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!

First Five Trinkets

The first week of the Trinket SAL is almost over and I've gotten the first five blocks done, right on schedule and everything. As you can see, I'm having fun making fabric choices. Finally, I "get" to use these yummies. They weren't in that annoying precious fabric category in my head, but they were right next door.

I'm using the new light box I got and finding it very helpful for making sure the fabrics are fitting over the lines with enough seam allowance.

The pattern includes a color guide for the block and for the first round of blocks I'm just going with it.

Why did I put off getting a light box for so long, this thing is awesome! I think light boxes used to be pretty pricey and very clunky/big so I just didn't get one and made do with a sunny window. But this is an LED version and is super lightweight and A4 sized. I think I need to make a storage case or something for it though to keep it safe and/or portable.

So here's the first five blocks, photographed on the new Oliso wool pressing mat. That and the good lighting makes them look so good

Some fussy cutting is of course involved here. I just love that little abacus.

I messed this one up many times, but eventually got the hang of the very small lines.

I'm so glad that AG has some word fabrics for me to use. That's definitely a thing for me lately so it's nice to carry on with in this project.

So...off to a good start, and so far so good and all of that.

Sew Day SJSA

 Last Saturday was Sew Day at BAM, and it was time to work on our group's current SJSA quilt. This is made from all the blocks that we added embroidery or other stitching to. I have to say, the work done on these blocks was very beautiful and so well-done. In many cases it made the message clearer to the viewer. 

BAM's wonderful project coordinator Cyndi is seen here with the arrangement we all chose for the blocks that were to be included in the quilt. Cyndi was in charge of distributing all the blocks, and then the harder part, collecting all of them from all of us in time for Sew Day. Well done, Cyndi! 

It was really great to have the founder of SJSA, Sara Trail join us that day to facilitate the whole process with our group. She brings a warm, inclusive and encouraging energy to the whole project. It was fun talking about the various blocks with her and sharing information about the topics they cover with the whole group.

This is a really nicely done short video about Sara Trail and SJSA.

After we'd all settled on an arrangement of the blocks, it was time to get sewing. The first thing we did was to add a smallish border frame around each block in green or various shades of brown. It is amazing how that one addition makes such a huge difference in the look of the quilt already. We then spent the rest of the time making pieces that will become the sashing in-between the columns of blocks. One of mine is the one seen on the far left. 

We were using fabric that was donated curtain weight woven fabric, and was not the quilting cotton weight or type of fabric that we're mostly used to using so it was a little challenging. As you can see we made it work and made a whole lot of sashing. I think having the more subtle, tone on tone fabrics will help really show off the blocks which are so vibrant and colorful. 

This is going to be on the big size once it's all put together. The next step will be assembling the whole thing. 

Now Three of Diamonds

I started playing around with the Slopes blocks currently covering my design wall because I wanted to photograph my completed Checkerboard-ish piece. That ended up happening on just a wall, because it would have been too hard to remove enough blocks without screwing up things.

Once I got started I realized there were some things I wanted to make sure I was doing with this, I really liked the diamonds shapes and particularly I like the ones where there were three out of four triangles of the same color fabric. 

So the game was then on to make sure there were at least one of each color. I stuck a pin in the center of each one to make it easier to rearrange.
 

It was looking better as far as having those three piece matching fabric diamonds, but I pushed it further to have two of each color.

That meant more pins in more places.

Then it became obvious that I should go for three each of the three matching fabric diamonds.

The quilt is now named Three of Diamonds. Now I had to look at things in mono to make sure there weren't unintentional blocks of dark or light that I didn't want.

I discovered that there were some blocks that had a dark on darker fabric combination that read as rectangles. Those blocks needed to be better spread out for balance, I think this is the final version I'll be going with, so it's now time to get sewing these together.

Sixth Sense

 

The sixth Color Collective selection has arrived and it's once again it will be a lovely palette to work with. 

Yes indeed, Sewtopia includes a different flavor of Hi-Chew every time, which is immediately consumed, love those. Once again the two textured fabrics are so very intriguing to me, 

especially that Manchester in Peacock. Such a great color very Easter-egg-y to my eye.

And to avoid this horribleness happening:

I'm going to take the advice of Ruby Star Society in their Tips & Tricks for Sewing With Woven, and zig zag the edges of the fabric *before* I wash it. Hopefully that will work this time.

I have to confess I'm not too excited about the Color Collective block/quilt pattern this month as it's EPP, which I'm not proficient with. So maybe I should actually try it out. The pieces are relatively enormous which would make it a bit easier to work on. But the shapes are kind of clunky looking to my eye. That ends up making a not very appealing looking quilt in the end. So I'm not sure I'll actually use this fabric to make that quilt. 

It's kind of hit or miss for me as far as which block based quilts I'm interested enough in to try to make them myself. I'm more enjoying the Color Collective for the color palettes that Tara Faughnan is choosing than the quilt designs. I guess it's a fun chance to just work with someone else's choices for a change. There are a lot of colors in these palettes I would never have chosen to work with on my own. Perhaps it will end up expanding my color sensibilities or something?

Checkerboard-ish This Close to Finished

 As you can see, the borders I added to the color palette challenge piece were made with the same two blues and all the other colors from the palette that hadn't been used yet. I thought the red pieces looked good in the corners.

Once I was happy with the look of the borders, I just straight-pin basted and did the initial quilting lines along the main parallel strip lines.

The quilting on this was a pretty easy decision to come to. I just followed the inset skinny strip diagonal pieces. 

I used a medium purple rayon thread. I thought the color would show up well enough but not be too dominant or contrast-y.

It's taking a while to go all the way across the quilt surface with each set of parallel lines but it's definitely worth it. I have a couple sections to finish and then I'll call it done.

I like how flat this is turning out, it may end up being a table runner? It's just about the right size at 16" x 27" I think I'll put a facing on this to finish it off instead of a binding. Also I will take a better photo that doesn't have the late afternoon shadows happening. 

April Tooo-Doooo

 

Here's how the ol' design wall is looking. A lot different from last month's picture. Several things are done and off the wall, like the SJSA blocks and the Fussy Cut Rock Candy piece. It's mostly about the Slopes for now until I decide on a final design and sew all those blocks together.

Now on to the Illustrated To-Do list for the month.

Sew-A-Long-Thingies

Trinket SAL - Begin making the weekly blocks and post them on Instagram

Pantone Project - keep making blocks, sending cards, etc.

Color Collective - get the Slopes top pieced together, make a back for the Clover pillow.

Stitch Happens - decide on borders, make backing, layer, quilt, bind, label.

Temperature Quilt - keep making blocks and start posting about it.

Secret Lives of Color - finish blocks and post about it.

Finish It Up

Checkerboard-ish - Finish quilting, bind, label. Due for SBAMQG 4/4

Climate Change Challenge Quilt - sketch, make quilt, due for BAM 5/10

Sightlines Triptych - sew down facings, sleeves, labels.

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

Japanese Houses - sandwich quilt bind label

Orange Bullseye-sandwich quilt bind label

Quilt Photography - fingers crossed the power stays on and the stars align.

That is obviously puh-lenty to choose from this month. Now I have to think about what to bring to the BAM retreat in a few weeks...

No Fooling, April

 

No fooling, it's already April? Not an April Fool's joke fortunately/unfortunately, the marching on of time proceeds as scheduled.

This month's monthly marker is as always a combination of two photos in the app, SnapSeed. First ,the nearly finished quilting checkerboard-ish color palette challenge.

And then second, Leeloo and the Slopes laid on top and messed with.

March had 31 days, so this 1SE video is 3 seconds longer than last's month's.

Monthly I-Did List for March

I trimmed to size all 200 of the beginning blocks for the second month of the Color Collective.

I finished machine embroidering two SJSA blocks and handed them off to be assembled into a quilt.

I finished my fussy cut  Rock Candy table topper.

I assembled and quilted the Clover side of the floor pillow I'm making.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long and will post about it maybe never. 

I very  occasionally added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I blogged here 28/31 days, Instagrammed 8 times, tweeted 20 times and spouted (on Spoutible) 8 times.

I traveled for a week in San Diego and did some travel watercolors and more hand-stitching on an older project.

I survived a week without hot water (new water heater yay!) almost a week without power and the loss of eight redwood trees in the big storm. All that weather stuff has been very disruptive to my daily schedule, it's getting annoying honestly, but I'm counting myself very lucky not having our house get demolished by falling trees like many others.