Sewcialites: Planning & Prep

For the last couple of weeks, I have been starting at my stack of fat quarters for the Sewcialites Quilt Along, wondering how I would decide which fabric to use for which block. Fat Quarter Shop released a coloring page, but these are prints, which changes the look, so I didn't think I would get an accurate representation.

I don't have fancy quilt design programs, but I remembered that I have Photoshop as I was staring at my computer. After work, I did some quick Googling and figured out how to create fill patterns and use those with the paint bucket tool. Then, after a little bit of trial and error, I was able to make my layout!

I have the same number of HSTs in the same layout as the original layout, but I did change the orientation of a few of them. I think messing around with those took me the longest out of the entire layout. I kept changing colors, color combinations and even had them all solid background for a bit. For the solid colors, I pulled a screenshot of the fabric I was going to use (I looked up the Confetti Cotton coordinates that went with the fabric line I'm using), used the color selector tool, then filled the HSTs with the color.

It wasn't without its hiccups. Once I filled with the pattern, it was difficult to change to another fabric on some of them because of the way the paint bucket tool works, but I used the polygon lasso tool to select the area I needed and then filled it. It doesn't look as perfect, but it's still good enough for me to get an idea of which fabric I'm using.

After I filled in all of the patterns and colors, I watched the Fat Quarter Shop Livestream, where Kimberly went through each of the blocks, matched them to their number, and then filled in the square at the top, so I have a second reference point. I'm giving myself a little pat on the back for this, and I'm excited to start Sewcialites.

Off to starch my fabric!

Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Finishing

I finished assembling the top of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt on July 31, so I finished the assembly before July was over, and I’m super excited about it. It’s not often I manage to keep myself caught up, especially this time of year, when I’m spending time outside on the boat. I thought about making it a little bigger, but in the end, I’m good with the pattern size.

Finishing involved a center block and border pieces. The top came together fairly quickly, especially when I was able to match seams. It’s not my first time matching/nesting seams, but every time I do it, I get just a little bit of a thrill. I always anxiously peek at the intersection points and often make the slightest squeal of delight when everything matches up the way it’s supposed to. Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to stop doing that, but to be honest, I hope I don’t.

The next step is, of course, the quilting. As I’ve mentioned, I don’t have a very large throat space on my machine, so I often find free motion quilting, or really any quilting, to be troublesome. I also always want to be better than I am, and I know that’s more a function of not practicing than my actual ability. I understand that a new machine wouldn’t solve all of my problems, but I do imagine it would be helpful to be able to shove more quilt through the machine. I have an idea of what I want to do for the quilting. I’ve drawn it out on paper, we’ll see if I can actually accomplish it.

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!

Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt

With everything going on in the world and spending a lot of time at home, I’m longing for joyous times. Christmas has always been a favorite holiday of mine, so when Fat Quarter Shop announced their Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt, how could I not participate?

I chose The Christmas Card by Sweetwater for the jelly roll, backing, and binding. It’s been hard to pick which 14 strips to use in the quilt, but I narrowed it down and starched. Now, I just have to decide which fabrics to use for part one.

Eight Carat Quilt Along Part 3 - The Finishing!

I think it’s confession time. Even though life sometimes gets in the way of piecing, where I really get stuck in the quilt-making process is the actual quilting. I don’t know that I’d go so far to say that I get paralyzed by fear, but it’s pretty darn close. Because of this, my quilt top was completed a month ago.

Even though some of my points are a little cut off, I’m really in love with the way it came out. I’m glad I was able to use fabric from a previous Sew Sampler Box. The Triangles on a Roll made half square triangles super easy and It’s Sew Emma/Fat Quarter Shop always have easy to follow instructions.

Over the years I’ve spent many hours crawling around on the floor pinning my quilt sandwiches together. And I’ve hated every one of those minutes. I recently decided to give 505 Basting Spray a try and I’ve found I’ve been SO MUCH happier with the results. I make sure to use it sparingly and so far, I’ve been pretty happy with the results.

Before I moved on to the quilting I did a little bit of research. I thought I would use my walking foot because I’m still not super happy with my free motion quilting. (It’s tough wanting to be perfect at something that really does require practice.) I found a Leah Day machine quilting design called matrix and I thought it might look neat with the star. So, I attached my walking foot, stuck my supreme slider on my machine/extension table and promptly got disappointed.

My machine is a Janome DC2011. It’s a great machine for what it is and it has served me well over the last 8 years, but it does not have the most generous throat space. This means I have to do a lot of pushing, shoving, and fighting when I’m quilting. It’s definitely a workout! I have a dream machine and hopefully in the next year I’ll be able to afford it, but for now, I have to work with what I have.

Anyway, I used the seam ripper on my attempt and walked out of the room for a bit. What would I do? I didn’t want to ruin the quilt having just spent all the time assembling it. What to do…what to do? Then I had a light bulb moment and remembered that I have all of Angela Walters quilting rulers (my machine is also not REALLY designed for these, but I’m making do). I picked up Elvira and started making some wavy lines.

Even with the ruler, my quilting isn’t PERFECT, but it’s definitely better! As Angela says, “Finished is better than perfect!” I’m not going to be entering the finished project in any contests, but I do like the overall look. I was pretty happy to finish the quilting and get the binding on. I didn’t have any Aurafil (my preferred thread) that matched, so I had to grab some older Coats & Clark from the collection.

Here it is finished! This is before it took its bath in the washing machine. I think I did a pretty good job not making too many wrinkles in the quilting. There are a few, but once it was washed, you can’t really spot them.

And here it is washed and photographed in the bright sun. The backing is just a solid FreeSpirit Fabrics color that coordinates with the Tula Pink collection.

Project Details
Finished Size: 60” x 60”
Pattern: Eight Carat Quilt from Fat Quarter Shop
Fabric: Tula Pink Spirit Animal; Moda Bella Solids; FreeSpirit Fabrics Designer Solids
Batting: Happy Cloud 80/20 Silky Batting

2019 Jolly Box from Fat Quarter Shop

Every year the Fat Quarter Shop does a few special holiday boxes. The Christmas-themed box is called the Jolly Box. As someone who loves both FQS and Christmas, I’ve been stalking my email inbox and Kimberly’s Stitch Squad on Facebook for the first notification of the Jolly Box. It popped up last week and I placed my order immediately. The whisk on the box image made me even more excited to see what was going to be coming given my love of baking. Well, the package came today and I’m so excited!

I eagerly sliced open the tape so I could get inside and check out this year’s surprise and was thrilled with the collection of treasures that I found.

Here’s what was inside:
A bundle of seven fat quarters from Kimberbell’s We Whisk You a Merry Christmas line, which I think is just adorable. (I actually purchased a project bag for my cross stitch in this fabric a few weeks ago!)
A Wonky Star Ornament that doubles as an applique template
Happy Cloud Silky (80/20) Batting in a tablerunner size. This 19” x 55” package of batting is the perfect amount for the enclosed project.
A Double Tumbler Template. This nifty little template has options for both a chunky and skinny tumbler that can be 1” to 5”!
The Sugar Plum Stocking Pattern, which uses the enclosed templates and fabrics.

And finally, the super cute Peppermint Twist a Whisk. This spatula turns into a whisk with a quick twist. I haven’t seen anything like this before and is a fun addition.

I love this box even more than last year’s. With shipping, it was under $45 and is an over $65 value. I still haven’t made the project from last year’s box, but I think this one will be done soon!