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.

Scrap Quilts: Irish Chain Edition

I have far too many scraps. And I'm not very good at using them, not really. My problem is that I save pieces that are far smaller than I should because I *might* use them. I do, on occasion, use excessively small pieces, but not super often. Another problem I have is hoarding those scraps. If I have a large-ish scrap and I need a smaller piece, I'm loathe to cut it down if I cut off a large but not large enough piece, because then that piece I'm cutting off is wasted.

Yes, I have a problem. 

So, as you can imagine, I have a lot of scraps. I wanted to do a scrap quilt just as a quilt instead of my usual leaders and enders project this year (I have a great one going right now that I think will turn out so good!), and I saw a simple Irish Chain quilt in a monochrome color way with low volume scraps on Instagram somewhere. They're not groundbreaking, of course, so it could have been anywhere, but I think it might have been on A Crafty Fox, she has a lot like that. And I think Diary of a Quilter has a tutorial...

Anyway, I decided to wing it, because I know how to sew nine patches. And  I did it in aqua. I opted to sew with what I had, so some got sewn as strips and then subcut, and others got sewn together as individual squares. 

Against my better judgement, I decided to alternate the nine patches with single squares of fabric. I should have sewn nine patches together with just low volumes for the alternate squares, but in my head I thought that might get too busy. However, I think the way I did it is too plain. It did make it quick, though! 

I don't love this top. (It is fully sewn together, now, I just didn't get a pic of it while it was daylight before I folded it up and delivered it to the quilter...so you'll have to wait until it comes back!) AND, somehow I still manage to get blocks mixed up as I sew rows together. I ended up with a couple of background squares way too close together even though I did lay it out before I started...weird. I mean, weird that I clearly haven't figured out my method for getting rows to my sewing machine in order, even though I totally think I have, and I've been sewing quilts for a lot of years by now. Oh well, that's what seam rippers are for, eh?

I exclusively used scraps for this top, and I decided to use a piece of Anna Maria Horner fabric that I was given for the backing. It's a turquoise and it doesn't really match my aqua tones super well, though there are some that are a fair enough match, and it has yellow and red and pink and citrine flowers in sort of stripes. I didn't think about lining up the stripes before cutting and luckily I was able to flip one piece around and have it work out well enough...sigh. But, the backing was FREE, and I'm all about that for a scrappy project, lol

English Paper Piecing Star Blocks

I'm still plugging away at my EPP medallion quilt. I've got the center sewn onto a large square, I've got the churn dash blocks sewn onto that, and I've got 140 flying geese made. Next step is actually deciding if I want the border between the churn dash and flying geese to be 2" or 3", which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's the difference between the flying geese going one direction, or having them meet in the middle of each section.

I've also been doing a bit of work on some hexagon blocks for a new EPP project, using up the blocks I had started making for the next round of the medallion. I've got some additional colors added and I like where it's going! I spent General Conference basting and stitching, and I got several more added. 

The stacked ones with the yellow fabric on the outside are the ones I made years ago, and the ones on the outside are the new ones. It currently takes just under 2 hours to stitch a whole block, so this project will definitely take a while, haha. We'll see how big I decide to make it and how many years it takes. 

First Quarter Status

I end up hearing a lot about quarters when my husband talks about work. Quarterly goals, statistics, all sorts of things. I'm sure you do, too. And it just kinda bleeds into life, right? Well, I suppose really, it's okay, I mean, we are 1/4 of the way through the year already (Really?!) and I thought it would be a good time to check in with some in progress things. So here's my status.

I have two quilts at the quilter's that I'm expecting back any day now. They've been out for 6 weeks now, so it's about time. They are my All the Good quilt and a Christmas Shimmer quilt. No rush on either of them but I am starting to get antsy!

I just finished my sampler WIP, and I'm excited to have that wrapped up. It's waiting to go to the quilter's when I pick up my other two, along with my Little Women economy block quilt.

I am also working on my EPP WIP, and I've appliquéd (is that the right verb?) the EPP center onto a piece of fabric I've had in my stash for ages. I made a daughter a pair of pajama pants and had just enough left over for the center portion, which is great! I've also pieced the strips of churn dash blocks. Next up, I need to trim the center to size (I cut it large just in case it shrunk down while piecing, or in case I wasn't quite centered with it). That's got me a bit nervous, though, so I've been avoiding it, haha.

And, I'm working on a linen top right now. After I finished the sampler top, I decided to try this Fira top out of linen. I made a muslin to check the fit at the bust, and the darts were not happy (possibly due to the stiff muslin fabric, possibly due to my quick careless sewing since I thought I was checking the bust fit and not the dart placement...). I made a slight adjustment to them and I'm working my way through this pattern with a scrap of linen from fabrics-store.com from a different project. It feels good to use up leftovers! And, as long as I don't need the rest, I'll have enough to make a napkin, which I've also been slowly working on. I thought it would be nice to have some linen napkins, and that I would use up what I have left that isn't large enough for something else. They'll be mismatched, but I think that will just add to the charm. 

(Checking on the fit before I top stitch the yoke down on the shoulder)

So, next up are finishing the Fira top, finishing the EPP medallion quilt top, hopefully binding my quilts when I get them back, and then I want to make a couple of t-shirts for the summer in some specialty knits I bought from Salt Lake Sewciety. One is a merino wool, and the other is an athletic material. 

Revisiting UFOs

I was attempting to reorganize a couple of drawers in my sewing room without completely reorganizing my sewing room a month or so ago. It didn't really work that well, so I don't really recommend that approach. However, it did unearth a couple of UFOs that I've avoided for a few years. It didn't really unearth them; I've always been able to see them and have just ignored them. But this time, I wanted to reclaim the drawer space so I gave them a second look. 

One was the 6" sampler that I've hinted at recently. I had a sampler all sashed and ready to quilt complete with a backing (but not basted). I was going to attempt to machine quilt it on my domestic and felt like it was a size I could achieve. But...well, I wasn't all that interested in doing it. I have too many other things I'd rather do. So, when I cleaned out that drawer, I took a hard look at it and decided I needed to either finish it, or get rid of it. I decided to finish it, in a different way than I had planned. I decided to take it apart and set the blocks between hourglass blocks so it would be larger and have the appearance of stars. But, I didn't have quite enough blocks, so I have been adding to them over the past few weeks. I think this will be a lot better for me and the way I use quilts. This picture doesn't have all the blocks I have finished in it, I'm up to 56. I'm shooting for 60 so I can make a 60x72 quilt.

The second was an English Paper Piecing project I started when I was pregnant with the twins. I wanted to make sure they both had baby quilts and figured I'd have zero time to finish them after they were born, so I really wanted to finish beforehand. But...I got nauseous in my sewing room. It was the most tragic thing! Still, I wasn't about to be deterred, AND I was bored just sitting on the couch all day. So I decided to try English Paper Piecing the top. I saw an amazing design on Instagram and it had the piece sizes, so I just kinda went for it...but I ran out of steam. And felt a lot better, so I opted to make the baby quilts on the machine instead.

The problem was that when I got to a certain size, it because really hard to continue to add to it. I was adding from the center out, and figured I'd get around to rounding it out into a square eventually...but I couldn't figure out how to do it. So, I left the center and the completed blocks to add in the corner and forgot about it. 

But, I'd really like to finish it up somehow. I do like what I have, but adding to it seems daunting and it's way too little and not square. So, my current plan is to buy some yardage to appliqué it on to, and then add to it in a medallion style to make it larger. I'm going to start with a border of churn dashes and then I might do a zigzag or a diamond type border around that. 

As for the squares I had made (hexagons, I guess, more precisely), I decided to make more in different colors and make it a block based quilt rather than medallion, so I've started basting more diamonds. And I think I'll go with the color scheme I posted for my Fabric Friday on March 10. I'm out of practice, I haven't English paper pieced in years, so the basting is going slowly, but I'm looking forward to having some handwork to work on during movie nights and things. And I think it will be much easier to finish, since it'll be more in rows than this one and won't require so much thought to square it up. 

And, if I'm not mistaken, those are my only UFOs. I have a bunch of orphan blocks and leftover HSTs that I would have made as I cut them off of other projects, but I don't consider those UFOs. I'm pretty proud of myself that I don't have more! I did do some UFO clearing out during the pandemic and I'm sure that helped a lot. 

Fabric Friday Week 18: March 3

I've felt stymied a bit with fabric pulls the last couple of weeks. It feels like all my pulls really feel the same. It feels discouraging, if I'm honest. This last week, I pulled out my scrap bins because I want to work on finishing up an old WIP, a sampler project I started years ago. I had 49 6" blocks that I had sashed together with a magenta solid, and I even had a backing prepared. It was small, but I wanted to try my hand at free motion quilting on my domestic, and I felt like it was a doable size. 

But...it never made it to the top of my list to work on because I just didn't really want to. So last month, I decided that I needed to get rid of it or do something about it. I decided to take it apart and do something else. I did some math, and figured that to make a quilt the size that I like quilts, I could do a 10x12 layout, alternating my sampler blocks with hourglass blocks so that it would form a bit of a star pattern. I'd need 60 sampler blocks, so I needed to make more, and I've been working on that this past week. I'm up to 53 now, which is progress. 

I'm using scraps for the blocks, of course, so I've pulled out my scrap bins and they were sitting on the floor. Instead of turning to my drawers of fabric this week for my pull, I turned to my scraps, and this is what I came up with. I think it works pretty well. Not sure I'd use it for a full quilt, but I think it's decently balanced. 

In unrelated news, with my scrap bins out so I can pull fabrics for my sampler blocks, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of scraps I have and should probably work on a scrap project soon...

Economic Women

Last September, I went to the Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point with a friend. It was so great. I loved seeing so many quilts, and doing just a bit of shopping. I was a bit surprised and disappointed there weren't more vendors, but it's probably for the best. I spent enough as it was! One thing I bought was really out of character for me: a kit. I don't typically buy or make kits because I have an extensive stash and because I like to put together my own fabric bundles. This one was for a baby quilt, I believe, or possibly a large wall hanging? Pretty sure it was a baby quilt. It was a simple quilt, using economy blocks, and it featured Jill Howarth's Little Women fabric. 

Now, I'm not a huge Little Women fan. But, I do have four daughters, and my husband, surprisingly, really likes the movies. The fabric was just so cute, too, even though, again, it's not really my style. I just couldn't say no, and so an impulse purchase was made and I came home with a kit. 

I determined very early on that I would make it larger. So, I bought some additional yardage of the focal prints so I could make more squares, and I pulled coordinating fabric from my stash. I settled on making slightly larger blocks, using a tutorial by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter for 8" finished blocks, and determined to make it a nice lap size at 64x80 using 80 blocks. But, it had to wait...Halloween, Christmas, birthday gift...so many projects with deadlines ahead of it. 

However, after I finished binding the Swoon quilt, I decided to make it my next quilt. To be honest, I dreaded the cutting and the trimming, but it really wasn't as bad as I expected. And the blocks themselves went together fairly quickly. I finished up the top just a few days ago and it's awaiting the trip to the quilter's. 

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...

Brand New Year

This time of year is always a great time to reflect on the past year and plan ahead for next year. I don’t love or even really do New Years resolutions because I’ll often try to do self reflection and course correction throughout the year, but I love looking back at what I accomplished and what I’d like to do the next year, especially in regards to my hobbies and interests. So, here’s how 2022 stacked up:

I went on four trips:

• Spring break with the family on Caribbean cruise

• London and Cotswolds with DH for his work trip 

• Boston and New Hampshire for my birthday with DH

• Fall break with the family to Beaver Creek in Colorado

These are the quilts I sewed:

• Come Fly With Me BOM

• Swoon 16

• Hidden Stars

• Scrap Stash Plus

• Bridges Mini Quilt

• Halloween Squared

• Parisian Summer Blooms

• Seattle

• Following the Leader

• Florentine Sunset

• Home for the Holidays

I made these clothes for my girls:

• Tiered dress for 12YO

• 4 flamingo t shirts

• Stella dress for 10YO

• Stella dress for 6YO

• Pajama pants for 12YO

• Shorts for 6YO

• Library dress for 6YO

• Terrace dress for 12YO

• Halloween: 1 elastic waist skirt, 2 simple witch dresses, 1 cowgirl dress

• 4 sets of Christmas pajamas

• 4 Callie dresses for Christmas 

I made these clothes for me:

• 2 pairs of seaforth joggers in linen

• 1 pair of seaforth joggers wide leg in chambray

• Mykonos shorts in linen

• metro t shirt

• 1 Isidro t shirt

• Phoenix top with embroidery 

• Knit dress with cowl neck

• Burnside bibs

• Boatneck t shirt

• Evergreen jacket

• Christmas Pajamas

Other sewing completed

• Scrap pouf from Closet core

• 5 embroidered linen towels

• Christmas banner

Current WIPs

• Palais Royale (needs to be bound)

• All the good quilt (pieces assembled, need to layout and sew together)

• Shimmer in Christmas fabric (blocks in progress)

• Swoon (finished top, will drop off to quilter this week. 

  See pics below for progress)

  
  

Phew! That’s a lot of sewing!

So here’s some tentative thinking ahead for next year.Just some things I'd definitely like to do. I don't want to box myself in too much, so these are projects I've already been wanting to do. The apparel is especially anemic, mostly because I have loads of apparel fabric, some with tentative plans, but I really have to be in the mood, so I'm not sure what the year will hold for apparel. There's also the seasonality of clothing...it's hard to want to sew winter appropriate clothing in late February because the season is almost over...so I've only listed goals apparel goals that are goals, like hard and things I really want to accomplish, not just finish. Make sense? Hope so...

Quilting Goals

• All the Good

• Christmas Shimmer

• Swoon

• Rifle paper stack

• Little Women economy block

• Undetermined Scrap project

• Low volume star with dark solid background (maybe like the scrappy one I made a few years back)

• Start a travel sampler

Apparel Goals

• Button dress for me

• Vintage pattern blouse

Christmas Sewing

The craziness that is Christmas sewing has commenced. And it snuck up really fast. I planned last year to make Christmas pajamas for my girls because they're just so tall and it's disheartening to hear the cries and complaints on Christmas Eve that the pajamas that Santa delivered don't fit. I've tried numerous solutions over the past few years, and this is the final attempt. If this doesn't go over well...I'll probably ditch the Christmas pajamas altogether. As it is, I've been planning on making them all year, and I bought fabric over a month ago, but wanted to finish a few things before I pulled it out and got started. Now's the time!

In addition, I've been wanting to make a Christmas banner and decided that would be the project I work on when I'm visible, since the pajamas need to be a surprise. So that's what I started this week and here's the progress! 

I decided I needed to remake the aqua and cream letters, which made me sad, but I'm glad I just redid them instead of regretting later that I hadn't.

I'm using a linen from fabric-store.com and some fun Christmas prints. The black and red are by Lella Boutique and the green is by Sweetwater. The embroidery design is by meringuedesigns.net. Looking at it again, I might do two more redos, and make the I red and the s on the end black. Sigh...

As if that wasn't enough, I also decided to make another Christmas quilt. I blogged about the fabric here, and I decided to make another Shimmer quilt (pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew)

And, this probably won't get done, but I bought the panel by Sweetwater for a new advent calendar. It was too cute to pass up, what can I say?

Finally, my girls all said they wanted me to make them Christmas dresses this year. *sigh* Christmas does fall on a Sunday this year, so it's actually a good year to do it...but man, I'm feeling overwhelmed right now. However, I found a knit pattern on Vintage Little Lady, and a black and white polka dot hacci knit on Girl Charlee, so I might just cave in. I couldn't think of anything to make them this year as a gift anyway, so maybe this is a good idea. We'll see...

All the sudden I'm pretty overwhelmed by Christmas sewing. At least, the banner, quilt, and advent calendar are all things that can be ditched. But the clothes for the girls need to happen when they're not around, which is trickier, especially since my oldest likes to stay up late and often finds herself in my sewing room while I'm sewing. 

Halloween WIPs

 I got my All the Good quilt laid out, but promptly had to pick it up and put it away so I could focus on Halloween costumes. It's just as well, I like to let layouts marinate and now that I've thought about this one, I'm not thrilled with what I've got. Now that I've thought about it for a week or so, I really want to bring the navy up so it's a rounder shape, and I want the "nucleus" to be closer to the center of the quilt and not so much in the corner. So I'll move a row to the left side, and possibly the top...all this switching sounds really tricky though so I'm not sure how to transfer my carefully-organized stacks of rows to the new shift...it'll be a big job. For after Halloween. 

And for Halloween, I got my four girls to commit a couple weeks ago so I could get to work. My second daughter mercifully chose to be a pirate, which my oldest had been 3 years ago. Or was it four? I can't remember. In any case, I only had to make a new skirt because the one from a few years ago was not big enough for my second daughter. But skirts are really easy and quick, and after I purchased the striped fabric, it took just about an hour to get it finished up. Love that.

My oldest and one twin want to be witches and want to match, and I had a super simple costume pattern with sizes for both of them that I'm working with. It has only 3 pattern pieces, and includes a gather neck with an elastic (which means no closures to worry about), and so I'm about done with that. My twelve year old has a vision, and making this simple pattern fit her vision has required a bit of finesse. She wanted puffy sleeves and flare out, so I took a cue from a different pattern and added an elastic casing to the bicep area (I got lucky with placement since I just guessed...). And I'm making a simple belt with eyelets from a different pattern (it's super basic, using the pattern is hardly required...) in a pretty lilac color to add some interest and some definition to the waist. 

The other twin wants to be a cowgirl, which isn't surprising at all, because she and two sisters are in horse lessons right now. I had a costume pattern I used a couple years ago for a witch costume (a different one...) for her, so I needed to retrace the size, but it's really cute. It's the most complex pattern but it's adorable. I bought a Robert Kaufman window pane woven gingham in blue and some tan canvas for the top skirt from Joanns, and some cute eyelet trim. I think it's going to turn out really cute and I hope she loves it. 

And I hope it doesn't take too long. I'd love to get this improv quilt sewn together, even though I know I can't rush it. And, I've got Christmas sewing to think about...this year, I'm making our annual Christmas pajamas because I just can't bear the disappointment and upset when the Santa pajamas don't fit right because my girls are so much taller than the average kid and off the rack clothes are just not made for them. Sigh. I ordered some cute Dear Stella nutcracker fabric for pajama pants and a great Art Gallery Fabric striped knit for the tops and I think they'll be really adorable. And if the girls whine and gripe about them, we'll have to find a new tradition because pajamas will be done, haha. 

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.