Sewing Scientist: March 2023

Vera Quilt

This is what my sewing tables look like when I'm in a creative mood. I have multiple projects out all in different stages of progress. In this chaotic mess you will see the Vera quilt pattern by Bryan House Quilts. It's sitting on top of a few fabrics that I was considering to use for the pattern.

The chaotic mess slowly became more of a controlled chaos. I finally figured out my fabrics for the Vera Quilt, but in the process made a secondary pile for another quilt (seen in the upper left of the photo below.

The Vera pattern is not my favorite pattern to make. Is it my least liked - it is close. I do love the style of the quilt and the blocks, but if I make this pattern again, I am rewriting the pattern to my own liking. If you are wondering what I didn't like and what I would change, well here is my list:

Make the units around the center square as flying geese (using the four at a time method) and half square triangles (these either using the 4 at a time method or 2 at a time).
Resize the center square to 6" and then resize the flying geese and HST to match up to that size.
The pattern gave no instructions to trim any pieces to any particular size once made - such as the flying geese.

Since the pattern as written didn't give any "trim to" sizes I ended up with some misshapen blocks and lost points in a lot of places. When I trimmed all the blocks down to the final size was when the most damage occurred.

They say that quilting hides all the sewing/quilting sins. It does work. You are way less likely to notice my mismatched spots and missing points when there is beautiful quilting.

I used the Monstera pantograph from My Creative Stitches and quilted the Vera on my Tin Lizzie. I LOVE how it came out. This pantograph was on sale for $5 (still is as I write this on 03/26) and was worth it - it stitched out perfectly.

I finished my Vera with a fun striped binding that coordinated with the blue solid fabric I used. The blue solid I used is from Jo-Ann. It is one of their solids and I don't recall the name. I was looking for a bright and light-ish blue that was turquoise to coordinate with our new rug in the living room.

The backside of the Vera Quilt is a waffle fabric from Minerva.

The backing I was using was wide enough, but not long enough. I loaded m y quilt sideways on my longarm so that the quilting would go a little quicker.

The fabrics I used are mainly from Spoonflower with a few other random scrap fabrics thrown in for their color.

I wanted my quilt to be mostly turquoise, blue, and green. But I also wanted a few cream colored prints. I also wanted a few colorful ones to add some fun pops of color.

I fussy cut a few of the center blocks to feature items that I loved in the fabrics. Like the upper left peacock.

This quilt now resides on our sofa back. It's the favorite napping spot for our kitties and it can get hair covered in no time. I've had a quilt in that spot, but I wanted a new quilt that went with the new rug a little better. This one complements the rug well and also matches the mini quilt I keep on a nearby chair and the colors are also the same in the glass art in the open stairwell. I can't wait to see how this quilt ages and softens as it gets washed and used.

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Week Ending March 26, 2023

I took some time off from work this week and it was wonderful! I had a doctor's appointment on Monday, but once I got home, I put my Vera Quilt on the Longarm and her quilted.

Later in the week I got a whole both of Anna Maria Horner wideback for being a Jaftex Ambassador.

I made some headway on another quilt I started on. I'm making the Urban Crossroads by Prime Time Quilt Company. I'm using a Petrol colored cotton woven from Minerva.

I finished my Vera Quilt with a striped binding.

I received a beautiful collection of blues and teals for my May Ambassador Project for Jaftex. I'm thinking these will look beautiful backed with my new Anna Maria Horner wideback!

I started to think about the layout of my blocks for my Urban Crossroads Quilt.

I'm making slow and steady progress on the Urban Crossroads Quilt. I'm hoping to get the blocks finished this coming week. After this quilt is finished, I plan to start on a few scrappy projects as I have a lot of fun things planned for April for Earth Day. I will be hosting a blog hop and have some fun items to have for giveaways. I will be posting daily about eco friendly sewing tips or projects and will make a few new things to share.

Garden Club Collection and Quilt

Do you ever ooh and aah over the quilt patterns that get released for specific fabric collections? Sometimes they do inspire me, but I rarely ever make them. When I received the Garden Club Collection from Blank Quilting by Missie Carpenter, I immediately went to see what Quilt Pattern had been designed for the collection.

There were so many fabrics in the collection, but the real star of the show was the medallion floral panel. The medallion was 36 inches square and it was just stunning. I knew I had to use it in the best way possible.

I was thrilled to see that there was a Quilt Pattern - Garden Club Quilt #1 that was designed to use the medallion panel and the 4 corner panels. I unfortunately did not have enough of the fabrics required by the pattern to make the full top, so I only made the top without the three additional outside borders.

I unfortunately did not have enough of the fabrics required by the pattern to make the full top, so I only made the top without the three additional outside borders. Also - don't call the Quilt Police on me. I know that I lost my points on the stars.

I had big plans for this quilt. I was going to do a piano key border using all the fabrics from the collection in a rainbow that went across each side. I was going to try my hand at free motion quiltingon my longarm and do some fancy stitch work on the medallion.

However, work got into the way. I had so little time. I usually can find at least an hour if not 30 minutes to spend in my sewing room each night, but lately I have been lucky if I can even log off of my computer before dinner is ready to eat.

When I could spend time in my sewing room, I felt rushed. Other times it had been so long since I picked up my project that I could no longer remember where I was at and lost time timing to figure it out. As a result I somehow trimmed some of my half square triangle and not others.

Things were not lining up as they should and I needed them to so that the border of blocks would turn out as intended. In the process that meant that I had to trim a little off some of my blocks to get them to the appropriate size and that meant I lost some points.

I still think the final quilt turned out beautiful and I am probably the only one that will notice those missing points. I really enjoyed sewing this collection for Blank Quilting Corporation. I loved the earthy colors and the flower medallion was so beautiful. It is definitely what catches the eye on the quilt.

Week ending March 19, 2023

I have been so so busy with work work and not much sewing has been happening. This weekend I played catchup on a few projects. I finished these towels weeks ago and finally snapped a few photos to post on Minerva. I love making my own towels as I can make them whatever size I want and I can add a little pizazz with my binding fabric. The binding on these is a fabric I designed from a photo of 1,000 paper cranes hanging in the Crow Collection of Asian Art.

The Quilt I won came in the mail from Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting. Smaug immediately wanted to nap on it.

I am almost done with my locker hooking rug and took a photo to show how big it was.

I went on a work trip and ended up in the news. It was a cold and rainy day. I was wearing a really cute outfit that I made under my raincoat.

I slowly worked on my Vera Quilt blocks. I have decided that I really dislike the instructions for this pattern and would not make it according to the instructions ever again. A full blog post detailing my dislikes of the pattern to come.

I did get all my blocks finished on Saturday and got the top completed. I am so glad this quilt is just for me. There are so many places that look "bad" in my opinion and they all have to do with how the pattern is written.

On Sunday, between loads of laundry, I cut out strips of fabric to make the Origins Quilt by Lifting Limits Quilting. I am making the bed size, but not following the instructions completely. You will see why later. Also - I plan to use my scraps from this quilt to make my next "Quilt for Good" auction quilt. That auction will happen in May (I think). It depends on what all I can get done by then.

Work has worn me out the past few weeks. I'm off on Monday and hope to get some stuff done. I have a doctors appointment in morning and hope that I'm home by noon. If I am, I plan to put my Vera Quilt on the longarm and get her finished. I hope to have some finished projects to share next weekend.

Week ending March 12, 2023

I had another bust week at work, but happy to finally have some sewing time.

I won a quilt from Kitchen Table Quilting! See a screen shot of their IG story taggingbme below.

I finished my blocks for my Jaftex project.

In my happy place.

Finished a giant spool of thread and started on its sister.

And got started on two more projects.

I'm just thinking about this one. I pulled the fabrics, but won't start for a bit. You never know when a fun pattern test might come along.

This week will be busy again, but hoping to finish a few things this week.

Spring Garden Quilt by Running Stitch Quilts

Julie at Running Stitch Quilts is one of the best to test patterns for. She's laid back, low stress, and the patterns are always perfect to begin with. When I got an email about the Spring Garden Quilt pattern test, I was busy with some other projects and let Julie know that I would probably just make one block. I delayed starting a bit and when I finally picked the pattern to start, I decided on a whim to make the baby size. Below is the finish top right after I finished it.

My entryway has a glass block wall facing the front door. The other side of the glass blocks is my bedroom. I've had the idea to hang a small throw or a large wall hanging there for each season and holiday. But, I've been slow to make anything more than my mushroom table runner that I put up on the glass block wall for fall.

I decided that the baby size of the Spring Garden Quilt would be the perfect fit for the Glass Block Wall - and it would be perfect for Spring. I won't lie - this quilt will likely be hanging until October when my Dia de Los Muertos Quilt will go in it's place.

Since I was going to be seeing this quilt a lot, I pulled out lots of beautiful fabrics by Anna Maria Horner for it. I wanted the colors to reflect the normal range of flowers that I often grow. The dark fuchsia reminded me of the Oleander we have all around the front of our house. The lighter pinks are for the Japanese Magnolia, Azaleas, and Pentas.

There are two blue flowers on my quilt. They are for the Bluebonnets, Bluebells, and the blue Morning Glories that I love to grow.

The purple are for the Passionflower Vines, Verbena, and Salvia.

The Yellow center flower is for the Coreopsis and Daffodils.

The flower blocks come together by making 4 different basic blocks. It's fairly straight forward, but isn't a super easy or quick quilt. It's not heard, but it does take a little more time than a basic beginner pattern. The pattern did take me a little longer to make because I did take extra steps to make bonus blocks from the cutoff pieces from the snowballed blocks. I don't like for any pieces to go to waste and put my bonus half square triangle blocks aside in my bonus block box for future use.

Week ending March 5, 2023

I had an extremely busy wee with work and didn't have a whole lot of time to play in my sewing lab this week. I worked many 12 hour days and it really wiped me out. Whenever I had a few minutes, I started to piece together strips for a jellyroll rug.

Nia thought she would help. I didn't get too far before I needed to put this project aside. I plan to finish later this month.

My auction finished for my Ankara Quilt and I am happy to report that it raised $380! I plan to auction another quilt soon.

I received my March fabrics from Jaftex and they are the Garden Club Collection for Blank Quilting Corp. I'll share more soon.

One of my neighbors opened a creative reuse shop - Untrash! I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see what all she does with this endeavor. I plan to do a workshop with her in the future.

I finished my weekend working on my Jaftex March project. I'm making a modified version of the Garden Club Quilt pattern with the Garden Club Collection.