Shades of 2022

 

Today was a super fun sew day with friends and I brought one of my UFO's to work on. This was from a wonderful class with David Owen Hastings. A virtual class that I took way back in pandemic-times in 2022 with SBAMQG. It's based on a Salvador Dali print that we have up on the wall. 

It had been quite a while since I'd worked on it, so I propped up the note in all caps that I'd left for myself. The key thing I learned in the class (and in many others as well of course): when sewing curved pieces of fabric together, don't forget: CONCAVE ON BOTTOM. It just works better that way.

A fabric layout for the next block along with the sketch/"pattern" with color choices and sewing order noted. 

these were the three blocks that I'd finished in the class.

And here are the three I made today. Yes, that one on the bottom was the last of the day and I really should have quit while I was ahead, etc and I'll be re-making that one! And the one on the upper left, that pinned-on dark blue shape is tbd on whether it is staying or not.

Here they are all together. I think I might need one more that's got the red/orange/yellows happening.. I have to go check my class notes to see how this is supposed to turn into a quilt top.

Kawandi Finish

 

Since I got back from LA, I've been continuing to stitch the kawandii quilt. My goal was to finish in time for the BAMGQ UFO Challenge which is due on our Sew Day (which is today).

As I got closer and closer to the center I had to finalize it, added two last pieces into the mix, right before the stitching reached that area of the quilt.

I found the stitching got harder and harder to do as I got into the center. 

The pieces got smaller so there were a lot more edges to contend with and that meant more layers of silk to stitch through.

It has been a fun and challenging project and I’ve really enjoyed learning a new way to make a quilt. I started working on this project in a SBMQG class with Sujata Shah back in 2021

Here it is, all finished! 

I ended my last stitching line with an X just because, "x marks the spot" has always made sense to me.

The corners got a little ravel-y, but they're still looking nice. As Sujata said in class, "the Kawandi looks "naked" without a fula in each of the four corners."

And that's #2 on my BAMQ UFO Challenge list completed just in time to show at Sew Day.

120° Degrees

 

This is mostly for me, but here's how I did the 120° corners on the mini quilt/tablerunner. Mark a diagonal line at the corner and stop stitching on or just shy of that point. Make sure and backstitch.

This step is where we see the biggest difference in applying binding to 90° corners, when you fold the binding back over itself- align the raw-edge bottom of the binding straight with the bottom edge of the next section around the corner you're working on of the item being bound.

The next step is to fold the binding down back over itself,  and then pinning down that fold. 

Start stitching (and backstitch) on that same point where you stopped before, at the center diagonal of the corner and 1/4" away from the raw edge.

Repeat those steps with all the corners, join your binding ends as per usual.

I sewed the binding down from the front by machine as this is going to be a frequently machine washed item. The trick to this is to go more slowly than usual, and take your time folding the binding on the corners.

Some closeups of how the binding looks.

I like how a new word is suggested because of the piecing, It looks like "dictrum" maybe?

More views of the words fabric and the quilting.

This turned out to be a fun project, and now I don't have these pieced triangles sitting around.

Here's how the corner binding looks, I did a needle-down pivot and stitched into the binding join at each corner a few stitches and then back stitched, pivoted in the next direction and .

It seems to make it a little flatter.

Pretty pleased with how this turned out.

Word Mini Quilt

 

Time for me to make another small quilt for the SBAMQG MiniQuilt Challenge. 

The challenge this time is "Words" so of course I thought of my favorite word fabric that I was using in the Ring blocks I was making a couple years ago. I had bought enough extra to spare a bit for this project.

I unearthed a baggie with the green leftover pieced triangles from making the Jawbreaker pillow and thought it would go together very well with the green word fabric.

I couldn't help but notice the perfectly highlighted word definitions on the seam allowances.

It really was cracking me up, how perfectly it worked out on so many of the seams.

I had to document it as it was soon going to disappear once this got quilted.

Definition of a needle.

There were a few near duplicates of the pieced triangles but I like the repetition in the overall design.

These really go together easily using the Hex-n-More ruler.

As I was cutting the triangles out, I made sure that the words were rightside up on either long edge of this so that the people on one side of the table can read the triangle's worth of words that is closest to them.

Here's how it looks all pieced together. Yes, another table runner has magically appeared...

Definitely needed a border, so it was back to the Tula Pink bin.

I got this quilted very very  quickly, just straight-line, nothing exciting.

 I think that it looks good and all the stitching will hold it together through many machine washes.

Now to got sew on the green binding to finish it before the meeting tonight!

Several Saturday Updates

There are several things I wanted to update on but weren't "worth" their own post. First off, a quilt finish, Checkerboard-ish is done and on my table. I was able to get it done in time to show it off at the SBAMQG meeting, as it was a mini-quilt challenge for that group.

I'm very pleased with how the quilting turned out.

I did indeed do a facing and it worked out very well, not distorting too much and very flat which is good as it is being used ar a table runner.

Just as predicted (and hoped!), zig-zagging the edges of the two woven 1/2 yards from this month's Color Collective helped quite a lot with fraying. Definitely worth the extra bit of time to do this step before pre-washing wovens.

Leeloo has now discovered the joys of lurking on top of the fridge. Thankfully she jumped down onto the counter after I was done chopping (this time at least!).

We did Passover at my SIL's on the actual first night for once, and it was fun. I got to be the Locusts this year.

The old bird feeder is now under attack by squirrel, and is also beginning to break, so it needed replacing. The red glass hummingbird feeder just needs refilling.

I got a supposed to be squirrel-proof gigantic feeder. We need to hang it out further from the pole, that's happening today, DH has been scheming on various squirrel-defying solutions.

I went to do my daily jigsaw puzzle in the app I've been using for many years and check out this ad! Yes, even puzzle games are in on the Pantone Color of the Year Viva Magenta bandwagon. I took the opportunity to post it to Instagram along with my fabric pull for my own Viva Magenta quilt idea for the 2023 Color of the Year Quilt Challenge.
 

That's enough updates for now!