Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I spent a lot of time on Saturday working on Scrap Dash. I am pleased with my progress and feel like I can see a glimmer of the end of the project. I am still far away from it, but I see a glimmer.
I am getting more of the border on the wall and will soon start to sew it together. I need space so I can get the rest of the right hand column up, too.
Hooray for progress!
I am on the fence about how this quilt is looking. I don’t have the exact colors that Tim used, so I am using what I have. I don’t know if it is working.
When I talked about this quilt before, I had finished sewing the parts Tim gave me to the piece and had just added a strip of my own.
I made this improv checkerboard to add to the sides as the first piece that was all my own. It was kind of fun to play around with different sized strips. The green, however is a little more chartreuse than Tim used. While I like the shape, I am concerned about the colors and how they fit in with what went before.
I plan to put part of the checkerboard on another side perpendicular to the checkerboard I already sewed to the top.
I don’t think it looks terrible and that might be good enough for a donation quilt. I don’t mean that it is ugly so it is only good enough for a donation quilt, but that it is not too ugly to give as a donation quilt.
I really don’t nee to make it much bigger, but I want it to have a relatively cohesive design without me spending 50 hours on it.
Tim made part of a top in a Sherri Lynn Wood class. He didn’t want it hanging around anymore because he didn’t like the class and didn’t think he would finish it. I offered to finish it into a donation top for the guild and get it out of his life.
I sewed a strip Tim gave me to the right of the quilt (the strip with 4 patches). I looked for fabric that would match, but I couldn’t find anything really similar. I chose a more reddish orange and am adding various bits to the piece.
The picture, left, is what I have so far.
I am making progress; notable progress. Because this is still kind of a back burner project, I am making slow progress.
I know I’ll need some more pieces and parts, but am getting all I have cut sewn together before I decide what else I need to cut.
While I was making progress on the Rings quilt, I was also making progress on Scrap Dash. As I said before, I am using the Scrap Dash blocks as leaders and enders for the Rings quilt. I get more done, which is great.
I started in the middle, because I couldn’t really reach the top row without a stool. You can see that the middle has shrunk up quite a bit.
I plan to put another column of blocks along the right hand side. The quilt is supposed to have the Churn Dash blocks around the whole exterior of the quilt and I plan to follow that advice.
I think the section where I have sewn the blocks looks nice. I like how the 1.5×2.5 strips create a path through the quilt.
I worked quite a bit on Scrap Dash over the weekend, using the project as leaders and enders while working on my Latifah class project. It didn’t look super before class, though i was making progress. By the end of class on Saturday I had made progress with which I was happy (photo, left). The pattern was really starting to emerge and I was getting excited about putting blocks together. I was able to do bits and bobs in between the Put a Ring On It rings. Every little bit helps.
I continued working on Sunday, a little more on Scrap Dash than on the rings. I feel like I made really excellent progress. While I don’t have all of the pieces for Scrap Dash on the design wall, I do have a significant number.
I have also started to put some of the blocks together.
Sadly, I found out I don’t have enough of the 1.5 x 2.5″ rectangles for the border. I need to think about whether to cut a million more, leave off the border or do something else. I haven’t yet used the rectangles in blacks, whites and greys for the center of the quilt. I might try and see if they look good as a border. I don’t think I have enough for a whole border, but it would be a start.
I can’t even think about fitting a border on the design wall, so I’ll have to see once some of the blocks are together and the seam allowances have shrunk up.
Speaking of which, I have sewn a block or two just to see what they look like and to shrink up the seam allowances so I can fit more on the wall.
You can see the background, which I think really makes the quilt look bright.
Yes, I think I am calling this quilt Scrap Dash instead of 30 Something.
I spent some time on Wednesday standing in front of the design wall and rearranging various units. The more I do this the better it looks.
I can also tell what I need to work on next. In this case, I need more half square triangles. I prepared a bunch for sewing at Craft Night, but haven’t actually sewed them yet. The process in this quilt was: 1. cut squares; 2. draw lines; 3. sew; 4. cut apart; 5. square up. I don’t really mind this process, but I wish they had chosen a better system like using the Simple Folded Corners Ruler. I wasn’t able to find a tutorial using the size pieces I had already cut, so I just went with the drawing method.
Tim showed me the start of his baby quilt. He is making it loosely based on the Give & Take Quilt by Tara Faughnan. (You’ll have to do a search as there is no good way to link out to her site for a photo). I love his colors much more than in the original.
The blocks that look yellow are actually more of a chartreuse (icky green), which is one of Tim’s go to colors.
He is figuring out how to put this together as he goes along, which I applaud. I told him to tell me if he needed help, which may have been too smug as he is a very competent piecer.
As soon as I move the X Quilt off the design wall, I moved all the HSTs leftover from the X Quilt on to my large design wall. I wanted to play around with layout a little bit.
I had to squeeze it on to my small design wall to show it to you before. I wanted to see how it would look with a little space between the columns, which is what you see above. I am not sure I like it. I kind of like the way the pieces look right next to each other.
It is also a little bit of an odd shape in this configuration. I need to think about whether it matters or not.
I have been looking at these HSTs as I sew other projects.
I think this piece looks a lot better in these fabrics than the X Quilt. Don’t get me wrong, I like the X quilt. I just think it would have looked better if I used larger prints.
I think I will probably sew it in this configuration. Perhaps I am just used to it, but I do like how the eye moves around the piece.
I finished pressing the rest of the HSTs generated from the X quilt. I have plenty to make a good sized donation quilt. I haven’t done any sewing as I still haven’t finalized the design.
Still no final design, but this is looking pretty good in terms of placement of each HST. I still want to break up the chaos a bit with some background fabric.
Despite not using leaders and enders to make donation blocks, I still seem to be generating some donation quilts, which makes me happy.
I almost finished the X Quilt top. I have two or three seams left on the top and I am really eager to finish it. I just don’t want to work on it any more. Perhaps I don’t like the fabrics I chose. Pop Parade has dull rather than clear tones and that depresses me a little bit. Perhaps the background low volume text prints aren’t right for the size of the blank squares.
I don’t know. I just know I want to be finished with it. I don’t know what I will work on next. I have a few bags to finish for sure, but no quilt in mind except the HST donation top.
I am working on the X quilt and the HSTs at the same time. My iron is acting up so some of my lack of progress has been because of not having a working iron. I have a makeshift solution in place and am making progress again.
I have pressed all of the large HSTS and have a few more small HSTs to press. Since there are only 3 large X blocks, that limits the number of large HSTs with which I have to work. As I said before, I am thinking about adding sashing. Some of my final decision requires looking at all of the HSTs in one place. I have to see them all together and decide if I have enough for a donation quilt or if I need it to be bigger. This current layout is about 49wx35h. Kind of a weird shape, but we will see.
I am also not sure if I want to mix up the large and small HSTs in the same column.
I laid some out together just to see what I thought. Again, I have to see what I think. Also, the layout depends on the sizes I have to work with and I haven’t delved into that problem yet. They all look like they will fit now, but the current layout doesn’t take seam allowance into consideration.
I didn’t get a lot of sewing done last week as I was preparing new material for my class. I have always had a great deal of respect for teachers, but I have even more now. Preparing new material for my students takes a lot of time.
The stack of these HSTs, which are being created from cutting the lozenge blocks using the Simple Folded Corner ruler** continues to grow. I didn’t think I would be able to make any kind of good sized quilt, but I think I will be able to make at least a baby quilt. I don’t plan to lay it out like you see above. Depending on how many HSTs there are, I may add sashing between the columns.
I still have a lot of HSTs to iron, so this design will grow based on the number of pieces.
This is definitely not the final design.
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I made good progress on Sunday after getting a good selection of squares cut late Saturday.
Although everything went along very well, I finished up sewing on Sunday somewhat dissatisfied. I think I felt like I figured out the sewing and was done, but here was a bunch of pieces on my design wall that were not a quilt top.
I turned off the sewing machine and lights and left the room. I ate dinner, worked on my puzzle and thought about this quilt.
I decided that one issue is that I don’t want to keep it. I am making it because I wanted to use the Pop Parade by Metro for P&B Textiles fabrics. I also think the design is clever. Still, I don’t want to keep it and didn’t know who should receive it. I have four-ish more quilts to make in the Niece-phews series. None of the people who will be getting a quilt seemed right for this one. I thought about giving it the YM. He is always up for a new quilt. Finally, I received an email from a friend. She is going through a tough time and needs a quilt. Voila!
This quilt is also a cautionary tale about saving fabrics for the perfect project. When I bought Pop Parade, I was pretty excited about them. Now, not so much. The dots are great, the other motifs are great, but the colors are somewhat dull. I see it especially in the pinks. I prefer bright clear colors.
I didn’t have enough of the Pop Parade to make this quilt, so I added in some other fabrics and that makes the overall look better. I love the text and low volume fabrics I am using for the background. I was kind of upset I had chosen those if the quilt wasn’t going to someone I like as I am using up large pieces of them. Now I am excited that my friend will receive it. I am sure she will like it.