365 Sampler Catch Up

Once again, I let myself get behind on the 365 Challenge Quilt Sampler blocks. By almost a month.

I really need to not do that again.

I spent this weekend catching up on twenty-four blocks. Tonight, I re-made one and did the block for the day.

65. North Wind, 66. Flower Basket, 67. Spool And Bobbin, 68. Art Square, 69. Spinner,
70. March Basket, 71. Pinwheel Star, 72. Attic Window, 73. Diversion Quilt, 74. Shadow Box, 75. Lattice  Square, 76. Lucky Clover, 77. Mosaic, 78. Sarah’s Favorite, 79. Autumn Flurries, 80. Log Cabin, 81. Courthouse Steps, 82. Pineapple Plant, 83. Snails Trail,
84. Crown Of Thorns, 85. Crosses And Losses, 86. Easter Morning, 87. Twist,
88. Friendship Star, 89. Eccentric Star, 03.  Bonus: Easter Lily

I have to admit, I decided not to traditionally piece quite a few of this particular batch of blocks, like Log Cabin, Courthouse Steps, Pineapple Plant, and Pinwheel Star. I felt like I’d end up with more accurate results, and it took the headache out of them for me.

I will say I’d really like to not have to any blocks with miters in them for a while. And I still hate basket blocks with a fiery burning passion. I’m also very glad that we should be getting to do 6″ blocks with more regularity.

So, having made all those blocks, I was compelled to put them all together, just to get an idea of where I’m heading.

When it comes time to assemble the 3″ blocks into their inner border, I will have to make sure to scatter those pops of color. I will also possibly need to re-make more blocks, in order to add more color. So far, though, the 3″ blocks I have now should work well.

Oh, and I cut 1.75 yards from stash, to supplement the dwindling supply of black and grey scrap I have. These blocks would have probably used up quite a bit more yardage, if I hadn’t wanted to work from scraps as much as possible.

365 Challenge Quilt Sampler – Weeks 5 to 9

I managed to get away from posting about all of my 365 Challenge Quilt Sampler blocks over the last several weeks. Well, really, from any and all posting.

Why?

I got a new job! I’m now working in insurance, and it’s been an adjustment, getting used to the commute, the new sleep schedule, etc… I’m packing lunches daily, which is helping me fight the good fight, on the dieting front. Now I just need to add exercise to my daily activities, and I’ll be much happier!

Anyway, I’d been mostly keeping up with the sampler blocks as they were posted, but then I suddenly ended up two weeks behind. I was horribly sick this past weekend with a stomach flu, so I took advantage of my isolation from the world to get through most of them. I got caught up by Tuesday, and then photographed everything for posting.

Week 5

29. Churn Dash, 30. Grecian Square, 31. Flock of Geese,
32. Hovering Hawks, 33. Antique Frame, 34. Lost Ships, 35. Sailboat

Week 6

36. Southern Belle, 37. Hour Glass, 38. Big Dipper,
39. Chinese Coin, 40. Practical Orchard, 41. Ohio Star, 42. Chained Star

Week 7

43. Design In Geometrics, 44. Diagonal Strips, 45. Love and Kisses,
46. Flying Geese, 47. Streak of Lightning, 48. Slanted Diamonds, 49. Attic Window

Week 8

50. Tea Leaf, 51. Sawtooth Variation, 52. Dutchman’s Puzzle,
53. X-Quisite, 54. Capital T, 55. Broken Sash, 56. Squares Squared

Week 9

57. Economy, 58. Fair and Square, 59. Four Queens,
60. Right and Left, 61. Whirlwind, 62. Hidden Square

Block number 59, Four Queens, is actually the center medallion for this sampler, and finishes at 18″. We actually had two days to work on that one, which is why there are only six blocks for that week.

With this block, I took the opportunity to introduce a lot of low volume prints. As we progress through more blocks, more of these prints will show up as well.

Altogether, I ended up cutting about another half a yard from my stash of black fabrics, to add to the current pool of scraps. I’m starting to see the end of certain fabrics, even from my scrap bins. It’s both sad, and thrilling. Sad, because I love, love, love some of those fabrics. Thrilling because I’m getting every inch I could out of the yardage I purchased.

Still, it’ll be fun to play with arranging these blocks. I’m looking forward to getting through these 3″ blocks!

365 Challenge Quilt Sampler – Week 04

22. Broken Dishes, 23. Small Triangles, 24. Mixed T, 25. Lost Ship,
26. True Blue, 27. Jacks On Six, 28. 28_Shoo Fly

In order to work on this last batch of blocks, I ended up cutting into a bit of my stash – small WOF strips no wider than two inches each. Altogether, it came to be about a quarter of a yard that came out of my stash, so that’s being logged as part of my stash use for the month.

As I work on these blocks, I continue to piece odds and ends of fabric bits together, making what I call ‘found fabric’. Others might associate the words ‘scrap vortex’ with this sort of piecing. I’ve three panels in progress, though two of them are no bigger than my hand. The largest panel is about 12″ X 12″ now:

The bottom half of the panel includes from of my smallest scraps left over from piecing the 365 Challenge Quilt Sampler blocks, while the top portion are larger strings left from cutting my scraps down into easily usable sizes.

It’ll be interesting to see how this grows. I would like to end up with a lap quilt from these odds and ends.

The Fibs and Fables quilt is moving along… I’m at a stopping point until I can starch and press several yards of fabric in preparation for cutting and chain piecing. I did, however, piece together all of the sub-units for which I had already prepped fabric. I also pieced several scrappy four patches for another project that’s been designed for quite a while.

Lots of things in progress and moving, though I need to get off my duff and work on the Fibs and Fables project. My One Monthly Goal for January is still to get that top done, and that gives me through Sunday to get it together. Not sure I can get there, at this late date, but I’m certainly going to try!

365 Challenge Quilt Sampler – Week 03

Another week, another set of blocks:

15. Triple Rail, 16. Maggie’s Mystery, 17. Thrifty, 18. Double Four Patch,
19. Half Square Triangle, 20. Triangle Combination, 21. Broken Wheel

I’m still having a lot of fun playing in my scrap bins, though I am going to have to start pulling from my stash soon in order to supplement. I’m running short of black and grey scraps – which, considering what I sew with, shouldn’t be happening, but that’s all right. It’s an excuse to cut into yardage (not that I need one).

I did end up doing some extra work, and re-made two of the blocks. I just didn’t like the way my first attempts turned out, and I had the extra time, because the last few blocks were very simple.

For anyone working on these blocks with me, I highly encourage you to starch your fabrics. I’m even hitting the completed blocks with another blast of starch. It’s extremely helpful for these small blocks. Also – less fraying of the blocks, so they’ll be nice and crisp when I get ready to sew them together.

I’m still loving the process of putting these blocks together, and am looking forward to being able to start assembly.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday. Also linking to Let’s Bee Social.

365 Challenge Quilt Sampler – Week 02

In addition to completing a quilt yesterday, I made a delicious pot of soup, and caught up on my 365 Challenge Quilt Sampler blocks. I’d let myself get a bit behind – I was focusing on what felt like miles and miles of binding to stitch down/

It was only almost 400″ of binding. No big. Really. *headdesk*

Anyway – I turned that final corner, took photos, had dinner, and then headed to the sewing machine. I was ready to make!

8. London Stairs, 9. Uneven Nine Patch, 10. Double Four Patch, 11. Checkerboard, 12. Plait, 13. Mountains, 14. Six Strips

I needed four blocks to be caught up to current posting, and got them all done today. That allowed me to enter the weekly give-away for those individuals who have completed the current week’s blocks.

I added a bit more color, in blocks Twelve and Thirteen. So far, my favorite block is Number Twelve: Plait. I just love the graphic appeal of the scraps I used.

And, just to further illustrate my insanity…

I’m taking all of the scraps from the 365 Challenge Quilt Sampler blocks, and piecing them into found fabric. Yes, I’m going all scrap vortex on these leftovers. Ultimately, I think I’d like these to become the backing of another quilt top. We’ll see if that ever happens – I’m working with very small pieces here. The sample above is probably only 4″ X 4″.

That’s it for this week. If you’d like to keep up with my daily progress on these blocks, I am posting these to Instagram.

365 Challenge Quilt Sampler

Yes, there is a 365 Challenge Quilt Sampler out there, and yes, I’m doing it! Of course I am. It’s a quilt-along – we’ve already established that I’m a sucker for a quilt-along.

Blocks are being posted daily – one block for every day of the calendar year. Blocks are mostly 3″ and 6″ finished, but there will be a few other sizes mixed in. Also, come April, there will be instructions to complete borders, so none of the participants will have to wrangle 365 separate blocks at the end of the year.

It’s a good reason for me to take a few minutes and sit at my sewing machine every day. So far, that few minutes has been just enough to spark me to sewing on other projects.

I’ve already determined that I’m going to work from my scraps and stash for this top. I’ve started with my greys and blacks, but I’m throwing pops of color in as I feel like it. So far, I like the look.

Rather than inundate the blog with a daily post about each 365 Challenge Quilt block, I’m going to do a weekly round up, of that week’s blocks. As of writing this, nine blocks are available, and I’ve nine completed.

1. Three Stripes, 2. Easy H, 3. Red Cross, 4. Four Patch,
5. Nine Patch,6. Four Strips, 7. Two By Two

Seven days, seven blocks. They’ve been simple blocks so far. My understanding is that difficulty will increase as we progress through the year.

It’s been fun, revisiting my scraps for these blocks, and more fun to use scraps leftover from the scraps to piece later blocks. Doing this, of course, means that I’ll probably play with the final layout, to spread out the random pops of color, when it comes time to start assembling, but I’m okay with that.

I’m just going to enjoy the journey.

Still Sampling

I’ve been trying to do at least one block a day. Either one block for Sampler Shenanigans (temporary name for the 6″ blocks I’m piecing right now) or one block for Dear Jane. Ideally, I’d do one for each, but that hasn’t happened yet. Sampler Shenanigans has been eating my brain, because 6″ blocks can be nice and quick (assuming you’re not as much of a stickler for details like I am).

I’m still working from Jinny Beyer’s The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns, and while I’ve taken the last few days off sewing, I figured I should share a bit of what I’ve been doing.

This block is Mosaic No. 21. And, yes, I am being particularly finicky about making sure text fabric all faces the directions I want it to. Paper-pieced for accuracy.

Sawtooth. I always say I wouldn’t fussy cut for a whole quilt top. I should revise that to say, I wouldn’t buy yards upon yards of fabric to cut the same motif out over and over.

Scrap Zig Zag. I love this particular black and white print. It’s just so busy, I find I have a hard time using it in anything but one-off blocks.

Wheel. This block took entirely too much effort. It’s just flying geese units. For whatever reason, I couldn’t accurately piece a single flying geese unit to save my life, the night I was doing this. I ended up paper-piecing out of frustration.

I have a bit more sewing to share, but I have to take photographs. I keep putting that bit off – the downside to my new setup is that the primary lighting in my sewing area is behind. Photographs end up coming out horribly. I’ll do that this weekend…

In other news, I saw a dietitian. She was very nice, but couldn’t really give me much help beyond what I’ve been doing, which is to cut my caloric intake and make better decisions about the quality of the calories I do take in. I’m giving the hairy eyeball to gluten-bearing foods, and trying to cut my intake of them even further. The biggest thing will be to actually get myself to do an hour of physical activity each day, since I’m not sure that I want to try to get down to 1200 calories per day. I like food…

I’ve also ordered one of these:

I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and, while I’m not willing to give up rice entirely (hey, I’m half-Filipina!), I’m willing to try things like zucchini noodles, or carrot rice. I stumbled across this website: http://www.inspiralized.com/ and decided that these recipes are definitely something I can try. I love vegetables, and I’m willing to play with my food. Time to start playing. Expect to hear back as I do this thing.

Sampler Shenanigans and Other Sewing

http://greycatquilts.com

In a bout of ‘darn it, I want to do this!’, I finally broke down and bought twenty yards of gray solid fabric from Connecting Threads.

Yes, you read that right. TWENTY YARDS.

It arrived on Thursday, and I managed to ignore it for most of the evening after work. I couldn’t take it, though, and at about 11:00 PM, I decided that I would sew instead of sleep. Three hours later, I had two complete Dear Jane blocks.

They’re not perfect, but pretty good for 5″ finished blocks. Regardless, I’m thrilled with the way the orange and purple glow off the grey.

Continuing the mood to be making something other than scrap blocks, I then decided that I wanted to make another sampler. So, I started going through my quilting books, pretty sure I’d purchased a Jennifer Chiaverini sampler book at some point. I had, but as I was looking through it, I was distinctly not thrilled with it. (I keep looking at the Gypsy Wife Sampler by Jennifer Kingwell, though.)

So, I decided to just make 6″ blocks until I’m happy with the number, and then figure out a setting when I get there. I have enough quilt block reference books that choosing blocks shouldn’t be a problem. I started with Jinny Beyer’s The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns and made the following three blocks through Saturday. I’m just picking fabrics from my stash. The only consistency that I want is that each block have a grey or black neutral fabric in it.

I also completed another 12″ X 18″ scrappy panel, for a future place mat. These go quickly when they’re my leader/ender sewing.

My big project for Saturday was the reorganization of my sewing area. I’d added a wireless printer to my setup with the new year, and due to the way my cutting/iron/stuff table was situated, I lost half the table to wasted space. The ‘stuff’ was also taking over.

So, I got tired of it, and when I woke up on Saturday morning, I started reorganizing my space. It took a good part of the day, especially when it came time to put all of my fabric back in the cabinet it had come out of (there was no way I was moving the cabinet while it was full – fabric’s HEAVY!)

When all was said and done, my sewing space feels a lot more open, and is a lot more useful. I can just swivel on my stool to access cutting station, ironing station and sewing machine. My printer is in arm’s reach, but isn’t wasting space. I added a thread rack to the wall, on which I’m only storing my Connecting Threads spools. I don’t use anything else for piecing, and it’s rare that I use something else for quilting. The bottom row of the spool rack is reserved for bobbins at the moment, though I might add a smaller rack for that purpose.

Regardless, I’m very pleased with my progress for the weekend. I plan to do more sewing today, though. It feels good to just being sewing.

Early Morning Photos

I woke up this morning and just needed to photograph the Farmer’s Wife Sampler top, henceforth known as Technicolor Fields – now that it is a top, hehe. I grabbed shoes, coat, top, and camera, then headed into the frigid morning to document the awesome. Thankfully, I have no neighbors in this building that have dogs – no unfriendly surprises in the snow in front of my building!

It’s freaking cold at 6:00 AM in Wisconsin in winter, never mind that we’re supposedly heading into spring this month.

I took the above photo, and a couple more, trying to find higher ground, to no avail. I’m only 5’4″, and the snow piles weren’t giving me much height.

Then I remembered that we have access to the balcony that overlooks the front lawn! I dashed upstairs, opened the door to the closet leading to the balcony, and about gave up. I forgot that hubby has been using it for storage.

Still, I was determined. With some strategic shuffling, and some sucking in of the gut, I achieved my goal and was above Technicolor Fields!

Behold! In all its glory:

*happy shuffle* *happy shuffle*

It’s done! It’s done!

…

Now I’m going to start the Dear Jane Sampler again.