This year has flown by. I was trying to explain to my kids (futile, I know) that this time is really so short and so fast. I think they do feel it a little bit, as they return to school in only about a month and they are not ready! But they do not understand really how fast time flies.
Summer has flown by for me. Our kids go back to school in just a week and a half or so, and I can hardly believe it! I've got to pack a bunch of fun things in that we've meant to do all summer, and it just hasn't happened yet. A hike, maybe (if I can talk them into it...), a day at the roller rink, shopping for family picture clothes...plus we need to review everyone's uniforms and make sure they have what they need. We have had a great summer, even if I feel like I need to make up for lost time. We took a roadtrip up to the Pacific Northwest and visited the San Juan Islands and Olympic Peninsula with a short stop at Cannon Beach before coming home. It was a lovely way to start summer. But, we haven't done our typical summer sewing service this year (we also missed last year) and that makes me kinda sad. Maybe next year we can get back into it. I have had my girls help cook for the last few weeks which was on my list...I want them to help me just once a week so they can start to learn how. My older girls end up doing most of the work while I assist, and my younger ones help until they get bored waiting for various steps and never come back...but it's okay. Progress, right?
And speaking of progress, I've made progress in my sewing room, too. I bound two quilts, including my Federa Quilt, which I mostly pieced at Sewtopia in April. It's the Wasatch pattern by Compass and Wildflowers. I used colors inspired by our trip to the Dolomites in October, so yellow and orange foliage and turquoise for the lake. We got to visit Federa Lake while we were there and it was absolutely stunning.
Unfortunately, it's not square. I appreciated that she has you cut blocks in halves or quarters to add to the edges to make the edges straight so you don't have to trim it after quilting and lose so much of the blocks, but I wonder if that was partially to blame for it's lack of squareness. It doesn't really matter, not really, it's a throw quilt and even if it was a bed quilt, I'm really not much of a show quilter. (Although I do have something to share about that later; stay tuned!)
I love this quilt and that it reminds me of Italy. Our trip to the dolomites was really great, I'd love to go back! It was just beautiful. Although, I think we'll wait until after the olympics go through; there was plenty of construction as they prepare to host.
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
My older girls have been asking me to make them new bed quilts for a while. They've been jealous that the twins have minky-backed bed quilts, and theirs have boring-and-not-as-soft flannel. Even though they still share a room, I think they were also tired of having coordinated quilts and wanted something more personal.
It was on my list, but low. I have so many other projects that I'm more excited about, and they HAVE bed quilts.
Then, I ordered a Florida jelly roll by Ruby Star Society when it was on sale and my oldest daughter fell in love with it when I opened it up to brainstorm. I don't usually buy precuts or sew with them because I've always found it easier to use yardage, and I don't typically sew quilts from just one line. Sometimes there's a dominant line, but I rarely use exclusively one line.
This quilt is no exception. I used the whole jelly roll because it was a half-sized roll anyway, but I added a bunch of strips from my yardage too. And I copied a pattern I had seen online somewhere, doing the math myself (not sure it was jelly roll friendly anyway). I love the secondary pattern it creates with the stars in the middle between the blocks and she was excited about it too.
We backed it with dark gray minky and she loves it. At least, I think she does...she still mostly sleeps under her comforter. *shrug*
Long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed March 2022
This quilt came about unexpectedly.
I had visited Corn Wagon Quilt Shop in Springville and they had a pile of Moda scrap bags. I'd always been fascinated by these scrap bags; they seem slightly less expensive than a jelly roll (though, it doesn't seem by much...) and you get a variety of good sized scraps. But, just about everywhere that sells them online sells them on a mystery basis.
That is not me.
I don't even buy any of those subscription boxes, though I would love a surprise in the mail, because it's so hard for me to justify spending money on something I might get and absolutely hate. There are a lot of great Moda designers that I would enjoy receiving scraps of. But there are also plenty that are way too traditional for my taste, and then the fabric wouldn't get used.
No thanks.
But, seeing them in person...that was different. I could peek through the window, and one was already open! So I got to see what it was. They had Ruby Star Society scrap bags and I found one I really liked. It was a mix of multiple lines, and they worked together well. I added in some from my own stash and bought some solids to go with them, and came up with this design based on some that I had seen on social media. It's made up of two different blocks made in the same way, like a 3 sided log cabin block, one with 2 rounds and one with 3. It reminded me of doorways or a covered walkway, so I called it Passages. I opted to make it large enough for our guest bedroom, and then after, I made a couple of throw pillows to go with it. The Essex linen is metallic and I used a rust orange color that I think works well with the quilt colors. I backed it with a Robert Kaufman wide back that I had purchased for my bed quilt, but when it arrived, I knew I couldn't use it on my bed. It's stiff and rough. My quilter, Abby Latimer, said that she heard that white prints are really tough to manufacture so that may have contributed. Maybe. But I don't mind putting it on the guest bed. It doesn't get used often, and I don't mind not encouraging guests to overstay their welcome ;-)
long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed March 2021
