After having to redo the sleeve (too long), I spent some time away from the half hexie project stitching away on the binding and sleeve of FOTY 2017. The piece is finished!
Others were able to see the skyscraper/tall buildings that I was intending when I created this layout. I am pleased that it is finished.
For once I also photographed the back. I know I have been slack on that lately.
At the end of a crazy week, I headed over with Friend Julie, to get my quilt from Colleen. Julie and I had planned to have lunch anyway. She was good enough to add 2 hours of driving to her day to come with me. She quickly finished a quilt back during the week and brought a quilt top to be quilted.
All I could do was pick up FOTY 2017. I didn’t have a quilt to bring and no hope of finishing anything suitable in the near future.
FOTY 2017 looks great. Colleen quilted the windows into the columns so they look like buildings like I wanted. I am pleased.
Now on to sewing down the binding and adding a sleeve. The binding is on the front as usual and I will hand stitch it down. The sleeve is made, so ditto.
Well, I did it. After what seemed like a lot of trauma, I finished the top last Wednesday in a couple of hours of free time after I finished my chores and work.
I thought I would just sew more chunks together, but it turned out that the quiltmaking goddess smiled on me and all my seams were straight and there was no (or minimal) ripping required.
Now we can really see the gradation and I make no bones about how hard I worked at it this time. It is interesting to see some areas that appear lighter IRL appear darker in the photo (check on the blues next to the bird in the middle of the quilt). I do like the way it looks like the columns are fading in and out. It also has that skyline effect, which is great.
I buckled down and made the back, binding and sleeve on Sunday. Yep! Even the sleeve. I feel quite virtuous.
This is a really hard exercise and I challenge you to do something similar.
There are a lot of pieces to sew for FOTY 2017, but I have, slowly, but surely, been making progress. I thought I could finish the top this past weekend. Even if I hadn’t worked with DH to replace our horrendous jerry-rigged, 20+ year old living room curtain rod, I wouldn’t have had enough time. There are just too many seams.
I am not being super precious about placement this time. I would never have started if I held myself to that standard this time around. I do still tweak placement as I go along, for better or for worse.
I am really looking forward to the whole thing being together as I want to see if it looks like a skyline.
I have been tired all week, but FOTY 2017 is progressing. I am sewing so I can arrange further. As per usual, the design wall is too small, though I think DH is happy otherwise I might make a quilt as large as the house. 😉
The piece shrinks a lot due to some trimming and also the seam allowances.
Yes, I started to sew. Yes, I started to sew even though not all of the patches are on the design wall. I don’t have the space and am letting go of a little bit of the control.
I am fairly pleased with the overall layout. I think the colors are pretty much in the right place except for the light blue/blue-green. The gradation seems ok at the bottom, but might not work towards the top. I still have time.
I do end up having to trim blocks. It is fine as I will do it a little at a time. I am still figuring out the math on this one – what size to cut, so I don’t ruin anything.
I rearranged all of the patches for FOTY 2017 and am feeling much better about the layout. I still have some design problems, but I feel like I am finally making good progress and am not feeling so much design despair.
The white and light patches will fill in the top of the piece to make it square.
Yes, colors need to be rearranged a bit and I need to slip in a column of turquoise, but otherwise I think this is basically the layout I will use. It is much better than my previous idea.
I know Angela loved the subway tile layout, but as a design concept, it wasn’t working. I may try that layout with smaller patches.
Again, my design wall cannot contain this series of quilts. I can’t tell you how frustrating this is. I have to figure out how to add 3 more columns to this piece without design wall support.
I resorted the patches and have started to arrange FOTY 2017 on the design wall. It isn’t going well.
Why? I don’t know. It just isn’t working.
I did some math and am thinking I need to make the piece 18 rows by 18 columns to make it square, though that does not use all of the patches. I could make it a little off square and make it 19 rows by 18 columns, but that would use more patches, which is my goal.
I am still a little bit a loose ends with quilts. Not sure why, but there it is. That doesn’t mean I am not working. I am. I am working on bags, but I thought it would be a good idea to have something other than an empty design wall in my studio while I worked. FOTY 2017 came to mind. I’d like to get it out of the Hunting & Gathering stage and to Colleen sometime before I am 80.
I was thinking subway tiles. I have been worried for awhile that the patches were too big and wouldn’t fit on the design wall. When I saw the stack of patches, I thought that I might actually get them all on the wall for once. No such luck. The white and grey stacks as well as a few light pinks and violets are still on my cutting table.
I did an ok job getting the colors up that I could fit. Not perfect, but ok. There is a lot of moving around that has to happen before I can start sewing.
I like the size of the patches and don’t really want to cut them down, but that means that I have to figure out a different way to arrange them. The design is simply not large enough. Right now I am toying with the idea of getting a section arranged, sewing it together, then working on the next section. I just don’t think I have it in me to cut up all those patches.
After photographing the rectangles for yesterday’s post, I took a photo of my almost empty design wall. In doing so, I realized that FOTY 2017 might be another giant unless I did something about the size.
My design wall is 73×46.5 and not big enough, however the FOTY pieces on the wall are 24×36. The pieces shown is just the most recent, small selection of all of the patches I have cut. I am kind of scared at how big this thing could be if I don’t cut some of the patches down. Now I have to figure that out.
Now that the En Provence top is finished, I had some design wall space to show the rectangles I have been cutting.
There were quite a few: some from PIQF purchases, some from the Sarah Goer Class, some from gifts that are in process, some are from the pillowcases I made for the YM and friends – a whole variety. I really do enjoy seeing the fabrics and thinking about what I made or what I will make.
The FOTY 2017 is not dead, though I haven’t worked on it much beyond cutting a few pieces here and there. As you know from my En Provence and Triple Star posts, I am not cutting a lot, which means no new FOTY pieces to show.
This group shows fabrics from the back of the Terrain donation quilt, the back of the Stars n.3 donation top, a couple of the Little Cell Phone Wallets, a few pieces from the Triple Star.
In the process of cutting for the Triple Star, I also cut some pieces for FOTY 2017. Some of the other (non-Triple Star) have been on the wall for awhile. I seem to go in waves: cutting a lot and then not cutting anything.
I really like the plaids in the Chroma line. They are more fun than regular plaids.
I am still cutting for FOTY 2017. It’s only halfway through the year, so why wouldn’t I be?
When I went to crop the photo, I saw that it was sideways from the orientation in which I had photographed it. Since I intend to arrange the rectangles in a horizontal orientation, I thought I would display the latest additions in this orientation, so you could tell me what you think. Lots of greys since I am working ona grey background right now.