Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am absurdly pleased with how these halves came out. Some parts of sewing them into a 3D shape were not easy, but not too difficult either.
As mentioned, I used a mini-charm pack so the backs don’t look as tidy as my half hexies do. I don’t care. I am using pretty supplies I have. I also had no time to pick out fabric and cut small pieces, so the mini-charm pack worked well.
“New” is a little bit of an exaggeration. I have been working on it on and off since I was in Sisters. I finally got it right and am much happier with the result.
As is my process, I have already ripped the piece out several times. I finally realized that I didn’t like the weave. I was at my first knitting circle (local shop allows people to come in and free-knit once a week) and I talked to some of the ladies about it. I asked about going down a needle size or two. One said to knit a swatch. Since I don’t usually knit with a pattern, I have never knitted a swatch. I decided to do it with one needle size down. I wasn’t sure what to expect and ended up really liking the result.
Now that I have made some progress, I think this was a good choice. I always use the suggested needle size on the yarn wrapper. It worked okay this time; just not for me.
I also reduced the number of cast-on stitches, which I also think was a good choice. The image above shows the two bits of knitting. The top piece is the first piece I worked on using size 5 needles with 50 stitches cast on. The bottom piece is the piece on which I am working now. I cast on 45 stitches and am using size 4 needles.
Aside from the size, because of the differences in cast on stitches, I don’t see a difference in the weave of the fabric. I noticed that the top piece was much looser (more holes) as I was working on it. Seeing them together makes me wonder if the change was worth the effort.
I am not sure what I was expecting, but it is surprising how well the smaller needles work. I love the small needles.
After writing the recent EPP book review, I saw my DH trying to teach my niece to juggle. Since then DH has started to practice juggling again. He used to be able to juggle pins with a friend. He doesn’t have many hobbies, so I am glad he is doing this.
All Points Patchwork has a pattern/guidelines for EPP balls using pentagon shaped papers. I bought some pentagon papers, grabbed a mini-charm pack and decided to start on some juggling balls for my niece. I plan to put some Beanie Baby pellets inside when I stuff them in order to give them a little weight.
I plan to make a bag for storage. I’d love to have them done by Christmas, but that is a little ambitious. We’ll see.
I spent a happy evening with friends, catching up and solving the world’s problems. As an added bonus one of them wanted to learn to make paper wreaths. She had found another tutorial (not mine!) and brought paper.
I love making these paper wreaths as they look so impressive. I want to enter another in the fair, but the large one has been entered twice. The judges commented that they had seen it before. Thus, I decided to make a series of small ones. Either I will make a mobile or some kind of wall sculpture. Not sure yet.
It was fun to work with my friends, share paper and tools as well as give them the tips and tricks I have learned.
This particular grouping looks really nice together – the attraction of a fabric line, I suppose.
My quiltmaking supplies and tools are put away while I care for the YM, so this may be the last group of patches for FOTY 2018. There are still a few days until the end of the year, so we will see.
It’s the last one for this quilt. I will make these again, though I may need to vary my colors. I can’t say I am sick of turquoise, but I might be in this pattern.
I have been cutting a little bit for Ring Toss, but it is slow going. The rotary templates are all weird shapes and I need to get into the swing of it. Still, I wanted to test a block to see about highlighting the rings. Thus, I cut a bunch of pieces the other day with the intention of making a block.
I am still thinking about whether to get the booklet. Nobody at the guild seems to have one to loan to me and I am sure I don’t need it for very long. I just want to look at the photos of the border since there are border pieces and I don’t see how they fit into the rest of the quilt.
My first thoughts, after looking at this block for a day or so, is that it is too small. At about 9″, the block is too small. It isn’t that I can’t piece it, I can. It is that the shapes are so great that they are lost in the tiny piecing. Also, the piecing is too fiddly for the number of pieces in the block (17).
At this size, I am not making a whole quilt. I could upsize the block, however. I tried drawing it, had some EQ problems, got help and now have an 18″ block to try. I won’t have the templates, however, for this upsized drawing. I think I will print templates, try one block and see what I think.
Resources:
It’s kind of strange that it is December already and 2019 is around the corner. Frankly, I am done with 2018, so this is good news. Still it is strange.
Doing Good
Remember the Girl Scout Hearts I made? The finished quilts are starting to appear and they look great.
My guild is collecting new makeup for high school girls affected by the Camp Fire in Butte County, California. If you have purchased some new makeup, leave a comment with valid email and I will get in touch about getting it to them.
Cindy Needham is collecting tools, solid fabrics (they have enough others) and pre-cuts for quiltmakers who lost everything in the Camp Fire (Northern California, Butte County) and need to get back to sewing. Read through her feed to see what is needed. Rotary cutters, rulers and mats are a big desire.
@lebethbryant has designed a pixelated California quilt. It looks like it is made from charm squares and it is a great design. She is offering this pattern online with 100% of the proceeds going to the California Wildfire Relief Fund. There is a link to purchase the pattern in the profile at the link above.
Patterns, Projects & Tutorials
I have updated the AQ tutorials page here to include the paper wreath tutorial. It is a nice, relatively quick hostess gift.
I saw a link to this older tutorial, The Awesome Bag, and thought it would be easy enough for a quick, last minute gift. I haven’t made it, but I do like the look of it.
Charlotte, of the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady podcast and blog, also has an Etsy shop (and 2 kids, a DH, is a midwife and….WOW!). I was thrilled to see that she has a great dragon pattern for sale. She has a few other things in the shop, but it is not overwhelming and the dragon is the gem.
Northcott posted a free basic apron pattern that would make a great hostess gift or quick raffle prize.
Charlotte Hawkes of Scrapitude fame has a new mystery quilt, A Handy Dandy Scrap quilt. The first cutting instructions are now available.
I am looking for a pattern to keep my KitchenAid stand mixer clean when it is not in use. I found one, but I am not sure about it. Do you have a pattern you like?
I have a very active and important (to me) journal practice. I write every day. I should say that the days I do not write are few and far between. What I do works for me, though I wish I had the time and ideas to make my journals into a piece of art. Still, I am always tempted by other journal projects. I saw the Right Brain Journal project and am tempted. My sister suggested doing it together. One thing I don’t like is that there is no option to purchase a bound version. It is only a digital download. Digital downloads have their advantages, but I am not sure I want a bunch of sheets of printer paper, not to mention the ink cartridges printing a 70+ page digital download would require. Also, I don’t want to work on printer paper necessarily. Perhaps I could purchase some nice paper that would run through my printer or through the printer at Kinko’s? Are you doing this project?
Media
If you only click through to one link make it this article on the benefits of craft in your life. If your partner or children or neighbor is giving you crap about how many quilts you make, how many quilts are piling up or how much time you spend on quiltmaking, show them the article. The most important thing? Don’t listen to them. Crafting is good for you, good for your mental health. Do it more.
Charlotte, the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady, wrote a great post on sharing photos from shows. There is a bit about copyright, but it is not a piece about copyright.
Anne of PlayCrafts has posted a life update. Aside from being interesting, she has posted some great quilts and quilt WIPs.
Jen Carlton Bailly of BettyCrockerAss.com shows how to use her templates to create a Holly quilt. This is not a tutorial, but it is easy enough to follow the design if you know about piecing.
Modern Quilt Studio is starting a ‘new’ tradition of reflecting on accomplishments for the year. You can read the prompts on Craft Nectar and post your responses on FB or Instagram. I put the ‘new’ in quotes since I have been doing roundup posts for several years. I do them in my own way so they are useful for me.
Behr also has a color of the year. It is different than the Pantone Color of the year, Living Coral.
Tools, Fabric, Supplies & Notions
Sara over at Sew Sweetness introduced her second line of “minikins” recently. I saw a tweet where she wrote “Minikins Season 2 acrylic templates are now in stock! Are you making a lot of the season 2 projects for holiday gifts or craft fairs? These acrylic templates are a huge time saver – use your rotary cutter to quickly cut out your templates”. These seem like a great idea for the small bags included in the second Minikins package.
Honest Fabrics print panels that mimic the pieced quilts of designers such as Anne Sullivan. The colors on the website are beautiful. I haven’t seen one printed out in person. They would be great for someone who enjoys quilting, but not piecing.
I have heard a lot about mini-bolts and wrapping fabric on them for easier storage. I never really investigated the process fully. Recently I came across a page on the Paper Pieces site selling the supplies and explaining how the process works.
Laura Kemshall reviews the Husqvarna Epic. Her work is amazing anyway and the piece she did on this machine is also amazing.
Inspiration
I love the colors and design of the Boulder MQG QuiltCon Charity Quilt. It reminds me a lot of Sarah Goer’s Planned Improv designs.
Laura Kemshall pointed me to a shop and Gallery in Munich. She was invited to display her quilt there. As the shop is local, the site is in German. Click on ‘Kundengalerie’ to see the gallery portion. You can see quilts made by their customers (Kunden!).
Katie, of Katie’s Quilting Corner, posted a link to Tom Hovey the artist who does the food drawings for the Great British Baking Show. I love the drawings. Even though my shelves are overflowing with books, I have been wanting a book of these illustrations. His website is almost as good and includes a section on fruit slices as well. Very inspiring.
I made my last ATCs for awhile last week and forgot to take a photo. At the CQFA meeting on Saturday, I was the only one who brought them. It was decided that we weren’t going to do them going forward. I will kind of miss the rush of getting a small work of art done, but I will also not miss the stress.
Sadly I forgot to take a photo of the 4 together, but Julie brought hers along when we had lunch and I took a photo of one of them.
I stole a few minutes from a very busy weekend to sew. I need to finish the MetroScape back and binding before Thursday. I am taking quilts to Colleen to be quilted. She is finally feeling better and able to quilt a bit again, so I can pick up the Stepping Stones #2 as well.
I decided, after I cut up all the dot prints, that I hadn’t used many of the stripes on the front, so I would use them on the back. I spent a lot of Saturday evening recovering the stripes from making the binding. They all of have a big diagonal strip cut off the length.
The binding is finished, which is always a relief. I have enough fabric for the back. I just have to make it work. Right now my issue is what to put in between the three horizontal lines of fabric.
I also received a gift at the guild Winter Extravaganza. I was so pleased to get a gift from Mary! She went above and beyond by making me a very cool portfolio, a little basket and a pincushion.
As soon as I opened the package, my mind started whirling about how I would use all of them.
I have already put the little basket to use as I worked on the back for the MetroScape quilt back. It is now designated for selvedges, though I have already filled it up.
I am thinking that the portfolio will be put to good use for English Paper Piecing fabrics and papers. I use my first Sew Together bag for needles, pins, thread, scissors, etc, but I don’t really have a good place for the papers and the fabrics I have prepared. This might do the trick.
I laughed when I saw the pincushion. As you may remember, I have made this style of pincushion for others in the guild. I never made one for myself, so Mary did it for me!
I finished another Spiky 16 patch over the weekend, so my collection is growing. I need to start thinking about how I will set these blocks. I could do another quilt like either n.1 or n.2. I am trying to think of something different. Something different might be a small addition like Mrs. K added to her corners.
On point settings are kind of a hassle, but so effective. I have two more blocks to make before I have to decide.
Resources:
I signed up for the BAM swap and received Lindsay. I don’t know her very well. I talked to her briefly at a recent meeting as she rummaged through a stack of donation blocks I had recently donated. You know I love it when people use my blocks. 😉 It is such a great feeling of collaboration.
I kind of like doing the swaps,though this one was hard. I kind of gave up on the theme, though Rhonda, the organizer is pretty lax about sticking to the theme. I have to learn to be more like her.
I went through my patterns after I saw that Lindsay requested a bag. I have a lot of bag patterns and need to start plowing through them. I came up with the Classmate Bag by Terry Atkinson. It is not a large tote sized bag, but I thought it would be useful for going to class.
I have heard good things about Atkinson designs patterns and the company certainly has a lot of patterns out. I can’t remember ever making something from their line.
This bag went together pretty well, especially when I was able to concentrate after Thanksgiving.
The problem I always have for these types of swaps is fabric. I don’t buy a lot of the lines that modern quilters seem to swarm over. I chose some leftover Tula Pink fabric from a project for which I made a block for Kelly.
It looks pretty good on the outside, I think. I am surprised to see how well the pattern of the fabric matches up. That was a happy accident.
This was a good enough pattern to make me think that I might make this bag again for another friend. Stay tuned.
I made a few more donation blocks in November. Between working on the Spiky 16 Patches and traveling a bit, I didn’t get as many done as I would have liked. However, I am taking the positive route and thinking that every little bit helps.
Even though I try, I still seem to end up with a majority of blue donation blocks. I’ll have to see about changing that. Or not. 😉
More imagery from my Disney trip. This was a new image that I had never seen before and it really appealed. The detail is fabulous. In hunting around for an image for today, I thought of this. It didn’t turn out to be great for color, but I think some of the palettes are interesting.
Of course the default palette is neutral heavy! Still there is that Sea Glass (great name, don’t you think?) fabric that lightens up the piece. Also some of the other colors have blue and purple twinges (undertones?), which makes the palette look at little less dark and depressing.
The first palette I made is a little all over the place. It isn’t very cohesive. Of course, I like the Lake and Niagra fabrics. It is interesting that the color names are related to water, though perhaps not surprising. I am not a fan of the Rose. It looks sick to me.
I went straight to monochromatic, which was marginally successful. I ended up with two of the same fabrics. C’est la vie. I do like the blues. I think my favorite is the Azure, but the Robin’s Egg is nice, too.
Palette n.3 is all over the place as well, though not a mess, I think. I don’t remember seeing Natural before. I have done a lot of palettes, so I could just not be remembering. The Wasabi looks like sunshine yellow on the bottom, which I like. It has more a green tinge on the side. The Garnet does not have enough red to look Garnet to me. I think it looks more plummy.
N.4 might be my favorite. It isn’t quite monochromatic, but stays well in the cool shades realm. I like the way Surf looks more purple on the bottom. I think it adds to the palette even though I think one of the websites used to create this might be off. I think the lights look really good.
Finally, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and create something with more gold. Palette n.5 heads into the neutrals pretty quickly. I am not a very big fan of this particular palette, but it is different and it does remind me of Mrs. K’s gold Spiky 16 Patch.
What will inspire you today?