I have a lot of fabric to press and cut, especially since I washed several yards the other day. I am determined to get busy on FOTY 2015 early in the year. It won’t be until at least February as I won’t be able to sew on most weekends in January. That means no sewing. I wonder what I will write about?
I digress.
I want to do FOTY 2015 early in the year so there is less overlap with FOTY 2016. I am not sure how that will go as this is all the progress I have made since the November 16 post. I should go and count my patches to see how many I had. I really don’t want a repeat of cutting down all the patches like I did for FOTY 2014.
I finished Fabric of the Year 2014 yesterday. I had the quilt done, but took my sweet time in sewing on the sleeve.
It has some similarities to FOTY 2013, namely the light in the middle. I wanted to try to recreate that glowing aspect again.
The back was one of the easiest I have made. Almost no drama, especially since one piece of fabric made almost the entire back. I added the solid so that large motifs didn’t run against each other when I sewed them. I thought it would look too jangly.
Fabric of the Year 2014 Back – Completed
I liked pieced backs, but am very happy when I don’t have to piece too much.
The other day I talked about making some pillowcases. I had enough fabric left to make one gift bag. I am glad, because I like the fabric. I am happy to have at least a bit of it around the house. I don’t really need more gift bags, but I also don’t want to waste fabric. Gift bags are a good use of smallish pieces of fabric.
I have put a tutorial up, as long time readers will know, that tells you how to make gift bags. Save a tree: make a gift bag.
I mentioned cutting some pieces for the EPP. When I cut those pieces I also cut patches for the FOTY 2015. This group is, thus, really heavy on the colored dots on white.
I’ll need more colored dots on white for the EPP project so you’ll see more of these types of fabrics.
My DH actually ironed pants when I wasn’t home and messed up a bunch of my fabric. I had to re-iron some of my pieces. I decided I needed to get busy and cut and file some of those fabrics. Thus, I have also been working through cutting the fabrics from my ironing board.
I have been making an effort to cut up fabric I have washed and ironed, so I have another batch to show you.
Some of these are from projects. The black/white print in the middle is from a skirt I had made. The black/white print with the Caesar busts was included in the Red & Black Improv quilt.
Some of the colored fabrics are from the Carpenter’s Wheel quilt blocks.
The rest are new.
When I was fixing the photo above for posting, I realized that I could put the quilt together with the rectangles arranged in a horizontal manner. What do you think?
Another thing I did on PlayDay was to cut up my Ta Dots fat quarters into 10.25″ squares. I did this in anticipation of making half square triangles. As I did that cutting, I took the opportunity to cut up a lot of FOTY 2015 quilt rectangles.
I am not planning on letting these patches lay around all year next year. I am working on cutting pieces I need for various projects from the yardage I have pressed and plan on working on this piece early in the year.
Note that I said “plan”. We’ll see how it goes.
This plan was set in motion by my need to cut a lot of different fabrics for the HSTs and Flying Geese I needed for the Carpenter’s Wheel. The Ta Dots HSTs were an added bonus. Getting fabric off of the ironing board has made me feel like I am making progress, even if I am just cutting.
The black and white stripe at the bottom is one of the stripes that will be used as the other half of the HSTs.
I finally got down to cutting some fabric, especially working on the pillowcases last weekend. You can see all sorts of different projects in this group. This is a good thing as it means I am actually using fabric. Yes, there are some fabrics that will go into the stash. I am working on using fabrics. I really am.
In between other stuff, I spent a lot of time over the weekend sewing the FOTY 2014 patches together. This quilt top has been languishing much too long. I felt like I had a layout that I liked.
There are over 350 patches that have to be removed sewn and put back in order to keep the piece in order. I put a leader/ender in between each set of patches to make it easier to keep the FOTY patches straight in my head.
In the course of sewing the patches together, I also made 19 Octagon 9 Patches and 14 donation blocks. Not shabby for ‘found blocks’.
FOTY 2014 – Patches in 9s & 12s
I thought it was impossible that I would get it done. I got to the point where all the patches were sewn into sets of 8 and I was very happy with that. The other night I sewed those sets together, which took much less time, but required much more fiddling, because of the nesting of seams.
The piece looks together now, but it is in sets of 9 or 12 patches. I am carefully chunking all the sets in order to avoid those long seams and to nest the seams more precisely. My goal is to get the top done before Saturday, so I can show it off at the BAMQG meeting. Wish me luck!
Here is irony: the last time I went to this shop was when the Young Man was a baby. He was in some kind of carrier or sling. I went last week on my way back from dropping him off at college.
This is a small shop, but it is right on the main square of Healdsburg and it is crammed with fabric. I found a few pieces that will work for the Improv quilt.
By this time I was getting into the fabric equivalent of a diabetic coma, but it was fun to stop in this shop and realize how close it is to me (about 2 hours) and worth the drive, because there are other nice shops and good places to eat nearby.
Fabrications, Healdsburg, Calif.
Fabrications, Healdsburg, Calif.
Fabrications, Healdsburg, Calif.
There were two people working and they were watching us the whole time, but they weren’t unfriendly. I meant to ask about the local quilt people around, but I forgot. I wondered if this shop was mainly visited by tourists or if there was a thriving quilt community. Oh well. Next time.
This store is RIGHT next door to an ice cream shop. Kids and spouses can have a nice time there while you browse. 😉
This shop has a lot of panels and kits. A LOT. The panels are great and I bought a couple to make Thanksgiving decorations. I had better get on it!
They had fabric, but not the tons that other shops had. I bought a few pieces.
The store has a lot of gifts, which is what tourist town shops have and that was great. Some of the fabrics were novelty sea related fabrics, which I had never seen before.
‘Pastel’ room
The shop also had a lot of interesting patterns.
I think the strength of the shop was really the panels. They had lots and lots of panels, especially in the Thanksgiving realm (it is nice to see that some retail isn’t going straight from Hallowe’en to Christmas!). I bought two panels with which to make some Thanksgiving table runners. Am I trying to fill my time now that my YM is gone? Probably, at least mentally.
Pumpkins and Gourds tablerunner
Thanksgiving, as you may remember, is ‘my’ holiday in the family. Lately, I have been feeling a bit of a slacker, because I really don’t have any Thanksgiving decorations. One of my SILs sends a flower arrangement every year, which is the sum total of my decorations. I have wanted to make napkins, but the thought of sewing 24+ brown and beige napkins makes me run away from the sewing machine screaming. When I saw the panel with the pumpkins and gourds, I could imagine having it in my house. The colors are a little brighter than normal Thanksgiving colors and it isn’t boring. It is also a bit arty. It also doesn’t need much piecing, so almost all I would need to do is quilt it. STOP laughing! 😉
The one panel will make two table runners. I might piece the leaves to the end of one to make it a little longer. They are supposed to be coasters, but I am not making coasters as we have about 30 sets of coasters. We will see.
Second panel
I set up three tables at Thanksgiving and I don’t want the ‘kids’ table to feel bad, especially since they usually don’t get china, so I bought another panel for them. What I will do with this one is cut off the smaller panels and sew them together in a long line, then quilt it. If I have time, I will quilt the wreath and make it into a table mat for the coffee table.
These panels are already washed so there is hope for me to finish them.
Like some of the other shops Forget Me Knots was participating in the Row by Row Experience. The lady helping pushed us hard to get the kit. Not my jam so I resisted.
They had a lot of notions, a large classroom and generally a large space. I found this store to have a lot to look at and it took me awhile to figure out that there weren’t as many fabric bolts as I originally thought.
I liked this shop. The lady was friendly, they had fabric and notions I hadn’t seen before and the location was convenient. Look for the ice cream shop. It is huge and that is what we noticed. The quilt shop is in a large building, but they need better signage.
Forget Me Knots interior
Forget Me Knots interior
Forget Me Knots interior
Location: 640 2nd St SE, Bandon, OR 97411
(541) 347-9021
Sometimes a little whining goes a long way. I got down to business after my last FOTY 2014 post and am now sewing the piece together. Yes, the piece is arranged to my satisfaction and I am on to the sewing part.
My driving force: I need all the pieces to be on the design wall. At the moment the very top and very bottom row are hanging off. I also want the whole thing off the design wall and in the hands of Colleen. I need to move on to other projects. I need the design wall for other projects.
Is the piece perfect?
No.
Will I ever make a perfect piece in this series?
Probably not.
Will I keep trying?
Yes.
FOTY 2014: Final Layout
Before I started sewing, this photo shows the piece as it was laid out in the configuration in which I decided to piece it.
I worked on the layout for hours yesterday and then after I started making dinner, I deliberately did not look at it.
When I got back to my workroom the following day, I decided to look at it and rearrange the patches.
These quilts will never have a perfect gradation. The nature of the fabric, the color combinations in the fabrics and the motifs as well as contrast make perfect gradation difficult. Still, I have done a good job with the parameters of my challenge and I am pretty happy with the layout.
Some process photos. You have to look carefully to see the differences because they are subtle, but that is part of the process:
I have visited the Fat Quail Quilt Shop before. The last few times DH and I have driven to the North Coast, we haven’t stopped. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? As Mom and I drove south from Portland it turned out to be a good place to stop for a stretch. Laytonville is a small town after Leggett and before Willets as you drive south on Hwy 101.
When we visited several ladies were having a sew-in. The ladies were sewing away on their own projects and asking for advice as needed (by their own words). I was glad to see that they were there. Those small towns look so small, I always wonder how they can support a quilt population. My mom and I discussed this quite a bit in the car and her theory is that crafts are popular because of the lack of big city distractions. She could be right.
Fat Quail interior
Fat Quail probably has the most ‘country’ style of the stores we visited. The colors of the decor tend more towards sage, beige, cream and rust. The shop is light filled and there are plenty of pinks and turquoises for people like me. They also have some more modern patterns, such as the Time for Tea pattern, which makes me think of the Mad Hatter.
“Time for Tea”
I don’t know that I will make it as a quilt, but I do like the clock being half off the quilt. It is a good reminder that design elements do not need to be complete. I also like the stylized coffee pot. Both are interesting design elements. The pattern is Time For Tea (CSD-110- 13″x 35″) from Creative Space Designs. They have other interesting, including more Mad Hatter-ish, patterns as well as flowers and animals. You can buy it from their website or call Fat Quail.
Fat Quail interior
They brightened things up quite a bit from last time. The room with the card catalog drawers holding fat quarters held a lot of Stonehenge last time. This time there was the cat quilt and that green, cream and rust quilt. The room was a lot brighter. No Stonehenge. Sorry Sandy!
I also saw some 1930s fabrics as well as some aqua and turquoise hiding in that room. 😉
Fat Quail front room
As at the Quilter’s Corner, this shop had some specialty quail items. The quail is the state bird of California and this shop had a pattern for s stuffed version and some prints that could be added to a quilt. You can see them hanging on the fabric shelf to the left in the middle of the picture.
Autumn was in full swing in all of these quilt shops so there was a lot of Thanksgiving: reds, golds and browns. You can see those fabrics on the left in the back of the picture.
Fat Quail front room
While fabric wasn’t everywhere, which I didn’t see in any shop I visited, there was plenty to choose from. I also found that a lot of different styles were represented even if there weren’t samples using every fabric.
I still think this shop is worth a visit and there is a coffee shop down the road a little where the family can relax while you look at fabric
Location:
44550 US-101, Laytonville, CA 95454
(707) 984-6966
I have almost had enough of this piece. Something drastic has to happen.
FOTY 2014 -Early September
I had a couple of choices on projects to work on and FOTY 2014 was one of them. I took this picture on Thursday as a baseline for the weekend.
The piece has looked like this for a long time and it isn’t a bad look, but it isn’t finished either.
The red and pink look pretty good. The green area needs a lot of work and the purple is simply missing.
I decided to do one small thing as one small thing often leads to larger things, so I counted up all the patches, then I worked on figuring out how large the piece needed to be. I *think* the piece needs to be 16 rows tall by 26 rows wide. At the moment the piece is 15 rows tall by 24 rows wide. Easy to add two more rows?
No.
Some FOTY 2014 Work – early Sept.
I got busy and started moving things around until I got to this point. The whole piece is filled in, which is a good thing. The green area still looks terrible, but it could be worse. The bad part is that there are 40+ patches on the floor. I have crammed some into the bottom rows, which is fine, but also not fine. I had to face reality that 26 x16 rows does not fit on this does wall and I need to do something else.
I really need all the pieces on the design wall in order to arrange the pieces the way I want them. I can’t just put the pieces up on the wall and sew them together and have a piece that I like.
I don’t seem to be able to think of very many options except to trim all the piece. The rectangles are large (5″x3″) and if I trim a 1/4″ off each side that will cut the size down and, perhaps, enable me to get all the pieces on the wall. I cut the rectangles that size to have them be 4.5″ x 2.5″ once sewn together and I kind of want them to be that size. I could cut them down to squares and forget my rectangle idea all together. I did squares for FOTY 2013 and I don’t think I want to do them again another year in a row.
I stopped in Corvallis, Oregon on my way home at a shop called Quiltwork Patches. This wasn’t the largest store I visited, but it was one with a very good selection of fabric etc. Their excellent selection of fabric also included colorways that I hadn’t seen. They had some of the latest Moda charm packs and mini charm packs and really great selection of sale fabrics.
The ladies in the shop were friendly, but not too pushy, so I felt ok looking around, which was great, because I wasn’t feeling that well*.
There was a ton of fabric in this shop and half of it was sale fabric. The other part was really different, as I mentioned.
Quiltwork Patches front to back of the store
I liked the displays as well. They weren’t too cutesy and didn’t get in the way of the fabric. The displays facilitated the display of the fabric.
This was the first time I really liked those little benches in a quilt store. They, again, facilitated the display rather than overwhelming the display.
Quiltwork Patches back to front of store
Quiltwork Patches FQs and Sale Fabric
If this looks like a lot of fabric, it is because there was a lot of fabric in this store. Their website says 4000 bolts and I believe it.
Quiltwork Patches across the front of the store
Location:
212 SW 3rd St, Corvallis, OR 97333
(541) 752-4820
I kept catching Mom in my photos!
*Nota bene: Mom and I ended up with what we think was food poisoning. We can’t figure out where we got it, but I was sicker than she and it was unpleasant.
