Ready for Retreat

By the time you read this I'll be on my way. My projects are packed and ready to go. Sewing machine and tools, etc.  Three project boxes, a sit-upon, and a grocery bag of snacks and wine.  Personal stuff (not shown) is all packed and ready to go, too. 

I'm bringing enough projects to keep me busy and offer variety: two of the batik pillow tops to be quilted, snake quilt blocks, Star Spangled Spiral blocks, and my project for the club's color challenge. I don't know what the WiFi situation will be like at the retreat ranch so I don't know if I'll be able to post anything while I'm there. But if I can, I'll post progress updates on whatever I work on.  

I'm so looking forward to this!!! 

More Strippy HST Blocks

On Wednesday mornings I go over to the sewing room in the Creative Arts building and sew with a group of girls and then we go out to lunch. It's been a great way to get to know a few of the quilt club members. 

I've been working on a donation quilt at Wednesday sewing. In May when we cut the strips for the Charity Committee's sew day for kids' quilts we cut more strips than we ended up needing. Many of them are pretty random fabrics, but among the light colors there were a lot of yellow and almost-yellow strips. I found a navy print in the club's charity stash that would be pretty with yellow. I'm making more Strippy HST blocks for another donation quilt. This one won't be kid-focused because the prints are more mature, but it can still benefit an adult in one of the organizations we give quilts to. 

Last week I finished the last of the blocks needed and started playing with them on the design wall. After I brought them home I played some more on the wall, and this is the layout I have up there now. 

It's a cool layout, but I'm wondering if it's too modern for these prints? Maybe I should go with a simple pinwheel layout, or maybe concentric diamonds or diagonal stripes? Let me know what you think in the comments.

When sewn, the top will be 45 x 60" which is a great size for a kid but might be a little small for an adult. I have about 7/8 yard of a yellow print in my own stash that I could use for a border. If I can squeeze out 3-1/5" borders from it to make the quilt 52 x 67" that would be a better size. If I can find something in the club's stash for a narrow inner border, 1" or less, I might try that but I didn't like anything I auditioned from my own stash. I hope to find backing and binding in the club's stash, too.

There's a possibility my turn to be trained on the club's long arm will be coming up soon so I hope to have this ready to go to practice on. 

Meanwhile, please help me decide on a layout.

Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

Listening

When a quilt tells you how it wants to be quilted, do you listen or do you go with your original plan? 

Let's back up a bit here. You remember I'm making this big batik panel. The original purpose was to make placemats for practicing new to me FMQ skills. Because I cut way too many strips, the panel turned out much bigger than anticipated. 

Placemats changed to pillow covers for on my patio chaises, with the pillow covers still to be used for FMQ practice. Here are the four pillow panels, each about 21 x 32" here. They'll end up standard bed pillow size. 

The plan was to sandwich these and use them for FMQ practice. The size of the panels is easy to handle on my domestic sewing machine, and whatever bobbles occur in my quilting, they'll hardly show anyway and it won't matter. 

But these panels are telling me how they want to be quilted. Should I listen or proceed with plan A? 

The panels are crying out for wavy channel quilting. Using a walking foot I can easily create channels about 3/4" wide in parallel wavy rows across the strips. 

But that means no FMQ practice on these. And one of my buddies that's going on retreat next week is pushing me to improve my FMQ skills and wants to coach me while we're there. 

So back to my original question: When a quilt tells you how it wants to be quilted, do you listen or do you go with your original plan? 

I consulted with friends yesterday and they agree they pay attention when a quilt tells them how it wants to be quilted. But they also reminded me that all four of these panels don't have to be alike. What I've decided to do is quilt two of the panels with wavy lines walking foot quilting and use the other two panels for FMQ practice. The pillows will have an A side and a B side but they'll be similar. I get to see how well the wavy channel concept works and I get to practice FMQ. Win-win. 

PS - my friends helped select the thread, too. We chose a Valdani variegated thread called Moose Lodge from my thread stash. Perfect! 

So even though I don't have a finish today I do have a plan. I'm linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished (or Not) Friday at Alycia Quilts. 

Batik Race

Last week I mentioned that I'm making race-style pillow covers for some pillows for our patio chaise lounges, and I started with this pile of cut strips.

I used my die cutter for 2" strips and cut lots of strips, from my old batik stash, mostly earth tones and warm brights. The concept is to join them like a jelly roll race quilt, except that the strips are skinnier and there's way more of them. I had only the vaguest idea what this might look like, but batiks usually go well together, especially the more the merrier. 

OK, the concept is working. My long strip was somewhere between 3500 and 4000 inches long - that's over 100 yards! -  so I carefully wrangled it to avoid twists. The first long seam took me 2 hours and 22 minutes, with two bobbin changes. Three days, careful pressing and strip wrangling, and several more long seams, and I now have a chunk that's 48" wide and somewhere between 4-1/2 and 5 yards long. 

It's pretty cool, even if I say so myself. 

More photos...

The pillows will be standard bed size and the strips will run vertically as in the photo below. I'll cut panels for the fronts and backs of the pillows from the big chunk of "yardage." I'm sure there will be some left over. 

The original purpose of this was to generate something other than a muslin sandwich for FMQ practice. I'll layer these pillow panels with batting and muslin backing. I can practice FMQ all over the panels plus on whatever I make from the leftover pieces. It won't matter how skillful - or not - my FMQ is because the overall look is so busy the quilting will hardly show. 

The concept was kind of experimental, certainly unpredictable. I'm really pleased with how this is turning out. 

Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

R-W-B Retrospective for Independence Day

The topic of red, white, and blue quilts came up the other day and I thought I had made only a couple. Turns out there were a few more I forgot about. Here's a pictorial retrospective of my red, white, and blue quilts, with links to the patterns. 

Checkerboards and Dresden Plates, 2019, no pattern available

Log Cabin Triangles QOV, 2016, 

block tutorial here

Snake Quilt QOV made with friends Cherie, Dar, and Kevin, 2017-2019

Tutorial here

Star Spangled Spiral QOV made with Cherie, Dar and Kevin, 2018

Pattern available (leave a comment with your email address) 

Scrappy Nine Patch Stars QOV, 60 x 80"

Tutorial here

Because some of them were Quilts of Valor and were given away, I had forgotten about them. It's nice to revisit them! 

Happy Independence Day - 

Jan

June Stash Report and Goals Update

My gosh, what a busy month June was! And I don't have much in the way of finishes to show for it, but several new starts. A little stash enhancement, too, with more to come in July. 

June Stash Report: 

IN this month: 9-1/2 yards (Quilter's estate sale 7-1/4 yards; from Bernie 1 yard; FQ bundle from H2H 1-1/4 yards)
OUT this month: 5-7/8 yards (Coral Strippy HST top, 2-1/2 yards. Backing, 2-3/4 yards. Binding, 5/8 yard. )

IN YTD: 51-3/8 yards
OUT YTD: 49-5/8
YTD Net Change: 1-3/4 yards added to the stash.  

I've actually cut a lot for a new project, but since I don't count the fabric used until it's a flimsy or a finished quilt, what I've cut isn't counted yet. I cut a lot of strips from my old batik stash and I'm in the process of sewing them together race style, to make pillow covers for chaise lounge pillows per DH's request. These will also be used for FMQ practice. Here's where I'm at so far - a chunk 48" wide and about 5 yards long. I know, I cut way too many strips!!! I'll ask DH if he wants the stripes running vertical or horizontal on his pillows, and either cut panels from this or seam it together again to make it wider and shorter. This photo is a section about 45" square.

I'm going shopping today with a couple of new friends to a new-to-me quilt shop. I have no clue where, exactly, just that it's about an hour away, but they think it's a good quilt shop so we're having a road trip and lunch outing. I'm sure a little stash enhancement will occur. 

Goals Update: 

I had a lot of goals this month, and we were gone on a little trip to Santa Fe for a few days, but I actually managed to make progress on all of them. Especially meaningful was finishing my Coral Strippy HST quilt, and then giving it locally instead of mailing it off for Hands2Help. 

June Goals Recap: 

1. Finish coral Strippy HST quilt for Hands2Help and get both H2H quilts sent off. Finished; Coral Strippy was donated locally and Rainbow Charms was sent to Happy Chemo. 

2. Plan and prep a project to work on at Weds. morning and Mon. evening sew days with the PCQ club. Yes, pulled yellow strips left over from cutting for the Strippy HST charity quilts, found a nice blue in the charity stash, and started another Strippy HST quilt to work on.

3. Finish the binding on Color Spoke Challenge. Done; also added the sleeve. 

4. Start sewing blocks for Star Spangled Spiral (kit them up to work on at social sewing days/evenings with the PC girls). Started and kitted up; will take them on retreat. 

5. Make progress on the binding on How Many (WIGSP). Progress; 2nd side is stitched down. Hand sewing is good for Monday nights so this will be ongoing until the binding and sleeve are completed. 

6. Plan and prep projects for retreat in July.  Done - planning a new Snake Quilt. Pattern is drafted, templates are made, test block is sewn, and prep for retreat is in work.

7. Make placemats for FMQ practice. Progress… Changed from placemats to pillow covers. Batik strips have been cut and joined end-to-end for race-style piecing, and long seams have commenced. 

8. Do muscle memory "homework" assigned by Linda L.  Progress - Tried doing it with pencil and paper but found it better to practice on a quilt sandwich. Made loops, figure eights, and hearts and used the hearts on the Coral Strippy HST quilt. Continued practicing on the muslin sandwich. 

Whew! Like I said, a busy month. It helps, though, that I'm going to Hot Summer Nights sewing on Monday evenings and sewing and lunch on Wednesdays, opportunities to work on projects, and get together with new friends. 

Navy Strippy HST blocks, Wednesday sewing

Test blocks for new Snake Quilt

July Goals: 
1. Continue navy & yellow strippy HST blocks at Wednesday sewing; assemble top and add borders. 

2. Continue hand sewing binding on How Many, (the WIGSP). 

3. Continue working on batik race pillow covers and practice FMQ on them. 

4. Continue prep for retreat - kitting up snake quilt and star spiral blocks.

5. Plan PCQ challenge project and kit it up to take along on retreat. 

6. Have fun at retreat.

This is definitely a shorter list than last month! 

So even though I don't have many finishes this month, I did accomplish a lot, so I'm linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts.

Batik Race Pillow Covers

One of my goals for June was to make placemats for FMQ practice. That concept has evolved; we really prefer a tablecloth instead of placemats, and DH requested pillows for the chaise lounges on the patio, so I'll make pillow covers to use for FMQ practice. 

Earth tone colors will work for our outdoor space, and I have a lot of batiks in earth tones and related colors. I decided to cut strips and make a race style chunk of fabric and use it for the pillow covers. 

I pulled three batches of batik fabrics: Warm Brights (orange, red, pink, gold, etc); Mediums; and Deep Darks. Using my 2" strip die, I cut a lot of strips. 

I added black and light yellow spacers between the strips. When pieced, the spacers will look like confetti sprinkled throughout. Each strip is about half WOF or shorter plus the spacer. 

I assorted the strips into 5 piles, alternating a bright with a medium or dark, and started sewing each pile end-to-end jelly roll race style. This is two of the piles, 2/5 of my strips. I figured it would be easier to press the seams and keep the long strips untwisted if I did it in segments rather than all one. I'll join up the five segments into one, and then start the long seams. In this jumble, the brights aren't visible, but trust me, they're there. 

By my estimates I'll have enough strips for a pieced chunk about 96" long by 82" wide or 192" long by 41" wide. I need 56" x 36" per pillow cover so I'll have plenty with some left over. When I see what it looks like I can decide which direction to cut the pillow covers so the strips look best. 

This could really turn out cool, or it could be a horrible mess. No way to tell until the race is won. Either way, I'll have plenty to practice FMQ on. 

Link Ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts,  Love Laugh Quilt