No, I didn’t forget about this quilt. It’s just taken me awhile to get the photo taken and up here.
This is the last group of squares for FOTY 2019. Alot of these fabrics are from various scrap projects.
On to sewing. Soon.
FOTY 2019 – Last Group
Tag: Fabric
Need Fabric
I am working on the Frolic! quilt, as you have seen and, of course, I have run out of fabric. This blue dotted fabric is an older fabric called Peek-a-Boo by Amy Bradley Designs for Moda Pattern #13012. I always try to think of running out of fabric as a design challenge. Thus, I have a relatively suitable substitute waiting in the wings, but would really prefer just a little more of this fabric. If you have any you are willing to sell or trade, please get in touch. I would really appreciate your help. Thanks!
BAM Largesse
A week or so ago, we celebrated Winter at my guild. There was a short Sew Day where I worked on Frolic! Clue 2, then a potluck lunch and a swap and socializing.
In between all of this fun and excitement was fabric. We hold our Sew Days in a church hall. On the side of this room are 4-5 old pews. The room used to be the church sanctuary. Normally, we store our bags and other Sew Day paraphernalia there to keep it off the floor and reduce tripping hazards.
On the Winter Party/Sew Day at least 3 of the pews were filled with fabric. The guild had been given a donation of fabric by a longarmer who was closing her business. She donation only about a quarter of her stash to the guild. People at the party were allowed to look through the fabric and take what they wanted. I stayed away, having plenty of fabric of my own. Plenty of the members took a few pieces or filled up grocery bags with their selections. The rest will be used for our community quilt project.
This was kind of startling in a number of different ways. Will my unused fabric end up like that? Why get rid of all of her fabric? Doesn’t she want to sew anymore or did she keep her favorite pieces? I know I will probably never know the answers to these questions. I will have to think about what I am going to do with my fabric and make sure my DH knows so it doesn’t all go to Goodwill. What happens to your fabric and supplies when you go to your next adventure?
Scrap User System
One of the things that was in the first Frolic! clue was a mention of Bonnie Hunter’s Scrap User System. I had forgotten about her system, but was reminded when I clicked on the link and started reading the article.
I don’t do exactly what Bonnie does, but I do a version of it. As I have mentioned, I cut certain pieces out of every piece of fabric I use or buy for future projects. As I mentioned the other day, this sometimes comes in handy when I work on a project that needs certain unit sizes that I have cut. This is the point of Bonnie’s system.
My cutting varies from year to year depending on what projects I have going, as I have said. I like the idea of cutting up all of my scraps into usable pieces, but it just isn’t practical for me. I like the compromise I have made. It breaks up my cutting, as I have also said. I have the pieces I need for my next projects ready to go when I am ready to sew. I have something (cutting up pieces of fabric) I can do when I have a few minutes free.
I also like having random shapes and sizes of fabric in my scrap drawers. I would be able to make interesting journal covers or the improv donation quilts without them.
I think the key is to think about different systems and make them work for you.
SoCal Fabrics
I headed down to Southern California with DH on Friday. It is the first time I have been on a trip in awhile. It was strange. We drove down to San Gabriel. As the new chairman of the Native Sons Charitable Foundation, he had to give a big check to one of the hospitals that treats craniofacial anomalies.
I bought some new fabrics.
First, my friend took me to Cat’s Quilting Corner. Check back for a post about that shop. If you are in Southern California, it is definitely worth a visit.
All the fabrics in the photo, left, are from Cat’s Quilting Corner. there were many more that I wanted, but I have to be mindful of my usage and I couldn’t think of a use for some of them. The magazine (with EPP templates), the double fold elastic and the lobster clips all came from Joann. I know! I know!, but they did have a very nice selection.
I bought the double fold elastic because of the colors. I couldn’t resist the dots. They had red with white dots as well, but I didn’t like the baby blue that went with the red. I think I might use it with the Ultimate Carry All bag. We’ll see.
On Sunday night, we stayed overnight in Paso Robles. We planned to do a bit of wine tasting, but visited Solvang instead, so we got to our hotel late. On Monday morning, we stopped at Birch Fabrics/FabricWorm as we left town. That shop has such a nice space. I wrote a review of it some years ago. They were super busy getting ready for PIQF, Houston and some other shows. The woman helping me also said they had 80 online orders waiting to be cut! Birch has a nice selection of fabrics. I was able to see some of the Ruby Star Society fabrics. The stripes shown are from their newest collection.
We had a nice trip and it was fun to see a new quilt shop and visit one I had visited before.
FOTY 2019 – More Squares
I have been working on cutting up the fabric on my ironing board. It was getting pretty fat and hard to use as an actual ironing board for piecing. As a result, I got a full design wall of squares.
There is a lot of orange because I have been working on the Orange Improv donation top, but other new fabrics as well.
The Problem with Grey
I went to The Granary the other day and Friend Julie pointed out a row of greys. She called it the “problem with greys.” I thought the photo explained the ‘problem’ beautifully.
The colors in the photo look different from when I saw them with my eyes, but it doesn’t matter, because you, dear Reader, can still see the difference.
None of the colors would be called anything but grey. The bolt on the far right looks black but was a charcoal (you’ll have to trust me). The shelf sports a wide variety.
I like using a variety of greys as background on my quilts and it is a happy chore to find the right ones. You can see the variety in Flying Around. Mostly I like to use greys that are very close in tone to each other so there is no grey that obviously stands out. Also, I don’t like the taupe based greys. I am sure I have said that before.
In the photo of the Flying Around background, I have more variety. It might be because I want the eye to move around the background as well as the foreground or it might be laziness. Not sure or not admitting to anything. 😉
This is an example of why my rule of ‘make visual decisions visually’ is so important. It is impossible to match any color, perhaps particularly greys, without putting the bolts or pieces next to each other.
Pillowcase-palooza
I went on a binge of pillowcase making over the weekend. I had several pieces of fabric I had purchased for pillowcases. Somehow they had never risen high enough on the list, but this past weekend was the time.
I needed some quick finishes. I have been working hard on Flying Around, but it slow going and I just needed to finish something. I know I finished the Jelly Roll Rug recently, but that didn’t really feel like a finish somehow.
The YM gets a new pair (tacos). His new roommates each get one (taco, Mexican food cuff). A niece and nephew each get a pair and I will keep the turquoise dotted one for myself. I love that chocolate fabric.
FOTY 2019
I am moving slowly on gathering fabrics for FOTY 2019. It might be a small quilt! This slowness is because of working with the scraps for the strip and improv donation projects and also because of how long it is taking me to piece Flying Around.
Most of these are light and I know you can tell what I have been working on from what you see. This is sort of the beauty of the Fabric of the Year projects. I can remember the fabrics I bought and used that year. It reminds me of various projects and trips to great shops.
New Project pt.2
The other day I talked about some fabric I bought and the pattern I was considering for the project.
Despite my determination, I wasn’t 100% sold on the pattern I mentioned. I went back to the box of patterns, blocks, etc and looked through the rest of it to make sure I didn’t find a pattern or idea I liked better.
I found a few that I thought were more interesting or had some promise.
My top contender for the moment is a block I found in a Japanese magazine. Because I do not read Japanese and I ripped out the page at some point, I don’t know which magazine or issue.
As you can see from above, the block breaks down into Flying Geese and Peaky & Spikes as well as some strange pentagon shape.
The page showed a number of different blocks both in outline format and in black and white, but with fabrics. The example shows four blocks together as well.
The four blocks together is what caught my attention as I looked through the box. The black and white fabric image makes it look like there is a circle going on.
One of the trends I saw in the box was a lot of blocks with curves or either implied curves.
I drew up the block in EQ8 and made a quilt from the drawing, so you can get an idea of what my version of the quilt will look like.
I don’t know if I get the full effect from the drawing of the circles, but I see it a little bit.
I used the colors from below to create the quilt example (left). I think I have more colors and fabrics, so the example is not reflective of what the quilt will look like.
I also found an inspiration page from a home magazine that I ripped out at some point. With a couple of exceptions it mimics the colors in the fat quarter pack I bought and plan to use in this project. I intended to add some turquoise, but may also add a mustard-like color as the inspiration suggests.
FOTY 2017 Top Finished!
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.
FOTY 2017 Update
I spent all day Sunday working to get the FOTY 2017 top together. I have big chunks, but not a top.
Yet.
I will soon. I still can’t tell if I am going to like the way it looks, but I hope so. I do like the skyline sort of effect
More Progress on FOTY 2017
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.
The creativity posts will resume at some point.
FOTY 2017 Progressing
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.
I hope to finish the top this weekend.
Sewing FOTY 2017
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.