I finished my Quilt

Posted on February 29, 2024 by mimik

This was a project that was easy to work on in little spurts for the last few years. I just went back and the first in progress photos were from August 27, 2021.

August 30, 2021- testing out the block design.

September 2021 I was working on the border-

And then I got swept up in the prep for moving. No time for fun projects. At Christmas 2022, I packed up a bin full of things to send to Chicago because my kids were going to drive a truck. So, I didn’t see it again until the end of April 2023.

This is the backing that I made in our first AirBNB-

Putting all the layers together at the end of May.

And then I started quilting in June.

At the beginning of February, I found the binding that I knew I had somewhere, and so it was time to finish this quilt!

I wanted to get photos before we moved out of our rental- it had the perfect porch to take the photos!

Front-

Back-

The story behind this quilt is that it is full of nostalgic fabrics for me! The fabric eras start with the 1960’s, my mom’s dresses and caftans, my neighbor’s Marimekko curtains, 60’s and 70’s Indian print fabrics- skirts, a halter top, more curtains, Indonesian block printed fabrics that my Mom loved to sew with in the 70’s. There is fabric that I got in High School that I loved so much that I hung it up in my college dorm room. Marimekko scraps that I bought at a yard sale in the 70’s. There are also some 80’s and 90’s fabrics that I could never part with. I really can never get rid of beautiful fabrics! So many memories and so much history!

My Toile scrap quilt is done!

Posted on February 17, 2020 by mimik

Here is the big picture. It is hard to see the toile images in the blocks, so I have put some detail photos at the end of the post. I am very happy with it! It is all made out of fabric from my stash: mostly from my scrap bins. I will admit that I cut out a few larger toile images to have some bigger blocks in the center.

And the back is made of more toile scraps; mostly from the slipcovers from the sofa in my childhood home (60’s – 70’s). Amongst the scrappy bits of red and white toile, was a different pattern than the slipcover. I am guessing it was a sample piece that my Mom was trying. I had to piece the backing since there were damaged areas and some of the color differences are due to fading. I love the story it tells.

Here is a close-up-

On a bed-

Some details-

Thanks Ben!

In case you are wondering about the toile scraps- I use toile to make the tattooed people. I buy fabric that has a white or cream background, with black, brown, or blue printing. I cut out the doll pieces and then I dye it to various skin tones. Most of the toile in this is off-cuts or scraps that I couldn’t bear to throw away. I don’t use any red on white toile for my dolls.

First Doll of 2020

Posted on January 31, 2020 by mimik

Phew, I managed to finish one before January is over!

Her dress is made of vintage Liberty lawn that I got from my Mom. She has a cashmere sweater and a silk bow at her ear.

I have collected many random little trinkets over the years- that is the category that I’d put that dragonfly pin into. Sometimes they find their place.

I’d like to pretend that I could work on the dolls and also have a side project but I am very bad at it! My quilt is coming along and I wish I could keep to my plan to only work on it for an hour or 2 in the evenings, but it is a big distraction. Here it is, waiting and tempting me in the morning light. (I managed to resist because I NEEDED to post something today!)

January Update

Posted on January 17, 2020 by mimik

January is flying by and I haven’t finished a single doll yet! I’ve been working on another quilt; one that I started way back in August 2017. I had actually gotten most of the blocks done but couldn’t focus on how to put it together so I set it aside. I got in the mood to finish it once the kiddos had all gone back to their homes and Christmas was put away. So here is where I started up again, spreading it all out on the guest bed.

This time I kept telling myself, Don’t over-think everything! Finish up the blocks and it will all come together. Sewing away.

And the top is all finished!

Next, figure out the backing. I had a bin in the attic with red and white toile items from my Mom’s house. There was a fabric sample, a sofa slipcover, and drapes. The slipcover was on our living room sofa from the mid-60’s to mid-70’s (?). It had worn spots, faded areas, and some holes, but there was still a ton of usable fabric. I took the slipcover apart and washed all the pieces. I used it to piece together the backing along with the fabric sample. I didn’t use any of the drapes so I still have loads left!

And here we are, the quilt top is sandwiched with it’s batting and backing with a million safety pins and I’ve started to quilt.

I’ve discovered that I love hand-quilting, now that I am over being worried about making it “perfect”. I’m in no rush, I can spend time here and there, listening to an audio book or podcast. It is very relaxing. I love how the stitching gives the blocks an added dimension.

And now that the quilt is all set up for me to stitch when I feel like it, I have gone back to some doll work although I haven’t gotten very far yet. Kitties are waiting for their clothes.

They will have to wait a little longer though. I am off on a trip to NYC this next week. I am looking forward to spending lots of time looking at art, eating good food, window shopping, people watching, and all the other fun vacation things. Got any recommendations for my trip? I’d love to hear!

Summer Quilt

Posted on August 7, 2019 by mimik

I haven’t been finishing any dolls in the past few weeks. I had a few other sewing projects that I REALLY wanted to finish up before the end of July. I didn’t quite make it by that deadline but I did finish them. The big project was a summer quilt. We had the wool quilt on the bed since I finished it last fall but I wanted a cotton quilt. And here it is!

Here is the back-

I only used fabric that I already had plus reclaimed fabric from several of my me-made clothes. It is approximately 90″ x 90″ and goes on our queen size bed. The batting is wool. I hand quilted it. Here are some in-progress and detail photos.

Finding a space and table big enough to sew on the binding.

Step 1 of the binding- the machine sewing.

Step 2, the hand sewing.

After the binding was on, I threw it in the washing machine, delicate cycle. Then dried it outside for a few hours. It was still a bit damp and I put it in the dryer. I didn’t notice any shrinkage but it was certainly wrinkled after it’s wash and dry.

And here is a pic from my first night, test run. It was perfect!

The other sewing I worked on was 2 shirts and I will post them next.

I finished my quilt!

Posted on November 6, 2018 by mimik

It’s voting day today in the US. I hope you have all gone out and made your voice heard. I try to remember, nobody is going to be the perfect candidate/solution. Let’s just try to move things toward a more equal, kinder, healthier country. I thought I’d post my finished quilt today for a bit of non-partisan happy. 11-6-quilt - 1

I told you about starting the quilt here. So much of moving forward on this quilt has been about giving myself permission to not strive for perfection. It is so freeing. I didn’t worry about getting all the points to match up, the back (inside) seams are a mess, and I hand-quilted it. The stitches are all over the place, getting better and neater the more I did, so now they don’t match at all! Guess what- it is now finished and I will never notice. And I actually got it finished because I wasn’t making myself crazy about the details. Honestly, the hand-quilting was very relaxing. I spent an hour or a few most days until it was done, listening to audiobooks or podcasts. Nice.

Early on quilting stitches-

In case you are wondering- no I didn’t use any kind of frame. I draped the quilt (queen size) over a plastic-topped folding table- 24″ x 48″. The weight of the quilt kept things taut. The plastic top made it relatively easy to move it around as I worked. Also I could stitch down to the plastic and not worry about scratching something nice.

This pic is before I put on the binding.

The whole thing! Thanks husband and son and neighbors’ porch!

After I got the edge binding on, I put it through the washing machine. That is where this project hit a snag. The quilt came out all fuzzy (bearding I believe it is called). The quilt is all wool and the batting is also wool. The wool batting fibers migrated up through the wool fabrics. I used a clothing brush on it, back and front, and came away with a basketball size pile of wool fluff. The quilt looks fine although it is still a bit fuzzy.

On the bed-

And here is the back since I know you want to see-

September newsy post

Posted on September 10, 2018 by mimik

I am trying hard to get back into the doll sewing groove after spending August working on other things. My garden is looking MUCH better after hours of weeding. Of course that job is never finished. The main thing I focused on during my doll break was this-

Yes, I made (most of a) quilt! The way I ended up doing this is so classic me- I was doing some attic cleaning on one of the cool days (the weather in August was all over the place!). I came across a small plastic bin of wool triangles that I cut out when? Maybe early 80’s? I brought them downstairs to deal with- decide if I would move them along or what? I started playing with them and then… they caught me! I had been planning on working on the quilt I started last summer but, oops.

Here is the bin-

Now that I’m done, I think I still have enough triangles to make another full size quilt! I didn’t use any of the darker greens and very few of the bright plaids. My entire plan was alternate rows of cool and warm colors, light and dark triangles. Pretty simple and it came together very smoothly. Here are my strips, laid out on the ironing board.

Then laid out on the bed, sewing the strips together.

I had to move down to the dining room table because I was causing destruction in my studio. My work space is not set up for large projects!

And, the top, all sewed together with border.

I sewed together a backing and sandwiched it with a wool batting. It is now all basted together and rolled up in my studio, ready for me to decide how I will quilt it. I am very happy with how it looks, and it was fun to work on something that was just about color. Kind of funny that what I did on my break was a different kind of sewing- a busman’s holiday, right?

Other things that happened- a day at the beach, a trip to Sturbridge, MA for the Vintage Fashion and Antique Textile Show where I found lots of great little buttons for my creations, freezing peaches, and not enough attic cleaning but really, who wants to do that anyway.

I am trying to get back to work. I’ve been fussing with a few designs- a mermaid that I had to put aside when I was so so busy. I made the mistake of not making a test design when I cut out pieces to dye. When i sewed up the first one, I was not at all happy with it so put all the pieces aside for later rework. Now is the time. Also, I have been thinking about a new way of making the lumberjacks so I wanted to test one before I start cutting out a pile. So far, so good! When I am prepping for a show it can be difficult to slow down and backup and figure out what is wrong. I am in a good head space for that right now.

And 2 more things. My Etsy shop is chock full of all kinds of goodies so if you’ve been thinking you’d like a man or a fox or an owl, there are lots to choose from. Secondly, I am thinking about teaching 2 classes at my house this fall- tiny worlds and owls. I will post more in a separate post this week. Stay tuned :-)

Eleanor’s quilt

Posted on February 10, 2014 by mimik

I made a quilt for my daughter who is having a rather big birthday this month. And, I flew to Chicago to deliver it. Some things you just have to present in person. Here are some pics from the process, most off my phone so they aren’t all that great.

Starting out, mid-January-

The center of the quilt is a Japanese gift wrapping cloth. I made a similar quilt in 2010. Using the Japanese fabrics and piecing, quilting and then assembling. There were 5 main pieces- 2 sides, the center, top center panel, bottom center panel.

I machine quilted each section, then put them together with a combination of machine and hand stitching.

Then sewed the sections together until,

It was all together! I will confess that I am most certainly not an expert quilter and some of my machine quilting was wonky enough that I had to remove it and quilt some parts by hand. So, it’s a mixed hand/machine piece.

It’s fun to do something completely different, every once in a while!

it’s been quiet here

Posted on January 15, 2014 by mimik

But not so quiet in my actual life. Since my last post, I finished my prototypes for West Elm and sent them off. Fingers crossed that all proceeds smoothly from here! Then I started prepping for a class that I taught at Gather Here over the weekend. I was having a hard time staying focused on that task and did a lot of cleaning, sorting, picking through, inventory-ing before I’d have to give myself a stern talking to and get back on track. It’s a January kind of activity. Anyway, the class was terrific!

Everyone worked hard and made some wonderful worlds.

And on Saturday night, I started a quilt. Because, you know, it’s January!

I booked a trip to Chicago in February- Hurray! Now to look into all the fun stuff since it will not be a working trip…. hmm- how does one do that?

quilt details

Posted on September 25, 2010 by mimik

since you seemed interested…

here are some close-ups. This fish fabric was something that my mom bought for me when I was in high school (think early 70’s). I loved it so much, I could never bear to use it. I have finally gotten to the point where that seems very silly. I worry a bit about how the older fabric will hold up.

This is a piece of Japanese cloth- probably a gift wrapping cloth. The weave is slightly looser than a standard quilting cotton but still a solid fabric.Â I have been collecting Japanese cloths for years. My mom had some that I got when we cleared out the house. I got other from various places over the years- I visited Japan in 1983, my brother gave me some (he lives in Kyoto), there is a Japanese Cultural group in town and they have a yearly yard sale. I am always keeping my eye out.

This piece is more of a gauze fabric. Maybe a towel?

Another gift wrapping cloth-

And the top swirls are another one of the gauzy fabrics. I hope they hold up. The chain design cotton along the sides is from a roll of kimono fabric that my mom bought, sometime between 1965 and 1986- she went to Japan a few times during those years.

None of the main pieces are pieced- just big blocks. The strips of red and navy on the front, and golds on the back are pieced. On the back, that center section is Marimekko fabric. The stripes are printed on it.

I have made great progress on my studio clean-up. I think I am about to call it done… for now. There are always a few things that I can not deal with. They usually look like this-

Sort of my studio version of a junk drawer…

Doll

the art and craft of Mimi Kirchner

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