Bordering On a Finish

I snapped this picture yesterday while the sun was setting. A few of the borders are partially sewn together, but I still haven't decided how to join them together at the corners. Maybe cross them like shown, but a set in corner piece would look wonderful, Y-seams and all! There is no more fear of inset piecing, thanks to Mary Huey's dvd, but I can't tell if it will work yet. Each border will need to be together before I can make a decision. Not everyone feels good working this way, but I do.

The catch in this process is when you design-as-you-go. The center blocks came from the book, Quilt Lovely, by Jen Kingwell, but she completed the project as a pillow. I wanted something else. Let's look at it.

I rearranged the blocks from the way they were initially on the design wall like this--

...to the picture below. Can you see the difference? 

It looked fine to me in person until I took a picture, and uploaded it to my phone and computer. I saw the 2 blocks on the right were deeper in color, and would look more balanced if they were opposite each other. Then I turned the fan points so they looked less matchy-matchy. 

The idea of a border stuck with me, and I found this Mona Luna in my stash. Very modern. The gold is a very traditional print with roses. Using a border at all was a more traditional layout.

The gold border was on, and I realized I had slightly less brown print than was needed. No worries. I slashed off an inch on each side of the gold, and came in just under the wire. There wasn't enough fabric left unless I wanted to piece the borders, and I thought it might ruin it with the big print. The problem I was encountering with it becoming a big square quilt was solved, too.

The dark border separates and frames the stars, and the border color unifies the yellows. It falls right in the middle of the yellows color-wise, and helps the bright yellow tone down while lifting the palest yellow. You might not see it yet, but the brown borders will be different widths. Yet another method to stretch the limited brown fabric.

The overall size was still too small, and begged for another border. I made a new template that somewhat followed the size and dimension of the fan blades, and started through this new stash another quilter had given me. New as in 'new to me'! These pieces are from the 70's back to some feedsack scraps. I pulled out parts of clothing with seams attached, and creatively cut some pieces from them. That gave me a real sense of how past quilters gathered their fabrics. Rarely did a quilt come from new fabric off a bolt. It was made from fabric that had lived another life before it was made into a quilt.

This isn't everyone's thing, I know, to go through old stacks of fabric. Some of them are bitty pieces, but I can see the potential here for beautiful things, and it lifts my heart. Can I let you in on a secret? Some of these belonged to my husband's grandmother, were passed through households, and found their way back to us. Isn't it romantic that my children and future generations will enjoy them?

Today I will simply sew, and live in the moment. The project is taking on a life all its own. Maybe the quilt will beg for another border when this one is on. Maybe it will be a fabric that begs to be given new life. Who knows, but this is why I am a quilter. It feeds my soul.The Pet Project Show opens tonight at midnight, and will feature some of the Doxie girls' and my favorite link ups from the past month. Look for it in the next post. 

Until then...

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Linking up with~
Monday Makers
Show Off Saturday
Sew Stitching Cute
Crazy Mom Quilts
Quilt Shop Gal
A Quilting Reader's Garden
Quoka Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict


3 Day Weekend Sale!

Pressing On with Mrs. Bannister's Stars

Four blocks done. The first one took a whole afternoon, but the following day I had 3 more done in about 4 hours. The more I hurried, the less focused I was, and the more mistakes I made. On the other hand, I figured out some tricks.

One time saver was using chain-piecing whenever I could. I will tell you that Mary Huey's method for chain-piecing Y-seams works wonders in zipping through repetivite pieces. She has a dvd showing how to consistantly piece Y-seams accurately. Love it!

There was a point on every block when I looked at it, and asked myself if the fabrics were 'working'. It was usually at this point, before I had the lighter backgrounds attached.

See how much more unified the block appears with a background fabric?

The direction the seams are pressed is important. I either moved clockwise or out from the center. Just to remind us all,

PRESS. Lift up. Press down. Don't iron. This block is a good example of what will stretch with all the bias seams. And remember that spray starch is your friend. Use it.

This is the first time I've ever gotten the little star in the center of my pressed back, and I was just tickled about it. Ta-dah!

This yellow dot did not look like a deep yellow when I chose it, but the other colors helped to deepen it. 

Here's a little trick that sometimes helps me get a truer color

with my photos. Include other colors nearby, and crop your photo with an editing program after you take it. It's surprising how much better the actual color is vs. using an all white background.

Now I have to make a decision whether to arrange these

blocks into a pillow, or if they might be better in a quilt. I'm thinking more toward a small quilt after all that effort. I feel like the blocks would benefit from a border or some additional piecing. Back to the stash stack I go!

I do hope you're finding time to stitch today, but if you haven't seen your stash in a while then block off some time for YOU this weekend. We're better at dealing with the crap stuff that comes at us when we've met some of our own needs. Creating makes me feel like I've filled my cup, and some of that love does run over. I'm just a nicer person to be around, and thankful to have it in my life.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

If you're on Instagram and want some afternoon company while you stitch, post your pictures and tag me @pinkdoxies. I love to have people out there to trade ideas with!

Linking up with~
Quilty Thankful Thursday
My Quilt Infatuation

Never Say Never

'Mrs. Bannister's Stars'
Block from Jen Kingwell's  Quilt Lovely

Some time ago I heard from other quilters that any piecing involving Y-seams was not worth doing. End of story. They had tried everything, and there wasn't one technique that made it easy enough to be successful. I believed them, and from then on knew well enough to avoid patterns with troublesome Y-seams. 

Then I met an experienced quilter who said Y-seams weren't that hard, and you can also chain piece them to make lots of blocks quickly. (What?!) She had my full attention. Meet Mary Huey from the blog, Quilting through Rose-colored Trifocals, and she's made a dvd called Set-in Piecing Simplified available from her blog. I had the chance to see it a few weeks ago. Immediately, I thought of all the projects in Quilt Lovely I had crossed off my To-Do List because of those Y-seams-I-was-Never-doing. I was excited, and ready to give her techniques a try. 

Adding Complexity to the Y-seam Project

Last week I had a stash trade with a friend, and got these amazing fabrics I'd been hunting. All the fabrics either looked vintage or really were. My own stash was organized into modern and current prints, and then older 80's fabrics with a few vintage pieces. Two bins. Either this or that. I never would have thought to use them both in the same project before, but something about the Kingwell patterns hit me as a perfect design for intentionally mixing vintage with modern.

*Note: Jen Kingwell doesn't specifically promote using vintage and modern together in her book, but does use a wide variety of what she likes. She promotes using a huge number of different prints, colors, textures, and styles. Most definitely a reason I'm attracted to her quilts. Most prints in the book tend toward the vintage or reproduction side, which I didn't own. I have a tendency to imagine how every project I come across would look with bright, modern fabrics, but am also highly attracted to the vintage, and especially 1930's prints. I wondered why I was limiting my choices, and how I could tweak her look to make my own.

Could I blend true vintage fabrics with modern prints, 

and make it work successfully?

I would make this goal part of my Y-seam project. I immediately evaluated which project to start out of Quilt Lovely, and fell in love with Mrs. Bannister's Stars. 

Mrs. Bannister's Stars was my pick, but little did I realize the process of making my own templates, etc. at the start. I did a small pile of pieces at night in front of the t.v. before I realized I had cut mirror images when my fabrics weren't all the same side up. Then I used the wrong fabric with the wrong template. Frustrated and tired, I went to bed. I was learning.

The next day I started fresh. I hauled my mess back to the studio where I could stand up to cut things out, and had better focus with no t.v. Afraid I might not be able to do this block, I only cut out the center pieces. Using Mary Huey's technique, I sewed the center together. 

I felt like a Rock 'Star'! 

I will give away no secrets, but only 2 of my seams were

a little off, and I knew right away how to correct them from what I learned on the dvd. It was that good!

Can you pick out the Riley Blakes, DS Collection, and Kate Spain fabrics? Can you tell the vintage here is all real vintage? 

I used a more current, traditonal print for the outer part of the block. There's plenty of mixing in the fabric styles, and I'm all about this project now! 

A Hairy Tangent

When our older kids were very little, I brought home a pony named Buck for them. My husband questioned why I would seriously buy a pony named Buck. Two horses and another pony later, allergies and asthma, I vowed no more horses. Never again.

Meet Hot Tamale, a.k.a. Marco. He's a 5 year old Welsh pony, and the newest barn mate. He stands just 12.1 or around 125 cm.

Love his socks and stripey hooves!

The Llama boys and Evie are just the 
tiniest bit curious.

They track his every move. Introductions are going well, but there is a lot of drama between a fiesty gelding and curious llamas.

I'll keep you up to date on his progress. I, uh, we, hesitated strongly with this pony, and it took some bravery on my part to know my teenager was going to be putting herself at risk with another animal. Fear is a big deterent whether it's a pony or Y-seams, but it can stop us from growing and having the most wonderful of life's experiences. Once again, I remind you of this:

Push yourself to do something today you didn't think you could do. Remind yourself that most mistakes can be corrected, and allow yourself the chance to grow.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew some Y-seams.

Linking up with~
Freshly Pieced
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Story
Late Night Quilter
Freemotion by the River
Show and Tell Tuesday
Blossom Heart Quilts
Lily's Quilts

Anna Marie Horner Mini Quilt Swap & Slow Stiching Sunday

Earlier this year, I signed up for the Anna Marie Horner Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram. Kate Basti is hostessing, and past members had such nice things to say about her swaps. I'd never been in one of any kind, but AMH! I had to! She was one of the first designers whose style attracted me back to quilting. The past minis from other swaps were gorgeous. Wow! These were some talented sewists, and I was worried I wouldn't measure up.

I ordered a fat quarter package of 'Folk Song',
and pulled out my high tech design tools--a pencil and some paper. This was the original drawing I started with, and I kept true to it. I integrated a few Missouri Star Quilt Co. templates I had purchased, but never used. I have to tell you these weren't made to be used together, and I had to do some tweaking at the corner diamonds.

I have one last line of hand quilting to stitch with my Aurifil 50#, and I feel like the teal corners need a bit of the coral and pink pearl cottons. Then it's time for binding, and I have a print in mind already.

#annamariehornerminiquiltswap 

#teamhonorroll 

#katebasti

#pinkdoxies

You might remember my cell phone and camera sling bag was made with the same fabric line, and another AMH I had in my stash.

I brought my mini home to work on thinking some slow stitching would be a nice change. It's been a busy week, and there's something theraputic about working with your project on your lap instead of zipping it through a machine. You see your work differently.

I've also wanted to link up to the Slow Sunday Stitching for some time. Kathy is a Canadian quilter after my own heart. She is also a scrapaholic, and is involved in quilting for Mennonite Central Committee. 

I haven't made any quilts for the auction like she has, but the women at First Mennonite Church in Sugarcreek do. They are an inspiring group. They meet every week to hand quilt on frames, while others ladies make utility quilts. These are gathered together in one location, packed, and sent to areas of the world where there is need. I machine bound two for them, and they will soon be on their way to a family in need. The scrappy ladies make sure they are colorful, cheery, and warm.

Thunderstorm pounded our area today, and I unplugged all my machines to make sure they weren't hit. We've lost small appliances before, and I've started unplugging my multi-strips when I leave for the day. It only takes a moment.

I spent the time cleaning up, and finishing some Moda Modern Building Blocks. You can see I filled the center of the largest block here, but I'm not satisfied with the inside grey. I think I'll replace it with the hanging print. 

By all rights, I should have thought through the whole project before starting blocks, but I was so excited to just make something! Now I'm hitting a wall, and have second thoughts about the palette. I'm not sure I like the colors I'm using, but I've been trying to follow the recommended solids as closely as possible. I may need to tweak it.

The last picture to share is the new/old stash on my floor. I went to a friend's house last week for a little fabric swap. Oo-la-la!

I know these don't look like my typical picks, but there are some projects in the Quilt Lovely book that beg for some vintage fabric. 

I'm interested obsessed in blending my vintage and modern stashes, and need to prove to myself it will work in projects. Jen Kingwell does it, and I am looking forward to learning how. 'Mrs. Bannister's Stars' pillow project starts today.

What's your plan for the month of June? Are you having a holiday weekend now, and enjoying some well earned family time? Do you have an idea for a project to be ready for July 4th? Are you working on your finishes for A Lovely Year of Finishes? Or, perhaps, Q2 Finish-Along for On the Windy Side?

Leave a comment to inspire your fellow sewists to get active in their creative space, and Be Makers this month! I applaud you all.

Link up with the Pink Doxies' Pet Project Show until Monday at midnight, and show off your latest make.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Linking up with~
Cooking Up Quilts
Hug-a-Bit Quilts
Show and Tell Monday
Molli Sparkles
Slow Stitching Sunday