Meadow

Over the last several months, I've been stitching one Dropcloth Sampler after another, and they have given me so much relaxing stitching time. This latest one is the Meadow Sampler, the first round one of the bunch.

It was stitched completely with #8 perle cotton, with me selecting the colors purely at whim as I went. I've been adding a couple of new spools to my collection every month or so, and this is the first of my samplers that has just a bit of a variegated thread in it. The design measures 7" in diameter and was finished off with a machine-sewn basting stitch until I decide what to do with it. The stitching itself seems to be the point of these for me, so who knows what I'll do with the stack I'm accumulating. Time will tell.

Summer Sampler 2020 :: The Quilt Top!

After all those weeks of  piecing the Summer Sampler 2020 blocks, it feels pretty great to have gathered all the blocks into a quilt top!

Those hourglass cornerstones were a little effort but definitely worth it. Even before they made it into the quilt, they seemed something pretty special.

And once in, they add spots of interest all around the quilt.

The unique sashing was what really drew me to make this quilt. Sashing has not been on my radar for years, but the uniqueness of this design made me want to try it.

Due to the whimsy of one of the Carolyn Friedlander fabrics, here's one of the spots I especially love. This finished top is in line for quilting, but hopefully it won't be too long. Working on a backing now!

Week 1: Trellis     Week 2: Infinite Pinwheel

Week 3: Lakeside     Week 4: Tide Pool

Week 5: Brae     Week 6: Convergence

Week 7: Diverge   Week 8: Direction

Week 9: Midsummer     Week 10: Zephyr

Week 11: Swamp Rabbit     Week 12: Orbit

Week 13: Glimpse     Week 14: Like a Butterfly

Week 15: Flux     Week 16: Daylily

#summersampler2020      #aqtsummersampler2020

Autumn Steps

If you've paid any attention to my Fabric Usage posts this year, you may have noticed that during this Covid-time, I'm been slowly curating a stack of fabrics with an admittedly, unknown purpose other than to use them together. 

[Top to bottom: Ruby Star Society Warp & Weft Chore Coat in Persimmon + Diamond Textiles Crossed in Mustard + Art Gallery Maker + C+S Dusk Till Dawn Moonchild in Grass + Kona Grellow? + Carolyn Friedlander Harriot Textured in Roasted Pecan Yarn Dyed + Essex Yarn Dyed Homespun in Roasted Pecan + Giucy Giuce Redux String Theory in Tangerine + Ruby Star Society Speckled in Earth Metallic + Carolyn Friedlander Architextures Crosshatch in Tangerine + Kona Tigerlily + Ruby Star Society Spark in Butterscotch + Kona Cedar]

After all these months, I finally have a quilt!

It took me a while to decide on a quilt design, and even though I liked the traditional courthouse steps I chose, as the piece grew larger, I briefly considered cutting it into quarters and mixing things up a bit. But I persevered, and now that it's done - measuring about 72" square - I'm really glad I persisted.

Strips of fabric measured from 1" to 4 1/2" wide finished, chosen willy-nilly from my stack as I sewed along. I'd cut a few strips, sew a few, then evaluate and see what I wanted next. 

I found a 3-yard length of an oldie but goodie in my stash for the beginning of a pieced back - Meteor Shower from Tula Pink's The Birds & the Bees line. To that I added what I had left of the Crossed in Mustard, and what I don't think was Kona Pink Flamingo, but very close to it. For quilting thread, I also had a very perfect Aurifil 50wt #2320 [Light Toast] on hand, and it ended up suiting every fabric of the bunch.

After having trouble sourcing my 'normal' Warm & White batting, I've been using Quilter's Dream Cotton in the Select loft these last few months, and I think this is the largest quilt I've used it in. For quilting, I hauled out my back-up machine, just to use its easy-going serpentine stitch, which made the process pretty quick, especially since I just followed seam lines in one direction, so the range in density resulted in a drapey and cozy quilt. 

Between quilting less densely than usual and deciding to throw the quilt in for a quick wash and dry, as the photos show, I've got a much more crinkly finish than my norm. And I love it! Somewhere along the construction process, I'd decided this one would be a perfect new autumn throw for our own home, so the crinkles and cozy are totally fine by me.

Summer Sampler 2020 :: Daylily

So bittersweet, this last block of the Summer Sampler 2020 sewalong! It's been a fun one, and with no traveling this summer, I've been able to keep up every week.

Daylily, a design by Lee Heinrich, consists mostly of half-square triangles, maybe not my favorite in bulk, but at least they go together so nicely.

And with that, I just had to pull out all my blocks and see how they look together. I'm anxious to see them with their sashing, and that'll come soon enough, but for now, things are good.

Week 1: Trellis     Week 2: Infinite Pinwheel

Week 3: Lakeside     Week 4: Tide Pool

Week 5: Brae     Week 6: Convergence

Week 7: Diverge   Week 8: Direction

Week 9: Midsummer     Week 10: Zephyr

Week 11: Swamp Rabbit     Week 12: Orbit

Week 13: Glimpse     Week 14: Like a Butterfly

Week 15: Flux

#summersampler2020      #aqtsummersampler20

Motel Neon

What a post title, eh? That's what I thought too when I read Ken/@thekingslacker's prompt for Bee Sewcial this month. But turns out Motel Neon was a very fun prompt. I clearly remember those bright colorful signs from family travels when I was a child. 

For my first block, in my mind's eye those vertical shapes spell M.O.T.E.L. And it seemed pretty much every motel sign had an arrow trying to draw you in, right?

With our extended family in Southern California, we traveled there often, so the palm tree was a frequent image on all sorts of signs, including of course, the motel signs. It was an obvious choice to use in my second block.

Ken asked that the main colors in our blocks be the palette of neon light colors, and our darkest black as the background. That made for some colorful and striking designs, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Ken takes them.

Stitch Club :: Outline & Filled Stitches

Each month of Stitch Club has been so enjoyable and it's felt really good to be consistently hand-stitching again. This month's focus was outline and filled stitches, and I stuck to the program as they say, and did a project suggested in our Stitch Club Journal - embroidered cloth napkins.

For the napkins themselves, I used a lovely Kaleidoscope Bundle offered in Alison Glass' shop with six beautifully cool colors. Purl Soho has a simple fringed napkin tutorial that I followed to the letter (except the size), then added a simple doodle from Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray. The stitching of the design was easily done with the use of Wash Away Stitch Stabilizer - I printed the design times six right on a sheet of the stabilizer, then cut them apart and placed one on each napkin.

As luck would have it, I had a partial spool of variegated Sulky 30wt #4021 [Truly Teal] "Blendables" that I used to hem the edge of the fabric squares which I had cut at 16". And then for the doodle-stitching, I used a spool of Wonderfil! variegated perle cotton in mermaid, and I think the consistency of having the embroidery the same on all the napkins really brought the set together.

The one finicky part of the whole project was that even though I tried to cut my fabric squares on-grain, invariably not all four sides were on grain.... some not at all. So that meant for some careful pulling and trimming of threads to make the fringe. I found my Tula Pink Large Ring Micro Tip Scissor invaluable in that trimming, so that certainly helped.

Anyway, that was of minor consequence, as I think the bi-color fringe adds the perfect finishing touch to these napkins, so it was well worth the effort.

Between the beautiful colors of the shot cotton Kaleidoscope fabric, the simple variegated embroidered doodles, and the fact that we use cloth napkins in our home every day, let's just say this was a very satisfying project, and I know we'll put them to good use. Definitely pretty, but made to be used.

If you missed my previous Stitch Club projects, you'll find them here [Kantha], here [Sashiko], and here [Couching]. A quick glance at all my Stitch Club projects can be found here.

Summer Sampler 2020 :: Flux

It's SO hard to believe that this week's block was next to our last one in the Summer Sampler sewalong! It's been such a fun sew, and Stefanie's "Flux" was a real treat. I'm sure it was mostly her design, but add in a great fabric mix and the fact that I hadn't sewn in several days, and it was super enjoyable.

And what a striking design, don't you think? A mix of traditional and paper piecing, I think the differing star points add alot of interest. Whatever, I especially like this one.

Week 1: Trellis     Week 2: Infinite Pinwheel

Week 3: Lakeside     Week 4: Tide Pool

Week 5: Brae     Week 6: Convergence

Week 7: Diverge   Week 8: Direction

Week 9: Midsummer     Week 10: Zephyr

Week 11: Swamp Rabbit     Week 12: Orbit

Week 13: Glimpse     Week 14: Like a Butterfly

#summersampler2020      #aqtsummersampler20

Improv Curves for the Win!

Like other modern quilt guilds around the world, Seattle MQG is working on their quilt for the QuiltCon 2021 Community Outreach Quilt Challenge. The design that was chosen is one submitted by our president, David Owen Hastings, “Resilience” meant to represent how we as guild members rely on each other in times of tension.

Several tutorials for these improv 'stones' were suggested, and I referenced the Curves Ahead tutorial by my Bee Sewcial mate Stephanie Ruyle/Spontaneous Threads, as well as the Organic Shapes video I had recently watched by Carolina/Carolina Oneto Quilts. I'm happy to say I used Elmer's Glue in the process, and for once didn't make a mess! The large "stone" I even marked with my hera marker and that worked really well! I was a little scared of these blocks, but happily they came together really well and I don't think I'll be as apprehensive next time!

Summer Sampler 2020 :: Like a Butterfly

Well this week's "Like a Butterfly" was a bit of a breather, and I took the opportunity to swap out a couple of fabrics. The gray swirly one hasn't actually been in any of my blocks, as it was destined to be a 'sashing only' fabric. But I really liked it and have been itching to use it, so in it went. I also swapped in the solid green, just because I felt like it. Any why not?

The block design is by Carolina of Carolina Oneto Quilts, and is reminiscent of the many colorful butterflies in Brazil where she now lives.

Week 1: Trellis     Week 2: Infinite Pinwheel

Week 3: Lakeside     Week 4: Tide Pool

Week 5: Brae     Week 6: Convergence

Week 7: Diverge   Week 8: Direction

Week 9: Midsummer     Week 10: Zephyr

Week 11: Swamp Rabbit     Week 12: Orbit

Week 13: Glimpse

#summersampler2020      #aqtsummersampler2020

August Fabric Usage

OK, so last month I was faced with serious fabric temptation when Fabric Bubb announced her 9 year anniversary sale. You know I didn't need anything, and I was seriously conflicted, but the urge to support my friend in the best way I knew how won out. So mid-month, I just made sure I ordered less (6.25 yards) than I had already used (7.27 yards). I could live with that!

Mostly I focused on fabrics I could use to finish up my latest Bee Sewcial quilt (above), plus a couple of other blue solids, since I'm low on those. And then I treated myself to the last Tuscany View bundle (since restocked!), 1) because memories of our Europe trip last fall have helped to sustain me these last months, and I could remember this 'view' clearly; and 2) Kristina recently began stocking the full line of Cotton Couture by Michael Miller Fabrics, and this would be a chance to give them a try. All good, right?

I pushed myself on the last day of the month to make a quilt back for that bee quilt, and that pretty much secured a decent month's net usage - just under 10 yards. Respectable enough, eh?

August Fabric Usage
Used up: 17.62 yards
Brought in: 7.75 yards
Net: -9.87 yards
Year to date: -87.45 yards