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!

Sewcialites Quilt Along with Fat Quarter Shop

Last week, Fat Quarter Shop announced their nine-month quilt along, Sewcialites. You get to choose between 3" blocks, 6" blocks, or 9" blocks with a final setting of 27 1/2" square, 54 1/2" square, or 81 1/2" square.

I wanted to purchase NEW FABRIC for it so badly, but I have plenty of stash that needs using, so I went digging around in my various drawers and boxes. What I found, other than a lot of fabric, was a stack of fat quarters, background, backing, and binding I had purchased in April of 2017 and had intended to use for another project. I have absolutely no interest in that project anymore, as happens when you have big plans, and then everything else is more appealing.

This is Ava Rose from Riley Blake back from 2017. With all of the fat quarters and yardage, I have enough to make the 6" blocks, so that made my decision. There will likely be a couple of blocks that aren’t very high-contrast because I don’t have enough of the colorful ones, but I think I’m okay with that. I may pick up a couple of coordinating solids at the end for the HSTs, but luckily that is a decision I don’t have to make right now. I'm excited that I'm going to be able to participate, even if I don't get the joy of playing with new fabric, and it's another way to work down my stash, so win-win, right?

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.

Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Block 4

I managed to get myself caught up on the blocks for the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Sew Along! Block 4 was a relatively easy block, though it is a long rectangle, which I worry about a little because sometimes they have a tendency to get a little wobbly.

It was a pretty easy block to put together. Once I had the pieces cut (which also didn’t take long with the Stripology XL ruler), I was able to assemble each block in about half an hour. That includes pressing and trimming. Considering I’m not the speediest sewer, I’m pretty pleased with that time.

I’m excited to put together the final layout. I couldn’t wait, so I laid it out and I’m letting the layout sit for a day or so. I generally like to do that will all of the quilts I make. I like to make sure that I’m don’t have two of the same fabrics next to each other, or two of the same color. I’ll usually lay it out, take a picture (or two) with my phone and stare at it, squint my eyes, and scroll back and forth from the image so I can get an overall picture.

Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Block 3

So, I’m actually not as far behind as I said I was. I completed block 3 of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt in just over an hour this weekend. Compared to block 2, this one was a breeze. It helps that there weren’t any flying geese in this one!

I used my pretend design board to keep my pieces organized and it was so helpful. I messed up block 1 a couple of times when going back and forth between pressing and sewing together, so placing everything back on the board helped keep track of where everything should be.

I did utilize chain piecing throughout and that seemed to help cut down on time. I did the two sections of the 4 patch and the square + green rectangle all at once, pressed and then completed the chain block. For the red pieces, I chain pieced the angled pieces, then pressed and added the squares. I’m really pleased with how this block finished, and super pleased with how quickly the four blocks came together.

Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Block 2

What a shock, I’m behind! Block 2 of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt was a tough one for me. I’m not good at flying geese. It doesn’t matter what I do, how I cut, how I draw a line, how I sew, I inevitably end up with blocks that are off somehow.

I’ve been using my cheap-and-not-at-all-a-design-board piece of cardboard and that has helped me organize my blocks, along with the Alphabitties. I know I could easily MAKE a design board. Lori Holt just posted a video on it this weekend, but at the moment it’s spend time making a design board or sewing, and sewing has currently won. (If you haven’t checked out the video yet, I recommend it. The organization Lori has for her blocks is enviable!)

Someday, hopefully soon I’ll work on making my own design boards. I could also purchase them, but since I have the ability to make them, why wouldn’t I go the more affordable route? I DO need a glue gun anyway, so this is a good excuse, right? :)

Anyway, back to those flying geese. I don’t know why I have such a hard time with them. I’d like to blame my machine, but I’m pretty sure it’s more me trying to go too quickly and get things done and making a mess of things. I know that people are going to look at them and say “those look great, what are you talking about?” but if they’re not perfect, they’re wrong. (That’s a me thing though, I wouldn’t say that to anyone else!)

I did avoid trying to catch up on this block because of my fear of flying geese. And because I was going so slow, this block did take me a lot longer than I wanted it to, but they are done and I’m pretty pleased with them. I’m not sure I’ll be happy with using the lighter color on them, but using the lighter color also has the advantage of the mistakes blending in just a little bit better!

Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Block 1

Once again, I am behind on a quiltalong. I think I am destined to just not be able to keep up. That’s okay though, it’s still fun!

This week, I finished block 1 of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt. This was a fun block. I used my Stripology XL ruler to do all of the cutting and it went pretty quickly.

I did trim my jelly roll pieces to exactly 2.5” as Kimberly demonstrated in her video for the block. I need all the help I can get for getting precise blocks! You can see that I also used my Ruler Stickers from GE Designs on the ruler. Good thinking, right? Well…it’s good thinking when you actually pay attention and cut where the stickers are. If your brain thinks it knows better and cuts wherever it wants, you need to do some surgery on one block to make it a 2.5” square.

The good news is, I don’t think it’s very noticeable at all when you’re looking at the whole block, or when I don’t say “Can you see the mistake? It’s right here? See it?? See it…here!!??”

Overall, I’m super happy with the way the blocks came out and the process for making them. I did them over two separate days and the first two blocks took over 15 minutes longer to complete than the second pair of blocks I made. I’m sure that’s because I had gotten the hang of what they were supposed to look like.

You can’t see the mistake, right? ;-)

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

Eight Carat Quilt Along Part 2 - Where the planning pays off

As I shared in my last post on the Eight Carat Quilt from Fat Quarter Shop I made some pretty big plans for my project, and then I had to pivot. When I was first planning this project I wanted to use my V & Co Ombre Confetti Metallic that I had in my stash. I remembered it being fat quarters. It turns out, they were 5” x width of fabric cuts. This was NOT going to work for my plan, so into the stash I dove. I came up with the Tula Pink Spirit Animal fat quarters from a previous Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler. I figured I could modify the plan I had already painstakingly created and use this fabric collection instead.

What was so painstaking about my planning? Well, you see, I couldn’t just put my half square triangles willy-nilly. No, I had a vision of an exploding gradient, of sorts. So, I set out with my colored pens and a ruler. Would this have been WAY easier with graph paper? Yup, it sure would have, but I didn’t have time to create that. Instead I figured out how I could sketch it out, including how to sketch the difference between the 4” finished squares section in the middle Sapphire block and the 3” finished squares of the Jade block. Again, it probably would’ve been much easier with graph paper, but I’ve never been known to make things easier on myself. Here’s my sketch:

As you can see, I ended up counting how many half square triangles I would need in each color. Looking at the graph, I have no clue what the 10s I put in the corners meant, but apparently it meant something to me at the time.

So, I set out with my 3” finished It’s So Emma Triangles on a Roll and got to stacking, sewing, and cutting. Overall, I’m really very pleased with how my half square triangles turned out. I’ve done it the “regular” way without the paper a number of times and it works just fine, but the paper adds just that little bit of help that means you can speed through the sewing just a touch faster. When you don’t have a ton of time to work on your hobbies because work and life take up more time that you want them to, it’s nice to be able to shave a few seconds here and there.

I ended up with a lovely stack of triangles to tear the paper from. This did not take quite as long as I thought it would, which was nice. I sat down in front of the tv and got to work. The cat joined me, but she was more interested in the contained I was tossing the paper scraps into than the actual triangles. There were a couple that I probably tugged a little too hard on and the edge stitches came undone, but it wasn’t anything that a quick stitch or two on the machine couldn’t solve.

When I started piecing, I did one block at at time until the entire unit was finished. This felt like it took forever, so I took a page from Kimberly Jolly of the Fat Quarter Shop (Have I said how much I love them yet? Because it’s my favorite online shop!) and did all of the pieces that I could in groups. This seemed to move things along a bit faster, and again, when I can save a few seconds here and there, it makes me happy. I sewed my blocks together anxious to see what it would look like when I laid the pieces out.

Since I wasn’t following my original plan, I was a little afraid it wasn’t going to work out, but as I laid out the pieces last night I realized my planning paid off and I was pretty darn thrilled with what I have. I’m looking forward to moving on to part 3!

Here We Go! Eight Carat Quilt Along Part 1

When it comes to shopping for quilting supplies, I don’t have a lot of option locally, so I have to do my shopping online, and have had to since I started exploring quilting about 9 years ago. One place I’ve been ordering from consistently is the Fat Quarter Shop. Not only am I a Sew Sampler Box member (and have been since the first box), but I give them major props for the way they work to connect with their customers. They have great blog content, fantastic tutorials and live videos, and having spoken to their customer service on the phone (and I dread having to use the phone), they are top notch. They recently released the Triangles on a Roll Quilts Book to go along with their Triangle Paper by It’s Sew Emma. Since my half square triangle skills are decidedly lacking, I decided to give their Eight Carat Quilt Along a go. The quilt along uses their triangle paper in 3” and 4” finished sizes and two patterns from the Triangles on Roll Quilts Book.

I had big plans for using some fabric from my stash, but when I got ready to starch the fabric, I realized that the fabric I thought was fat quarters were very much not. Plan B came in the form of fat quarters that were in the October 2017 (yikes!) Sew Sampler Box, Tula Pink’s Spirit Animal. Usually if I want to create the project that comes in the box, I’ll purchase the rest of the fabric. For this one, I didn’t purchase the fabric, so this collection was just open stash. I made a plan, which I’ll share more about in a future post, chose my fabrics, starched, and got to work.

I’m a fan of foundation paper piecing. I have a tendency to be a bit of a lazy quilter/sewer sometimes. More of a 90-percenter, if you will (plus a little Angela Walters “finished is better than perfect” thrown in for good measure), so when I have something that gives me seemingly perfect blocks. So, I set out to stock my fabric and pin the paper on top.

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Next, I took it over to my sewing machine, my trusty Janome DC2011 that doesn’t have a fancy name other than “my sewing machine” and started stitching. Using the recommended 1.5 stitch length I followed the arrows along the dotted lines. Easy peasy!

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Once that was complete, I cut the pieces on the solid line and ended up with 32 perfect half square triangle in two colorways. I will admit that peeling the paper always makes me nervous. I’m afraid that I’m just going to yank out the stitches, so I’m extra careful when doing that.

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The directions suggest trimming off the “ears,” so I did. I tried it two ways, the first was lining up a ruler and using my rotary cutter, and the second was just taking my fabric scissors to the tiny triangles. I decided that the scissors was the better option for me, plus I could step away from the sewing room to finish that part of the project.

I laid out the block, which is quite sizable, and it mostly fit on my table, and set out to sew the individual blocks together followed by the rows. My seam ripper and I did make friends a couple of times, but it mostly went quite well. As the block started coming together, I will admit, I was getting pretty giddy about how nicely it was coming out. I finished the final seam and gave it a nice press (all of the seams are pressed open in this block). There are a couple of places where everything doesn’t match up quite as nicely as I would hope for, but overall, I’m incredibly happy with this giant block! What do you think?

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