I made some progress on getting FOTY 2015 sewn together.
I have big chunks, so ~6 seams and I am done.
Sort of.
I have some problem areas that need partial seams or something. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Partial seams is the best I can do now, but how is the challenge.
Light area problem child
Problem area #1
I think you will have to enlarge the photo (there still may be a problem with enlarging the photos. Sorry, if that is the case; I am working on it) to see that yellow that lines up nicely with the top chunk.
It doesn’t line up with the bottom chunk.
Blue area problem child
Blue Area Problem child #2
This area is a little more difficult. There are more pieces that are problematic and there are more of them.
None of this is mission critical. I will get through it and it won’t be a huge drama. It feels dramatic at this moment. Tomorrow is a new day and things will look different.
I blew through the layout stage and am on to piecing.
Well, relatively anyway.
I gave myself a certain amount of time to do the layout. The time period was about two weeks and during that time, I didn’t take my cutting table or other in-process projects out of the fabric closet. I only allowed myself to work on other projects as leaders and enders and focused on getting this laid out.
This year’s piece was harder to arrange, because the fabrics I used were really different colors than each other. I am not sure why, because individually they don’t look different. The differences in each hue don’t really show up until you put two oranges or pinks next to each other and try and decide which has a lighter and which has a darker value. It is very strange. If I had thought of it I would have kept track of manufacturers and designers to see if I bought different ones this year than last year. I didn’t know that this would happen. It would have also meant that I would have had to keep track last year as well. More data would be needed.
The too-small design wall was a real problem this year, I think. I did not cut the patches down to accommodate the design wall as I did last year. I just crammed them all on the wall. That means that I found some places where I was short. You can see some white spaces on the bottom (near right hand corner). This problem showed up when some of the fabric was taken up by seam allowances and I was able to line patches up more evenly. I have to rummage through my leftover pieces and find some to fill in.
Most of the piece has been sewn into chunks. The chunks are not even because I had some rectangles arranged horizontally and some arranged vertically. With the squares it made for interesting piecing.
The difficulty was what it was and I got the feeling that it was done at some point and started sewing. I talked a little about the sewing when I posted about the Peacock. It is all about leaders and enders, because I only want two unsewn patches off the wall at a time to ensure the piece stays laid out the way I intended.
As I said the other day in the latest donation blocks post, laying out FOTY 2015 doesn’t make for a lot of tangible production. While I enjoyed making the donation blocks, I did need a little variety and the Stepping Stones parts were handy.
Four Stepping Stones blocks – April 2016
I enjoy these blocks and seeing the way they will be laid out makes me very happy. Turning each on a little bit makes a huge difference.
Even though I may need the squares for the layout of the Carpenter’s Wheel blocks, I have used some of the low volume prints for the white space in these blocks. I have plenty of fabric for the [mythical] Carpenter’s Wheel layout and can always cut more.
6 Stepping Stones blocks – April 2016
Making a few blocks always leads to making more and the six shown give an idea of what the quilt will look like and makes me want to make more.
Based on the layout I devised for my nephew’s Stepping Stones quilt, it looks like I will only need two more blocks and then border blocks for the width. I thought I measured 8 blocks across my bed, which doesn’t account for border blocks. I want to make the border blocks to finish the design. There are two blocks around the whole edge of the previous SS quilt and I could eliminate those if I thought the width was too big. Measuring next, I think.
I am really pleased with how the blocks look. Now to get FOTY 2015 off the wall so I can layout all the blocks I have and see what I am facing. After months of feeling meh about quiltmaking, I am finally excited about several projects! Yay!
As I work on FOTY 2015, I also have to work on another project in between each two patches that I sew. I sew two patches from FOTY rows with two patches from something else. This helps me keep the FOTY pieces in order. If I get too many of them off the wall at once, the order is mixed up and all the work of laying them out is for naught. Of course, even having just two patches off the wall does not guarantee that they won’t get out of order, but I do my best and some ripping does come into play.
As you know I have been using donation blocks and the Stepping Stones blocks (look for a post soon) as leaders and enders. I got a little tired of the donation blocks and ran out of HSTs for the Stepping Stones, so I turned to the Peacock blocks.
I thought I thought I still had a gazillion seams left to finish the blocks, but since I hadn’t worked on it in over a month, I couldn’t really remember and just focused on getting the gazillion down to a billion. 😉
Last of the Big Peacocks
Amazingly, I really didn’t have that many blocks left to sew and I finished sewing the large blocks yesterday. Above there are 21 “big peacocks” and that is all of them. With the blocks I made last time, I have about 60 “big peacock” blocks.
Baby Peacock
This does not account for the smaller blocks, which I cut from a smaller strip and will see about using in some way. I have more of those to sew, but will do that when I sew the rest of the FOTY 2015 together. It will be nice to be able to leap into laying out another quilt right away.
At least I think it will be nice. It might be too much after the work on FOTY, but at least the blocks will be ready when I am.
I got a brief glance at my Improv Round Robin piece before Ruth whisked it away to work on.
More of the Philip Jacobs print is showing up and that is creating some interesting results. I do think the piece needs more space, so I will add more solid or, perhaps, someone working on it will add more solid.
I made more progress on the Carpenter’s Wheel project over the weekend. I worked on this one in between working on the Cutting Corners donation top. I put in some newer fabrics and that makes me very happy. I am totally in love with that flower print I used for the center. It is by Studio E and that blue is fantastic! Especially since it is not turquoise. 😉
Now I have a dilemma. I now have 10 blocks. That is a very awkward number with which to lay out a quilt. I am going to look at the blocks and see if I can eek out two more unique layouts. If not, I may make two more of my favorites. I will also try to lay the blocks out in different ways to see if there is an interesting layout which will work for this piece.
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.
Peacock Blocks
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.
8 Carpenter’s Wheels
However, I put them up on my design wall and really like them jammed together. There is something about them together that looks interesting.
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.
Flowerburst
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.
Possible Flying Geese Design
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.
Possible Flying Geese Design #2
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:
what sizes I will make the Friendship Star blocks
whether I will have half or quarter Friendship Star blocks along the border or only finished ones
if I will fill in more Flying Geese around the edges
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.
Invisible Stitches from the front
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.
Back of invisible stitches
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 IRR – before
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.
Cheryl’s IRR – my part
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.
Cheryl’s IRR – finished with my part
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.
