I know many of you liked the progress I was making on FOTY 2013. I didn’t like it, so I talked to Maureen and her son and started over.
This project is killing me and I have to get it done. I have to get it done for my own piece of mind. I also want to get it done, but the other layout was not achieving the goal I wanted to achieve. I was having a hard time gradating the colors horizontally and thought that I would need too much background.
I also didn’t want to do the same thing as FOTY 2012 despite the success of that quilt. I don’t want to do the same thing over and over.
Maureen and Andy suggested starting in the middle. I went home and started, which is what you see in the picture, and I feel like the process is going a lot better.
I went on a fabric pressing binge and now have at least one post as a result.
I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I couldn’t seem to get my act together to sew last week. I have spent a couple days on the computer tweaking my blog and reading other blogs, but no sewing. Bleah. I think the machine problems are getting to me.
Pressing fabric seemed my best bet. Aren’t these fabrics pretty? They make me happy. And forced me to sew on Saturday and Sunday. That was a good thing.
Some theatre we visit occasionally has a “First Look” feature. It is one of the half hour’s worth of ads that plays before the movie actually starts! This is your first look at Fabric of the Year 2013.
I want to stress FIRST look. I have a long way to go to get this quilt top pieced. There is a lot of rearranging that needs to happen.
The first step to get to the first look was that I had to get the squares out of the Fabric Closet. That was pretty easy, so I sorted them into rough color piles, e.g. ROYGBIV plus grey, black and white.
Pink Chalk Fabrics sends a post card with an order. It has some gorgeous piece on the front and sizes of quilts on the back. I saw the lifestyle shot on a post card I received from them. After getting FOTY 2012 back, I knew I needed to do something a little different. How could I compete with that quilt? At some point in the FOTY 2013 cutting process, I put the squares and the image on this postcard together in my head and decided to arrange the piece in a similar fashion.
Then I got out the post card that is inspiring this piece and started putting them up on the design wall. I just slapped them up, only further sorting roughly into light, medium and dark.
First observations:
The picture above may not even begin to resemble the finished quilt.
I couldn’t fit the pinks on the design wall
Even though the Basic Textures by Patty Young (used on Fresh Fruit) are all the same value, they can’t all be next to each other.
This group of fabric is a lot of what I got on my road trip. Not all, but a lot.
Someone suggested setting the rectangles like subway tiles, so I thought I would post them like that here so you could see what you think.
I really like the charcoal grey circle stitch fabric (last row, 2d from the top on the right). I am very tempted to buy a bunch of it and use if for a background for something. I don’t know what, though. I don’t know whether I am following a trend with all this grey or whether I am shying from other light colored backgrounds.
Do you like the crazy dip to the right? I can’t believe I didn’t see that until after I took the photo. Hopefully I won’t piece them like that.
Lately I have been plowing through a lot of washed fabric. Most of it is blues and greens, which is good for my Blue[berry] Lemonade project and means that the FOTY 2014 will have a lot of blues and greens like the previous versions in the series.
I am a little more excited about cutting for FOTY 2014 now that FOTY 2012 is done. I am really pleased with how FOTY 2012 came out and now I am hoping future versions come out even better.
I have a couple of projects in mind that require blues, so I have been washing and pressing blues, greens and light purples/violets lately. This is a nice little collection that I am really looking forward to using. I have already cut some pieces for projects that are still in the Hunting & Gathering stage.
I found a sense of peace and not frustration when I was cutting these pieces. It is satisfying to see a little pile of cut patches grow. That was a nice change.
Recently I bought some stuff. Quiltmaking stuff, of course.
Pink Chalk Solids
Pink Chalk had a special on these Indian Summer by Jenelle Clark solid grouping and they were kind enough to cut half yards for me. I will use the blues and greens for the Tale of Two Cities piece, but I do like looking at the gradation.
Reflecting Pool Perl Cotton by Anna Maria Horner
Yes, I am easily led by color. I have been looking at the Anna Maria Horner Perl Cottons in the Reflecting Pool colors for awhile and finally decided to bite the bullet. Fortunately for me they were on sale in her shop when I went to buy them. When received, I found that they are prettier than I imagined. Again I like the gradation. I am thinking about the Big Stitch for quilting as well as embellishing in the style of my Pamela Allen quilts. Perhaps the Serendipity Lady will get some embellishing?
Sashiko Thread
I had hand stitching on my mind at the EBHQ Show. When I saw this Sashiko thread, I had to buy some. Pink and Turquoise! What could be better?
The pink will work well for the Serendipity Lady as will the cream. I could use the turquoise for the flowers and the green for the leaves, unless I decide to make the leaves a different color. I do need to get back to that project.
I have the FOTY 2012 and the Fresh Fruit to bind as well as the EPP stars all as hand projects. Clearly, I am in need of some embroidery on which to work. Either I need to get going on the Serendipity Lady, so she is at a point where I can bead and embellish or I *shock*horror* need to get another Pamela Allen style quilt going. Perhaps I could embellish See? I’ll think about that as I do recoil a little bit when I think of starting a new project.
EBHQ Show Pretties
Finally, here is what I bought at the EBHQ show. Shockingly, I have some ideas for some of it. The fish fabric in the middle left is the most exciting. I have an idea that I will make a top of strips running vertically in warm colors, especially reds and pinks. Then I will cut out those fish and applique them along the bottom. I do feel excited about that piece. Some of the pinks and reds shown would go into it.
The Young Man told me he now wants a music quilt. I saw some fabrics in the Keepsake Quilting catalog and confirmed that he liked them, but saw these at the show and picked them up. I don’t have an idea for the layout or anything yet, but I will eventually. I am guessing that will be his graduation quilt. We’ll see.
The other fabrics were just fun. I hope to get them into something soon. The two turquoise pieces (cups and text) may end up in the Tale of Two Cites.
Some people call this crumb piecing. I have always called it mosaic quilting since I saw Shannon Williams on Simply Quilts about a thousand years ago. I like the term mosaic quilting. It sounds fancy and important. 😉 Crumb piecing sounds like something I have to wipe off my counter with a sponge (with apologies to Bonnie Hunter!)
I consider this to be making new fabric from scraps – some very tiny scraps in some cases. I am putting scraps together into a larger piece so that I can cut it up later using pattern pieces to make something new.
When I am working on a piece like this, I often use it as leaders and enders. I usually have several small pieces to which I add, then at some point I sew them together to make a larger piece. The piece above is getting to large to work on comfortably and I have not yet sewn it to the larger piece.
There are a lot of seams and these pieces get to be pretty heavy. I like them, though as I think they add interest and create a topic for conversation in a piece. Also, it is a technique you can use to draw people in closer to look at your quilt.
Once you have made your ‘fabric’, you can cut it up again into squares or other shapes and use them as patches for your quilt. You have to be aware of the seam allowances, because they can get quite thick. This technique is a good time to press your seams open.
I have several pieces of this new brown ‘fabric’ that I am making to use for a project that will be a gift for a friend. I will show you the project eventually, but for now you will have to be satisfied with the sneak peek above.
This has never happened before. FOTY 2013 has not even had its chance on the design wall and I am already cutting for FOTY 2014. That is, apparently, the way it goes sometimes.
I like this group, though the greys are a bit of a downer, and think that many of the prints would be considered very modern.
The FOTY 2014 patches are cut 3″x5″. The reason for this size is that I have been trying to achieve a certain size of rectangle in a couple of projects (one was FOTY 2008) . I kept forgetting to factor in the seam allowance, so the rectangles, once sewn, were too small. They worked fine in the quilt, but the look was a little small for what I wanted.
This slightly larger size will also showcase more of the pattern on the fabric.
This project has been on my mind since December when Friend Julie suggested it. I am finally making a wobbly start. The start is that I have started to choose the colors.
Julie bought me the book as a gift and after some discussions with her, I decided I would be inspired by the city around me. This, in my mind, fits into the ‘City Sampler” theme that Tula Pink encourages also.
In the winter, the sky is very blue here and, though cold, I enjoy the strong light and clear colors. It should be no surprise that turquoise factors into my choices. I just can’t help myself.
Another appeal of this project is the block element. I miss making blocks on a regular basis like I did for the A-B-C Challenge and the Star Sampler. This project will help me satisfy that craving and, hopefully, will not annoy me.
Finally, shortly after Julie and I talked about the project, Kelly brought it up as a BAMQG small group project. This means I can have fun with Julie and participate more in BAMQG.
I was having trouble getting started. I have been distracted by life and picking a few fabrics (I am sure I will need more) really helps me to get the process out of my head and started.
Last year, TFQ gave me a bundle of dots for my birthday. Since then they have been sitting on my cutting table waiting for inspiration to strike. I didn’t want to use them alone in a quilt, because I thought it would be too boring (dots, boring? I know, but my mind works in mysterious ways sometimes).
Tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets
Recently, I saw some of the tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets (great imagery in that name, don’t you think?) and these dots came around again in my thoughts. I am wondering if I could use the two of the groups together in something interesting?
Julie brought these fabrics back from China for me. She had an adventure trying to find quilting fabric. She told me the story of going to find them and being frustrated by not knowing the words for quilt, dots or cotton and not knowing how to describe them with sign language. Though it probably wasn’t funny at the time, she related how a tribe of very small tailors followed her around the shop while she tried to shop, apparently relating their skill in making garments as she looked around. Imagining this pantomime made me laugh.
She was a little unsure about the fiber content and wanted to make sure that I washed them. I will. It was so nice of her to bring them back.
It has taken longer this year to get to this point. I didn’t have the Retreat as a firm deadline. I decided that I had to create a deadline and few pieces of fabric I had washed, but not pressed provided the deadline. As soon as I took care of those, I closed the collection.
I haven’t sorted the squares, but I have an idea of how I will sew them. I think I need to finish a couple of projects before I start sewing this one. That doesn’t mean that I will put it off forever, but I have to clear my mind so I can spend time on arranging the squares.
I know it is January 2014, but I am not quite ready to pack in the cutting for FOTY 2013. I’ll start arranging and piecing it later this month, with any luck.
I wanted to include these fabrics, because some of them are from projects in December. I also added a few from Attack of the Hexies and may add a few more, if I have any left.
I also have washed a few fabrics that I thought I would use for pillowcases, but it didn’t happen. I’d like to add those in as well.
