OUT this month: 0
YTD Net Change: 41-5/8 yards out
Mini Scrappy Serendipity Blocks
Here are 36 blocks on the wall. I actually made 38-ish plus parts but some didn't make the cut.
I don't know if this is the final layout or not. When moving blocks around, these are my considerations:
- No arms of the same color next to each other
- No blades of the same color next to each other
- No backgrounds of the same hue next to each other except neutrals. There are several pink/peach tinted backgrounds, several yellow, and a couple green, and I don't want them side-by-side.
- Least favorite blocks go on the far right where they won't be visible on the bed from most of the room.
With sashing, this quilt will finish 98" square for a queen size bed with an extra deep mattress. The sides and bottom row of blocks will hang down.
In the photo above, the block at the lower left looks like the background is too dark. I didn't notice this in real life. I'll look again and if it bothers me IRL, I'll replace the background with something lighter.
Here are the last two blocks I made and one I revised to improve the fussy cut centers. Just by coincidence they all happened to be green arms/coral blades, so they're widely scattered in the layout.
36 blocks, six fabrics each, no repeats. I even replaced two center squares where I had used a fabric then decided later to use it for arms. My buddy Kevin the Quilter challenged me to use no repeats, and I can say, I did it, 216 different prints.
When you look at the grouping as a whole, there's a certain sort of messy cohesiveness to it. While no individual fabric is repeated, there is repetition of orange/coral/soft reds and teal/turquoise/cool greens. (Sorry, everything looks dark in the photos.) I worked at avoiding Matchy-Matchy blocks, instead pushing for some clashiness. I figured out a way to achieve clashiness that worked for me, and I'll explain it in another blog post.
Next up, finding fabric for sashing. That will have to wait until I get a deadline project done, so these blocks will have to sit in time out for a month while I work on the priority project.
Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 12/1
Some new fabrics have recently come my way, and they've made it into these latest blocks. My friend shopped for me at retreat, and I shopped online and at a couple of local quilt shops. Even with buying only quarter yard or half yard cuts, my stash report will take a hit this month. It's okay.
I started this project more than a year ago, but apparently, I didn't post about it until this post in April. It started as an attempt to use this border fabric and my extensive yellow-green and olive stash. 9 yards of this fabric were purchased in 2010 for backing for a green quilt, but the shade of green turned out to be wrong.* So the yardage has been languishing in my backing stash ever since, taking up space I could use for other fabrics.
I also had an overflowing bin of yellow-green and olive fabrics. My plan was to use them with neutrals in a checkerboard design. Along the way I added some greener greens and some accents of purple and orange.
I die-cut 2" strips from all the dark fabrics, and from as many low volumes as I could pull together, both white-based and ivory-based. As usual, I cut way too many strips.
I made strata alternating light and dark strips; cross cut the strata; and assembled checkerboard blocks. Each block has 64 squares and finished at 12".
The squares finish at 1-1/2 inches, so not truly a Postage Stamp quilt. But almost!
This was started back when PCQ was making twin bed size quilts for one of the charities we support. Since we don't need twin size now, I set aside six of the blocks and made the quilt a large throw size. It will comfortably cover a grown man, 68 by 80". And the masculine colors make it suitable for a man or possibly an older teen boy.
I used up a lot of that print for the backing and used the backing offcuts for the binding. I still have some left, so it will go back in the stash until I can find another use for it.
The six unused blocks will go into another charity quilt, probably to be assembled at a future retreat. And the leftover strata are also being used for another charity quilt, in WIP status now, which I may work on at social sewing after the new year. Die cutting is always helpful, but in my case, I always cut too much!
*Expensive lesson learned: Always take swatches of the fabrics used on the front of the quilt when shopping for backing.
Link ups: My Quilt Infatuation 11/13, Alycia Quilts 11/14, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 11/17
I now have 25 of 36 blocks made. This was supposed to be a long-term project, but it's been so much fun designing each block as its own palette!
A friend asked me to show the blocks in groups of four, so here goes:
Linking up with Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
I finally got around to quilting the windmill baby quilt. Since it's 40" wide, it fit on one width of backing fabric, but only if I quilted it on my domestic machine. There wasn't enough extra width to load it on the long arm. I gave it a loose meander to keep it soft and drapey. It's been a while since I FMQ'd on my home machine, and I'm out of practice! My loops aren't as smooth as when I do them on the long arm.
These blocks are fun to make because each one is designed as its own unique palette. Since there is a lot of planning and cutting involved, I can make one block a day, in about three to four hours.
20 blocks will make a 66 x 80" throw. After consulting with my husband, I've decided to make a 36 block, 98" quilt for our bed. There will be sashing between the blocks.
Each block has 6 prints in it. So far there's only one repeated fabric among all these blocks, and since it's a center square, that's an easy replacement. I'll definitely have to collect some more fabrics in order to not have repeats among 36 blocks.
The palette is heavy on teals and corals from light to dark, as well as everything else except purples and yellow greens. Any blues are teal cast, and any pinks are warm, not purplish.
Some of my prints and templates offer opportunities for fussy cutting.
Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 10/20 and Alycia Quilts 10/24
So, this was supposed to be a long-term project. Funny how that is not happening...
One test block became another. And then I couldn't resist pulling fabrics for a third block. Each block is its own palette, and it's fun to pull favorite fabrics and combine them. Plus, a new FQ order arrived, ordered specifically for this project, with some fussy cutting possibilities.
With all this practice, sewing those tight curves has gotten easier and they're coming out smoother. This quilt is planned to be 20 blocks, so I have a few to go.
I'm trying hard to make the blocks not all matchy-matchy. I want some clashiness in most blocks and in the overall palette for interest. It's really hard for me to do clashy!
So far, there are no repeated fabrics. With six fabrics per block I don't know if that will last or if I'll eventually have to repeat something. We'll see.
Link Ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 10/6; Alycia Quilts 10/10
It seems like I was sewing almost every day this month. What do I have to show for it? Not many blog posts, that's for sure. I was quilting on things that either are not bound yet, or belong to someone else. I made some piecing progress, or not...
I thought I had finished the teal top, but blog readers saw that I attached the bottom border upside down. That needs to be fixed before I can count the top finished.
On my list of goals for this month was to finish piecing
the top of the teal value study project.
Voila!
Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 9/29; Alycia Quilts 10/3
Once again, I saw something inspiring on Pinterest. It was credited to "StitchMischief, Dec. 2020," but I can't find the link now. It's a scrappy quilt similar to but not the same as Scrappy Serendipity. This design features dark Plus motifs on a colorful low volume background. Here's the inspiration photo:
In my ongoing efforts to use up scraps and stash, I pulled out everything that could work for the black or charcoal plus shapes. Then I pulled out all the harder-to-use low volumes, the ones with light grounds but a lot of color or pattern or contrast in them. After raiding my scraps, I also cut bits from yardage. Didn't make a dent!
Now I'm in the process of making blocks. I think I'll need 54 of them.
I had some finishes this month; thus, I had good stash usage. I've been making an effort to use as much as possible from my stash this year, and my stats are looking good.
The big finish was Cherry Jubilee. The fabrics in the top were already counted out, but now that it's finished I can count the backing and binding.
Finally finished!
I started this top back in November, pieced with lots of tiny scraps. Then the top sat for a while. I finally had an opportunity to make the backing and quilt it. Bonus, I got the binding on, too.
Because of the cherry red and cream color palette and some low volume prints with cherries in them, I'm naming this quilt Cherry Jubilee. I really like how it turned out.
For the backing, I used a beautiful William Morris print in burgundy that I had purchased for something else and then opted not to use. I had almost enough, so I spliced in a little of the burgundy print fabric used for the binding.
Link ups: Alycia Quilts 8/28, From Bolt to Beauty 8/28, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 9/1, My Quilt Infatuation 9/4