Summer's End Post Card

 

I have a fabric postcard to make and send by tomorrow, so here's the beginnings before I began stitching. Yes, those are mostly Metro Twist scraps.

I went a little extreme on the machine embroidery.

A lot of stitching. Some of which was impacted by stitching on only one layer of fabric and batting.

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A detail before I added the final fabric piece.

The finished piece.

Details including stitched edges.

I like how this one piece of + + + + + + fabric looks like a ribbon.

I had fun doing circles on the "roof edges." Hopefully my recipient will enjoy receiving the card.

Sunny Saturday

I'm having my second coffee of the morning on the deck, and my DH arrives with the new tent that we bought a couple years ago and haven't yet used. He proceeds to set it up in a few minutes after cursing about one thing or another and checking for better set up information than is included.

Now that it's just the two of us, of course this is when we have the biggest tent we have ever owned. This thing is 8' x 8'. For reference, way back when (37 years ago!) we started out camping in a tiny little just barely two person backpacking tent. 

He hasn't put the rain fly on even though it's getting cloudy. Monterey County, the next county over is getting rain, hall and dry lightning, so it's a little unsettled. Hoping none of that comes our way.

We are thrilled with the idea of standing up inside the tent, so much easier to change clothes.

And of course this means we may be bringing the Aero Bed air mattress. I'm quoting DH here: "We could even bring pillows and blankets!"

I have to say, it's pretty cushy and if it wasn't getting so hot, I might spend the day out here reading.

But will it really be camping if we're not on the ground on our mats and in our sleeping bags? I mean, we'll still be sleeping outside in Yosemite and all. I will report back after next week. I'm so excited, it's been years since we've camped in Yosemite and I can't wait.

 

And Then Thirty-Six More

 
After doing some calculations, I made 36 more Metro Twist blocks. I really love this flower print, so I had to cut it out carefully.

All the little labels.

All the interesting scraps leftover. Will I sew them together? Perhaps.

Nineteen of each 1/8 oval, half in each direction, labeled AC and BD in the pattern.

Here's the first pass arrangement. Did you notice that I need one more BD version. Sigh. More arranging to be done before I sew this together. Not making more of these blocks, this is enough for me.

Twenty-two Twists

I trimmed up the Metro Twist blocks I sewed at Sew Day using the now broken Quick Curve ruler. That blue painter's tape on the edge is holding it steady, but I still intend to glue it. 

Memo to me: Remember to pack better for the next Sew Day.

Using the Quilter's Select ruler to make the final trim to 3"x6".

The process slowed down considerably when my new studio assistant intervened.

I got to use one free arm and two free hands to cut the rest.

There they go rolling downhill.

I pieced and trimmed the rest of the blocks and added them in. 12 of one type and 10(?) of the other.

I laid out all the blocks together and discovered I need 6 more blocks to fill out the square. I am unsure about those 6 really light prints, they really stand out to me. So I may need 12 total. But that would be an odd size for a useable quilt as I'm not intending this one to be a wall piece. More calculations will follow

Five Pantone Project Blocks

 

Now that I've made two of each type of block for the Pantone Project, I'm going back around for round 3. 

After making these five blocks, I'm up to having made 60 now (out of 100). I really like how this group of colors looks together.

I think I'm really into this using the same background on each block that we're doing in this project. It really sets off the fabrics so well. Even with all the varied colors it's cohesive.

Some of these blocks are quite simple which is nice. No paper piecing required.

I did this Chevron with templates, including sewing a Y-Seam (eek!)

This wide stripe was paper pieced so that the stripe would end up in the right place to play well with the other blocks.

Ahhh the simplicity of the good ol' four patch. 

While sewing together the five Pantone Project blocks, I used the squares of the 9-patch donation blocks as leaders and enders.And voilá all 8 are done and ready to turn in.

As I was piecing the last of these blocks I noticed that the fabric on the lower left featured a logo for the Roaring Camp Railroads, our local steam train. It either takes you up into the redwoods or down to the beach. I thought it made for a funny block when use along with the Cal fabric.Very specific to me personally and quite local yokel-ish.

And speaking of local yokel stuff, c'mon, pumpkins for sale on 9/4/23?!? That's too soon by several weeks, maybe a month? I love Halloween a whole lot, but really, early September?

Back To Pantone Land

 

At Sew Day, I received yet another great selection of Pantone Project blocks from friend Jaye. Aren't these all so great? 

That reminded me that it was time for some of my own Pantone Project block making. I like this selection of colors, it would make a great palette for a quilt, wouldn't it? It's amazing how inked up the postcards get when they go through the mail. Better inked up than torn up like the one that arrived in a plastic baggie with a "sorry about that" note from the post office.

This is a really odd color, it's right in-between grey and a pastel lavender.

After making the Orange Bullseye, my orange stash of fabric is definitely depleted. Thankfully, I still have a lot of oranges to choose from.

I'm always happy when I remember that I have this ruler, it works so perfectly.

September Sew Day

 

Yesterday was Sew Day at BAMQG, and I got a lot of things done in addition to socializing of course. I cut out more backgrounds to use in the Metro Twist quilt and cut the other fabrics into shape as well. I pieced together half of them which are still yet to be trimmed in this picture. Unfortunately I didn't pack for Sew Day very well as my Quick Curve Ruler broke in the pocket of my rolling sewing machine tote. 😞Right at one of thinnest points on the edge. I put painters tape on it and worked out okay. I think I'll crazy glue it though .

The new donation quilt project is a 9-patch based design, and I got a bunch of pre-sorted stacks to sew together.

I got three blocks done, but as you'll notice two are prints on the corners, and one is background on the corners. I'm guessing that's part of the quilt design, needing some of each type of block. My plan is to use these for leaders and enders as I sew together the following:

The Make It Work bag that I took from the donation quilt table in July is now partially sewn together after my efforts at Sew Day. The outer sections aren't sewn in yet, they're just up on the design wall for now. I think I need to put some more solids in from my stash to "make it work". Also, I need to decide on what size quilt I'm shooting for here too. The Kitchen Sink Quilting class is definitely running through my head as I'm working on this.

September To-Do

Here's how the design wall looks on the first day of September

Sew-a-Long Thingies 

Trinket - piece more finisher ribbon blocks, make backing and binding.

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

Stitch Happens - Finish quilting, bind, label.

Temperature Quilt- dye more of some of the colors I'm running out of, 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.

New Work

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

Finish It Up

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

Village/Japanese Houses -Finish quilting bind, label

There's a lot of variety to choose from, and a lot of potential finishes too.

Summer's Ghost aka September

 

• "We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost." -Henry Rollins

September has arrived, foggy and cool, which is quite a nice surprise really. This monthly marker is two photos combined in the app SnapSeed. 

This is the first photo, a closeup of the back of the Stitch Happens quilt.

The second picture is of my new studio assistant Korben Dallas murtalizing one of my paper tassels.

Here are my 31 seconds of August, that's 1SE or One Second Everyday.

 Monthly I-Did List for AUGUST

I did a video of this years ICAD pieces.

I did a product review in two posts about a pair of new quilting gloves.

I finished the back for the Stitch Happens quilt, layered/basted it, and began quilting it.

I cut more pieces for blocks for Metro Twist.

I made 6 paper pieced finisher blocks for the back of the Trinket Quilt and made a video about it.

I quilted a BAMQG donation quilt.

I made binding and stitched it on two donation quilts for BAMQG.

I helped make a donation quilt top at Sew Day for BAMQG.

I made some Pantone Project blocks.

I cut more Temperature Quilt pieces, and finished piecing the March column and pieced the column for April.

I did some family visiting stuff and went on one hike with DH.

I attended Sew Day for BAMQG, blogged here 30/31 days, I tweeted 1 time, instagrammed 7 times, threaded 6 times and I spouted 9 times.

That's a pretty good assortment of stuff I got done for August.