Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I focused on getting some more blocks done for Scrappy Celebration over the weekend. My design wall is looking good even if I have to layer some of the blocks. I do need to move them all up and will probably do that today.
After the meeting on the weekend, I cleaned out the Chubby Charmer I take to the meeting and found a bunch of stuff leftover from Retreat in the bottom. Among the items was a bunch of Pantone Project blocks that Julie made. She must have handed them over at the Retreat.
This group looks very Fallish/Autumn-like to me.
I feel terrible that they have languished unremarked upon for weeks. My only explanation is that I left for a business trip only a few days after I returned from the Retreat and really didn’t do a great job of putting everything away.
I have some fabrics chosen for some blocks for Julie and I am determined to get some done.
After encouraging my sewjo a little bit with the Spiky 16 Patch, I made some more blocks for the Scrappy Celebration quilt.
I have to admit I was dreading this block a little bit because the first one took so long to sew. I concentrated on chain piecing this one and it went more quickly.
I did forget to use the other blue fabric, so it looks the same as #1. Still, it is done and I can move on to other blocks.
I also made the second Plus block, which completes the top row. Unlike the 9 patch above, I have decided to make the Plus blocks different colors. Well, I have decided that the pluses will be different colors. I have been longing to use that emerald green again, so here it is.
I like the combination of the red-violet and that emerald.
I moved some of the blocks around so the completed block layout I have looks different now.
Not a lot of progress, but over a small hump and progress is progress.
Metro Twist** is another pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful that uses their Quick Curve Ruler**. You might remember that I made Metroscape** a few years ago with this ruler.
I showed the quilt that Amy made at the Retreat using the Metro Twist pattern in a previous post.The colors she used and the curves made this a very popular project at the Retreat.
At the last Sew Day, she was putting on borders and preparing the top for quilting. I was able to take a photo of the quilt and it looks great!
I didn’t really realize how popular this project was until I heard that Amy will be teaching the guild how to make it at the next Super Sew Day, in July. I also had a clue when Mary C said that a bunch of people bought the pattern and the ruler after seeing Amy’s quilt.
I talked to Amy and offered to help her teach. She hasn’t told me what she needs me to do yet, but I am kind of excited about it. I really need to find some fabrics I want to use. I love Amy’s choices of Tiny Dots and Tiny Stripes, but I don’t want to copy what she did.
The quilt on the cover of the pattern isn’t super appealing and I don’t think the Tula All Stars (if even still available) would work for this pattern.
**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 had planned to get more blocks for this project finished over the long weekend. In the end I only finished one. It has about 50 pieces. I finished a few other projects, so I don’t really feel that bad.
I need to make another one of these blocks and am trying to decide if I will use the same foreground fabric or a slightly different one.
I have about 9 blocks out of the many that I need. As I have said, the piecing isn’t difficult, just a little tedious.
I used this project as leaders and enders while I worked on the Blue strip donation blocks and the Enigma bag.
Scrappy Celebration is the name of the quilt I started at the Retreat. This one was not on my list, but I saw it in a recent American Patchwork and Quilting magazine and thought it looked interesting.
It was also easy to ease back into series piecing after creating so many bags.
I was able to make about 8 blocks, but cut a lot more pieces. As you can see this quilt is made up of Nine Patches and Four Patches.
I used some fabrics I bought in Washington when Mom and I went to visit the YM. I had put together a fabric pull to which I added a grey background and I think it looks good. I am going to try to vary the centers from the four patches (top left) so the Nine Patches with Four Patches look more like the block in the upper left corner). I haven’t had time to work on it since the Retreat, but it shouldn’t take me very long in general. The cutting is the worst part.
I sat down and sewed a few more blocks for Julie. I also picked out more fabrics to make more blocks. I just haven’t made them yet.
I am really happy I made some progress, but annoyed I haven’t made MORE progress.
As I have said, it takes time to choose the fabrics. If I can do that, then sewing the blocks isn’t difficult. One thing at a time!
I received a nice package of blocks from Friend Julie the other day. It is so interesting to see these blocks. Julie mentioned that it looked like a real project now when she posted about the blocks I sent to her last week.
I can’t really see what they will end up looking like, but I can see that they will end up as something. I can see the possibilities now.
I have received more postcards and need to match them to fabric. I might be over the hump of fabric selection being a big barrier. We’ll see how it goes with the next group.
I worked all last weekend on the Pointillist Palette #4 project. I made good progress, but I am not feeling any connection with this quilt. I was quite enamored back in the day, but time did not look kindly on this project. I don’t sincerely dislike it, but I also don’t understand why my younger self loved the concept so much. I guess I need to think about how my quiltmaking has evolved and what makes up my quiltmaking.
This cements my resolve to not let projects linger.
So, I worked hard on finishing the blocks for this project.
The piecing is super easy, just a lot of straight stitching in long chains. It is going quickly. It is good after the other projects I have worked on recently.
For this quilt in the series, I want it to be dark, thus the black and white aboriginal prints. I stopped using the lighter parts of the ombre fabrics to get that darkness, but there are still a lot of light fabrics in the quilt. I wonder if I will have to resew some blocks.
I have had this project on my list for awhile. I show the original drawing in one post that also calls this piece part of a CQFA placemat challenge. I discussed working on it after I did some stitching. I showed it at a CQFA Art Walk. It seems that 2019 is the last time I worked on it.
The piece is small and I kept chiding myself for not just doing it. The muse, however, is a fickle mistress and she was not interested in this piece for a long time.
Finally, she allowed me a flash of inspiration and I ran with it. I have started piecing it into a table runner. I need more table runners for my buffet and I thought this would make a good one for summer. Also, I could admire my lobster more frequently.
I always like the Sawtooth Star block and thought it would work to make the table runner a little longer. I put some pinwheels inside the Sawtooth Star’s center just to make it a little more interesting.
I may add some pointed ends. We’ll see.
I know it is all Orange You Glad all the time right now. I am almost done piecing the top.
I spent the last few days chunking the top. I have many chunks and the piecing is going much faster. I’ll probably be able to finish piecing the top tomorrow or the next day. Life gets in the way of sewing.
I finished the back of the Diagonal Nine Patch Saturday morning before I drove to the BAM meeting. I found a piece of fabric that comprises the main part of the back (top left). The large print works well for a back and I am glad I didn’t cut it up for the front.
I used up a number of pieces of fabric that have been hanging around for awhile, which is always a good feeling.
I am pretty pleased not only that the whole package is ready to go to Colleen, but also that there were no tasks hanging around for after the meeting. It felt like a clean finish.
I chose a black and white stripe for the binding.
I worked on the back for 20 minutes or so on Friday after cleaning out the garage and that 20 minutes put everything in place for finishing on Saturday. Every minute counts!
This is a pretty easy quilt so as soon as I finished all the bits and pieces required to make Pies & Points ready for quilting, I turned my attention to the Diagonal Nine Patch. I talked about the size in my last post and, as you can see, I increased the size. I think this size will be fine, but am still reserving judgement.
With 7×7 blocks, the quilt top will be about 42 inches square and my hesitation is whether that is a large enough quilt. I think it is on the verge of being large enough, but I may want to add another column and row.
I have about 7 more blocks to go in this configuration. The issue is that I am eager to get this quilt done and move on to Orange You Glad. I also want to bring this quilt to Colleen.
The Pies & Points top and back are done! I really could have used TFQ’s help with the piecing, but I am pleased with the overall design. Quilting won’t solve all of it’s little piecing challenges, but quilting will flatten it out and give it some structure.
I used all the blocks I made and am happy with the look. I like the Points blocks and how they look like flags. The Pies blocks and half blocks add a bit more interest and give the piece a kind of pink circus feel.
I am also happy I used a non neutral background. I like that look and need to get back to doing it more.
The back is done, too. I should have done yoga that day, but instead I pulled fabric off the background stack and made the back.
I plan to give this away so I didn’t choose any of my Philip Jacobs fabrics. I did pull some fabrics from Queen Street. I have some leftover after the BAMQG IRR and thought they would work.
Friend Julie and I started a project together. This isn’t the first project we have worked on together. We have worked on Bullseye quilt projects together, the Windmill quilts and Julie’s Tumbler quilts. I enjoy working on projects with her.
This project started with me asking for the Pantone Postcard Box for a gift. Friend Julie got it for me, then we started talking about doing something quilty with it.
We threw ideas back and forth, but recently we got together for lunch and laid out our guidelines. It was a lot easier to make the list when we were together, though I suppose we could have done it on the phone as well.
We decided we would use the units Doreen Speckmann recommends in her Pattern Play book. I LOVED Doreen Speckmann’s classes. I have had the book for a long time, but Friend Julie bought it recently. It is a technique book, though there are a few patterns. Doreen shows readers how to make and use different units to make quilts look more personalized. These were the types of books that were written in the past whereas now people just write books that tell you how to make a certain quilt with certain fabric. I don’t see that I have written a book review on this book, but it might be time.
That being said, this is a block based book and, thus The Pantone Project will be a block based quilt.
“Supplies” Needed:
Decisions to Make:
Every week or so we send each other a postcard. The interval is pretty random, but we aren’t letting months go by. I was on a trip recently and didn’t send any that week, but sent one as soon as I got back.
The postcards have a certain Pantone color. From the color we will choose a solid, tone-on-tone or ‘reads as solid’ fabric to use for the block.
We decided to use the same background and bought some together the other day. We bought a cool grey called Blossom by Riley Blake. Christopher Thompson is the designer. I don’t know why it is called Blossom since there is not one blossom-y color on it. Some of the other fabrics in the line are more blossom-like. Anyway, this is a really good grey, which is now washed and waiting to be incorporated into blocks. You can see more of the design of the fabric on Julie’s blog.
Our units will be 4 inches finished (4.5 inches unfinished).
We will make two blocks, plus cut two squares and send one block and one square to the other person. At the moment, I am behind and won’t be able to get started until later this week or next week. Julie has a nice picture of the postcards I have sent on her blog. She also made one block already. I need to get busy, and will soon.
I hope you find a friend and play along.
Resources:
**Obviously, you should shop at a local quilt shop. However, I use 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.