I thought I had mentioned the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, but I can’t find a mention of it.
Angela is helping with a bag project on which I am working and she pointed me to the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club. I looked at it, watched the video of the bags the club would be making and thought about it. Finally, I joined. The club’s early bird special came with 2 free bonus projects, but I didn’t do anything until I saw an IG post by Angela and how much she had done! Then I was embarrassed, so I got busy.
Roadtrip Bag – front
The first non-bonus project is the Roadtrip Bag. This one is made to clip onto a later project. I am trying to make the various projects coordinate. I originally thought I would put a rainbow stripe in each one like RockBaby Scissors does on many of her projects. I didn’t do it. I am just going with black, grey and white. I will be using some of the same fabrics for each of the projects.
Roadtrip Bag back
I think this could be used for a small-ish project. It would definitely be a good gift.
I know it is late, but I have been wanting to make some donation blocks for the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild.
As I was rummaging through an old project bin, I found some HSTs that were the right size and decided to repurpose an old Stepping Stones project. I only had a block or two and knew I wasn’t ready to make another Stepping Stones project right at the moment.
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Donation Block
Perkiomen Valley Block
These blocks, once the fabric is cut, are very quick to make – simple 9 patch construction. the deadline is approaching so I will send these off very quickly.
As I may have mentioned in one of my QuiltCon posts, I got some charm squares that are to be used for donation blocks for Quilts for Cure. Quilts for Cure is led by HollyAnne Knight and it was a pleasure to meet her. I am always pleased to make donation blocks and this seemed like a good opportunity.
Michael Miller donation blocks
I started worrying about it this past week. I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about these blocks, which is not a good thing. Part of it was the charm squares. We had to make blocks from charm squares. I didn’t know what blocks to make! That is a weird feeling as I always have an idea.. I talked to Friend Julie, who was zooming along with her blocks, then I searched for “blocks with charm squares.” I found a tutorial for a block I could make and was willing to make.
Now I am zooming through these. I have made four, have two in progress and have another stack of charm squares to use.
I am looking forward to crossing another thing off my list!
I am finally going to bring my giant pile of donation blocks to the meeting this week. Here is the latest group for your viewing pleasure.
New Blue Donation Block
Icky Green and Red Donation Block
Blue Artists Donation Block
Pink & Magenta Donation Block
I am so pleased with these blocks. While I think I made more, these are the only ones I can verify. A small, but mighty number! The pile grows exponentially and that is very exciting.
The top is finished and I am on to putting together the back. I don’t think I will make my deadline of having this ready for Big Stitching, but I have made great progress and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
There is much more space and lightness in the piece and the solid areas will provide some good spaces for stitching.
This quilt came to mind the other day when I saw a similar technique on Fons & Porter.
Pam was doing the finishing, as I mentioned, and she was finally able to finish the binding.
It was nice to see it and I am really glad it is finished. I like the look of the stars, though I wonder about my fabric choices.
Also, I wonder if the Folded Corners Ruler I bought would do the same thing? I think it would enable me to put the stars in the sashing, but not add the background border (white in the photo, left). I really need to try that ruler.
Here are more blocks from January. I think my total for January was 25. I would have loved to get to one per day, but 25 is not shabby.
While I did cut a few new fabrics, this group represents blocks made from the last dregs of my donation bin.
After using up all that I could, I got out the Acuquilt and my new 2.5″ die (Christmas gift) and cut a bunch of new squares from scraps on my cutting table. There will be some duplicate blocks, but I am back in the business of making donation blocks.
I am behind a couple of pieces, but found the directions for this one that is due in March for Sue and decided to go for it.
Except for the colors, these were all fabrics and scraps that were laying out. Her idea was to highlight one color or a color group that represented us by neutrals. I thought this was a cool idea. I used the leftover greys from the Triple Star and Planned Improv pieces as well as some blacks for the Black and Red quilt.
There is a little bit of red in one of the prints, which doesn’t quite work with the rules, but it will have to do. I always think a little red in life is good (except during Big Game week).
Color My Quilt piece n.2 for Sue
I wasn’t quite happy with the piece I did, so I made a small one with some primarily white prints instead of just darks. I didn’t feel like mixing the darks and lights so Sue will get a bonus.
I am making some donation blocks, but not as many as I had hoped so far this month. I am still working through the dregs of my box of 2.5″ squares and that is uninteresting. It will be good to get the dregs out of my life, though, so I am determined.
I started in on some new donation blocks for the guild.
Pastel donation block
Fog donation block
French Provincial Donation block
French Provincial Donation block n.2
Blue Provincial Donation Block
I am still working through the dregs of my donation bin patches, so some of them are a little strange, but I am committed to using the fabrics I have cut before I cut more.
Not sure how many more I will make before the meeting, but I will try to make more.
Tim is quickly becoming a quiltmaking rockstar. He got his new longarm and is back in the saddle. He seems to have found his place in quiltmaking. I think he is a quilting savant! If he isn’t at this moment, he is quickly working his way to that level.
Terrain Donation Quilt detail
He brought the Terrain donation quilt to Sew Day on Saturday and it really looks great. He quilted the sashing differently than the blocks. The sashing has the feathery swirl-like things and the blocks have a sort of cathedral window design. I commented on that style the last time we talked about quilting and the way Colleen quilts my quilts.
He decided to try it out. I am so impressed with how well he did the first time he tried it. He said that it took much longer than an all over pattern, but was pleased with the results.
Terrain Donation Quilt back
He trimmed and applied the binding to the quilt at Sew Day, using the leftover backing to make the binding. It is really great to collaborate with him! I just have to piece donation quilts faster. 😉
I went shopping with a friend the other day. Mostly I did not buy, but I did take a load of pictures.
This photo was taken in a small grocery store and I loved the different colors of the team canisters. Aren’t they cheerful?
ColorPlay: Tea Canister -default
As we would all predict, the default palette came out quite neutral based. The program placed the dots almost as far away from the colored canisters as was computerly possible.
I was pleased to see that Kona Mocha again, which is a lovely color…for brown. The Kona Sand looks more like oyster to me.
ColorPlay: Tea Canister -n.1
For my first image – the one I controlled – I went straight for the colors. this is definitely a circus type palette, which, I think, is kept from being too kid-like with that green. The green looks a little like the green in Jadeite housewares and dishes. It is definitely not sweet. The Grellow helps as well. Looking at the colors, I would say that they are all a little off. The Peridot and the Grellow stand out the most.
ColorPlay: Tea Canister -n.2
On my second palette, I still wanted color, but not the same colors. The Grellow turned into Butterscotch, which is not an appealing color. The green, now called Leprechaun, still looks good, but the blue, now Kona Coal, does not look cheerful at all. Still, somewhat better than neutrals.
ColorPlay: Tea Canister -n.3
Unintentionally, I made a warm palette. Almost all of the colors were Fallish or Thankgiving-ish. The names of the colors are comforting names.
I especially like the name Roasted Pecan, though the color looks more like Baby Poop Brown. I don’t suppose the name Baby Poop Brown would be a good marketing choice. How about those red-oranges? Aren’t they great?
ColorPlay: Tea Canister -n.4
In an effort to embrace neutrals, I sought out neutrals for palette n.4. This is actually a nice palette, if you like neutrals. Kona Cinnamon is a great color, but I know that Chestnuts are definitely NOT that color.
I couldn’t resist adding some color, thus the purple, though it is called Crimson. I always thought of Crimson as more of a red, but who am I to argue with Robert Kaufman?
ColorPlay: Tea Canister n.5
Finally, I wanted to get back to the bright colors. These look very similar to the colors in Palette n.1, but are not the same. I particularly like Noble Purple. Very nice color. I really Kona would be dyed on better greige goods.
Tim and I worked on the Anchor quilt on Saturday. This is a true group project. Gerre organized it. Christina did the piecing. I appliqued on the anchor and Tim will do the quilting. The last time I talked about this quilt was back in June and it has been languishing. Now we are back on track!
Saturday, he did everything and I just stood there and helped him pin and gave my opinion.
BAMaQG Anchor Quilt back
We had to work on the back a little bit. The back was two large pieces and the big area of white was bugging Tim. We talked about different things we could do and finally decided on adding a piece that Christina had started sort of 1/3 of the way down the quilt. I think it broke up the white enough for comfort.
We also looked at quilting ideas. Tim had some ideas in mind and they were good. We found a couple that we thought would reflect the them and he will do the quilting soon.
I made a lot of progress on the En Provence quilt and it is nearing the conclusion.
En Provence -December 2017
I started out Saturday afternoon sewing the two halves of the top together. Then I laid out the quilt to see where I was. It was really great to see almost the whole quilt laid out. I think it looks really great.
After seeing the quilt so close to completion, I was on fire to sew the last 4 rows. I took everything back upstairs and laid on that bottom corner on my design wall. I didn’t have much more time to do that on Saturday and no time to sew.
En Provence Beginning – Dec. 3, 2017
Laying out the last corner was huge, though. I found I was missing a couple of Peaky & Spike blocks, so I had to cut some fabric to finish those. It was good, though, because I could switch out some of the Peaky & Spike blocks that I hadn’t yet sewn.
After we came back from a NSGW event on Sunday afternoon, I put the pedal to the metal on my sewing machine and sewed 3 rows. I know there are only 3 blocks left in each row, but there is still a lot of piecing. I also have to add the border and that makes some of the blocks larger, thus more time consuming to sew.
En Provence – 3 good rows
I ended up with what I thought was 3 good rows.
Standing back really helps and I found a mistake. I stopped after the mistake block. It was really too late for me to be sewing anyway and I’d already had to rip out two sections of that block.
En Provence Ooops
Except for the two pieces, I am pleased with how this quilt came out. It is not insane like Grand Illusion, but it was complex enough to keep me interested and interesting enough to want to continue to look at it.
