Wenselydale Flimsy!

Slow and steady, according to the old Aesop's Fable, and sure enough, slowly and steadily I have managed to put all the pieces together for Wensleydale. What a beauty she is!

The progress on this quilt has had some pauses of the planned variety. The foundation-pieced blocks were completed last spring and summer. I intentionally put them aside to be sewn together while in Florida. Following through on that plan in the first month! Yay!

Some of my very early work on the blocks.

Each new block instantly became my favorite!

So, the stack of blocks traveled down I-75, and here we are on Moonrise Lane. I went straight to work on the Layer Cake quilt for our coming granddaughter (arrival in April!), then I put Wensleydale on my radar.

I laid the blocks out on the bed and found a pleasing arrangement with very little fussing. Originally, I planned to sew the blocks together with the papers still attached to the back, and I did with the first and second rows. (I was strip sewing in Eleanor Burns' style.) 

It became evident that I would never be able to sew that whole quilt with the papers on, so I took a couple of days to remove all the papers while managing to keep all the blocks in their proper places. What a messy job! I had paper scraps everywhere. (And no photo evidence, but trust me on this!)

Then back to stitching. In the course of the last few days, it all came together. I pinned rather carefully at all the triangle points. Most matched just fine; a few are a bit off, but not so egregious that I am going to re-do them! I can handle a missed point here and there. 

 

 

The Tilda fabrics do all the work in this quilt. There's not a single block that I find objectionable. The eye is happy wherever it lands. 

The quilt contains 60 blocks, is 6 blocks x 10 blocks, and measures 77" x 66". I have given a bit of thought to how I will quilt it, but have not decided on a backing or binding, so those are some considerations I must work out. None of that will happen in the next 2-3 months, so I have time for those details. Somehow these things always find a way of coming together.

What next? I have two very important hand applique WIPs to work on, and I have additional new baby things, as well. Stay tuned to see what direction I take. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Wensleydale Update

I've been home from retreat for over a week now and just as I suspected, the output of Wensleydale blocks as significantly diminished. Too many distractions here in my own home keep me from settling into the quilting room for long, productive sewing sessions.

Alas, I am still making progress! Tuesday, Sharon was here to sew, and that made for a very productive day. I left retreat with 31 completed blocks (shown above) and my current total is 45. Only 15 more to go!

I carried this neat stack of blocks into the bedroom to lay out all 45 for a visual of my progress. This is a lot of blocks, and 15 more will be quite large!

Most pictures I see of finished Wensleydale quilts show the blocks in a horizontal setting. I have always preferred the vertical setting, so that is how I've laid these blocks out. I might try it the other way, just for comparison's sake. Who knows, perhaps I will prefer that. 

Here are a couple more looks at the layout at this point.

 

This is going to be a great-looking quilt, I just know it. I love each block as it comes together. I have two or three cut and ready to sew; that helps me to be ready to sit down and sew in random snippets of time. 

If you want to make this quilt, I will provide some links here for easy access. I believe these have helped me greatly, especially the YouTube about cutting. This video from The Quilted Chicken absolutely moved me to action on this quilt. She provides easy-to-understand cutting instructions that keep fabric waste to a minimum. Waste was one of my biggest concerns, so this really assured me that I could minimize it. 

If you'd just like to look at the orginal book in which this pattern appeared, take a look at this video from now-defunct Martingale Press. Quilt Recipes has been out for a few years, so it might be hard to find; this will give you a sampling of both the book and the quilt. 

And of course, you must visit designer Jen Kingwell's webpage. It's a veritable feast of colors and designs. Wensleydale can be made using paper piecing, which I am doing, or templates. I'd like to see how the templates compare to the foundation papers. The website lists other products available to assist in making her quilts. Since she's in Australia, you'll likely want to buy from your local quilt shop, as I did when I bought my foundation papers in Columbus.

 I hope I can keep myself focused on the last 15 blocks. My desire is to finish it, so I anticipate that I will do it as quickly as possible. I have quite a few distractions in coming days and weeks, but always, I will return to the Wensleydale blocks 46-60.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Retreat Wrap-Up - My Own Stuff First

I'm just home from a 4-day quilt retreat at Needles N Pines Retreat Center in Nelsonville, OH. We had 8 quilters happily and energetically zipping away on their projects. We got so much done! It has been challenging deciding how to share our various projects and accomplishments.

The easiest way for me is to start with myself, since I know that info best. It'll also give me time to be more thoughtful about grouping the other quilters and their work. 

I went with the plan to make my Wensleydale Quilt with the Tilda fabrics I'd prepared ahead of time. 

The paper piecing pattern requires 5 'rounds' of fabrics, and I followed a fantastically helpful YouTube tutorial by Quilted Chicken. Following her instructions kept my biggest fear at bay - wasting fabric. Tilda is not inexpensive, and my memories of paper piecing years ago involved a whole lot of waste. I don't mind that when I'm using scraps, but with brand-spanking-new FQ packs, I didn't want to waste anything.

All my pieces were laid out on my table in the order in which I would use them. I had my cheat-sheet of sub-cutting instructions nearby, too. I did a lot of fumbling around trying to establish a rhythm for making a block. My first couple of blocks took awhile to finish. It'd been many years since I last paper pieced, so I needed to relearn things. Here are blocks 1 and 2.

 

By the end of retreat (Monday morning thru Thursday morning), I had made 30 blocks - exactly half of what is needed for the quilt. 

I just love how nicely they stack with the foundation papers keeping them so straight and even. The stack above is only 8 or 10 blocks. You can imagine how sweet the stack of 30 looks. (I'll take that pic after I unpack everything.) *wink* 

When I had 28 blocks it seemed a good place to stop and hang them on the design wall. I can see that I will need to be more deliberate in placing these blocks; the bottom row of this particular layout has way too many dark-ish blocks. 

Looking at this layout of 28 blocks, I don't see a single one that doesn't please me. Tilda fabrics are so very versatile when mixing them all so randomly. I'd been collecting Tilda bit by bit for a couple of years with no particular plan for using it. I bought some from Annette at Sewing The Good Life, at quilt shows in both Circleville and Daytona. I also had a bit purchased also at the Circleville show from Mercantile on Main. When I realized that I'd need both more fabric and more color variations, I sent off an emergency order to The Quilter's Shoppe on Etsy. Shop owner Karen was exceedingly fast in delivering my order, and I had it in plenty of time to take with me to retreat. I am so glad I had the array of reds to add to my predominantly blue collection. 

Thirty blocks completed in 4 days is a lot. I know I will not make the next 30 as quickly. If I can average 5 per week, I suppose I would consider that a success. I just won't be able to have such extended time in the sewing room, but I will for sure try to remain focused on finishing these blocks.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

A Wensleydale Plan

 Yes, I've been to the big AQS quilt show held last week in Daytona and I saw so much that I am still processing it all. So many quilts and vendors! Truly, it was a bit overwhelming.

So, let me share it in small doses. The easiest place to start is with a particular purchase I made at a very special vendor booth, Sewing The Good Life.

Meeting up with Annette and Craig was a super-fun treat. I'd contacted her a few weeks ago to find out that yes, she would be vending in Daytona. Her booth was the first place I stopped. And the first money I spent! 

And what a special spend it was. Take a look.

These are fabrics by Tilda and they are absolutely scrumptious. All except for that pink one came from Annette's booth. I already have a group of this fabric at home in a blue colorway, so I intentionally selected reds and browns and greens to add to my blues.

And, in quite an unusual twist, I actually have a plan for these Tilda fabrics. Let me take you back to this post for a hint.

Of the handful of quilting goals set forth for this year, one is to make Wensleydale, a paper-pieced beauty of a quilt that I have long admired. At the time I bought the pad of foundation papers, I made this one block.

I used scraps from a previous quilt and found that I wasted quite a bit. I held off making any more while I searched for tutorials on how to make the best use of my fabrics. In the midst of sleuthing, I got to see so many varieties of finished Wenselydale quilts, and this helped me decide to use Tilda fabrics.

The AQS puts on a mighty fine - and ginormous! - quilt show. It'd been a very long time since I've been to a national show, so I was all agog at the incredible workmanship on display. Mighty impressive, to say the least.

In addition to enjoying the show, I have increased my circle of quilting friends. Gayle and her quilting pals Mary and Joan graciously welcomed me and we had a full, fine day. How nice to connect with other quilters! Learning their quilting journeys, their preferences and histories made me feel right at home. My own group of quilting friends would be just as at home with these girls as I was.

I promise to bring pics of all the above. I am sifting through and editing. Eighty-plus pictures! I won't overwhelm you, but I will share as much as feasible.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Playing Around With Foundation Piecing

In keeping with my habit of starting new things before current and old things are completed, I had a fun evening of trying to remember how to foundation piece. Years ago I did lots of paper piecing, but over time had forgotten quite a lot of the tricks and tips I once knew.

 Last week when Sharon and I met Dee in Columbus, we made time afterwards (after making a wrong turn on the interstate - honest, it wasn't intentional!) to stop at a quilt shop just to snoop around. I mean, come on, we were right there near a popular shop, so why not? We certainly had no intention of buying anything. But, when I saw a shop sample of the beautiful Wensleydale Quilt, I just had to get my hands on those foundation papers.

Wensleydale is a creation by Jen Kingwell and I had seen many versions of it on Instagram, so I knew it well. It'd always appealed to me, but I really didn't ever consider making one. If you'd like to see a whole bunch of gorgeousness, search the hashtag in Instagram - #wensleydalequilt - it's a feast for the eyes!

Just for a refresher in the foundation technique, I pulled out a very special little bundle of scrap fabrics and made one block. Lots of mistakes. Lots of reaching for the seam ripper. Lots of wasted fabric. Waaahh!

I recall that one major reason for not further pursuing foundation piecing was the waste. Fabric costs too doggone much to cut away big hunks of it in this technique. I suppose one would get better at "eyeing" the amounts needed, but this first attempt in many years was hugely fraught with waste.

That said, I am pleased with my block, yet have absolutely no idea what I will do with it. Surely, it will be an orphan block as I do not have much remaining of this fabric collection to make a whole quilt. Perhaps It could be the center medallion of a table topper or wall hanging. I will think on it.

Back to reality. The clutter remains. The long arm thread still breaks. The Tiny Nine Patch quilt still needs its binding. Baby quilts need to be finished. Chelsea Garden and Winnemucca and more await. (See previous 2 posts for explanations.)

All will get done. I foresee major progress in the next few days.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne