find it very rewarding and relaxing to have just one dedicated project for a retreat to make complete value of my time. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I am on a journey of circles this year and decided that I wanted to make a Denyse Schmidt quilt called Cog + Wheels which has mega-sized blocks and mainly circular sewing.

Kloster Heligkreuztal in Altheim, Germany

I designed my quilt using Denyse Schmidt's block and pattern in EQ7 using fabrics from several of her collections using orange, brown and black as a binding color scheme throughout the blocks. These seem to be my "comfort colors" when designing a quilt that is used by my family in our living room. I alternated the black tips to give it more of a scrappy look and a little less unified.

Cog + Wheels Quilt using Different Denyse Schmidt Fabric Collections

I learned from Katrin last year, it is best to cut all of your fabric and blocks before you go on a retreat which really allows you just to sew. I started cutting my fabric two days before the retreat thinking everything was under control. Boy, did I totally underestimated the time it took to cut out the fabric (and sew it together)! Fortunately, I was able to use my new little Roll Buddy.

My Roll Buddy

Even though I usually design my quilts on the computer beforehand, I usually ending up changing a few things around when the fabric is in front of me. I let the fabric talk to me during the sewing process. Sometimes it just jumps around on me and says something totally different than the original plan. I don't mean I sew it together wrong; it just looks better in real life than it did on the plan. I started to lay out the blocks to see if they looked as good as on the plan.

I got my station all set up in this lovely 80 square meter room which has a wonderful size for 13 sewists. I picked a location close to one of the many windows on the South side. We all brought additional lamps which you really need at night when the lighting fails.

Sewing Station Next to the Window

I finished up sewing the outer rings and placed them on a design board to see how I wanted them to work on the inside. Somehow I got really confused; I wasn't sure of my plan anymore. Nothing was looking right. I put them away for the night and started fresh the next morning.

New Arrangements for the Inner Wheels

I decided to stick with my basic original plan of using a light colored fabric for the background of the inner wheel ring. It took the entire day to get back on plan after I ripped out a lot of stitching. Then it was time for my reward after all of the inner wheels and rings were finished.

My reward for finishing the inner wheels

But I didn't stop here on Saturday. I kept on going. I was determined I would sew all finish all 12 blocks by sewing the outer solid linen fabric to complete the blocks. I finished the last block at 00:20. I was dead tired and turned in.

I learned the next morning I sewed one of my blocks together wrong. The outer corner triangles were bowed and not squared. I discovered I sewed the outer ring of just one of the blocks on wrong. You see, these are not entirely round but oblong. The seam which you see at the top of the picture should be rotated 45° to the right. The seam should be at the center of the orange checked fabric and not at the center of the black square. After I realized what I had done wrong, it was all easy street. I finished my quilt blocks and arranged them as outlined in the original plan (according to the outer rings and not the inner wheels).

The outer corner triangles are sewn on wrong.

Now it was the home stretch. I was going to finish the quilt top before the end of the retreat. I ironed all of my blocks and arranged them. I sewed row to row together. I used my beautiful window bank to keep the rows in correct order.

And then it all came together. This is one HUGE quilt top. It measures 66 x 88 inches. It is definitely big enough for a sofa quilt if not a bed quilt. I had no great idea of where to photograph the quilt due to the drizzly rain and overcast skies outside. The lighting inside was also rather drab but Beate helped me to get a fairly good photo in the stairwell! Tada! My Cog + Wheels quilt top finished on one weekend retreat.

Cog + Wheels Quilt in Kloster Heligkreuztal

I managed to get a better photo of the quilt top this morning after being amply ironed and de-stringed. This quilt is very different from many of the quilts that I have made, because it seems that the whole design is more important than the individual blocks. I feel that if you look at each block separately, it doesn't strike me or sing to me. But if you look at it collectively as a whole, it seems more impressive. I think it is because I am used to sewing on a smaller scale and these 22" blocks are so massive. What do you think?

Cog + Wheels Quilt Top

This quilt also took an extremely long time to cut out and to sew. Please don't underestimate this one. It may look easy, but it takes forever. I think it took me forever, because I was creating four separte blocks but alternating the black tips which requires an extra effort for sewing the blocks together correctly.

If you would like to see more pictures from our patchwork retreat, feel free to check them on on Flickr or read a blogpost from my friend Katrin who is also a member of our group on the retreat.

Thanks for stopping by.

a new journey of circles

Last year I participated in a lot of smaller swaps and made loads of pillow covers but only finished one large quilt - my easypatchwork Advanced Sampler (which I have not shown simply due to its large size). This is hard for me to believe, because I started out making only bed and lap size quilts. I love to "use" my quilts. I generally do not display my quilts nor my finished patchwork pieces; you might not even get that I am a quilter if you entered my home. My large quilts, on the other hand, are completely in use. We have our favorites around here which stay neatly folded in the living room.

Leaves a'Flutter, American Primer and the Man's Quilt are our favorites!

I decided I want to make another large quilt this year and have been looking around to see what really interests me. After more than 10 years of quilting, I want to sew what really interests me. Last year, it was on a journey of 60° triangles. And this year, circles seem to be catching my attention.

NOTE: I love men's quilts! I have always loved men's rugged, outdoor clothing-style. I still love it and realize I need this warm feeling in my living room. In total contrast to my sewing room which is white on white on white wood, my living room is dark on dark wood with a dark red sofa and dark quilts. I am not typically drawn to white/bright and colorful quilts for actual use. They just don't "comfort me." What is your opinion about this?

Around October last year, I started picking out circular designs that interested me and started writing them down to explore them in further detail. I first made the Little Bits Mug Rug by Alexia Marcelle Abegg. Honestly, that was one of the hardest circle designs I have sewn other than an adapted Western Compasses due to the tiny bock size of three inches. Segments less than one inch are hard to sew with a curved seam.

LBMR - Sewn with Timeless Treasure Tong Treat Batiks

One pattern that really caught my eye is this one from Denyse Schmidt. It doesn't look like a typical, traditional Drunkard's Path block. I like the white background and white segments included to make the "path" look more like a cogwheel. I was totally mesmerised by this block/quilt.

Pattern from Denyse Schmidt written in 2009

I ordered the pattern. Then I realized, Denyse Schmidt designs fabric too; fabric that I love!! (I actually have bought her fabric in the past, but didn't think too much about fabric designers or their styles nor my style.) I tried to order fabric around Christmas to maximize my € through sales in the United States. I was not successful as I wanted to be. My challenge was this: I didn't want to use just one collection; I wanted to use them all!! My basic color scheme was black, brown and some bright colors. I mapped out the quilt in my head and started ordering a few fabrics primarily from her Katie Jump Rope collection.

Denyse Schmidt Fabrics from the new Katie Jump Rope and (older) Franklin

After reading the pattern a few times, I decided I wanted to make the quilt with Robert Kaufman's Essex Linen in Linen and not Robert Kaufman's Bone as written. I thought natural linen might be too strong in color. It is also rather hard to interpret from a PC monitor what a color really looks like; I do not have any fabric store close by that sells RK linens. I looked around some online shops in Germany and in the US. Not one store sold all of these fabrics!! (The Essex Linen in Linen is almost bright white.)

Now it was going to get serious! It is not cheap to import great quilting fabrics. For every order I make, I have to include 25€ for shipping and add 20% (of the total order + shipping) for German Sales Tax (Mehrwertsteuer). Import tax is not included on orders less than 150€ (if I remember correctly.) When I make an order, I try to spend about 100€/$ to maximize my spending. I had to see exactly how much of each fabric I needed! How?

My New Collection of DS Fabric Charms

 Easy! I recreated the quilt with EQ7 so I could see how the fabrics played together and to find out the quantities of each fabric used. (Although my quilts usually look different than the planned idea, it is a great starting point.) I need a few more oranges and yellow and maybe another blue or green. I changed the colors and fabrics to my taste. I printed out my fabric requirements and checked off what I already had (ordered just two weeks ago.)

Planning it all Out

I looked for one shop that had all of my fabrics but that was not possible. No one had them all. In the end, I ordered from four different shops; Fabricworm for the original pattern, the Fat Quarter Shop, Pink Castle Fabrics and Fabric.com and am still waiting on a couple of fabrics. Once again, I had to maximize my spending and ordered a few more things too. Because if I am going to spend some money, I should buy more more beautiful fabric as well, don't you think?

And this is the last shipment. It literally arrived just 10 minutes ago. You know what that means don't you? Time to get started.

Last Shipment of Fabrics - now I must stop writing and start working!!

First up, washing fabric. I don't normally pre-wash except for backing fabric, but if the fabric/pattern designer writes that, then I must do it.

Thanks for dropping by!