We had 24 people over for Thanksgiving, so there was no sewing Monday through Thursday while Thanksgiving prep was taking place. I was also working. I did, however, make some good progress over the weekend.
En Provence, November 24, 2017
I spent most of the day on Friday sewing. I even declined to watch a movie with the boys in order to sew. They needed some alone time anyway. More than half of En Provence is pieced and I am working on the upper right corner.
I got up and set about sewing pretty soon after that. I usually go for a walk before I sew to get it out of the way, but needed more resting time before I did that. The first thing I worked on was finishing the last/top row of the left hand side.
After coming back from my walk, I laid out the upper right hand side and started piecing. I was able to finish sewing a row and a half of that quarter. I would love to finish this weekend, but doubt that will happen. Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilts require a lot of piecing, which is what makes them such great scrap quilts. Still, I have to sew a lot of short seams and there are a lot more to sew.
I started my contribution to the November Color My Quilt project for Melinda pretty soon after the October meeting. I meant to do more, but I just ran out of time.
Again, I used all scraps and did some Improv piecing. I was a little mean, but I couldn’t cut off that curve. It was part of the scrap that I used and I liked it. I am sure it will get cut off in the final piece, but perhaps Melinda will keep it.
The pieces have a fall-ish look, but are also bright.
November Color My Quilt Shards
The shards made hung together surprisingly well. I think the colors Melinda wanted were clearly defined and easy to use. There were lots of blocks this time, which made me happy. Someone made a block using the method from Sarah Goer‘s class.
In honor of Thanksgiving, I chose a picture of my pumpkin pie filling in process. I make a maple pumpkin pie. I found the recipe in a Bon Appetit magazine when I first contributed to Thanksgiving about a zillion years ago. Nobody has complained so I keep making it that way.
We remodeled our kitchen in about 2007 and it has red accents. We are very strict about what color appliances and accessories come into the kitchen. As a result, I received this food processor as a gift one year. I use it for all holiday food prep and it works really well.
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, default
I found out very quickly that the tight composition of the shot made for a very limited palette. The default palette, as we have found over the year, has a lot of neutrals. However, I found this to be a very warm palette.
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, n.1
I wanted to try and get more reds, more different reds, so I tried again.
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, n.2
n.2 has more reds, so I succeeded in that way. I am not that fond of Kona Caramel on its own, but with the reds, it does add something – perhaps a place for the eyes to rest?
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, n.3
I was able to get even more red tones in.3. I also changed the Caramel to Kona Latte for a slightly different look. I might like Latte less than Caramel, but I haven’t decided. As with Caramel, it does add something to the heavy red palette.
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, n.4
I kept a red, but tried out a dark neutral palette. The buttons of the food processor are grey, so I was able to add in Kona Mocha, which I think might be off in terms of names, but it is a nice addition to the palette. Kona Ruby comes from my spoon rest (made by the YM) and I kept it in to keep the palette from becoming too neutral.
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, n.5
I tried an even more neutral palette for n.5, building on n.4. I, again, kept some red, but changed the specific red from Ruby to Kona Cotton Wine. I wouldn’t make a quilt from this palette, but can see it being used for a very chic house sale.
ColorPlay: Pumpkin, n.6
Finally, for the last palette, I went for broke with the reds. I was pleased to see a Kona Lipstick show up! I love the name of that fabric. In this palette, the grey (Kona Mushroom) is the only neutral, though the Kona Mahogany could go either way in terms of it being one of the reds or a neutral
I know the differences are subtle between the palettes above, but it is interesting to see the changes one can make by moving the circles around a picture. As I have said before this is a good exercise.
I started out late on Sunday with the piece above. I had finished chopping about a million ingredients for various Thanksgiving dishes and was delighted to find that I had some time to sew.
I had sewn most of the last row together, but had a few more seams, so I put those together and found, suddenly that I was able to layout the last row on the left half of this top. Shocking! I thought I had miles together.
I really don’t know why I keep being surprised by this quilt – how much I have sewn, how much I have left, how well it looks. Perhaps I should call it En Provence Surprise?
En Provence, November 21, 2017
I had to fold down the piece before I could layout the top row. I could have reached, but why? It would have been a stretch every time I sewed two pieces together or checked the pressing. I wasn’t up for it.
It is extremely gratifying to see the top row even if it is just laid out and not sewn yet.
Triple Star is at a stopping point until I lay it out and decide on a final design, so I used donation blocks as leaders and enders. I finished 2.5, which isn’t shabby.
I know it is all En Provence All the Time on the blog these days. It is what I am working on except for gifts, which I am not working on enough and can’t show at the moment any way. You’ll have to bear with me for the time being.
I counted up blocks and rows and units again and found that I am farther along than I thought. It all started when I noticed that I was getting very short of the quarter triangle units. I carefully counted and found that I only have to piece two more rows on the top to finish one whole half of the quilt.
Or so I thought.
Really, I have to piece two blocks top to bottom for the right side. I was shocked that I had so little left to do. I had been sure that I had an equal number of blocks to piece for the right side as I had on the left. I don’t know how I got so turned around, but this is great news! I thought I would never finish piecing this quilt. Yet, I had already done so much.
As a treat, I decided to see how the piece would look once it was stuck together. Sort of.
Merged En Provence Left Half
I put two images together. There are slight differences in lighting, and the bottom is folded up, but you still get the idea. I am thrilled.
I saw another version of the pattern on Instagram. It is by Sylvia, Sommerschiebe. I love how round this circles ended up.
In between everything else, I made a few more donation blocks. Next year, I might write one big post on donation blocks and publish it at the end of the year. I am sure you might be more impressed with a big selection of blocks than the ones and twos I tend to post.
I made a little progress over last weekend, after fixing my Oops. I was able to take down the bottom quarter of the quilt top and put up the pieces for the top left quarter. In addition to the three rows you see in the image, I have two more rows to sew to complete half the quilt.
I know I am getting ahead of myself, but I am excited to see the progress of this quilt. It is really a lot of piecing. The result is fantastic, from what I can see so far, but it is taking a long time to piece.
The half rows I am piecing have 75 units to sew together to get the 6 block half row. I say units because I have already pieced the units together. Each blue star has 32 pieces and each pink star (not the border blocks) has 24 pieces. I am glad the units are all pieced, I have to say.
A few weeks ago, I went to a conference in Monterey. For many reasons, Monterey is one of my favorite places and October is a great time to visit. I was fortunate that the weather was fantastic and I took some beautiful photos. You might see more from this trip later.
Monterey Bay Fisherman’s Wharf
I walk a lot and a path I was on gave me a great view of the pier and the Bay. I decided to use this for my next ColorPlay. What I expected was bright colorful palette.
ColorPlay:Pier default palette
As usual, the default palette was neutral. Might be a nice palette for a new house.
ColorPlay:Pier default palette
This one got a little better with the addition of the Cobblestone. I tried to doctor the palette with the addition of a more turquoise-y. Couldn’t do it. My photo just didn’t have the turquoise.
ColorPlay: Pier n.2
I decided to embrace the neutrals. This one is almost all grey with a blue-grey thrown in to liven things up.
ColorPlay: Pier n.3
The next neutral palette is a darker one. The Kona Spruce and Kona Stone is a really nice combination in the palette above.
ColorPlay: Pier n.4
The Kona Teal and Kona Everglade look similar, but are just a little bit different. Everglade is a tiny bit lighter. The gold adds a slightly different look. More like the day right after sunset.
I felt like I exhausted the options of this picture despite the promise, so I left the number of palettes at five.
I am slowly making progress on En Provence. You can compare my progress to the previous post’s picture.
I was able to spend time working on it on Saturday night and some of the day on Sunday. I was able to add a short row vertically on the right and put together a row that I will be able to add to the top soon.
You might be wondering why this piece is taking me forever. I haven’t yet put together blocks, so I have to put the blocks together before I can put together the rows. I need to watch placement of the fabrics. While the piece is scrappy, it is not a charm quilt and I’d like to keep like fabrics away from each other as much as possible.
This quilt definitely has fewer colors than I like, but the controlled palette really enhances the curved look of the piecing. I am so pleased with how this piecing is looking that I can’t stop looking at it. That surprises me since it is just a pattern, not much original.
Well, I seem to be quite lackadaisical lately with the posts. I thought I would have more time this week and, apparently, didn’t. I was sewing, so there is that.
At the retreat, I started to sew together some Terrain rectangles I had laying around. You might remember that I made the Renewed Jelly Roll Race from this line of fabric. it started out as a disaster, and ended up pretty well after. At some point in dealing with the disaster, I must have cut up these rectangles, but I really don’t remember doing it. I especially don’t remember WHY I might have done it.
Regardless, they have been laying around bugging me. I brought them along to the retreat and when I was sewing the Mostly Manor Lozenge blocks together, I used these as leaders and enders.
Terrain Donation Quilt
At Craft Night on Monday we looked at different layouts and eventually settled on the one shown.
SIL and I are working on this together.
I brought some white for another project and we used a lot of it to make the background. SIL plans to quilt it.
I made good progress on Saturday. I have nearly a quarter of En Provence sewn together. I probably need another row of the pink stars on the top and one the side to have a full quarter, but progress is being made.
I am pleased with the way it looks. I think it is turning out well. some of the light blues are a bit light and do blend with the text fabric background. I hope that will add interest. The larger squares I am adding in are working well. I am very pleased I decided to use a controlled scrappy palette. I think it gives the quilt a cohesion it wouldn’t otherwise have.
I am not sure when I will get to this quilt again, but I hope to finish it soon. I have to day that I kind of just want this piece done. I REALLY like, but I just want it done.
I realized late last week that I really needed to get busy on Joelle’s Color My Quilt piece. I was prepared to start it early, as in right after the August meeting. Somehow time got away from me.
Like I did for Amy’s piece, I wanted to make something that Joelle could cut up and use to put the other pieces together. She also really wanted solids and the combination didn’t work for me.
I just started improv piecing. It probably isn’t challenging me at all, but I seem to be focusing on the color and worrying less about the actual design. I’d be a lot happier with this project if people were making blocks, but I understand that that is not the idea behind this project.
Joelle’s Color My Quilt
I am pleased with my piece, especially the colors. I didn’t have enough solid scraps to do the whole thing in scraps, so I tried to keep it to tone-on-tones. When I started to stray, I stopped piecing. I didn’t intend for it to be so long and skinny, but that is the way it turned out.
The image I chose comes from the detail of a painting by Frida Kahlo called The Bride Who Becomes Frightened When She Sees Life Opened. You can find more of the interpretation of this painting on the FridaKahlo.org website. I saw this painting at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. It was one of an exhibit that was only making one other stop in the US.
ColorPlay: Kahlo detail default
The default was very brown. I think it would make a good palette for a house. Someone else’s house – not mine, but the neutrals are appealing in some way. Perhaps I am getting used to them or am starting to be able to appreciate their value in the scheme of hues and tones.
ColorPlay: Kahlo detail n.1
I moved the circles around to any colors just to get some colors. There is a sherbet/sorbet feel to the first palette I made. I like the Kona Amber, though I think it looks more like a perfectly ripe apricot.
ColorPlay Sept 15 n.2
This example clearly plays off of number 1. Where the hues in n.1 blend more, this one shows more contrast. Not tons, but some. the Kona Earth looks much different that the Kona Honey above.
ColorPlay Sept.15 n.3
I made some changes to the circles to try to get some brighter colors and the pink kind of fulfilled that dream. I do think that the colors Rivera and Kahlo use are a bit on the dull side – not horrible, but not as bright as I was looking for. Still, the Deep Rose and Gold look great together.
ColorPlay: Kahlo detail – original
Another detail I took was of this little owl. The fruit behind him/her makes it look like s/he has a big yellow beak, but I think the beak is actually small. I was fascinated by the feathers. I also liked the shape of his body. I don’t know if it is real or mythological owl (creature), but s/he is cute.
Somehow I didn’t get to working on any of my other projects on Sunday. I did do some random sewing as well as tidying up. My cutting table was a wreck. It was getting to the point where I had about six square inches in which to cut. Very difficult, I assure you. I started chopping up the scraps that were making the mess into pieces for future use.
Stars #3 Donation Top
One task I did accomplish was finish the third Stars donation top on Sunday.The BAM meeting is next Saturday and I wanted to get that done, so I was pleased. I had been rummaging around in my fabric the day before and was reminded how much backing fabric I have one hand. I made a back from some of the fabric even though it made the quilt more girly than boyish. It was quicker to use a large piece than to piece a bunch of smaller pieces together.
I am pleased with the asymmetrical layout of the top. It isn’t quite ideal, but it is much more interesting than the first version of this design. I don’t know that I will make more of these blocks right at the moment. I have some blue and white 16 patches that have been hanging around waiting for their turn on the design wall that I think I will work on next for a donation quilt. We’ll see.
I finished Clue 6, which I described last week, and that is really all I got done today. I can’t decide if I am happy with the fabric choices or wish I had gone with the darker blues. I supposed I’ll have to see when I start putting the whole piece together.
That being said, I do like all of the fabrics individually so that has to count for something.
I did use the Marsha McCloskey Precision Trimmer. I bought this ruler a long time ago (see previous references to my love for rulers). I can’t remember ever using it, but it came in very handy for these QSTs. There is a dot that marks the center of different sizes of squares that helped me line up the ruler over each QST in a precise manner. Except for sliding all over the place, I was very pleased with the ruler. It worked like a charm I remedied the sliding with some True Grips.
I am also very pleased with the precision of the 6600. The quarter inch seam allowance is excellent, which makes for easy assembly of blocks. All in all a good day even though I didn’t accomplish much.
