Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
As soon as Flame was off the design wall, I dug out some HRTs I had made last year (?) when I made the other Spiky 16 Patch tops.
I am thinking about making a donation quilt with just the HRTs, but don’t think I will do that yet. I think I want to just make another Spiky 16 Patch quilt. I think I want to make the HRT version (no 16 patch) with a variety of different colors – not monochrome or warm/cool.
I decided to call this donation quilt ‘Flame’ to make things more interesting. I guess we all need a little ‘nice’ interesting right now rather than alarming interesting. Enough of that going around.
I am feeling kind of bad that I am still working on donation tops rather than making masks. I think I will need to make some soon, at least for my son. I wonder how many are being made at the moment?
I used a pretty large piece of Jay McCarroll fabric for the back. I had to add a strip to it to make it large enough, but it will be fine. I still worry about labels. I think I might use stitch lettering to put my name and the year on the back and note that it is from BAMQG. I sort of want people to know I existed down the line. Of course, who knows if the quilt will exist for very long?
There is one thing that is interesting that is going on with this top. If I pay careful attention to the placement of colors, the piece looks woven.
I didn’t plan this, but it has design potential. The overall design might work better with more variety in the colors, so a viewer could tell where the colors were weaving. I suspect that too many colors wouldn’t work.
I finished Traffic Jam. This was an easy pattern and the quilt really went quickly, much more quickly than the Color Strip quilts.
This doesn’t mean I am giving up on those Scrap quilts. They are clearing out my scrap bins for something good. I just needed a break and wanted to play along with Vicki Holloway.
I made a back as well, so I get more fabric usage on my spreadsheet.
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Last Friday, I think, I finished the top and back of the Blue Strip Donation quilt. the piece is going in my bag to take to guild if the meetings ever start up again. I am feeling a bit lonely today. I know the social distancing is important for the health of the country, but I need a little more interaction than I am getting.
Anyway.
I am really pleased with the way the top came out. I had a half yard of two different yellows. The one I used on the border is Califon by Mark Lipinski. I like it, but it was languishing, so I thought I might as well use it.
The back was super easy! I had one large piece of blue and just needed to add a little bit to make it bigger. WHEW! No back drama this time.
I made some progress over the past several days on my newest donation quilt. I want to get the top done so that I can gain back the design wall. I just have the outer borders to sew on. I also have the back to make and, perhaps, the binding, but I think I will leave the binding to someone else.
I am pleased with how it looks, but dismayed at how few of my blue scraps were used. The blocks required one to a few yards, but my blue scrap drawer is still full and hard to close. More quilts!
Yesterday, I talked about the Clippy Pocket hack and how my version came out. You can incorporate the Clippy portion into anything – pincushions, other bags, needle books. The key is making the placket/”flap ladder” then incorporating it into an existing project. You can make the placket into a piece that can be appliqued to another project.
Try to think about how you can incorporate something like this useful section into a project on which you are working. You can find the original instructions in Love of Patchwork & Quilting , issue 39. It is available digitally in the Apple and Google Play stores.
I skipped over the two larger pockets in order to make sure the Clippy pocket hack worked when incorporated into the overall pattern. It took me awhile to get this pocket made even with the pieces all cut out. Adding the Clippy pocket means that there are a number of extra steps needed to make the Clippy holder. Still, I am pleased with the way the pocket came out.
It is a bit of a riot of color. 😉 I didn’t really mean it to be as riotous, but I didn’t think through the backing for the side pockets with regard to the Clippy hack when I was cutting. I hope the rest of the inside won’t look crazy.
Still, I have been making such minimal progress on sewing in general that I am pleased with this small amount of progress.
A five month project finally came to a close over the weekend.
Every year for the past few years I have gotten a group together to make gifts for the officers. At first, I didn’t think they needed anymore quilt projects, so I had the idea of making them a bag and having guild members fill the bags with small gifts. This has proven to be very successful. In the last few years, I have brought postcards, so people who cannot bring gifts can convey their thanks in writing.
Both Angela and Rhonda posted photos of their gifts, which is a good way for you to see the variety of made and bought gifts. Rhonda’s bag was a quillow, so she got a bonus and the colors are perfect for her as she loves the Japanese indigo style.
We had an extra bag, so I took mine back and will use it for something else or for next year. I have to think of a way to be better organized as I forgot one person who had agreed to make a bag early on.
Now I will start working on next year.
I have been working for a few months on getting raffle baskets for the year together, as I have mentioned.
After the last meeting, I got all of the gifts and prizes my team has collected and organized them into months. I put each month’s gifts in a ziploc bag (except the books, which were too big), so I don’t have to do much once the gifts are required.
I did organize January’s basket, which includes all the gifts you see above.
Yesterday we gave out the first basket at the attendance raffle. Yay! it was a big hit and I was pleased not to embarrass myself for my efforts.
We are moving full steam ahead on the Ultimate Carry All Bag. members of the guild who are participating worked on cutting out pieces of the bag on the last Sew Day. Next we will begin working on pockets. To that end, I needed to work on an alternative/hack to the vinyl badge holder pocket.
I don’t want or need the vinyl badge holder pockets Natalie uses in the pattern. I also don’t like the idea of vinyl being so close to an ironing surface (front of the bag). I do need a place for a few WonderClips, however. To that end, I took the pattern for the Clippy pincushion, which was in Love of Quilting, issue 39 and adjusted it for use instead of the vinyl badge holder.
The photo shows one of the three test pockets I made. If you have the pattern, this is one of the end pieces of the front pocket. The directions for that section start on page 14. I am still working on perfecting the construction. I think I have the sizes down, but I am still tweaking the construction to take bulk into account.
I was absurdly pleased with my work on this pocket. Of course, part of that feeling was that I was relatively successful. If the Clippy/Wonderclip pattern sizes had been off, I might have felt differently. Still, I didn’t resent the time I took working on this piece of the bag.
N.B.: I will not tell you how to make the whole bag. In order to make this bag, you need to purchase the pattern from Quiltessa Natalie. She also has an Etsy shop where you can also purchase it. We would love to have you join us in making this bag.
I am getting a little sick of this top. Many of the scraps I have available are the same size and the same fabric, which makes for boring piecing. I think it looks nice, but I will be glad when it is done.
I am sort of keeping up. I am still working on Clue 4, but I did finish Clue 5. This was another clue that went pretty quickly and where I used the Triangle Technique for making HSTs.
I find now that I am two clues behind as Bonnie slotted in a clue on New Year’s Eve when I was otherwise occupied. Oh well, one is pretty easy, so I should be able to catch up soon.
Cheryl agreed to help me with a few projects, so the other day I received a large-ish box from her. At first I didn’t realize it was from Cheryl as it seems like boxes are arriving at our house 3 times a day. The YM is sending stuff here, DH and I plus gifts from out of town relatives are also being sent here. It’s crazy.
Anyway.
In addition to stuff from the project on which we are working, were three community quilts.
She asked me to bring them to the meeting in January. I am happy to do so, especially since that means I will have something to show! HA!
Clearly #2 and #3 are related. Also, #1 and #2 are in the same format as the Color Group Donation Quilt I worked a few years ago. I can’t say whether she was inspired by (or even remembered or saw) that quilt. It isn’t as thought that layout is novel in Modern Quiltmaking circles.
So, these will be the first three quilt tops for the 2020 BAM Community Quilt Project. YAY!!
With the 3rd clue finished, I can now start playing with layouts. I had to take a look a En Provence in order to see if I could get an idea of what the block and layout might look like.
I believe there will definitely be some kind of chain effect going. Bonnie loves those kinds of arrangements and I have to say they can can be very effective for a cohesive design.
I doubt it will go straight up and down like I have arranged it. The four patches will probably be on the diagonal again, like the En Provence larger units and sashing. I think these four patches and HSTs will probably act like sashing.
In En Provence, the 4 patches were on point and only two HSTs connected them in the middle. The other ends were connected by Peaky & Spike blocks. I kind of expect some Peaky & Spike blocks to show up, but we will see. Maybe more HSTs in a different color?
If the 4 patches connect in some way, as in an Irish Chain type setting, I don’t know how that would be. The extension of the layout above looks weird because the blues and the raspberries in the 4 patches connect and I doubt Bonnie would design a quilt that way. I am not her, so perhaps they will and she has a master plan to make them look awesome, but I think the connections, as I have laid them out look a little weird.
I don’t have much of an idea yet what those rectangular segments will be, but I am guessing part of the block. I looked through the reveals of the past several years and didn’t see any units using that shape. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
It is kind of fun to speculate. I am now eager to get the next step and play some more.
I finished Clue 3 on Saturday after starting it on Friday afternoon. I have to say I am shocked at how fast I am speeding along with these clues. I am not saying that I will be able to keep up the pace, but for now I am pleased that I am not falling behind.
Finished might be overstating just a little. I think I need to make a few more, but I need to check my math.
The most recent 3rd clue came out on Friday. Go to Quiltville to find the clue. I am linking directly to it, for better for worse, as the links will expire on Feb.1. I had to make about a bazillion HSTs. As I was finished with my work week, I could start working on the clue late Friday afternoon, which I did. I used my Triangle Technique to make the HSTs. This technique, as I have mentioned, makes 8 of the same triangles at a time, but doesn’t involve actually sewing triangles. It also affords the opportunity to trim, if you want, which I like, despite the work involved.
I also shamelessly self-promoted this technique on Instagram. It would be nice if more people discovered and read my blog, but I know blogs are fashionable anymore, so I am pleased if you are one of my continuing readers.
People really like the colors I have chosen. Of course, I like them, but I am surprised that I am getting such feedback. I don’t think they are anything special. Still, I am pleased that I seem to have made good choices.