Fabric Friday Week 43: January 26

I've been itching to plan my next project, even though I have started on my 6 petal Hexibore quilt top that I bought fabric for on Black Friday. I'm feeling better about curves, so yay! Anyway, it's a relatively quick project anyway, that I'm still searching for what my next project will be, so I started pulling fabric. Today, my color scheme is an idea for an Interwoven quilt. I saw one that was more earthy colors and loved that it was different than most of the quilts in the feed, so I went that direction.

I pulled these so quickly, but I really think they work well together. After how long it took me to pull fabrics for the Hexibore, I'll take the quickness! :) I think the reason they work so well is that they have a similar value, and a similar earthiness. The only one I might need to rethink is the green. Either the palm or the grass green, they're not quite close enough to the same value. I think either works, but not together. One is either too dark, or the other is too light. 

Terra Cotta Mini

After my stroke, I was itching to get back to the sewing room. I had done a little bit of English paper piecing in the hospital, but machine piecing is my preferred sewing method. But, my first week or so back was definitely time of recovery. I was worn out, I was sore, I wasn't walking very well at all. And I wasn't super confident in my fine motor skills needed for cutting and precision sewing. I was no where near confident to work on curves, which was my current WIP. Oh, and I wasn't limber enough to get down on the floor, so finishing the quilt I had in progress was out, too, since I was piecing rows together at this point. 

So, I had to figure out what to sew that I was up for sewing, and also had all the materials I needed...I toyed with a simple charm pack/HST quilt that's on my list, but I didn't want to use white for the background and didn't have enough of any other fabrics for the background, so that was out. I thought about Interwoven, by Lo and Behold Stitchery, but I didn't have solids and wasn't sure if the prints I picked were small-enough scale, and I read a reviewer who said the pattern required a lot of precision, so that was out. 

I had ordered a random sample pack of mini quilt patterns from Modern Makes (by Alderwood Studio) on Black Friday so I looked at the 5 patterns I was sent. To be honest, the set of patterns I got was pretty disappointing and if anything, it confirmed my decision to not participate in the program. I really only liked 2 out of 5, and 1 was excessively disappointing. Oh well, c'est la vie, non? One that I like is called Terra Cotta and I decided to make it as my first post-stroke project. The great thing about mini quilts is they don't take a lot of fabric, the cutting is minimal, and they wrap up quick. Plus, I can quilt mini quilts on my own machine. I'm not confident enough to quilt big quilts myself, so I send them out. But minis can be completely finished in a few hours. 

Luckily, I had some solids that worked great together and I finished it up a couple weeks ago. After I pieced it, it took me a few days to figure out how to quilt it. I didn't want to just quilt along the pieced style, I felt like that was boring. So I looked at my Walk book, by Jacquie Gering, and found a great design I felt like I could do. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and the only frustrating part is that I used a Sewline ceramic pencil to mark lines for quilt guides and I didn't actually get it all out. I tried scrubbing it with water with a microfiber cloth and a toothbrush, I even washed it in my washing machine (air-dried it after to avoid the heat of the dryer). They're faint, so I just gave up. Sadly. Lesson learned, don't use the ceramic pencils for quilt marking! At least for me. 

Fabric Friday Week 42: January 19

I have an absolutely dreadful picture of a rainbow group that I will most likely not use for the purpose I pulled it, but it's a lovely pull and I actually really like it.

Here's the story. 

I had a stroke at the end of November and wound up spending most of December in the ICU. I was fortunate to come home just in time for Christmas, and I've been very lucky that I've made a great recovery. Aside from massive headaches, the only symptom I experienced from the stroke was double vision which resolved early on in my hospital stay. But, after spending three weeks in the hospital, and knowing I had a brain injury, my speed and confidence in my motor skills plummeted. 

Still, I wanted to get back to my sewing room when I was up for it. So early on, I'd visit my sewing room and pet the new fabrics that arrived from my black friday shopping (I was hospitalized when black friday packages arrived) and I tried to figure out a good first project to get back into sewing. I was so stiff I couldn't really do anything that required I get on the floor, or pick things up from the floor, so finishing up a quilt I had left in progress was not going to happen really early (though I have since finished it, so yay!) and another project I've been working on has a lot of curves. Like, a lot. And I wasn't sure I was up to that just yet either. I needed something simple and achievable. 

One of the patterns I had ordered on Black Friday was Interwoven by Lo and Behold and I thought it would be great: it's all straight lines, there's piecing shortcuts, it sounded great, until I was scrolling through Instagram looking at other versions and someone mentioned the precision necessary...I wasn't ready for precision just yet. 

But, I had pulled this bundle before I decided I wasn't up to it. Most Interwoven quilts are made with solids, which is a great modern choice. But I love prints too and if I'm going to my stash, it pretty much has to be prints. I have solids, but not nearly enough for what this quilt would require. 

I think this bundle is great and would look great on this pattern, except for one thing. The pieces are too narrow. The finished width of the strips is only one inch, and the prints would just get lost. It makes me sad, because I think the color and style overall is great, they're just too big. 

I'm sewing a bit better now and I'm feeling better about my coordination, so I'd like to make the quilt, but I'll have to pick some solids I think for it. Or maybe some really small prints, like the speckled line, or some of the other basics by Ruby Star or even Riley Blake. Some of these prints would work, of course. The citrine, I think is small enough, as is the navy Rifle Paper, and the speckled and blossom basics I have in the bundle already. But the pinks are too large scale for sure. We'll see. I do have some other projects that will be ahead of this one if I'm feeling confident.