Yesterday, I received one of the calls that quiltmakers do not want to hear. My quilter called and said that my back was too small for her to quilt the Food Quilt #2.
What????
She explained again and I was mortified. I really couldn’t imagine how this happened. I thought I was being careful.
So, yesterday morning my first order of business was to make a 5″x90″ strip. The back is black, mostly, so I used black again.
This piece is off to my quilter. I missed my slot, so I don’t know how long I will have to wait.
I am finally starting on FOTY 2014. After finishing the “triplets”**, Field Day, the Food Quilt #2 and Box Full of Letters, I looked around to try and decide what to do. I cut a few pieces for FOTY 2015, put in a new rotary cutter blade and decided not to dither. I took out the piece of FOTY 2014 and started in.
Sorting FOTY 2014
First off was sorting. I took the two bins out and sorted the colors into general stacks. I had only two bins and was worried that I had lost some patches, but after taking out all the pieces, I realized I had a lot of patches with which to work.
As I have mentioned many times, even sorting is a challenging part of this project. You can’t dilute a fabric’s color or hue. It is what it is. Of course, I could paint that fabric, or color it with markers, but that is not the point of the exercise.
I am often a little disheartened by the sorting, because I think I will never be able to blend the colors. Somehow I do it and get a wonderful finished quilt.
FOTY 2014 Arranging
After a general sorting, I started arranging. Like 2013’s piece, I decided to start with white in the middle. I used and bought very little white in 2014, so all of the ‘white’ I have has another color on it. That is fine. Again, it is one of the challenges of this project.
I wanted to get all the colors on the design wall on Sunday night when I started, but that was not to be. I found out a few things:
There are a lot of green patches
There are a LOT of pink and red patches
There are a lot of patches in general and now I am concerned that I won’t be able to fit them all on the design wall
Still, I have started and I am determined to make good progress and get this piece off the design wall and sewn together by the end of the month. We’ll see how that goes! Stay tuned.
**I call the three quilts the triplets because I worked on them simultaneously and finished them all within about a week of each other.
Yes, I finished piecing the back and making the binding over the weekend. I have three projects to take to the quilter today and I am very pleased about that. I am very pleased to get these projects off my plate for awhile and can move ahead to something else.
Field Day Top Finished
I had thought to put a gold border in between the Sangria borders, but once I put the Sangria on the top and bottom, I thought the top looked finished and I was happy enough to leave it as is.
The ‘coins’ float, which is a little odd, but I kind of like the look.
I had a goal for Saturday to get the whole piece ready for the quilter. As I mentioned, I am taking two projects over and to take a third would be an added bonus.
Field Day Back Finished
I was able to achieve my goal in the nick of time. We had plans with friends on Saturday evening so I only had about 3 hours to get the piece ready. The back, as usual took me a long time, even though I used a large piece and I used up some of the leftover fat quarters.
I finally almost finished the Field Day Zipper top. I thought this would be the end, but I decided after looking at what I have that I wanted to add a top and bottom border. Or borders, perhaps? Making visual decisions visually
It feels like the piecing took forever. It didn’t really take forever, because the last post, which was probably the last time I worked on it, was just June 15.
I talked about the colors and how I was afraid they would be a struggle to work with. They were a struggle. This project turned into a struggle on a number of levels. As I suspected, the colors are a little more muted than colors with which I really enjoy working. Also, the pattern, which I LOVE was just a struggle to put together. You’d think that putting a bunch of squares and rectangles together would be easy. Normally, it is, but I think I must have cut some of the pieces off grain, because the entire top was a PITA to put together. It was rippling and I have been fighting the entire time to get it to bend to my will.
Also, something about the measurements was off. Perhaps I cut something wrong or who knows? The rows did not exactly line up. I am ok with it, but still annoyed.
You’ll probably see another post about this next week once I finish the whole thing.
I finally feel like I made some real progress over the weekend. I finished 2 backs, 2 bindings and almost finished a top. I spent some time on Friday sewing, which I don’t normally do and that helped a lot.
Box Full of Letters Back
The first item I finished was the Box Full of Letters back. I pecked away at it for about a week, which made it seem like it took forever. That was a frustrating feeling, because the piece is not very big. I finally finished it on Friday and that was a good feeling!
I always try to use large pieces, but somehow I end up with some fiddly piecing. I resolve not to do it again, but there it is.
I also sewed around the edge of the top to stabilize it as there will be no border and made the binding. The whole package is ready to go to the quilter. Hooray!
I finally had a large chunk of time to make some good progress on a few projects over the weekend. Yay!
I made really good progress on the Box Full of Letters top. I think I will have a top soon.
As I said before the straight layout of blocks was too boring and it felt too confined or compressed to me. I suppose the ‘modern’ movement is affecting me, because I wanted these little envelopes to breathe a bit as well. I hadn’t any idea what I was going to do with them until I started to put them up on the wall. I had seen a quilt where the blocks were arranged on the diagonal kind of like a rocket taking off.
Yes, I arranged the colors and fabrics as I went along, but not too much.
BFOL – almost done
After I got all the blocks up on the wall in the arrangement above, I looked at them for awhile, moving a few around and trying to imagine the final effect. I decided to go for it and began sewing. I sewed for probably 10 hours on Saturday, which is what happens when I am sew-deprived and finally get some time. I thought I would finish the top on Sunday, but I didn’t quite. I only have a few seams left.
I am more pleased with this piece than I had been. After quilting, I think I will just put a binding on it and leave it without borders.
I thought it had been an eternity since I wrote about this project, but it turns out it has only been about 10 days. June has flown by at mach 10 so I can’t really keep track. Since that last post, I have made at least one more block.
I am liking the blocks better, especially since I am able to see them all on the design wall together. They look ok separately, but the secondary design really explodes into wonderfulness when I put them all together.
I have about 7 blocks now and the urgency of laying them on the bed to see how many more blocks I need to make is becoming more urgent. Why I can’t grab the blocks and walk downstairs with them is a mystery.
6 Blocks Together
The group of 6 blocks together looks really nice. (6 makes for a more even picture than 7.) I am glad I was strict with myself on the colors, because I think it is looking good. There is a rogue red patch, which I don’t understand, but I probably will just leave it.
As usual, despite the wide variety of fabrics, I still feel like I don’t have enough to make the piece look scrappy enough. I probably need to get over myself.
I have received more Flying Geese and I have made a few more as well. My last update was May 23 and this group doesn’t seem like enough, but it has to be. I am pretty sure I am not behind.
My geese have been a tough group to make. I am having problems with the measurements on the rulers I am using. I don’t know why the directions say to make the small squares one size and then the geese cannot be trimmed to the proper size. I was in a panic and a rush, so I sent them to TFQ anyway. I know she can handle the smaller seam allowance and I will make a few extras down the road.
Still, I am annoyed at the measurements.
Yes, I am cutting the squares larger now, but I have a whole bunch of squares that are just slightly too small. It is very irritating.
While I haven’t spent a lot of time at the machine, I seem to have made quite a large amount of progress. I would say that the Field Day top is almost done. I screamed through some piecing last Sunday (not the Sunday that just passed) and was shocked to see how much I had gotten done.
I have a couple of things to decide about this top:
Do I sew top and bottom borders of the Sangria on this piece?
Should I get some of the Goldenrod and put a thin border around the outside and then another border of Sangria?
The other problem is the last row. It was doubled up on top of row 7 and I don’t know if was intended to be row 8 or half of row 7? If it was to be half of row 7, then I added more coins where now it is much, much too long for a row. I may cut it in half to make row 7 long enough or add more to it and make the quilt wider.
If I make the piece wider, it is going to be a weird shape and I don’t know if I want to inflict that on someone.
I haven’t posted about this Stepping Stones project since February, mostly because I haven’t really worked on it until recently. And ‘worked’ is a generous description of my efforts. I have been pushing red and turquoise through the machine as leaders and enders in between Field Day and the Food quilt.
Voila!
Stepping Stones June 2015
More blocks.
Progress. And so it goes.
I plan to be a little more precise as I make the blocks so I don’t end up with a weird shaped quilt. Sometime I’ll drag the already completed blocks downstairs and lay them out on the bed so see where I am. I haven’t done that yet, though. 8 blocks does not a quilt make, but they are large blocks and we have a small bed, so I don’t imagine I will have very many more center blocks to make.
I made these two top blocks as leaders and enders when I was working on the borders of the Food Quilt #2. The bottom one is, as you can clearly see, still in progress. I do take my time picking out the fabrics to include.
I don’t remember exactly when it was, last Friday, I think, but I had a brief window of time before I had to go do something else for someone. The grief at the implications of my BIL’s loss were starting to creep into my brain in the quiet and threatening to overwhelm me.
4 ‘A’ Blocks
I turned to the Improv pieces I had worked on at the workshop. They were sewn together as you see (left photo), but I wasn’t happy with them, so I unstitched them and began to rework them.
Tina’s idea (from Little Blue Cottage) is that there should be a lot of negative space in the center. Because I like the interplay of the strong pattern, I wanted the blacks and whites to act as the negative space and the red to act as the foreground.
This isn’t a terrible idea, but it wasn’t working with this layout. I looked at it a lot, trying to like it – or at least be okay with the center. The reality was that I didn’t like it. I wasn’t achieving anything near what I was imagining, thus the ripping.
Big, fat Improv
The ripping really didn’t take long, but it did allow my mind time to wander, which is not what I wanted. After ripping, I began adding more neutrals to the ‘legs’. The photo (right) is what the pieces look like right now. I have not sewn the four blocks together yet. I haven’t decided if I am done with the ‘A’ blocks yet.
I think I will definitely add some more red to the outside. I also think that a few more neutrals is in order. It needs to sit a bit.
Windowframe layout
I wandered around it for awhile and then began to wonder whether I should reverse the blocks and arrange them the way Tina intended the pattern to be arranged. I think the neutral part of the blocks look too skinny again when arranged with the red in the middle. It isn’t terrible, though.
I think the ultimate path is to make some of the ‘B’ blocks and see what happens once I have more to look at.
I had the class and so much stuff to catch up on over the weekend that I didn’t have a lot of time to sew. I decided that I wanted to make progress on something. Not just a few blocks, but some real progress.
Food Quilt.
I knew I could make progress on it because I was pretty close to having the top done after the retreat.
Food Quilt #2 Top – June 2015
I got on it and the top is together with borders, though it took me a few hours on Monday to get the whole top done, but next stop: Food Quilt back.
The holdup at the retreat was that I forgot black to use for borders. I had plenty of black at home, so I waited until this week to do it.
After putting on the black inner border and the piano key food border, I decided I wanted a black border on the outside to contain all that food. I am pleased with the way it came out.
Food Quilt Holders
I caught a quick glimpse of the boys as they prepared to be quilt holders for me. This is what it looks like when they are acting as my quilt holders. I have learned just to wait for them to play around. It is fun to watch. I mean, you have to have fun in normal life, right?
You might remember that made a Food Quilt for the Young Man. This is a graduation gift for the Young Man’s friend. I kind of like the idea of them having similar quilts. It is like there will be a connection through these quilts. Sentimental, I know. It won’t be finished for his graduation, but I can send it to him at college and he can see the top.
This is like a bonus week. I keep thinking that it should be June already, but Memorial Day weekend was so early and the week preceding Memorial Day was so crazy that normal life barely registered. So BONUS!
American Patchwork & Quilting magazine
I saw this quilt on a magazine I bought (**Disclaimer: yes, I bought this willingly and with my own money, it is not a review copy). It is called 30 Something (Thirty Something???) I LOVE this quilt on the front and have to put it in my queue to make. I like the different shapes and the way the pieces are set and then make the blocks.
I wouldn’t make in those soft 1930s fabrics, but I would make it scrappy. I am still thrilled with the bright scraps and dots I used for Scrapitude. I think I would use my bright scraps again.
It is so odd when a quilt grabs my attention like this one did. I can look at 100 quilts, yawn and move on, but then one grabs me and I can’t get it out of my head. It isn’t even the fabrics that I like. How can I look at this quilt and imagine it in brights and dots? I look at other quilt projects on magazines and can’t imagine them made any other way–with any other fabric. This quilt is different.
I decided to make the peacock One Block Wonder project. I was really on the fence, as you may have gathered from my previous posts, about making it. I talked about some of my concerns in the last post and had decided not to make it. Things change.
There were a couple of things that made me decide to do it. 1) I was able to find the Timeless Treasure panel on a website. 2) I saw Maureen’s blocks and 3) I really like the colors in this panel.
I was easily able to buy the panel from Miller’s Dry Goods, which I found unexpectedly after doing a simple Google search. The line is fairly new so I wasn’t expecting that it would be available yet. I am still interested in the group of solids shown with the panel, but they are not as important. I think they might make a good addition to the quilt, but I don’t know what the final quilt will look like, which means I don’t know how they would fit in so we’ll have to see.
Maureen read one of my previous posts and brought her One Block Wonder blocks, as well as a piece of the original fabric to show me at the retreat. I didn’t even know she had worked on a One Block Wonder and was very pleased to see what she had done. Pam’s class using a panel seems very different from using fabric, but there are quite a few similarities as well. I was pleased to see how different Maureen’s blocks looked from each other and she confirmed that it is fairly easy to avoid ending up with the same blocks, which adds to the variety of the quilt. We encouraged her to work on her OBW quilt, but she worked on other projects. I would love to see what she does with those blocks.
I do like the colors of the panel. There is no cream, as there was in the other yardage I considered, which is a bonus. I am annoyed at cream backgrounds lately. They look dirty to me.
Maureen assured me, as did looking at her blocks, that the black would not overwhelm the piece. There is plenty of blue, especially turquoise (!!!), in the panel as well.
This is a limited collection for Timeless Treasures and I only bought the panel. If it doesn’t work out, the effort will make a great donation quilt.
