So I’m testing a quilt pattern called Leadlight for Morgan at Cedar Makerie…
This was the first block I tested – which is only one of two alternating blocks – and I’ve changed the look a little bit…
I am loving how this is coming together… I just need to start making the second block that will finish off the star points and make the whole lead window look come together. I’m just aiming for a baby size version of this, but it looks so good I kind of want to expand it out to a larger size to keep it for myself!
I’m using all Libs Elliot fabric – the colour prints are all from her newest line Greatest Hits Vol. 1, and the white background print is from Tattooed North. So pretty!
So for those who don’t know, I periodically make videos where I talk about the things I’m working on or the things that I’ve finished. I share these videos with a group of ladies (mostly from the US, though we’ve had people in Australia and still have people who post intermittently from South Africa and England) at Talk to Me Tuesday. A lot of us are quilters and some do crochet or knitting or various other crafts and it’s a nice way to share things – even if it is a bit unnerving putting my face (and perpetual “but, um, anyway”) out into the world. This has been a really off year for me for posting and it’s been around 2 months between videos (usually I manage closer to one a month, maybe every other week), but here’s my newest, in which I show a couple finishes (not yet posted here!) and a couple things that I’m working on.
The Comfort Quilt pattern can be found in Amy Ellis‘s book Modern Heritage Quilts
So it’s me again… after a long break. Something about the new year makes me want to try blogging again, even though I often find it inexplicably too hard. (It takes toooooooooo long etc.) And then simultaneously I find myself annoyed that I can’t put more information into my Instagram posts without overloading the format. (I mean, IG is NOT built for blog length posts.)
Anyway, another thing about the new year is how it makes you want to get on top of things, makes you want to tackle problems head on. So naturally I’m doing a few finish-my-projects type challenges. One of them is All People Quilt‘s APQ Resolutions challenge, in which you make a numbered list of 12 projects you want to make headway on and then each month they give you a number, which is the project you then try to tackle. The other is the Finish-A-Long, which is hosted by a number of bloggers. I have intermittently participated in both in the past, but nearly always forget to actually link up with my finishes (when I have them…), but hey! No harm in trying again!
Because I only know which APQResolutions projects I’ll be working on in the month I will be working on it, it’s not very practical to combine those projects into the Finish-a-long projects…. unless I just load all 12 projects in each quarter and tackle them as they come up. So that’s what I’m going to do! These are mostly dreadful photos, but here are… well, 13 projects I hope to tackle in the next quarter (and the rest of the year).
1. Blue Nine Patch Quilt — Need to baste, quilt, and bind. 2. Blue Orange Big Block Quilt – Need to make the backing larger, then to baste, quilt and bind. 3. Carolyn Friedlander Patchwork Quilt – Need to quilt and bind. 4. Cat Baby Quilt – Need to baste, quilt, and bind.
5. Christmas Figs Starfish Quilt – Need to add borders and then baste, quilt, and bind. 6. Mermaid Baby Quilt – Need to baste, quilt, and bind. 7. Midnight Mystery – Need to baste, quilt, and bind.. (I might add borders to this one, haven’t decided.) 8. Moda Love Baby Quilt – Need to add borders and then baste, quilt, and bind.
9. Modern Block of the Month Baby Quilt – Need to baste, quilt, and bind. 10. Pink/Black Bear Claw Quilt – Need to make 3 more blocks, then baste, quilt, and bind. 11. Quarter Section Quilt – Need to finish piecing the top, then baste, quilt, and bind. 12. St Louis Sixteen Patch Quilt – Need to baste, quilt, and bind.
Finally, 13. South East West Quilt – This is a pattern I’m testing for Schneider House Quilt Studio. I need to finish piecing the blocks, then to baste, quilt, and bind.
My real goal this year is just to finish more and a lot of that is just tackling the quilting. I actually enjoy quilting, but it is time consuming and doesn’t leave me a lot of time for piecing (I need a second machine! and a second table! and space to put it in!), which I also enjoy. I also really despise basting, so I tend to put it off. But an unfinished quilt is not a quilt and if I want to call myself a quilter,… I should probably make some quilts.
So to that end: my January project for APQResolutions is #3, the Carolyn Friedlander Random Patchwork.
I pieced this top in 2016 and then never did anything with it, but it’s basted now and ready to be quilted. I just need to decide how exactly I’m going to quilt it. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing sort of… orange peel quilting in the white squares and then doing something more complex in the coloured squares. Or the opposite maybe. But I don’t know… I’m paralysed by indecision, sometimes.
My other current project is #13 South East West. I am pattern testing for the designer and won’t be showing too many pictures of it while it’s in progress, but at the moment I’m getting my last few HSTs completed so that I can start piecing the blocks. I’m hoping to have the top done by Monday, but we will see how it goes!
So I haven’t felt like making a post about any of my recent finishes – three so far this year! – or about any of the bee blocks I’ve been sewing up or anything of the things I’ve been working on, so I thought I’d post this video instead.
I periodically do Talk to Me Tuesday videos with a group of ladies around the world (but mostly in the US), which are basically us talking to each other about the crafty things we’ve been working on. You can find us here if you’re interested! Anyway, this is my most recent video.
In other life news: I have a mystery elbow injury and spent a bunch of time at an elbow specialist’s office today learning that my elbow dysfunction – I can’t extend my left elbow all the way without extreme pain and even with all that pain I still can’t extend it all the way – does not function like any other elbow issue the doctor has seen and there are no apparent visible issues in any of the tests done so far. I have some elbow exercises to do for a while and then it’ll be back to see if there’s any change. Exciting stuff. On the plus side: it doesn’t affect my ability to do basically anything I love… like say sewing.
Well, I haven’t updated in a while, but I’m well past due. I don’t get around to it all that often these days, but occasionally I make craft videos along with a group of friends who post weekly craft videos as a part of Talk to Me Tuesday. We started out on Livejournal here and now some of us are cross-posting our videos at a new WordPress location here.
In which I show an improv sewing machine cover-to-be and some quilt blocks.
The Antique Tile blocks are made using Trinket fabric (and some Basics) from Cotton + Steel. The red and white blocks are my three more of my Paper Piecing Vintage blocks – I’ll try to post about this one of these days! The pattern and quilt-along can be found at SewHooked.com
So it’s been quite a while since I participated in the Finish-a-long and I’ve decided to try something different from the last go around. Last year, I listed a huge number of things on my list in hopes that it would give me lots of options to work on and therefore I’d be bound to get something done on some or even any of them. In reality, I think it just left things too open and let me do the parts that I’m already super comfortable with (ie. stitching things together), while ignoring the parts that challenge me the most or that would just get the project over and done with. This time I’m going to give myself a really limited group of projects – just four – in hopes that in stead of doing a small amount of a bunch of different things, I might actually do all of the things for at least a couple items on my list.
This quilt top is my goal for the January OMG – One Monthly Goal – group, but for OMG I just need to finish the top; for the finish-along, I have to get the entire quilt finished! This photo was taken long enough ago that I’ve got units made of all the different components and I only need to put the units together into blocks and then the blocks together into a top and then get it basted and quilted.
2. Confetti Go Lucky quilt
This is a quilt made using the Confetti pattern by V&Co. and the Happy Go Lucky line of fabric from Bonnie & Camille, hence the name. I’ve finished quilting about 1/4 of this one.
3. Black and White Cushions
This should be one of the easiest things on any list I might come up with – I just need to make 2-3 pillows (~ 16-in) for friend who just bought her own house. She’s going to want boring black and white, hence this pile, though this isn’t a complete pile of possible fabrics. It is a start though.
4. Constellations Baby Quilt
And finally, a baby quilt for a little boy who is going to be too big for a baby quilt, soon. I’ve got a pattern picked out that just uses layer cake squares, so I’m hoping to get to this one soon!
And that’s my list for the first quarter of the year. I really, really hope to get them all completed!
NOTE:This giveaway/orphan block adoption is now over and the winners have been contacted! Here’s hoping they’re all able to make beautiful things about of these unwanted projects!
Do any of you have old works-in-progress or works-not-in-progress that you don’t love and that don’t make you want to make anything? Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework is hosting a link up for sending those old unwanteds out into the world where they might be used and loved. I’ve got three.
I will send out the BLOCKS for free, but if you want the extra fabric (where it exists), I’d ask that you pay shipping (or rather, the portion of shipping above what I’d pay if it weren’t included). And you have to understand that I’m in Canada and shipping rates here are often ridiculous. If you ask, I can let you know approximately what it will be. Try to remember that even if it seems high… You’re getting a bunch of free blocks and fabric,.. so it’s probably not that expensive after all. (Don’t worry. I won’t hold you to it, if you’d rather not pay shipping in the end.)
Here’s the thing. I would like it if these blocks were turned into quilts or whatever for charity, but it’s not a requirement. The real requirement is that you’ll use them and hopefully love them. I’m going to keep this adoption post open until Saturday, June 13. If you’re interested in any of the three things I’m posting, let me know by number which you would like to have. If there is more than one person interested in any of them, I’ll draw names for each project.
1. Amy Butler Midwest Modern Sampler
Fair to say these blocks have spent a few years in a ziplock bag waiting for me to do something, anything, with them; sorry about the wrinkles! There are 12 of the blocks, all of them different, using three different prints, plus the pale pink background.
I think I need to try this photos again later when the sun comes around the side of the house because they look awfully dreary, don’t they?
I believe I had planned originally to do 20 or 30 blocks and there is quite a bit of fabric left if you have thoughts in a similar direction. (This is the part where you’d pay to shipping, if you’re interested in the extra fabric.)
The print on top right was never used in the quilt blocks – it always seemed too big to cut up. It might work if you wanted to expand the size by alternating blocks with “plain” squares and using this instead of a solid? There’s 1 metre of it. There is approximately half a metre of the floral print to the left, plus assorted off-cut scraps. There is a 12″ x WOF strip of the dotted fabric, and 15″ + 6.5″ x WOF of the stripe. The darker pink wasn’t used in the blocks, but it’s a good match and I think I’d intended to use it for sashing or cornerstones or something to do with a border perhaps. It doesn’t need to be included, but it’s a 1 metre cut. And then finally, I’ve got a huge quantity of the pale pink, about 3 yards. It’s an Amy Butler solid. Again, if you just wanted some rather than all, I’d be happy to cut it down for you.
2. Orange and Green Batik Sampler
I started this sampler at the same time as the last one. They both were part of Crystal of Sonnet of the Moon‘s 2009 Modify Tradition sampler and I didn’t wind up loving either of them very much. (No knock on Crystal – I loved her blocks way way more than mine!) For this one I have 9 blocks, plus a 10th with a different yellow background that I thought made it look too much like my grandma’s kitchen.
These blocks used a mix of solid gold, orange, and brown plus the orange and green batik for the main fabrics and then a very pale yellow for the background.
If you’d like to pay to have some or all of the extra fabric shipped out, this is what I’ve got left. Of the batik, there is 24″ x WOF. There is about 10″ x WOF of the gold, 14″ x WOF of the pale yellow, 31″ x WOF of the orange, and about 31″ x WOF of the brown. Plus scraps of all.
3. Pink Bento Boxes
This was originally intended to be a charity quilt that would have been auctioned off at my work for the Breast Cancer Foundation in Canada, but my work has changed the way it does charities and so it isn’t going to work for that any longer. I didn’t photograph it, but if you most solemnly swear to me that it will be used for charity, then I will include a metre or two (whatever I’ve got) of fabric with pink breast cancer ribbons on it, no additional charge. (But seriously, only if it’s for charity.)
There are 16 blocks and they were made by a variety of women across Canada and the US. The particular problem with that is that they’re varying in quality a bit – both in terms of their workmanship and their fabric.
So yes. Check out the other Adoption options at Cynthia’s Orphan Adoption Event. And remember all of this.
1. This post will be open for offers until June 13.
2. If you would like any or all of the things above, leave a comment telling me which, by name or by number.
3. I will draw names if there is more than one person who wants something.
4. I will pay shipping for the blocks only.
5. If you would like some or all of the additional fabric (to be worked out later, once a winner has been chosen), you will have to pay the remainder of the shipping costs. Shipping from Canada is expensive, but our dollar is weak right now, so try to remember a Canadian dollar isn’t going to cost you a full American dollar (or whatever – maybe you’re from a country with a weaker dollar than Canada, though, in which case you should keep that in mind too).
6. If you pay for shipping extra fabric, please remember that YOU are responsible for the cost to send money through PayPal, not me.
So for Quarter 1 of the finish-along, I had 9 items on my list – the seven in this picture, plus a bonus two, which were Jelly Roll Race quilts made using Sunrise and Sunset Robert Kaufman jelly rolls. Here’s where everything is at:
8,9. Not pictured in the mosaic above, two jelly roll race quilts – Started on the Sunrise version, shown below.
I don’t know if you’ve ever made a jelly roll race quilt, but you sew together all the strips end to end, then basically fold that super long strip in half and sew it together down the length, and then keep on doing it until it’s longer than it is wide, proportionately. In this photo I’ve got all the strips sewn together, but since then I’ve trimmed off the extra triangles of fabric, pressed everything flat, and gotten started on sewing the strip together for the first join. It is so so so so so boring to sew.
So anyway, my goals for quarter two aren’t too different from quarter one. But I am taking a couple projects off the list – the jelly roll baby quilt and the sunset jelly roll race quilt – because I haven’t started either of them and I’m hoping to finish some of the things I’ve started – but I’m also adding a couple things. The Vintage quilt is one I’ve recently begun cutting out and the others are all swap projects that are due in the next couple months. I may as well add them here since they are things I need to finish!
1. Hexagon quilt – Need to finish quilting it, then trim and bind it.
2. Bunny Cross-Stitch – Figure out a setting to make it into a mini, then sew, baste, quilt, and bind.
3. Deer Economy Square Pot Holders – Figure out how to finish it, get three more made, sew, baste, quilt, bind.
4. Botanics Patchwork Quilt – Baste, quilt, and bind.
5. Sunrise Jelly Roll Quilt – Sew, baste, quilt, and bind.
6. Vintage Quilt – Finish cutting, sew, baste, quilt, and bind.
7. Berry Swap Mini and Dumpling Pouch – Cut, sew, etc.
8. Lizzy House Mini Swap – Cut, sew, baste, quilt, bind.
9. Cotton + Steel Mini Swap – Cut, sew, baste, quilt, bind.
The photos for the last four aren’t exactly very revealing of anything. The Vintage quilt is cut out a little further than in that photo (which also contains the book photo of Camille Roskelley’s finished quilt). The Berry Swap photo is just a paper-pieced strawberry I found on Instagram. I forgot the maker’s name! (Which is awful! Usually I save the photos for mosaics with the name intact so that I can doublecheck – I don’t know why I didn’t this time!) I don’t have any real intentions of paper piecing a strawberry for my dumpling pouch, I just haven’t quite… worked it out yet, so that’s a placeholder image for sure. The Lizzy House and C+S photos are just fabrics that may wind up involved somehow. Or may not. We’ll see where those projects go…
So I’m kind of at a boring stage in the making of things… by which I mean I’m putting the top of a quilt together, but it’s not really much fun to show because it’s kind of neither here nor there right now.
Right now the sort of… central body of the quilt is in three parts. That’s two of them, pinned together and ready to be sewn. It’s been sitting on my table for a couple days because it’s been so cold and miserable that I haven’t felt like sewing (and have only felt like taking hot baths and/or sleeping and/or cooking warming things like stew and Cuban Smashed Potatoes), but I’m determined to get at least that centre part sewn together by Thursday afternoon.
I really need to press that again, but that Best Press is actually not scent free and smells so bad that I hate using it. (I feel like my lungs are full of the stuff every time I use it, even if I only use it very, very lightly.)
And here is the other third of the blocks of this quilt, along with the borders, which are as thick as the blocks are themselves! It’s going to have a… non-standard setting, in a way, which lead to the exceptionally wide (for me) borders. I don’t love big borders… I never know how to quilt them. But I think I’m just going to do the same all over quilt job, borders, blocks and all. This isn’t really a quilt that I think I’m going to love – when I see individual blocks I like them and I basically like all the fabrics involved and I like the block pattern that I chose, but I find the colours overwhelming when they’re all laid out together pink! coral! orange! floral! – so I’m thinking of it as good practise and I’m going to use it to practise quilting spirals. Just a pretty basic spiral type thing. I need to watch some more Craftsy classes and find one of the ones where Leah Day shows how she does them.
Anyway, here I am talking about it:
You won’t learn anything from that video that I haven’t already told you, at least I don’t think so, but I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be more interesting(ish?) in person?
So before I get to my goal for February for ALYoF, I need to wrap up my giveaway from my January goal – the brown and lime hashtag quilt.
My winner (via Random.org) of 42 charm squares (cut from my scraps! and a close match to my hashtag quilt!) was Leanne Parsons of Devoted Quilter. I had to laugh a little about that because Leanne was the host of Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday in that week and she popped over to thank me for linking up. Leanne is apparently from Newfoundland, one of only 2 provinces in Canada that I haven’t visited! (The other being PEI. Sorry island provinces! One day I’ll get there!) I lived in Nova Scotia for 2 years (ten years ago… ack!) and kick myself for not having travelled more when I was in the approximate neighbourhood!
Anyway, February Goal!
My February goal is to finish up this windmill quilt using the January blogger bundle from Fabric Spark, curated by Jolene at Blue Elephant Stitches.
I’ve got just 12 blocks left to finish and all they need is to have their last seam stitched up! After that I need to cut my borders, plan my layout and get the top put together. I’m not working this weekend (in theory! I’ve had a supremely frustrating work week, having stayed 11 hours on two days and now I’ll be going in for at least 4 hours on a sixth day – but I’m going to go in early this evening so that I can come home and sleep before it’s too stupid late and then at least I’ll still have Saturday and Sunday during the day for myself).
I had planned to use one of the fabrics from the top (actually, that floral print in the finished block above) for the border, but Fabric Spark didn’t have quite enough left, so I wound up choosing the honeycomb fabric, which combined the pinks and oranges that were prevalent throughout the bundle. I’m hoping it won’t be too white for a large border, but if it is…. oh well. This quilt is getting done using what I’ve got one way or another! The large scale print below the honeycomb print is going to be the backing fabric, though I’m hoping to break up the backing a little bit with a narrow row of pieced scraps – I’m going to use as much of that original bundle of fabric as I possibly can! And finally, that Denyse Schmidt print on the bottom was meant to be the binding. When I ordered it, I had forgotten that it’s an off-white print, rather than a pure white one, so I’m not sure if I’ll wind up using it. I LOVE that print, but I don’t want it to look like a dirty line around the edge of my quilt (which, let’s not forget is being bordered with that very white heavy honeycomb!) so it might get swapped out for something whiter or something blacker. We’ll see what I’ve got in my stash.
For once I even have a quilting plan! And because I enjoy this quilt but don’t love it in some devastating way where I can’t bear to ruin it with crappy quilting, I’m even going to try something new. This quilt isn’t meant for anyone and I think it’s always easier to be a bit free with things when it’s kind of…. meaningless in a way. If that makes sense?
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