February 2021 WIP Update

Wow, after making so many blocks in January, I only made two in February! It was a busy month, between the release of the Love Code quilt pattern and QuiltCon; I'm also doing a little bit of part time work too, which leaves less time for quilting!

There will be no more Nebula quilt blocks until the next installment of the kit is released in April, and I didn't make any Gravity blocks this month! That leaves my progress on the Patchwork Sampler - there were four Sundays in February but I only made two blocks. I'm going to keep doing one block a week until I'm done with the large blocks, then I'll make two blocks a week for two weeks to make up for the weeks I missed this month.

The best part of making blocks for the Patchwork Sampler is cutting into fabric that I love so much! I'm making this quilt for myself, and I imagine how much fun I'll have looking at all this beautiful fabric in the finished quilt! I'm trying to use a lot of Tula Pink fabric for this - I love Tula Pink so much but I always am worried about "wasting" the precious fabric. I keep reminding myself that it can't be a waste if it's going into a quilt that I love!

Patchwork Sampler Block 46

Patchwork Sampler Block 45

Love Code Quilt Pattern Available!

I am so excited to announce the the Love Code quilt pattern is available in my Etsy store!

Love Code!

Love Code uses background squares and half-square triangles to spell out "I love you" in binary code! (In the spirit of full disclosure, the quilt actually reads ILoveYou with no spaces between the letters!)

This quilt combines a sweet message and a secret code to make a modern quilt, what could be better than that! It is easy enough for a beginner but interesting enough for an advanced quilter. It can be made pretty fast, in case you need a last minute baby gift! (This pattern can totally be made by a beginner quilter, but I've said it's beginner friendly because I don't explain some of the finishing steps of making a quilt - this pattern does assume you have basic quilt knowledge.)

This pattern was originally published as the baby size in Make Modern Magazine (where it is still available here.)

I've expanded the pattern to include 5 sizes! It comes in mini, baby, small throw, large throw, and queen size. Here are the sizes and fabric requirements:

Although I had such a strong vision for this quilt in pink, I knew it would look great in pretty much any fabric combination. I made a version in blue too!

I made a small throw size without borders

My friend Elizabeth (instagram @sew.orcutt) tested the pattern for me and made this beautiful mini using a floral background - isn't it amazing! I love her fabric choices.

Quilt and photo by Elizabeth Orcutt!

This pattern was based on a quilt I made that was shown at QuiltCon in 2019. It was made for the two color quilt challenge, and in that quilt I used binary code to write my favorite quote: let the beauty of what you love be what you do. I love the idea of binary code messages in quilts and so I made the Love Code quilt with the most important message of all, love. It's been a hard year, and I think we need all the love we can get right now!

Love Code is 50% off for today only, and 25% off for the rest of the week - no coupon code needed! So grab your copy now!

January 2021 WIP Update

A very picture heavy update on the quilts I'm working on!

Nebula - I have no willpower so I finished all the blocks that were available in the first installment of the kit. Now I have to wait until April to work on this again! Which isn't a bad thing - I really thought I could alternate working on Nebula blocks and Gravity blocks, but once I got started on Nebula, I wanted to keep working on it.

Nebula Block 1A (actually made in December)

Nebula Block 1B (actually made in December)

Nebula Block 2A

Nebula Block 2B

Nebula Block 3A - I want to redo part of this to change the orientation of the striped triangles

Nebula Block 3B - I don't consider myself a huge fan or orange, and yet after making this block, I had to buy more of these two orange fabrics so I can use them for something else!

Nebula Block 4A - I had to carefully fussy cut these to make sure I got all the hands in the block. The bottom hexagon makes it look like it's winking at me!

Nebula Block 4B - I ended up buying more of the Homemade print so I could fussy cut the hexagons the way I wanted

Gravity - After I finished the Nebula blocks, I was able to work on some of the Gravity blocks. I'd like to see how much I can get done before the next installment of Nebula blocks arrive, now that I know I can't resist making them once I have the kit. It was interesting to make these right after making the Nebula blocks - Nebula is cut from fat eights and Gravity is cut from 10in squares. I think it might be a little easier to cut from the fat eights, but I love the variety of colors for the Gravity quilt. It's funny to work on both at the same time and see the differences and similarities.

Gravity Block 1A

Gravity Block 1B

Gravity Block 2A

Gravity Block 2B

Gravity Block 3A

Gravity Block 3B

Patchwork Sampler - There are 51 blocks in the quilt, so it's perfect for doing one block a week and making it a year long project. My goal is to post one block every Sunday on Instagram. My original vision for this quilt was just as scrappy as possible in warm colors. When I made the first block, I ended up fussy cutting a sleeping princess. The first 9 blocks are larger and are perfect for highlighting fussy cut fabric, and I've kind of developed a fantasy/fairy tale story in my head for these blocks. Now I'm making fabric choices based on that! I'm fussy cutting Tula Pink and Heather Ross fabric, so there's lots of magical stuff to choose from.

Patchwork Sampler Block 51 - I love this sleeping beauty princess! I didn't realize it when I made this block, but she would set the tone for the rest of the large blocks!

Patchwork Sampler Block 50 - The center bee is from Tula Pink All Stars

Patchwork Sampler Block 49 - Fussy cutting Tula Pink Slow and Steady and Homemade

Patchwork Sampler Block 48 - With the fairy tale theme, at first I thought Elizabeth (from Tula Pink) might be an evil queen, but I happily realized that she's a fairy godmother!

Patchwork Sampler Block 47 - I love the boat animals from Heather Ross. I went a little overboard (ha ha) with the water theme by using the raindrops, and the waves from Tula Pink's Zuma too

It's a little strange to have sewed so much but not have a quilt top this month! I'm still trying to shift my outlook away from finishing 12 quilts like I did last year. These three quilts are big projects, and it will be fun to see them come together over the course of the year.

2021 Quilting Goals

With a new year comes new quilting goals! My 2020 goals were to finish 12 quilts (which I did!) and to be better about sharing my finished quilts, which is a work in progress. It was a little more difficult than anticipated to finish those 12 quilts - obviously 2020 was a year that was totally unprecedented, and although I stayed home all year, with everything that was going on, it wasn't always easy to get some quilting time in. I think it was a reasonable goal, but I don't want to make it my goal again this year.

This year, some of the quilts I want to make are pretty ambitious, so I am not going to set a goal for a number of quilts to make. Instead, my goals are:

1. Make the Nebula and Gravity Quilts
2. Make the Patchwork Sampler Quilt
3. Finish 6 WIPs
4. As always, be better about sharing my progress and finished quilts!

Gravity and Nebula quilt patterns

Goal 1 - Nebula and Gravity Quilts: When I first saw the Nebula Quilt BOM announcement by Julie at Jaybird Quilts, of course I was immediately and totally in love! Tula Pink fabric and a Jaybird Quilts pattern? It's almost a no-brainer! But I almost didn't buy the kit because it is so similar to the Gravity Quilt by the same designer from a few years ago. I'm not unhappy that it's similar, it's just that I've had the kit for a few years and it's always been my "someday" quilt, but I've been too nervous to start it. I love it so much and I don't want to mess it up! So I thought, I can't buy the Nebula Quilt kit when I haven't even made the Gravity Quilt kit yet! But as I saw more pictures of Nebula, I knew I couldn't resist, so I promised myself that I wouldn't buy the kit and not make it (I am the queen of buying quilt kits and not making them) - if I was going to buy the kit, then I HAD to make it this year. And then I felt weird because why did I think I could make the Nebula Quilt but I was still afraid to start the Gravity Quilt? So the only logical/crazy thing to do is make both quilts this year. I'm so glad I committed to it because every time I see a picture of the Nebula Quilt I am so happy, and I would have been so mad at myself if I missed the chance to buy the kit! (One thing that helped me is that I've made a few Jaybird Quilt Patterns in the last few years, so I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of how the quilts are constructed and how to use the rulers. Also, the Journey to Nebula projects were super helpful too in maintaining my confidence in my abilities, and also kept me super excited for the BOM to start!) I am just over the moon excited to make these two quilts! I was surprised and excited to get the first installment a few days ago; I have no willpower and have already made the first block! (I have used the word excited too many times in this paragraph but... I'm really, really excited to make this quilt!)

I couldn't resist making the first block!

So I had to make the second part of the first block too!

Patchwork Sampler quilt pattern, and all the warm color cards

Goal 2 - Patchwork Sampler Quilt: The Patchwork Sampler Quilt Pattern by Lori Smith of From My Heart to Your Hands is another pattern I've had for a few years now that I'd really like to make. The quilt pictured on the cover is a different style than the kind of quilts that I like to make, but I think that this pattern can be made with bright and modern fabrics, and I look forward to trying it! I've been really wanting to make a scrappy quilt with warm colors - pinks, purples, yellows, and oranges. I can't decide if I want to include red yet! I pulled out my color chips from the Quilter's Field Guide to Color Workbook by Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Color and separated out all the warm colors to find the hues I wanted to use. When I saw ALL the warm color chips together, I thought, yes! That's how I want the quilt to look! So I am going to use as many different fabrics that I have in these colors, and hope for the best! I am looking forward to cutting into some of the fat quarter bundles I've bought over the last few years, especially the fat quarters that I received as part of my subscription the the Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Colorful club from this last year.

My work in progress Journey to Nebula projects

Goal 3 - Finish 6 WIPs: As part of a general "get organized" effort I've been working on during the pandemic, I made a list of all known WIPs that I have. I've been sewing for over 25 years now (off and on) and for most of that time, I've been a serial starter of quilts but not much of a finisher of quilts. Which is not necessarily a bad thing - people should work on what they love and makes them happy! But I would like to actually finish the projects that I start. "A goal is a dream with a deadline" is kind of a corny thing to say but I have found (especially this last year) that setting a goal really does help me accomplish what I'd like to do. That's partially why I set a goal last year of finishing 12 quilts, just knowing that I set that goal helped me finish the quilts instead of starting a new project. And so I only have 2 WIPs from 2020, my Quilter's Field Guide to Color Bear Tracks quilt (which is a long term project anyway) and the Journey to Nebula projects. I really wanted to finish the J2N projects before I started Nebula, but as I mentioned previously, I have no willpower and had to start Nebula once I got the first installment. So I still have to do the J2N projects but they are small and I am confident I can get them done sometime soon. I'm happy that I only have 2 WIPs from 2020, because I counted and I have *26* WIPs from pre-2020! *26 that I know of!* There is a real possibility that there are more buried in a bin in the garage that I've totally forgotten about by now. They are projects abandoned because something shinier came along, or I made a mistake that I didn't feel like dealing with, or they got stalled out after the quilt top was complete because I didn't know how to quilt it. And it's not a quilt until it's quilted! I used to not like the actual quilting part of making a quilt, but ever since I learned the technique of quilting with serpentine stitch/multi-stitch zig zag, quilting got a lot easier for me, and therefore, more doable! It's still not my favorite part of making a quilt, but I don't fear the quilting stage anymore. At least six of the WIPs are quilt tops that just need to be quilted, so I am setting a goal of finishing 6 quilts off of the WIP list by the end of the year. 

Goal 4 - Be better about sharing my progress and finished projects: Sometimes I get a little anxious about posting on Instagram or writing a blog post about a quilt. It's silly but I do. I love reading about other people's quilts, and I'd like to share my work too! This is a little more nebulous than a firm goal, but it is something I'm working on so I am listing it here too!

And so these are my 2021 quilting goals! I read quite a few people are not setting goals this year - after the year we've experienced, I totally understand that sentiment. But I've found it really helps me to write down what I want to accomplish. It's not written in stone and I'm not going to be upset with myself if I don't do everything I say I want to. I'm open to priorities changing. But I know I am more likely to do it if I make it a goal and write it down. It was very helpful for me to have goals in 2020, and I think that will continue into 2021.

Happy New Year! I hope that you have a great start to your year, whether you are setting goals/resolutions or just seeing where the year takes you!

Bear Tracks Quilt for Mr. F!

Here is my fourth quilt finished in 2020!

Details:

Pattern: Bear Tracks Quilt by Angela Walters

Fabric: Boundless Solids by Craftsy FQ Bundle

Finished Size: 66 x 81 inches

Finished on May 23, 2020

Made for: Preschool Teacher Mr. F

I wanted to make a quilt for my older son's preschool teacher, Mr. F. My older son, N, was in a special preschool program through our school district for kids who need a little extra help with language and social skills. N was in Mr. F's class for almost two full school years - he joined his class in October of 2018 and "graduated" in May this year, although he hasn't been in the classroom since March due to the shelter in place order. N has grown and learned so much in these two years, and I know Mr. F has played a big part in that. Last year, I volunteered for the class's holiday party, and that very short classroom experience made me really appreciate how hard teachers work, and I was determined to make Mr. F a quilt to thank him for being an awesome teacher!

I really like this Bear Tracks Quilt pattern - it's simple and modern, and suitable for a guy. I don't know anything about Mr. F's style or home, but I think a quilt like this is pretty flexible. I used a FQ bundle of the Craftsy Boundless Solids - I love the color combination in this bundle. I almost wish I had bought more of this fabric because I have so many ideas for the scraps of this quilt! I was able to use some of these scraps for the MQG's mini quilt swap this year.

"Dark" blocks - you can see the two where I used a lighter color instead of the white.

It was easy to split the fat quarters into light and dark groups. I made the "dark" blocks first. I followed the pattern pretty much exactly, except in two of the dark blocks, I used a very light fabric instead of the white background fabric, just to be saucy, although in the finished quilt you can barely tell the difference and I'm not sure I improved anything with my change. But at least I didn't make it worse, right?

I love these colors!

When I was working on the "light" blocks, it was around Easter and these colors fit in with the holiday so perfectly. I've become totally obsessed with these colors and I want to make a quilt for myself with them. This combo just really says "spring" to me! This was about a month into the shelter in place and I was beginning to realize it was going to last a lot longer than just a few weeks, and I was feeling really down about the situation. To make myself feel better, I was thinking a lot about spring and Easter and renewal, and these fabrics helped put me in a better mood. I don't mean to be trite about a serious situation, but I'm sure my fellow fabric lovers will understand.

"Light" blocks in progress.

I really wanted to finish this quilt in April but it was a tough few weeks and I didn't do much sewing; when May rolled around, I knew I better get it in gear to finish this quilt in time before the school year ended! Even though N wasn't in the classroom, he was doing a little bit of distance learning and we were still in touch with Mr. F. I knew there would be an opportunity to pick up stuff that had been left in the classroom so I thought that would be a good time to give Mr. F his gift. I had a deadline and I didn't want to miss it!

My son wrote his name on the label.

One thing I really wanted to do was have my son N write his name on the label, since he learned to do that from Mr. F! I thought it might take a couple of tries, but N did it perfectly the first time. I wrote in the other details after he wrote his name. It made me a little nervous to make such a personalized label because I didn't know if this quilt was Mr. F's style, or if he even liked quilts, and was open to the possibility of him giving it away. I would never want to create a sense of obligation for the recipients of my quilts. But I also wanted to reflect how special the two years that N spent in his class were. I also found out that N's first year in his class was Mr. F's first year of teaching, and I thought it might be pretty cool for him to have the handwriting of one of the first kids he taught to write.

I quilted it with the trusty serpentine stitch - I really don't think you can go wrong with this method of quilting.

Texture!

When we had the chance to go to the school at the end of the year to pick up stuff, N was able to say goodbye to his teacher and I gave Mr. F the quilt in a gift bag. He didn't open it right then, but he texted me later to say that he's glad he didn't open it in front of us because he cried when he did, and that he loves quilts and he's excited to have one of his own. So I feel really good about the personalized gift for Mr. F! It's just so nice to know that my work was appreciated. And I hope we communicated how much we appreciated him as a teacher!

I found a leaf print with a lot of the colors from the front of the quilt. This is generally how I make the backs of quilts.

Constellation Pillow!

 

Details:

Pattern: Pisces Constellation Pillow by Fancy Tiger Crafts

Fabric: Kona Solids in Coal and Sunny Yellow

Finished Size: 20 x 20 inches

Finished Mid February 2020

Made for: Sister J's Boyfriend

Back in 2018, I made a Constellation Pillow for my sister, J. Actually, I have to start this story by going back to 2016 when we saw the original Constellation quilt at QuiltCon in Pasadena, which we both loved. I bought the book with the constellation patterns practically as soon as it was published; I still want to make myself a quilt with the constellations of my family. But in 2018, my sister was planning a cross country move and she was visiting us for her birthday, so I thought it would be the perfect time to make her the constellation pillow for her future new place. She loved it and her boyfriend mentioned that he would like one as well, so I've had it in my head ever since to make him one! Fast forward to this year, they had recently had their first baby and he was celebrating a milestone birthday in February; it seemed like a good time for another constellation pillow.

I followed the pattern for the quilt top exactly. The only thing I do differently than the pattern instructs is that I quilt the pillow top before making it into a pillow - I just like a quilted pillow better than a non quilted one. I quilt it in straight lines about an inch apart, stitching in the ditch for some of the lines, as needed. The pattern recommends embroidering the lines connecting the stars, but I just switched to a gold thread and quilt a straight line between the squares.

My sister and her boyfriend were happy to now have a matching set of pillows for their house! This was quilted project number three for this year, but I'm (hopefully) not going to count mini quilts like this in my goal for finishing 12 quilts before the end of the year.

QuiltCon 2020 Mini Quilt Swap!

Details:
MQG QuiltCon 2020 Mini Quilt Swap
Pattern: Original Design by Me
Finished Size: 22 x 22 inches
Finished in Early February 2020

I participated in the mini quilt swap with the Modern Quilt Guild earlier this year, via mail since I didn't go to QuiltCon this year. This is my second quilt finish of this year and I don't know if I should count mini quilts as part of my goal for finishing 12 quilts this year. I'm going to not count it right now but I'll reserve the right to change my mind in case I don't make it to 12 quilts by the end of the year!

Some of the things my partner told me that inspired my design for this quilt are that she likes Caribbean colors and the ocean. I can be kind of literal sometimes - I immediately though of waves. I wanted to do something original (last year for the mini quilt swap, I used a pattern, which I don't think is a bad thing, but I still wanted to do an original design) so I sketched out a few options and then started cutting fabric! My partner mentioned she likes Alison Glass (which I do too!) so I used fabrics from the Sunprints 2019 collection and also a Lizzy House constellations print, which served as the base for my choice of colors from the Caribbean spectrum. All the solids are scraps from another quilt I was working on; it was so perfect that they were in the colors my partner likes and coordinated with the prints I chose. I also used some Craftsy ombre charm squares I had, and a few different low volume fat quarters. The triangles are cut small so it's hard to see the ombre fabrics, but I do think they add a sense of movement to the quilt.

I straight line quilted it with both a variegated thread and white thread, with the quilting lines pretty close together. 

I'm pleased with how this turned out. I'm thinking I would like to make another quilt with these colors, so I kept all my scraps from this quilt together to use in the future. I always get so nervous making a quilt for someone else, because what if they don't like it? But my partner did seem to like it, and even asked me what fabrics I used because she wanted to make a bed quilt using similar colors, so I think that's a pretty good sign that it was well received. 

100 Days Quilt!

My first quilt finish of 2020!

We're standing on chairs to take this picture!

Details:

Pattern: Kinship Fusion Sampler by Angie Wilson and Bec Proschogo

Fabric: Square One Farmer's Market FQ Bundle by Craftsy

Finished Size: 72 x 92 inches (post wash: 68 x 87.5 inches)

Finished January 24, 2020

Of course, most of the work was done in 2019 when I participated in Gnome Angel's 100 Days 100 Blocks. I've followed that sewalong for a few years but never joined in until she announced a new pattern, the Kinship Fusion Sampler, and I just could not resist! (I really have a weakness for sewalongs and block of the month programs.) And the best part is, I really did it! I posted one block a day for 100 days. And then I finished the quilt! I'm super proud of myself, in case you can't tell!

The fat quarter bundle separated into color groups. I didn't use the two gray prints but I did choose a gray solid for the background color.

I had bought a fat quarter bundle of the Square One Farmer's Market fabric from Craftsy with no plans or projects in mind, I just really loved the colors and prints in the line, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use it. I envisioned doing an ombre quilt but I didn't want to stress over the perfect fabric placement, so I did a some quick math and figured out how many blocks I would make out of each color (there were 18 total fat quarters: 5 purple/pinks, 5 red/oranges, 5 yellow/greens, and 3 blues, so I figured my ratio of 100 blocks would be 28 blocks each for the purple/pink, red/orange, and yellow/green groups, and 16 blocks for the blue group.) I made a checklist so I could keep track of how many blocks of each color group I made, but then after totally overthinking that part, I just made blocks within each color group and didn't stress about it. I did mix in some fabric from the other color groups sometimes to help with the ombre, but didn't over plan it. It got harder as I made more blocks because I was running out of fabric so I incorporated some solid scraps that I had, and I ended up making more red and purple blocks and less blue blocks, just based on the fabric I had available.

The back is made from lengths of some of my favorite fabrics from this line.

The pattern comes with two different layout options which are both great, but I wanted to keep the blocks individualized so I thought I came up with a different layout option, but once I drew it out on graph paper to make sure I had a good balance of colors, I realized that I had just used the layout on the cover of the quilt pattern! So much for being original!

I like to piece the quilt label into the back of the quilt.

Sewing 100 different blocks is a big project! The 100 Days 100 Blocks sew along runs from July 1st through October 8th. During the 100 days, I went to a quilt workshop and had to stay in a hotel. Since I was all alone and had my sewing machine with me, I worked on some of these blocks in the evening in my hotel room. It was so peaceful. I have two young boys and don't generally travel much, even before this whole shelter in place thing started. I still very fondly think about two quiet nights in a hotel, all to myself, sewing and watching reruns of Friends! There's a joke among quilters that goes something like, "On Saturday nights, I like to party! And by party I mean stay home and sew." And that joke is so accurate for me!

When I'm trying to find the perfect layout, I'll send pictures to my sisters to get their input. I have to push aside all the toys to make room for my design floor.

Once I had all the blocks finished in early October, I needed a little break, and there were a few baby quilts to make, so I put this aside until November. I really wanted to finish in 2019 since it was the 2019 100 day project, but finding sewing time in November and December last year was tough, and I was also being a little bit of a perfectionist about this quilt. Once I had the blocks made, I got nervous I would mess it up somehow when I put the top together, or quilted it. When I get stressed about a quilt, I tend to not work on it. Putting the top together wasn't inherently difficult, it was just hard because I wanted it to be perfect. It was tough to decide how to quilt it - I wanted an overall quilting pattern because this quilt is all about the patchwork for me (most of my quilts are about the patchwork, and the quilting is just something I have to do to get a finished quilt.) I have quilted several quilts with lines of serpentine stitch which I love to do because it is both easy and looks great, and for someone who doesn't love the quilting part of quilting, that's a great combo. But I was worried that wouldn't be special enough for this quilt that I had put so much time and energy into! In the end, I did decide to do the serpentine stitch because finished is better than perfect, and I didn't want to let this sit any longer. In the end, I'm glad I did. I have a finished quilt and it is practically perfect. The flow of colors in the ombre effect works for me, and the quilting doesn't district from the patchwork and gives it a great texture.

Texture!

The sashing and binding are both a grey solid from Craftsy. I quilted this and finished the binding in January. I had to wait until another adult visited our house before I was able to take a picture, because the quilt is so big it took two people to hold it up! I'm pretty sure this is the biggest quilt I've ever made! I used Warm and Natural batting and I love the weight of it.

I actually made the heart block (block 100) first, just to make sure I had enough fabric for it because it was my favorite and I knew it would be in the center of my quilt.

I am just so happy with how this turned out! It's so colorful and I love the blocks and just looking at it makes me happy. Who could ask for anything more?