Gypsy Wife Sew-A-Long

 I have loved the Gypsy Wife quilt by Jen Kingwell from the moment I first laid eyes on the pattern book at QuiltCon in 2016. I didn't buy it back then, it just looked way too hard, too much piecing, etc. But after the great experience of working through the 100 Blocks in 100 Days sew-a-long for the Tula Pink City Sampler, I couldn't resist when the same group was doing a sew-a-long for Gypsy Wife.

I honestly had an issue I had to research before I could commit to doing this project, the use of the word gypsy was bugging me. I'd heard that it was now considered quite offensive, and I wasn't sure I could type it into my instagram every time I posted about the project. I spent a lot of time reading comments and essays from people in the communities that are usually described by that term. Was I being too knee-jerk liberal, was this an example of PC gone wrong?  Not a surprise, yes and no. There are of course a lot of opinions on the use of the word gypsy. What it came down to was the intention when using the word. In the current-day US, it is generally now considered offensive when used to refer to a specific person. 

I also had to consider different cultural usage of the term, Jen Kingwell is Australian, so I investigated that further, and it got even more complicated. In the way she's using it in the title of this quilt pattern, to me what it means as a descriptive term is: eclectic, bohemian-style. It refers to the riotous use of color and patterned fabrics which a person who traveled all over would end up collecting. It's not intended as derogatory towards the person who's had that experience. It is however, definitely romanticizing that life, which remains somewhat problematic. Honestly, I'd much rather call this something like Bohemian Wife instead but it's not my pattern to re-name. Maybe that's what I'll call my version of it once it's done.

For the block piecing, I'm using a mix-up of several fabric lines that I've had on hand thanks mostly to Massdrop fat quarter bundles. L's Modern Basics by Lecien, Mini-Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House, and a really random Kaffe Fasset Collective that I think I got from Hancock's of Paducah.

The long width-of-fabric strips that serve as the background of the quilt are going to have to be a whole other selection out of my stash as I don't have long yardage of any of these prints since they're just fat quarters, and I am not going to piece strips. So looks like I'll be adding in yet another level of eclecticism! Which will be good for this quilt I think. Maybe I'll end up doing solids or all black & whites or grey or hand-dyes or even batiks? Haven't made up my mind quite yet on that.

So far the blocks are going together well, the piecing experience I gained from those 100Blocksin100Days has stuck with me.

Here's the first five blocks together, looking pretty bohemian and eclectic so far. I like the variation in the block sizes and types so far.

Gypsy Wife SAL -

 A couple more of the Gypsy Wife Sew-A-Long blocks that I finished. These Puss in Corner blocks were fun to play with!

 As you can see I played around with switching some of the color choices around.

I had to choose which one to put the border on, I like how the houndstooth check looks versus the black/white typed print.

 Here's how it all looks on the quilt diagram so far. A lot of red, kinda pops out at me.

Re-starting Bohemian Wife

Bohemian Wife is my re-naming of the Jen Kingwell pattern, Gypsy Wife. Again with the use of the word gypsy situation, I know I know. I already said it all when I was talking about the company that makes the Scrap Tape I'm working with for my 100 Day Project. 

Anyways, I started working on this project as part of a sew-a-long with Gnome Angel. I'd really enjoyed her sew-a-long for the Tula Pink City Sampler - 100 Blocks, so I joined up. This was way back in 2017. I'd gotten pretty far along with making blocks but hadn't left myself a lot of great notes. I brought my box of fabric and blocks and the pattern along to Sew Day yesterday and got myself re-situated with what was left to be pieced.

I got quite a few more blocks cut out and completed. I like how well they go together. Now I am much closer to having to actually make the decision on what to use for the long strips that comprise the background of the quilt pattern. With all of the recent dyeing I've been doing, and a lot of it done on yardage instead of on fat quarters, I'm toying with using a lot of those, maybe mixed in with purchased solids. But prints may be the way to go. I'll have to pin some options up with the blocks to see what looks good. Part of my initial attraction to the cover photo quilt is how well the various blocks blend in with the strips so that they don't stand out much at all individually.

I laid out all the blocks that I've gotten done so far in approximate spaces for where they go in the quilt and this how it looks.

Well...after coloring in the blocks I made, I still have quite a lot more blocks to make. But these are comparatively easy compared to all of the other ones. Glad to have gotten back into this project.

Second Half Square Triangle Blocks

After making the first half square triangle block for the Gypsy Wife quilt, I found that I hadn't read the directions quite closely enough. I was supposed to make two of them.

 After a lot of cutting, and rearranging I ended up making two more blocks. I used the left-over blue and grey triangles from the first version of the block. All the blues in one, all the greys in another with a mixture of colorful prints.

I like how different the two versions look.

I guess at some point I'll have to choose just two of the three to use in the actual quilt. Maybe I'll put the left-over one on the back somehow.

It's really starting to look like a cohesive quilt forming up.

Lucky Lucky

Feel like I lucked out at the holiday gift exchange for the December meeting of the South Bay Modern Quilt Guild. Great Kaffe fabrics and a cool book I hadn't seen before, Modern Applique Illusions by Casey York. 

I'm looking forward to using the fabric in my Gypsy Wife quilt this year. And after I read the book, maybe trying out some of the techniques, always loved the topic of creating perspective and depth. 

On To Quarter Two

 This is my quarter two Finish-a-Long list. This time I chose nine projects.

Blue Squares - This was on last quarter's list, and then I didn't get it dropped off to the long-armer. I'm putting it on here again, in the hopes of actually getting to it. Hopefully there's a social-distancing way to do it.

 City Sampler - This was on the list last quarter as well, and I got as far as getting the first part of the sashing sewn on to each of the 100 blocks.

2016 Calendar Quilt - the blocks are all done, but not assembled. It won't be too huge, so it's do-able.

 May You Ever Return - Feeling like it's now or never on this one. I really love this one, and I'd love to get it completed.

25,000,000 Stitches panel, it's due in May. Not sure how much more stitching I'll do, but I'm enjoying working on it.

Gypsy Wife - I got part way into this quilt and have been wanting to get back to it, now that it's on the list, I have (my own) permission!

 Four Living Room Cushions - sitting around at home so much lately, has kept this project on the list.

Ebb & Flow - I have the sketch done, and it's up on my design wall, but hasn't gotten much further and I'd like to finish it!

Celestial Round Robin - This was on last quarter's list. I got pretty far on it, it's 75% quilted.

Half-Square Triangle Block

 Making the half-square triangle block for the Gypsy Wife Sew-a-Long was fairly easy. I had fun with the blues and grays in the fabrics I have pulled for the quilt top.

 It was fun to play with the different possibilities.

 And it was fun to see how it looks with all the other blocks.

Looking Pretty Boho

 A couple more blocks for the Gypsy Wife Sew-A-Long have been completed. First is called 'Indian Hatchet', a fairly simple one. I like how it looks with the mixture of fabrics.

 This Star Block is pretty, can never get enough of the variety of stars possible. I'm pleased with the pointy-ness of my points.

Some of the sew-a-long people were posting about using PizAp to paste in pictures of their blocks onto the assembly diagram to keep track of the colors and fabrics used. I tried it out and think it looks pretty good so far, it's pretty fiddly to use though. But I'm also going to keep doing a colored-pencil version because of having to color in all the strips, not trying that with the app, that would be way too fiddly.

Nurse's Cross

 The Nurse's Cross block for the Gypsy Wife Sew-a-long turned out pretty well. Talk about a riot of patterns, and all in one block.

It went together pretty easily, but I'm really missing the interim measurement points in block construction that Pat Sloan's Solstice Quilt instructions contain.  I almost tried the paper-pieced version that was suggested, but wanted to give piecing it a try.

Village Welcome

 

Well okay, the last two charm packs from Bunny's Designs arrived, which is 103 more to add to the 116 I already had either purchased or cut from my stash. 

Here's 144 of the charms, and there are only a couple repeats out of the three charm packs I bought which isn't too terribly noticeable with all this color and pattern going on.

Here's my entire stack of 5" charms ready to go. I don't have enough yet, so I still need to cut out squares from the L's Modern Basics by Lecien that I have in the Gypsy Wife in-process box.

Some random closeups of a few faves.

Really looking forward to starting in on cutting pieces for the Sewtopia Village sew-a-long today.

I'm going to be checking out the Instagram hashtag, #VillageSewALong2021.