December Wrap Up

Early in the month, 

I stitched my Colorwash 360

class project quilt top together.

I also quilted and bound Marathon,

and even added a sleeve and label.

On a whim I pulled fabrics from my resource boxes

inspired by the colors chosen by Bonnie Hunter

for her 2018 mystery quilt named Good Fortune.

(let's all say it together -- SQUIRREL)

In the weeks since that fabric pull,

I've changed my mind about how I plan to use them

which should come as no surprise

to those of you who know me.

I am not going to die cut half rectangles.

Instead, this will be the fabric pull for 

my first quilt of Sujata Shah's 

Uncommon and Unconventional Quilt Along.

(nicknamed the U&UQA)

I'm looking forward to our January 7th start.

Feliz Navidad moved from fabric pull 

to pieced blocks ready to be webbed together.

As I pieced those sixteen patches,

I also stitched quite a few pairs of squares

for one of several leader-ender projects

prepped for next year - all designed to 

use my over-abundant stash of 2.5" strips

that have accumulated over the years.

And in the space of two weeks,

I conceived, designed, pieced, quilted, bound,

and gifted Busy Town to Little Man.

You can read that story here.

Now that I have a new plan for the BH fabric pull,

I've shifted the half-rectangles idea

 to THIS fabric pull featuring 

fabrics from Needle & Thread and my stash.  

AND I finally finished up the current 

AHIQ Maps and Mapping Challenge.

You can read my last few posts using the links below:

Years 11 and 12 (2014-2015)

Year 13 (2016)

Year 14 (2017)

Year 15 (2018)

I'm curious to see what the 

next AHIQ challenge will be.

* * *

I've also been thinking about

what I want to work on in 2019.

I'll be back to share those ideas on January 1st.

Quiltdivajulie

Marathon - The Quilt

Binding time!

I love this little battery-operated task light,

especially for hand stitching on dark fabrics.

And if you haven't checked out 

Lynne Tyler's new binding tutorial,

you really need to -- 

I'm so happy my binding stitches no longer show!

Here is a view of the back with the binding stitched in place.

Corner one of the front . . . 

Corner two of the front . . . 

Corner three of the front . . . 

And corner four of the front.

Max and I quilted this one using Glide thread in Nickel,

Warm and Natural batting (Wanda's recommendation),

and one of my straight-edge rulers.

The vertical lines are 1/2" to the right of each seam line

and the horizontal lines are 1/2" below each seam line.

Just enough without being too much.

Then I took the quilt upstairs 

to take a proper (straight on) photo for Wanda.

But I couldn't resist taking this one.

Two different ways of making quilts . . .

both valid and both beautiful.

Looking to the right . . . 

And looking to the left . . .

And here is that high resolution straight-on photo.

* * *

So what are my take-aways 

from Wanda's Colorwash 360 course?

I am very glad I took the class.

Wanda is an excellent teacher

and I learned several things

that will help me be a more efficient 

and intelligent quilt maker.

I learned that I CAN do something like this

despite the many challenges involved.

(the first time I tried, I bailed and made Colorwash 4.0)

I also remembered why I call myself

 an eclectic liberated scrappy quilt maker.

Is my finished quilt perfect?

No.

But like last weekend's marathon runners, trying and 

finishing are more important than maintaining perfect form.

THANK YOU, WANDA

for helping me further refine my skill set.

Quiltdivajulie

---------------------------------------------------
p.s.  I owe ever so many of you a not-yet-replied-to-comment apology.  I've read them all and appreciate your kind words, but I need to call comment amnesty for several previous posts.  Hoping to do better in the coming days/weeks!

p.p.s.  I'll be back with new posts sometime next week.  Gotta get caught up with cleaning, laundry, and paperwork in the meantime.

Progress Update - Colorwash 360

When this photo was taken,

I had webbed roughly half of my 

color wash quilt top.

IF ONLY I had noticed it at this point . . . 

After somewhere between 5 and 6 hours of work,

I had the top completely sewn together

and pressed so it was ready for basting.

But where did that elongated yellow line come from?!

I pulled out my photo (top) of the squares 

when they were still pinned on the design wall

and compared it to the photo (bottom)

 of the finished top and THERE it was . . .

one extra square in the wrong place.

Time to walk away, fix dinner,

and get over my not-so-happy reaction.

This very cool book sits on my studio shelf -

it will be for Little Man's 3rd birthday next fall

but I'm enjoying it in the meantime.

In most of my quilts, I can make an "oops" work

without having to do major reconstructive work.

But in this particular top, that was NOT an option.

And so I sat and surgically un-stitched both sides of

 the column in order to remove the offending square.

THIS was the problem.

(clearly I had been auditioning squares

and this one had somehow stayed stuck

to the back side of the real square -

a definite "oops" that Wanda

had repeatedly warned us about)

I shifted the removed column up a row

and carefully re-stitched each of the 26 vertical seams.

Near the bottom I added in another orange square -

which is the way things were supposed to have been.

Each of the fifteen horizontal seams were then pinned

(because the seam allowances all had to reverse

from where they had been previously pressed)

and sewn one at a time across the width of three squares.

Two-plus hours later,

the top was really and truly finished.

(double click to supersize)

Now the batting has been fluffed in the dryer,

the backing (above) has been pressed,

and the binding strips have been cut.

 (that's the binding fabric peeking out 

from under the backing above)

Next steps will be to get this basted and quilted.

* * *

And as I was un-stitching last night,

the quilt's name made itself known --

MARATHON

(inspired I'm sure by the fact that the

St. Jude Memphis Marathon was held this weekend)

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
"If I have accomplished anything good, then it's mainly because I've been driven by the need to know whether I can accomplish things I'm not sure I have the capacity for."
Vaclav Havel

November Recap for 18 in 2018

Someday is Now (shown above) 

is the last project on my

18 in 2018 Piecing List.

I haven't touched it in the past week

as I've been finishing two shop sample tops.

* * *

I have quilted eighteen quilts since January

so I'm calling my Quilting List DONE.

* * *

And I've finished with the comfort quilts for this year

so I'm also calling that list DONE.

* * *

Over the next few days I hope to

get my Colorwash 360 top sewn together

and a scrappy back stitched together for

Dumpster Diving 4 - The Christmas Edition.

Beyond that, I also have four quilts that need sleeves.

Once I get the sleeves made 

I can hand stitch them in place

during our Wednesday morning

quilt group gatherings.

And I really do want to get 

the top for Someday is Now

assembled before the end of December . . .

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------

Touching Base

double click to supersize

After even more tweaking,

THIS is the final layout 

for my colorwash quilt top.

(shown here with each square

securely pinned on the design wall)

And later in the week,

this is how that same design wall looked.

All 285 squares are now safely clipped together

and ready to sew when time permits.

It feels so good to reach this point in the process.

I had a bit of time to work on blocks 

for my next LQS class sample (January 2019)

and I used these bits and pieces as leader-enders.

The contents of this box,

along with another huge stack of pinned pairs,

will slowly but surely become 

Dumpster Diving 4.0 aka 'Tis the Season.

(actual design still to be decided)

The quilt will not be ready for use this year

but these pieces WILL become a quilt top 

before year end.

And with a few minutes of stitching here and there

over the past few weeks,

all of the kaleidoscope centers for 

Someday is Now

(inspired by Sujata Shah's Organized Chaos design)

are sewn and laid out on the design wall.

I've added corners and sewn the first two rows together.

Only six more rows to go . . .

***

Little Man will be here this weekend

for his monthly sleepover visit

and I don't know about you,

but I cannot believe Thanksgiving

is happening next week!

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
"Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return."
Ralph Marston

Almost There

This is where I left things last night . . . 

Getting so close now . . . 

I need to tweak the blend

in the center light area

just a bit more . . .

And then it will be time to  

get this ready to be sewn together.

Thank you Wanda

for all the effort you (and Vicki)

have put into your Colorwash 360 class!

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
"Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence."

Colin Powell

18 in 2018 - October Recap

On the PIECING list,

I completed my Shibori do-over 

which is now known as Shift Happens.

I've also started working on

Someday is Now -- the last project 

from my 18 in 2018 Piecing List.

On the QUILTING front --

I completed Tea Party,

my challenge quilt for our 

rapidly approaching local quilt show.

(I've also prepped six more of my quilts

to hang in the show Nov. 2-3-4)

AND I finished sCRUMBtious.

The squirrels in The Squirrel Club

 encouraged me to make thirteen autumn pillows 

and a new table runner.

I am participating in

 Wanda's Colorwash 360 class.

My own version is currently stalled 

on the design wall until after the local quilt show 

is set up, held, taken down, and the quilts returned.

I really want to work on this,

but there just aren't enough hours in each day.

I taught two two-session classes on

Sujata's Peppermint Pinwheels

at my local quilt shop.

You can read about that HERE.

I've washed, ironed, and cut into blocks

the many yards of donated white fabric

for the 70273 Project block drive

that will happen during our local quilt show.

I've also sliced and diced a lot of different reds,

and gathered a goodly assortment 

of red trims for the pairs of red XXs.

I even did my first-ever podcast 

with Jeanne Hewell-Chambers,

the woman behind the 70273 Project.

I wrote and shared three more posts

for the mapping of my own quilting journey

as part of the current AHIQ 

maps and mapping challenge.

Years 5 and 6 are HERE

Years 7 and 8 are HERE

Years 9 and 10 are HERE

And while you are visiting

the AHIQ group blog,

be sure to check out the other posts

to see how others are handling

this particular challenge.

* * *

And finally, since today is Halloween,

HAPPY and SAFE Trick or Treating 

to all those who will be out tonight.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap 
but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson