Farmer’s Wife quilt: A project that I’ve been working on for a while is the Farmer’s Wife quilt, from the book by Laurie Aaron Hird - which I started back in April 2017 at a workshop with Johanna Masko hosted by the Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild. I just finished my 25th block last week, which was a milestone. But, the book has 110 blocks so I still have a long way to go! I hadn’t laid the blocks out in a while, I’m liking how the colours are coming together. I’m just using Kona cotton and Carolyn Friedlander prints for this one.
Friendly Faces project: I’ve been having fun the last few weeks working on a project using Heidi Kenney’s “Friendly Faces” fabric panel.
I cut up the panel to blocks and I’m mixing in scraps to make these Irish-chain-inspired blocks. I intentionally designed the block to use 2.5” squares and strips — because I pre-cut my scraps to standard sizes (2.5” squares and strips) and have boxes full of them! So, this one has minimal cutting needed! I’ll just keep going, if I use the entire panel, this could make a twin-sized quilt!
PS - Happy New Year! I haven’t been around in the blog for a while, but I’ve got some posts I’m drafting to get caught up. It’s just around my 5-year anniversary of blogging this month! 💖
Morning Walk quilt: A long time ago now, I won a package of fabrics from Leah Duncan, one of my favourite fabric designers. Soon after, I moved cities from Edmonton to Ottawa, and even though I cut into some of the fabric last summer, I haven’t actually made a quilt from these fabrics yet.
I have had a certain quilt design in mind for these fabrics since I got them - using friendship braids. I have only make friendship braids once before - on the back of a quilt I made a couple years ago for a friend’s wedding gift. It’s a fun design because you can just keep adding strips to make the piece bigger, instead of working in blocks. So I wanted to do some more experimenting!
These friendship braids are kind of super sized - they will finish at about 17″ wide. I’m still working on piecing and I’ll put the strips together with a solid background fabric.
This was one of my Finish-A-Long goals for the Second Quarter - I probably won’t be done this quilt by the end of next week, but I will try! (And if you linked up your goals back in April, don’t forget that this quarter is finishing up this week - you can link up your finishes here from June 30 to July 7!)
Making of Rainbow “Cumulative Effect” Quilt, Part 2: I’m sharing a little series on the progress of making the rainbow quilt I put together for Quilt Market this spring. This is Part 2 - you can see Part 1 here!
After making all of the strip sets, I set to work on putting blocks together. I had drafted up a mock up in Adobe Illustrator to help along the way with the colour arrangement, and made myself stick to my plan. When I put the the first few blocks together, the colour gradient was still not very apparent. But as I made more blocks, the transitions were more and more obvious, which made me happy!
I was also pleased that the blocks themselves were not too noticeable when the quilt started coming together - i.e., the quilt top, as a whole, didn’t look necessary like it is made of 25 blocks that are all the same size. This was something that I wasn’t sure about when I first started the design. But, luckily, I think the colour and piecing orientation helped make it look more cohesive.
Sewing the blocks together actually went quickly, because I’d done so much of the piecing in the previous step! I was almost ready to put the whole thing together. More on that in the next instalment!
* * *
For other posts in this series, see:
- * Part
1: Design and Getting Started
- * Part
2: Piecing Blocks ** You are here!
- * Part
3: Putting the Quilt Top together
- * Part
4: Quilting - and Tolerance for Imperfection
- * Finished Quilt
Making of Rainbow “Cumulative Effect” Quilt, Part 1:
Over the next week or so, I wanted to share some progress photos of how this quilt came together! It was a “secret” while I was making it for Quilt Market, so I couldn’t share in real time. This is one of the more complicated quilts I’ve made, in terms of design and construction, so I thought it would be fun to share.
As mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to make a quilt that was similar in look to my “Accumulative Effect” quilt. But this time, I wanted to simplify the design slightly - especially as I wanted to make it repeatable, so I could share with others through writing a pattern for it. So, I decided on a design that could use blocks of a standard size (12″), varying the orientation of the piecing within blocks to achieve some movement within the quilt. Here is my very first sketch to figure out if it would work.
I transferred it over to Adobe Illustrator (which I usually work in) to adjust and play with rough mock-ups. I broke the colours down to 14 colour groupings (red, red-orange, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, teal, light blue, medium blue, dark blue, purple, lavender, light pink, dark pink), plus white.
I decided on going for Option 2, or the “explosion” look, rather than Option 1, the circular “ripple” look, although I did like them both!
I got to work on starting construction. I wanted to simplify construction somewhat, because I knew this would be a lot of small pieces. So I decided to piece into standard sized strips for the whole quilt (using only 1.5”, 2.5″ and 4.5″ strips throughout).
Then, I pieced these strips together to 6 standard “sets” of strips (which I labeled A to F). I made sets of these in every colour.
Next, I sliced these up on the perpendicular, to make standard 2.5″ wide pieces to use in blocks.
With this whole palette of strips prepared, I was ready to start putting the blocks together!
I have to mention that this was a bit scary at the time. I hadn’t made any blocks before I jumped in to cutting fabric and making these strip sets, and I really felt that I was down the rabbit hole at this point: no turning back, and not knowing if it would be okay in the end. It seems funny now that I was worried about it, but I honestly didn’t know at the time how it would all work out! Have you ever felt that way in your creative process?
I’ll have more in the next instalment!
* * *
For other posts in this series, see:
- Part
1: Design and Getting Started * You are here!
- Part
2: Piecing Blocks
- Part
3: Putting the Quilt Top together
- Part
4: Quilting - and Tolerance for Imperfection
- Finished Quilt
My goals for the next 3 months
Time to make my list for the second quarter of the Finish-A-Long!
I did pretty well in the first quarter in finishing my goals. I was a little bit conservative in what I put in my list, because I wanted to really finish the things that I had proposed.
This time around, I think I’ll try to aim higher! Since there is no penalty for not finishing everything, it’s okay if I don’t complete it all. But I’m hoping that having a lot of goals will help push me a little further than I might go, otherwise.
I’ll break it into a few categories:
High priority: these are the ones that I really have to finish before the end of June.
1) A big, secret project: If you follow me on Instagram you have have seen me post a few photos like the one below. I’ll share more about this one tomorrow on the blog. But this is the highest priority for me to finish right now!
2) A project for Make Modern Magazine using my beloved Leah Duncan “Morning Walk” fabrics: I cut into these fabrics with a specific design in mind last year. Then I submitted the design to Make Modern - so now I’ve got a deadline for this one! I’m pretty excited to have this one finished!
3) A mini quilt using RJR solids: I am going to be participating in a blog hop with RJR in June… more on that to come, but here are the gorgeous fabrics that I received this week…
Gifts: These are also high priority - as these are all for events that will happen in this quarter - so I will try my hardest to get them done.
4) Flowering Snowball quilt: A special couple is having a wedding in May and this was the bride’s favourite quilt design of many that I showed her. I made some test blocks in the colour palette a couple weeks back. My friend Katy has now lent me some 12″ templates so I think I’ll re-start this project with those, now that I’ve had a bit of experience putting the blocks together. I definitely don’t think that this quilt is going to be done before the wedding that it’s a gift for, but hopefully not too delayed!
5) Gender-Neutral Baby quilt: Two of my closest friends are having babies in this quarter! So of course I want to make them something. They are due just days apart. I would love to have quilts done for both of them by the time the babies come, but we will see… neither of them know the gender of the baby, so I will keep the palettes relatively neutral. Here is a fabric pull for one of them…
6) Heather Jones “Fly Away” quilt: I am planning on this one for the other baby quilt during this quarter!
Other projects, and projects that are more or less just for fun!
7) Libs Elliott “Weight of Love” quilt: I have been itching to get back to this project. It’s the first time I’ve used Y-seams and I really haven’t touched it since I brought it back from the workshop back in November. I hope that one of these days in the next couple months I’ll be able to just finish it off, maybe at one of our guild’s upcoming sew days, or something!
8) Lizzy House “Meadow” quilt: This one was carried over from my previous list - I wanted to quilt it, but I didn’t get around to it. I want to finish it off soon, though - it’s been one that has been sitting around finished for longest!
9) Another “Nautical” baby quilt: Last fall, I made a quilt using flying geese that I called “Nautical Play.” When I pieced that quilt, I actually made a second crib-sized quilt with the same kinds of blocks. And a back. But I never quilted it. It’s been folded up - top, batting and back - since October! So I need to just get it out and quilt it!
10) My test quilt: I finished this quilt top just last week, and I’d love to quilt it up and have it done fairly soon, before my pattern is released. We will see..!
Wow, 10 goals seems like a lot. July 1 seems like a long way off, but maybe not long enough to finish all of these! But, I’m glad to have put this list of goals out there!
What are your goals for the second quarter? Are you going to aim for what is manageable to finish, or just list everything that you’re working on? You can link up your list of goals over at the second quarter link up, until April 16, 2016! I’d love to see what you’re working on!
If you’d like full rules and instructions for joining us in the Finish-A-Long, see my permanent page!
A Wintery Polarity Quilt
Over the holidays, I started a twin-sized version of my Polarity Quilt pattern.
I chose a wintery palette of navy blues, blue-greys and neutrals. I started with a Kona fabric bundle that I’d bought from Mad About Patchwork a while back, then added in fabrics from my stash including some prints for a bit more fun and visual interest.
I’m really liking how it looks all put together! It goes quickly because the blocks are large - 10″ finished. The colours really felt appropriate, given that the snow has really come to stay for the winter here! (There are icicles hanging in the window just outside my sewing room!) This just needs borders, then I’m ready to baste and quilt.
The printed version of the pattern is available in limited quantity from Mad About Patchwork, in advance of the class I’m teaching there in February!
Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday.
Year in Review 2015
This time of year, it’s nice to look back on the year that was and start planning for the New Year.
In 2015, I finished twelve quilts. The quilts were for new babies, for gifts for family and friends, to sell, and some that I’ll keep and use for years to come. One highlight was participating in my first quilt bee - my completed bee quilt has been on our bed since I finished it!
The quilt I’m probably most proud of this year is “Accumulative Effect” - a quilt that I’ve just prepared to ship off to California to be displayed at Quiltcon (which I’m so thrilled about!) I feel like it’s a good keepsake for me because it has scraps of all the quilts that I’ve ever made.
I’ve also made a lot of other things this year - like pouches, embroidery, a sleeping mask, an iPad case, a tote bag… I also published my first pattern in a magazine (the Lightning Bolt pouch in Make Modern!)
I’ve also started a lot of new projects that I will work on finishing the upcoming year, too… (I’m thinking about what my short term goals will be for the first three months of the year - which I’ll share for the Finish-A-Long!)
Overall, I’m really happy with what I’ve done this year! Along with all the tangible outputs, I feel like my sewing and designing skills have improved and have accomplished some personal goals, like publishing patterns.
I’m excited for 2016! For the upcoming year, I’ve got some new goals, including:
- To finish at least 12 quilts
- To improve my free-motion quilting skills
- To learn about quilt history, especially Canadian quilt history
- To publish patterns, including in magazines
- To revamp my website
- To do a painting every week (even if it’s really small!)
I hope I can accomplish everything, one day at a time!
I wish you all a Happy New Year and great things in 2016!