Hallelujah Rhapsody

I was planning to show the finished quilt after I explained the rest of the steps that went to complete it.  However, I came across an online Quilt Festival that requires a post showing a finished quilt.  It is at Amy's Creative Side and the entry deadline is May 23.  It sounded like a fun activity so here is my entry.

I learned how to make this quilt from reading Ricky Tims' "Rhapsody Quilts."  I learned new techniques and feel that I am a better quilt maker for the experience.  It has certainly opened up new avenues for designing quilts because I now know how I can sew ideas that once would have seemed impossible.  I used to look at quilts with strange seams and appliqué and wonder how on earth they were made.

TIP:  Challenge yourself.  You'll be surprised what you can do.

Hallelujah Rhapsody

I named it "Hallelujah Rhapsody" because that is how I felt when I finished it.  It was a lot of work, but I enjoy challenge and complexity.

I made the label from a photo of the quilt (address removed):

This quilt was the first one I ever entered into a show.  It didn't win anything and I will tell you why in another post, but it did get juried in.  That is a major first step toward winning something.

TIP:  Don't be afraid to enter a show.  The only thing you can lose is the entry fee, and if you are not juried in take some classes, make some more quilts and improve the quality of your sewing.  Practice.  When you are juried in, it is exciting to see your quilt hanging in the show, and the judges' comments are invaluable.  My competence and confidence were both given a boost when I began to show my quilts.

Today you see the finished product, but I still plan to write a post on sewing the appliqué and another on blocking quilts because those topics are both relevant to this quilt.

Scissors and Appliqué

Those of you who looked at this blog yesterday may notice that my post is missing.  I really goofed up the sequence of events for building my Rhapsody quilt so I deleted that post and am starting this phase over.

TIP:  Don't beat yourself up too much when you make a mistake.  Wish I could learn that one! Do as I say, not as I do.

The next step in my Rhapsody quilt is to get out the paper scissors and cut apart one of the full size, freezer paper designs.  The pieces must be carefully marked in order to tell what pieces will be used on what fabric.  We each have our own sense of organization and each of us will mark in a way that makes sense to us.  I keep everything pinned on my design wall when I am not using them.  I also pin the small version with fabric glued to it onto my design wall.  

After carefully cutting the pieces I iron them onto the RIGHT side of the fabric, and cut it loosely about 1/2 inch around the freezer paper.  I mark the registration lines in the seam allowance.  Now I pin my fabric to stabilizer and stay stitch about 1 needle width outside of the freezer paper.  My stabilizer of choice is Stitch 'n Ditch, and more than one layer can be used if necessary.

After the stay stitching is complete I cut away the excess fabric to a scant 1/4 inch.  At first I got really fussy and measured this, but decided it was a waste of time so now I eyeball the seam allowance.  I can remove the freezer paper now and use it for the next piece.  I needed a total of four of each piece.

Now comes the real fun of designing appliqué to dress up this quilt fit for a king.  I get ideas from books, shapes around me, doodles, Zentangles, Dover Books, Internet, Art, clothing, nature and my garden among other things.  I draw my designs on tracing paper in a very large tablet.  From my large reference copy of the background I trace the shape of an individual background piece.  Then I doodle and draw until I have an appliqué that I like.  I cut it out to the shape of its background piece and pin it to the big reference copy.  Eventually I can see what it all looks like together, and will make changes as needed.

In this swatch you can see the background pieces onto which the appliqué is sewn

(pink, dark blue, light blue, green).  Those seams won't be sewn until the appliqué is placed and sewn.

This is an example of one motif finished on the quilt.  The flower is simple, the curves are fairly open and the points are not too sharp.  I also did some feathers in appliqué.  I had planned to quilt feathers there, but I chickened out because I didn't feel my quilting skills were up to the task.  Ultimately, I had a lot of practice quilting on this quilt and it improved my competence beyond measure.

TIP:  Appliqué designs can be simple or complex, but they need to be sewn down to the quilt top so don't let them get too complex for reality.

TIP:  I love tracing paper because is soft to draw on with my pencil.  It is easy to erase.  It is easy to trace mirror images if necessary.  It can be set over both the paper copy and fabric to visualize the final result.

TIP:  Think ahead.  Some parts of the motif in the above photo are awfully close to the seam line.  I have learned to make adjustments so the appliqué is a bit smaller and allows more leeway at the edge.  This reduces anxiety when it comes time to sew the seams together.    Easy though: too small is not aesthetically pleasing.  

Fabric for Rhapsody

Did you have fun creating a design?  I always do.  I love what Paul Nadelstern says about creativity:
"Please, let's not allow external pressure to dictate that we conform to an imaginary standard based on the mythological perfection of the quiltmaking legacy.

My next step is to go back to the little 8x8 inch initial drawing and assess the fabrics that I want to be my background.  The drawing is just that:  a background that will support appliqué.  I cut the fabrics to fit the various elements in the small design and glue them to the appropriate spot on the dull side of the freezer paper with glue stick or double-sided masking tape.  A mirror can give an idea of what two or more triangles will look like together, but I prefer to take a digital photo, bring it into the computer, and rotate to see how the four corners will look together.

I no longer have a photo of my chosen fabrics for the quilt I am describing so I just filled the spaces with color on the computer to give you the idea.  Below is the total design with color.  It would be more lively with real fabric.

Now that I know what fabrics I want where, I go back to my full size freezer paper corner (20x20" for this quilt, which will give me a finished quilt about 40x40"), and make a copy of that full size corner.  Did I mention that if the drawing is not done on a perfect square, the pieces won't fit together?  It pays to be fussy at the very start of the process.  I have no way to do a machine copy so I just hunker down and carefully trace it by rubbing or using a light box.  This will serve as a reference copy in case I need it down the road, and it pays to do it carefully.  Ask someone who knows about this!

TIP:  Don't have a light box?  If you have a plexiglas extender table for your machine, take it to a table or the ironing board, put a goose-neck desk lamp underneath and you have your lightbox.  No fuss, no muss, no expense.  You can also buy a square of plexiglass and set it on book stacks leaving space in the middle for a lamp underneath.

When I am satisfied with what I have done so far, I take a ruler and draw lines on the freezer paper that are parallel to a straight edge through all the elements to indicate the fabric grain.  This kind of quilt can easily go wonky with its seams wandering all over the grain and bias.  Cutting the pieces with grain in mind will minimize or eliminate potential problems.

Pardon my inaccurate drawing.  I did it on the computer for this post, long after finishing the quilt.  

This is why I draw my designs on paper with pencil and eraser! 

TIP:  I use a colored pencil for the grain lines to avoid mixing them up with seam lines.

TIP:  In spite of my slipshod example, I must stress that accurate lines and a perfect square make a beautiful quilt.  Skewed designs will not work and you will end up wearing a turban after pulling out all your hair.  The sloppy line design above will NOT work because the square is not perfect nor is the diagonal.  You can see where the fit is going to be pulling, rippled and rumpled.  My original was done carefully by hand and it paid off.

How Do You Make a Rhapsody Quilt?

I used to look at some quilts and wonder how on earth anyone could have sewn them.  On a whim I bought Ricky Tims' "Rhapsody Quilts," then discovered it meant doing a lot of machine appliqué, which I did not want to do so I closed the book and hid it in my library.  Some months later I picked up the book again and discovered that he does his appliqué with a machine blanket stitch.  I loved the look and tried it out with great success on my Bella Bella Blue quilt for the flowers in the center and corners.  I was ready for a new challenge.  Thus began the designing of my own Rhapsody quilt.  I will share an overview of the procedure for the interested and curious, but if you really want to make one of these quilts I highly recommend purchasing the book for in-depth directions as I do not intend to rewrite the book here.  There are no patterns...you must do your own.  Even my overview will take more than one post.

Initially I cut a square about 8x8 inches from freezer paper.  Size here is not critical as it will be used only for establishing the basic lines of a design.  I prefer a pencil and eraser rather than the computer for this process.  I folded the paper on the diagonal, shiny side inside, and drew a shape on the dull side to form a border line.  Then I drew a few lines below the border line, straight and/or gently curving.

TIP:  A mirror is helpful to see what the design will look like after the mirror image is transferred to the other side. 

When I liked what I had drawn, I refolded the diagonal line of the square so the shiny side is out and used the side of a fork to rub over the lines until they showed up on the empty, dull side of the square.  Remember doing that when you were a kid?  Magic!  Then I opened it up, traced the markings so they were more visible, and I had the main building block of my design.

TIP:  You have to rub the lines with enthusiasm and check often to see if the lines transfer.  They will be light, but should show enough to draw them accurately on the dull side of the paper.

TIP:  Remember that the diagonal line in my drawing is black like the seam lines.  In actuality it will only be a fold line and the elements that cross that line will each be cut in one piece.  Try it.  You will see what I mean.

Each line (except the diagonal) will be a seam so I checked carefully to make sure that all the seams and their intersections would be possible to sew.   It is important to plan out how to put this together, so I numbered the pieces in the order they will be sewn.  I also like to see what the design will look like when I put the four corners together so I scanned it into Illustrator and rotated copies of the corner to see the whole.  Mirrors work too.    

Finally, I transferred one corner of the design to a large piece of freezer paper, or two taped together, to equal 1/2 the measurement of the finished quilt.  This must be a perfect square.  I copied my lines freehand onto the large freezer paper folded diagonally just like on the little square.  I refolded it shiny side in, rubbed, and traced the design to the other dull side to complete the full-size square corner.  I added registration lines so I could line up the seams correctly...like notches in clothing construction.

TIP:  Allow an extra 1-2 inches outside the border to provide leeway when the quilt is done and ready to bind.  I missed that part of the lesson and I ran into difficulties at the finish line.

Give it try and see what it looks like.  It is fun.