Gee...it's been a while

I seem to have left my poor blog unattended for a while. Life has been a challenge lately and although I have been doing some sewing, I also feel like I have not accomplished much. So, I suppose writing this is a way to prove to myself that I have been productive.

My last post was the start of my participation in the Splendid Sampler. I'm sure that you know at least one other quilter on the internet that is doing this one. I'm amazed at how many there are. I've done the first 28 blocks and am up to date (the 29th was just posted this morning). I confess that my mother who is visiting me did the rabbit and the sewing machine - my tolerance for applique is very low. The last block also needs a stitched thread from the spool to the needle which I'll do sometime soon.

I'm please with most of the blocks, although a few of the earlier ones could use a bit more contrast. As I pull fabrics out of the scrap pile, I am discovering a more diverse range of colors that still fit in my palette. Throughout this project I am trying a variety of techniques - so the applique is done differently on different blocks. I'm just trying to choose the method that I think will work best at the time. I did some free-motion machine embroidery (first time) and have done some hand embroidery (it's been a while). My one complaint is that the 6" finished block size is small which makes some of the pieces really tiny.

I finished the Monday Modern brown challenge. I was a bit late for the deadline - I had the front pieced and quilted but didn't manage to get the whole cushion cover done. I like the way it turned out and also liked the fact that I didn't try to hide the ugly brown and made it the center-piece of the design. The cushion now shares the slightly-crowded day bed with all of my other cushions.

I really enjoyed quilting this one. The back of it shows the quilting detail.

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A few months ago I thought I needed a hand sewing project. Hand sewing really isn't my thing, but I found that there are times when I want to have an on-the-go project to work on. I purchased a Fiskars hexagon hole punch a while ago, so I started an English Paper Pieced project using scraps. These hexies are pretty small (1-1/4" straight edge to straight edge). My 12-year old likes to pick out the colors and scraps for the next batch, but it's slow going.

There's no grand plan for this project, I will just carry on until I decide to stop. I've started preparing some light neutral pieces to go between the diamonds. I figure about 100 of the diamonds should do the trick!

Finally, I am once again working on the Cotton Robin round robin. Unfortunately, this one is all done in secret, so you will have to wait for the big reveal sometime in July.

A (big) new project

Against my better judgement I have joined in with The Splendid Sampler that started two weeks ago. I can't remember how I found the website - surely I clicked there from somewhere else. The project is for 1 year with 100 blocks designed by a wide range of quilt makers and designers.

I confess that I don't like samplers and I don't like quilt-alongs. So why did I decide to do this? I'm still asking myself that question, but I think I have come up with some answers:

1. I was feeling bored.
2. I was out of the habit of sewing regularly and wanted a project that would encourage me to sew most days, even for 15 minutes.
3. Scrap-busting - all of the blocks are small (6"), so many of the pieces are small.

Although 100 blocks over a year is a big commitment, I haven't signed up for anything and can slow down if I want to. After delaying my decision to get started, I had 5 blocks to make today to catch up. I had the day off, so it was the perfect opportunity. As I admired my 5 blocks, a new one was posted so I finished it after everyone else went to bed.

My color scheme is pretty loose - basically blue with green. Any blues will do - I'm just pulling them out of the scrap basket and the stash. There will be some neutrals too but I'm not limiting those to anything specific - beige, grey, white, whatever.

Here are the first 6 and already there is quite a bit of variety. I'm not a huge fan of applique and was thinking about skipping them, but decided to go ahead and do them and was glad I did. I especially like the little pot of flowers and the dark background really works well.

Feeling brown?

The Monday Modern quilters seem to have a collective prejudice against brown. Oddly enough, brown shows up quite often in our quilts but is always declared "a nice brown" (not like those other browns).

Last months we were looking for a challenge and I thought that we should do a brown one. The idea: someone finds some clearance fabric in a not-beautiful brown and we all take a piece and do something with it. I knew that some of the girls might struggle embracing the brown, but I also knew that by mixing it with some other fabrics, anything is possible. The guidelines are simple: make something quilted using the brown fabric - the fabric must be visible and recognizable. That's it.

Liz took on the job of finding the brown and her little girl picked one out from the clearance rack - and here it is. It's a pretty normal quilting fabric from my perspective. It's a bit on the gold side (hard to see in the photo), and this could make it harder to work with.

When the fabric was initially posted on Instagram, I went through my stash and pulled (most) of my browns. I realized that there are a lot of them - strange, since I don't like brown. But, I've been collecting fabric for a while, and I guess they've just accumulated somehow.

I did consider a totally brown color scheme, but decided that I'd rather mix it up and use the brown as an accent. Yesterday I went through the stash again looking for some feature fabrics with a bit of brown and other colors too. I found this cute little owl fabric and tried to pick out all of the other colors from it. It's an unusual combination for me, but maybe that's why I like it.

My daughter went for a butterfly print and came up with a second color scheme. (The periwinkle looks a bit odd, but there is that color in the butterfly print, it just didn't make it into the photo.) I confess, I am leaning toward this option because I am planning to make a cushion and these colors match the decor better.

Coincidentally, the Block Lotto this month is also using brown. I made three of this month's blocks but thought it was all too much brown for me, so I'm donating these to the pot.

2016 finish alonq - Q1 list

A new year and a new finish along. I have a few hours before the deadline, so I better get on it:

Vintage Laura Ashley lone star: I've cut diamonds from some of the fabrics. A wayward order from Fabric.com has delayed my progress, apparently my package disappeared in Atlanta, GA somewhere. I should have contacted customer services earlier because they are resending and it's in Hawaii after less than 36 hours.

Scrappy chains: Started a while ago and made another square last night. Theses are supposed to be from 'scraps' but I think I was too calculated in my color choices and it's been hard to find fabrics for it. I might expand the color scheme a bit or start cutting into some fabric.

It's not a very long list. I have a few other things on the go, but not eligible for the finish along. There's the Cotton Robin round robin that is 'secret' so that will progress through June and a new brown challenge that Monday Moderns are doing - I don't have the inspiration fabric yet, so there's nothing to show right now.

Monday Modern round robin

Back in August I organised a round robin with some of the members of the Monday Modern quilters. Nine of us made a center block that was added to by 3 other quilters and then quilted by a fifth person. This Monday, all of the quilts were returned to their owners and I have to say that we are a fabulously creative bunch!

Not everyone was as enthusiastic as I was, but I think that everyone learned something about themselves as a quilter. It is quite a challenge to collaborate with other people, do work that the owner will like, and still be true to one's own quilty voice.

Every month when we exchanged quilts, I would categorize them in my mind based on some characteristic - orange vs. not orange, round vs. pointy, animal vs. inanimate, calm vs. busy. It was so much fun to watch them change as different personalities added to them.

My quilt started with a red/pink and white checkerboard background and appliqued circles with birds on them. The finished quilt is so pretty with just a bit of a Christmas vibe - maybe because of the original bird fabric and the fact that I received it back just before Christmas.

On the back was a recycled green cat that had been part of the front (it's a long story).

I worked on 4 other completed quilts (in order: first border, second border, third border, and quilting/binding). I tried to do something very different on each one. I confess that I do have a favorite, but I'll keep that a secret.

And another one I did work on but was incomplete because someone needed to opt out halfway through, and the 3 that I didn't work on.

Old fabric, new project

About 40 years ago my family lived in England and my mother was nibbled by the quilting bug while living there. She managed to collect some Laura Ashley prints, some of which were off-cuts from the clothing line that they did. One pile was blue - I think this was made into a grandmother's fan design and finished a few years back.

For years, there was a pile of red fabrics cut into diamonds, hidden away in a box. The last time I was at my mother's house I found them and imagined that I could do something interesting with them. I was inspired by the recent red and white quilt exhibits, but red really isn't my thing.

I think my mother planned to do 8-pointed Le Moyen stars. She partially pieced 1 or 2 and some of the other cut pieces showed signs of being sewn and then unpicked. I admit that some of the 'old school' methods were much harder than those we use today - like tracing out templates, using scissors to cut, marking seam allowances, etc.

After having a play with the diamonds, I decided to use them to make a large medallion - I know it as a Lone Star, but I've seen a few other names as well: Star of Bethlehem and Blazing Star. Usually it's made by creating strip sets of the fabrics and then cutting across them at a 45 degree angle to make the component pieces. I've never done this, but it looks to be pretty straight forward. There are two disadvantages to this method: firstly, you have to start with strips and I have pre-cut diamonds. The second disadvantage is a little less obvious.

If you look closely at my mother's diamonds, you can see that all of the swans are fussy cut and the directional print (red on white) has all of the flower motifs lined up along the diamond. If you cut strips on the grain, all of the patterns are leaning and you lose the lovely radial effect when the pieces are laid out. If you look on the internet, most quilts like this are made from solids or prints that don't have an obvious direction.

So, after a bit of experimentation, I worked out that if the strips are cut at 22.5 degrees, the patterns line up. You'd think this would be a big fabric waster, but I managed to get 14-15 diamonds from a fat quarter no matter which way I cut the strips.

I pulled a few fabrics from my stash including some corals (yuck), oranges, and greens. Usually I would not go with green and red (think Christmas) but one of the original fabrics has orange and lime (or is it avocado?) green flowers. The plain red is actually a shot fabric with red in one direction and white and orange in the other, so more orange there too.

I found a template on Jinny Beyer's website that I could color in to trial some designs. After about 5 tries, I settled on a design that makes the best use of the pre-cut pieces and 3 fabrics from my stash. I've had to order yard lengths - one green print and one orange one for the biggest rings which require 40+ pieces. I was careful to pick patterns that were not directional so I can cut them on the grain.

So far, so good. I'm really enjoying this process of making a design work with some limitations (the pre-cut vintage fabrics). I never would have mixed these colors, but in the end, I think it's a nice combination. No idea if there will be pieced borders outside of the center medallion (finish at 42.5") - I will cross that bridge when I get there.

A pillow for a favorite teacher

My daughter's favorite teacher, Ms. J, announced that she was leaving at the end of this year, so I was naturally enlisted to create a gift. Coincidentally, Robyn had a paper pieced dolphin pattern that she needed testing, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. This was especially true since Ms. J was the organizer of the school Eco Warriors - what Eco Warrior doesn't love dolphins?

The last pattern test I did for Robyn was my arctic hare which I made using fabric from the scrap basket. This time I thought I'd be a bit more refined and just use one fabric for the dolphin and another for the background.

I admit I started late (Sunday, day before last day of school), but I figured I'd get through it pretty quickly. I confess I was being very optimistic. I think my main problem was lack of planning; I had not really worked through what I was going to do besides the dolphin and probably should have considered all aspects of the project beforehand. This is especially true in a country where shops are not open for extended hours - on a Sunday they would all be closed before 5.

Usually I would have made an overlapped flap in the back to take the cover off easily for cleaning but since I didn't have much backing fabric and was concerned about the timing, I thought I'd forgo that and just sew the inner into the pillow for all eternity. Turns out this is not as easy as it sounds and the time it took to shove the inner into the too-small gap and then hand sew the opening shut (especially with the added piping) almost undid me (besides, it was after midnight by this time).

For the quilting I chose a pattern that would go quickly, and it did. The water ripples on the back took about 20 minutes and the wavy lines around the dolphin on the front took about the same. My daughter thought the orange piping would be a good option, and I agree it was the right choice. Next time, I'll start just a bit earlier when I have a gift to make - I admit I'd do a few things differently if I had more time. Still, I think it was a nice gift for a great teacher - I only wish she wasn't leaving.

Finished baby quilt

I finished the green wedge baby quilt last night. I struggled finding a good binding fabric and came up short on my first 5 choices. Since the whole thing was made from fabric in my stash and some pieced together batting, I wasn't going to let the binding break my make-do streak. I ended up with a fabric with a good shade of green that I initially rejected because of the bright aqua blue. I realized when re-trialing it that the blue wasn't a bad match and would be less noticeable in the 3/8" that shows on the binding and I'm happy that it's done.

The quilting is very simple with 45 degree diagonal lines in one direction. I marked out 4 of the lines through the center circles of the blocks and then eyeballed the others in between. Although I'm not a fan of straight quilting like this, it took little time and works well.

It's definitely on the big side for a baby (51" x 37"), but since few parents actually use blankets on newborns, it will hopefully be useful (and loved) well into childhood.

This one is being gifted tomorrow at lunchtime, so it's just in time.