BSC Round-Up

Recently completing six months of Block Studies Collective Season 2 with Tara Faughnan @tarafaughnan, I thought it would be fun to share all of the projects I made during that time. Among them there are four small quilts, a pillow, and a mounted canvas. This was my first season joining the collective, and I found it at times challenging, but not difficult in the least. I especially enjoyed learning some tips from Tara, and especially some new ways to consider using traditional blocks. Note that Tara didn't give any pressure to make finished projects with our pieces. Play and experimenting with shapes and colors was primary. Still, I liked the idea of completing something with each prompt, so here are my six finished projects with links to a post about each one:

Hourglass - Sands of Time

Log Cabin Pillow

Abstractions - Abstractions Redux

Wayward Arcs - Arcs

Big Slice - Octad

Grid Work - Mesh

Do you have a favorite block shape or color palette you've played with lately? I think it's a good thing to make time for now and then. I'm certainly glad I did.

Abstractions Redux

So here's where I left things on January 3 - putting my Block Studies Collective Abstractions piece away and just moving on. To be perfectly honest, I had already given half of my Tara Faughnan-curated bundle of fabric to my daughter, but I kept the pieced bits and the long strips of fabric I'd already cut. So I had a little to work with if it ever called my name again. Luckily, it did.

Honestly, it was hard for me to say good-bye to the season of Block Studies Collective with five finished works, and this pile of unfinished business. Suddenly, I wanted to see if I could make something with it. And that's where this part of the story begins.

I just started brand new with the bits and strips of fabric I had left, not really knowing how big I could go with it. The goal was to mix things up a lot more than I did on the first go-round. And I liked that much better. That said, I maybe should have paid more attention to trimming blocks as I pieced them, as things looked a little more improv-y than anticipated. But actually I was kind of ok with it though. It felt like mine.

At this point, the piece was about 13.5" square, and rather than make a mini quilt with it, I decided to finally try Kelly Spell's @kellyspell tutorial on How to Mount a Quilt on Canvas. 

I purchased a wrapped canvas that measured 14" square x 1.5" deep. I'd actually not been sure what size I wanted when I went to the store, but they were all out of 16" or even 12", so I grabbed what they had. And then after debating whether or not to quilt my piece, I decided yes, I would hand-quilt it. So I added a 2" black border to it, knowing full well my finished edges would not be square, and basted it on Quilter's Dream Cotton Request Loft (low loft). Then I loosely hand-quilted it with Wonderfil Spagetti 12wt SP202 [Charcoal]. 

Once done, I added the black facing per the tutorial to finish it up. It's not perfect, but I like it, and I learned a couple of things to pay closer attention to next time. 

I highly recommend Kelly's tutorial, and if you wonder why the staples on the back aren't more numerous, as she suggested, it's because we ran out. I'll be adding several more once we restock. But still, I feel good about the finished piece, and even better about doing something with those fabric bits. Truth is, I still have that original discard, so time will tell if I revisit it yet again.

Block Studies Collective | Grid Work

This, the final prompt of this season of Block Studies Collective, proved to be a doozy. It's not that I wasn't familiar with the general technique. (take a quick peek here) It's that when I saw a particular sample of Tara's @tarafaughnan with varied colors of dots, I wanted to create something similar. Except I found it to be a kind of mind game. And I wasn't really happy with my first try.

So I tried again. 

Then I went and put the second piece up on the design wall, and guess what? The two absolutely 'fit.'

After sleeping on it, I still felt they were good together, so I started playing with what should go in the upper right corner. It took a while, but....

I finally had a finished top I was happy enough with to continue. I had planned on just speeding things along and finding a backing in stash, but nothing really suited me so I went ahead and pieced one from scraps.

For quilting, I used Aurifil 50wt 2612 [Arctic Sky] to do an imperfect(!) curved grid.

Then finished off with matched binding, with the finished piece measuring 25" x 38", which I'm pretty sure is my largest block studies piece. I've named this one "Mesh."

With that, and one more group zoom on March 31, this season of Block Studies Collective is done. I'm thinking of revisiting one month's focus, so I'll be back to share all six projects together after that. Meanwhile, I thoroughly enjoyed the series.

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....