Weekend Sewing

The first week of school has positively flown by!  Other than the Urgent Care visit, it's been a quiet week.  I was sorely tempted to do lots of sewing during down time, but housekeeping duties called.

Included in this was a little stash organization (again).  I realize that, though my stash is nowhere near as bountiful as many other quilters, there are still some things lurking in my stash that I probably will never use.  It's amazing how much my tastes have changed in the past year. 

Housekeeping aside, I made a bit of progress on my Love Circle swap project.

Progress came to a screeching halt when I miscalculated and cut the side strips the wrong length.  The Essex linen was leftover from a previous project, and the mistake necessitates a fabric-buying trip (!).

I also jumped right into the Vintage Holiday Quilt Along.  Blocks #1 and #2 are finished:

Block #2 was originally made with Kona Clover and Medium Gray parallelograms.  It felt dull, so I remade the block with Kona Snow and Spruce (I think).  Much better!

In other sewing news, I'm reviving my A-Z Quilt-Along project.  I left off several months ago after finishing my H block, and the rest of the group have zipped along to V.  I am fourteen blocks behind!  Make that sixteen blocks- W and X are due at the next BA Modern quilt guild meeting.  My plan is to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening prepping fabric for blocks I-P.  I hope to piece eight of the sixteen blocks at the guild's Sew Day tomorrow and, time permitting, make some headway on my swap project.

Have a great weekend!

Sewing marathon

I've finally recovered from BA Modern Quilt Guild's Charity Sew Day, and I mean that in a good way.  Who knew putting on one of these events could be so exhausting!  And it was pretty low-key, at that.  It must have been all the prep leading up to it that did me in.   That, or the ten hours sitting on my posterior sewing like a fiend.

A cheerful and productive group showed up, churning out a plethora of quilt blocks, cat beds and quilt tops.  We started off with a fun Art Gallery Fabric challenge.  Jen and I had prepared a stack of 5" pre-pieced blocks and 5" charms from Art Gallery Fabric scraps and bolt ends.  After a quick tutorial on this NinePatch Remix block, a variation of a disappearing nine patch, our fearless sewers hit the ground running.

After about an hour, we had enough challenge blocks to piece our first quilt top:

The top is sashed with Pure Elements in Ash.  Because we deviated a little tutorial, our blocks came out to 13.5" (or thereabouts) rather than 9.5".

The challenge was a hit, with enough blocks pieced for 5 quilt tops.  We managed to piece a second top by day's end, and will finish piecing the remaining 3 quilt tops before the next guild meeting.  Below is quilt top #2, with Jen's hand attempting to cover my sashing mistake (a seam faces front on the left side):

The final tally at the end of the evening was 94 blocks, 11 cat beds and a total of 6 finished quilt tops.  I wrote a post about the event, which you can read about in the next day or so at the BA Modern Quilt Guild blog.

Measure, Cut, Repeat

The better part of this afternoon was spent prepping fabric for BA Modern Quilt Guild's upcoming Charity Sew Day.  Thank goodness for rotary cutters- I can't imagine the tedium of cutting 5" charms with scissors.  It was fairly tedious making umpteen 5" charms even while armed with a rotary cutter!  Leftover scraps were cut in varying widths to be pieced into 5" blocks. 

Art Gallery Fabric studio scraps were generously supplied by Pat Bravo and the AGF team, as well as by Julie at The Intrepid Thread.  I still have quite a bit of fabric left to cut up, but I'm giving my poor rotary cutter a break.  Plus, the blade needs to be replaced, or at the very least sharpened.

Jen and I have some fun things planned for Charity Sew Day this Saturday.  The Art Gallery Fabric charms are part of a block challenge in which we hope to complete at least one, maybe even two, AGF quilt tops before the day is over.  We've also sprung for some cool prizes (at least we think they are, anyway) to keep the momentum going once the charity sewing commences.

We'll also continue to work on the current quarter's block- string blocks.  Quilts made by the guild this quarter will be donated to Project Night Night. 

March Recap

For some reason, I was feeling like I did a lot of sewing in March.  After creating a mosaic of my sewing accomplishments,  I'm feeling like that is not the case.  Maybe that bump to the head I had earlier in the month affected me more than I previously thought!

FTLOS Swap, Aqua and Red Bee, do. Good Stitches, Piece Bee With You

Since March was my month for a couple of bees, I didn't sew as many blocks as I normally do.  I did, however, design and sew a mini-quilt and potholder. 

This week will definitely be down to the wire, sewing-wise.  Four blocks for the BAMQG  A-Z Quilt-along and Echo Challenge, a charity quilt top, and four more 3x6 Q2 blocks.  I'm already tired just thinking about it!

Next month's recap will be block-heavy.  Sixteen to be exact.  Plus a couple of potholders.  And an apron.  Over-commit much?

So much to do, so little time

February is busy, busy with bee/swap commitments, charity and retreat planning for the BAMQG guild, and chairing Girl Scout cookie sales for Martina's troop.  Egads, why is February a short month?  

I managed to eek out a couple of bee blocks, but neither are ready to be shipped off.  In my previous post, I shared my Retro Flowers test block for the do. Good Stitches Love Circle.  I didn't press the seams open, so I'm either going to make the block again, or take the test block apart and re-sew with seams pressed open. 

February's Piece Bee theme for Lynne is tropical fish.  My inspiration was this picture of an Emperor Angelfish.  Lynne wanted bright colors and indicated batiks were okay.  I raided my stash and found some fabric I bought for my brother-in-law's Deadhead quilt (which I have yet to design, much less start).  The block feels very murky instead of the bright and colorful block Lynne requested.  I think I'm going to start over.

Blocks for Aqua and Red Bee (Flying Geese for Dawn) and Design Camp Swap (shipping containers for Jaime) blocks are also due this month.  Plus, I've also got to make test blocks, then cut up and ship out fabric for these same two bees, since March is my month for both. Thanks goodness the BAMQG retreat is coming up- it's going to be all about the bees and swaps for me.

Amidst all these deadlines, Jen and I have been trying to organize quarterly projects and track the piecing, quilting and binding of the guild's charity quilts.  When we first met to discuss the program launch in December, we settled on a target of 2 quilts per month.  We've got such enthusiastic members that 3 completed quilts are already done.  We've also got 6 quilts out amongst guild members in various stages of completion, and the first quarter isn't even up!  We are a guild of over-achievers!

Yikes!

     My little guy loves to roll his Thomas trains all over my sewing machine.  All over.  Yesterday he kept having train crashes.  One of the crashes knocked the thread take-up spring on the tension unit out of whack.  To quote Sir Topham Hat, this has caused confusion and delay.  I didn't notice it until I tried to finish a secret swap project for this week's BAMQG meeting. 

     So now my machine has to have some unscheduled maintenance done.  I may try to do it myself... there are some good references on the vintage Singer yahoo group.  If I muck things up, I can always take it to a repair shop.  Thank goodness I have a backup machine.  Which the little one is now rolling his toy truck all over.

    There were a few things I managed to complete before the fateful crash.  Two 12.5" log cabin blocks for the BAMQG Heirloom Challenge. 

There was a third in the works, but I scrapped it.  I also made a gift for the guild's December Secret Swap, but the photo won't be posted until after the meeting.   

     My November bee blocks were mailed off just under the wire.  I usually finish bee blocks well before the deadline, but the procrastinator in me doesn't like to send them as soon as they're done.  I'm always rushing to get them off a few days before month's end.

    The November block for Piece Bee With You was Geese In A Ring in aqua and orange.  This was lots of fun to make.  The next time I make one, I'll pre-cut the fabric.  Although this isn't a quick block by any means, it took much longer to make than it should have.  Alisha also asked for a small siggy block.

     The theme for November's Design Camp [think outside the block] Swap was Ocean Dreams.  We were sent a mix of beautiful solid cottons and linens and asked to improvise a block with a beachy feel.  The block I made was inspired by striped beach cabanas along a boardwalk. 

 

It doesn't look as improvised as it is.  It sort of looks paper-pieced, but I suppose that will happen if you're rotary cutting with a ruler!

Habitat Challenged

     This Habitat challenge is not quite working out the way I planned.  My great idea was...well, was not so great.  The plan was to discharge color from half of each fat eighth we were given and choose a simple design to highlight the results. 

     Here's what the fabric looked like after 20 minutes in my washing machine with a weak bleach and water solution, then a spin in the dryer:

The moss color turned to amber, and the aqua faded a teeny bit.  Aside from that, there was no perceptible change.  I threw a few of the pieces into my kitchen sink with a much stronger bleach and water solution, swishing them around for about 10 minutes.

The colors faded a bit more, but not to the degree I was expecting.  Of course, had I accidentally spilled bleach in the washer while pre-washing the fabric, there would have been all kinds of discharging going on!   
 
     Either the colors weren't saturated enough before the discharging experiment, or the fabric was treated to hold color.  Whether one, the other, or both, I've got to think of something fast- there's less than 2 weeks before the next BAMQG meeting.

     Speaking of BAMQG, I've also got to make my blocks for the A-Z Quilt-along.  We're on "E" blocks, but I've fallen a little behind.  So it's "D" and "E" blocks, plus my Habitat Challenge project by next Saturday.  I'm hoping the quilting gods will smile down upon me this week.    

First Quilt-Along

     Having joined the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild this summer, I'm excited to participate in my first quilt-along.  I'm not sure if there is an official name for it- I think we're calling it the A to Z Quilt-Along.  In a nutshell we sew a block (or two) a month, each month having a designated letter.  The fun begins by scouring books or the web for blocks beginning with the designated letter for the month.
     My color palette is yellow, pink and orange.  I've chosen Jennifer Paganelli's "Honey Child" line as the inspiration fabrics, and supplemented with a few others:

     [The fabrics are, from top to bottom: Honey Child Flourish Papaya (Jennifer Paganelli), Weekends Hopscotch Butter (Erin McMorris), Honey Child Blooms Papaya, Girly Girl Berry Whispers (Art Gallery), Weekends Hopscotch Pink, Trick Or Treat Orange (Riley Blake), Kona Curry, Honey Child Abstract Orange, Queen Street Maeve Fuschia (Jennifer Paganelli), Kona Pomegranate.]
     We're currently on C blocks for August.  [Edited 8/7- we're actually on "B" blocks.  I got ahead of myself.]  At the suggestion of one of the BAMQ guild members, I purchased Judy Hopkins' 501 Rotary Cut Blocks.  I love that this book has pictures of the blocks in alpha order at the front if the book.  It also gives measurements for multiple sizes.  The only drawback is that there aren't explicit instructions on how to make the blocks.  You also have to do a little extra math if you want to speed cut and piece (e.g. quick piecing multiple HST's from larger squares or strip piecing).
    Below are the blocks I've got so far:

Antique Tile Block

Bachelor's Puzzle

Castles In Spain