My Barnstar Sampler

As promised, this post is mostly all about my Barnstar Sampler by Shelley Cavana that I recently finished. I saw the pattern for the first time last September/October and mentioned that I really loved the pattern and thought it would look beautiful in Lori Holt's Bee Vintage line. I added the pattern and fabric to my wish list and didn't think much more of it. I already had a bunch of projects in the works and didn't have enough money in my fabric budget to buy anything anyway. 

Fast forward to Christmas last year and everything I needed was under the tree. Apparently he was adding to cart as I was going on about how cool this pattern was and bought months ago. I think he's a keeper!

So naturally after all the Christmas festivities were done and we're ready to sit back and relax, I started looking through the color requirements and fabric I had and and assigning fabric to colors in the pattern. Some colors had more than they needed and others were a tad short. That's just what happens when you're using a fat quarter bundle and the pattern calls for 3/8 of a yard. 

But between the Bee Vintage bundle and a small calico cat quarter bundle from Lori Holt as well, I only needed to order a half yard of fabric in chocolate brown to get enough contrast. Not bad. The background neutrals came from my stash, but I tried to keep them very low volume and more light cream than white.

I started sewing the blocks together the day after Christmas and started with block 2 as I was waiting for the chocolate brown fabric to make block 1. In hindsight, I'm not sure if I would start with the largest blocks again, but it does make sense since they need so much fabric and it took almost a whole fat quarter for some so if I would have waited until later, I'd be making some creative design choices. 

As it was, I did end up making the quilt larger than the pattern. I had measured the finished size on my bed and realized I'd prefer a little more overhang off the sides of my bed. Instead of just adding a strip of 8" blocks down one side, I looked at the end of the pattern on how the quilt was put together in sections and added my blocks in that way. I look at the finished quilt now and I can't tell you which blocks I added. I'm quite impressed with myself. 

It took about a month and a half to piece the entire top, many blocks were made that week between Christmas and New Year's since I took off from work that week. But I worked on it a little after work each day, some days only choosing colors and cutting all the pieces, other days cutting and sewing. It just depended on what I had the energy for after work. 

But it felt like the real work began once the top was done. I had decided when I received the pattern that I would be hand quilting this one and as the blocks came together, that I wanted to do custom quilting in each star. Oh, and why not use 12 different color threads while I was at it? So while I was finishing hand quilting my 12.5 year grandmother's flower garden quilt, I doodled each of the blocks out and started contemplating quilt patterns at lunch while at work. 

Since this felt like a super special quilt, and I was planning on putting it on my bed over winter, I decided to use Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting for this quilt. I feel like the investment was worth it. Wool is a dream to quilt through as I only learned last year and I also thought that the loft of the wool batting would let my quilting show up a bit better. Now that it's been washed and dried, and honestly even before that, this quilt has the best texture. While it doesn't have as much crinkle as cotton batting would create, the loft creates a contrast with the stitches. 

I outlined each block, thinking that would help the stars pop off the quilt a bit better, then I crosshatched the entire background an inch apart. Despite taking 2 spools of thread, the background was probably the easiest/quickest to quilt. Ok, I lied. I started cross hatching the background but my hoop was getting caught in the wool batting and leaving bits of fluff everywhere. So I completely quilted the entire outside edge about 8" in, so I could bind it before quilting the rest. I used a scrappy binding made from leftover fabric, of which I have enough to make a lap quilt, and I think that was the right choice over a single binding. 

Once bound, I was back to finishing quilting the background. Then the fun really began. I tried out a bunch of new quilting designs, at first they were marked but about halfway through I mainly started free handing it, and I don't think you can tell. I learned that larger feathers I don't mind so much, but small feathers I don't enjoy at all. You can sort of see the small feathers in the white chevron shape below. 

All in all, I had a lot of fun working on this sampler quilt. And I would make another sampler quilt, not this pattern again, because I tend to not make a pattern more than once unless I'm drastically changing something (completely different colors/shades/values) or I need a quick quilt (such as the Oh My Stars pattern that I made twice last fall). I also found that I think I enjoy the asymmetrical samplers more than a sampler of all the same size block. I received another sampler book for Christmas this year and there has been one that I've been wanting to make since I started quilting. I may or may not get around to making those this year, it kinda depends on what else is going on.

Happy quilting!

The Mad Rush!

Okay, okay, I'm back! Things got a little chaotic over here working on quilts. One, because after I got back from vacation, I didn't feel like quilting for a week or so, so there wasn't anything to really share. Then I realized I was getting behind, so there was a mad rush to catch up. It's a vicious cycle I tell you. Then my brother started asking how the baby quilts were coming along, and when would I have them done. Even though he said the babies wouldn't be arriving until December and January. 

So I set aside my hand quilting and double downed on those baby quilts. The star one for the little boy was quick to quilt, I just made diagonal lines through all the blocks. I pulled out a scrap sandwich I have to test my free motion quilting skills, and I wasn't happy with the results. So no cute swirls for the little girl quilt. Instead I just used the serpentine stitch on my machine and made wavy lines across the width. Which turned out really well I think. 

Then it came time for the labels. Lately I've been back and forth on either just writing on a square of fabric or using the letter stitches on my machine and making the label that way. Because these are baby quilts, I figured machine stitching would probably be the better option since it will be washed more. So, before I do the stitches on my label, I have a scrap piece of fabric that I test it out on so I can center all the words. He had asked for a verse to be put on the label of each quilt, which was fine, but did require some extra figuring. Quite honestly, it looked like I was writing a code by changing the letters into numbers. 

After I had my secret code figured out, I started on my scrap fabric. And that's when the issues began. My thread broke a few letters in, so I changed the needle. Started again, and the thread broke again. So I cleaned my machine, and that seemed to fix the issue. I had everything measured out and marked my starting lines, and made my label. Made all my labels I might add. Two labels with verses and two labels that had my name and the year. Binding was cut, labels pinned, stitched the binding down to the front so I could hand stitch to the back, all was going well. I started hand stitching everything down, only to finish sewing the first label down to realize that I forgot a letter in the first word. And that's when everything was set aside to deal with another day. Because all of that happened in one afternoon and I wasn't in the head space to deal with it.

A few days later, I unpicked the label, unpicked the first word, and restitched that word. Thankfully there was enough room that I could scoot it over a quarter inch or so without it getting caught in the binding. But I texted my brother and told him they were done, I just needed to wash them and check them over and they would be ready for pick up that weekend. And when I washed it, the orange fabric bled just a little bit onto the cream border and I wanted to scream. Thankfully the bleeds washed out with 2 more washings and many color catchers and some dawn, but I was really ready to not look at this quilt again.

Both were picked up last Sunday and he gifted both of them earlier this week. And I am thankful to say, I am told both couples were overjoyed and excited. Which is really nice to hear, because making things for people you don't know can be a little tricky.

the colors I thought I was going to use

So what have I been working on since the baby quilt debacle? Well, I finished my Barnstar quilt on Thursday and it was washed yesterday so is now beautifully crinkled. That quilt is going to get it's own post because I took all the photos. I picked my colors for the Quiltville winter mystery quilt and I am super excited about that. I was debating between three color options and thought I figured out which I was going with, only to be going through my scraps and collecting colors, when I came across a charm square that I got in a scrap bag from someone, so I didn't have the full line, just a few squares, and my whole color scheme changed. And I scrounged the internet to find more of that fabric or something from the line so I could use it as backing. And I am happy to report, I found one shop that still had the fabric in stock and I bought four yards since I'm making mine half the size. Though if I like the pattern a lot, I might make it full size after the fact and go buy more fabric. 

the print in the middle is my backing 

So my Old Town Mystery fabrics are green for her red, turquoise for her melon, and red for her turquoise. And I will be using blacks for my neutral, which I've only done once before, so this should be fun. And I think my color scheme has a polish feel to it. I've also decided if possible and if I make it bigger, that I will switch out the turquoise for light blue if it makes sense since both are in my backing fabric and I was torn between turquoise or light blue. But I can't wait for this to start, and it starts a week earlier than normal which is great because I have off, but not great because we are hosting a friendsgiving that Saturday and I need to make bread and cheesecake and a soup and clean, so hopefully I have time to play with fabric a little bit?

The start of that third baby quilt

Ok, off to get that third baby quilt done before the mystery starts, and not start any more quilts until then! Happy quilting!

Quilting Again

Oops, I'm a day late in posting! In my defense, it was because I got caught up in quilting. I don't know if this happens to any of you, but sometimes I feel like I've lost my sewjo but I have deadlines. And while I initially don't feel like quilting, because I'd rather scroll social media or play games on my phone, I do force myself to sit at my sewing machine because I do have deadlines. Then, before I know it, it's been a few hours and I am happily quilting along. 

That was the case with my Barnstar Sampler this past week. My callous had disappeared on my finger over vacation and I know it's a little painful to get it to show back up, simply because it means pricking my finger over and over again with the needle. But I do want to finish it by Thanksgiving, so I needed to pick  it back up. If I only quilt the 6 blocks I need to each week, I'll have it done in five and a half weeks. but seeing as it's Monday, and I finished four blocks yesterday, I think I'll be a little more ahead of schedule. 

But I still need to figure in those baby quilts. I basted both of them on Saturday and started quilting the easier one yesterday. Well, I finished quilting it this morning. Trimming and binding is going to wait until I have the other one done as well so I only need to clear off my cutting mat once. Small space problems, my machine sits on the table on top of my cutting mat. 

The baby quilt for the little girl is going to be a harder one for me. I want to free motion quilt it, because I feel the pattern just calls for it, so bright and cheerful and happy looking. The challenging part is that I haven't done any free motion quilting yet on this machine. And I got it a year ago. Which means it's been over a year since I've done anything but straight line quilting. I'm going to need to pull out my practice block that I use as a test for quilting. I'm thinking of just doing loop de loops because that's what I'm best at. And because my brother asked if I could somehow tuck her name, Joy, into the quilt. Which I think should be fairly easy (?) to quilt in cursive and will sort of blend with the loops. That is also going to be practiced before I touch the quilt. 

I also visited the local quilt guild's quilt show that they put on every other year over the weekend. There is no way I can compete with the skill of these ladies. I may also be comparing apples to oranges because I don't do applique and I think those quilts wowed me the most. 

Like, how does one compete with those? The hardest part was picking a viewer's choice, I wanted to pick them all, in part because they all were beautiful and also because you could see the time and effort that went into each and every one and they all deserved a ribbon. 

And I finally got those blocks laid out on the wall. I'm about half done with the full blocks and then I have all the half blocks that go around the edge to make it more squarish. I think I might applique it to a piece of border fabric when I eventually get there because I don't know how else to finish the edge. This is also not the final layout, just me pinning what I have done to the wall. I'm also very happy with my decision to attach the white to two sides as I go rather than wait until the end, because knowing myself, I'd probably get stuck there and start another project because sashing is boring to hand sew. 

Well, I need to get back to quilting because I have deadlines to meet and all that. Happy quilting!

Back to Reality

I took entirely too much hand sewing work for this vacation. I did finish a bunch of blocks, but I didn't need to take quite so much. I had thought that when we got back to our AirBnB at the end of the day that I would want to wind down with some sewing. What I ended up doing instead was going through the 400+ pictures I had taken each day and deleting the blurry ones or the ones that didn't really have anything in them. In my defense, I was taking most of them out of the passenger side window while we were driving. 

I did sneak in a little bit of sewing though in the mornings a few days and at the airports. Mostly I was tired on the plane so I didn't sew a whole lot. My floor is a mess, so I'll take photos of where I'm at with that project for next week.

But South Dakota was beautiful and like nothing I've ever seen before. The sky was bluer than I've ever seen it and the contrast between the bright sky, the brown grasses and the dark green ponderosa pines started sparking a color pallet for a quilt. Mix in a few bright happy yellows to remind me of the aspens that were changing colors, and I'm beginning to understand why Bonnie Hunter has so many quilts inspired by trips she's taken. I might need to steal her idea. 

So what's on deck for me quilting wise? Well, I need to get back to some hand quilting, I have a self imposed deadline to make. And I'm hoping at the bare minimum to get the two baby quilts basted. Still no word on gender for the third one I need to make. But if I have enough batting here, I might also get my Dresden plate quilt basted. I have a bunch of rolls of batting, they're just not stored here in my tiny apartment. 

Then, this Friday and Saturday is the local quilt guild's show. I'm not a member, I'd like to be, but I can't make the requirements for meeting attendance with my work schedule. So I'll go when I can and pay the guest fee. But I'm super excited to attend, and for their next show in two years, I'm going to try to work something out with my work schedule so I can attend enough meetings so I can enter a quilt or two to be judged. Still not committing to anything though, my heart starts to race a bit at that thought. 

Other than that, it's just getting back into the routine around here, there was laundry and grocery shopping yesterday because I needed clean laundry and there was no food in the house. And after a week of eating out, I'm ready for home cooked food!