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 

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

Flitting

My brain just can't seem to maintain focus on anything lately. I seem to flit from project to project. One of these days perhaps I will settle on something. 

 In my defense, I had the dreaded virus last week, and while I wasn't terribly sick or miserable, I do notice that brain fog has lingered. While I quarantined - over a very busy Mother's Day weekend, which all happened without me! - In between naps, I spent a lot of time sitting around dreaming about all the projects I want to make. Very likely, this accounts for my inability to focus on a single project.

As I've most recently shared, I did continue working on Lake Effect, and feel pretty good about how far I've come on it. Click here to see my most recent efforts.

One of the new projects I've recently come up with is one made entirely of flying geese units. Here is the inspiration pic that got me all hyped up - it's from Prairie Quilt Company's Instagram account. 

 

The springtime freshness of these flying geese blocks just knocks my socks off. After pining for a quilt like this, I remembered a really old "someday" project stored in my quilting room. 

By gosh! Someday is finally here!!

Years - years and years - ago, I bought a yard of this "Foundation By the Yard" - I suppose it was on sale. I am sure I thought I'd use it "someday." Besides this one for flying geese, I have another one for economy blocks.

Yesterday, I cut out one length and began making geese. It's been awhile since I foundation pieced, so I had a bit of relearning to do. Yes, the seam ripper joined the party, but I did eventually get a nice strip of flying geese put together.

I'm still stoked about doing this, so I will attempt another length this afternoon.

Even though this was NOWHERE near my radar of "to-do" quilts, I find that this has a couple of unexpected benefits. First, using the "someday" foundation panel. Second, the geese can be made with my 2.5-inch strips from the scrap basket. Yahoo!

Flitting from project to project isn't so bad, I guess. I always seem to have several WIPs, and more than my share of UFOs. Even so, I love to look at quilts online and dream of all those beauties just waiting to be made. 

I dare not waste a minute and get back into the swing of things around here. 

For those who wondered - DH did not get the virus. We had some exciting remodeling activity going on here at the homestead, and, yes, I was able to maintain my distance from the workers. I will share that soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!