Delicate Arch Quilt

I feel so lucky I got to make this quilt as part of a pattern test for Meagan at Lomond Slopes Quilts. When I saw her tester call, and the amazing design, I applied immediately. What an amazing quilt! I love the tribute to Utah. 

This quilt pattern has two sizes, a large throw and a baby size. I opted for the throw because I like big quilts, and if given a choice, I'm going to make a bigger quilt. It's a great size--some throws are too small in my opinion, but I'm very tall and my husband is even taller, which means our kids are also super tall. So big quilts are advantageous. However, after I finished, I wished I had sewn the smaller one. I think the baby size would probably make a great wall hanging, which would be perfect for the design. As it is, folded up on my couch, you can't really see what the quilt is, and so often that's how quilts live, especially throws. 

Efflorescent Explosion

My final finish of 2024 is this beautiful Hexibore quilt. I got it back from Mindy Powell, who did the beautiful custom quilting on it, in mid-December, but I was knee deep in Christmas sewing. I got all my Christmas sewing wrapped up a few days before Christmas, but then I needed to dive into a pattern test I had been selected for, so my quilt had to wait a few more days. I finally got to bind this quilt on December 30, and luckily, I had the binding all ready to go so I could finish it up quickly. 

Supernova Quilt

The bandwagon is a real thing, and it fuels the quilting industry. We all feel the pressure to make all the pretty things, in the latest must-have fabrics, which seem to come out at an ever-faster pace. I have a closet full of good intentions: fabrics I had to have, haphazardly organized by color with assorted stacks pulled out for future projects. At any moment, I have 3-5 quilt projects in my queue, which doesn't include the other projects I have planned, some with fabric purchased/selected, some waiting for just the right moment. My stash has finally reached the stage of burdensome, where it doesn't fit in my drawers any longer and it feels heavy--like I need to put a dent in it. Truthfully, I sew almost entirely from my stash. It's kind of awkward when a well-meaning, friendly employee asks what I'm making while she cuts my purchases. I rarely shy away from saying my stash, and I try to not feel badly about that because when it's time to make a quilt, I don't go to the shop to buy what I can find that hopefully will be perfect--I open my drawers and audition fabric I already have. It makes my quilts so personal, a reflection of my stash and my preferences.

Curio Quilt

Every Christmas, our sewing gang has a favorite things gift exchange. There are only four of us, so we buy a favorite for everyone. Last year, Kat gave everyone charm packs of the Curio collection by Rifle Paper Co. I LOVE Rifle Paper, so I was really excited to get it and sew with it! Curio probably isn't my favorite Rifle collection, but those books are dreamy. I feel like Curio kinda had a bit of a retro vibe with the sunflower print; who wasn't obsessed with sunflowers in the nineties? They were everywhere! 

I don't use precuts often at all, but I really wanted to use this charm pack and show off the great prints. So I settled on recreating a quilt I had seen at Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point. It offset half square triangles so they were sprinkled all over the quilt, and it I felt like it was a really fun, modern way to show off prints. 

I opted to use Essex linen for the background and the backing and the binding. I wanted the texture to really add to it, since it was such a background-heavy quilt. I went for a yarn-dyed seafoam green, and I think it's perfect. 

Using an entire collection can be hard because they usually include low volume and/or prints with white backgrounds, which make it difficult to pick a background color that will adequately show the quilt design. This green I thought worked great. I pulled it from some of the prints, but it's different enough from all the backgrounds of the prints that you can see the design well. 

It went together pretty quickly and I really like it! I swapped out some charms that weren't my favorite and added in some extra book fabric, because, hello, books. :)

And I took pictures of it using tips from Matante Quilts, who recently hosted a mini webinar about quilt photography while she prepares for her next workshop on photography. I can't believe how much better they are!

Birds of a Feather (a Glare quilt)

I've finally finished my quilt from Sewtopia! Latifah Saafir taught her Glare quilt pattern, and I was excited about it. Latifah's patterns are graphic and modern, and I already had several patterns and templates. When I decided on fabric for the project, I wanted to make sure I used a focal print that the large centers would really show off. I opted for Tula Pink's Daydreamers flamingos. And from there, it just kinda snowballed. I ended up using exclusively Daydreamers fabric for the quilt, and even used Tula Pink solids for the alternating blades and background. I don't think I've EVER made a quilt from exclusively one line. I always mix in other fabrics even if it is primarily from one fabric line. But I don't often use Tula Pink fabric. When my friends saw my quilt, they said how unlike me it was. I disagree, I think, but I can see where they are coming from. Even thought the Daydreamer line doesn't have the garish clashing colors that some of Tula's lines have, it is ALL BRIGHT, and my quilts tend to be at least a little tempered. 

I really love how it turned out, though, and my kids fight over it right now, even though I backed it with a Tula wide back instead of the usual minky. I love how the rounded corners give it a little extra something, and that it wasn't that hard to bind. 

This quit pattern was a fun one to sew and went together relatively quickly. The blocks are large. It does take some finessing, some getting used to the technique, and I did do some unpicking. It's interesting that on curves, the way you iron (whether toward the curve or away from the curve) can impact the puckering, and not every circle was the same. 

I would definitely make this pattern again. I loved how it turned out and would love to try out some different fabric choices. I used the background fabric as some blade fabric as well on a couple of the blocks and hoped it would blend into the background to make it appear more spiky, and I'd love to try that with all the blocks, to give it a feel like the suns we all used to draw in elementary school. I think that would be cool.

Winning Ribbons

I posted my Garden Gem quilt already, and I mentioned I planned to enter it at the Springville Art Museum for their annual quilt show. I like seeing my quilts hang in museums, it's fun! And I was really happy with how it turned out. I try to not worry about winning things, because it's not why I make quilts and honestly, I'm not technical enough to really worry about it. Still...I kinda thought, *maybe* it might win a ribbon, my points (the very few there were) lined up really well and Marion did a fantastic job quilting it. I didn't dare hope, but honestly, I really hoped. I just tried to say I didn't care. 

But luckily, I DID win a ribbon, which makes my second this year if you count my Sewtopia ribbon, which I do. :) Interestingly, both quilts use designs by Jenny Haynes of Papper Saxsten, so clearly, she's designed award winning quilts. As a ribbon winner, I was invited to the opening reception award ceremony and of course I went, I was anxious to find out what ribbon I won! I didn't dare take my girls because I didn't know how long it would be and I didn't want them to be disruptive or bored... but I probably should have taken them. Instead, just my husband and I went. Of course, they began announcing the winners from the bottom up, starting with those that had been awarded honorable mentions, and then awards of excellence, and then judges choices, and I kept waiting for my name to be called and it kept not being called. Finally, there were only a few ribbons left and they finally announced my name as the director's choice! She was announcing the awards so she shared a little bit about my quilt and how much she loved it and was so glad she got her first choice, which doesn't always happen. I was absolutely thrilled! 

We brought our girls down a few weeks later to see it at the museum with the ribbon and they weren't all that excited...but I did see another quilter who had won a ribbon in the same gallery and we talked for a bit. She told me there was some drama on the ribbon winning for the Dear Jane quilts and I realized going for ribbons is not for me. I'm so glad I won, and I'm not going to lie, I'm excited to see how much money I won for winning a ribbon, but I don't think ribbon seeking is for me. I mean, I machine bound my quilt. :D

Sewtopia Milwaukee

I am so excited to share about my trip to Sewtopia in Milwaukee! It was amazing. More amazing than I could have hoped. There are a bunch of pictures, and a lot of them are even more terrible than my usual sub-par standard because interior lighting is ROUGH. But hopefully they give you a good idea!

 

First, while my sewing bestie did not get a ticket initially, Megan and Amy saw my note on an instagram post that she had not gotten a ticket and when one came available a week before the event, they emailed me and offered it to her directly. So she got to go! I was majorly impressed with her spontaneity. I was nervous about being by myself when so many of the attendees had been before or were attending with friends and I worried I would feel lonely. That worry was unnecessary, as everyone was so exceptionally friendly and inclusive, but I was still glad she got to go. I didn't really know what to expect, but I did anticipate bringing home more than I took with the shop hop. I didn't realize how much extra stuff we'd bring home, though! We got amazing swag bags with patterns and precuts and batting and more, and everyone gets a doorprize at some point through the weekend, and many of them were fat quarter bundles. You can see the one I picked in a picture below, barely, in the picture with the pouch I received in the swap.

 The event on the whole was so fun. The shop hop was great and I got some fun fabric, including some great additions to the quilt I worked on for Latifah's class (more on that later). The saddest part to me was that the shops seemed understaffed and overwhelmed by our visit, and cutting and checking out took FOREVER. I only got to one shop at the second stop instead of both shops (which were just a block away from each other) because they had only one person cutting and one person checking out. So I waited roughly 40 minutes to get cut. I try to not feel FOMO too hard, but I was disappointed to not get to both shops. We also visited a quilt and textile museum, which was pretty cool, although it took longer than I think we really had budgeted for in the shop hop unfortunately. There was a 25 million stitches project on display, which was in recognition of the refugee crisis. It was dark, and there were so many embroidered panels, so pictures were hard and I only took some of the some of the panels I really loved, one is below.

I took my Wasatch quilt project to work on because it seemed like it would be mindless sewing since it's a log cabin construction and I used solids, and it was a great choice. I was in the afternoon classes, so we had a couple of open-sew periods before our first class, and I nearly finished my blocks during the weekend. I miscut and was 8 pieces short of one of the colors, so I couldn't finish it. But, I was so happy with my progress and was able to quickly finish the quilt after I got home. It's now at my quilter's for longarming. 

 

We had two instructors for the weekend: Latifah Saafir, who taught her Glare quilt, and Violet Craft, who taught us how to turn a photo into an EPP pattern. Both were so great! I got three "blocks" done for my Glare quilt, and I'm excited to jump back in this weekend to work on more. I'm a little nervous about the assembly, because she showed us briefly at the end, but it seemed a little tricky even though the curves are nice and big and gentle. I am using Tula Pink's Daydreamer line, and it feels funny to me to use a single line. I never do that! But I thought the flamingos were perfect for the centers and it just kind of snowballed from there. It's going to be a pretty bright quilt for me, but I think it'll be really pretty. 

As I've shared previously, I didn't feel comfortable participating in the Super Secret Swap just in case I wasn't up to enough awesome sewing before the event. But I did sew a swap item and Phyllis got my Luisa crossbody bag, which she loved with the focal Tula Pink print. I got a lovely pouch made my Anja. The zipper work looks so tricky and she said she struggled, but it looks like she breezed through it. The topstitching was well done, I assure you, and my girls have already tried to take it for themselves but I wouldn't let them. 

The biggest news I have to share is that I won the fabric challenge!

 For every event, Sewtopia hosts a fabric challenge, and this one was sponsored by Windham. We were sent 6 fat quarters, including three prints by Heather Ross and three solids. I brainstormed and wanted to use the stripes creatively, that was my biggest focus. I decided to make an Above the Cairns quilt, designed by Jenny Haynes, even though I haven't taken her workshop. I have taken her Hexibore workshop, and I have some of her templates, so I just went with it...I had to print the largest durkard's path template from Electric Quilt. My goal was to have the lighter peach snail print and the orange solid blend together with the striped fabric which had the peach and orange colors in it. I used the strawberry print for the centers and since they kind of resembled cobblestones, I titled it Roman Cobblestones because of the delicious strawberries we had there when we visited a few years back during strawberry season. I quilted it with my walking foot, using a design from Jacquie Gering's Walk book for the main center. Amy said my quilting was what really sealed it, and I got loads of compliments on the quilting. I felt so proud of it!

 

 I never quilt my own quilts, and this was really as big as I'd want to quilt myself. I got a first place ribbon, made by Megan, and a box of fat quarters of the full line of Windham solids. I'm thinking maybe I'll order Violet Craft's peacock quilt pattern and use them for that, which seems fitting.

Garden Gem (a Hexibore quilt)

Somehow, I came across Jenny Haynes' Instagram feed and discovered her amazing curved piecing. I ended up signing up for her Hexibore class and ordering her acrylic templates because I had never seen anything quite like it and just HAD to make one for myself. She offers her more complex patterns only as online classes, and only live, though you do get a recording of the class afterward. 

This was the second iteration of the class, where she introduced a four-petal version, and that's what I opted to make first. Since, I have also made a six-petal top that I'm trying to decide how to have quilted. It's tough, I'll tell you. These quilts are so graphic that you really want to make sure the quilting will accent the design.

For the four-petal version I made first, I decided I HAD to have it custom quilted, and in the past, I've hired Marion McClellon for that. She always does amazing work! I just trust her, and know she'll do some amazing art. So, after I finished up the quilt top, which went together pretty quickly since it doesn't have many pieces. Jenny gave great tips on how to get the pieces lined up just right so you don't lose the curves. Her instruction was great, I wish the class were just a little more professionally done. It was very informal, which is why she hasn't created contents ready for streaming anytime. I can't really complain about the content as she really does give great instruction. And, it wasn't very expensive as far as classes go. I guess I'm mostly disgruntled because I'm really interested in some of her other courses, but I've never caught them with openings at times that would work for me. 

I just got back my quilt from Marion a week ago, and I finished binding it. I picked the binding out when I bought the fabric originally, which is so unlike me! Usually binding is an after thought. But I thought the orange would be striking. 

I was blown away by Marion's quilting when it came back, and I had tried extra hard on the piecing to get the points lined up just right, so I decided I will probably enter it in the Springville art museum quilt show this summer. And with that in mind, I decided to try a little harder on the binding. It didn't work out perfectly, I'm not good at binding. But I think it's okay. I backed it with minky which means the drape is excellent despite the dense quilting, and since I backed with minky, there's no way I could hand stitch it down. So, instead of sewing the binding first to the front and then turning it to the back, I stitched it to the back and turned it to the front so I could "topstitch" it down. I reasoned it would look more intentional and better. Of course, true to form for me, it's a tad wavy. I tried so hard! I cleared off my table and tried to not pull either the quilt or the binding. But it was a heavy quilt and that's hard to manage. Oh well...I don't really expect top marks from the show anyway. It's just fun to see your work hanging in a museum! 

Completed March 2024

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. 

All the Good quilt

I'm finally posting this quilt because I finally bound it! I got it back from the quilter over a month ago, but I've been busy sewing t-shirts, and this just wasn't a priority. Also, I needed matching thread for my binding.

I bought this pattern at Quiltcon in Phoenix and loved the improv style. It took a while to piece because of trimming all those flying geese and half square triangles, and then layout took a while (and two go's if you read that blog post) and then I had to pick a binding...this just took a lot longer than a standard quilt, and that's okay. It's finished now.

I love it. I wish it were a bit bigger, and I'm sad that I've got another wavy binding, but I really like it. I love a lot of the prints I used, and the colors, and the radiating center, and the navy binding...I think it turned out great. The pattern is by Jittery Wings. I didn't love the format of her pattern, but I love how it turned out so I don't not recommend it. And I didn't make any mistakes, so it was not a bad pattern by any means. 

January Progress Report

I didn't really know what to title this blog post, and it's really just a what-I'm-working-on kinda post, so I guess this works. 

I got my Swoon top off to my quilter a couple of weeks ago and then decided what I REALLY wanted to do was finish up the All the Good quilt top I had started in the autumn. I bought the pattern at Quiltcon and then started it in the fall when it was next on my list, but I had to put it away when holiday sewing got in the way. I wasn't in love with my layout anyway so I packed it away, which I don't usually do when I'm mid-project, and so I was antsy to get back to it. I also had to be careful about when I laid it out because I knew it would have to stay on the floor for at least a few days while I mulled over the design and then picked it up piece by piece to sew it together. But, I got it laid out, and once it was laid out, the sewing was pretty quick. 

By quick, I mean several hours, but still...quicker than you think it would take given what it is. 

I meant to blog mid-project, so I have progress shots of my sewing room. My cutting table is covered with All the Good strips, partially pieced Christmas Shimmer blocks, and focal prints for an economy block quilt that is next on my quilting list. 

So here's my All the Good quilt top, pattern by Jittery Wings Quilts. 

Next on my actual list, though, is a dress for me. To match my girls' Christmas dresses. I overbought fabric by yards and yards and thought I might as well sew a matching dress for me since they've asked a few times. Hey, if they want me to match too, who am I to turn them down? :)

It's going together pretty quickly, but I don't have any pictures because it's just a pile of fabric right now and whenever I've been in there working on it, it's been dark and I don't think to take progress pictures. 

And then I might finish my Christmas Shimmer quilt because I really don't like putting WIPs away...and I have some other knit and apparel fabric that is languishing, including a really fun Chenille knit I bought from Girl Charlee on a great sale...it would be a shame to not get it sewn up before it's too warm to wear it. Hmm...

Palais Royale

 I like designing my own quilts and trying to create something out of the box that’s me and unique. This project is one of those, inspired by my travels. 

In 2019, we took our oldest two girls to France to attend a wedding. The wedding was in the south, so we started our trip there and ended in Paris. One of our stops in Paris was the courtyard at the Palais royale where we relaxed for a bit before dinner one day. In the courtyard, they have some permanent modern art installations, including fountains with a pyramid of stacked metal balls, and rows of striped pillars. Some are only inches tall and others are nearly as tall as I am. I’m sure there is a method to the order but it’s not immediately discernible. We spend a while walking around them, taking pictures on and with them, and enjoying our evening. 

One day while I was brainstorming quilt ideas, I thought of these pillars and started playing around with a design. This is where I landed. It’s really big, but it was tricky to get the blocks smaller with the same proportions, and I like big quilts anyway, so it’s okay.

Home For the Holidays

 I finished one Christmas quilt this year. I had pulled a stack of fabrics last year when I was considering making a simple Christmas quilt to welcome a new neighbor to the street (I ended up making an embroidered throw pillow instead), and decided to use it to try out the Hurty ruler I bought at Quilt Con. I have tried to make half-rectangle triangles in the past, and it's hard. I hadn't seen HRT rulers before, and clearly they exist, but this was the first one I had seen and bought it along with the clammy rulers I chose. I was pretty nervous to use it, since unlike HSTs, you have to make sure they're angled the right way...so it took some courage to start, and that's one reason I wanted to use this stack of fabrics. They were fabrics I loved, but wouldn't feel bad if I used them on a project that didn't work. 

The assembly went pretty well and it didn't take long to get a stack of blocks ready. When I laid it out, I thought it would end up bigger than it did, but it is really only throw size. Which is fine, but, as you've probably noticed, I like big quilts. :)

I played around with layout a bit, and tried to add a couple of focal points by alternating the brights and low volumes. It's fun to experiment sometimes. Even if it's not super successful. This one I think works but isn't Ah-Mazing. 

When I got it back from the quilter, I decided pretty quickly to bind it with some of the white snowflake print I'd used. I had (and still have) plenty and it's a great print. It's backed with minky, of course. Naming it was tricky, it's always something I struggle with. I settled on Home for the Holidays because it felt right. I'm not sure why. Sometimes you just have to pick something, haha. 

Home For the Holidays, quilted by Abby Latimer, completed November 2022

Snowflake Quilt

 One last flashback Christmas quilt to squeeze in before Christmas. I also made this one last year, it was a big year for Christmas quilts, haha. (I also bought and had quilted one of those Lella Boutique Christmas panels that everyone has...I won't blog about that though because I didn't do anything except bind it, lol). 

I loved this snowflake quilt when I saw it social media, and bought the pattern and fabric on black friday sales. The pattern is by Modern Handcraft and I love it. It has 3 variations, so it's like 3 for the price of 1. You could do a scrappy background, a striped background, or a solid. I loved her black background in one of her quilts and decided to use a metallic black Essex linen. I love it! I had to copy her straight-line quilting as well...shrug.

It's not as cuddly soft as my others because I backed it with essex linen as well. But I love it anyway.

Snowflake Quilt, pattern by Modern Handcraft, long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed 2021

Slopes Scrap Quilt

I've been pretty into Amanda Jean Nyberg lately, I have her book, No Scrap Left Behind, as well as the one she co-authored, Sunday Morning Quilts. I love them both. And this is a quilt from No Scrap Left Behind that I just had to make. She calls it Slopes for how the blocks are angled gently to give it a sloping appearance, almost like mountains. 

I don't think mine turned out nearly as effective as hers did. She used exclusively cool colors, and it's a lot more unified. And I think some of my blocks didn't get the angled cuts quite right, like not angled enough maybe, so the gentle sloping action isn't as pronounced in all the rows. But, it was one of my first attempts at an improv scrappy project and I struggle with fabric waste. By which I mean that I am loathe to use the perfect color if I will have to cut off an unusable scrap to make it work. So, I tried to use strings that were pretty close to the right size (or twice the size so I could use it twice...) and that meant I needed to use a greater variety of scraps because I just didn't have enough cool colors to make it work.

Also, I really try to put my own color scheme onto a quilt pattern. I don't want to copy it exactly, because I want it to be mine. But sometimes, that means it doesn't quite work out. It's okay.

Since it's not really perfect, I"m glad I didn't put any effort into making it much larger. It's a respectable throw size, but not as oversized as I usually go for. 

I still really like the pattern, and my box of solids is still overflowing, so maybe I'll try again? Who knows. 

For the back, I opted to collect all my flannel scraps from previous backings and piece them together into a scrappy backing. I was just a tad short, so I bought 1/3 yard of flannel to finish it off. 

Slopes quilt, designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg, quilted by Abby Latimer, completed 2021

Solar Eclipse quilt

One of my favorite types of quilt designs are patterns that create secondary designs. I love how the blocks work together to create a pattern and visual interest. It's something I like to incorporate into my own designs, even though it can be trickier. I think that's half the fun. 

When I saw this quilt pattern in a book by Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique, I really wanted to make it. The secondary pattern is fun and the dark background was really striking. Of course I had to mimic her quilt. I didn't want to completely copy her color scheme and so instead of an aqua print for the squares, I used a gray solid, and I omitted green. It's possibly more similar to the original than I usually like to go for, but that's alright. I think it turned out beautifully. 

I did have to make a couple of adjustments; I didn't have any charm packs and didn't intend to buy any for this project, so I needed to figure out the cutting from yardage. It's been too long; I might also have taken the opportunity to do some more efficient piecing, like flying geese four at a time, and multiple HSTs at a time. I like to do that when I can, it makes it go so much faster. And of course I backed it with minky. I opted for silver, and then bound it with the same blue as the background to give it a bindingless feel. 

Solar Eclipse, designed by Vanessa Goertzen, quilted by Abby Latimer, completed 2021

Florentine Sunset

 I loved Quiltcon earlier this year. It was such a fun, but exhausting day. So inspiring. The quilts were just amazing, and I loved browsing the vendors area. It was so large! I was hoping I would be able to get a Clammy ruler, and I was happy that I could. Sewtopia had them for sale and I bought two sizes, plus a Hurty ruler. I can't remember where I had seen a clammy ruler quilt, but I knew I really wanted one, and that Latifah Saafir, the designer behind the clammy ruler, was a MQG darling. 

I bought a bunch of other things too...it was fun. I did try to restrain myself, but it was just all so inspiring! 

I came home and was promptly very intimidated by the Clammys AND the Hurty. So I "brainstormed" color schemes and designs so I could avoid them for a bit. I really wanted to try them, but I was so intimidated!

I finally got the courage after coming up with a fun color scheme (and testing out the sewing method with some scraps) and I went for it! I was inspired by this watercolor that inspired my mini quilt I blogged about here. I referenced this quilt in that post too, but I hadn't started yet. I couldn't decide if I liked the more visual bridge idea that I used in the mini, or this clamshell color scheme better. So I just made both.

Unfortunately, these pieces are a bit off a fabric hog and so I really went through a lot of fabric. It doesn't create useful scraps either, with the shape...and the pieces are so large that some fabrics I wanted to use weren't large enough. Everything was from my stash, I don't think I bought anything specifically for this quilt...pretty sure. That's my favorite way of quilting--I keep a large stash and then sew from it instead of purchasing fabric by the project. I feel like it gives my projects a uniquely me look.

The assembly was tricky, and I bet it was a bit wonky for my quilter. She is a good sport and doesn't complain. Hopefully most of my work is flat and straight enough that once in a while she's willing to tolerate it, haha. About half way through, I realized I really should have starched my fabric. But I never starch, so it didn't occur to me before it was too late. 

We backed it with a mustard yellow minky. I love the ombre effect this quilt has as they blend together and I'm proud of myself for making something hard! Maybe I'll even make another clammy quilt sometime. With starch, though. 

Seattle Quilt

 I’ve been admiring scrappy quilts lately, especially the work of Amanda Jean Nyberg. I’m still sad, years later, that she discontinued her blog but I’m glad she maintains her instagram for now. And with all that scrappy goodness, I’ve felt inspired to just sew. 

After finishing a more finicky pattern, especially, I was tired and really wanted to just sew. And I have loads of solid scraps that seem to multiply and never get touched. I decided to try out some improv scrap quilting and opted for a log cabin. Not very imaginative, I know this has historically been a staple of modern improv. But I’m still pretty new to improv and it’s a staple because it’s effective. So I went for it. I chose a color scheme of mostly blues and grays with accents in pink and yellow. 

I tried to be judicious on my scrap usage because I hate wasting fabric and didn’t want to cut pieces down by less than I could use elsewhere and that really drove a lot of the design decisions, which means some blocks aren’t necessarily very sound color-wise. That’s okay. I’m pretty pleased with my first go, even though there are blocks that aren’t effective. 

I was surprised it felt smaller than I expected. It’s 60x70, with 10” blocks. It’s a reasonable size, but it still felt small. It’s okay. I was really running out of scraps anyway. Rather, I was running out of different appropriately-sized scraps. My solids box is still overflowing, haha. 

As I was getting ready to make this quilt, I sorted out my solid scraps. I had them in a cardboard box because they outgrew my plastic scrap box they had been in. They’re still in the cardboard box, but I separated them into a few different groups and use bags to keep them separated. I have grays and blacks, warm neutrals and browns, blues, greens, and yellows, reds, oranges, pinks and purples. I struggle with solids storage. I also have some solid cuts in my stash drawers, but some are so small they’re barely big enough for a binding. But they’re mostly still intact so they don’t really seem to fit in scrap storage…it’s a problem. I’m trying to reevaluate how I store them, so I might switch things up. We’ll see. 

I pieced the backing from some of those larger small cuts that I don’t want anymore. Colors purchased for specific purposes that are now finished, and pieces that are too small to be usable. It’s not pretty. But it’s the back of a scrap quilt and I think that’s fine. I’d rather use it than have it languish in the drawer, and using it on a backing feels less wasteful than donating it or discarding it. 

I got it back from my quilter and had to wait to bind it because I had other pressing things. I was finishing up piecing the block components of the All the Good quilt and didn’t want to put on my walking foot, and then I had to dive into Halloween costumes. With those finished, I was finally able to bind it. Yay! The binding is scrappy from leftover bits of bindings from other quilts, in the colors of this quilt, so I thought it turned out great. And, it means that this entire quilt (save the batting...) is made from scraps. I think that's pretty great. What is not so great is the wavy binding. When this has happened in the past, I thought it might be that I was pulling the quilt and the binding unevenly, and I guess I must have been doing that this time. This time, I was too lazy to move my serger that sits next to my sewing machine, because this quilt isn't *that* big, but it looks like I needed the space. Oh well...done is better than perfect...

I thought about a possible name while I was binding, and it was hard. I thought about the colors...the wonkiness, the log cabin block...I felt stumped. And then I thought about Seattle, which often has such dreary weather, and gray and blue seem very Northwest to me. But when I've visited, we've always managed to get a few days of sun, like the bright pops of yellow. And Seattle, like the Northwest in general, is a little wonky and weird, which we love, right? Plus, I asked for a wavy quilting design, which kinda looks like waves, an Seattle is on the Sound...So, Seattle. *shrug*

Magic Squared

During the pandemic, April Rosenthal designed a follow up collection to her very adorable Midnight Magic Halloween collection from a year or two earlier. I'm not generally a big Halloween fan, but I really loved (a lot of) that line, especially the florals. It was Halloween, but not overly cutesy, not overly Halloween-esque, and just really nice. However, the fabric faced major delays, and apparently, a lot of shops cancelled their orders. When I saw Abby Latimer had precuts, I ordered a jelly roll and a charm pack to make sure I had at least some of the fabric, and luckily, a local quilt shop got most of the line in yardage so I was able to buy some cuts of the best prints, especially the florals. 

But, what to do with the precuts? I don't usually use precuts. I feel wasteful if I don't use the entire piece of fabric, so trimming a charm square down to 3 or 4 inches is out of the question. I thought about a simple star block, using the charm squares as centers and the jelly roll to make flying geese for the points, but I didn't love the math. And then I saw a quilt on the cover of a book, and realized it would be perfect. I had seen the book at my mom's, but it was simple enough I was able to do the math myself. 

I cut some 2-1/2" strips from some of my Halloween fabric to mix in because I don't love quilts made from just one line of fabric, and got to work. It came together really quickly and I love it!

Apparently, other people loved it too. My quilter, Abby Latimer, posted a picture of it on Instagram and lots of people asked what the pattern was. Abby didn't know, I responded to one person who tagged me and gave the details, but I couldn't believe how rude some people were. "Why post a quilt without posting the pattern information??" or some such variation. Berating a longarm quilter for not providing detailed information she didn't have just seemed very rude. I hopped back onto the post to check out the comment section when I received a DM from someone I don't know who asked if I sold patterns because Abby wouldn't respond to her questions. I was appalled at how she had berated Abby, telling her she was so unprofessional and how could she possibly run a quilting business like this...Abby was more patient than I would have been, and I didn't dare respond because I didn't think I could without being rude back. However, a simple glance through the comments would have revealed my source for the design, and if she'd spent as much time scrolling through comments as she did berating Abby, she would have seen the answer to her question. Sigh. The internet has killed civility. 

I backed it with an amazing Halloween print I found on Hawthorne Supply Co on clearance. Love that! I think it's Art Gallery, but I'm not totally sure...

Magic Squared, long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed 2022

Controlled Improv WIP

I got to go to the Quilt Con quilt show earlier this year. We happened to be visiting my in-laws in Phoenix the very same time Quilt Con was happening. I didn't realize early enough to sign up for any classes, but that's okay. I spent a very long and full day looking at so many beautiful quilts at the show and browsing the vendors area. One of the vendors was Jittery Wings Quilt Co, and she had several quilts on display that corresponded to her patterns. I was really intrigued by a couple and she gave me a very brief demo on the color organization that she said the one pattern teaches. She called in controlled improv and I was sufficiently intrigued that I bough the pattern. It's called All the Good and I finally started sewing it. I'm a little nervous but I'm trying to trust the process. So far, I've gotten my HSTs all sewn, trimmed, and pressed, and I'm working on pairing my flying geese fabrics. 

This is my stack of fabric, almost, in the order I chose for the half square triangles. Once I went to cut it, I realized I was short on two of the prints. I could have sworn I had already verified that, since I had to order more of the light blue speckled Ruby Star print. I didn't mind, it's one of my favorites and I wanted more anyway. But I was pretty surprised that a few weren't wide enough for what I needed. I had to sub in two different greens, and a different yellow.

I was really irritated with myself and it took some major discipline when I made an irreversible cutting error. I wasn't thinking, and neglected the fact that I was cutting two at a time, and cut 8 of one size instead of 4. I intentionally did those first because I only needed one of the last size, and wanted to do the other before I opened it up to single layer, so of course I was aware of what I was doing, but nevertheless, I did it anyway, and didn't have enough to cut the single square for the flying geese. And of course, didn't have enough of that fabric left. Grr. It's a print by Amy Smart from her London line, and I really like it. I'm disappointed I will have less of that fabric in the quilt. BUT, it is improv, so I elected to take another print that was close in color that I did have extra of, and cut a second of that. It's fine. It'll be fine. But it's always irritating when you cut something incorrectly and don't have enough fabric to correct it. 

The pattern has you put them in a gradiant order and sew HSTs in that gradiant order, but I did a few switches because I was worried there wasn't enough contrast. I'm still a bit worried, to be honest, but I'm hopeful it'll turn out the right way since I'm basically following instructions. I'm using some prints I really love, too, and I think in general I've got a great fabric selection so hopefully it'll all work out.

I am breaking with the instructions a bit for the fabric order for the flying geese, mostly because I don't understand how it'll produce different results than what I've done. I'm trying to make sure that none of the pairings are the same as the HSTs, and I'm also trying to make sure that I don't have any inverted pairs, where I've got the same exact fabrics paired, but also that I don't have any that are too similar. This is my current organization. We'll see if I make any more changes.

I'm a tad nervous to see how this all comes together, and I don't know how I'll do the layout when it's time. I have a great design wall in my sewing room, but it's too narrow for this quilt, and it's really more of a block holding/organizing board than a design board since it's not wide enough for most things. But, you use the space you have, right? I'll have to layout on the floor outside my room where I do have space, and hope I can get it laid out well enough before I really have to pick it up. Usually, I'll take loads of pictures to help with layout (changing it to black and white can help me see value issues) and it has the added benefit of helping me if I have to pick it up before I'm done.