Author: JayeL

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

American Jane Donation Top

American Jane Plus top in process
American Jane Plus top in process

After seeing one of the donation quilts quilted by Lee Ann last month (? or maybe the month before?), I decided to make another of the Plus quilts with a charm pack I have had for a long time.

The piecing is done with a charm pack from American Jane. I am working through charm packs I don’t think I will use in other work.

I like American Jane, but the colors are just dull enough that they don’t go with other fabrics I use. This charm pack has been hanging around my workroom for too long. It is time for it to go.

Because it is a charm pack and I am not using a pattern, I am missing 3 5inch squares needed for one more 9 patch. The sticking point for moving on with this quilt is finding fabrics that will do with the others so I can finish the last 9 patch.

My goal for this weekend is to find 3 charms (or 5inch squares) that won’t look out of place with the other fabrics. I am sure I have a red I can use, and probably a cream, but will have to look for a third fabric.

That Was Then This is Now

La Pass Month 7- original
La Pass Month 7- original

As mentioned, I had to change out some of the fabrics on Month 7. Month 7 looked like:

Notice the light green Fruit Snacks fabric on the pentagons on the right?

Now this rosette looks different. I didn’t want Fruit Snacks to be next to other Fruit Snacks, so I changed out the pentagons to the emerald fabric I used in Month 9.

Too many Fruit Snacks
Too many Fruit Snacks

I like the way it looks and the Fruit Snacks star points can be seen.

Month 7 reimagined
Month 7 reimagined

More Joining of Rosettes

The other day I talked about joining two rosettes. This achievement emboldened me to join another piece to those two rosettes.

Of course, joining more rosettes gets more complicated, because joining pieces are required. What I call ‘joining pieces’ are pieces that need to be added in between the rosettes so there are no holes. I am not sure why these weren’t included when we sewed the other rosettes, but it doesn’t matter.

Joining 3 Rosettes
Joining 3 Rosettes

It was easy for me to add one more rosette to those two rosettes I joined the other day except I had to include a joining piece.

When I set the three together, I saw the hole. I went and looked at the layout map we received and also at the book. The book, not clear in the best of circumstances, was pretty clear on this point.

This meant I had to figure out what to do. Or do nothing.

Joining 3 Rosettes-target
Joining 3 Rosettes-target

Laying the rosettes out allowed me to look at them to see how the rosettes fit together.

The circled point is where I had to fit in a fabric. I wanted it to look as though the rosettes fit together well. That spot is not is not ideal as it is not really any part of any of the three rosettes. 

The start point was already cut and basted. It is attached to the bottom rosette with a clip so all I had to do was decide on a fabric for diamond.

Joining 3 Rosettes-full
Joining 3 Rosettes-full

After looking at the whole piece I decided on the peach hexagon fabric. Look carefully in the middle to see it laid together in the spot. It kind of looks, which was my intention, like the peach and orange rosette is peeking through from behind the green rosettes.

I got distracted by finishing the Take A Stand bags, so I haven’t joined them together yet. I still may be able to do it before M11 arrives.

 

La Pass Joined

La Pass M10 & M6 joined
La Pass M10 & M6 joined

I finished Month 10 a few days ago. As mentioned, I am waiting for Month 11 to arrive. I started looking at the piecing directions for all of the rosettes and decided to dip my toe into joining some.

I was a little stunned after working out the details and doing the sewing. I am not going whole hog into joining all the rosettes, mostly because I have nowhere to store larger pieces. I do plan to join more as I have time.

I think the two look great and I can’t wait to see more of what happens as I join the pieces

 

My Take a Stand In Process

Take a Stand - pockets on, front view
Take a Stand – pockets on, front view

I keep calling this bag the Without a Trace bag rather than the Take a Stand Bag. Do you remember that TV show, Without a Trace with Poppy Montgomery? I liked that show.  I started the three on April 30, finished Mom’s in time for Mother’s Day and am on my way finishing mine. Yes, this one uses the same fabrics as my APfE v.2. They are a set. Will I make a Running with Scissors to go with them? I don’t know. I am done with ByAnnie patterns for awhile.

I was able to spend enough time on Saturday and Sunday getting the pockets on, concealing the strap holders and generally fiddling with the details.

I had to pay attention to covering up the strap that holds the shoulder strap. You can see it above because a triangle ring is hanging off the top. I originally cut those pieces of webbing too long. I couldn’t figure out what was going on when I attached the first one, on Mom’s. I finally did realize that it was too tall. I ripped it off, trimmed and resewed. Then I trimmed the straps for the other two. I checked the directions and know I cut them properly, so there was something I didn’t understand.

Take a Stand - pockets on, side view
Take a Stand – pockets on, side view

With that whole escapade fresh in my mind, I carefully placed these straps. Note they are placed so the end is covered by the pocket. That means that I had to be sure the end WAS covered by the pocket.

I eventually succeeded and now need to put the ends, the top zipper and bind everything.

 

 

 

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Purple & Gold Donation Quilt

Purple & Gold Donation Top
Purple & Gold Donation Top

I took some time to choose fabric for my Mom’s piece and was able to finish on Saturday. It is ready to hand in for quilting.

The batik is not an obvious choice, but I think it works. I chose it because of the bits of gold included in the surface. I also didn’t want an exact match to any of the other fabrics because they would blend into the border.

Purple & Gold Donation Back
Purple & Gold Donation Back

That particular batik, and its sister on the back, have been hanging around my fabric closet for a long time. It was time to use them up.

I don’t get a lot of fabric usage bang for my work, because the main part of the quilt was Mom’s fabric and work. Still, every little bit helps and the point is to make something beautiful so someone knows I (or someone) cares.

Amy’s Rainbow

Rainbow Strips - Amy
Rainbow Strips – Amy

Remember when I talked about Sew Day? I mentioned a future donation quilt (no progress yet). I talked about some Sew Day Improv I worked on with Tim and Mary to create a quilt that would keep someone warm and comfy. I also talked about basting La Pass Month 10. What I didn’t talk about -yet- was Amy’s amazing rainbow quilt.

The first thing I saw was the line of strip stacks laid out on two long tables.

Rainbow - first draft
Rainbow – first draft

As the day progressed, I began to see the piece take shape. Amy struggled with not having a complete set of colors/shades/tones to make a smooth transition between colors. She was determined to make it work. I could sympathize after working with the various Fabric of the Year quilts. Unlike painting, generally we work with certain fabric prints and can’t alter them (yes, I know there is fabric painting and dyeing, but you know what I mean) like painters can on the fly.

Amy's Rainbow - 2d draft
Amy’s Rainbow – 2d draft

The piece progressed well, I think. There was a lot of moving around of strips and a lot of people got involved.

Amy wasn’t super picky that everything flowed into one another. I think the rest of us were more invested in the outcome than she was.

Amy is cleaning out her workroom and I think this was a set of Allison Glass strips she wanted to use. I didn’t hear what her plans were for the final piece.

Amy's Rainbow - near final
Amy’s Rainbow – near final

I did not get a picture of the final piece. This is close, though, to the final layout.

Maria helped Amy sew, so the piece could get finished by the end of Sew Day.

The piece is cheerful, regardless.

Orange You Glad in Process

Cut Circles
Cut Circles

I have finished cutting out the circles and am now starting to pair the circles with the backgrounds. I hope to sew these this week in the evenings.

I didn’t really sit down and cut all of the circles at one time. Each time I had a break or a few minutes free I would cut 1 or 2. I finally completed the task a few minutes at a time over a few days.

Backgrounds and circles paired
Backgrounds and circles paired

The pressed cross is so I can line up the circles in the middle of the background. I prefer to line the circles up exactly even though this is a bit of an improv process.

Now I am not sure if I want to press the creased out then sew or just leave them in. I’ll have to press creases in again later, but I don’t want the creases to interfere with the sewing. I want the circles to be flat along the background.

Orange You Glad: selection
Orange You Glad: selection

I have sorted the ‘ready to sew’ backgrounds by the color of the circles. This is a selection of the blues. I want to match the thread color to the circle so it doesn’t show up much.

 

Life Less Tiring

Mother's Day Tulips
Mother’s Day Tulips

I should be less tired, but I’m not. DH was out of town, which should be a good time for me to rest, but I did an extraordinary amount of driving to be with him to attend some events.

Work has been stressful. I am working on getting a new contract, which will be in a different department. This means that I have to prepare my work to hand over to the next person. I know you are thinking “really? again?”. It is the nature of contract work. I am constantly having to get my contracts renewed or find new ones. It isn’t ideal, but I have a lot of flexibility, which I like.

Still it is all tiring and people in the department are whispering about my contract ending, which is just annoying. I am looking forward to some time off.

I haven’t done much sewing except for my work on La Passacaglia. I have had an hour here and there to do some hand stitching. I love that project. I think I will go work on it now.

See you later!

Orange You Glad Circles

Orange Bullseye squares - 1st Round
Orange Bullseye squares – 1st Round

The other day I talked about completing my squares for Orange You Glad. Now I am on to cutting.

Mostly I grabbed handy fabrics and cut squares out of them, then folded and pressed them. I didn’t spend a ton of time deciding on whether a certain fabric would fit in with the orange. I did eliminate fabrics as I was choosing, if they were too close to orange and wouldn’t show up or were obviously not suited to the project. I also eliminated all browns, blacks, predominantly white fabrics and fabrics with too much white in them.

How I cut circles
How I cut circles

I used templates I made when I cut circles for one of the previous versions of the quilts, Seeing Red, I think, but maybe Passionate Purple.

The paper template is a circle I made the right size by using a compass or a plate. I don’t remember as I had to use both for different sizes of circles we agreed upon for this project. The circle template is folded into quarters.

The scissors have to be sharp. I want a smooth cut the first time. I hold the paper in place with my left thumb and fingers, but you can also use WonderClips or pin the template in place.

Friend Julie has some great photos of making the templates, using the templates and holding them in place in her blog post today.

La Pass Month 10 in Process

La Pass Month 10 in process
La Pass Month 10 in process

I am speeding along in sewing the Month 10 rosette together. I will probably have to find another project on which work for the rest of the month. I am making good progress.

I changed out a number of fabrics this month. I added the coneflowers. I wanted a little space for the roses to shine. I wasn’t sure if the coneflower fabric would provide space, but I think it does. It also continues a mini theme from Month 2 (Rosette #1).I have a couple of other coneflower fabrics in different colors and hope to be able to add them in as well. I’d like to add at least one more coneflower fabric to balance out the two I already have.

I also used a Carrie Bloomston fabric for the center, replacing the Curiouser and Curiouser cat fabric. The rainbows don’t show up as well, but I still prefer the newsprint fabric to the cat fabric.

All the Bullseyes

I have a spot in my gallery for the Bullseyes, but it is unsatisfactory and I need to rewrite the page.  This needed, yet still undone, update spurred me on to show all of the bullseye quilts here.

I realized in looking at them that they are another color project like the Fabric of the Year quilts.

Finished: Original Bullseye
Finished: Original Bullseye

Original Bullseye: The black background provided a way for the other colors to shine out from the black.I like having each circle separate. I remember thinking how clever I was to include partial circles as well.

Seeing Red
Seeing Red

Seeing Red: The red background is bright and cheerful and I do like the way the loops are continuous.

Feelin' Blue
Feelin’ Blue

Feelin’ Blue: we decided that trying different shapes would be a good idea. I had to add background pieces to prevent jagged edges or partial squares. While I like this quilt, I prefer the circular versions.

Finished: Passionate Purple
Finished: Passionate Purple

Passionate Purple: this one might be my favorite, though all of the different quilts bring something special. I like the way the loops are finite and that they are different sizes. I hesitate to duplicate the idea for the recent orange version, but I am sorely tempted.

I really want to make quilts in this style from all the colors with my friends. I don’t want to do them by myself. The element of surprise when others add the rounds is part of the fun.

Sheffield in the Wild

Sheffield in the Wild
Sheffield in the Wild

I made a Sheffield Tote for Gerre as a gift in 2020. I make gifts because I want people to know I am thinking about them. I do know that what I think is great may not be great for someone else, but I don’t have hard feelings when someone doesn’t use a gift I made for them.

Alternatively, I am super thrilled when I see a gift being used. This ‘t the first time I have seen Gerre bring it. She says she uses it all the time. Whenever we sit near each other I see it packed with supplies. It makes me so happy that it is a useful tote.

Orange You Glad – First Round

Or maybe this is the second round?

Julie's Orange Background squares
Julie’s Orange Background squares

I received Julie’s orange squares last week and have been diligently cutting the fabrics that I will applique’ to the top. I had many of them cut, but not all.

First round circle fabrics
First round circle fabrics

The background squares are 10″ and, during this round, we are supposed to applique’ an 8 inch circle to the top. I do this by first cutting 8.5 inch squares, then cutting a circle from the square.

I am using mostly cool colored fabrics, as you can see. I selected these from the stacks in my fabric closet, but may switch some out if I don’t like the way they look.

Looking at the fabrics I chose alongside Julie’s backgrounds has got my mind working on which to pair. I feel excited!

Friend Julie and Adrienne are, presumably, doing the same to my squares and Adrienne’s squares.

We have a month to applique’ the circles to the backgrounds. This is a fun project.