January Fabric Usage

OK, I more than made up for my excellent fabric usage stats in December. Yikes! I started off with this big ole bundle, full of restashed solids, some selections to include in the Effervescence qal pull, and a few options for the Pantone COTY Mocha Mousse.

And then there were a few more Mocha Mousse options....

And of course, just a bit of the new Kona COTY, Nocturne.

In all honesty, I also have to include the fabric included in the afore-mentioned Studio Mystery Box from Anna Graham.

All in all, that's A LOT. But it does feel good to have a bit of fresh stock as we head into the new year. Already I'm putting it to good use.

January Fabric Usage

Used up: 16.33 yards [10.44 projects + 5.89 recycled/gifted]
Brought in: 26.95 yards
Net: 10.62 yards

14 Years of A Quilter's Table

Yesterday was the 14th(!) anniversary of my beginning A Quilter's Table, the blog, back in 2011. I really wanted to post here, as an acknowledgement of sorts, but the words just didn't come. So instead, I sewed. Come to think of it, sewing, has really been the impetus for my writing all this time, right? So maybe this year, that was ok. Don't write, if the words aren't coming, but do what feels right to do. Just sew.

So in that small way, I did celebrate my blog anniversary, making a new thing that I could share with you all. I grabbed the bag of scraps that I'd gotten in the Studio Mystery Box from Anna Graham @noodlehead531 a few weeks ago. They suddenly seemed perfect for a journal cover I'd been wanting to make. I used a tutorial I'd used before by Rachel Houser @stitchedincolor, and luckily, I had just a few composition books stashed, so that was fortuitous.

Knowing the dimensions I'd eventually need - 12" x 29.5" - I started laying scraps out, piecing sections, and just figuring out shapes and placement as I went. I love working improvisationally like that!

Due to the lightness in color of some of the fabrics, I chose to line the cover, as Rachel suggested. The fabric I chose to use was something I'd ordered by mistake, Brussels Washer by Robert Kaufman. Though the color was perfect, I didn't realize until later that it was a linen/rayon blend. Its texture caused me to loosely quilt the layers together, which despite my first inclination, ended up working out ok. At any rate, once it was all sewn together in its final shape, I thought it was more than fine.

Admittedly, friends, I had no profound words to share on this anniversary. But I AM profoundly grateful for your presence here. Whether you're new, or you've been around for years, as many of you have been, I appreciate you. No matter what I choose to share (on not), you are encouraging, affirming, and kind. For all that and more, thank you.

An Art Swap

Randomly a few weeks ago, I was tagged on IG and saw that one of my mini mini quilts that I'd donated to a local Free Little Art Gallery, had traveled all the way to Arlington VA and was in a FLAG there! The curator, Stacey @freelittleartgallery_arlington and I got to talking, and before I knew it, we'd agreed to a little swap. I'd send her a few more mini mini quilts for her art gallery, and she'd send me a piece of art from hers. So I set to work making more mini minis.

For this set, I cut up a small finished quilt, Golden Honey, into 4" squares, binding each one with single-fold binding using a tutorial by Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl.

I sent four off to the Arlington VA art gallery, and kept two to donate elsewhere. And just this week, I got happy mail from FLAG | Dominion Hills - Arlington VA @freelittleartgallery_arlington - two pieces of art + a sticker!

The landscape is by Jen of @littlefreeartgallery_oldtown; and the pretzel is by Anastasia Inciardi @inciardi, who happens to be the creator of Mini Print Vending Machines @inciardimachines. I'm pleased to have them both.

Meanwhile, through the FLAG community, I also arranged to send the last two mini minis from this batch to Jennifer @freelittleartgalleryga. Looks like I need to make more soon!

A Year of Doodles

After finishing up the Oh Christmas Tree stitchery from Stitchdoodles, I went looking at the website, to see what else might be fun to stitch. And there I found A Year of Doodles. 

A monthly embroidery fabric panel, I ordered the pre-printed panel, which comes with a square of soft Calico stabilizer to put behind the panel before putting it into an embroidery hoop. I'm using a double-thickness of Aurifil 12wt for this panel. I'm thinking of using a different handful of colors for each month. And yes, I paid for shipping from the UK, but I figured for a year-long project, it was definitely worth it. Just a few more days, and I get to start in on February!

Open Jar LEAP | DOT

When Jen Broemel @jen.broemel and Robert Bosscher @rjbosscher announced their @open_____jar collaboration on January 1, I was intrigued. A 'no rules' place for creatives to play and experiment, I decided to at least follow along. Then a prompt for January was announced - LEAP. "We encourage you to interpret what this means for you and entice you to express this interpretation HOWEVER YOU WANT! JUST FOR THE SAKE OF DOING IT! ... It doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t have to work out, it just is." Oh I loved the sound of that. I already had a project list a mile long, but I added 'LEAP' to it just the same. Just in case.

Over half way through the month, I finally took time to respond.  I grabbed a scrap of inspiration fabric  that I'd picked off of the free table at our guild holiday party last month.

I also rummaged through my scraps to find pinks that would coordinate. Then I went back to the Open Jar post to remind myself what else Jen and Robert had said about the prompt. 

"We encourage you to interpret what this means for you and entice you to express this interpretation HOWEVER YOU WANT! JUST FOR THE SAKE OF DOING IT! What a beautiful thing, right? It doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t have to work out, it just is. . . and it will benefit you, we promise. We challenge you to open the jar and take a LEAP!"

And so I did, and these 'blocks' were the beginning. I wasn't sure where they were headed, but they were inspired by a quilt I'd seen with pieced columns. I left them on the design wall overnight, liking very much what I had so far.

But in the morning, when I was ready to continue on, I decided to change course, and cut all the wide enough slabs into 6" x 7" blocks. Where needed, I pieced slabs together, or added more fabric, until I had 16 blocks.

I took another pause, and that led to me adding space between some of the blocks.

And from there, I began to fill things in. Where I'd begun with a dot fabric (unknown) by tildasworld, a stripe by Just Wing It! by MoMo for moda, and various pink solids, I used Kona Ash to help fill in and around. It took me a couple of sewing sessions, but eventually had a quilt top I was happy with.

And then of course, I whipped up a pieced quilt back, begun with solid scraps leftover from the front. The dotty fabric that brought it up to size was Now We're Goin' Places by Monica Lee for Timeless Treasures.

I chose two Aurifil 50wt threads for quilting - 2600 [Dove] and 2423 [Baby Pink].

An uneven grid seemed to fit for the quilting, and where I normally do minimal marking before quilting, with this one, I marked every single line with my trusty hera marker. Bound in Kona Ash, this little quilt, which I named "Dot," finished at 25.5" x 29".

This project gave me inordinate amount of pleasure, so I'm really glad I took the leap, so to speak. AND in keeping with the commitment I recently made to take more photos of me with my quilts, I had hubby do just that.

Floral Stitches IX

Lately, when I'm finishing up the latest Floral Stitches sampler, I don't want the stitching to end. So I've taken to keeping it going with my own stitches where there aren't lines to follow. 

For this one, I filled in the petals of the flower, and outlined all the leaves with a double row of stitches. 

I'm continuing to stitch this series with Wonderfil perle cotton #8, just working through the stash of thread colors I have on hand. Nine done, and just three to go!

My Mocha Mousse

Lucky me, I found a swatch card of the Pantone COTY 2025 Mocha Mousse in my Christmas stocking! (Thanks @snippetsofsweetness!) So once the holidays were past, I got out my color cards and ordered up some possible fabric matches.

 

Honestly, I'm not 100% happy with my findings. It was really surprising how many colors looked like possibilities on the color card (or website), but in person, just were really not close at all. So here's what I gathered up to consider....

Bottom to top: 

• Kona Suede
• Kona Biscuit
• Ruby & Bee Field Mouse
• Moda Bella Solids Cocoa
• Riley Blake Confetti Nutmeg
• Painter's Palette Mocha

See the range of browns there? 

Of these, there is no perfect match, but the closest is Painter's Palette Mocha, and that's what I'm going to deem 'my' choice for mocha mousse. (No matter where I took a photo, the match seems closer in person than in a photo. Go figure.)

Second in line is Kona Suede. After I'd placed my fabric order, I was able to look at Steph @stephskardal's Pantone Matcher on her QuiltySolid app. (I have an Android phone and wasn't able to access the info earlier for some reason.) Anyway, the app now shows a few more considerations, if you want to search even further.

But I think I'll stick with the Painters Palette Mocha for now, and am looking forward to the annual Pantone Quilt Challenge @pantonequiltchallenge hosted by Sarah @bysarahruiz and Elizabeth @elizabethkray sometime this year. I'll be curious to see what they - and others - think is a good match. Until then....

Effervescence | Piecing 1

Yesterday, I was happy to complete all the cutting for the Effervescence Quilt Along. I did it in small segments over seven days, both to keep from getting bored with it, as well as listening to my body. Before jumping into today's piecing, I wanted to note that I did indeed make a change in my fabric pull - adding Kona Sprout in in place of Kona Fern. Though trying to use stash fabrics as much as I could, in the end Yvonne's @quiltintjetgirl use of Sprout in her original Effervescence palette indeed seemed a much better choice. That said, it feels great to have the cutting done and all my fabric pieces organized and clipped together.

Our first piecing assignment was to make blocks one to four. Each block measures 8.5" x 12.5", and I must say, they went together pretty quickly. 

In all honesty, I wasn't paying attention and mis-sewed block two and needed to recut a few pieces of fabric and go at it again. Can you believe that? Sometimes I wonder about myself. But all is good now, and of course I can't wait for out next piecing assignment!

Improv for Everyone :: Perfectly Pointless

It's been a couple of weeks now since I took another Improv for Everyone workshop with Maria Shell @mariashellquilts, this time "Perfectly Pointless." We were to pull a full range of solid fabrics in preparation for the workshop - purple, blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, red, and pink and neutrals (black, white, brown, and grey). I started with a pile of colors, figuring I'd pull neutrals as I needed or wanted them.

During class, I was able to at least begin piecing several kinds of triangle blocks, with no end purpose in mind, other than giving them a try.

Then after class, I continued on to make the triangle strip below.

And then my blocks hung out on the design wall.... until yesterday. For one of my classes at QuiltCon, I need to bring several 'orphan' blocks of various sizes. So I cleaned up what I had started from the workshop, and will take these. So like the arcs from my recent post, expect to see these again. One can hope.

Meanwhile, Maria has another Improv for Everyone (AKA very affordable) workshop coming this summer, and you can sign up for it now and get it on your calendar. The session is recorded, so even if you end up not being able to attend, you'll have some good info in hand. So check out Improv for Everyone—The Scrap Buster Edition–Virtual Workshop scheduled for July 12, 2025 if you're interested.

Block Studies Collective | Wayward Arcs

January started out feeling very full, and after being kind of ho-hum about December's BSC assignment - Abstractions -  I was feeling kind of the same with January's - Wayward Arcs, AKA quarter-circles. But I started in using a two-color option, because that intrigued me. Can't say I loved the result, but I'd tried.

And I almost just let it be at that. But Kathleen @cadoodleanddesigns and I got chatting, and both determined that we would at least give the rectangular shapes a try, and that changed everything. (BTW, go peek at Kathleen's first go with the prompt - I love it!)

Something about those shapes spoke to me. And even though that yellow/orange 'square' didn't turn out quite like I'd originally planned, I liked it and decided it leave it in. And then I continued to make another row.

I'm debating whether to make one more column, but at any rate, I think I'm going to save this little piece - about 16" x 28" - for a hand-quilting piece for one of my classes at QuiltCon. If so, you'll probably see it again....

Lace

Heading into our 11th year together as an improv bee, our Bee Sewcial membership has changed a little for 2025. Sadly, we said goodbye (for this year anyway) to Marci @marci_girl and Irene @hixsonir. But the good news is we said hello to Émilie @mili.tra and Tia @tiacurtisquilts. 

Leanne @shecanquilt is first up with sharing a prompt, and she chose Lace. I confess it sounded challenging from the start, and it has proven to be so.

My first block (above) was inspired by the edging of a lacy shawl in Leanne's inspiration pin board. Approximately 8" x 11", it was constructed ruler free.

The second block (above) would be about 11" x 14" if in more of a rectangular shape. This one challenged me every step of the way. I considered continuing to make it larger, but decided to move on to a third block to get in the size requirement needed (approximately equal to two 12.5" square blocks).

Now the third block (below) is the kind of improv I really enjoy. Approximately 8.5" x 11.5", it too, was inspired by a lacy shawl.

So, three blocks in response to the prompt this time. Overall, I found it a challenging one to respond too, until that third block. That's just how it is sometimes! But I'll pack up the blocks - along with some scraps and leftover pieced bits - and plan to deliver them to Leanne at QuiltCon.