These are the result of the Orange You Glad project
August Donation Blocks
Month: August 2022
La Pass Laid Out
We had a social meeting day this month. Most of the Board was out of town and it was assumed that a lot of members were as well. I invited the people from the Pink Door La Passacaglia (with permission from the Board) for two reasons. One to give them a chance to meet up and also to introduce some new members to the guild. Only one lady, Courtney, showed up. She lives in San Jose and is actually not a quiltmaker. She is only doing La Pass, which I think is really interesting.
The meeting turned out to be the same day as my knitting class so I rushed over from knitting for the end of the social. It was hair raising, a bit.
Courtney is on Month 4 and firmly with Team Turtle. She helped me lay out my La Pass, which was fun. It was fun to see it laid out and see how it is coming together.
We identified a couple of minor problems, which I noted and will fix when I have time.
I was glad Courtney came and I hope to see her again.
Knitting Socks
I have wanted to learn to knit socks for a long time. Kelly at Royal Bee Yarn Company offered one over the weekend and I signed up. I had to ask myself why as I struggled during the first class and doing my self assigned homework. I write about knitting about once a year. The last time was when I tried to knit a sweater, gave up and started another scarf. I do want to be a good knitter, but I don’t want to devote as much time to knitting as I do to quiltmaking. I want knitting to be a side activity I can pick up when I travel or when I am out of quiltmaking handwork.
The class was good and I like the style of socks we learned to make. I learned a couple of new skills such as decreasing in two ways.
It didn’t start out well for me, though. As part of the class, we received a set of double pointed needles (DPNs) and a ball of yarn. The DPNs available were wood or bamboo. I have some wood (or bamboo??) needles. Usually, however, I use wood needles with steel tips**. I like steel tips because the stitches slide on an off easily. I like the wood part because that means the shaft is not as rigid as on full steel needles.
I really struggled with the bamboo. In addition to not being able to get the stitches off the needles easily, my project came off the needles in transit from class to home. I couldn’t fix it, though I tried, so I knitted the whole cuff over again before class the next day. It looked a little better, but not much. I felt super discouraged and almost didn’t attend the second class.
That is not me, so I went and confessed all to the teacher. She offered to trade me her steel needles for my bamboo needles. I took her up on it. I was planning to buy a set of my preferred needles, but the shop doesn’t carry them. She moved my project onto the new needles and in the process discovered that one of my needles had a sliver in it. While not the complete problem, it was definitely part of the problem.
I like the style of the sock that Linda teaches, because there are no ridges on the heel. I feel now, like I can knit socks. The steps are not firmly lodged in my head, but could get there after a few more socks.
Things went a lot better with the steel needles and I ended up with part of a sock and the heel completed. I need to knit the foot part and then contact Linda, the teacher, to get help with the toe. I plan to knit the other cuff as well so she can help me with the other heel at the same time.
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Chunking Orange You Glad
I know it is all Orange You Glad all the time right now. I am almost done piecing the top.
I spent the last few days chunking the top. I have many chunks and the piecing is going much faster. I’ll probably be able to finish piecing the top tomorrow or the next day. Life gets in the way of sewing.
Cones and Hearts for Month 13
I am making good progress on La Pass Month 13 using the Cones and Hearts method.
I am pretty much using the fabrics provided so far. I did contemplate using different pinks for the outside pentagons (not shown), but decided just to go with what they sent.
I cut the large cameo print differently as, like the animals, I don’t want people faces looking out of my quilt. Also, I really like those pink bows.
Sewing Orange You Glad
I have finally sewed all the pairs of quarter blocks together. It took a long time.
I started on Saturday and finished on Sunday. Of course, I couldn’t sew all day both days, but I did spend a good portion of my time on the project.
One thing I can never get over is how much space is taken up by the seam allowances. The spaces in the photo (right) show how much space I gained by sewing the blocks on the left.
Once all of the pairs of quarter blocks were sewn together, the piece looks ‘normal’ again. Of course, I have to sew the pairs into blocks. Then we’ll see the spaces develop again.
Rainbow Color Strip Donation Top
I finally bit the bullet and started putting the Rainbow Color Strip Donation top together. Once I finished all the Orange Strip donation blocks, I needed another leaders and enders projects while I put the Orange You Glad quilt top together. I decided that enough was enough and to get busy on this top.
Finished is better than perfect, right?
As usual, I don’t have a pattern. While I sort of have a plan, it is subject to change based on the number of blocks. At the moment I am going with a width of 7 blocks plus sashing for the center of the quilt.I am reserving the right to make it larger once I can move the blocks to the large design wall and see what I have. I have a feeling I will need to make a bit larger, but I want to minimize making more blocks, if I can.
I don’t have enough space on my design wall for all the blocks I have made (remember most of these except the yellow are leftovers from the other Color Strip donation quilts). You can see the blue blocks and the white blocks in the photo at the top floating around. This is one reason why I feel so anxious about the various projects going on.
I need the space on the large design wall for two quilts. The Orange You Glad piece and the Rainbow Color Strip top are jockeying for position in my mind and it is starting to make me a little crazy. This is the point where I usually focus on one quilt, but I can’t (don’t want to??) in this case. I need leaders and enders and the sashing for the Rainbow Color Strip top is great for leaders and enders. And I really want to make progress on the Rainbow Color Strip top.
Putting on the sashing is relatively easy and makes the blocks ready to put together. I may have to add more sashing to the end blocks, if I make the quilt wider, but we will see.
All of this means I am not quilting the Tarts. It is still on my mind, don’t worry. I just need to get through this patch of piecing crazy. This is a great example of why UFOs are really not good for my process. If I had finished the Tarts back in 2010, they wouldn’t be making me crazy as well. It is really hard to enjoy my quiltmaking when I feel pulled in so many directions. Yes, this is a #firstworldproblem and one of my own making.
Diagonal Nine Patch Finished
The Diagonal Nine Patch is finished. I am really pleased with how it came out. Of course, Colleen’s quilting makes it, but my choice of the various white on black fabrics looks really good, too. Even though the blacks have little to no contrast, the variety of prints makes each square stand out well.
I am also pleased with the striped binding. Striped binding is the best and I am glad I am able to use some of the stripes I have been saving.
I really like this pattern. I think it has a lot of potential. I got an idea for one of the Niece-phews quilts I have been meaning to make from making this quilt.
I do like the back. That large print on the left is really good. I am also pleased with my use of it. Some prints are great as they are – not cut up.
A number of these prints were leftover from the Cityscape (Black & Red Improv) quilt. I am glad I used them. They have been sitting around for awhile.
I finished the Diagonal Nine Patch just in time. The baby shower is this weekend. I may have just enough time to make a storage bag for the quilt. We’ll see.
Orange You Glad Leaders & Enders
I used the trimmings from my bullseye blocks to make some more donation blocks. These started out as the orange Color Strip blocks like I made before. However, the strips were pretty thin and I quickly tired of sewing them together and making, what felt like, no progress.
I decided that arranging the strips vertically would work. I, later, realized this change would be an evolution in the process (or series). Now I have quite a few of them and soon will be able to make another donation quilt.
I am NOT starting it, though, until some of the other projects are off my design wall.
Yellow Strip Donation Blocks
I finally just buckled down and made some yellow strip blocks for the Rainbow Color Strip Donation top. I couldn’t stand that nothing was happening with that quilt anymore. I needed to make some progress towards getting it off my design wall and off to someone who needs it. This was the way.
I cut some strips from yardage and made the blocks. They aren’t as interesting as blocks made from scraps, but in the grand scheme nobody will notice.
I have more of the strip set and could have probably cut two more, but I thought five was plenty. I think the Rainbow Color Strip Donation top will be on the large size as it is.
More Sewing Orange You Glad
I made good progress during the week. All of the blocks are sewn together.
I spent quite a bit of time during the week sewing as well. I am trying to enjoy this process, but it is hard. It really has nothing to do with this quilt; it has to do with the fact that I have too may projects at the same stage at the moment.
Regardless, I am paying close attention to the blocks and where they go. I am making minor adjustments even at this late stage. The quilt is looking good, I think
La Pass Month 13
Month 13 arrived the other day. I am so excited to finally be able to get going.
Pink Door sent an entire yard of the cameo print! Lindsay and I were speculating on how many bolts of that print they had to buy to send everyone a yard of the fabric. Many bolts!
I snapped the photo and dumped the fabric in the washer. I did forget to wash the small piece of striped fabric, but I have some that is already washed so I’ll still be able to cut and baste the fabrics while I collect more fabrics for washing.
Now to basting!
Golden State Visit
Last week was super busy and one thing I did was visit Golden State Quilting. I mentioned the visit briefly the other day when I talked about the green for the Pantone Project. I am not going to do a full on Quilt Shop Review as I just did one in January and everything there was essentially the same.
As I said, they have really good fabric at Golden State. Parisville Deja Vu was not on the shelves yet, but they had an excellent selection of Tula Pink fabrics, really good Halloween fabrics, nice dots and a lot of other fabrics. My mind swam with possibilities. It was hard to resist, but I want to use up fabric. As I much as I love buying fabric, I need to use more before I buy more. I will say that the selection of tone-on-tones allowed me to choose one I needed for one of the beige/brown colors in the Pantone Project.
I decided that I will sew at least some pillowcases for my college bound nephews, so I checked out the Halloween fabrics and bought 3 different ones. The YM will get some that honor my grandcat, Marie.
I still love their selection of rulers. I thought about buying another Quilter’s Select ruler in a different size (I bought a 12×12 (ish) back in January), but decided to save my pennies for now. That brand doesn’t have the 4.5 x 8.5 size that I love – or at least Golden State doesn’t carry it. I think I will get a 6×12 inch version next. Perhaps that will be small enough for me to use more frequently. Julie bought a 4.5 x 4.5 to use for the Pantone Project and I am thinking that I may buy that size as well.
I am not in desperate need of Soft & Stable, but I bought a package anyway just to have on hand. I am thinking of getting Colleen to quilt some S&S for me so I don’t have to do that step.
I also bought some Emmaline frames, thinking I could use them for my Sew Sweetness patterns. One is completely the wrong size. The other is the right size, but has bent ends, so I don’t know if it will work. I can always use the frames.
We went out to lunch after visiting the shop and spent about 3 hours talking!
Friend Julie wrote a good post about the space/shop.
Diagonal Nine Patch Returns
Colleen sent the Diagonal Nine Patch back. It will definitely be ready in time to head to the baby shower.
I like the quilting she did. The swirls in colored variegated thread look happy. Colleen does a great job and I am really happy to be getting some quilts back in the finishing loop.
The quilting is more obvious on the back despite the active prints I used.
I also think that the striped binding looks great. I have some time to sew it down while I wait for La Pass Month 13 to arrive.
I want to use this pattern again with 2.5 inch squares, but also one with larger squares such as 5 inch squares.
More Orange You Glad Rearranging
The other day I talked about using 3/4s of the squares to make a design. Since then I have received the rest of the quarter squares and put them up on my design wall. It is so great to have more options.
I have been rearranging and changing the locations of the quarters every time I walk into the room or look at the design wall. I noticed that we have, mostly, all used cool colors for the first circle. That makes highlighting different fabrics a challenge. It is not impossible, but I have to look carefully to make sure each fabric is showcased.
I want to get to sewing, so at some point I need to stop rearranging and start sewing the blocks together.