Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I saw a star made with lots of triangles. I used that as my inspiration for my most recent BAM BOM blocks, Birds in the Air.
This grouping is made up of 12 blocks. I may not arrange it this was, but I am enjoying looking at it.
We distributed the schedule for finishing the tops made from these blocks, so I need to get serious about making more blocks, or not.
Others have made blocks for my stepdad for the Quilts of Valor quilt.
I think they have done a great job making the blocks look lively (not boring). The placement of the colors in a limited palette is really good.
My stepdad is ill and I wanted to get him a Quilt of Valor quilt.
I tried back in 2016 and never heard back. I reached back to the woman I had spoken to and her email address no longer worked. I left a request with the situation on their website and haven’t heard anything.
At SueS’ Sew Day I asked if anyone had a contact. Suddenly, a quilt was being designed and everyone there was picking out blocks to make for a quilt. The block above is a 26″ block that I made.
I am so grateful to the guild members. The quilt won’t be a ‘real’ QoV quilt, but I think the sentiment will be just as meaningful.
In the category of TMI, I had some dental work done yesterday and spent some time clearing out my email inbox, but otherwise laid on the couch and was a potato. I did get some stuff done over the weekend, which made me happy.
I got some fabric as a gift a week or so ago and decided it would work really well for my next White Strip donation top.
The White strip blocks had been laying around not inspiring me. With the new fabric in hand, I cut it up at SueS’ Sew Day. With that done, I was able to sew large and small squares to the strip blocks to come up with these larger blocks on Saturday.
Most of the blocks have been sewn so I need to start chunking. I was able to use almost all of the gift fabric, which is great.
This is a very different look for the white strip tops I have made in the past. This top will also straddle two series of quilts, Color Strip and Sidewalk.
I made my goal of 30 blocks this month plus some! I am not stressing myself out over the goal, but I do want to celebrate when I can.
I finished the EBTM bag on Saturday at the special Everything But the Machine Sew Day. Mine was one of the seven that were finished.
As mentioned, I wasn’t sure about this bag, but as I worked on it, it grew on me. I was glad I chose good fabric.
I think I might replace my fabulous Tupperware boxes, companions since I started quiltmaking, with this bag. We’ll see. Making the switch will be hard. I am used to my various storage containers.
The bag has a handle as well as a suitcase sleeve — called a Trolley pocket in the pattern. I know a lot of people know what trolleys are, which I do, too. We don’t use that term in my area. We use wagon, streetcar and cable car for the various versions.
I am pleased with the fabric I chose as well. I wasn’t sure about the grey poppies, but they tone down the pink a bit.
Several people omitted the suitcase sleeve, but I put it on as there is a chance that I would hook it on my rolling sewing machine case. I made sure to check that the sleeve was big enough.
I kind of like the pocket even if I don’t slide the bag over a suitcase handle.
The pocket has an internal zipper pocket, as you can see. The pocket used an interesting double tube construction, which I would love to play with a little more. I also like the internal zipper pocket, though it might be a pocket where items go to hide.
Under the suitcase sleeve is another slip pocket. I used vinyl for the slip pocket. It has a bit of fabric on the top for binding. It was very easy to make. That section, however, was tricky to sew, because of the thickness. I had my travel machine, too, rather than my new machine, which probably could have handled the thickness with no problem.
I used MaryC’s method for the handles, which is to make a short handle that doesn’t move, can’t be adjusted or unclipped. I did take the opportunity to rivet the handle to the bag. Riveting is still fun!
I realized later that I forgot to sew a label on it. It isn’t too late. I can do it by hand.
I had a lot of various troubles with the pattern, so having Mary lead us in making this was great.
I quickly made the Bow Tie block before the meeting deadline last weekend.
This is not a favorite block design, however I am, again, being a good guild citizen and making all the blocks.
I used the Mini Simple Folded Corners Ruler** and it went very quickly.
We are nearing the end of the BAM BOM, so I need to get serious about my blocks. I need to re-make the Friendship Star wreath and see whether I need to make more blocks.
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I am thinking of making something with the pink 16 Patch blocks, but I haven’t decided what yet. Also I don’t have enough and have moved on to Color Strip blocks.
Yes, I am back to making Color Strip blocks in white and pink. I finished the white set I started awhile ago. I want to make another Sidewalk quilt. I wasn’t up for starting it, so I began making pink Color Strip blocks. I chose pink, because the pink scrap drawer is too full.
I finished the second Wheelchair Quilt in time to hand it in at the meeting on Saturday. Now I am done with wheelchair quilts for this drive.
I have some 9 inch squares and am thinking of making some kits with the leftovers as I don’t need them hanging around. We’ll see.
I powered through the chunking of the Sidewalk #6: Green and was able to finish. I wanted to get one of the Wheelchair quilts up on the wall, so I needed to finish the Sidewalk quilt.
I really need to make the Half 16 Patches more colorful. The alternating white squares in the blocks means the quilt is primarily white which maybe isn’t so great for a donation quilt. I thought about using a color for the 8.5 and 4.5 inch squares, but am pretty sure I don’t have enough of any one color and am not sure scrappy would work with this design. I’ll have to think about it some more.
The back took longer than I expected as I used a lot of smaller pieces. Still, it uses up a lot of greens that I probably won’t use. Also, I get to add to my ‘Fabric Used” spreadsheet and up the number of donation quilts the guild gives away.
BAM is collecting wheelchair quilts for the veteran’s hospital in Palo Alto. We had planned a sew Day, but our Sew Day had to be cancelled, so I made one top at Super Sew Day and am working on another one.
We are all working to the same pattern from Sunshine Linus.
Both quilts use some Moda fabrics I won as part of the UFO challenge. As per the pattern, I cut the fabric up into 9.5 inch squares and sewed them together.
I had enough squares for at least one other, which I am working on now.
I didn’t include a back for the first one, but will sew a back for the second one. I have to sew this together first.
Someone else will quilt it. I didn’t cut off the corners as I thought the longarming would be easier if that step was done after quilting.
I have been collecting various blocks using 2.5 inch squares for forthcoming donation quilts. I finally had enough of the green half 16 patch blocks to make another Sidewalk quilt.
I started putting the blocks together in chunks on my small design wall, but couldn’t look at the whole thing until Cool Four Patch Fun was off the large design wall. I did a fair job spreading dark and light greens across the quilt. I don’t think this will take me very long to put together. I might have it done for the next meeting.
There is a lot of white in this quilt design. I think I need to try one where the large center blocks are a different color. White isn’t great for a donation quilt and I am sure I can find enough of whatever color to make a good looking quilt.
We had a fun Super Sew Day over the July Fourth holiday. We held it on Friday and Saturday so it was double the fun.
I went with a bag of small pieces of Soft and Stable that had been annoying me. My goal was to make them into larger usable pieces, Frankenfoam. I used Frankenfoam in the Palomino Pouch project and didn’t get any reports of problems. I cover the outside with some SF101/ProFuse to smooth out the bumps a little. I think for small projects, or those with a lot of seams, Frankenfoam works well.
I started out sewing like sized pieces together. By the end of Friday, I was less careful about ‘wasting’ foam. I ended up with two pieces about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I estimate I got the approximate size of one package of ByAnnie Soft & Stable. It was a good project to do when people were asking me a million questions. It was easy to stop and start without losing my place or having to figure out the directions again.
I really could have done more, but I decided I didn’t need an absolutely square piece to use it.
As a result, on Saturday, I cut up one of those pieces and make the exterior of the Mindalin tool roll. This pattern can be found in Make Modern issue 70. The pattern calls for foundation pieced blocks to make the outside, but I decided to use selvedges to make the exterior. It looks really cool, IMO.
The last thing I made with selvedges was the Sleeping Bag pouch. I want to make another one, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I seem to have a never ending supply of selvedges, so I wasn’t worried about using up the ones I had collected.
A lot of people were making the Everything But the Machine Tote. The guild may have a sew-a-long for this bag as it is very useful. It has drawers inside to hold your travel sewing supplies.
The front provides a great way to showcase a special patch, embroidery or fussy cutting.
Christine made hers all in one day.
People brought both Creative Play packets to the guild meeting on Saturday. It was so great to see them! People have done great work to them.
I was also very excited that they were in different states. One has turned into a round robin with people mostly adding borders. Not everyone is adding a complete, four sided border, but, as you can see, there are a lot of borders.
The other is not sewn together completely. Chunks are sewn together which provides a lot of opportunity for creativity. There is also plenty of fabric left.
I finished the second of the May/June blocks the night before they were due. I try to make them before or as soon as we announce them, but I didn’t this time. As a result, I almost didn’t make the deadline.
In addition, I ended up remaking the X Plus/Lozenge block. Now I have two of them. I’ll use the first one on the back. I don’t want to make it into something else, because the piecing is less than stellar, but it will look fine on the back of the quilt.
I made the Drunkard’s Path/ Quarter Squares right away. I was in the frame of mind with Chaos with a Twist, so took the opportunity to make a few more in my BAM BOM fabrics.
A lot of people are participating, which made me really happy! There were some fantastic blocks shown.