Yes, I am making progress! The top is finished and I am pretty happy with it. I am running out of larger pieces for borders and backings. This does NOT mean I am running out of fabric. It just means the pieces I have left are, mostly, not large enough for the border of a 40 x 40ish quilt. I am not sure what I am going to do about that.
Much of my green, as I may have mentioned, is of the chartreuse and yellow-green variety. I remember buying a lot of chartreuse and icky green as TFQ called it, but I am still surprised I have as much as I do.
The borders I added are some Riley Blake fabrics (I think) that are neither chartreuse or yellow-green or dark green. These are more of a light blue-green…maybe? I don’t know what to call that color. The borders give the quilt a different look overall. Still green, but not as yellow, I think.
I am making good progress on the Green Strips donation top. It might be a little hard to see, but I am sewing sashing strips to the blocks. I have some of the top sashing cut, but haven’t decided what color to use for the cornerstones. I keep thinking red as that is opposite to green on the color wheel, but I don’t want a Christmas look at all. These blocks remind me of a leafy green tree and I want to keep that feeling. More green, I think. Or a blue tending towards green.
Now that the Green & Grey Diagonal 9 Patch is ready for quilting, I started another donation top. This time I am using the green blocks I have been making.
I am planning to use the thin strips between the blocks again, but I haven’t sewn them yet, so we will see.
I also did some math and think 4 x 6 blocks will make a good sized quilt. The rough size will be 35 x38 inches without a border. I don’t want to make another skinny quilt like the recent Black Strip #2.
Green Strips donation top
This is #2 of all time. The first quilt in this series was made with green. I don’t use much green so that really strikes me as weird. It is interesting to see the differences. I didn’t sew smaller pieces into larger to make the strips long enough like I do now. Back in the day, I just used strips that were the right length. Perhaps that is why my scrap drawer got so full so quickly.
I spent some time last week finding fabrics for my last group of Pantone blocks.
I don’t have any greens as dark as Deep Forest, so in the end, I just chose a black.
Most of the others I selected from older fabrics that I haven’t even looked at in awhile. I have one more fabric to select, but I have already cut the 4.5 inch squares. I have also started to make the blocks and will show those soon.
My work spends a week every year giving back to the community. We raise money, work on projects and do a walk around campus to help those in the community. The company has provided over 180,000 volunteer hours in the last ten years. I was excited to be able to participate in three events this year.
Hygiene Kits
One thing I did was put together hygiene kits. You get a bag and you fill it with soap, shampoo, hand sanitizer, toothbrushes, etc. That is the easy part. The hard part is what to write in a card that will sound supportive and non-judgemental. I spent most of that hour working on the two cards. Filling the two bags took me about 5 minutes.
I used some construction paper to make the card and then I traced a stencil of the star as a start to the card. I added some additional decorations to try and make it look nicer.
Fleece for ‘No Sew Blankets’
Fleece for ‘No Sew Blankets’
Tying ‘No Sew Blankets’
The other project was ‘No Sew Blankets’. I really wanted to sew them, but I was a good girl and followed the directions. We had fun. I wasn’t with a group for this project so I was assigned to help another department and we worked together really well. We were able to finish two 96 in x 55 in blankets that will be donated to Bay Area Cancer Connections. BACC helps women with breast and ovarian cancer. I know how to make these blankets now so I can see making a few on my own, perhaps in a smaller size.
All of the activities were coordinated by Hands On Bay Area, an organization that connects organizations that need help with companies and organizations that want to help.
Children’s Walk
For the first time I walked with everyone on the Children’s Walk. It was kind of slow because there were so many people, but I was with a group so we just chatted while we sauntered.
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so a good day for walking. I was glad to be able to help.
I spent the Sew Days over the weekend working on the Oxbow Tote, which is the sort of group project instigated by Sue S. This project is not going well for me. I have to ask if all of my bag projects start out this way and then I get over the drama or if this is particularly annoying this time?
First, I didn’t have enough fabric in the correct orientation to make the large size. I needed more width to make two main exterior panels. That was irritating, but I decided that the regular size would be fine. It wasn’t what I was planning so I had to do a mind shift.
Then, I had to do the worst part of this bag, after cutting, which was quilting. It took me a whole day to quilt the main panels. Fortunately, I was entertained by Tim and Julie and the rest of the quilt gang. I was only in a moderately bad mood when I finished instead of completely miserable and submerging my head in a vat of chocolate.
Once I was done with that I was able to fine cut the pattern pieces. They are not square, so I rough cut the pieces to allow for shrinkage and, then, quilted them. After that step, I felt like I had some success. I put the cross body strap together as well as the side loops that will hold that strap.
I have more to do, but feel I am over the hump for now.
After finishing the Retreat Bag on Friday, I have FINALLY finished all of the projects in the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club.
This club started in the 2018, so it has been awhile in the making. I really did pretty well with the first few projects. The last three were the ones that took me longer than I thought they should. Still, life gets in the way.
I have so much more experience now with bags. I suspect that Vanessa, of Crafty Gemini, does as well and she would make these projects differently if she were designing the club again.
I haven’t used all of the projects. For some reason, I was saving them until all were done. I don’t know what that was about, but I am going to put them into circulation.
I keep looking at the Zip Away Organizer and thinking that the construction is similar to the Day Trip Wallet from Sew Sweetness. The Day Trip Wallet is a project I have been putting off because of the tight curves required in the construction.
These are the projects in gallery form. I don’t have all of the projects anymore.
Roadtrip Bag – front
Zip Away Organizer – open
Crafty Gemini Sewing Machine Mat
4 Zip Organizer: closed
All Rolled Up tote with handles: open
Ultimate Project Bag – interior – with Road Trip bag
Crafty Gemini Retreat Bag -full interior (finished)
I am not sure which ones I will make again. I think I will make the Project Bag again, but with some modifications. I am finding project bags to be very useful. Not only do they use up fabric, but they keep all the pieces and parts of smaller projects together.
I won’t make the Road Trip bag again, though I like the size. It is very similar to the I Spy pouches from Sew Sweetness and I like the I Spy pattern better. I like making a window of the vinyl and not having it in a seam that needs to be turned. Of course, I have better vinyl now. I do like the leash on the Road trip bag, but I don’t like it next to the zipper. In fairness, I could have put it on the wrong side.
I started off strong with my green scrap bin out and using strips as leaders and enders to make strip blocks for my next Color Strip donation top.
I made a few blocks at the Retreat, which helped with my numbers for the month. I am pleased to report that I achieved my goal of 30 donation blocks this month.
Along with garment sewing and a new bracelet, I also got some more Pantone blocks from Julie at Sew Day.
I have a stack of postcards to match and plan to do that this weekend. I owe her several and hope to bring them to the Retreat.
Pantone ideas – evolving
We are almost done making the blocks, then it will be time to put the quilt together. Perhaps I will use this design – or something like it – sooner than I think.
No more brown for me for awhile. I sewed this ‘slab’ together, but am out of brown scraps. As a result, I gave it to Marty to work on at Sew Day the other day. I don’t know what she’ll make with it, but something. I am more interested in the grey and black slabs
Yes, I have made some good progress and I really like the way it is turning out. This piece is approximately 24.5 w x 17.25 tall. I have some sewing to do before it can be considered large enough for a donation quilt. Still, I really like it and it is shaping up nicely.
I am still concerned I won’t have enough scraps to make it large enough. I am trying not to worry about it. Sometimes I can’t help it.
I am not really wicked nor am I green, but some of my post titles have been super boring lately, so I thought I would shake things up.
The green scrap drawer is too full, which is good, because I can move on to a new leaders and enders project. It is bad, though as I have plenty of other things I want to do as leaders and enders. Still, I was enjoying making strip blocks, so here we go.
One burning question is WHY do I have so many green scraps. I can remember making things out of a few of them, but not most. How are all of these green scraps multiplying?
On a side note: that large green Pointillist Palette piece is going to get cut up into smaller pieces to be part of a Niece-phew quilt.
After finishing Grey Strip #2, I put the 16 patches that have been waiting in the wings on the large design wall. This is the start to laying out another Quarter Square Triangle block quilt.
I used different stripes this time. I had some squares that were the leftovers from something that worked well for the size blocks I needed. This provides a different look from the others with the dark black triangles.
I am short of the same white, but will cut a different white. It will be fine and I get to use up more fabric. I think I can finish this before Sew Day. It would be nice to hand in two quilts.
