After finishing the first M4 rosette, I moved swiftly on to the second for the month and am making good progress on that one as well.
I am only partially done. The border with the black has about double what you see in the photo, so I have more sewing to do. I may be able to finish it tonight. We’ll see.
The center is not Tula Pink fabric, as you may have noticed. I decided 1) I didn’t want zebra faces on my quilt and 2) I wanted to try combining pieces into a larger piece. I talked about this a little bit before.
La Passacaglia M4, Rosette #7 – adding the border
One of the things I have to figure out when I sew each rosette is how to add the pieces. Putting them into chunks and then sewing is much better. Sewing as many straight lines as possible is the best.
The yllow lines show you the segment I put together before I sew the piece to the larger segment. I sometimes sew the three pieces with the teacup and then the three pieces with the black diamond. It depends on my mood.
I keep hearing talk about ‘getting your Sew-jo back’. At the moment I have plenty of sew-jo, but there have been times where I have not had any inspiration or motivation. I wanted to sew, but somehow couldn’t.
There are a couple of quilts I have made specifically to get me out of a slump. One was Thoughts on Dots. It came to mind over the weekend, because the YM dragged it out to sleep with. It was on the cold side this weekend and his room has a lot of windows.
This quilt is painful to read about. I was definitely struggling with my process and you lovely people got to read about every minute shift in my thinking. The point about this quilt is that it is plain squares that I rearranged and rearranged until it seemed done. It got me back in the groove.
Lesson: cut squares and rearrange them.
Playmat
Much earlier than Thoughts on Dots was a little Playmat I made for the YM when he was a baby. According to the information I have, I made this quilt in 1997. I remember making it envelope style. No binding.
I don’t remember why it is all on the bias, but you can tell I was making improv quilts even then. These were scraps of fabric. The lobsters were kitchen curtains we had when the YM was born. The scribbly fabric was purchased in a basement shop downtown on my lunch hour. I am sure that shop is long gone, but I remember the thrill.
I don’t know about the different styles I have employed to get me back in the groove, but here are two of the resulting quilts.
I know you have been wondering if I gave up on La Pass. Short answer: no.
Long answer:
Last year, in September, we started working on a puzzle that DH had bought for me about 15 years ago. We hadn’t done it before last year because we had other things to do (e.g. raising a kid) and the puzzle was 6,000 pieces.
Yes, you read that correctly: SIX THOUSAND.
Clementoni 6,000 piece Neuschwanstein puzzle in progress
I had wanted a Neuschwanstein puzzle and I am pretty good at jigsaw puzzles, but even I was daunted by 6,000 pieces. Additionally, I could see that at least 3000 of the pieces were trees or sky. Not fun. A challenge: yes, but not exactly fun. However, during the pandemic things changed. Also, I tore a ligament in my foot. Sewing not to mention hauling the boot up and down the stairs to my workroom was difficult.
So, we happily started working on the puzzle. The castle part was relatively easy and we finished that in a few months. Then progress slowed to a crawl as we sorted and re-sorted the greens of the trees and the flat blue of the sky. Pretty soon, I felt lucky to put 4-6 pieces in per night. Since we didn’t have anyone over for months, it was no problem that two 6 ft folding tables were taking up space in our living room.
As a result, my normal hand sewing time was usurped by the puzzle. At first this was ok, but now I have two bindings and La Pass to work on. Since I wasn’t making good progress on the puzzle, I was getting annoyed with it. Since we were planning a more normal Thanksgiving this year, we had to decide what to do with the puzzle.
Three person operation (2 shown)
I was all for giving up. I like to finish things as much as the next person, but DH hadn’t worked on the puzzle in a while and I didn’t want it all to fall on me. We debated and I let him win. We transferred the puzzle to a quilt, laid another quilt on top and rolled it up. This was a 3 person operation, not including photography.
Fast forward to post Thanksgiving. Our living room is free. I can see the TV from the couch. I have no puzzle sitting in my living room waiting for me to put locate the one piece I can fit in. YAY!
La Pass M4 Rosette #6
So, I sat down on Friday after Thanksgiving and started sewing EPP pieces like a demon. Leftover chores from hosting still demanded my time and attention. Also, my mom and stepdad came over to see my son, so I had to give them lunch. In between all of this, I sewed and I finished one of the M4 rosettes.
I was kind of shocked at how fast I blew through this. Granted, there is a lot less sewing that the big rosette, but still. Up until the other day, I felt like these took forever.
M5 is in the mail or will be momentarily. I’d love to get M4 done before M5 arrives. I still haven’t done much of M3, but if I can get M4 done soon, then I can work on M3 until M5 arrives and I have some hope of catching up. Fingers crossed!
You can sew 2 or more borders together first then put them on your quilt top and miter them
Blends prints well
Lines up linear designs such as stripes
Add some pizzazz to a block that needs something extra, especially if you have to add coping strips
How to Miter:
Cut borders
Cut top and bottom border strips to the quilt top side lengths, plus an additional 2x the border width plus 1″. The 2x the border width gives you enough space to make the 45 degree angle. The extra 1″ is added for insurance. You can always add more “insurance”.
Formula: quilt top side lengths plus (2x the border width) plus 1“
Example: When the top of the quilt is 45”l and you want the side borders to be 5”w: 45 + (2×5”=10)=55”+ 1” =56
Sew the top border to the quilt top, starting and stopping ¼” away from the ends of the quilt, backstitching at each end.
Repeat for the other 3 borders. The corners will be flapping around.
Fold the quilt top in half diagonally, right sides together, creating a triangle.
Line up two adjacent borders; for example, the top border and the right-side border.
Fold quilt in half diagonally
Place the ruler along the 45-degree line.
Draw a line
When lined up, draw a line using a pencil and a ruler along that 45 degree angle and extend it over the borders.
Pin firmly in place.
Locate the stitch line you made when you sewed the border to the quilt top and begin sewing there.
Sew from the stitch line out toward the end of the border, directly on the pencil line.
Backstitch at the beginning and end
Sew and open to reduce bulk
Open up the quilt top to check the miter. The corner where the three seams meet should lie flat when viewed from the front. There should be no tucks or gaps. The borders should also be square.
When the corner is perfect (or at a point that you’re happy with it!), refold the top to reveal that 45 degree stitching
Trim the seam (the extra border length) to 1/4″.
Press open to decrease the bulk of fabric at the seam corner.
I hope all of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving have a wonderful day. For those of you who don’t celebrate, have a wonderful day as well! One thing for which I am grateful are you, my dear readers. Thank you!
I took some of the made fabric I had assembled for the Yellow Improv donation quilt and made a journal cover.
I felt like I was taking away from the donation quilt, but I’ll be needing a new journal cover soon, so needs must. I figure I have a lot of scraps, so more donation quilts are on the agenda.
This one turned out to be just a smidge small, so I had to stretch it to get it on the journal (Miquelrius 6.5 in. x 8 in**).
Yellow Journal Cover – front and back
I kind of used what I had rather than arranged the scraps because I didn’t think of using the pieces I was working on for a journal cover until I had already made most of the pieces.
I still have quite a few equilateral triangles from the Flower Sugar Hexagon quilt I made a long time ago. I am trying to use them up, but there seems to be a never-ending supply.
Yellow Journal Cover – inside front cover
I am not very enamored with the inside. That corn fabric doesn’t look great outside of the Food quilts. At least it reminds me of the three food quilts I made and the people who received them.
As I may have mentioned, I have stopped adding fabric to the inside and just let the flannel be the other side of the cover. It makes the project go more quickly and makes the cover flatter. Of course, it doesn’t use as much fabric.
Yellow Journal Cover – inside back cover
I think I have one more Miquelrius journal to use after this one, then I will switch completely to the Leuchtturm journals.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I was over at Tim’s house sewing the other day and he commented that I do like my complicated bags. It’s true!
Inside Outside Pouch Exterior
I saw an Inside Outside Pouch in the La Pass group made with the dripping rose fabric and I really liked it. I have been wanting to make one for ages, but haven’t had (or maybe made) the time. The Inside Outside Pouch is a stand-alone Aneela Hoey pattern. You might remember that I made one before. It has a lot of zippers.
The issue isn’t really the sewing. It is the cutting out. No matter how hard I try I do not want to spend time at home cutting out fabric. It’s really stupid, I know; I just can’t seem to get over not wanting to spend any of a long stretch of sewing time cutting.
I went over to Tim’s the other day and took stuff to cut out there. That’s where I cut out the fabrics for two Inside Outside Pouches. It seems to go so fast when I am with him. I guess we chat and laugh and the time seems to fly by.
I came home and sewed and made a good start. I am partway through the exterior. It is much easier the second time around.
Awhile ago I bought some sparkly vinyl from Sew Hungry Hippie. Vinyl can be so boring. I thought a little sparkle would spark (HA!) a pouch up.
Sparkly Vinyl
I have never paid much attention to the thickness of vinyl. Patterns do say to get a certain gauge, but I tend to use what I have on hand.
I had the opportunity to cut out some Inside Outside pouches the other day and decided to use this vinyl. When I unrolled it to cut my pieces, I found that it was a lot thinner than the vinyl I am used to using.
It doesn’t seem to be inferior in any way to the vinyl I have on hand. It is also easier to sew through.
Sparkly vinyl in a project
I think it looks pretty good so far; not too much. Stay tuned for the finished result of my efforts.
Decovil is described very well in a video by Sara Lawson. It is flexible, but also strong. This is the first project in which I have used it.
I like the way it makes the bag feel. It is also thick, which means that keeping it out of the seam allowances is important to me. In the photo above, you can see the beige layer on the top. You can see how it is much smaller than the the other layers. That is the Decovil. It is probably a little smaller than it needed to be, but it will work.
Sometimes I print out 2-3 templates and cut one for interfacing, which is smaller then the others. Most of the time I guess.
Note:
Decovil Light = 525
Decovil Heavy =526
I’d love to hear your experiences with Decovil.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
As I said the other day, these were a pretty fast gift to make.
The tutorial is one page of instructions plus the template for the darts. The tutorial makes total sense and isn’t difficult or complicated. I wanted to see what other tutorials were available so I put “bowl cozy tutorial” into Duck Duck Go (a search engine that doesn’t track your movements) and got a number of blog posts and videos.
Two Bowl Cozies (bottom)
Crafty Gemini has a video tutorial for a more more petal shaped cozy. The Caffeinated Quilter tutorial has thinner triangles for darts and the back is pulled around the front for a border/binding. Tara Reed’s blog post tutorial reminds us we can use orphan blocks or ‘made’ fabric as parts for the bowl cozy.
Bowl cozy side view
One reason I like this pattern is because of the angle of the darts. It would fit one of my soup type bowls really well. We have some larger bowls that we use for chunky dinner (not leftover) soups and stews. Those might fit better in a larger cozy with steeper sides. The good thing about this pattern is that you can adjust it and use the same directions. They only thing would be to keep the angles of the triangles consistent.
I think you could also adjust the shape of the corners to make different looks.
Bowl cozy side 2 view
I am trying to decide if I want to make a bunch of these for DH’s cousins and siblings. While I can make them quickly, I would still have to pick out fabric. That takes time just because of the logistics. As well, most people won’t know what they are, so I would have to make a little tag to let people know how to use them. I also think one is kind of a mean gift. What happens if one gets dirty? I would want to make two for each family. I suppose I could start with one and see how things go. I’ll have to talk to DH and see what his thoughts are.
Try one out. Even if you decide not to make them as gifts, you will have something useful for your kitchen.
I started this project some months ago when Sara Lawson had the Percheron Pouch as a project of the month. I cut it out, did some interfacing and then put it away. After making the bowl cozies over the weekend, and moving the pieces of the project around my workroom 834 times, I decided to work on it.
The Percheron Pouch is part of Minikins Season 3. As mentioned previously, the Minikins are series of small pouches and bags that Sara releases periodically. Each series has 12 or 13 patterns and they are mostly great shapes.
Samsonite train case
Samsonite train case open
The Percheron doesn’t seem like a pouch to me. It reminds me of a ‘train case’. My mother had one. They were intended for cosmetics and small items and the bag was often included as an option with suitcase sets. The one I am thinking of was Samsonite.
I also took the opportunity to use Decovil. I never used this interfacing before and am not 100% clear on 525 vs.526, but so far I like how stiff it makes the top and bottom of the bag. Stay tuned for how it actually works in the finished bag.
Awhile ago, Mrs. K made me a bowl cozy.I never thought I needed such a thing, but I use it all the time and it is very helpful.
Bowl Cozy in progress
Someone told me about a bowl cozy tutorial and reminded me of that great gift. I decided to try it out over the weekend.
They are fairly easy to make. The process goes quickly.
My issue was sewing. I wasn’t sure whether to sew all the way to the corner, so I didn’t do it at first, because of the change in height of the layers. The batting bunched up as my sewing machine foot got to it, so I started sewing from the batting on the other corners. This looked bad, so I went back later and sewed to the edges.
I made some progress last week on La Passacaglia M4 after awhile of not feeling like I made progress.
Rosettes 6 & 7 are the focus of Month 4, though I am a bit confused, because Month 3 mentions Rosettes 6 & 7 and they are completely different rosettes. I’ll have to clarify.I’ll take a look at the pattern, too, and see if I can tell.
Rosette 6 (?) in process
I combined the center of the top (in the photo) rosette to use that piece of Joel Dewberry fabric.
I thought of using the zebra fabric as the center per the pattern, and even cut it out. In the end, I just didn’t want animal faces looking at me from my quilt, so I tried out the technique of combining paper pieces into one shape. I didn’t get the spacing quite right, so there are places the points don’t meet. I know I will have some leeway when I take out the papers. Also, in the grand scheme, some small technical problems won’t be seen.
Rosette 7 (?) in process
These are all parts of rosettes as they will be sewn to other pieces and look at thought the rest of them are under other rosettes.
I am pleased to be trying something new. I really thought I knew all there was to know about English paper piecing. I am finding it is much more than wrapping fabric around paper and sewing the pieces together.
Remember when I went on and on about this quilt? I still love it and am still proud of the design.
Recently, I saw that Barbara Brackman wrote a post about the Carpenter’s Wheel block.
She was asked to write it by the Accuquilt Go** people to celebrate their new Carpenter’s Wheel die. She references a video about the pattern in her post.
Barbara shows a lot of different quilts, tells you how and where to find the patterns in Electric Quilt and Blockbase and discusses the pattern in general. It is a really interesting post.
I am not sure I would have used this die for my quilt. I didn’t know what I was doing in terms of fabric or layout when I started. Still, I do think the die is a good idea if you want to make even one of these quilts. The pattern takes a lot of cutting.
My Carpenter’s Wheel quilt is for sale, so let me know if you want to buy it.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
After quickly cutting all of the pieces for M4, I started sewing them.
I have seen other people in the BOM group combine some paper pieces into a larger piece and use a bigger motif. I decided not to use the zebras in month 4 and using a Joel Dewberry motif seemed like a good option.
I worked on it in the car as I was going to an event so I made good progress.
La Pass M4 Center motif – back
The way this is done is an interesting concept. You have to tape individual pieces together then wrap the fabric around that larger piece.
I thought I knew how to paper piece, but I am learning a lot from this project and the group.
