UFO: Blockheads 2 Attempt

An effort was made, but I have come to the decision that this version of Blockheads 2 has reached its finish. With only 24 of the 52 blocks completed, this is all the farther I am going. 

Several factors played into this decision. And I really cannot say that one was any more significant than another. The whole thing just felt off.

First, I am not liking that blocks are all these different sizes. I was willing to give it a chance, but there is just way too much going on here for me - far too busy! I can handle a lot of color and movement in a quilt, but this just screams chaos to me.

Next, I tried using an old fabric pack of fat quarters that I had; while it is historically accurate fabric, which I generally like, it was exceedingly busy and somewhat garish. Coupling this fabric and a bunch of busy blocks -  well, that's bad news in my eyes. 

Lastly, I was simply not enjoying the process of making this quilt. Usually, I am excited to see the outcome. Not once was I eager to see this as a finished quilt. I suppose because I wasn't thrilled with either the fabric or the haphazard blocks, it goes without saying that the construction process would be a chore. I did a fair amount of grumbling and complaining to the girls at retreat. Sorry, ladies!!

Why put myself through any more agony? Just say it's done. Move on.

So that is what I'm doing. It will be a nice lap quilt or wall hanging, if needed. 

I will sew these 24 blocks together using the layout shown in the picture as my guide; I may move around a few of the smaller blocks, but this is the basic idea of what will result. I want to get this off my sewing table and move on to something I can be more excited about!

I guess I have learned some lessons here. 

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Final Report From Retreat

I am approaching the expiration date on the content of today's post. Yes, this material comes from the old business department. The retreat ended last Friday; today we wrap it up.

Jan continued to outdo herself with yet another finished top. In addition, she made backings and bindings for them! What an overachiever! Click here to see her earlier retreat efforts - and everyone else's.

 

Yet another 3-yard quilt.

Flower panels; Jan created this pattern.

 Susan finished her first bunny quilt and proceeded right to work on a second one for her granddaughter. 

Her previous bunny quilt had only 9 blocks.

Terry made a lot of parts of quilts. She brought some labor-intense projects, and made good progress on them, but unlike Jan and Susan, had no finishes. Here are examples of the type of progress she made.

All the pieced blocks are made; all the applique blocks are made. The trouble is that the applique blocks are not large enough. Terry is in the "figure something out" stage, trying to salvage the efforts.
 

This basket quilt will be stunning; I believe the issue she ran into was running out of one of the fabrics.

 I don't have a picture of the pattern for this next quilt, but the borders for it are two rows of HSTs - gah! Can you imagine how daunting it would be to know all these have to be made!?

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how pretty these two fabrics look together!? So perfect. Using triangle papers, Terry made quick and accurate work of these. She went from one row to 4 rows in relatively short order. Although, I am fairly sure that for her it didn't feel like short order!

And these are just for the inner border; remember, there is an outer border of triangles, too. Whew; that's a lot of repetitious sewing, but it will look so fabulous when finished.

As for me, well, like Terry, I did not have any finishes, either. I took the 2018 tub labeled "Blockheads 2." When doing a sampler quilt, the work is full of short bursts of work as the quilter must go block by block. To add to the slow progress, I did a fair amount of "correcting" along the way.

Case in point, the block above was supposed to finish at 12" but mine was a full inch short. Good grief. What had I messed up?

Well, nothing, as it turned out. I just needed to add another tiny row around the block to complete it. Duh.

Another case in point, I completely reworked this large 24" block. Its first incarnation had neutral fabric for the large corner blocks.

After seeing all the smaller blocks alongside this, it was clear that it was too colorless. Now, take a look at this block with some added pizzazz.

Trust me, this works soooo much better! I will have a picture for you of all my blocks in an upcoming post. Someday maybe, there will be a finished quilt top. That is the hope, at least.

I had such good intentions when I started this sew-along *five!* years ago; I always do. The brief history is that I soon realized that my FQ pack would never be adequate for all the blocks, so I spent a good while trying to figure out how to proceed. Eventually, I did find additional era-appropriate fabric to add to the collection, but by that time I had moved on to a gazillion newer projects. The early effort has been collecting dust ever since.

The original FQ pack.

I hope you are having a productive spring day! It's a beaut here today; sunshine and afternoon high in the 70s - perfection!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Quilt Retreat

Sometimes it feels as though life is a series of events we tend to one right after another, you know? It has seemed that way to me for most of this year. Florida x 2. Cate. Appointments. Adam home to visit. Easter. Retreat. So far, 2023 has been a whirlwind.

Easter dinner was a huge success. We had 27 here for a noon feast, and the weather cooperated so beautifully. The sunshine was definitely a welcome sight! Here are a few pictures to capture the day.

My mom holding our sweet Cate, her great-granddaughter.

DH, Grampa Kevin, enjoying the backyard with Cate.

Nephew Will and his very concerned son Archie, wondering about this other baby on his Daddy's lap.

Uncle Adam met his niece on Easter!

No sooner had we cleaned up the kitchen and all the leftovers, than I began packing for quilt retreat. Yes, I'm here in Nelsonville this week with some fun quilting friends. And gosh are we getting stuff done! 

I brought UFOs with me. I did not have time to prepare (cut) a new project, and these UFOs have been niggling at me for long enough. It's now or never, I guess! My first efforts have been on Blockheads 2. Here are several early blocks made on Monday and Tuesday.

Block # 3; 6" square. It looks wonky, but trust me, it's okay.

Block # 5. This one is 24" square.

Block # 10; 12" square.

Block # 2; 6' square.

Block # 6; 12" square.

I feel like I am plodding along. Doing one block at a time is so very slow. Some of the other girls here are making entire quilts in the time I get a couple of blocks made. That is discouraging, but I also know that sampler quilts are fussier in their construction. This may have had something to do with my having this UFO from 2018!

Hope you are having a wonderful day that includes some bit of time for stitching!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Big Blockheads Plans

In keeping with my optimism to stay till the finish of a Blockheads sew-along, I am diving in on this BH3 version currently in week 6. And I am doing reasonably well. I will need a bit more time to finish the applique block of week 4, and I made an extra block for week 5, but will get to work on the one for my BH3 group, and I have the current block to make. I am hoping that tomorrow will see weeks 5 and 6 finished off. (Keeping all that straight??)

I sorta' started off at a disadvantage, though, when the fabric I chose to use was a fat-eighths pack from years ago. I wrote about the limited fabric in this post. An out of print line, and only fat-eighths. Good grief. Could I have made a worse decision? But get this! I believe I have solved my dilemma.

Yesterday, DH and I took a pretty drive across a bit of southern Ohio to McArthur Quilt Shop. Pretty day for a drive, too! Such sunshine! I had some hope that I would find a fabric for a project, so I figured I could also look for suitable fabrics to substitute in to the pack shown above.

Before we left, I dug into the stash and found a stack of potential add-ins for this grouping. Those are stacked at the top of the picture. The only one I bought new is the brown on the right. I feel as thought these additions will work just fine, and I will be sure to check that some of those from the stash are pink and not peach or orange. I'm feeling pretty good about how this is going to work.

Now, the title says big plans, and so far nothing I've described here has been out of the ordinary.

Since BH3 started in mid-January, I decided that I would work on BH1 from 2 years ago, and do those blocks week-by-week as well. That is going very well, and I am staying relatively caught up - about the same as for BH3. I am using my stash of French General fabrics for BH1 and I believe I have enough of that to make things work. Fortunately, if I should run short, I know I can easily get more.

Aaaannnddd...what about BH2? I really did get that one started on time, and I had two quilts going at once - one in a bright historic fabric grouping, and one in a muted floral calico grouping. By week 8 of that sew-along, I threw in the towel. I was entirely unprepared for the unexpectedly large blocks, and I was running out of fabric, especially neutrals - same story for me, right??

So, I figured, why not go ahead and see what fabrics I could find - first from the stash, and then in McArthur - to at some point try to finish both of my BH2 quilts? Sure! Why not? Every quilter needs to have about a dozen quilts going at once, right?? *good grief*

This picture is the grouping of bright historical prints. I am willing to bet that it is hard to tell which is newly added and which is from the original pack. The blue, red, and cream fabrics folded at the top left of the picture are the new pieces. I think I got pretty lucky with these finds. It gives me renewed interest in getting back to work on those blocks.

My muted floral grouping also has some new additions - they are the five fabrics folded across the top of this picture. Again, I am feeling pretty good at how these appear to work so well.

With that, I believe my fabric shopping trip was successful. I found "fillers" for 3 quilts. I will give my best effort to stay caught up. I know I run the chance of the classes and grading to cut into my stitching time, but I believe I can always get caught back up if that should happen.

So, yes, I do have big plans. We shall see if I can accomplish them! If you'd like to see some of my previous Blockheads efforts, here are a few links - BH3 week 2, BH3 week 1, BH2 week 2.

Oh, guess what?

Last night, I cut out a baby quilt.

Yeah, I know. Too many quilts going at once! But I do love it so.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Additional Blockheads 2 Update

Over the weekend, I took some time to make a couple more BH2 blocks, just to prove to myself that I was hanging in there with this sew-along. I have a bit of a history of beginning these things, and then not finishing them for a very long time.

In the historic York fabric (my name/I needed a short way to reference it), I have made Fidget Spinner, a very complicated block. I might have gotten this one right. But maybe not. (I know for sure that the one in the other colorway I'm doing is wrong.) Right or wrong, it is staying this way.

In the pastel colorway, the block looks totally different, and I really missed the whole idea of a spinning effect in the block. Oh well; I'm probably not changing it.

While working on these blocks, I had a book queued up on my Overdrive app listening to my third Susan Meissner book, The Shape of Mercy. I am so glad I discovered this author; I love historical fiction and she is a gem. This particular book dealt with the time of the Salem Witch Trials.

So let's have a look at all my completed blocks. First, all 8 of my York blocks.

And now, all 8 of my pastel blocks.

Same blocks, but very different looks. That always fascinates me with quilt blocks. The placement of fabrics makes a world of difference in the look. In the end, though, it nearly always looks good.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Remember Blockheads?

When Blockheads 2 began about 3 months ago, I joined in and remained caught up through the first month. At some point about week 5 or 6 I found myself snagged on a block that required more fabric than my fat-quarters could handle. I could not muster the problem-solving mentality at the time to figure out an alternative, so I put it aside.

Now that at least 15 block patterns have been released, I have scolded myself that I'd better buckle down, or else I may never catch up. With some new resolve, I pulled out the patterns (even though I have not been sewing, I have faithfully printed off each pattern) with the idea that I'd make the easiest one.

Of all the blocks I have waiting to be made, I selected this one called With A Plus. Basic, right? I sure didn't need to invest tons of brain waves to crank this one out. If you recall, I am making two versions of the BH2 blocks, and the second colorway is finished, as well. Low contrast in the one; high contrast in the other. I like them both. No need to choose favorites.

I promise that I sew in straight lines, but both of these blocks look a bit off on at least one side. Maybe I need to press more carefully. Anyhoo, I know they are okay.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Blockheads2 - Block 7

You have not seen many updates here on my BH2 progress, and there would be a reason for that - I have not been keeping up! I made a goal for this month to stay with the weekly block production, and then I fell off the wagon.

I did blocks 1-4 right on time, and was pleased with myself for keeping up. Then I made the July goal to continue and what happens? The designers released two ginormous and complicated blocks! I am working with fat quarters, and do not have fabric pieces large enough to make blocks as they suggest! It has me somewhat stymied and searching for variations.

I will get more into that later. Today, I simply want to share my two finished Block 7s.

Block 7 is 6.5 inches and is super-easy to make, which gives me time now to go back and redirect my thinking on blocks 5 and 6.

Hope you are having a productive day! I have made more basket blocks, and also did a bit of stitching on Lake Effect. These three projects - the basket quilt, Blockheads, and Lake Effect - seem to be my entire focus lately.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

About P&B Textiles

I have become a big fan of P&B Textiles after a recent exchange I had with them. I had fabric strewn out everywhere when I was planning for the start of Blockheads 2.

In that auditioning process, I came out with a fat quarter pack of an old fabric group that I've had for years. Here is a picture of the fabrics; I wish I'd taken one while it was all still in tact, but I had them separated before I thought about it.

I couldn't remember anything regarding my history of buying and owning this fabric. I just knew it seemed like I'd had it for a really long time. I went to the google-machine to see if I could learn anything about it, and that really didn't yield much information, either. Since I couldn't even close in on a decade for when I purchased this, the search turned up a whole lot of nothing.

That's when I decided to search for the company - P&B Textiles. I figure that these fabric companies have an archive of all their fabrics and the dates each were released. So I began a new search. Wow. That proved interesting. I gave up on the internet search and opted for the Facebook search. I was sure they would have a business page. And I was right. You can click here to see it.

On June 15, I sent a private message to the company: 

I want to know the year of release on a fabric pack I own. It’s called Treasures of the York County Heritage Trust presented by Roberta Benvin and Joan Hamme. Can you provide the year? Thanks. 

On June 19, I received this response:

  I put a post up about the release date and someone came back with 2007 based on a post she found about a York County Heritage Trust release party.

 Interestingly, as this representative spent time searching the internet for the requested information, he came across my blog! How nice for him to mention it! Soon, he sent a pdf of a pattern that was released when the fabric came out.

I was blown away by the prompt attention to my query, and I am now a brand new fan of P&B Textiles. Here is another look at the fabrics in the pack.

 They are quite a vivid group of prints. I really am curious how my BH2 will look in this stack of fabrics. You will see it all as I move on along through the quilt-along.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

One Pattern; Two Looks

You saw my first blocks of the current Blockheads QAL on the last post. The look those blocks seemed to be creating was quite "busy," and I had the thought that I would be dissatisfied with that chaotic look. For that reason, I pulled out a second set of fabrics to make a tamer version of BH2. It is proving to be quite a study in contrasts.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 1 has all the primary colors and lots of movement in the designs. Version 2 fabric is understated, almost pastel in nature. The designs are subtle as opposed to vivid.  I hope I like the first version when all is said and done, but I know right now I LOVE the second version. It's been fun doing this QAL in two colorways, and I can make minor creative changes as I go - this is something I am seeing the designers do, and many quilters show their changes on the Facebook group page and Instagram. The whole experience has really been fun.

One of the biggest differences to this point is how I handled block 4 with the two colorways. I would not have thought to do this had I not seen similar variations on the social media sites. Take a look - both these blocks are the exact same pattern.

Making this block gave me more to consider than any to date; I spent a good bit of time studying the blocks made and shared by others before beginning my own. I like the way each one turned out, too, and I hope I continue to be challenged as future blocks are released.

And, now that I am working on the block for week 5, this wish is coming true. Block 5 is a whopping-sized block, and I don't have fabric pieces big enough to make it like the original. Some "creative changes" are inevitable.

I am working on block 5 today; sharing to come soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!