#2025QuiltingQ2CheckIn

Yvonne/Quilting JETgirl announced the #2025QuiltingQ2CheckIn a few weeks ago, so I guess I'd better see how I've been doing. I did manage a few quilt finishes, none of which were in my mind's eye prior to this quarter.

Quilts

• Vertices - an impromptu scrappy quilt

• Stash Jazz - another previously unplanned project, donated to the Seattle MQG Giving Committee

• Ooh Lucky Baby Log Cabin - a baby quilt I didn't know I'd need until I got a shower invite in the mail

• My Effervescence Sew Along blocks with Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl are now a quilt top! A backing for this quilt is next on my list, and fingers crossed for an early July finish.

• Bee Sewcial - May was my turn to choose the prompt, which was Ode to Joy. I have now received all of my blocks, and am working on piecing the top! SO close!

• The 2025 Seattle MQG BOM, Calendar Cascade, is also underway, though I've done more batch sewing on it than month by month. The block assignments have not necessarily been in order, but here's what I've done so far. 

• I DID participate in the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2025. The result was Brew.

Adding something new and random in the mix, I joined the Summer Scrap Bash, a sewalong where you choose one of four patterns and sew along! I've chosen the 16 Patch (no HSTs!) beginning with an original Cotton+Steel jelly roll. I have a feeling I'm going to be sewing ahead of schedule a bit.....

Sewing

• I revisited one of my Block Studies Collective pieces and created my first wrapped canvas, Abstractions Redux. If you'd like to see all of my BSC projects together, I did write a round-up post.

• Embrace was Émilie's @mili.tra prompt for June, using the Zorn Palette. Here are the blocks I created for her.

Handwork

• Floral Stitches - I finished all the samplers in Season I! You can see all of them together here.

• And I started on Season II with the Echinacea, and have also finished the second flower in the series.

• A Year of Doodles - I'm all caught up on the pre-printed calendar stitchery from Stitchdoodles, and am ready and waiting for July.

Community

• Still regularly blogging and publishing issues of The Scrap Basket. 
• Continuing participation with my local Seattle MQG.
• Open Jar @open____jar, hosted by Jen Broemel and Bob Bosscher. I've continued to create small quilts in response to each prompt offered. Never saw a June prompt, so not sure if it'll be continuing on or not.

SONG | Birdsong

PIVOT | Perspective

So I feel pretty good about how I've met my goals or am in the process of meeting them - some projects are still a work in progress, but that's all under control I think. I'm pretty content to work on them one by one and just see what else the next few months hold.

Linking up with Quilting JETgirl's #2025QuiltingQ2CheckIn.

Summer Scrap Bash

Not sure why but scraps and summer always make perfect sense to me. And honestly, I've been itching to make another scrappy project but have been, reasonably, focusing on other big projects. Still when I saw Brittany @loandbeholdstitchery post about a Summer Scrap Bash, my interest was piqued.  Though I'd originally been thinking of sewing through some of my solid scraps, the sewalong offers four particular patterns. When I realized one was a 16 Patch using 2.5" strips, I thought of a handmade original Cotton+Steel jelly roll that my daughter Rachel @snippetsofsweetness gave me a while back. Kismet?

I decided to try one block and see how I felt about it. I felt good! Good enough that I went through the jelly roll and my own C+S stash to see if I have enough for a lap quilt. I think I do! So I'm in and hopefully I can do it all - ha! Time will tell!

Floral Stitches Year II - Flower #2

Where the first flower in the new Floral Stitches Year II series was definitely an Echinacea, the second one that I just finished is definitely more abstract. At least I don't know how to identify it - do you?

At any rate, I enjoyed stitching up the latest Dropcloth Embroidery @dropcloth sampler. I really wanted to stitch those blue circles, and I actually tried a few different things. But I was never happy. So I took the stitching out and am leaving them for now. Maybe I'll be inspired another day to stitch them in some way. Meanwhile calling this little one done for now.

ETA P.S. I totally forgot until after I posted, but I wanted to include Rebecca Ringquist's photo of the pre-stitched sampler, just so you can see what it looked like before I stitched it up!

Used by permission.

Effervescence Quilt Top

Ever since January, I've been getting block assignments every other week from Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl, as I participate in the Effervescence Quilt Along. Thankfully, it's been easy to keep up, and finally, I have a quilt top!

At 56" x 72", it's a great size for a lap quilt. Though Yvonne will soon be sharing directions for a bonus quilt using HSTs created during the Effervescence piecing process, all along I've planned to use my leftover HSTs as I make a pieced backing. I have plenty of yardage left from my original fabric pull to make that happen, and hopefully for a binding too. 

I'm already mulling over a quilting design and thread choice, so I'll hopefully be back before too long to share what I've decided. Meanwhile, I'm pretty excited to be moving forward with a completed top!

The Puzzling of Ode to Joy

Years ago, I took The Process Pledge. Rossie @rossiecrafts posted the pledge on her (now inactive) blog on May 14, 2010, and I was #768 to sign it late in 2011. Here's what the pledge said: "The goal of the process pledge is to create a new sensibility in quilting blogs where we don’t just show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision."

So a lot of the quilt bloggers I knew during that time and years since, adhered to that pledge, and I have always thought that sharing the process was just what one did. So you may not have realized that it was an intentional commitment on my (and others) part, but it is. Thus I'm sharing a crucial junction in the life of the Ode to Joy quilt - that when I have all the blocks from my bee mates, and I'm starting in on puzzling a quilt top together!

After much debating and mocking up, I decided on a background design and fabric colors, as well as an orientation for my blocks. Not one that's used to doing this with computer software, I taped graph paper together, cut up post-it notes, and went the old-fashioned route. But at least now I have a 'map' to follow.

I can't say that having a map makes things simple, but I'm getting there. I'm finding it especially tricky when the different background colors meet.

And a wider view....

And then a more recent view as I got a little more progress over the weekend....

Besides white, I'm using Konas Black and Raisin for the background. And I've loosely grouped the blocks into categories. I'm liking where it's headed, though it is time-consuming. Hopefully slow but sure will get me there.

Embrace

It was Émilie's @mili.tra turn to choose the BeeSewcial prompt this month, and unsurprisingly, she asked us to focus on color by using the Zorn Palette and the overarching theme of Embrace.

The palette, named after Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920), "is a limited palette created by the use of only 4 base colors: white, black, ochre and vermillion. This palette is mostly used for portraits, as it can recreate every skin tone. It is also a great way, by limiting the colors, to focus on value. So the goal is not to use only 4 colors. But to create a palette by mixing those colors. Yes, I know, we cannot really "mix" colors, but we can train our eyes to select colors that are derived from the mix of those pigments." Émilie provided several photos to use as reference. She also provided the photo below of her own fabric pull.

Wow! After checking my stash, I was able to pull a more limited selection of approved fabrics.



Another important aspect of Émilie's request was that we should create "blocks" that were not square or rectangular, but rather "blocks" that didn't have any sharp dents or concavity. The sides could be curved or straight. Here is her visual for us.

And finally, Émilie provided a pin board of inspiration images for the Embrace theme. Let's just say I was feeling very uncertain as I grabbed my fabric and rotary cutter.

My first block measured 14" x 15" at its largest dimensions, definitely improv, yet maybe too structured? Simply said, I was imagining the striped half 'embracing' the solid half.

So I tried again! Using some of the same fabrics, yet adding in more, I created this blob, which measures 12" x 14". It definitely felt softer, with just a bit of the stripe element from the previous block repeated. And I tried in a more curvy way to illustrate the two 'halves' reaching out to each other.

Émilie had requested a minimum of three blocks, and considering the shapes and sizes of the first two, another definitely seemed in order. The third was smaller at 7" x 8", and I tried to make it feel related to the previous two.

Gotta say, I found this prompt very challenging! I have no doubt though, that Émilie will bring all our blocks together in a beautiful way.

Ooh Lucky Baby Log Cabin

When I received an invitation to a baby shower for my goddaughter, I kinda knew I'd need to go shopping for fabric. I definitely wanted something girly. In a perfect world, I would have ordered some mermaid-themed fabric, but time was short, so I chose from what my local brick-and-mortar had in stock. Luckily, it was some very fun stuff. Here's what I brought home:

• Alexia Abegg's Ooh Lucky Lucky Mini Dot in Lucky Pink 
• Plus Alexia's Ooh Lucky Lucky Good Luck in Lucky Pink 
• Miniatures I Heart You from Love Letter by Whistler Studios for Windham Fabrics
• Tula Pink's True Colors Tent Stripe in Poppy
• Kitty Litter in Watermelon by Pammie Jane

Once home, I added in some Kona Carnation from stash, since the pattern I was using called for six fabrics. The pattern, Quilt As You Go Log Cabin by Jera Brandvig @quiltingintherain for Pellon, is one I've made before, though this time I made a couple of changes. 1) I did not do QAYG because I knew I wanted to quilt it with a serpentine stitch; and 2) I made it just a bit larger by adding two more strips, for a final size of 38" x 42". Regarding the focus fabric, the Good Luck print with multiple 'charms?'.... I loved that it had a pig on it! My goddaughter has always loved pigs and even has a pet pig, so that was a fun connection. AND the fabric was perfect for leading the pink theme.

For the backing, I used the Tula Pink stripe, and for the binding, the mini dot.

Such a simple but satisfying pattern. Of course, I needed to make a fabric gift bag to put it in, but forgot to take a photo. Oh well, the quilt was very much appreciated, and I loved to be able to make it and gift it to welcome a sweet new baby girl.... also, my first quilt finish with my new Janome.

Minimal Shapes Blocks

So I have a bit of unfinished business to face in the weeks (months?) ahead. All of my Minimal Shapes blocks from last year's prompt have come in from my Bee Sewcial beemates, and as usual, things are looking good! I always love to see how each one interprets the prompt, and before long, I'll be seriously debating layouts, always the toughest part for me. I kind of had a plan when I started out, but we'll see what I come up with when I get right down to it.

Here are my original inspiration blocks - organic, but reminiscent of geometric shapes in an orange, purple, brown, and gray palette.

And here are all the blocks I received from my beemates....

Irene @hixsonir

Jen @jen.broemel

Karen @capitolaquilter

Leanne @shecanquilt

Stephanie @spontaneousthreads

Felicity @felicityquilts

M-R @quiltmatters

Whether or not this one waits until after my Ode to Joy quilt remains to be seen. (I think it will.) Either way, I'm excited to move forward on it.