Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I continued to work in dribs and drabs to get another border on Old Town. This one is a pieced checkerboard border.
I considered stopping work on this quilt at the plain border. I decided to soldier on because I already had made hundreds of 4 Patches.
I am amazed at how different the quilt looks after adding that checkerboard border. I know I only photographed half of the quilt. I stood and looked at it for a long time trying to figure out why that one border made such a difference.
Yes, I got through all of my goals over the weekend, including putting a border on Old Town. This is the first of three borders, so don’t celebrate too much yet, but I am making progress!
The Orange Peel circles are back!
Why? I don’t know. I have had a desire to make a few more recently. I bought a fat quarter of fabric specifically for this project and decided that this week was the week to make them. I was able to cut four circles out of a fat quarter and will have a few scraps left to make some donation blocks.
I also used some of the fabric I bought after Sara’s February or March live show. It’s been sitting out taunting me and this was a good way to test the waters.
I started out with the 8 inch Clammy**. I will also work on some with the 6 inch Clammy** next. I am just playing now. I don’t yet have a design or know what my background fabric will be. I have been thinking about it and will probably select a solid. Stay tuned.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this website.
I spent last weekend putting the blocks for Old Town together. I didn’t have the whole weekend, but the center is now complete and I like the way it turned out.
I am not sure I put the blocks together in the order I originally intended, but I never do.
Next step is the borders. I have the HSTs sewn, but not pressed or trimmed.
Since all the blocks and sashing are finished, I put them up on my large design wall. They barely fit!! You can see some blocks for my next donation quilt hanging on the right side of the design wall.
I keep moving blocks around, but I am about to start sewing the blocks and the sashing together. The different values of the pinks and blues make various parts of the quilt stand out. I also think the different fabrics move the eye around the piece.
I have finally finished the Grey Improv donation top and back. It has taken awhile, though much of the time was it hanging on the design wall going nowhere.
I did a good job working through my odd sized grey scraps, which is the whole point of the exercise. I am even more convinced that improv works much better in a monochromatic palette. I think that a complementary color scheme would work as well. I haven’t tried that I think the quilt would end up being bed sized.
This quilt is about 45 in. x 45 in., which is on the large size for a baby quilt, but definitely kid sized. Also, in this color scheme I could imagine it working well for a boy.
I used the leftovers from two quilts for the back: the Hugs and a Kiss quilt and the Half Hexie Star. Good use of some good fabrics.
I visited Cyndi for a Sew Day last weekend and was able to get the Old Town sashing to a good place. I had a lot of 1.5 inch squares to cut and then a lot of trimming to make a house shaped rectangle. It was a lot better to do all of that work with a friend. We were able to chat while I did the tedious parts and that was great.
I got out the Simply Folded Ruler** again to create the flippy corners of those house shapes. That ruler is a gem. I always forget, but it really makes those flippy corners easy to sew. I didn’t have to draw diagonal lines on the squares, which would have made the process even more tedious. AND there was no trimming afterwards which meant no opportunity to cut off the wrong triangle. I haven’t tried one of the Simply Folded patterns (actually Antler Quilt Designs). I remember seeing one that was interesting at the Granary, but thought I was too busy to buy it. I was surprised at how many patterns the company has. I remember them being kind of country colors and having weird looking angles, but that isn’t true. There are a variety of patterns, some with brighter colors and fewer weird angles.
The good part about Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilts is that she suggests different methods of making the various units. I was reintroduced to the Simply Folded Ruler** through this project. It is good to be reminded of how I can use different tools.
Work has been very busy. It is stressful and I have been sewing a bit at lunch and after work. I haven’t had much time, but my effort at the Retreat at block making has gotten the process down to a science. I can make each block in about half an hour. Still, it has taken me several days to make this batch.
With this group, I only have four more left to make.
I didn’t have much time to sew on Sunday due to my caregiving duties. Between Sunday and Monday, however, I sewed two more Old Town blocks. I really like having my design wall on which to lay them out.
These two blocks were possible because, first, I sewed all the HSTs I would need to finish the block assembly. Now it is just laying them out and sewing the pieces together.
I made really good progress on Old Town at the Retreat.
I was able to piece 15 (of 25 total) blocks. Each block has 69 pieces so that was a LOT of piecing. I was SUPER happy to be doing that piecing, I have to tell you.
Julie helped me put them up on the design wall so we could look at them.
Even with out much sashing, there is a distinct secondary design going on.
I sewed a little bit of the sashing and put that up as well, so we could kind of see what was coming.
I am excited to work on this some more.
After finishing the White Strips #3 donation top, I needed another leaders and enders project.
This grey improv scrap top has hung on my small design wall for almost a year. I am shocked at that! I didn’t realize how much time had flown by.
My grey-black-brown drawer isn’t crammed full, but it isn’t empty either and I decided that I need to work on this project to get it off the design wall and to someone who needs it. Also, it will be a relatively quick win on my fabric used spreadsheet.
At the moment, as leaders and enders, I am sewing together all the scraps that are not strips. I am sewing them into pieces that I can then sew on to the top above. You can see pieces I have placed, but not sewn. They are just temporarily in place until I can add more pieces to them to make a unit large enough to expand the top. It’s a lot of piecing, because the pieces are small.
The main piece I have already sewn together is about 32 inches wide. I need another 10 inches, at least. I’ll probably have to dig into the strips to make the quilt big enough.
I made a little more progress on the White Strip #2 donation top. I have most of the top sashings sewn. I have started to sew the blocks to the sashing, as I show in my chunking tutorial.
I started working on it a little more diligently after I put my aunt’s Superbloom together. That project isn’t finished, but I only had a few minutes and needed a break. I think I’ll be able to take the quilt to Sew Day and hand it in.
I finished a few Flying Geese over the past few days and decided to try some on the block that has been on my design wall. The Flying Geese have been missing and seeing them missing has been incentive to finish them.
I chose some light pink Flying Geese to finish this block. The block is not sewn together, so I might choose different options. I think this looks ok, though. The pink HSTs might fade a little too much into the background.
In general, I like the whole block and am pleased with how it is coming out.
Then there were two.
I sewed the first few seams of the million HSTs I need for Old Town a few weeks ago. I used the tutorial for making 8-at-a-time, thus the added cuts, and then the stack languished.
Finally, the other night I used scissors to cut the 8 HSTs apart. I wasn’t sure it would work, but it did. I cut the original squares generously, so I have enough wiggle room to trim to the exact size. I have a small, 2.5 inch ruler** tucked into my handwork bag that is kept in the living room. It worked really well for confirming that I had enough extra to ensure the HSTs were the right size. I haven’t really used that ruler much. It came with a set and I find it too small to use with a rotary cutter. For measuring, however, it worked really well!
It sounds stupid, but it was great to realize I could cut these with scissors! I made sure I used my sharpest pair of scissors, the ones I bought this summer with the titanium (or something) blades. I, also, was really careful to cut straight.
Now I have to press and trim all of those HSTs, but I am a bit closer to putting the blocks together.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I have started another donation top, this one part of the Ends series. Can you believe this is the 21st?
This is made from a random piece of background fabric and the edges of the Hugs & a Kiss quilt. The sparkles in the dots are fun.
I accidentally started this series in 2017 with the first one, made from what I called ‘dreg ends’. I have a box with the cut off edges of finished quilts. I still have it, though there are many fewer edges. I am trying to keep up with using the edges as they come back from being quilted, but that box still has old edges in it.