Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I have said before that my guild Raffle Team is awesome. They continue to show their amazing willingness to continue to make things for the raffle baskets.
Carrie sent me a photo of two bags she made for the team last week.
I will fill these, when I receive them, with the other goodies and the whole package will be given to two lucky winners.
I haven’t seen these bags in person, but they look like they have wonderful texture.
I had a leftover Spiky 16 Patch block from the Flame donation top. Somehow SueS found out, though she is a reader, so that could be the way, and we decided to do a joint project. I sent her my block, not knowing what she would do with it. She ended up making a second block.
MaryC now has both blocks and will do something as well.
As I did last month and for previous months, I made more donation blocks. After April’s work, I had a stack of 24 blocks. Now I have XX. Peggy, the community quilt organizer for BAM, I hope, will be happy.
Sewing the Windmill means that I was also churning out donation blocks. Using leaders and enders between each Windmill piece generates a lot. I have to keep the Windmill pieces in order, thus so many donation blocks. I am thinking about making another Traffic Jam quilt instead of more of the 16 patch donation blocks, but we will see. Until I decide, there will be more 16 patches.
I had to spend some time cutting scraps for new 2.5 inch squares as I was running out. You can see that some of the blocks don’t have a lot of contrast, use a ‘different’ background or look unlike my normal meticulous monochromatic blocks. I guess I am making due. I didn’t really want to cut more foreground squares until I really need them.
I am pretty fond of the red-violet block in the second row. The background is made from a shirt I made for DH a few years ago.
As mentioned, I had (took) Friday-Monday off for Memorial Day weekend. While I had to clean the house, I also took the time to finish a few projects that needed finishing or knocking other must-do projects off my list.
One thing I started and finished was a Sewing Room Stand from the Minikins Season 2 patterns.
I made the item in a couple of hours. I used the video portion of the pattern (Sew Sweetness Minikin patterns comes with a video as well as the printed pattern). I didn’t find it difficult. I thought it was a lot easier than Tooly McToolston, though the Sewing Room Stand is smaller and doesn’t have as many pockets. It is the same idea.
One of the things I like about this pattern is the possibility of standing a tablet on it and having the tablet oriented in such a way that I could see a pattern as I was working on it.
I thought the stand would come out larger based on the picture on Sara’s website. My tablet is not large (*inches?), but the one in Sara’s photo seems larger and the stand is still larger. Granted, my tablet does not hang over the ends, but still seems like it is overwhelming the Sewing Room Stand.
Thetool side is tall enough to accommodate a medium sized tool, so you could have your tools and your tablet in use at the same time.
I turned pretty quickly to the video to make this item. I was not getting what the printed pattern was saying. The video made it very clear, so I was glad to have it.
As far as I can tell, the pattern doesn’t fold up into a flat package.
I chose the colors as this will be a swap gift and these are the colors the person requested!
I finished the 4 blocks I need to make another Spiky 16 Patch donation top.
In the image you can see the extra pink/red/orange one I didn’t use in Flame. It is a lone, sad orphan right now. I don’t know what to do with it. I could combine it with the blues and make another 5 block quilt, like Spiky 16 Patch n.3. I can’t seem to generate much enthusiasm for veering away from my monochromatic road. I should lash out, but so far I haven’t.
Another idea is to send the pink/red/orange Spiky 16 patch to another guild member to build upon. That is very appealing. I don’t sincerely dislike the idea of including it with the New Blue blocks.
Since I haven’t done anything with the blues yet, I can still decide.
As you know from other pet beds, I have made, they take awhile to fill. Since I can’t bring a partially filled piece to the meeting to have someone use their scraps to fill the rest, I had to wait until I had enough scraps. I filled it up at Virtual Craft Night the other night and also sewed it closed. Now i is piled up with the other things i need to take to guild the next time we have a meeting.
I am concerned I filled it too full, but it will be nice and plump for some small pet.
While sewing the Frolic! top together I used the New Blue Spiky 16 patch blocks as leaders and enders. I felt like I had quite a bit of Frolic! to sew together, but I only ended up with two Spiky 16 Patch blocks. I guess the Frolic! top work seemed like more than it actually was because I feel like I have been working on it forever.
I haven’t, of course, but it feels like it.
In any case, these Spiky 16 patch blocks are coming along well. They are the same, or similar to Spiky 16 Patch #1 and #2. I’ll probably do the same kind of setting as Flame just to get this top finished. I’d like to try something else with the HRTs.
As soon as Flame was off the design wall, I dug out some HRTs I had made last year (?) when I made the other Spiky 16 Patch tops.
I am thinking about making a donation quilt with just the HRTs, but don’t think I will do that yet. I think I want to just make another Spiky 16 Patch quilt. I think I want to make the HRT version (no 16 patch) with a variety of different colors – not monochrome or warm/cool.
I decided to call this donation quilt ‘Flame’ to make things more interesting. I guess we all need a little ‘nice’ interesting right now rather than alarming interesting. Enough of that going around.
I am feeling kind of bad that I am still working on donation tops rather than making masks. I think I will need to make some soon, at least for my son. I wonder how many are being made at the moment?
I used a pretty large piece of Jay McCarroll fabric for the back. I had to add a strip to it to make it large enough, but it will be fine. I still worry about labels. I think I might use stitch lettering to put my name and the year on the back and note that it is from BAMQG. I sort of want people to know I existed down the line. Of course, who knows if the quilt will exist for very long?
There is one thing that is interesting that is going on with this top. If I pay careful attention to the placement of colors, the piece looks woven.
I didn’t plan this, but it has design potential. The overall design might work better with more variety in the colors, so a viewer could tell where the colors were weaving. I suspect that too many colors wouldn’t work.
While I was sewing Frolic! over the weekend, I made a bunch of donation blocks as leaders and enders. I am getting quite a collection to turn in when I finally get to back to guild.
I counted all the donation blocks I have made in 2020 and the total came out to about 76. Not bad. Not 30 per month, but not bad.
Here are some blocks I made in March. I made the 30 in a month I set as a goal last year. I think it might be the first time. Yay!!
As I said the other day, I am working with HRTs again. After getting re-oriented to the Split Recs ruler (By Deb Tucker). I followed my own advice (for once) and watched the video, which told me what I needed to know to get going.
I am using these as leaders and enders, though I also seem to be sticking in some regular 16 patches as well, while I work on the Frolic!
I am really loving these warm colors, which is an antidote to staying home most of the time and the rain (no complaints; we need it). They look so happy. I have used 5 blocks to make a quilt in the past, but might try 4 this time. It will be easier to make the corners.
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The other day I talked about making some HRTs with the intention of making a new donation top. I got inspired by some 16 patches that I made while my subconscious worked on Frolic! I also have the Warm Windmill on my mind.
For the past few days, I have been cutting and sewing HRTs and trying to relax. I am coming up with a quilt top that I really like.
I finished Traffic Jam. This was an easy pattern and the quilt really went quickly, much more quickly than the Color Strip quilts.
This doesn’t mean I am giving up on those Scrap quilts. They are clearing out my scrap bins for something good. I just needed a break and wanted to play along with Vicki Holloway.
I made a back as well, so I get more fabric usage on my spreadsheet.
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Last Friday, I think, I finished the top and back of the Blue Strip Donation quilt. the piece is going in my bag to take to guild if the meetings ever start up again. I am feeling a bit lonely today. I know the social distancing is important for the health of the country, but I need a little more interaction than I am getting.
Anyway.
I am really pleased with the way the top came out. I had a half yard of two different yellows. The one I used on the border is Califon by Mark Lipinski. I like it, but it was languishing, so I thought I might as well use it.
The back was super easy! I had one large piece of blue and just needed to add a little bit to make it bigger. WHEW! No back drama this time.