Color BOM: Curves

The skill for this month in the STLMQG Color BOM is curves. I made a Drunkard's Path block.

They announced that this is the last month of the BOM. I'm guessing that after the New Year they'll announce a challenge to put all your color BOM blocks together into a quilt. It'll be quite a challenge to puzzle together. Here's what I have to work with, plus some small filler blocks.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

This will certainly be a challenge! Wish me luck...

Sew Me St. Louis 2019

The 2019 STLMQG retreat was a great success. I had so much fun I forgot to take many pictures.

There were about 100 attendees. We had a huge ballroom and lots of table space - each person had their own whole table. I happened to be in one of the corners - it was a great location with power outlets nearby and convenient to the ironing stations in the breakout room across the hall. In the photo below, the chair in the lower right is at the edge of my "pod."

I took way more projects than I could possibly get done. I got the #1 priority done, the baby quilt for my niece's baby girl due in November. I also got the triangle project finished to a flimsy. Here it is in rows on the "wall."

This project was started at Sew Me in 2017 - I had recently gotten a die cutter and I cut all those triangles from stash and assembled the HSTs at retreat. After laying them out at home and labeling the rows and columns, I started assembling the rows at last year's retreat. This year I finished the top. I'll try to get a photo for Friday's post.

I thoroughly enjoyed being with my pod-mates. We had some great conversation and enjoyed each other's company. Left to right: me, Judy, Nancy, and Sara. Judy got three baby quilt tops pieced for Project Linus and made progress on a Halloween quilt. Nancy got a Halloween top finished, a long time UFO, and got more than 100 log cabin blocks pieced as far as you see here. That's a lot of logs and a lot of piecing! Sara tried paper piecing for the first time and succeeded masterfully. She also whipped out a Sew Together bag, her first.

Over the course of three days everyone was able to circulate and check out what all the others were making. Such a huge variety of projects! By day three, several people were laying blocks out on the floor in the hall and assembling tops. Some amazing projects were shared each evening at Show and Tell.

The scrap scramble was much less chaotic this year because it was held in the breakout room with the scraps on tables instead of on the floor. I contributed a stuffed gallon baggie but, by plan, I selected only a few pieces to bring home with me. I really don't need more scraps, but some of them were very appealing.

I think my demo about using glue basting for machine finished binding went well. Here's a link to an earlier post about how I do it. 

Many thanks to the Sew Me organizing committee for putting on a great event! It was lots of fun and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Getting Ready for Retreat

STLMQG's in-town retreat called Sew Me St. Louis is this weekend, starting Friday morning. I'm getting ready....

First up is the special girl baby quilt that's due in November. I worked on it a little bit while I was in Florida, and now it's at the point of sewing the rows together. I'd like to get it to a finished flimsy and even sandwiched and basted before I go. Then I can quilt it while I'm there. If I don't get it that far along ahead of time, I'll just take it in whatever state it's in and work on it there.

I'm taking UFOs to work on. The triangles for this one were sewn at the 2017 retreat. Then the blocks were partially sewn into rows at last year's retreat. I put it on the wall and took photos when I got home to remember how far along it is for this year. The parts are all organized and ready to finish sewing together. No deadline; this will be a donation.

Another very old UFO just needs a little attention to become a flimsy. This was made about ten years ago for a demo on how to sew mitered stripe borders, so only the final miter seams are needed. I left it unfinished thinking I could use it again for future demos, but haven't, so it's time to finish and donate it.

I'm also taking a bee project from last year. The "Sew Bee Its" made blocks for me using Jaime's Have Faith pattern and I need to make a few more blocks and set them together into a flimsy. This will also be a donation. 

I need to finish cutting a few more pieces for the Have Faith project before I go. That's why the baby quilt may not get basted in time. I prefer to have things for retreat pre-cut and kitted up because I've been known to make cutting errors due to distractions and not paying attention. Basting I think I can handle at retreat, especially a small baby quilt, and on Friday it won't be crowded and I may be able to find a spare table to work on. 

I'm giving a demo on machine finished binding with glue basting on Sunday morning, I have the SSSSM quilt all quilted and the binding sewn on, ready to demonstrate how to finish it. Once finished, it'll get washed, then it will go to Project Linus at our November meeting.

Last but not least is my Paint Chip Challenge mini. I have my paint chips; the assignment is to use a complimentary or analogous color palette. I have both - Aqua and Coral are complimentary, and Indigo/Aqua/Green are analogous. I have nice differences in value to work with for contrast. The mini can't be any larger than 10" and must be quilted. I have no idea what I'll end up with, but I want it to be improvisational. Yes me, improv. Someone had a Kona card at the meeting where we drew paint chips so I matched to the nearest colors, but I found what I needed in my stash. 

My older Bernina is still packed from vacation. It has a great walking foot and I want to use this machine to quilt the baby quilt. Machine, accessories, and power cord, check. 

My project packing is in progress. These "cube bags" are great - each one holds three standard project boxes, or two project boxes and my sit-upon cushion. One bag is ready to go; the other still needs the stuff for the baby quilt and the project box for the Have Faith top. 

Since I'll need an iron for my demo and they asked for volunteers to bring ironing boards and irons, I signed up to bring mine. I have my scraps all baggied up for the Scrap Scramble on Saturday night. So that's even more to load into the car and take along. I'll pick up snacks to share on my way in Friday morning. Am I missing anything? 

I don't think I'll run out of projects to work on, but if I do, no problem. Since the retreat is in town, I'm sleeping at home in my own bed each night, so I can always take something more the next day if I need to.  

Looking forward to fun at Sew Me St. Louis with my STLMQG friends!

Designing the Dresden Medallion, Continued

In my last post I shared a new project I'm thinking about. Scroll down to read it if you want to, then come back. Thank you to all who left comments and shared your thoughts about the design - I appreciate your input.

My starter palette, to which I'll add friends.

I made test blocks (using scraps) to help me decide which layout to use. The blocks would finish at 8 inches.

My test block with 3 blades, each blade 3-1/4" across at the widest.

4 blades, 2-1/2" wide

5 blades, 2" wide

Usually we think of Dresden Plates as having 20 blades, 5 per quadrant, as made by the Easy Dresden tool, so the five blade fan is the most familiar. When I made the blocks, to my disappointment I saw the 5 blade option as the most pleasing. Maybe because it's familiar?

But the fabrics I want to use are a little larger scale and I want more of each to show. I also want to fussy cut some of the prints. That's why I created the 3 and 4 blade options. 

The 4 blade option does allow a little more of each print to show. They say it's more artistic and visually pleasing to use an odd number of something rather than an even number. But I'm not sure how important the number of blades in each block is to the overall layout, because the layout itself is an odd number of something, 3 curves per side.  Here are the layout options using grey to illustrate the overall shape. 

3 blades per block

4 blades per block

5 blades per block

The overall snaky shape is similar, just more or less angular. Note the negative space and the interesting shapes formed. 

Originally I was leaning to 3 or maybe 4 blades per block. My friends at coffee last week mostly preferred the five blade option. One of the comments on Monday's post really resonated with me. Julie, whose design sense I respect and appreciate, said "Without an enormous amount of thought (or reading the previous comments), I prefer the three-blade layout. Why? It involves a custom template (up your alley), it allows more of the fabric to show (again, letting you feature those prints you said you preferred), and it is an atypical layout (again, making it special to you and not just like someone else's design)."

I said I was disappointed when I didn't immediately love the 3 blade block the most. But as I contemplate the design, I'm drawn to the 3 blade option for all the reasons Julie articulated, plus the interesting negative space shape in the overall layout. 

Here's the EQ rendering of the 3 blade option in color using prints of similar scale to mine: 

I'm going with the 3 blade option. Maybe it'll tun out to be something good. Or maybe it'll turn out to be a big disappointment. It's more of a risk. But it's more individual, more unique. I'd rather take the risk than make something expected and ho-hum. 

Link ups:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt

Designing

I'm bored... 

My stash isn't huge, and it seems lately I've stocked up on mostly blenders, tone-on-tones, color-plus-white, and low volumes. My sewing lately seems to be mostly quick, simple donation quilts, nothing that takes any planning or focus.

I've recently finished two long-term projects, Dr. Seuss's Pickle Dish and the Checkerboards and Dresdens top. I need a new long-term project that's more complicated than simple mindless sewing.

Ever since I wrote my post for the Quilter's Meet and Greet, I've been thinking about something like a cross between Dresdens and Loop in Motion. I've been playing in EQ.

Option 1: traditional five blades per fan using the Easy Dresden tool; each blade 2" at the widest.

Option 2: Four blades per fan, custom template, 2-1/2" at the widest.

Option 3: Three blades, custom template, 3-1/4" at the widest.

All blocks are 8" finished, quilts 68" finished as shown.

I've also looked through my entire stash and found it lacking. I prefer warm colors and I want something a little bolder than the blenders etc. that I have - maybe even clashy.

While in Florida recently I visited A and E Fabrics in Pensacola and did a bit of stash enhancement. From the sale aisles I found some yardage for backings.

And I selected some prints that may form the nucleus of a new project. For scale, the bands of the Jen Kingwell print (bottom) are 5" wide, and the largest dandelion seed head showing (right) is about 2" in diameter. My favorite prints of these are the olive ground floral and the russet poppies.

I showed all this to my friends at our First Saturday gathering over the weekend and asked for their input. I won't tell you which of the layouts they preferred. I did say that by next meeting I would look for background fabric and make a test block of each layout. 

I'd like your input on where I'm going with this and which layout you prefer and why. Please share your thoughts; this is still in the percolating-around-in-my-mind stage and is subject to change, revision, further development or whatever. 

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, and Em's Scrapbag

CCD Flimsy

The Chunky Churn Dash blocks all made it into a flimsy which is now finished. Actually it was finished at the end of September, but this is the first chance I've had to post about it.

Many thanks to Wanda of Exuberant Color for the precut print squares, and to the donor of the purple solids from free table at STLMQG. Wanda also sent backing fabric. Thank you!

The colors are actually much brighter than they look in photos.

Some little girl who's crazy about purple will appreciate this.

I'm giving a demo on machine stitched binding using glue basting at a retreat in a couple weeks. I'll
quilt this and use it for the demo sample. Then I'll donate it to Project Linus, STLMQG's charity this year. Donation quilts are due at the November meeting so it'll be done in plenty of time.

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday, Finished or Not Friday, and Peacock Party

Color BOM Blocks: Applique

The skill for this month in the STLMQG Color Wheel Spoke BOM is applique. I don't like to do applique, although I admire applique quilts made by others.

Last month the skill was fussy cutting, and I ended up using a fussy cut center for a Dresden plate block. The center was die cut and machine appliqued on.

It was not difficult, and with a little glue basting it didn't slip around. I decided to make more appliqued circle blocks for this month. Repetition being one of the elements of design, I can use these 6" blocks scattered throughout the quilt, or sew them together to make one 12" block.

I didn't have any thread to match my yellow green color, so I used monofilament in the top and white 50 wt. in the bobbin, and stitched with a small blanket stitch. These are actually raw edge applique, but the stitches are close together so I don't think they'll fray too much. Again I basted with glue, four tiny dabs at the edges of each circle. I also used lightweight paper as a stabilizer, and tore it away from the back when finished. Stabilizer kept the background fabric from puckering around the edges of the circles.

I think we only have two or three more months in this color BOM series. I wonder what the skills will be? We haven't had curves yet, nor EPP, so I expect they'll come up. Then the challenge will be to put all the blocks together into a cohesive whole. I'm planning a puzzle-style quilt a la Gypsy Wife.