Sew Along Update - Week 16

 

We find ourselves entering the final week of the sew along, and I wonder how everyone has enjoyed making this quilt? 

Its ease of construction cannot be beat, quite honestly. The 2.5-inch block and strip are just the easiest sizes with which to work, and the resulting design is as fresh and clean as can be. If one were trying to teach a beginning-level seamstress to quilt, this would be a most appropriate pattern to use. A newbie to quilt-making would learn simple block construction, seam nesting, pressing options, matching intersections, and color placement. And a big quilt would provide plenty of repetition for honing those skills.

Today I have a partially finished quilt top to share. If you recall, I was working on Pioneer Dreams - the same pattern as our Spring Dreams, but done with reproduction fabrics. I was curious as to how the pattern translates to other "looks." 

I had enough blocks for a quilt that will be square - 9 rows by 9 rows. My background fabric is a fairly old piece of yardage from my stash. It paired well with the Pam Buda layer cake of one of her older lines called On Maple Lake.

In an earlier post, I explained how I prefer to sew smaller sections of a quilt top together and then wrestle just once or twice with the big bulk of the entire top. I currently have all my rows and sashing strips ready to connect; a few, in fact, are already connected. Shown above is a section of two block rows and three sashing rows sewn together for a unit. 

 

Today's work will involve putting all the rest together. I have everything hanging over a bar of the long arm in the order they will go together. It should be a very straightforward effort today to put them all together.

The final installment of the Sew Along will be next Monday! The Grand Finale! I will have a special guest this week, which will be a surprise for our finale. In that final post, I am planning a Spring Dreams Parade, so if you want your quilt to be included, please shoot me a photo and you can march along with us!

Have a great week, dear readers!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

 

Sew Along Update - Week 15

 

Perhaps you have forgotten that we three friends doing this sew along are retired English teachers. Dee and Sharon and I met as brand-spanking-new teachers at CHS back in 1979-80. Even though we separated professionally in the '90s when Dee and her husband left for jobs in northern Ohio, we three have managed to maintain our friendship across both years and miles.

We are all retired now (Hurrah!), but in true English-teacher fashion we still enjoy some nerdy aspects of the subject we taught. We treated you to a found poem by Dee in this post. A few weeks later, Sharon shared her "sentimental" poem with us in this post. Not to be outdone, today you get my poem - a sonnet, no less, in true iambic pentameter - mostly. 

But first, I am super-pumped to show you my Spring Dreams finish for this past week! This represents a milestone! My first sew along quilt - I've called it my original Spring Dreams - is quilted and bound! Longtime readers here know the rarity of my planning, making, quilting and finishing a project in such a short turn-around time! Quite the development! 

You are about to see three pictures of the finish. Note how different the color looks. I am stymied with what a chameleon this quilt is. No matter where I photograph it, no two pictures show the green sashing true enough to suit me. The picture above is on the front porch, late afternoon light, sheltered from direct sun.

Here she is in our family room, courtesy of DH and his long arms holding it for me. This room always seems somewhat dark.

This bedroom has windows on both sides, diffused by curtains when necessary. Oh well, if you can conjure up some amalgamation of these three pictures, then you know the color. *smile*

Rather than focus on my inability to accurately capture the colors, check out the similarity to Helen Phillips' inspiration quilt. She has been so gracious and such a cheerleader, as we have stitched from her beautiful photo.

Instagram photo from Helen Philipps

 

During our sew along, Helen has published a pattern for her table topper, available on Etsy, and perhaps she includes alternate sizes. We three sew along gals here have made quite a variety of sizes and in a variety of colorways. One is limited only by the amount of fabric being used for the sashing, mostly. All the blocks can be scrappy, as can the cornerstones, if necessary.

This coming week will find me attempting to finish one more quilt top using this design in reproduction fabrics. I have a healthy start, and plan to sew this afternoon.

Now for my sonnet. I do enjoy reading poetry, but as for writing it, let me just say that birthing three babies might have been easier. Geeesh, what effort! I reread poems I once taught; I searched the web for rhymes and synonyms; I gleaned interesting words from radio and audio books. My desk is strewn with scribbled-up drafts - such very messy business it is to pen a poem. *wink*

 Spring Dreams

Come Spring! And bless us with your charms!

Shrug off old winter's long and dreary days.

We long for azure skies, bright sun that warms;

On flowers, buds and blooms we long to gaze.

So gradual doth spring share her wak'ning breath,

As length'ning days do warm the vast expanse,

Yon meadows shimmer, draped green, en-wreathed.

Rejoice when Jacks and jonquils have fair chance!

As garden's cheerful crocuses burst forth

And thrumming bees dance pirouettes aloft,

Whilst songbirds trill and flit with lovers' mirth,

Throaty polliwogs through murm'ring night call soft.

Spring tiptoes timid through the frost and cold,

Crescendos buoyant full in pageant bold.

Until next update, dear readers, have a wonderfully productive week at the sewing machine!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Long Arming Spring Dreams

It's not a regularly scheduled update for the sew along, but since it's rather a big deal to me, I thought it worthy of a post.

I quilted my Spring Dreams quilt today. *smiles all over!*

I began the prepping and loading yesterday. I had to piece the backing which took the better part of the afternoon. Then I decided to see how far I could get into the loading process before running out of steam. What a lot of work! It doesn't help that I forget certain aspects of efficient loading, so I find myself re-doing things which is totally an aggravation.

It has been gloomy, rainy and overcast all day - the perfect sort of day for long-arming a quilt. I got started as soon as the coffee kicked in and stayed with it until I had just one final pass of the machine on the last row of blocks. Then the interruptions began. I got a phone call. Then DH came home from a morning out and about. I knew I was due for a bobbin change on this final little bit. When I returned to the final pass of quilting, as expected, almost immediately the bobbin ran out. Fixed that, and then before getting to the end of the quilt, I think the bobbin thread broke 6 times. Arrgghh! So maddening! 

Eventually, I did finish it out and removed the quilt. We won't talk too extensively about how bad the back quilting is, especially on the last bit, but let's just say I have some issues to work out before putting in another quilt. For this quilt, we are accepting her and all her 'beauty marks.' They shall be badges of honor for us! 

If you look at the back roll in the last picture, you see the floral length of backing fabric. I had just enough of it to stretch the other backing fabric (see previous picture) adequately. Here are the two backing fabrics together from a post I wrote a week or so ago.

Below, have a glimpse of my original Spring Dreams Quilt fresh off the long arm. I now need to trim her all around, then make and apply the binding for a total finish. Hoo-rah. 

I dream of the day when I can do this long arm part of the process with less trepidation. The challenge grows less and less intimidating with each quilt I do, so obviously I need to forge ahead. If I want to be comfortable doing it, I have to work through this learning phase.

Maybe Monday when I do my regularly scheduled Sew Along Update, I will have the  binding done and can provide pictures of her with some pretty staging.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sew Along Update - Week 14

 

I'm a little late to today's party, dear sewists, and I do apologize. I have been MIA here on the blog since returning home from our mini-vacation, and I still feel like I am playing catch-up.

But you're here for the sewing and quilting content, not my excuse making, so let's see what I can do about that!

A definite accomplishment since returning home from our tour of the South is starting yet another Spring Dreams quilt - this time using fabrics with a reproduction look. My stash is full-to-brimming with this style of prints, so it just seemed natural to give this a try.

In last week's update, I mentioned that I was considering making one more Spring Dreams using a Layer Cake of On Maple Lake by Pam Buda/Marcus Fabrics. I paired it with a random neutral I pulled from my stash. I have no clue as to when I bought this, but additional info on the selvage says Troy Corporation, Riverwoods Collection. Hmmm. The year of purchase remains unknown, but I have a lot of it, so it is the neutral in all the 9-patch blocks.

One thing most seasoned quilters know: Fabrics will play nicely with one another more often than not. We sometimes overthink the fabric choices we make. While I have had no training in design, I know that I don't want to put certain fabrics together, but if the "look" and the "style" are correct, then the outcome is likely to please. That has become my philosophy more and more as I work through my stash. 'Make it work'  is my prevailing mantra, as opposed to 'buy something to match.'

Now, a word about layer cakes. I do not have tons of experience with them, especially when I am cutting 2.5-inch squares from them. Theoretically from the 10" square, I should get 16. In the case of this layer cake, even with cutting on the scant side, I found it difficult to yield 16. I have some very small seam allowances. The photo below shows the very narrow seams from all three pieces cut from the layer cake. I hope this does not present problems down the road. I will be sure to address it here if I run into trouble.

While I am finding that the layer cake is slightly smaller than a full 10-inches square, a bonus to using a layer cake is that I have much more variety in my blocks. My prior Spring Dreams quilts were made either with yardage or jelly rolls, and that meant I used longer strips when making strip sets. With a layer cake, the strip sets are more plentiful and only 10" long. This variety has been fun to work with.

I have a time-saving tip. When cutting the units shown above, layer strip sets one on top of the other and cut in multiples. I trust myself to do three at a time. I worry about shifting or slippage if I try more. Be careful to line edges up and make the ends match. Use your fingers to feel the seams across the middle. As long as all this feels and looks spot on, then cutting the scant 2.5-inch strip set should be successful.

So there you have our week 14 update. Wow. Just 3 more weeks to go. On June 21, we will have a Spring Dreams Parade, so if any of you have made a Spring Dreams quilt with us, send pictures! Flimsy or fully-finished - or even 'work-in-progress' - let us share what you have created!

Have a great week, everyone!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sew Along Update - Week 13

 

We've tiptoed through the tulips, made our way through the April showers, enjoyed the May flowers, and it won't be long before we tumble headlong into June! Cliches galore, there! *grin* 

So, since we last checked in, what have you been able to accomplish on your Spring Dreams quilt? Making blocks? Setting together rows? Planning for quilting?

My journey on this sew along currently has me thinking about two things from opposite ends of the quilting spectrum. One is starting a new Spring Dreams; the other is quilting one of my existing Spring Dreams. Yes, I would most definitely make another one of these quilts. And yes, finishing one would be a really big deal for me.

Maybe I can do both! 

As far as starting another Spring Dreams goes, it occurred to me last week that we have not made one to represent the reproduction lovers in the quilting family. It would be worth a try to see how one would look done up in fabrics that hearken back to days gone by. It just so happens that I've got a little bit of that. *grin*

All my previous Spring Dreams quilts have been made with yardage cut into long 2.5" strips or jelly rolls, which are precut 2.5" strips. I wonder how I would get along using a layer cake? I have this older LC of some Pam Buda fabric that might just provide the repro look I am going for.

 Since the LC is mostly darker fabrics, I found the light yardage in my stash for the light part of the 9-patches. I also pulled out the dark yardage to use as sashing strips. 

I really do think I want to make this quilt. I intend to give it a go here in the coming days. Stay tuned for updates.

Now, as for quilting, this requires backing, so I spent a good afternoon or more digging out yardages that would suit either my original Spring Dreams or my Sanctuary Spring Dreams. Of course I want to show you both! I can't yet decide which one I will ultimately end up quilting.

For my original Spring Dreams quilt, I found these greens that seem to do the job. The paisley is the one I have the most of, but it is still a tad too small to complete the job. Therefore I need to piece the backing, which necessitates my adding that green floral. I have only about a yard of it - maybe not even that much, but it would be enough to back the quilt. The paisley is Windham Fabrics piece by Anna Griffin. The floral is so old there is no way of knowing it's origins.

I'm especially interested in  quilting the Sanctuary Spring Dreams. Since making my new bed pillows this past week using bits of leftover Sanctuary fabrics, this would be a lovely quilt with which to complete the look.

Both the pink fabrics I pulled are by 3 Sisters, the same designers who are responsible for Sanctuary. I have lots of the paisley, but I like the floral a lot, too, so I am considering yet another pieced backing for this quilt, too. 

So that is my update for this week. Make this new week a great one, dear quilters!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sew Along Update - Week 12

 

Checking in here this morning with another quilt to share! I've made another quilt top!

Repeated quite a number of times here on these updates, I tell you this quilt is absolutely the easiest quilt in the world to make. Of course, we have also been touting the idea of working at your leisure to make your quilt, but if you need a quilt as fast as possible, a simple quilt like Spring Dreams is the quilt for you!

This is my Sanctuary Spring Dreams, made with the luscious 3 Sisters/Moda fabric called Sanctuary. Perhaps you recall the small bit of shopping I did while on retreat? I bought a jelly roll and some carefully selected bits of yardage. The result is the quilt above.

I cannot honestly say that I have never made a quilt within the same month as buying the fabric. I am generally more of the type of quilter who allows the fabric to age for awhile before cutting into it. With this fabric, though, I bought it with Spring Dreams in mind. I could barely contain myself for wanting to start it straight away.

The jelly roll was entirely used for the 9-patch blocks. These are a breeze to make if you don't overthink it. I try to be very casual about the combinations, exerting as little serious planning as possible.

Pictured below are my four Spring Dreams big quilts and the scrappy table topper all made for this sew along. Sanctuary is the one on the far right - it shows up even softer and dreamier hanging there than it does in the previous pictures on the bed. 

All of them please me, and yes, I would make another one in a heartbeat. I am using fabric from my stash with the exception, of course, of Sanctuary. This is a great way to work through those fabrics you love. Get that gorgeous stuff out of the closets or storage bins and make a Spring Dreams of your own!

Remember, I invite you share your quilts on Instagram and use the  #springdreamssewalong - we can see what all the quilts look like there. Another option is to send pictures of your quilts to me through email. I can then use them here for a future update.

Have a great Monday, Dear Readers!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sew Along Update - Week 7

 

Good Monday Morning, Fellow Sewists! Have you been making some progress on your Spring Dreams quilts? I would think that some folks are making good headway through the process - maybe even approaching a finish?? 

Please don't feel as though I am rushing you, though! We are here to enjoy the creative process of stitching beautiful fabrics together in a pleasing design. It's a satisfying endeavor, and it can calm the nerves and relax the mind. I just know that this quilt goes together so fast, that once you get started, I am sure you will be well on your way to a finish in no time. 

I was in need of a small quilt to practice my long arm quilting on this past week, so I loaded my little table topper version, Scrappy Spring Dreams, into the machine and gave it a quick, meandering quilting. Let me show you some closeups.

My decision to quilt this came entirely from my need to work out some tension issues on the long arm machine. Little quilts seemed the most efficient way to test out my troubleshooting efforts. The bonus is that one quilt from the sew along is quilted - granted, it is the smallest of the quilts - but a finish is a finish, regardless.

I am using the backing fabric as my binding, and that will be finished at the retreat I am attending this week.

 The fabrics used on the quilt's top are all scraps, and taken from bins definitively marked as scraps. In choosing backing fabric, I used a piece of yardage that really was not earmarked for any purpose. It is not uncommon for me to purchase yardage - especially when on sale - for the express purpose of a backing on some future quilt. It seemed fitting that this is exactly what I thought about as I pulled this blue and beige print. All good! Using the stash and the scraps! This couldn't make me happier!

Keep on stitching on those Spring Dreams! I will try to be more active in posting on Instagram; I invite you to do the same. Use the hashtag #springdreamsquiltalong. This will help us keep them organized and make it easier to see other Spring Dreams creations as folks work on them.

Let me also remind you to visit blogger Helen Philipps. It was a picture on her Instagram feed that inspired this sew along. She gave us her blessings to conduct the quilt along, and since then she has released a pattern for her pretty little quilt which can be found on her Etsy shop. Look for Spring Nine Patch.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sew Along Update - Week 5

Good Monday morning, dear readers, sewists and quilters! Are you here for your weekly installment of the Spring Dreams Sew Along news? 

You are in for a treat today, gentle readers, as Dee has provided me with a wonderful snapshot of her history with all things sewing to use for today's post. I have always loved Dee's way with words, and have 40 years worth of saved correspondence from her as proof. She writes beautiful prose, often with powerful images that help the reader see the ordinary with new eyes. Throwing away her letters would be the equivalent of burning a book. I can do neither! See if you agree with me...

Though I’ve lived for decades in a place where there may be more cows than people, certainly more cornstalks than people, I did not grow up on a farm or in a village, and neither did my parents or both sets of grandparents. My maternal grandparents worked in tall office buildings.  My grandmother made the lined and tailored jackets, fine fitted skirts, and crisp many-buttoned blouses she wore to work downtown in the capital city of our almost Midwestern state.

By the time I knew her, the dressmaker’s dummy in her second floor sloped ceiling sewing room wore only the occasional “church dress.”  Yet all the bits of wool and satiny lining and muted shirtings showed up in my Christmas presents of beautifully made doll clothes.  My dolls were “dressed for success,” and parties and weddings and church meetings.

I knew what a sewing machine and a pattern could do making clothes, and made many of my own, when I moved away from the capital city and was fortunate to meet colleagues Jayne and Sharon.  Their long experience fashioning beautiful quilts, and their generosity, kindness, and intelligence, have inspired me over and over for a long time.  Thanks for the invitation to sew along, my friends!

My Spring Dream quilt is a bit different. The fabrics I’ve chosen are saturated with color; I wanted to use a jelly roll of soft white I bought on sale to offset them; and I’ve long admired the diagonal line in the 5 dark 4 light nine patch.  I’m also a fan of “white space” or open space if deep color is used.  Jayne long ago showed me how she sketched designs on graph paper, and that’s what I did to get an inkling of what my idea might look like.

My drawing also tells someone more experienced with words than numbers, yours truly, how many of the different pieces I’ll need. I played around with some multiplication, but there’s nothing like a picture to give a person confidence in a story problem!

As to fabric choices, I have designer bundles to thank, a bit of over-buying, and a long time standing by the cutting table where all the pieces were posed and auditioning for me.  In the end I kept two many-color florals and balanced them with those of less color variety and those with even less.  Will the finish be a “dream?”  I hope so! 

With all the strip sets sewn, I’m ready for 2.5 inch slicing, a full bobbin, a Jayne-recommended audio book, and the lovely puzzle of stitching together 72 squares with nary a repeated fabric in any 5 darks grouping.  Here we go!

Here we go, indeed! Isn't it exciting to begin, finally, stitching these carefully constructed units into actual blocks? Dee is at this fun point when the mental picture and graph paper sketch becomes real, tangible blocks. The design takes shape and comes to life.

Some housekeeping details to bring to your attention, especially for those who are sewing along with us.  First, I mentioned in a post this past week that the chart on Day 1 of our sew along might have errors. To clarify, the errors are only in the dimensions of the completed quilt tops. All the counts on the numbers of corner stones and sashing strips are correct.

Second, I have plans to write up a post which will pull all the pictures of all the sew along quilts together. This will prevent folks from having to hunt down certain quilts. It will also be simpler for my linking purposes to have just one to link, rather than several.

Stitch away, my friends! Please contact me if you need us to address something that we have not covered. We will continue with our creations, too, and by the end of spring, we will all have wonderful new quilts to share.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

 

 

 

Sew Along Update - Week 4

How is everyone doing with the Spring Dreams quilt? Are you finding it as addictive to work on as I am? It seems to go together so fast that "making just one more block" takes no time at all.

It seems prudent to say here as we are now almost a month into the sew along that rushing is not the objective. We are enjoying the process - the many processes - involved in quilt making.

Take your time to find the fabrics you want. Whether you are restricting yourself to your fabric on hand - your stash, as it's known, or whether you are off to your local quilt shop (LQS) to touch and dream and consider all the myriad options, or whether you are loading an online shopping cart - all of these options for fabric choices comprise a process that is an enjoyable one.

And speaking of considering options, perhaps you also want to factor in your individual need. Maybe you need a baby quilt in the near future. Maybe you want to make a quilt to fill a design need in your home. Maybe you want to use up some of a burgeoning stash.  Sometimes, the need is to simply make a quilt that requires very little thinking and planning - just cutting and sewing! Hey, enjoy those processes, too. *wink*

To inspire you in this sew along, scroll through here for pictures of the quilt tops finished so far. First, let's have a look once again at the picture of Helen Philipps' quilt which is serving as our inspiration.

Click for source.

Helen's quilt is a table topper. Perhaps that was her need, or perhaps she was using up leftover fabrics. Or perhaps her need was to make a little quilt fast. Who knows? I certainly don't, but regardless, she made a pretty quilt that I wanted to imitate.

My particular need was more desire than need: make a quilt that looked like Helen's using fabric from my existing stash. No buying! It was such an enjoyable quilt to make! It makes me so happy just staring at it. This original Spring Dreams quilt is 72 blocks (8x9). Strip-piecing the 9-patches made for a very fast finish.

As Sharon was beginning the sew along, her desire was to use some favorite fabric in her stash - Paris Flea Market by 3 Sisters/Moda. She selected a complimentary polka dot fabric by Robyn Pandolph for the sashing, and came out with this breathtaking beauty, so whispery soft and feminine. Her quilt contains 16 blocks (4x4); she was limited by the sashing fabric and made her quilt as big as that fabric would allow.

While working on my first quilt, I thought it might be fun to limit myself to using only the scraps I have recently been cutting and sorting. That became my rule: totally scrappy, no yardage. When Spring Dreams was done, I began work on Scrappy Spring Dreams. At just 9 blocks (3x3), it was so very fast to make.

It was right about this point in the sew along that I was nearing obsession. (That's a good thing, by the way.) After browsing in an LQS, I was inspired to use my Corey Yoder collection (tucked away over a year ago). The CY tub had enough fabric for another full-size quilt, so I jumped in and made Lulu Lane Spring Dreams.

Currently, my need is to have a patriotic quilt, and I am working on that one now. I envision it being in the range of a lap quilt, but I will be flexible concerning size. It will end up being determined by my sashing fabric.

One thing I hope you are NOT doing is concerning yourself with hurrying. I know all too well how limited one's time can be, and it's hard to show a lot of progress if you also have a job and a family and additional obligations. In my case, I am not working this semester, so I am free all day, every day (this pandemic!), consequently I am finishing these quilts rather quickly. My speed is just that - my speed. You do your speed, as fast or as slow as that may be. Just enjoy!

Happy Quilting, Friends!