Week ending April 24, 2022

I didn't have a whole lot of sewing time this week, but I made good use of my time. I finished my quilt top for Jaftex fabrics using the Geofetti 2 Collection from Studio e Fabrics.  Here is is on my design wall with Nia getting in tge way of my shot. My quilt top came out way bigger than I had planned.

I love the explosion of color from this quilt. I can't wait to get photos. 

The leftover flying geese from my Linking Lives Quilt have been calling to me. I sewed them together and prepped them to sew onto this top.  

I tested the column block pattern by Heather Ann Dye Art. It's designed to show off hand dyed fabrics and large scale prints. The finished block is big at 30 x 24. I used scraps to make this one.  

Plains and Pine had a Star Week Challenge and sent out a free star block pattern each day for 6 days. I had these hst I made as bonus blocks from my trimmed off pieces from another quilt and thought I'd use them fir the Aunties Star Block. 

My hst were smaller than called for in the pattern, so I calculated what the other pieces needed to be and used up some other scraps. I love how it turned out. I also thought tge size was perfect to add to a tee. 

Here's my flying geese tee after i sewed the blocks on.  

Here's my Aunties Star Block on another tshirt. 

Then Sunday I decided that I wanted to make more Column Blocks and figured 4 across and 3 rows would make a king size with a border added. These are my pieces grouped together for sewing. 

I'm excited to see this come together. 

Week ending April 17, 2022

I had a lot going on at my house recently. We just had it painted and a new fence was put in this week  I also had 2 doctor's appointments and had very little time to sew. I did finish my quilt pattern test for Andrea Haverin. 

I took finished photos out in the bluebonnets. 

I got my Studio e Fabrics (Geofetti2) up on my design wall. I got all my strips sewn together

I got a sweet thank you gift in the mail from Danielle (Mix Measure Make) and it was a great way to end the week.  

I'm hoping to finish my Geofetti 2 quilt top this coming week. Then to work on a few small projects before I go on vacation next month. 

Week ending April 10, 2022

I feel like i accomplished a lot this week! On Monday I decided I needed a few new athletic t-shirts and cut out 5 from my stash of fabric from Zenith and Quasar. 

I made the Green Tee from Greenstyle. I've made it before and love the v-neck. 

I wore this wildflower one to the gym right away. I finished all 5 shirts by Wednesday. 

The Diagonal Dazzle Quilt Pattern released from Mix Measure Make and I got my blog up on it. 

I started a new quilt pattern test. This will be the Linking Lives Quilt Pattern from Andrea Haverin. The chambray is my backing and is from Minerva. 

The bold print on the upper left in the photo below is a linen my sewing BFF, Sharon, gave me recently and I had to use it right away. 

I made good progress slowly working through the steps. 

The pattern uses the four at a time flying geese method. You end up with 2 extra of each color. 

I also made good progress on my Geofetti 2 Collection from Studio e  Fabrics. I've sewn the triangles in sets of two. I'll press these then join them in sets again. 

I'm ending the week with a lot of pieces that need to be pressed. I'm excited to see both of these quilts take shape. 

Diagonal Dazzle Quilt Pattern by Mix Measure Make

I recently finished testing the Diagonal Dazzle Quilt by Danielle of Mix Measure Make. I'm not going to lie - this quilt took me a long time to make, but it was so worth it. Just look at all those tiny squares! They are 1" finished and there are hundreds of them to make.  I also decided to make a scrappy version of the quilt. The quilt requires three colors plus a background fabric. 

I was given  a large amount of fabric scraps from a member of our local sewing group on Facebook. She  had an etsy shop at one time and cut her items in batches from the fabric folded in half which left a long strip down the middle of the yardage that was about 10" wide. One fabric that was in large abundance was a white fabric with a black space print. I decided to use it as my background. I probably have enough of this fabric for 2 more quilts. 

I then needed to pick my colors. This took me a bit and after playing with fabrics for a day I decided on a royal blue, a turquoise/mint green, and purple. 

I was particular with which fabrics I selected for my blue and turquoise/mint colors. For blue, I tried to stay as close as possible as I could to a royal blue and included blues with  green in the print. For the Turquoise/mint colors I kept to a few fabrics which some all came from  the same collection. I did allow them to range from a pale mint with a white print to a dark turquoise. I find that adding in different tones in  the same color family adds depth and interest.

When it came to the color purple, I had to dig to find enough fabric scraps that were even close to being purple-ish. I added  in some more pinkish purples and some prints that were equal parts blue and purple. I also had a print that  was purple based, but had bits of red and brown in the print. 

I absolutely love how my Diagonal Dazzle Quilt turned out! As my scraps were cut into the quilt pieces, I was extremely worried that my quilt was going to turn out hideous. As I slowly pieced together the units, I really loved how the colors played together and embraced the variety of the purples. All my fears evaporated when I took my completed top outside to get a photo and loved how bright and playful it turned out. 

The Diagonal Dazzle Quilt comes with two different sets of instructions. There's one set that I followed that uses less fabric. It uses zero waste techniques such as 4 at a time flying geese and making 2 half square triangles at a time. This method does require trimming pieces and blocks as you go. The second method creates two quilts! It uses more fabric and uses zero waste techniques, but you make flying geese and half square triangle individually, but sew a second line of stitches to make a bonus half square triangle. After you make the Diagonal Dazzle Quilt like mine above, you can them make a second smaller quilt with the bonus blocks. 

This is Danielle's first quilt pattern and I was so impressed with the instructions and all the sewing tips and tricks in the pattern. It's on sale for a limited time for the release. 

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Week ending April 3, 2022

I spent the past week at my mom's house. I came home yesterday and spent today unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning, and doing a little sewing. My mom had surgery on her wrist to fix some broken bones on Monday and I took my EPP supplies with me and started on a Lucy Boston block.

I had my Jaftex ambassador fabrics delivered to her house and they showed up on Tuesday. I got a beautiful collection called Geofetti 2 from Studio e Fabrics. I love these vibrant colors.  

The Perfect Place Quilt Pattern from Lifting Limits Quilting released. I finished up my blog for it on my phone and published it on Tuesday. I need to get back to it and add links to the pattern and clean it up. 

I took my Diagonal Dazzle quilt pattern I am testing for Mix Measure Make. I LOVE how my scrappy version came out. 

I completed my first project with my Geofetti 2 fabrics. Before my mom even broke her wrist, she told me she wanted to make more bowl cozies. So when I was packing my things to stay with her as she recovered, I packed up my bowl cozy pattern and supplies. I decided to put my own twist to the pattern and I quilted each piece together. I decided to  put the two halves together like a quilt and to bind the edges, just like a quilt. I really love how they turned out. My mom even commented on how much "fancier" these looked.

I came home and went to work cutting my fabrics using the Scrap Crazy 6 Creative Grids template using just the triangle template. I had originally planned to make a variation of a pattern that Karen Montgomery has in one of her Scrap Crazy 6  pattern booklets, but when I saw this fabric I got inspired to do something different. 

This will give you an idea of what I am going for. I ordered a few more blenders to add some more solid-ish colors into the mix to break up all the prints. I always describe my style as maximalistic and these prints and the pattern really go with that aesthetic. 

I've been neglecting my 2021 temperature quilt and told myself to get at least one more month sewn together. I now have all of June and part of July done. I am determined to finish it by the end of June!

My husband saw I had my quilt top finished and he knew that meant one thing - I needed him to serve as quilt holder so I could get photos. Unfortunately he wanted to go around 4pm and the light was not right. I needed the sun to set a little bit more to prevent the harsh dabbled light. I did try to take a few photos, but I'm not happy with them. I'll have to try again later this week and might employ my stand that I bought.

I  have a plan tripped in May. We are finally going on our Alaskan Cruise that was to celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2020. It's only 2 years late. I think I will try to make 3 long sleeve t-shirts with some lightweight wool jersey I bought years ago for some winter layering pieces.