Sequel

Guilty. Seriously, I had no intention whatsoever of starting a new project right on the heels of my QuiltCon 2022 Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge project, Striped Much. You know I've got a list of wips to work on, and I fully intended to get on with it. But there I was gathering the scraps of Striped Much into a pile to toss into the scrap basket, and the fleeting thought came to me.... just see what they can become right NOW. 

Since it was one of those weekends where my days allowed for that, I went ahead and started with the one pieced stripe section I had, and as if on instinct, it became the center of an improv log cabin 'block.' I had several long pieced strips from the backing of Striped Much after post-quilting trimming, and those began to wind themselves around the center. I especially enjoyed the secondary shapes that I was able to create.

At one point, I cut a few binding strips so I'd have them when I needed them, and kept piecing, until there wasn't enough for another side. And then it was time for quilting. Some fun quilting was definitely in order, and I quickly decided on a dense angled grid. They never disappoint, and it certainly didn't this time either. 

The little quilt measures just 13" x 17", but the amount of creative delight it provided was huge. Each of my seven cuts of Artisan Cotton are represented, though just one small piece of the Coral / Aqua made it in - part of that center striped section I started with. And just for the record, I pieced the upper stripes out of the smallest scraps to echo those in the center. In the end, I used all but a few inches of these beautiful fabrics. Mission accomplished.

Striped Much

Just for fun, I decided to combine the QuiltCon 2022 Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge sponsored by Windham Fabrics with the Connected Stripes Challenge. Of course for fabric, I needed to use Windham Fabrics Artisan Cotton, a cross-dyed quilter-weight cotton that reads as a solid. According to the Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge Rules, I needed to use at least 3 of the 4 challenge fabrics. 

Challenge Fabrics

• 40171-68 Wine / Pink
• 40171-47 Coral / Aqua
• 40171-35 Aqua / Blue
• 40171-12 Blue / Orchid

I opted to leave out the Orchid in making the front, but you'll see it on the back of my challenge quilt. We could add specific Windham Artisan Cotton neutrals, and I chose three.

Neutral Fabrics

• 40171-1 Charcoal / White
• 40171-55 Taupe / Light Grey
• 40171-27 Black / Copper

I was able to find a good selection of these fabrics at Crimson Tate, which was great, as I already knew them to have good, quick service.

For the Connected Stripes Challenge, I basically just needed to make something with stripes, post progress on Instagram, and have it completed by October 3. Perfect! To start, I made a big ole striped slab. And then I made another.

I had in mind to create something reminiscent of Loosely Connected, but on a larger scale. The nested striped triangles went well enough, though what you see below - the finished top before quilting - is not quite what the finished quilt looks like. But those side gray edges at least gave me a close enough view of the end result to start in on quilting.

For the back, I used the largest leftover pieces of Artisan Cotton, plus 'scraps' from my first go at 'borders' for the front. Yeah, I was going for too similar a look to Loosely Connected, and it ended up the scale just wasnt right. So onto the back they went.

For quilting, I used Aurifil 50wt 2605 [medium gray] and 1125 [medium teal], echo-stitching inside of each triangle. On the gray edges, I marked triangles with my Hera marker, then echo-stitched inside of them too.

Once quilted and I went to square it up, the gray sides just didn't want to square up evenly. So the right one decided to be a triangle, which fit in, especially since I had quilted it as one. The more I look at it, the more I like the unexpected proportions. 

The binding had to be in an Artisan Cotton Challenge fabric or neutral listed above, and I chose Charcoal/White, with just a few inches of Aqua/Blue for some matched binding on the blue triangle. The quilt measures 23.5" x 32.5" and was a fun little foray, using a palette that I may not have otherwise chosen. But love the crisp finish of those Artisan Cottons, and how nicely they quilt up.

Considerable Blog Touring

Little did I realize when I recently said 'yes' to two different blog tours that they'd start on the very same day - TODAY! So things have been a tad hectic getting ready for them, but I'm excited about both, and it's kind of nice that 1 is for a new book, and the other a new line of fabric!

First up is Heidi/Fabric Mutt's Busy Girl Sews! Heidi asked me ages ago if she could interview me for her book, so it's a real pleasure to be able to participate in the blog tour as well. 

So meet Sew Organized for the Busy Girl: Tips to Make the Most of Your Time & Space. It's a fun book, with loads of lovely, useful projects.  I love the sidebars in the book, where Heidi shares ideas to make project time more productive, plus there's 'Busy Girl Speaks' snippets from various sewing bloggers, speaking on blogging, organizational tips, and more. I have no doubt you'd find Heidi's book a pleasure to sew from.

I'm currently working on quilting my project, using some lovely Artisan Cottons courtesy of Windham Fabrics. Here's a sneak peek and a list of the blog stops each Monday till July!

March 30 - Lynne of Lily's Quilts ~ Tour Kickoff & Book Giveaway! 

April 6 - Jodi of Tales of Cloth & Angela of Cut to Pieces

April 13 - Lindsay of Craft Buds & Debbie of A Quilter's Table

April 20 - Leanne of She Can Quilt

April 27 - Fat Quarter Shop

May 4 - Erin of Why Not Sew?

May 11 - Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts

May 18 - Svetlana of SOTAK Handmade

May 25 - Lucy of Charm About You

June 1 - Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade

June 8 - Becca of Bryan House Quilts

June 15 - Beth of Plum & June

June 22 - Jessica of Quilty Habit

June 29 - Caroline of Sew Can She

July 6 - Heidi of Fabric Mutt (Tour Wrap!)

Next up is the Etno Blog Tour, using Pat Bravo's beautiful new fabric line, ETNO for Art Gallery Fabrics.

I was sent the "Dainty Folk" collection - lovely aquas and corals with white and black - a really delightful mix of colors and prints. Here's a sneak peek of my project, and again, a list of blog tour stops for Etno!

March 30th → Allison Dutton │Allison Sews
March 31st → Brandi Blowers │BNB Studios
April 01st → Miki Simic│Mint Needle

 April 02nd → Rochelle New│Lucky Lucille

April 03rd → Teri Dodds│Fa Sew LA

April 04th → Lisa Nielsen│The Quilt Jam

April 05th → Hilary Smith│Young Texan Mama

April 06th → Sharon McConnell│Color Girl Quilts

April 07th → Marija Vujcic│Marija's Fabric Creation

April 08th → Nancy Purvis│Owens Olivia

April 09th → Becky McCoy│Sewin 4 Him

April 10th → Erin Stewart│Poppy Quin

April 11th → Kathryn Upitis│Upitis Quilt

April 12th → Lori Hartman│Lori Hartman Designs

April 13th → Abbey Garcia│Sew Charleston
April 14th → Aida Valverde│Aika Maku

April 15th → Debbie Jeske│A Quilter's Table

April 16th → Lara Bowditch│Scrap Quilt Preach
April 17th → Isabel Kelly│Lamb and Wolfie

April 18th → Kylie Kelsheimer│Faith Love Fabric

April 21st → Blog Tour Final Recap

So I sure hope you join in the tours - you're bound to see some beautiful projects and find inspiration for sure!