I finished another old project. As mentioned, I started this project in 2015, so it is only eight years old. Still, old enough to get on my nerves.
Someone compared my dislike of UFOs to someone I really don’t like who has no UFOs. That annoyed me, because I don’t think I am like her at all. I just don’t find that **my** projects improve by sitting around. I can’t imagine never having any UFOs, but I think they will be projects for which I have cut fabric, but not started sewing. Once I start sewing, it is pretty easy to continue.
Finished: BAMQG IRR (back)
I zoomed through the binding on this quilt. Using good fabric really helps. I was pleased I remembered not to use a batik in the binding! I didn’t expect to finish it so quickly, but it went really fast.
This is another quilt that I had returned to me for finishing. This has been a long time in coming. The start of the project was in 2015! I know Rhonda, who was also in my group, was working on hers recently as well.
I probably won’t keep this one, but for the moment I don’t have a recipient. I’ll need to check my Niece-phews list and see if it would be appropriate for anyone on it. I have an idea, but would need to make another for a sibling.
BAMQG IRR back
I remember my excitement at using the Queen Street fabric in this quilt. I think the solid turquoise dominates more that Queen Street, though the Philip Jacobs shell fabric is no slouch either.
Queen Street really shines on the back. You can see all the prints, but they aren’t highlighted by piecing.
I may not have mentioned that I ripped out all of the Big Stitch quilting on this project. I am preparing it to go to Colleen.
To do so, I had to find some fabric for the binding. I wanted the main turquoise used for the background. I couldn’t find it anywhere.
BAMQG IRR Corner with possible binding
I did find a slightly darker solid turquoise that I think will frame the piece better than the same color. I know the differentiation is hard to see, but I think you can see that the slight difference looks good for the binding.
I still haven’t done anything with the bits and bobs included by the others who worked on it.
One of the good things about writing my 26 Projects posts is that I sometimes find projects I forgot to write about. This is one of those times.
Yellow Improv Donation Top
I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about the Yellow Improv donation quilt. Yes! I finished it. I was super happy to do so. Peggy already has it and I think someone already decided to quilt it.
I am not fond of those big chunks on the left, but I used every yellow scrap I had so I had to get some yardage out to use.
The piece turned out ok. I am not a huge fan of yellow. Still, I am glad I did it.
Mary and I did finish the top at Sew Day. I brought it home to make a back and will be handing it in today at the meeting.
I am pleased with how this came out. The ugly bits we started with turned into a really great quilt. It isn’t made from the colors I would normally use, but I am pleased with the result.
I am also pleased with how many of the orphan blocks and chunks we were able to use up overall during Sew Day. Sadly, none of the shards I brought were used. There is always next time.
Mary wants to do another with me next time, which I think will be great fun.
Cathy went straight to work almost as soon as we arrived. She brought some of her Pointillist Palette chunks to work with.
I keep looking at this one and seeing different things.
It is great to see other people’s work in the quilts. Two of my donation blocks were included. Cathy also used Joelle’s word chunk from a previous swap.
I finished cutting out the Friesan pouch at Sew Day and had an hour until it was over. I could have left, but instead Mary C and I decided to work together to make another donation quilt top in an hour. It was a charity Sew Day after all and both of us had been working on our own projects.
Sew Day Donation Top start
We used some fabric from one of the first retreats that had been sewn together into a block of rectangles. It was not very attractive.
The first thing we did was to cut it in half and they cut the halves on the diagonal so we could insert some strips and break up the parts that were unattractive.
Sew Day Donation top 1st steps
Mary C had some strips and strips sets leftover from a quilt she had just finished that we ransacked to make the improvements.
I selected some grey from the abundance of solids that Peggy has and we used that color to fill in other places.
Adding the seafoam green strips REALLY helped that rectangle go from unattractive to attractive. The addition also lightened up the piece.
To make the two halves large enough, we added the strip set and sewed the pieces together.
Green ‘bird’ block
Brown ‘bird’ block
We decided we wanted to use the ‘bird’ blocks as well. They were mostly made from the same fabrics, so they fit in well. I had to build up the green block, which was not nearly square.
Brown ‘bird’ chunk
Mary sewed the brown bird into a large-ish chunk with the intention of putting on the bottom of the piece. I thought it came out well.
Green bird block built-up
While she did that, I built up the green bird block into a shape we could use. The green strip along the bottom allows that darker green and orange section to float a bit which was a happy accident.
Sew Day Donation Top in process
Eventually we ended up with several large chunks. We wanted to add those half circle pieces, which took a bit of time to work out.
In this endeavor, Mary did the sewing and some ironing while I trimmed, pressed, matched fabrics, cut strips and brought her stuff to sew. We had to make little bits to allow us to fit the chunks together. There is a freedom in this kind of improv quilt. I happily hacked off pieces of the blocks and chunks to make them fit.
We had a charity Sew Day on 4/2. Often Peggy will provide a pattern, but this time the activity centered around orphan blocks and chunks.
April 2022 Sew Day Design Wall
Maria had been collecting orphan blocks and chunks for awhile. The first thing she did when she arrived was start pinning them to the design wall.
Maria put up a random assortment of blocks and chunks and people took what they wanted and worked on donation tops.
As mentioned, I didn’t really want to do the activity, but others got right into it. Since I made the Missouri Star donation top and brought it, I didn’t feel guilty about it. Nobody said anything to me either.
Sew Day Donation Top in process
After I finished cutting out the Friesan Pouch, I ended up working on a quilt with Mary C and found that it was a fun activity. I prefer to do these types of quilts with someone else.
I decided I needed to get this one finished. All the projects left on my design walls when I put them away were a lot less interesting when I saw them again. I didn’t want to toss them, but I did want them finished.
I started it last year sometime. The first time I talked about it was July, which was right before we dismantled my workroom. I was concerned at that time that I wouldn’t have enough scraps to make a decent sized baby quilt. It’s still a concern as I am piecing tiny scraps together and expect to have no yellow scraps left.
I spent time over the weekend making good progress.
I took some of the made fabric I had assembled for the Yellow Improv donation quilt and made a journal cover.
I felt like I was taking away from the donation quilt, but I’ll be needing a new journal cover soon, so needs must. I figure I have a lot of scraps, so more donation quilts are on the agenda.
This one turned out to be just a smidge small, so I had to stretch it to get it on the journal (Miquelrius 6.5 in. x 8 in**).
Yellow Journal Cover – front and back
I kind of used what I had rather than arranged the scraps because I didn’t think of using the pieces I was working on for a journal cover until I had already made most of the pieces.
I still have quite a few equilateral triangles from the Flower Sugar Hexagon quilt I made a long time ago. I am trying to use them up, but there seems to be a never-ending supply.
Yellow Journal Cover – inside front cover
I am not very enamored with the inside. That corn fabric doesn’t look great outside of the Food quilts. At least it reminds me of the three food quilts I made and the people who received them.
As I may have mentioned, I have stopped adding fabric to the inside and just let the flannel be the other side of the cover. It makes the project go more quickly and makes the cover flatter. Of course, it doesn’t use as much fabric.
Yellow Journal Cover – inside back cover
I think I have one more Miquelrius journal to use after this one, then I will switch completely to the Leuchtturm journals.
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I am still tidying up after all the work in my workroom. One of the things I found was a piece of ‘made’ fabric (improv piecing) that was just the right size for a journal cover. I sat down and made one!
I am still not completely up and running, so it was good to make something that involved, at least, a little piecing.
I just used flannel for the inside. I didn’t add an inside cover. I did that once before and it seems to work fine.
I continue to work on the Yellow Improv. As I work on other projects, I sew bits and pieces together. The piece is almost 20 inches square now. Not big enough yet, but getting there.
Slowly but surely this piece is growing. The top section, which I think of as the main piece, is about 20×20 now. I am working on growing the bottom piece to fit on to the top piece. At the moment the bottom piece is made up of 3 different pieces.
I find that I need triangles in these pieces to add interest. The additional, non-yellow, colors add interest, but I find that if I have too many squares and rectangles the eye doesn’t move around as much. In this piece, however, there isn’t much contrast and that helps the eye not linger on the squares and rectangles.
I learned this from the Green Thing, the first top in this series. Those bars, which aren’t even really green, provide a focal point, but I find that the focal point takes away from the rest of the quilt. Good thing I’ll have enough green scraps to make another!
