I had a feeling when I was putting the blocks together that this was not the look I was going for. I pushed on thinking that it will look better once it is all together. Nope, not looking better, and not the look I was going for (inspiration painting below). The Zen Chic pattern example used a color way with four shades, and low volume prints, which works very well. My version used saturated colors and prints, that overpower the neutrals and make the design much more visible. It isn’t as appealing when seen as just big X’s and plus signs. Disappointing, but I think I will try again, needs more cow bell neutrals. How to do this was going through my head at 3:30 this morning, as things Quilty often do. My plan is to separate all the blocks and “fix” each one separately, while leaving the others on the wall. Early on with this quilt, I was thinking it might be worth my time to work up a block in EQ8, and play with the colors there. But I was impatient and thought it would work out. Six days and 570 pieces later, I’m sitting here with a seam ripper.
I was able to get the quilting done on the Eclipse quilt, and had enough room on the backing to add the other mistake quilt on to it. I have always wanted to try a simple looping panto, and that is what I used. It’s still not the prettiest quilt, but it is done and out of the UFO pile. Next up on the frame were the two Seasons Study quilts, which also share a backing and batting. I am about half way through the second smaller Seasons Study quilt. Hope to finish that today, another rainy cold day in my part of the world.
The Manor house is now about 75% stitched, nearing the end. I added some outlining to the windows with #100 silk thread, I need to find another color that will define the dormers in the roof. I have light gray on there now, but it blends too much, maybe a neutral tan would work better. I’m still on the fence about adding sky stitches or green (tree) stitches to the back ground. Once I finish the house I’ll assess whether I like the floating house look or not.
I am almost finished with the quilting on the Eclipse quilt. I made it just like the pattern picture, and I don’t know whether I should be proud or embarrassed. I know I can design and color my own quilt ideas and make them “real”. Sometimes it’s fun to just make it like the designer did. No second guessing color choices or yardage estimates – is that the fun part? I have been enjoying seeing pictures of the quilts from Quiltcon 2025 popping up all over. I am impressed by the construction techniques as well as the designs. Many of the quilts I like are heavily quilted, lots of small grids. I appreciate the subtle color changes that occur when layers of thread interact with solid color fabric. It’s not just a texture thing anymore, but it acts as shading. I however don’t think I would have the patience to sew a ½ inch grid for more than ten minutes.
I finally sewed the nine blocks of my Simple days quilt top together. I added a tarragon green border to contain all the scrappy goodness. I want to do some ruler work quilting on this top, so as not to detract from the embroidered sections. I have a backing ready for it too. I had played with the idea of making it into a larger quilt with the newest round of Elefantz free sewing themed blocks. I soon realized that I have too many other things going to be finished, and that this top would go back to being an UFO. It is a good wall hanging size at about 46″ square.
The fabric I ordered for the Celestial quilt came, but the background color, Bella Pewter, is way too dark. I was trying to match the wall paint color, Spanish Olive, of the room where the quilt will be hung. Initially I looked at the color on the Benjamin Moore paint site and it is a lot darker there than the actual paint chip I picked up at the local paint store. I ended up reordering the background fabric in Bella Flax, which has the greenish gray undertones, like the paint. I may get started cutting pieces for this quilt today, the BG fabric should get here later today.
I finished up the scrappy Season Study quilt top too. I went with the green inner border and the printed borders left over from the larger quilt. I still have scraps left, probably enough to make a small throw, but on to other things. Like the Gingiber Woodland friends top, it went together quickly due to large pieces and my favorite “4 at a time” flying geese making method. This one is next up on the frame. I am thinking of making the other panel into the quilt I saw with four of the larger prints surrounded by simple borders. Maybe I’ll change it up to scrappy borders though. I have a lot of the fat quarter stack I ordered for this quilt left over.
My cross stitch Manor is still growing. I made a few adjustments to the pattern, as I sew, I find somethings that work and some that don’t. I am particularly proud of the widows walk rail on the roof top. I still need to find a dark color to use inside the windows, the shutters are a color called Mascara. I need a really dark green or maybe blue, like midnight. I need to go to Michaels this week, so maybe I can look at the DMC display. I have a color card for it, but the colors are much better in person.
Using it up or whittling it down? Does it even make a difference in my sewing fabric stash? Not visibly, maybe a little mentally, it’s like attacking an avalanche with a spoon. I was trying to find an empty Artbin case for my new BOM Blooming Beauty, which I did, but I also came across one full of solid color scraps. They are from the Gravity and Forest friends quilts (also BOMs) long finished and put into use. What can I do with all of these triangles and scrappy pieces? Bonnie Hunter is working on a scrappy string log cabin quilt these days. She came up with an interesting idea to make sashings for it using paper foundation piecing. She is using a stash of cut off triangles saved from many projects using the folded corners method. EQ8 to the rescue, I can print these out and start my own, but what to border them to? Thats on the back burner, slow simmer. I got the third Starry Skies block done, Pisces, in record time.
After finishing the Eclipse top, I dusted off the Cotton and Steel collection of clam shell blocks I was trying to make into something “pretty?”. Looking back I had these on the design wall last year, rearranging them and trying to finish the top. These scraps were from the quilt top I made 2018, which also needs to be quilted. I got out my two Its Sew Wonderful books and looked through them to try and find something a little different. The reason I stopped last time was that the top would be too small once it was together. I felt it needed more blocks and then I found that I didn’t have enough of the color ways to match it. So I took it down and tried not to buy any more fabrics. This line of fabrics has a gray-ish tone to it, the pinks and reds especially don’t play well with others. I persevered and put them together in a horizontal pattern. It’s okay, needs borders or something. I am thinking of making it into a kennel quilt for my friends dog. It is done, and I am tossing the scraps.
I got the binding done on the winter village quilt, it’s in the To-Be-Photographed-Pile. This time of year, my usual picture taking area doesn’t have enough natural light. Taking the set up outside is problematic too, rain, wind and mud aren’t helpful in getting photos worth posting on Etsy. I finished the Seasons study top too, it’s really pretty, for mushrooms and flowers. I had enough scraps to make a throw quilt. I am still adding blocks to it, maybe the green border and printed borders are enough. These scraps play well with some of a jelly roll of Grunge fabric I have.
The manor house is growing, brick by brick. I like how the over dyed flosses are working to give the bricks and slate roof some shading and interest. I am thinking of adding clouds to the sky, half stitches to add a little texture. I opted not to add landscaping, but may do something similar in the foreground like grass or plantings.
I am hoping the backings I ordered will get here tomorrow, there will be quilting this weekend. Also I am awaiting delivery of more fabric to make another Zen Chic design quilt called Celestial. I am using a fat eight bundle from the Moda line called Love Letter by Lizzy House. The first blocks for the Blooming beauty arrived and I really should do them too.
Quilt tops are piling up around here. Productivity is increasing, and the wheels of progress are turning. What the end results may turn out to be, I don’t really know, just that it feels good to be moving forward and finishing things. Could be the uncertainties in the world lately that are fueling my personal need to get things done, or spring fever or maybe just a way to channel energy and stop worrying about things not in my control.
The winter village quilting is finished, still needs binding. I would do it today, but my current project, Seasons Study is taking up all the work surface. The last two days have been spent making blocks and pieces for this kit. I really like the prints, flowers and mushrooms and forest-y things like twigs and cones. The pop of teal is nice too. The kit had plenty of fabric, so there may be a throw made with the scraps. The kit came with border fabric long enough to not have to piece the four outer borders, and the border print repeats eight times. There are cats cradle, four patches, HSTs, and snowball blocks in this pattern. Today I am hoping to get the larger units together.
I finished a small quilt for my SILs cat this week. I forgot to get a picture of it before I sent it out to her. I used the extra Sparrow block and a scrap of backing/batting to quilt it up. I think it turned out to be about 26 inches square. The cat, Puc, was making himself a bed out of the table runner my SIL got from me in December. This is all fine, except that the runner was on the dining room table. She was amazed that that Puc got on the table, as he never did in the past. I told her about the cat and quilt symbiotic relationship, she probably thought I was a bit weird, oh well. Puc got his own quilt though. *Update* Puc loves his quilt.
I found a nice backing for the Sparrow quilt on sale and I’m waiting for it to be delivered. I ordered three backings, the other two are for the Ellipse quilt and Seasons study. I got the Eclipse quilt top together this week too, it needs ironing/pressing. This pattern was relatively easy and if you are proficient at sewing curves a quick project. There is also very little waste in cutting and squaring up the blocks. I used two 10″ square layer cakes and had two left over blocks. The scraps from the initial cutting of the arcs were not even a good string size piece.
The cushion covers and pillows got finished and sent out too. I tried to order the pillow forms from Joann, but they were out of stock. I ended up getting the same product through Michaels, with a coupon and other discounts, shipped direct. The forms will probably get there before the covers. I am very sad about Joanns closing, I hadn’t been shopping there as much in the past few years. I haven’t been sewing as much apparel or other things, and the store was always such a mess. I just went there when I needed notions or craft supplies when I couldn’t get them online. It’s been a slow weaning, I don’t want to go and participate in the liquidation sales. I certainly have enough fabrics and notions here.
Shabby Fabrics notified me that the first BOM kit for Blooming Beauty has shipped. They are in Idaho, so it’ll be here soon. I need to empty a project box for it, I think I have one somewhere. I like to keep all the instructions in a binder, with all the scraps and finished blocks in an ArtBin satchel. I also need to get the constellation blocks into some kind of container. The backing fabric for it is on a bolt though, so it’s a bit hard to keep it all together.
I started a new cross stitch project. I know I wanted to finish the Fabulous houses first, but I had an idea and I wanted to see if I could make it work with needle and thread. It started with the pattern I bought last year, Miss Bingsley’s Library. I wanted to make it for someone special, who just finished renovating a manor house. I thought I could change the house on the pattern to look like her home. It morphed into a new project, I drew out the house on graph paper and gathered up some threads. I think it’ll work out, so far it looks okay, I was a bit worried about the proportions, but luckily manor houses are pretty straight forward and symmetrical.
The day is wasting, time to get on with todays sew-day.
I basted a bunch more shapes to the Tilda quilt this week. I think there are maybe ten more that need to go on to this center section. I did appliqué the rest of the green stems, so that was a a start to get closer to the finish. This quilt will be done before the recipients first birthday, really.
The pattern templates for the Eclipse quilt arrived yesterday. I made cardboard templates with them and promptly cut the 81 ten inch squares into convex and concave pieces. Sewing them together will take a bit longer, but the tedium is done.
The zippers and extra 1/4″ basting tape also arrived yesterday, for the two cushion covers. Everything is cut and ready for those to be finished. I also cut four 12 inch pillow covers out, I think I will have enough zipper to finish all of these by this weekend. I am honing my upholstery sewing skills with the very helpful videos on the Sailrite web site. I feel so much more confident in the making of these cushions. Three dimensional things are sewn a bit differently, and the ½ inch seam allowance makes it easier. Maneuvering the bulky fabric however, makes it tough on my hands.
The haunted house is finally finished, it took the longest, not because it was the most dense one of the 12, but because I took a month off from stitching on it. I started on the log cabin, the last one – hooray. I had been shopping for a frame, looking at some of the more decorative moldings. I want to frame this myself, since I stitched it on even weave aida cloth, it should be easy to get mounted straight and square. The finished size is 19″ x 26″, most of the frames I was looking at were over a hundred dollars, and truthfully not that nice looking. I did think of an old poster I had framed in the late 1900’s, that was about the same size. I found it at the back of my closet, and it is 19″ x 28″. I can even re-use the backing board to mount the cloth on for the win!
The Winter Village is slowly getting quilted. I wanted to use a blue bobbin thread, called Hawaiian Blue as it matched the backing very well. There were only two left of that color in my stash, so I ordered another jar of them. That order was canceled (due to no inventory) two days later, so I had to find it else where and order it again. I can sew two rows of the feathers with a full bobbin, which has 135 yards on it. I stopped at three rows, just waiting on the mailman now.
I’m also waiting on delivery of the first installment of the Blooming Beauty BOM, End of the month delivery is okay, since the constellation Starry Signs BOM is the first week of the month. Once these blocks are done, I’ll think about what is next on the to-do list. Looking back to my January 30th post, I have a list, and I don’t think I am going to do the Bonnie Hunter Old Town quilt yet, or maybe not at all. I may start the batik log cabin I have in mind, must stay focused.
Touch of Grey 