Patchwork Palooza #11

 

This week's Patchwork Palooza block was a pretty easy one, so I played around with different fabric choices. This one was too busy for me.

I thought this was a better look.

All done with the 11th block!

And of course the resulting teeny tiny HST's to add to my envelope.

Here's how it's looking so far, without the sashing and cornerstones as we still don't have the official measurements yet. I think it's working out color-wise so far. I may move some of the blocks around in the final version.

Patchwork Palooza #10

 

Coming in hot with Patchwork Palooza block #10. I always think of this orange/fuchsia/lime green as being "hot". I like this block, it has a lot of movement and there are a lot of possibilities with it. I'm liking that I'm getting to use my 2.5"x4.5" Flying Geese Bloc-Loc ruler so much, it really works out when doing the four at a time method. And this is made with scraps from recent projects.

Double Palooza Day

 

I cut out the pieces for two more Patchwork Palooza blocks yesterday, so they were awaiting me to work on today.

I really like the dreamy look of this one. 

I'm enjoying using the dowloaded .pdf file on my iPad instead of printing it out. There were some print errors in this one, which I have to see if they've corrected.

I didn't have quite enough of the green/blue with white seeds, so I substituted the more blue tv print. I think it works. Using a center square that has a built-in wonkiness due to the fabric was interesting, I kept thinking it was wrong, but it was just the color and pattern fooling my eye. Here it works once all the seam allowances are taken out.

So far all three blocks have had blues, oranges and greens. But the whole quilt isn't meant to be matchy-matchy, so I'll mix it up in the next ones.

Patchwork Palooza

Okay, I'll admit it, I've gotten a little sick of working on Old Town all day every day for now. I got pretty far along but I need a little break. So I'm starting in on making the blocks that have been released so far for Patchwork Palooza. I cut out the pieces from my most recent scrap box and labeled them for fabrics 1-4 with these cute little rainbow wedge stickies. My plan is to use only scraps on this quilt.

All the usual block making tools are put into use once again.

Gosh, I love this Bloc_Loc Flying Geese ruler. It really works so well for me.

The block ingredients all ready to put together. There were only supposed to be 4 fabrics used, but I didn't have big enough pieces for the Geese and HSTs. Two blues that are similar worked out fine here.

And there's the first block all done.
 

32 Kites

 

Well, all 32 of the "kites" are assembled up to the same point. I'm calling them "kites' because they are vaguely kite-shaped looking, at least they are to me. Before I make any more additions to them, I'm going to put them up on the design wall with the finished Metro Twist top to see if they'd look good at this size flying around in a border. Otherwise, they'll each be enlarged somehow and set into a blue background of all the weird blues I seem to be accumulating lately.

Back to Metro Twist

 I had a lot of fun at a BAMQ Sew Day held yesterday at one of our member's home instead of the usual place we gather. I didn't take any pictures while I was there because I was enjoying talking with people and sewing so much instead. So here's some pictures of what I sewed while I was there up on my design wall at home. I only brought one easily portable project with me that fit in my sewing machine rolling case. Of course that meant I didn't remember to bring my tool bag (d'oh) and thus had to switch up my plans as I had no scissors, rotary cutter or mat. I was originally going to piece together the leftover fabrics from making the Metro Twist quilt top blocks to make up a back for it.

Instead of sewing big pieces and trimming them as I went, I spent my time sewing the rest of the leftovers from trimming the Metro Twist blocks into these kite shapes.

I had done a couple last year so I already knew that they turned into pretty cool shapes. These may or may not end up in their own quilt, or possibly actually go on the back. I could also see putting them into a border somehow too as the Metro Twist top seems a little unfinished without one.

Back To Boho Back

 

There were still a lot of scraps left over from all the strips that made up the Bohemian Wife quilt top, so now I've gotten a lot of them sewn together into this piece.

Here's how the "made fabric" looks along with the other bordered blocks that will eventually make up the quilt back. It looks a mess doesn't it? The pattern for the quilt top really corrals all the print and pattern.

And then one more "made fabric" piece added at the bottom. Still not enough to make up a quilt back of course. All of those small blocks that I made from the teeny-tiny HSTs still need to be sewn into something useable. I'm thinking of setting them in solids or reads as solids chosen from the quilt top fabrics. That will translate into a lot of area to make up the quilt back.

Another Eight

Here's a view into my continuing progress on my version of the 100 Days Project. Eight more days worth of sewing scraps onto Scrap Tape. I particularly like the orange & blue pieced section here.

A face appears!

It's so cool to be able to instantly spot the various recent projects this 9" segment contains: (from Left to Right) BAM community sewing, Boho Wife, Trinket, Dye Mastery, Y.E.S. coat, Japanese Houses. I love being able to see what these scraps represent. All in 9"!

Another face appears!

I let the selvedge edge of that orange print make an appearance because of the cool pattern.

Some of these didn't get ironed as you can see.

Some good triangles.

That's enough for now! I'm still on track and keeping up with adding 9" worth of scraps a day. This 100 Days Project is maybe a thing that works for me, huh. I shouldn't be surprised, I like organized challenges and externally imposed deadlines. Now I really get the popularity of these projects over the last few years.
 

Wearables: Project Quilting 15.5

I nearly almost forgot to check out the Project Quilting prompt this week. The prompt for 15.5 is Wearables. That means either something to wear, made out of previously worn clothing, or is somehow related to something wearable. I started thinking about this on Wednesday, worked on it and posted about it Saturday. And finished it in time to submit it on Sunday. I'm covering this blue slap bracelet with a quilt so that I can wear it. I found a nice scraps of stretchy grey knit fabric. I think it is left over from some old pajamas. It's very soft and will feel okay next to my skin.

I sewed it up on three size and turned it carefully using the forceps, and pressed out the end. The slap bracelet slipped right inside without a problem. It's not too loose and not too tight.

I slip-stitched together the open end and it's all done.

I like it!

It turned out great, it's not too stiff or heavy.

Here's how it looks on my wrist.

I may add more buttons, but I think I like them not being too close to the edge.

The buttons aren't exactly in a straight line, kind of echoing the wavy quilting stitch that I used.

Here's how it looks where it overlaps.

Here it is: Pearl Lucky 13, in all its chunky funky glory.

Tape Management

 

I'm having to work on different methods of managing the growing size (and weight!) of the Scrap Tape. This picture shows 18 days worth. How long is that? Well let's do the math shall we?  We've got  9" x 18= 162" or 4.5 yards of sewn-on tape. It's already starting to get a bit bulky.

I've got the sewn part of the tape wrapped around an empty thread cone, secured with straight pins and giant sized Wonder Clips.

I've been introducing new collections of scraps as I go, this is from the recent Bohemian Wife block making.

I really do like using the pieces of my hand-dyes sprinkled in here and there.

That yellow though is rather prominent.

It might unify parts of the quilt that I eventually make out of this Scrap Tape.

Some major crumb piecing on this section.

I'm still enjoying this project on day 18 out of 100, so that's a good sign. It is a lot more time consuming than I'd thought it would be. That means I'm having to consistently work on it every day because getting too behind would be hard to catch up. Having the idea of finishing off this entire roll of Scrap Tape is working for me as a real incentive to continue. And that's one of the main goals of the 100 Days project.

Unpacking Day

Yesterday was all about unpacking from the three days of Super Sew Day, and I pulled out my filled-up scrap collector pouch. I had intended to empty it into the schnibbles bags that the guild fills pet beds with, but they got packed up before I had a chance. To me, schnibbles is a technical term for non-usable scraps, usually the trimmed edges when rotary cutting and other little fabric and thread pieces.

 So into my own pet bed it will go.

Another thing I unpacked was a package from Amazon that included a rainbow assortment of pen refills. I only wanted the violet one, but it wasn't available to buy just on its own, so I "bought the rainbow." I guess my journal is about to get a lot more colorful. 

Also included was a big cone of Bottom Line thread in my favorite disappearing color "silver". I'm curious to see how long 3,000 yards lasts me so I wrote the date on the inside of the cone in Sharpie.

My design wall is no longer empty, I've got the now-quilted and halfway bound Kitchen Sink quilt pinned up there as a to-do reminder. That big white space is no longer taunting me.