I'm already starting to grieve that we're so far along in the Summer Sampler. I'm loving my fabric pull (that Kona Limelight!) and every block has been a pleasure to sew.
This week. Ben Millett, who I 'met' in the Virtual Quilt Guild I joined in March 2020, designed the nostalgic "Melted Melamine." And boy do I have Melmac memories - ha.
After I announced my fine-line piecing prompt for Bee Sewcial, my bee-mate M-R told me she had been thinking of something very similar for her July prompt. Oops. Similar yet different, M-R settled on the theme of "Connections," expressed with circuit boards. My first thought, as is so often the case with Bee Sewcial prompts, was yikes!
It was serendipity that my pre-ordered copy of Lisa Congdon's new book, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Elements: The Powers, Uses, and Histories of Every Atom in the Universe, arrived on my doorstop at the perfect time, and it contained just the inspiration I needed. Block size was optional, as long as they added up to our typical two-12" blocks. I made my first, small-ish block (6.5" x 10.5") just to make sure I was on the right track. Once M-R approved that, I felt free to move on.
My second (8" x 13.5") and third (13.5" x 15.5") blocks continued to be challenging design-wise, but the palette - reds, white, and grays - helped keep my angst at bay.
A new prompt will be coming soon, so I'm relieved to get these mailed off.... AND looking forward to seeing my beemates' response to the prompts. It's always interesting to see how we each are inspired!
What's not to love about a pinwheel, right? I absolutely loved those pinwheel-spinners-on-a-stick that I remember from my childhood. So there were good vibes right off with this week's Summer Sampler block, Summer Breeze, designed by Nadra Ridgeway/Ellis & Higgs.
This one involved some very unique piecing, and a certain 'matching' trick came in handy more than once. Do you know the one where you pin the edges you need to sew together, but before you sew the length, you stitch just over the trickiest match area with a long (I use 4.0) basting stitch? Just stitch an inch or whatever it takes to cover the tricky area. Then remove from your machine and take a look to see if your match is perfect. If not, it's easy to remove that basting stitch and try again. Once you've got it, stitch the length of the seam as you normally would with a regular stitch length. This tip has saved me numerous times, including in the making of this block! Anyway, it's done and I really like all the spinning going on.
Seriously. How can we be half-way through the 100 Day Summer Sewalong!?! It's been casual and so doable to keep up with my bow tie blocks. Truth is, it's often hard to stop at just one block when I sit down to stitch, so sometimes I do several, meaning I'm usually a few days ahead.
With so many larger finishes to share lately, it felt good to focus on this week's Summer Sampler block while I watched our guild's meeting on Zoom this week. Designed by Lucy Engels, it 'explores size and shape in this take on the Dutchman's Puzzle.' I was able to use Lee Heinrich's Perfect Flying Geese templates again for the smaller pairs of geese, and I really like the unique larger geese with that bottom 'bar.'
I also swapped out the main blue fabric I had been using for a tad lighter Carolyn Friedlander print. I'd intended it as an alternate since the beginning of the sewalong, but finally used it in this block. It just felt like the time was right.
Oh this was a really fun one! As I shared during Week 1 of the Firefly Tote sewalong, the pattern is by Anna Graham/Noodlehead, and I made the Project Size of the tote. Picking up from Week 2, where we made the bag's exterior and drawstring closure, this week we 'put it all together' so to speak, which just went so smoothly.
Octo started out as unadulterated fabric play.... pull a favorite mix of fabrics, be inspired by a vintage quilt, and go at it creating some improvisational blocks. It all began with a glance through Bold Expressions: African American Quilts from the Collection of Corrine Riley: May 15-November 6, 2011, a book my daughter, Rachel/@snippetsofsnippets, purchased for me when she was fortunate enough to view the exhibit. The quilt that directly influenced mine was "Giant Octagons with Dividing Bars Quilt," made by an anonymous maker in Mississippi in the 1930s-40s.
Another block in the Snowflake Sampler block-of-the-month, this month's design was easy to follow once I got comfortable with it. I may not have ever actually said this, but for each block, it's up to the maker to mark the gingham squares with the stitching design, at least the foundational stitches. I've been using a Frixion pen to make a tiny dot in each square that needs a stitch, per Blair's suggestion. The dots are usually covered by my stitching, but I also press the block once I'm done, which has taken the dots completely away. I don't usually use these pens for marking on the right side of a fabric project, but it seems just fine for this particular use.
Again, most of the work on this block consisted of star stitches, so by the time they were complete, the variegated weaving was a treat for sure. Once trimmed, this block will measure 10" x 20".
X and O Star + Tiny Snowflakes + Lacy Flowers
It may not look like much, but I completed week two's assignment in the Firefly Sew-Along, and the end is in sight! Where week one had us selecting and cutting our fabrics and sewing together the front pocket; in week two, we made the bag's exterior and drawstring closure. Look at those cool leather handles! Now to just finish it up....
If you still want to sign up for the sew-along, click here to enter your name and email. Each week’s email includes links for the previous sew-along emails, so you can catch up on everything!
I was pleasantly surprised how quickly this week's block went together! "Reunion," a design by Lee Heinrich, one of the Summer Sewalong 2021 hosts, is a unique version of the more traditional Friendship Star. Unique in that I had to look hard to 'see' its inspiration.
Though it's made of familiar components - simple curves, stitch-and-flip triangles, and HSTs - it's really a fun twist, isn't it? It actually reminds me of a pinwheel, as you can just feel the movement, right?
Back in December, Yvonne/Quilting JETgirl hosted a 2021 Planning Party looking towards the year ahead, So now, months later, it's time for a #2021MidYearCheckIn. Funny thing is, I always immediately forget that I wrote a "plan," so I'm as surprised as anyone to see how I've been doing. Luckily, not half bad!
It took me a while to actually face the fact that Feedburner would no longer be supporting my blog's email subscribers, but I finally really looked into it last weekend, and I think there's a workable solution. In looking for said solution, I knew I wanted something timely (IE. subscribers would get email notification of each blog post very soon after it was posted), preferable free; and ideally, in a way that wasn't too complicated.
Also, How to Integrate MailChimp signup form with Blogger website? by Techyleaf suggested using AddThis to create that intake, and though I'm not 100% positive it's the perfect choice, I was able to add a pretty prominent banner across the top of my blog. AND it works. So I'll leave that in place for now, while I'm still learning the ropes.
Jen's article also led me to seeing Mailchimp as a possibility for sending out my blog posts via email. I thought that would be ideal, since I already use it (for a fee, due to my number of subscribers) for The Scrap Basket newsletter. It took some figuring out, but I was able to set that up using Mailchimp's "Automation" feature - yay! The best news is, I was able to pretty seamlessly import the list of subscribers I downloaded from Feedburner right into Mailchimp, so no resubscribing was necessary. Plus I can more easily see when emails bounce or whatever and keep that list more current.
Unfortunately, I missed the part on Feedburner about deactivating the email service or my subscribers would get duplicate emails (one from Feedburner, one from Mailchimp). So that may have happened on June 30, and if it happened to you, apologies; though I'd love to know that. I've now deactivated Feedburner, so subscribers, you should be receiving just one email from Mailchimp. Yes, it'll go away anyway sometime in July, but we don't really know when. Meanwhile, let me know how that's looking for you, ok? From my end, there's still a bit of tweaking to do, but at least it's working while I clean things up a bit.
If you happen to be a Blogger + Mailchimp user like me, here are a couple more articles I found helpful:
After the fact, I happened across Moving Subscribers Away from Feedburner and Into Mailchimp (Updated Guide 2021). Looks like there may be another way to add a subscribe option to the blog, so I may look into that. Besides that though, there's a lot of helpful info there that I managed to find out by searching. Maybe I can save you from some of that.
Every Petal Prism block I saw in the Summer Sampler this week was a stunner, so I was pretty excited to see how mine turned out. Designed by Wendy Chow of The.WeekendQuilter, it's inspired by the traditional Spool and Grandmother’s Choice quilt blocks. Together, these blocks form an enhanced Sawtooth Star.
