Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I finished this quilt at the beginning of last month, but forgot to post the finished quilt. August was busy!
One of my SILs brought it to the new baby when SIL traveled to the area where my niece and her husband live. I was glad not to have to mail it.
I am pleased with how it turned out and the juxtaposition of the same design in different colors. The first D9P was for this baby’s brother and is almost the opposite in color of this one.
I took the pieces with me to Sew Day on a whim and actually made some progress. Mary C helped me to measure my head to confirm I actually have a teen head. I do!
Once that was established, which I admit was holding me back from making progress, I decided to cut out the pieces and get them ready to sew.
I made one change. Instead of cutting out four pieces for the brim and sewing two together I left that piece whole. It will look like a donut. I did check the directions and think it will be fine – I think it will save me a couple of seams and keep the pattern of the fabric intact. I have plenty of fabric, so if it doesn’t work then I can do something else.
I forgot the interfacing I planned to use so that will be a project for another day.
I finished all the blocks for the Ombre Weave and think I will change the layout to highlight more of the Os that show up in the design. The red I added looks good. The piece overall isn’t as depressing as it was before.
I sent two EPP Balls to a friend from work. She just had a new baby, but also has a 2 year old.
I wasn’t planning on sending an EPP ball to them, but they are so easy to make and seem to be a popular gift that I just sent them along.
The two year old has taken over both for the moment, which is fine. At least there are two, one for each sister.
Here, Big Sister is showing the EPP Balls to the newborn…. and hopefully not smothering her!
I had time last week to trim blocks and cut more pieces for more blocks. I was nervous this quilt would be too small for a teenager, but it is getting larger. It won’t be a huge quilt, but it will be nice for cuddling.
I am thinking I may use some of the ombre fabric I bought to make the Ombre Hearts quilt as the back. We’ll see, but I don’t think I will be making that quilt.
I have made some progress on the Green Improv #2 donation top. This is the second green improv, though the first one was called The Green Thing. Perhaps I should call #2 The Swamp Creature. LOL!
I started using the green scraps I had already pinned together in the green scrap drawer. It was easy to make progress by using them as leaders and enders while I worked on other projects, such as the Ombre Weave quilt. It is amazing how pieces grow larger if I actually work on them!
it is about 36 inches wide now. I’d like the piece to be minimum 40×40 inches. I don’t really want to put a border on it. I’d like it to matches the other quilts in this series, but I may, if I can’t get it large enough. I was thinking of scattering bits of improv in between sashing. I would want to do that with green solids and I don’t know that I have enough green solids to make the idea work. It is a thought I’ll keep in the back of my mind if I need it.
I was able to finish Ends n.18 over the Labor Day Weekend. DH was out and about participating in various activities, so I had time to concentrate on clearing up projects that were hanging around.
I know Labor Day was a long time ago, but things are busy and I am sewing quite a bit.
Didn’t have quite enough of the grey dots for the background, so I added in a solid grey that has been hanging around for a long time. I have quite a bit of various background fabrics, so I just decided to add it in. The quilt top is about 48×48 inches, which is a nice size.
The back is very much off balance. I thought of putting the scrappy bit in the center, but couldn’t be bothered taking more time on it. It looks kind of cool as is.
I went looking for blocks in a bin in the top of the fabric closet a few weeks ago. I found a lot of interesting things. One thing was the blocks from the Denyse Schmidt book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts**.
In 2009, I worked on the Hop, Skip and Jump pattern by Denyse Schmidt. In the referenced blog post, I talked about templates! You know I don’t mind templates, but this pattern having templates was ridiculous. Now I would just start sewing and not worry about the exact angles. I guess I didn’t know any better then.
I put these in the donation pile for the guild as I wasn’t planning on making any more of them. Not my thing. Too boring. I am sure someone will make a great donation quilt from them.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s 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 startled a week or so ago when I passed by a restaurant advertising its new hours. The sign read 9 – 11…. and that is all I saw. I had to stop and read the whole sign. I was upset that whomever put the sign up didn’t consider how it would look. I guess we can’t forbid “9-11” from showing up in everything.
There are now adults who weren’t even born on that day. There are even more adults who were too young to remember. Do they even care? I still ask myself if anything has changed. The same old men are still in charge. There are still people dying in the Middle East. I am not excusing the radicals; I just don’t know if there is anything that can make everyone tolerate everyone else, stop killing each other for religion and stay in their lane. It is depressing to think about.
I made two quilts to commemorate the lives lost during the destruction of the Twin Towers. The first one was Fireball, which is the imagery I could see as I sat and watched TV the week after that event.
I was doing woven art pieces at the time and this is one of them. It is chaotic, reminds me of smoke and flames. This is a small quilt, maybe 12×12, and I was able to channel the pure emotion into this piece as I made it very quickly. The quilt was shown at the Houston Quilt Festival that year.
The quilt I really wanted to make took longer. I wanted to plead for something different than what ended up coming out of that terrible day. I wished for something different than a 20+ year war. People just want to fight when they are attacked; they don’t want to talk.
This is a hard post for me to write. I force myself to do it every year, to get the message of What Comes Next out there, so, perhaps, people will think and do something different next time, though I hope there isn’t a next time.
I was able to look at all the Ombre Weave blocks on the design wall.
I was somewhat surprised at how much brown and beige there was in the roll I bought. I never really cataloged the colors, but I always thought it was all the colors. Now I realize there are some significant hues missing such as RED.
This is totally my fault for not noticing years ago when I bought the roll. Still, it is not fatal. I got a small piece of red (cherry? cranberry?) and will add it in to the mix.
I have some other blocks I need to trim and then I will add those as well.
Many of the donation blocks I made in August went towards the bones of this quilt. I really like these QST quilts and think I want to try one without the striped fabric.
I didn’t have enough of any one stripe, so I used two different kinds.
One of the points of the Pink Project is to provide me with a way to test out bag patterns I haven’t made before. A week or so ago, I talked about making some Superbloom totes. I do want to make more Superbloom totes, but I don’t want to miss the chance to test out a larger bag pattern. I decided to make a Chickadee backpack as the main large bag for the Pink Project v2 instead of a Superbloom tote. I’ll make a Superbloom for the other group and also one with the Hindsight fabric.
I didn’t make a large bag for the Pink Project v.1. I used a bag that I received at the last Convention I attended.
The Chickadee backpack is another Sew Sweetness pattern. It came out last year. There is a lot of cutting and I haven’t felt like I had the brainspace or the time to make one. I wanted to, but I also wanted to make some changes:
I know that it is better to, first, make it as the pattern indicates, thus I thought making it for the Pink Project would be a great idea.
From the Fair report, you know that I finished this quilt. However, I never posted a final picture and information.
Here it is in all of its glory. I am really pleased with how it came out.
It is 24 x 24″
Machine pieced and machine quilted (by me!!)
It was made for a 2024 San Mateo County Fair guild challenge. It is the third in a series of ‘Colorblocks’ quilts.
I am starting to think more about gifts, not just the Pink Project, but upcoming birthday and holiday gifts. The Classmate Tote** by Atkinson Designs has been on my mind for some reason. Perhaps I need to make one for myself!
I like making useful bags. As you know I have made two of them before, one as a swap gift and one for Gerre. I like the idea of this bag and I think it is useful.
There are a couple of things I need to remember, if I decide to make one of these again. The pen holder is too small for *my* pens, so I need to make sure to measure my pens.
The other thing is to make sure the binding goes with the the interior and exterior. I have to admit that I really like getting to the sewing part. That means I sometimes take shortcuts in choosing fabrics. It is so stupid, because I love shopping for fabrics and I enjoy the fabulous motifs of different fabrics. So, the reminder is to make sure all the fabrics go together.
**Obviously, you should shop at local fabric, knitting shops or quilt shops. However, if you can’t, please know that I use affiliate links. I may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I do not recommend items I don’t like. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I never posted the final group of bags for the Pink Project v.1. I posted the almost final group, but never the bag in which they were all held and the pouches.
Apparently, they were all sold separately and only brought in about $100. It’s a shame people don’t want to pay more for handmade items. The bags are all small, though, so perhaps $100 is fair. Still, I didn’t do it completely for the money. It is a great way to try out some of the patterns I have bought and that has a lot of value to me.
Here are more detailed photos of the bags that were included.
