Fresh Sewing Day

Overall, this summer has seen numerous "littles" created, and very few actual quilts, but it's been fun for a change, and I've tried all sorts of new (to me) patterns and techniques, so it's all good in my book. Fresh Sewing Day at Lily'sQuilts is, of course, an awesome way to show them all off!

The Zakka Sew-Along has been the instigator of weekly small projects. This month, it was two "I love it"'s to two "um, I'm not so sure about this." All still good fun though.

1. Water Bottle Holder, 2. Delightful Linen Pouch, 3. Patchwork Ribbon, 4. Spoon Bookmark

Bee blocks were minimal, but they were definitely enjoyable to put together.

1. Gemstone Blocks, 2. Floating Frames

And these two little polaroid blocks sent me off into the crazy arena of swap-hosting! The *Picture-Perfect* Polaroid Block Swap seems to have a life of its own, and I'm just anxious to see it through! What great participation in the swapping group!

A couple of random littles - a triple-zip pouch I've been meaning to try for ages. I'm pretty pleased I was able to figure it out and I love the finish. Then there was another of Jeni's drawstring bags, my go-to bag pattern.

1. ">Triple-Zip Pouch front, 2. Lined Drawstring Bag

And though these aren't finished projects {yet}, they are important bits in my quilting journey, all from the Improvisational Patchwork class I took from Quilting Modern author, Katie Pedersen last weekend. Maybe next month I'll have a finish to show from this set. (I hope so!)

1. Improvisational Piecing, 2. Improvisational Piecing, 3. Improvisational Piecing, 4. Improvisational Piecing, 5. Improvisational Piecing, 6. Improvisational Piecing

And there were two quilts this month - A Taste of Marmalade in baby-size . . .

and my pride and joy this month, G.O. Modern. Finishing up this quilt with my 4x5 modern Quilt Bee blocks was a great feeling. The quilting alone was a major challenge and accomplishment for me, and it definitely has given me confidence to move ahead with my free-motion quilting. 

The photo-shoot itself was a highlight of my month as well. Talk about having the quilt in the right place at the right time. Of course you can see some of my fav shots in the blog post links above.


So it's been another full and productive month - just the way I like it!


Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day!

G.O. Quilting

After sharing my G.O. Modern quilt this week, I had several requests for more detail about my quilting of each block. Understand that it was challenging for me on many levels . . . the size of the quilt alone is large for my quilting space . . . the variety of colors in the blocks had me switching out thread colors right and left (3 shades of gray, orange, and white) . . . I'm still a newbie when it comes to free-motion quilting especially, and after struggling with turning and shifting the quilt for my work with the walking foot, I found fmq 'easier' because it called for less turning. But that meant I tried all sorts of patterns I had never attempted before.

But in the interest of full disclosure, process-sharing, and all that good stuff, I'm going to show you - up close and personal. I don't even know the names of everything I tried, but I'll tell you the best I can. So I'll start with the top row, moving left to right in each row. Here goes.

fmq, horizontal loops, brand new but felt great

 fmq, wandering swirls, one of my standards

fmq, oblong pebbles, new to me & harder than 'regular' pebbles, 

but not too bad

walking foot, vertical organic straight-line, one of my standards

walking foot, random lines, easy & quick

walking foot, horizontal organic straight-line

fmq, loops in each triangle, a little hard to fill each space evenly

fmq, vertical organic straight-line with swirls, I love this & it really flows

fmq, circle swirls around edge with "hills" in the center, both new to me and "so-so"

walking foot, echoed straight-line, easy but alot of turning

walking foot, stitch-in-the-ditch, sounds like it should be easy but hard for me to get accurate

fmq, swirly circle in a circle, new to me & pretty successful

 fmq, "flowers" in center then loops in corners, new to me &

 felt out of control

fmq, elongated tubes, not perfect but fun

walking foot, echo-stitched in each quadrant, this is the one that prompted "OH MY GOSH" the most & the last one I did 

with the walking foot

 fmq, pebbles, had done before & I felt pretty comfortable with

 walking foot, kind of in-the-ditch grid, I don't like it

fmq, wandering swirls in each square, this was fun

 walking foot, vertical wavy stitch, quick & easy

fmq, elongated tubes in sections, went well

Whew! There ya go! 

G.O. Modern

Over a year ago, the 4x5 modern Quilt Bee was created, and I was super pleased to be welcomed in. First up was making a mosaic for my hive.

click here for photo credits

I remember struggling for weeks over what block to make for the first round, and finally chose "Planetarium" by Elizabeth Hartman. 

For the next two rounds, I was more confident, and continued to enjoy making interesting, modern blocks in a variety of palettes, while my own orange and gray blocks came in one by one.

Do any of you remember this post, where I begged for advice? Now What? What was I to do with my stack of finished blocks? I mocked up 7 different sashing scenarios, and in the end, ordered both KONA Tangerine and Charcoal, still not sure what direction I would go.

When I actually laid out the blocks on my two fabric options, the gray looked nice, but the orange just popped. In the end, rather than sashing, I framed each block, then trimmed each to 15" to compensate for the minor discrepancies in block sizes.

I hadn't originally planned on a border, but the way I'd framed the blocks, they really needed more along the outside edge. So the charcoal came into play after all. And I'm pleased with the overall framed look it gives the sampler.

For backing, I chose gray Gridlock from Dear Stella - love it! And I was just a tad short, thus the pieced bit in one corner. I drug out half my gray/orange stash to pick out a binding and finally settled on a subtle but nicely coordinating gray stripe by Riley Blake.

Now. The quilting. Almost always the step where I question myself the most. What in the world would do this quilt justice? This modern sampler from my first bee, made of blocks contributed by 15 bee-mates from all over the world. I decided I should keep right on stretching myself. I needed to do something unique in each block.

And so I did. I think I probably said, "Oh my GOSH!" about 100 times, maybe more, as I struggled with rotating it as I sewed, trying one new pattern after another. Daughter dear was over in the middle of it all, and I told her, "It's not perfect." To which she replied, "So what? It's an experience quilt!" And she was right, of course. The journey of participating in a bee, of creating modern blocks, of expanding my machine quilting skills all converged in this quilt.

Which is why when it came time to name this quilt, I gave it quite a bit of thought. I wanted to include a reference to my palette of gray and orange, while also giving a nod to the overall process. And finally I came up with "G.O. Modern" - where I've traveled in the making of this quilt, as well as an encouragement for the future.

 G.O. Modern measures approximately 65x80". 

It was machine-pieced and quilted, bound by hand, 
machine washed and dried.

Photos taken at Park Avenue Salon, Mukilteo WA. 

This quilt is my first Third Quarter Finish-A-Long finish {see list here}. Linking up with TNT Thursday, show off friday, T.G.I.F.F., Fabric Tuesday, and from the blue chair.