Tag: Sew Day

It took two of us to be Mary at Sew Day. She was out of town and we had to fill in. Good thing I have done it a few times otherwise I would have been lost.

Of course, I spent the time cutting out the pieces for bags. I am making the Amethyst Project Bag by Sew Sweetness and the Kit Supply Tote by Aneela Hoey. I cut out all of the pieces for both so I can start sewing.

Sara from the Social Justice Sewing Academy was there with more blocks to make into a quilt. Members of the guild had done the embellishment on a lot of the blocks. It was really a group effort.

The first part was deciding how the blocks would go together. They usually go together in a 4 x 6 grid with sashing, which is what happened this time. Still the blocks have to be placed in the right location. In this case, there were some strong designs that had to be dispersed.

As usual, I didn’t participate. I kept an ear open and chatted with Sara and the others who were working on the project. I brought the Pink Strip Donation quilt, so I felt like I had been doing good. I also brought several donation blocks. I am doing my part.

I found out that the quilts are given to schools and libraries where they are displayed. I think they are given to the places where the artists come from. What I mean is that if an event was held at a school, then the quilt goes back to that school for display. A good idea, I think.

The fabric used for sashing had an interesting texture, but it was difficult to use and shredded easily. Still, the sashing strips they made look really nice.

You know I am not a fan of beige and brown, but these strips are very appealing.

They didn’t have time to finish putting the quilt together, though several people worked really hard for most of the day. I am not sure what happens if the quilt isn’t finished. Maybe some others will finish it?

Julie has a great post with more information about the SJSA quilt.

I also saw Melinda’s finished block – or the block that Melinda embellished. It looks really great! It also got a great position in the quilt.

She added some gold metallic thread around the hands. She also added the stars and the words. It looks really good! The design is also very appealing.

Joelle brought the thin strips quilt as well. She did a FANTASTIC job! The quilt is wonderful. I looked for mine and thought she hadn’t included them, but I saw them scattered across the bottom of the quilt. See the one in the bottom right hand corner?

Sara saw this quilt and wants to incorporate the idea into the sashing of the next SJSA quilt. Interesting idea! I am so thrilled when synergies like this happen.

I spent the last three days at Sew Day, well, 2.5 days as we started Thursday at 1pm. Saturday was the busiest with about 16 people. Thursday was the least busy with about 8.

I arrived a little early so Mary and I could set up the tables, irons and food. We had help from Sue S and some others. Then we started sewing. I started off basting La Pass Month 14. Yep, Month 14 is here and Nope, I haven’t finished Month 13. Like Month 1, however, Month 14 is the outer right of Month 13, so I can sew them together at the same time. It makes hand sewing a little easier that I have not finished Month 13 yet.

My station is on the other side of the sewing machine in the first photo (above). That is Friend Julie’s machine in the bottom right of the photo. She joined the guild and I was able to convince her to come to Sew Day. I am almost more excited about what she got done than my accomplishments! 😉

She worked on finishing her Kitchen Sink quilt, which she started in a BAM class with Maria Shell. She had already quilted most of it, but did a little more quilting then made and attached the binding.

I think the quilt looks really good and quite cohesive. The colors are fun and interesting, too. There is also a lot to look at. This is one of the projects on Julie’s September to do list and I am excited she made such great progress.

Another project on Julie’s September To Do list is her Japanese houses. She worked on making the back, which turned out really well, but could be another top! I forgot to take a photo, so you’ll have to go look at her blog for more info and a view.

I had a little more basting to do when I arrived on Friday. I had left one of the fabrics in the dryer at home. After I finished the last few small pentagons, I started cutting out other projects.

First I worked on cutting out pockets for the Brocade Peony UCAB. Remember I cannibalized the pockets I made for that UCAB for my improved UCAB? I was able to finish all the pieces and parts for the pockets on Saturday, I think.

As soon as I finished the pockets, I started cutting out the fabrics and vinyl for the Sew Hungry Hippie Essential tote pattern. I was able to cut out all the pieces except the exterior, because I am waiting for another piece of AMH’s Glow to arrive and I forgot to wash the other AMH fabric (left) I bought. I wanted to use that Spanish Rose vinyl (photo left) and I wanted to use it with Anna Maria’s Glow colorway. I know it is a shocking pink. I just bought it recently and I want to use it while I am excited (and not horrified) about it.

I didn’t mean to make two of these totes, but now I am. The webbing won’t be super comfy, but it is glitter webbing and super fun. One good thing is that I used up most of my regular vinyl with all of these projects, so now I can switch completely to glitter vinyl. Yay!

Once I finished cutting what I could for the Essential Totes, I started cutting for the ByAnnie Project Bags. I need more holders for in process projects. I know I am a glutton for punishment since I started making 5 of these. Yes, FIVE. I am a lunatic.

I had to lay out the cut pieces on a free table, clipped together, so I could be sure I had cut all the pieces for each different bag.

I was able to finish cutting out all of those Project Bags pieces on Saturday before lunch. As soon as I finished lunch, I started quilting the main panels.  Somehow quilting at Sew Day is less terrible than quilting at home. I quilted four of the main panels, which leaves one left to quilt, then I’ll be done and ready to put them together. I kind of wanted all the quilting done at Sew Day, but we don’t get everything we want.

A lot was going on at the event. I don’t know why Maria had eggs next to her sewing machine, but she did. I didn’t get a chance to ask.

You can see Patti and Anna talking in the background. Their table was pretty full, though people moved around the room quite a bit so it looks pretty empty in this photo.

New Mary came and got her door prize bag. There was a lot oohing and aahing over the contents. That made me feel good.

Sue S has a grandson who is interested in quiltmaking. He has made a quilt, which we were pleased to having hanging on one of the design walls at Sew Day.

I was impressed with the sophistication of the design. It is all half square triangles, but the design is quite elaborate. I kind of want to make that design in different fabrics.

He joined us for Sew Day via FaceTime and got to see what we all were doing.

Maria basted a quilt on the wall. I tried that technique a few years ago and it didn’t work for me, but she was very successful. I love the quilt, too. She did a nice job choosing fabrics.

I came home on Friday exhausted. It was a result of walking back and forth to the cutting table all day. That was hard. I took a break from my daily walk on Saturday and didn’t feel the exhaustion as much, though I was still tired.

All in all, I am pleased with what I accomplished. I don’t know that I can cross anything off my to do list, but I’ll soon be able to do so.

At the last Sew Day Mary and I decided we would make another donation quilt in an hour. Neither of us brought a sewing machine, so we just played around with some blocks and shards that Mom donated.

Mom is clearing out stuff she doesn’t want and quilt projects she won’t finished.

These are not really my style and they are all odd sizes, but we can make them fit together in some way.

We started out by just putting them on the design wall and looking at them. Tim stopped by Sew Day and helped us play around with them. Three brains are definitely better than one.

We got rid of one block that was the same pattern, but just much busier than the others (bottom center block). It didn’t really go. The butterfly was not sewn by my Mom and that one was out, too. I really wanted to put all the blocks in so there were none left, but that isn’t always possible.

We tried spreading out the blocks and imagining other fabrics or blocks in between.

I think it is harder to imagine what could between blocks when you don’t have any extra fabric with which to work. When we did the Improve charity tops, Maria and Cyndi both brought big bins of  solids we could use.

Still, we thought we had a good selection of blocks and some possibilities.

We automatically put the largest block in the center, but started talking about not having it in the center. What could we do if we put it somewhere else in the top?

Moving the largest block down and the Ying/Yang blocks (those with the crazy circle fabric prominently placed) to the center made the piece a weird shape, but we liked the location of the blocks better. We will probably cut off the yellow square on the bottom and use the yellow in some other location. We finally started to feel like we were getting somewhere.

Part of the issue is that none of use these types of fabrics. My Mom has a unique fabric selection style that people love and is hard to imitate.

We finally ended up adding some of the leftover purple and lilac squares from the Celestial Squares quilt to bring out the purples in the batik. Those fabrics are unconventional choices, but I think they work.

We have plans to sew it together next time, but we will see.

We had another in person Sew Day the other day. We all wore masks and did quite a bit of physical distancing. We each had our own 6 foot table, which was nice not only for safety, but also because we could spread out.

In addition we had, as usual, cutting tables, ironing boards and a free table. The usual, overflowing snack table was strangely empty. I did not have a chance to make coffee cake, so I wasn’t surprised that other were in the same boat.

As usual, it was great to see people. Mary and I tested the 5 ironing boards the guild has and decided two of them were substandard – one was too wobbly and one tilted in an odd direction. We have been wanting to do that for awhile, so it was good to get it done.

The Sew Day was actually a Super Sew Day in that people came on Friday and Saturday. I put together two door prize bags, which were won by Amy and Joelle. I wish I could have attended on Friday, but work and taking off the Friday before prevented me from attending.

Someone from the church donated her mother’s fabrics. The mother had died and there were 12 garbage bags full of fabric. Some guild members sorted the fabric. People chose pieces they wanted. Most of the fabric was Joann quality. I didn’t take any, but some went to make pet beds. I think some will go to the community quilt project as well. The rest of the fabric will go to FabMo for others to pick through.

My workspace was good. Having a 6 foot table to myself allowed me to leave Rosette #1 flat on the table while I worked with the smaller chunks.

It also allow people to see the big part of the piece and not disturb my progress. As I said before, people are very interested in the progress of my piece. They were less interested this time in English Paper Piecing in general. The La Pass rosettes are very impressive and my Rosette #1 is no exception.

Month 3 arrived and I was able to press the fabric as well.

People were working on really nice projects. Rhonda sat across from me and shared a design wall with Melinda. Rhonda’s piece (right) was fantastic! She is working on a round robin with Cheryl, Kelly, Ruth and some others. It is one of the best round robins I have ever seen. She told me that Ruth did a lot of the design work. I love everything about it.

Melinda’s piece was also really great. The colors aren’t exactly my colors, but I did like the combination. It is really different. I also like the variety of plus (cross) blocks. I received some of these fabrics in one of the Modern Handmade modern boxes I got last year before they stopped the subscriptions.

Other people were working on interesting projects as well. Bonnie was working on a quilt top that looks woven. Nancy was quilting a community quilt. Alice finished a great block that I think was paper pieced.

Amy found a project that has generated interest throughout the guild. She found a pattern for a zipper organizer. She made one for Mary C as a gift and Mary started to use it to organize pieces for a quilt she is working on. It looks like it works really well! I think I might need to make some as gifts.

Mary clipped the various pieces for her Aftershock quilt in groups and then hung them on the zipper organizer, which is now a project organizer. I can see using it for bag parts and other projects.

The other thing I noticed was the quilt on which Mary was working. As mentioned it is called Aftershock and is from Wren Collective. Mary picked her colors and then didn’t have enough of the background. Also, the quilt store was out of it. The quilt store, Bay Quilts, was very helpful in that they pulled Mary’s foreground colors and suggested several different background colors. Mary picked the maroon-ish you see above. She admitted that it wasn’t one she would normally pick, but that it worked really well. I have to agree. It isn’t a color I would pick, but it looks great with her foreground colors.

All in all it was a really good day!

Sew Day fell in the middle of Labor Day Weekend. I was happy to go. I didn’t take as many photos this time, because I was devoted to my La Pass Rosette #1.

I got a lot done, though not the whole thing. I am feeling some pressure, because I haven’t started Month #2’s work yet. Month #2 adds on to Rosette #1.

I found that I could walk around and sew, so I walked around with my sewing and talked to people. Lots of people were very interested in my project. Some had never seen EPP so complicated which was a surprise to me. I thought everyone knew Willyne Hammerstein‘s work. I also explained how the Block of the Month program worked.

It was interesting just doing handwork.

Everyone wore masks, which was great. It is fun to see everyone’s projects. Lindsay came and put together the top and back of a Buffalo Plaid quilt, then began working on her foundation piecing block of the month. She sews really fast. I am constantly amazed at her output.

Lynette was there. She had a pouch that was an excellent example of what good fabric can do.

This is a fairly simple looking pouch pattern, like the Persimmon Pouch from Sew Sweetness. With the great Kaleidoscope fabric, it looks super impressive.

More donation quilts were exchanged.  There was a free table to which I contributed some fabric and things. it was good fun.

Sew Day was small and I got there late, but I did accomplish something. The Mondo Bag is looking like a project that will never die. I work on it at Sew Day in September, but I started it at Craft Night back in March! I didn’t think it had been laying around THAT long, but the blog doesn’t lie.

I arrived at Sew Day after 2pm, because I was enticed to go to CQFA first. The enticement was lunch with Julie afterwards. I didn’t have much in my bag, but the Mondo Bag project pieces and the stuff to cut out another Running with Scissors tote.

I decided to work on the Mondo Bag, so I laid it out and looked at the layout of the squares on the fusible. I rearranged and replaced some of them. Finally, I was happy. Fortunately Amy was there. She had everything including a mini iron, so I was able to fuse the squares to the interfacing.

When I got home, DH was watching football, so I was able to sew the squares together.

I am really glad I spent so much time arranging and rearranging the squares. I think the layout looks really good. I am not done by any stretch, but I did make progress. I am thrilled.