Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Without putting the blocks on the wall, I added sashing to my white strips blocks. I don’t have any design wall space and just had to go for it. I have a few donation quilts I need to make and this one will help me free up some design wall space.
As you can see, not having the design hampers my process. Somehow I missed adding top sashing to 6 blocks.
Yes, I used red. Dangerous, I know, but all my fabric is washed.
This is a good quilt for Valentine’s ‘month’.
I made my Flying Geese the other day. I am not ahead of the crowd this time, but in time for the meeting next week.
I made 4 using the blue and yellow fabrics. I wanted the blue to be on the outside, so decided I needed to make a few more. Once I made the second set with my wonderful flowered fabric I realized I could make chevrons! Voila!
We had an amazing Sew Day over the weekend. At the peak, we had more than 30 people sewing and socializing. We get that many at our holiday party, but I am not sure we have ever had that many at a regular Sew Day. I knew we might have some new people, so we set up some extra tables in advance. We still didn’t have enough seats. I guess the message is that people need to show up on time if they want a seat. 😉
We had the 8YO son of our Founder join us. He is working with his mom to make a quilt for his bed. This means we are encouraging the younger generation to get into sewing. He was very focused!
We had another parent/’child’ team as well. Roberta is a new member who brought her daughter Michelle. They intend to work on projects together, which is a great way to get together.
I brought the Pandora Charisma, which needed a few more steps, some of which were riveting. Mary helped me use her rivet press to add a few more rivets to various places on the bag. I am super happy with the riveting.
News Flash: the Pandora Charisma is finished. People were really impressed. I just felt tired after struggling with it for so many weeks (which feels like years!).
SueS is having a problem with her hand, so I offered to cut some pieces out for her. She was very well organized, so the task was easy. She also stood with me and kept me on track, which was great. I brought a ruler that was the exact size of the pieces she needed, which made the task easier. All-in-all a good effort.
The UFO Challenge Team had a mini-show and tell where finished and in-progress #12 items were shown. Not everything got finished, but everyone was inspired to work on a project that had been sitting around for a long time.
They also drew the next number, #9 was selected. For me, that is an extra large project bag. I have the fabric quilted, but need to cut out the other pieces and put the whole thing together.
Later in the day, I also started cutting out the Tadpole pouches. Now that I am done with the Pandora Charisma, I am going to work on some easier projects. While I was doing that Tim was working on one of his Jittery Wings quilts.
The picture shows the start of it and it just got better the more he put up on the wall.
Mary decided a few weeks ago to create a design wall that we could put up and take down. She came with a big piece of Velcro and installed it. The next step is making a piece of felt big enough to cover the space. We only had a small piece of felt, but Tim agreed to make a larger one. It will be great and the location is awesome: right next to some large windows.
I raced around so didn’t get time to catch up with many people, but I chatted to some and that was great.
I finally dug out the white strips blocks I made last year and put them on the design wall. With the Patchwork Palooza no longer taking up valuable design wall real estate, I am able to work on this project.
I haven’t started on sashing yet, but did decide to just make my normal strip quilt rather than another Sidewalk quilt. However, since I haven’t started the sashing yet, that could change.
I am thinking about red sashing as I have at least two bins of red fabric. I could use more by making a Sidewalk version. We’ll see. I know I don’t want to make another white on white strips quilt.
I haven’t really decided to make 12 quilts for the guild this year. I am giving enough time to the guild. That doesn’t mean I won’t make donation quilts. It just means I don’t (yet?) have a goal.
As I said, I am trying to stay ahead of the crowd, so after the BAM Holiday Party, I quickly made a Friendship Star.
In general, I have a tough time with this block. I think it looks much better small. The 12 inch size just looks like it has too much fabric, though a 12 inch block with the star made from a blowsy, large flower fabric might work better.
I do think that using the Friendship Stars as cornerstones, like a donation quilt I made, works well.
The best use of Friendship Stars I have found is making a wreath out of them. I got inspired by Camille Roskelly and then made Flying Around using the Friendship Star wreaths. I’d like to make one for this project. We’ll see if I get to it.
Because of the holidays people have two months to make the next two blocks. Month 2 and 3 blocks are due at the January Meeting. I made a set of Checkerboards very quickly right after the meeting. Since I am one of the leaders, I really want to keep ahead of the others as much as possible.
Once things had settled down a little for me, I made another checkerboard block from the book Cyndi lent to me, Use Scraps, Sew Blocks, Make 100 Quilts** by Stuart Hilliard.
I don’t have the wide variety of fabrics that would make this block look like the one in the book, but I am pleased with the way it came out.
I cut up the Philip Jacobs print to make the middle then used the others (added some additions since the start) around the outside. I want to work with this block again at some point. Still, I like the way it came out. I keep looking at it.
Although blocks were not due at this meeting, people brought some, so we put them up to illustrate when we introduced the new block.
It is so fun to see the different designs that appeal to the participants.
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I spent the last few months planning and creating the officer gifts for the guild. I couldn’t have done it on my own. Many guild members contributed to the fund, Carrie wrapped everything and MaryC helped me sew the Multi-Pocket Organizers.
I am pleased with how they all came out. I think the fabrics I chose worked well together and coordinate or match with last year’s gifts.
I really like the binding and lining of SueS’ Multi-Pocket Organizer.
For Lee Ann’s I chose a similar fabric to the fabric I used last year. This one has a little more color in it – some purples, especially, which look really nice.
Melinda’s uses a couple of coordinating, but older fabrics from my fabric closet. I am told she likes purple, so this on the purple side. It’s maybe more of a red-violet, but something she will like.
I made a special effort with Joelle’s to coordinate with some of the quilts I associate with her style.
It’s a very small effort at mimicking her style. I think it looks nice and my fancy math worked out.
I didn’t get to see all of the packages opened, but I took a photo of the officers with the gifts.
This quilt design has exploded out of my workroom. I made quite a few this year using different techniques for the 8.5 x 4.5 inch unit.
This tutorial also inspired others to make this design.
Remember that I found a similar pattern from Jennifer Jones of Penelope Handmade for the Dorothy Quilt.
My donation block making has stalled a bit. I am working feverishly on other projects, some in preparation for the holidays and some just because. Still, I have a few to show.
I started another Sidewalk quilt with 4.5″ x 8.5″ panels I cut when I processing scraps a month or so ago. I haven’t made a ton of progress, but I like what I have done so far.
While the ‘panels’ are the same size as the pieced units, this top feels like it is going together much more quickly.
I finally found that someone else had created a pattern for, what I call, the Sidewalk Quilt. Jennifer Jones of Penelope Handmade has a pattern for the Dorothy Quilt, which is, essentially, the same as the Sidewalk quilt. She has a long blog post from 2023, which includes links to her YouTube Channel. She uses all solids in her examples – at least the ones I saw – and they look quite good against a white background.
Almost immediately after finishing her quilt, my Mom took a donation quilt from the BAM selection to finish.
I didn’t really look at it until we got home and she took it out to start the binding.
The first thing I noticed is that it smelled bad. I took it outside and hung it on a bush to air it out. That didn’t work well, so I ended up washing it (yes, in the machine on delicate and in the dryer on low). It smelled better after that. Before I washed it, I sewed around the edge so the edges wouldn’t ravel more than they already were.
As I worked on the quilt, I noticed how amazing it is. It is hand pieced and hand quilted and the work is beautiful. It is also in great condition. The maker knew what she was doing.
I think I might want to make this quilt design using EPP.
I forgot to show the gift I received at the recent BAM swap. I had to choose for three people and my choice kind of got left in the dust.
This pouch was made by Cyndi. it made from the mesh that is more stiff than the mesh I use for bags. It is kind of like screen, but not sharp. I remember buying some of this (or Friend Julie buying me some?) for a jewelry storage project we were going to make together. I never made mine and don’t think she made hers. Perhaps we need to revisit that project?
I wasn’t sure what I would do with, but got a brainwave when all of my doublefold elastic exploded on the floor of the fabric closet. I put it into this pouch and now it is nicely corralled in one place. The excellent thing about having it in a pouch is that I can grab the pouch and go and then decide on a color later.
I started off the month continuing to make white strip blocks. The bin really was not organized well and I found a whole new selection of strips I could use to make blocks partway through. I was up to a total (not just the ones made in October) of 40 white strip blocks early in the month, but continued to make them. I like my scrap bins to be as empty as possible. The white bin is proving to be a challenge to empty.
We introduced the BAM BOM last weekend at the guild meeting.
The first block is the HST and these are mine. For this block, I am using some fabric from a member who passed away.
The rule is at least 6 seams, so I knew I had to make more than one HST. I used the 8-at-a-time directions I give to my students and made 8.
I have an idea in my mind to use HSTs in more places around my quilt. For now, I will stick with these, but I might make more later.