Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am nearly finished with the first Red Strip Donation Quilt, but started blocks for a new one anyway. I am still trying to use up red scraps.
I have pretty much decimated my stash of red strips, which is why the new blocks won’t all be made from strips as the others have been. I also find that there is also no point in doing something I have already done. I know I make the same patterns over and over, but somehow I feel like this change is needed.
I worked very hard on the red strip blocks and have as many as I need for a quilt. They are on the wall and ready to set.
I am pleased with how they look and am thinking of setting them with aqua or turquoise. I have also started in on making some new blocks for the Red Strip n.2. As I said before, there is no appreciable diminishment of red scraps.
The meeting in on Saturday and I may be able to finish the top by then. We’ll see.
I spent the day sewing with Tim yesterday. I went over to his house, so he wouldn’t have to crate his dogs all day.
I didn’t bring my machine, which was really nice! Tim has a couple of machines, one similar to my Janome 6600 and I used that one all day. He worked on an old Kenmore – not THAT old, maybe early 2000s. Despite the sort of tight space, we worked together very well.
I had some Bonnie & Camille ‘ends’ from the Stepping Stones n.2 quilt, I think, that were bugging me, so I took them plus my Bonnie & Camille fabric and made that my project. I brought other projects as well so I would have enough to work on, but only got this piece done.
Tim said he would quilt it and wanted me to make a back. He prefers plain backs, so looked for some wideback fabric in his collection before we decided I should make the back.
In the course of assembling all the supplies for this quilt, I realized how much Bonnie & Camille fabric I have. I am pretty much done with it, so if you want yardage or charm packs of some of the older collections, let me know and I’ll tell you what I have. Contact information is on the About page.
So, this is the third in my strip quilt donation series after the Green Strip and the Purple Strip. Apparently, I am creating a series, though I am really just cleaning out my scrap drawers.
I worked on this Sunday as leaders and enders as I worked on the Fabric of the Year 2017 top. I made good progress on both. I am about 4 blocks away from having enough blocks to finish up this top. The sad part is that there is no appreciable lessening of my red scrap drawer.
I also forgot to take photos of the blocks as I finished them, so now I need to go back and figure out which ones are new.
It took me awhile to get the back for the Purple Improv donation quilt finished. It is now done and I, unexpectedly gave it to Tim at Sew Day yesterday.
Making the back was slightly delayed, because I couldn’t get my purple fabric bins. I don’t use purple that often, so they are slightly buried.
I did it a little differently this time. The top was on the design wall. Instead of pulling it off and using the design floor, I pinned fabrics from my stash to the design wall in the place I wanted to use them. This worked pretty well as I could see where I still needed coverage.
I didn’t think he would want to quilt the Purple Improv quilt, but he took both the Purple Strip quilt and this one to quilt. He is such a rock star.
The Purple Improv donation top wasn’t even off the design wall before I started in on red scrap strip blocks, the next color in this unexpected series.
I have 15 more blocks to make, but they go fast and I have 3 in process at the moment.
There is something very satisfying about sitting at my sewing machine, grabbing strips and shards from a drawer right next to the machine and ending up with a quilt top. When I started the Green Thing, it was kind of a lark, an experiment to try the blocks that were inspired by Alison. Now this seems to be a whole project. It’s unexpected, but oddly satisfying.
After many hours of sewing and listening to audiobooks on Sunday, I finished the Purple Improv top. I have been enjoying it on my design wall for a few days, because I couldn’t make the back right away.
There are a lot of small pieces in this quilt. As much as I could, I pressed the seams open to reduce bulk. This caused some issues with sewing. As I trimmed shards, I gained holes and had to be careful to make sure they were fixed before I moved on. I think I like the medallion style of the Green Thing better. I saw improv-ish quilt blocks by @saija_elina and thought, perhaps I would use that idea for another one of these scrap busters. I am not sure I want to make blocks, however.
I am not a huge fan of the T motif that ended up on the quilt, but c’est la vie. That is improv and that is what happens. Perhaps someone with a name that starts with a T will become the owner?
The red scrap drawer is overflowing so red strips are next. I made 5 of the strip blocks on Sunday night and 3 more yesterday.
One thing I noticed is that I have a lot of dots on red background prints. They are different, but I am trying to keep them separated by other fabrics so they don’t flow into each other. I also get to visit with some fabrics I didn’t have much of, but really liked.
The size of the scraps in my scrap drawer is kind of crazy. I don’t know what I was thinking putting such large (half a FQ-ish) into the scrap drawer. Of course, I don’t have anywhere else to put that size, so I guess it makes sense. I’ll have to cut some of the scraps into sizes I need for other projects as I work on these donation quilts.
I made quite a bit of progress during the last little while using this piece as leaders and enders for the FOTY 2017. I started out with some largish chunks and grew it.
I am not a huge fan of improv piecing, as you have heard a million times. I have to admit, however, it is fairly mindless and a good way to use up random scraps.
When I come across a larger piece, I am cutting it up into some of the shapes I am Hunting and Gathering for other projects. I especially need to beef up my collection of 2″ cool colors after the En Provence quilt.
So I am still beavering away to make something large enough for a baby quilt. The pieces are much more square, but I still have work to do.
This is what I am making in order to clear out some more purple scraps after finishing the Purple Strips donation top. I started with some shards that I had made for some forgotten project. I have added to the original pieces quite a bit.
Because of what I started with, this is less like the Green Thing in that it is less of a medallion style. It may end up a little like that, but we will see. I don’t yet know where it is going except that I need to add some larger chunks or strips to the piece to provide some breathing space.
Last Friday, I finished the back of the Purple Strips donation quilt. It is ready to go to Tim for his magic quilting.
I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out, though Mom vindicated my thoughts around using green. I might try something else in purple and green. Right now my purple scrap drawer is much reduced. I am hoping to reduce it more with the purple Improv donation quilt, but we will see.
I finally finished the Spiky 16 patch stars into a quilt top! This is the 3rd one of these quilts I have made. I have an idea for another one, but since I am working on scrappy strip quilts right now, they may have to wait.
It isn’t exactly 100% stellar but only because I could have arranged the blocks differently. It looks great and I have already handed it in to be quilted.
I am pleased that it went together so quickly. I was rearranging the Tutorials page and there were the directions for setting blocks on point. I took the bull by the horns and made the top. It really went together very quickly. I also found the perfect piece of Stonehenge that only needed a little piecing. Since I couldn’t finish the purple strip quilt, I was glad to have a donation top to hand in.
I finished all the blocks and began to think about the color of the plain blocks. Tim doesn’t like white backgrounds and since he will most likely quilt this top, I decided to look for something else.
Across from purple on my Studio Color Wheel is chartreuse. I admit this is a bold choice and I was thinking about it quite a bit before I went hunting for fabric. Finally, I decided that I needed to make visual decisions visually and cut up some fabric.
I like the boldness of the color combination, but something wasn’t quite right.
I was just about to sew it together when Tim saw the photo and suggested grey. Purple is hard for me to work with, because it really darkens my workroom to a depressing state. Adding grey made me think it would just get worse. I knew the yellow-green was the right color for the purple, so I found a couple of greys and tried it.
I chose the greys based on fabrics I didn’t think I would use for something else. These were both in that category because they have a taupe cast too them, which is not my preference for grey. I prefer the cooler white-greys.
Immediately, I knew that the grey solid (#1) was a much better choice. It will be suitable for a boy and isn’t too depressing.
I have begun sewing the plain blocks to the strip blocks.
I saved the green for another day.
As I said the other day, I still have a lot of purple scraps. I also found some large purple shards in my purple scrap bin. I immediately pulled these out and have decided to use them for another improv donation top like the Green Thing. I can’t say I’ll make a companion quilt to each strip quilt I make, but I have a lot of scraps and this seems like a good way to use them up.
I know these shards probably started out as potential journal covers. I don’t know why I didn’t finish them, but now they can go to a good home.
The triangular shard is really strange. I wonder what I was thinking when I made it. Of course, I have to make it into a square or rectangle, so I can use it. I do like it. If I can use lighter purples and lavenders around the triangle, I can preserve the triangle quality of the piece.
I have already added to the smaller piece shown above the triangular shard, using it as a leader as I was getting towards the end of the strip blockmaking.
The last shard is good sized as well. The three pieces make a nice start to a donation top. They are all purple and that is good, but I hope the shards go together well enough to make something cohesive.
I do know that I am finding all this purple on my design wall to be oppressive and dark. Perhaps that is my issue with the darker purples? I know I felt like this when I was working on the purple bullseye. I do know that I have a good start to the purple donation improv top and that pleases me.
I worked the other night while DH was out on clearing out my purple scrap bin. This resulted in a new set of blocks for BAM’s community quilting project.
There are a couple of duplicates as I had some long strips that resulted in two blocks.
There are also a lot of light scraps – lavender and very light purple. I was surprised at the variation in color. I don’t think I am a strictly dark purple lover.
I also made 6 more blocks than I did for the Green Strip quilt. I was on a roll and had the blocks in process before I realized how far along I was. It will be a slightly larger quilt. I haven’t decided what color to put with it for the plain blocks (I am using the same design as the Green Strip quilt). Chartreuse is across from purple on the color wheel I use.
I don’t feel like I used up enough of the purple scraps. The bin is definitely more empty, but still not empty enough. I even sorted out some super small pieces that would be much better as pet bed filling. Still I need to make more headway on purple scraps. Another similar quilt? Should I make this one larger?