Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This is the next Carpenter’s Wheel. I almost finished it in between this week’s donation blocks and the Peacock blocks. I have one more seam.
The green is a bold choice, but I only have a couple of small pieces of the chair fabric left and I wanted to use it
The change to Daylight Saving Time is a nightmare. What a dumb idea or an idea whose time has passed. I changed the clock by my bed the night before so when I woke up, I saw that it was already later than usual. For some reason I felt awful. It might have been the dread of knowing that I had lost an hour. I got up and got some caffeine and went up to my workroom.
I needed to just sew, so I looked at the projects I had that were at the rote sewing stage. After a very short deliberation, I pulled out the Peacock blocks and started sewing.
I don’t remember how many sets I cut up at the Retreat, but the prep I did there allowed me to just sew pieces and parts together. I now have about 40 blocks. When I say blocks, I mean two halves of blocks because I can’t sew the pieces of the blocks together until I lay out the entire quilt. Once I lay it out, I will sew it together in rows.
It was great to just sew. I only had to sew straight seams. I didn’t have to make a lot of decisions beyond how to press the seams and the stack of blocks got bigger and bigger.
I wanted to do more, but don’t I always? That was the kind of sewing that I needed. I finally feel like I am making progress.
I finally finished another Carpenter’s Wheel block. As I have said there is a lot going on and focus is difficult. Looking back, I found that I posted #7 on March 1 even though March 1 seems like a long time ago from where I am sitting now.
I am pretty pleased with how it came out. Since I have so many blocks, I do think a quilt is in the offing. I have been thinking of layouts and was thinking of something asymmetrical after attending QuiltCon.
However, I put them up on my design wall and really like them jammed together. There is something about them together that looks interesting.
I am more excited about Flying Geese now that I may have a plan. Shown are the latest group.
Lots of green this time and not all mine!
Yes, this is block #7 of the ‘test’ blocks. Apparently, I have a lot of testing in me and can’t stop.
I think that I am making a quilt. I can’t imagine piecing all of these pieces and then giving the blocks away or something. I guess I am making a quilt.
The patches for this particular block were on the wall for a long time. Some of it was that I was away from my machine for various travel and some of it was that I was sewing other things when I did have time. I fiddled with the layout quite a bit until I decided to go with what I had and began sewing.
There are colors, and similar colors that are near each other in this version. I decided to be ok with that. There are no hues that look so much alike as to muck up the design. In the grand scheme, I think it will be great.
I washed a bunch of low volume prints and am ready to lay out the next block.
You might remember the review I wrote on Kathy Doughty’s Adding Layers book. After I wrote that review, I decided that I would make the Super Nova pattern included in the book. I wanted to make something fast and the pieces were big, so I thought it would be a quick top.
Bleah.
I had to rip out almost every seam at least once. It was so frustrating. After a break because of travel and Quiltcon, my quilting muscle definitely needed a workout. I got back to it and finished the top yesterday.
The back is still to come, but I am glad I am back on the sewing bandwagon.
The other problem is that we can’t take photos of large quilts without the YM anymore and I make large quilts. That is what I do. This time we tried doing it with blue tape holding up one side and DH holding the other. It was ok, but without the Young Man, we really don’t have enough wingspan to photograph large quilts.
I was thinking about the design for the Flying Geese I have been getting and making for the Flying Geese swap with TFQ. We have been sending each other photos of interesting Flying Geese quilt designs.
The other day I was at In Between Stitches and I saw a version of Camille Roskelley’s Round and Round pattern. I really like the way she combined a bunch of small Friendship Stars into something fantastic. Seeing this quilt and thinking about the Flying Geese gave me an idea. Driving home from the North Coast, I sketched out an idea.
The image left is about the third draft of my design. It isn’t quite the way I want it and there are no sizes involved. Still, the Flying Geese portion is pretty much the way I want it.
I don’t want the Friendship Star blocks to be lined up the way they are in the picture above. Draft n.2 is much more asymmetrical than the picture above and more the way I would want the whole quilt.
What I don’t know yet is:
Even though I have not decided to make the Flying Geese quilt, I like this idea. I get to use the Round and Round block and the Flying Geese are not lined up. For some reason that appeals to me.
I have made a lot of progress on my English Paper Piecing project. I worked on it a bit during my recent trip to the North Coast.
I am now out of papers and basting thread, though I have more to use. I just didn’t have it with me. The papers are a bigger problem as I need to buy more or unbaste some from that big piece and reuse them. I will work on that.
I also tried a different way of stitching the sections together. I used an, supposedly, invisible stitch and I am pretty pleased with the results. The picture with the green star is one of the first tries at this invisible stitch and I can’t see the stitches. I am using Aurifil 50wt in the #2600 color, so I have thinness and a blendy color on my side. It is a bit of a pain to sew the pieces together, because you line them up side by side as they will look when finished. This makes it hard to hold them together while sewing. I can’t use WonderClips to pinch them together. I have resorted to a few stitches at critical points to hold the pieces in place and that seems to be working. I am pleased with the progress.
The back doesn’t look quite as nice. Fortunately, very few people will see the back.
In the photo, you can see my needle (towards the center of the picture by the green rabbit ear). That is how the sections, or stars, get sewn together. For the moment, I have been sticking to this method with big sections only.
I have found that using this method means that I trim more of the excess fabric, frayed threads, etc off the back.
So progress. Next on the list is to lay this on the bed and see how much more I have to make.
I don’t actually have any IRRs right now and I wasn’t at the BAMQG meeting, so I couldn’t take another. I had three in quick succession, with Cheryl’s being the last before my brief hiatus. Ruth‘s and Claire‘s pieces were the other two in the trio.
Michelle and I met at Trader Joe’s again and exchanged IRRs. I took Claire’s to pass along as she wouldn’t be at the meeting either. I headed up to the North Coast again with DH for NSGW/#politicalwifery events and Michelle was headed to Spain. Rhonda was kind enough to take both bags to the meeting for us and I gave them to her at the CQFA meeting.
All of this meant that I had to get Cheryl’s done in time to get it to Rhonda. I had about a day once I figured out all of the timing, so I got down to business.
Cheryl’s piece looked great when I got it and I was loathe to wreck it, but Michelle had added half a row, so that missing section was perfect for me to complete.
Cheryl’s piece is turning out really well. I love it, thus the feelings of avoiding wreckage. I really wanted to use the Paris map fabric, but couldn’t really fit it in once all was said and done.
I walked around with it on my design wall for a few days and decided to add some Flying Geese. Yes, I am still in love with Flying Geese.
I also needed to add my signature fabric, but I didn’t want to add a large patch or strip as I have on other pieces, because I wanted to preserve the mainly white and turquoise color story.
There were a few small strips left over from other piecing, so I pieced a few of those together to make another strip large enough to handle my signature fabric. I wanted something that would look like it fit in.
I made some Flying Geese. Since those were the main parts, I started working getting Michelle’s strip completed. I added some white and a strip of the black and white stripe, which came to me after looking at the piece.
After making my piece, I think the white on the edge needs to be corralled, but someone else, or Cheryl, will have to worry about that. I am pleased with how my part came out and I think my signature fabric piece fits in well without overwhelming the whole design.
I also think the piece needs some space at the top. The bottom is getting to be quite breezy while the top is looking a little cramped. Not fatally so, but a little. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Good things about this IRR
I realize that I have not discussed the One Block Wonder/Peacock quilt recently. The last time I talked about it was last June!!! I can’t believe so much time has passed.
Frankly, I was stuck and needed some hand holding. This is the main reason I get stuck on projects. Since Pam is in Atlanta, though very willing to help via email, I set up a date with Maureen to work through my issues at the Retreat.
TA DAH! The peacock project is finally moving forward. During the time I spent with Maureen at the Retreat she talked me back from the ledge with regard to cutting up my panels.
I had read the One Block Wonder book, but being shown is different than reading. This technique is definitely a challenge to learn from a book. The technique is based on repeats, but since panels are panels, I decided that each of my panels would be one repeat. This worked out pretty well.
I had decided on a width for the strips with Pam’s guidance (3.75″, in case you are curious), so with Maureen’s help, I lined up the panels and eventually began cutting. It was good to do this at the Retreat, because we had big tables. I know now that I would not have been able to do this cutting in my workroom.
My panels were about 24″ x 44″. I had to lay out the complete panel flat and there are 6 layers stacked on top of each other after you have lined them up according to the directions in the book. It was helpful to have the big table. I put new blade in my rotary cutter and that was helpful. I only had a 45mm cutter. A 60mm cutter would have been very useful, but nobody had one to lend.
The key piece of helpful information during the cutting process was that there was a little wiggle room if I didn’t cut the panels quite right. One of my panels was not printed like the others and was causing me problems. Maureen’s comment helped me relax knowing that everything would be ok.
Another very helpful piece of info, which relates to wiggle room, was that the cut edge of the panel could be squared up before the next cut. The maker cuts through 6 layers of fabric, which is difficult in any case, but even more difficult when juggling a ruler, a big table you can’t reach across all with spectators watching. I had enough leftover to square the edges, but not enough to make another set of full sized blocks.
I did take what was leftover and make some smaller triangles that I will perhaps sprinkle around the edge.
Each set of triangles is pinned together waiting for its turn under the machine. Some of them look like they will make really interesting blocks. Others are mostly black and may not make it into the quilt.
I also have a number of solids that coordinate with the panel and I may sprinkle those throughout the the quilt. I’ll have to see.
I did start to sew blocks together after cutting them up, but I have not yet made very much progress. I had to try each one to see how I wanted to sew it together. Because you are essentially using triangles, there are three layout options for each block.
The above blocks are some samples. They look a little strange, because they are not sewn into hexagons. Three triangles are sewn together, two sets for each hexagon, then they are pinned together until the layout is finalized when all the blocks are sewn together in rows. I could sew the hexagons together and sew them using set in seams, but I am still not over Attack of the Hexies and I don’t want to go there again just yet.
Yes, I did save a panel to use for part of the back.
I am still a bit scattered with my projects. This will be a good leaders and enders project when I don’t have others ahead of it in line.
As I mentioned a few times, I made two small quilt-lets to donate to the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles for their Fibershots fundraiser. All the pieces are 10″x 10″ and will be $100. They should have less than 3″ of dimensionality if the piece sticks out from the wall. My piece is basically flat.
I am killing two birds with one stone by making them in the minimalist style for the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club February Challenge. I’ll talk more about that aspect in a later post.
I wanted to make something that would sell, so I kept the design clean and used popular colors. The piecing was easy – all out of the scrap bins. I got bored by the machine quilting so I added some color to each piece.
I didn’t know I had to put a sleeve, etc on the piece, so I wasn’t able to finish them at the work party after the meeting. I was a little irritated at that, but stayed up on Saturday night (my exciting life!) to finish them so I could start fresh on Sunday morning.
I hope someone buys these. I would really be unhappy if they stayed in the gift shop for the next 3 years.
Yes, they are coming fast and furious! I got two at the last BAMQG meeting, as I mentioned. I was able to work on Claire’s piece during my last free sewing weekend, but I didn’t get to Ruth’s. While having little time to sew on the weekend, I have had to cram the work into bits of time during the week. Of course, I forgot to take a before picture. 🙁 C’est la vie. If you imagine removing my part, that is the before. 😉
There is something that makes me think of a castle. The ‘mountains’ could be points of a tower and the curved sections could be arches.
Ruth’s piece has a clear color story and large curved center with triangles seem to be a design focus. The piece spoke to me immediately after I put it up on my design wall. I saw the triangles on the top that looked like mountains and decided to add something similar on the bottom.
I had to do some fancy sewing with background around the mountains since I didn’t want to cut off the tips. I think the background looks like Mary Mashuta’s Pushed Neutral concept and I like it.
Next on the IRR list was Claire’s piece. Claire was in my original group so I wanted to make sure I worked on all of those quilts. I received her piece at the January BAMQG meeting.
Claire’s IRR was a challenge. The colors are perfect for Claire, but they are not my colors. Also, many of the fabrics had been used up or smaller pieces were left. This is why the project is called a challenge! I did not let these things discourage me.
I put the piece up on my design wall and tried to see the focal point or the place where Claire started. I couldn’t really tell, so I looked at who had worked on the piece and still couldn’t tell what might have been Claire’s start.
I put the focal point aside and looked at the piece. I saw some good curved lines and thought something like the Grandmother’s Fan block might work. I cut some blades and put them up on the design wall.
I really did try to keep, mostly, to the 20 minute rule. I find that rule to be hard as the pieces get larger. Of course, cutting is still a challenge. Also, the curves on Claire’s were not an easy design element. And, right on cue, life got in the way and the piece sat on my design wall for a week or more.
As I walked in and out of my workroom I decided I did like the curves. At one point, I adjusted the fans so the existing curves would be continued — or give the illusion of being continued.
In the photo, I tried to point out to you, in a very obnoxious color, what I thought of as ‘continuing the curve’. No, the blades aren’t all the same size, but the curve seems to be the most important in terms of design. I hope the curves I added work with the existing curves to create a focal point.
The bad part is that I didn’t square off the fans. I know I should have, but I just didn’t feel like it. I know I can offer to do it later, if push comes to shove. I am hoping that someone else will square them off down the road.
I am happy with what I did. I gave the piece to Michelle on Thursday and will look forward to seeing what she does.
Now I am on to Ruth‘s piece.
I was finally able to finish this pink (the center is pink so I think of it as the Pink Carpenter’s Wheel) Carpenter’s Wheel block. While I was working on the Sew Together Bags, I didn’t have a quarter inch foot on the machine, so I did barely any quilt work piecing. Very sad as that means very little gets done.
But the Sew Together Bags are done for the moment and I got quite a lot done over the weekend.
This one has more HSTs. I put some in the center, outside the Sawtooth Star, to try and get the look of a ring going. Not sure if I succeeded, thought I do like the look and the opportunity for additional color more HSTs provides.
I am still interested in the low volume background and am adding more of my own fabrics to the mini-charm packs I bought in Corvallis.
I cut and laid out another Carpenter’s Wheel block. I didn’t do it because I wanted an even number. I did it because I had another idea for a variation.
The Carpenter’s Wheel blocks were off visiting Kathleen in Reno when I started laying out the 5th version. Yes, I had another idea for a variation and decided to try it out. I was challenged by the center square. I got it in my head to use orange (forgetting that I had already made one with an orange center), thus had some fun trying out different oranges.
I really thought that the tone-on-tone orange would be the perfect center for the 5th block. Somehow it didn’t work for me. I think the bold patterning of the other fabrics made the tone-on-tone look flat.
I didn’t want a fabric that screamed because it is such a large piece compared to the other patches, so I tried this great orange batik. I thought it was probably the best of the lot, but there was something about it that didn’t quite work.
I picked out a more salmon-y orange, thinking more pink might work better. The pattern was better, but the pattern wasn’t bold enough to compete with all that was going on in the block and didn’t work.
I did think more pink was good, though, so I looked through my ‘oranges tending towards pink’ fabric to see if I could find anything. This was better. I almost went with it, but though it was a little light. You can see the block evolving as I move some of the other pieces or change them out as well.
I finally decided on a pink stitch design. I think it competes well with the other fabrics, but doesn’t overwhelm them.
I am working on stitching it down. As you might recall, these blocks have a lot of pieces, so it takes time. I also laid out another block and will need to pick out another center. Stay tuned.