Quilting Daily's Book Review and Progress on my Latest Quilt

I got another great book review! 

Quilting Daily gave it a rave review (see below) and it hit the #2 spot for quilt books on amazon. Plus it has held the #1 New Release spot on Amazon for nearly a week now!  That is awesome for an art quilting book!

I had to take some screen shots.

#1 New Release!

Perhaps I should have edited out my toolbars, lol. Here is the review by Quilting Daily - they really liked it!

Quilting Daily Review 

 Unfortunately, they spelled my name wrong.  Eh hem Mr Editor, that is Cathy Geier, not Cathy Gerier.

Everyone gets confused spelling and pronouncing my name  I remember telling one person on their third try that it sounds like geyser only without the 's'. Alas, they had never been to Yellowstone so that wasn't helpful. 

 This week was a busy busy week for me. I had to put my writing hat back on and compile 3 essays for the American Quilter's Society book on the 9 Patch quilt exhibition.  (New Quilts from Old Favorite, my quilt Interwoven was accepted).

The first essay was about my inspiration and design, the second was about me, and the last was about a technique.  I chose to write about the way I use a tear-away foundation to piece.

So, back to the quilt I'm working on.
I like straight lines and straight rows in this kind of pieced landscape. The straight lines lend a formality and a linear quality to them making my landscapes look crisp and sharp. Because of this, I use a tear-away foundation to piece.

Strips pinned to my design board

 The material in my blog here augments the steps shown in my book.  I can't put in every little detail like the book shows, but it will help you visualize and become more familiar with the technique of using a tear-away foundation to piece strips.  

Beginning to sew the individual segments into one long strip

 When I'm getting ready to sew a strip pieced landscape together, I start with sewing together those individual strip segments into one long strip. Up until this point, I've just pinned angles on the strip ends as I'm designing.  

So, I unpin the strip leaving a marker (that old sewing machine needle in the above image) and carry it to the ironing board.

Pressing the angle

 Once that angle is pressed, I open up the fold and sew it in place. Then I replace the completed strip set back on the design wall  using the marker to show me where it goes.

Strip is completed and back on the wall

 I usually sew most of my strip segments together like this. At times though I don't sew them I glue them in place right on the foundation. This is because there are times when I need to be very precise when I place these angles, such as when I need to create a smooth flowing hillside.  

This portion of the this quilt top - the sky - is not one of these times though.  Nor are the strips at the very bottom of the landscape. At this point in my construction I have sewn strip segments into strip sets in the top part of the sky and in the bottom half of the landscape.  I have not done so in the middle portion of the quilt where all the mountain peaks are.

I draft fold and sew lines along a tear-away foundation. (Comes on a bolt, 44-45 inches wide, see my store for the product I sell.) These strip widths are determined by the width of strips I cut when I was designing and arranging the landscape on my design wall. 

Fold/Sew lines, gluing and trimming strips

 Because I know I'm going to use a foundation to piece, I cut my strips a scant 1/8 inch narrower than the lines I'm going to draw on my foundation.  In some places, I'll need to trim off strips that are too thick - you want to see those fold/sew lines when you look at your foundation - this helps keeps the fabric strips from bunching over when you fold them. 

Arranging and gluing strips to the foundation

 When I transfer strips to the foundation I can keep track of there position by using my graph paper map - every square is about 2 inches, and using a measuring tape. For example, in the above photo, the strips I've just glued in place are approximently 6 inches up from the bottom of the landscape and 12 inches from the left side as indicated from the green pencil. 

Pieced and glued to the foundation

 I'll be using 2 sections of the 45 inch foundation, this is the bottom section, all filled with completed strip sets.  In the photo below you can see the bottom section layed out on my messy floor.  (I'm on a roll, who can stop to clean up!?)

If you have sharp eyes, you'll notice that I've changed the shape of that foreground mountain.  I decided it looked to humpy in my graph paper drawing and the more pointy peaks would be in keeping with the mountain scene I'm trying to build. 

Bottom section

 Before I start work on the top part of the landscape, I'll do some  fold and sew portions of the bottom part just to keep it stable.  All I do is fold along those lines I drew and stitch 1/4 inch from the fold using a large needle and tiny stitches.  
The foundation is strong enough to support each strip and keep them from getting stretched and distorted. It keeps my straight rows straight! 

Ellie Cat

Ellie Cat is telling me that I've worked long enough and it is time to play with her.  She can only take so much neglect you know. I'll continue on with this quilt later and next week post again with more progress.

Oh, once again, I'm not showing you every little thing about using a tear - away to piece. It takes up nearly a whole chapter in my book! (Lovely Landscape Quilts). I'm just showing you some of the steps to whet your appetite.

I'm evil like that.   :)

Comments and Questions?

Happy Quilting!