Journey 2 Nebula - Rock Candy: Finished!

I haven't been sure about this particular project in the Journey 2 Nebula. I do love the design of Rock Candy, but I'm not sure about my fabric choice. I am trying to use up some of my stash and not buy fabric that I don't need, but there's so much beautiful fabric out there. The next project will be new fabric because I couldn't resist it. You'll see it later this week!

The piecing went together much quicker than I thought that it was going to. Once I had it all laid out and the sections separated, I completed it in a bit over an hour and a half. I tried to be careful not to stress the bias edges unnecessarily, but there are a couple of places that the points aren't exact (which I really noticed when quilting since I got a good look at every spot).

I finished piecing the top last Tuesday, the day the piecing video came out, but I had no clue what I would do with my backing or quilting. I didn't like not having a plan since I've had a plan for all of the other projects, so I don't think I'll jump in with Gazebo either since I already have Candy Dish planned out. I'll have to take some time in the next couple of weeks to dig through the stash and put together what I need to make it work. For the backing, I ended up settling on a solid I had leftovers of and adding in a label and a coordinating 10" square from the Arctic line that was leftover. Cut it to fit the label, and then pieced it with the solid. It used up all of the solid fabric's leftovers, so at least I'm not wasteful in using what I have.

I even pieced together my backing fabric. I've done this before and been pleased with the results, so I did it again here. If you've never done this, it's super easy. You take your two batting pieces and butt them up next to each other, not overlapping, and zigzag stitch them together. You can also use fusible, but I prefer just stitching them together. Doing this also used up all of a leftover batting piece, contributing to not being wasteful and cleaning the sewing space.

I had zero clue what I was going to do with the quilting, so I just sat down on Friday night and went for it. I ended up doing diagonal lines that crossed into a diamond pattern. I've seen some beautiful free motion quilting in the Facebook group, but instead of using these pieces to practice that, I've decided to go with what I feel comfortable with, at least so far. I'm fairly positive the next project will be straight line quilting as well. Overall, I'm happy with the way it looks. I used a light gray solid fat quarter for the binding, and I think it comes together nicely.

Details
Fabric: Arctic by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman, unknown white, unknown gray, unknown teal (all from stash)
Thread: Aurafil, 50wt: Piecing, 2000; Quilting, 2021; Binding, 2615
Batting: 100% cotton from scraps
Pattern: Jaybird Quilts Rock Candy
Total Hours Spent: 6 hours, 20 minutes

Journey 2 Nebula - Rock Candy: Cutting & Layout

We've now reached the point in the Journey 2 Nebula, where I got stuck deciding which stash fabric I was going to use, so I stopped with the planning. So, before I started cutting for Rock Candy, I had to do some digging around in the fabric drawers. I'm still not sure about my choice, but I've cut everything, so I'm going to go with it.

I've been a subscriber to the Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler Box from the beginning, and the August 2018 box included the Petite Arctic 10″ Squares by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. The included pattern was nifty, but I wasn't interested in sewing it, so into the stash, everything went. I did make one mask with one of the 10" squares and meant to make more, but didn't get around to it. While digging, I came across the squares and decided to give it a try. Since the pattern calls for 5" squares, one 10" square made four charm squares. I didn't want to use all of the prints, so I selected six squares, grabbed some solid from my stash, and got to cutting my diamonds and triangles.

I tried several layouts grouping the colors, pairing the colors, and finally doing a more scrappy look. None of them were giving me the feeling I was looking for. I have plenty of autumn and Christmas decorations, but I have nothing for after Christmas, so my house is very sad when I take everything down, so I decided to go for a wintry look, but this wasn't doing it for me. I walked away for a bit and eventually wandered back and stared at it.

I liked the way the scrappy layout looked, but something wasn't right. I said to myself, "well, let's see what happens when I take the mauve out." I think that's exactly what it seemed to need! It's wintry, and it will coordinate well with the colors that are already in my kitchen. I'm excited to sew this one next week!

Banana Leaves Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman

I have a major backlog of projects from the Fat Quarter Shop’s Sew Sampler boxes. In February I went through all of my projects, organized, and cataloged them. Shortly before that, I found out my co-worker was having a baby. I knew just the pattern I was going to make, Banana Leaves by Elizabeth Hartman. This pattern uses Essex Linen and Adventure by Elizabeth Hartman and was featured in the October 2019 Sew Sampler box.

This wasn’t my first Elizabeth Hartman pattern. I love her patterns, even though many of them require many different cuts. I utilized my Alphabities and scrap paper with labels to help keep track of the different pieces.

You can see my Stripology XL ruler below my pieces. As an aside to this post, I just have to let you know how amazing this ruler is. Cutting has always been stressful for me. I want to make sure I’m getting perfect cuts, and they seem like they’re always just a hair off. That hasn’t happened since I’ve started using this ruler, and SO FAST!

Once I actually sat down and got to sewing, this pattern came together very quickly. I did a lot of it with chain piecing and grouped the leaves by letter. I finished one letter and moved onto the next. Some of my finished block sizes were off a smidge, mostly because sometimes my piecing isn’t as accurate as I would like. Either I move the fabric slightly, or my presser foot pushes the top fabric so it’s off just a touch. I’ve looked everywhere and it doesn’t look like my machine has an option to adjust the presser foot pressure.

I had big plans for quilting this one, and then I had a feeling co-worker’s baby was going to make his appearance sooner than expected, so I wanted to get it done. I went with simple zig zags with my walking foot. I love the way that the Essex Linen washes. I’ve used it before in other Elizabeth Hartman patterns and it becomes so incredibly soft. Someday I’ll make a quilt for myself with it and keep it. If I had been planning better, I might’ve put some thought into making sure that my lemurs were always right side up, but I’m okay with half of them being upside down.

This was the first time I’ve done a pieced backing and I really love the way it looks. I used the scraps from the leaves and randomly added them to either side of the label I printed. It was very freeform as I was creating it. Thanks to the pieced backing and the fact that I was a little skimpy with the extra fabric around the edge before quilting, I have quite a bit of the backing fabric left, but thankfully my scraps are minimal. I always feel guilty leaving scraps. I know I won’t go back to them and then they just end up cluttering my space.

Overall, I’m super pleased with the finished product. I hope the new baby is also pleased!