Y.E.S. Coat blocks

 

I got to have a very lovely sew day at friend Mary’s house, she let me use her BabyLock machine. It sewed very smoothly and was easy to figure out.

I got a 7” paper pieced block of Y and an S done. 

Still debating whether to make these 3” Y.E.S. Blocks or not.

Going 3-D

 

The third project that I brought along to work on during BAMQ's Sew Day, was doing some 3-D piecing for my Y.E.S. coat. Yes, I even made a list and got to have the joy of crossing off each to-do. I was very pleased to see how easy it was to accomplish this type of piecing.

I'm working with this technique book that I bought from the teacher of the coat class that started me on this project, Rachel D. Clark. It has instructions for all sorts of ideas for interesting piecing techniques. Rachel is a great teacher, and if you get a chance to take a class with her you should go for it.

Then at home, I got into trying some more of the variations of the 3-D flying geese, this one was called a "Vase." 

I made another one that made sure to keep the Goose point as pointy as possible, seen on the lower left. 

Another variation was making four "vases" and putting them together.

That one didn't turn out so well, I probably need to re-sew the four squares again to get those points closer together.

How all these will work on the Y.E.S. coat along with all the other piecing, I am not sure as this point, but it has been fun learning something new.

Final Day of the Retreat

Home again, home again, jiggityy-jig. I had to get all the way back home from SF to be able to post about what I did on the final day of the retreat. I hadn't unpacked and taken any pictures of what I sewed in those final hours. I guess I was working too hard at it to stop and take in-process pictures. 

Soooo....I worked on making the last possible four-patch blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt that I could assemble with the fabric strips that I had with me. These are assembled in groups of 10 so that it's easier for me to count them up. They're all made in such a way as to be fairly scrappy although there are many that match. 

There are only "some more" left to make, instead of "lots and lots". So it feels like overall, I made great progress on getting nearly all of the units done to start making blocks for this quilt...emphasis on almost. 

I was very inspired by watching friend Jaye’s progress on block assembly for the Old Town mystery quilt over the course of the retreat. She gave me lots of tips to keep in mind once I get to that stage which will no doubt be very helpful. 

Then for the last little bit of time I had left, I worked on the Y.E.S. Coat, cutting various widths of strips of the grey fabrics to then sew into strip sets. These will all be cut up and re-sewn again or used as is, to fill in the coat assembly between all the other Seminole piecing and paper pieced blocks.

Here's a great group picture of almost all of the attendees of the retreat. It sure was a great time, that extra day was almost too much for my stamina but I made it through and feel great about what I got done. Most of all I’m very pleased at the time I got to spend getting to know more of the guild members who were attending. I worked on 6 of the 7 projects that I brought along with me, so I feel like I packed just the right amount of stuff so that I had lots of choices and types of work to do. I did make a list for myself again of things to remember to bring to retreat next time (like a table lamp of some kind) so I'm already looking forward to that next time.

Super Sew

 

BAMQ's Super Sew Day (that's two days in a row) began last Friday in Palo Alto, and I was so glad that I was actually feeling up to attending. I really made myself taket it easy walking in from the parking lot with all my stuff. Even making two trips instead of over burdening myself to only struggle/walk the distance just one time. I'm trying hard to not overdo it and make dumb mistakes just because I'm excited to get out and do something. 

The first project I worked on was pin-basting the Community Giving quilt top. Thankfully there was a cute cotton print for me to use for the backing so that I didn't have to use the kind-of-plastic-y fabric that was included in the bundle. I had several other people confirm my feelings on that one before I swapped it out. I got most of the quilting done on this cute quilt on Friday. Once I got started, I ended up getting a good amount done along with the most socializing I've done in a month. Such great people to hang out with and to be inspired by their projects. Then coming back in the next day on Saturday, I got right down to finishing off the very last of the quilting to get it off of my to-do list. 

My next project was working on a new section for my YES coat. This is called Afghani piecing in Rachel D. K. Clark's booklet, "Picture This" Techniques for Wearable Art and Quilts. (She's teaching next month at PIQF). The written instructions are a bit spare, but the illustrations were clear enough that I got the hang of it. It took me a while, but I think it turned out pretty well and was worth the effort.

More YES

On the last day of retreat I worked on making more Y.E.S. Paper pieced blocks for my YES coat. These are printed out from EQ8 on newsprint. I couldn’t do the fold and flip paper piecing method because my glue stick was no longer glue-y.

Give a Y, give me an E!

 Just what I wanted, easy to not really see the YES in the blocks but it still is distinct enough if you really look.👀 

What an awesome retreat, really enjoyed it and getting a chance to know more of the bamq people. I tried my best, but I overdid  it and my knee is very unhappy with me. A good reminder of why I’m having surgery.

December To-Do

 

Here's how my design wall was looking on December 1st. There's my half-way assembled Temperature Quilt, and then the three pieces of dyed yardage waiting for their second dye baths.

Here's my To-Do list for December:

Sew-a-Long Thingies

Trinket - layer and quilt.

Color Collective - Quilt and bind the Slopes Quilt, 

and make another side for the Clover Pillow with Swerves, start cutting for Colorwash

Temperature Quilt- cut remainder of needed pieces from newly dyed fabric, keep piecing monthly columns.

Pantone Project - keep making blocks and pass them on to friend Jaye.

Secret Lives of Color- it's still oh so very secret, keep reading the book and making the blocks, post some too.

Indigo Way - Begin work on this year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. Assemble fabrics, make the first blocks.

New Work

Wedge Quilt - finish assembling quilt top, make a backing, quilt, bind, label.

A Hot One - planned quilt celebrating the color of the year, Viva Magenta.

Garment Sewing Academy - finish Cielo top.

Make It Work - assemble a quilt top out of the materials for BAMQG, make backing, layer, quilt, bind.

Make binding and finish the other BAMQG quilt for donation.

Dye Mastery Class - finish final unit on over-dyeing and patterning.

Finish It Already

Make a back for Metro Twist, layer, quilt, bind, label.

Finish quilting Japanese Houses, bind, label.

Y.E.S. Coat - lay out what I've made, make more elements, start assembling.

And finally and most importantly: finish making the gifts before Christmas.

That should keep me busy enough for December!

The Wearable Portion

For the wearables portion of the endless dyeing content:I took some pictures of the linen/rayon that I dyed to use for the lining of my Y.E.S. coat as it was hanging up to dry the rest of the way. It's somewhat wrinkly and a bit damp from the dryer. Shoot, now that I write this, I'm realizing that I should have ironed it while it was damp.

The black pin stripe shows up nicely.

I got some good mottling and variation.

A teensy bit of red/pink splitting but not too bad overall for this sort of dye.

I also dyed this mock turtleneck tunic for myself. It has one diagonal seam (with one odd pocket) and a floaty hem. I like it, but I may overdue it.

A close up of the odd pocket.

And a shot of the tank tops and bamboo socks I also dyed. I'm all set now for dyed clothes I think.
 

To Be Used And To Be Dyed

Keeping track of various purchases that I've made lately. Some more WonderClips as so many of mine are being used in the Temperature Quilt piecing process. And some of the colorful bobbin thread keepers that friend Jaye recommended. Help me keep it together please. Some emery sand and ground walnut shell stuffing for the pincushion I'm working on for the BAM pincushion swap. Also a couple of yards of bright white Cotton Couture, all ripped into 1/2 yard pieces edge machine embroidered and ready to pre-wash and then dye.

Some fabric and tank tops and bamboo shortie socks to be dyed from Dharma Trading. I got one each of all the tank tops they have on offer, they're all jerseys of various weights and fabric contents. Some black Pimatex I bought by accident (it was supposed to be the white version, whoops!). And some very on sale rayon/linen striped fabric to be dyed grey and used for the lining for my YES coat.

This fabric has a really lovely silky hand which will work well for a coat lining. It has a nice weight too, I think it will stand up well to all the pieced cottons on the outside of the coat. Hopefully it will take dye well.

I need some help with my EPP methods so I bought the new gizmo that SewTites recently came out with. I'll let you know whether it works for me once I try it out.

And in the preview of coming attractions section, I'm now moving onto the next unit in the Dye Mastery class that I'm taking. These three are in the first dye baths right now, but here's how they looked before I dunked them. Two are flag-folded, with steam pressed in folds. The other is covered with rubber banded circles.

I think these are going to be pretty cool patterns when they're unfolded. Fingers crossed!

Then there will likely be at least one more dye baths before they're done. More on the outcome later..
 

July To-Do

 

A to-do list for July seems a little ambitious for summer, but hey why not? There might be some days where it's not too hot so that I can use an iron and so on. For those days, here's the list so I can easily choose something to work on. Above is how the design wall looks at the moment, the final arrangement of the Trinket quilt is still being decided upon right now.

Sew-a-Long Thingies

Trinket - Finalize layout, assemble quilt top. To get a finisher patch for the sew-a-long I have to at least get the quilt top done and submitted (but not quilted) by the end of August.

Color Collective - Sandwich the Slopes Quilt, make another side for the Clover Pillow with Swerves, start cutting for Colorwash

Stitch Happens - Finish making back, sandwich, quilt, bind, label.

Temperature Quilt - cut hotter colors, assemble more month columns

Pantone Project - keep making blocks and sending postcards

ICAD- keep making the monthly index card a day.

Secret Lives of Color- it's still so secret, keep reading the book and making the blocks, post some too.

New Work

A Hot One - planned quilt celebrating the color of the year, Viva Magenta.

Garment Sewing Academy- start sewing the Cielo top.

Finish It Up

Sightlines Triptych - make and hand sew on hanging sleeves and labels.

Y.E.S. Coat - make more blocks and pieces.

Orange Bullseye - Finish quilting, bind, label

Village/Japanese Houses -Finish quilting bind, label

Quilt Photography - Still need to get it done, because I'll be needing the photos to enter a couple of upcoming shows and to update my website. Plus I really need the space back in my workroom.

Okay that's enough of a list for a summer month I think.